PAUL VERSES ATHENS!

Acts 17:16-34

“Religious, not saved”

Introduction: Hedging your bets – or trusting in Jesus? (All your eggs in one basket)

Background:  Paul left Berea and made the 200-mile trip down to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy behind. Athens was the intellectual centre of the world, and scholars from all over the inhabited earth made her their adopted home, therefore some of the best libraries and schools where there, the best building were there, because the best architects were there, the best foods were there, because of the great trade… etc  But what caught Paul’s attention…  Not the libraries, neither the great buildings, nor the latest trends, and fabric, nor foods… For the apostle stared long and hard - and saw a city that was truly “full of idols.”  The population was about 10,000, but there were 30,000 statues of gods.  Paul was “greatly distressed.”

Identified the problem

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasonedin the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encounteredhim. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Ø Paul identified a problem - saw that the city was full of gods

Ø A city going the wrong way – He was provoked, so he reasoned with them

Ø Paul was encounted by the Philosophers

The Epicureans believed that everything happened by chance, and that death is the end – extinction with no afterlife.  The Stoics were pantheist, believing that everything is god and that whatever happened to them was their destiny. 

Ø They called him a  babbler - sper-mol-og'-os (seed picker) “gutter sparrow”

Ø Foreign gods, new doctrine, strange things…

Ø Paul preached ONE GOD, and ONE WAY (The Way, The Truth, The Life)

Ø They preached many ways, listening to and talking about the latest ideas

Ø Yet he was invited to talk before the council

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; (Superstitious) 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Ø Religious, but not saved…

Ø You can practice religion, go to church, read the bible…. But you need Jesus

Ø They thought that they were on the right road, yet Jesus was unknown…

Paul pointed directly to the problem (TO AN UNKNOWN GOD). The word “unknown” is the root from which we get “agnosticism” which means “without knowledge.”  The Athenians were supposed to know everything. But on the most important truth they came short – they did not know God.  Paul did not say this – they did!

Ø Paul takes time to relate, he strategies, comes in under the radar 

Ø Vs 28. Paul is quoting their poets, (Vs 23b) he takes notes, relating….

Ø Once Paul had gotten their attention, he then challenged their thinking…

Challenged their thinking

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Vs 24-25 The fundamental truth about God is that He is the Creator.  That might not sound earth shaking to us – but for these guys - it challenged their whole theology.  Vs 25 and God is the life-giver – which drove the truth home even further, for it directly attacked the Epicurean’s belief that God was absent, and the Stoics’ belief that He was in everything.   As the giver of life, God is actively here, but He is not constrained in creation.  The final great truth about God is that He is not only the Creator and Life-giver, but He seeks us out:

Ø Paul tells these great intellects of Greece that they weren’t thinking straight

Ø Bit like telling an Oxford professor – “you’re a dumb-dumb…”

Ø Vs 26b-27. God moves people to places where they can hear the Gospel

Vs 26-27 Paul was saying that they were not living in Athens as a result of some cosmic accident.  Rather, God had structured their lives in order to attract them to Him.  Great truths about God led to truth about themselves: they were specially created by God, and He was seeking a personal relationship with them.

Ø Sydney, the world at your doorstep!

Ø God doesn’t bring them here so they can establish their own religious ways!

Coming back to our passage…

Ø Vs 24-25 Man isn’t doing God a favor – building Him a house…

Ø Paul tells them that God doesn’t need them, quite the opposite! They need Him!

Gave an invitation – demanded a response!

30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Ø No excuse!

Ø No one will say on Judgment day “I didn’t know” (Rom. 3:19-20; 2:12; 1:18-20)

Ø What are you going to do about it?

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Ø Three types of response to the gospel

1. Some mock

2. Some want to consider and reason…

 “We want to hear you again” but they cared little whether they actually did or did not, and they never did hear him again.  Verse 33 and the opening chapter of 18 tell’s the story: “Paul left the council…After this Paul left Athens.” 

3. Some will follow

Ø Parable of the sower… four examples, one fruitful

Ø The majority of people you pass everyday are going to hell, few will escape it!

Matt 7:13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult isthe way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Paul couldn’t wait to get out of Athens – infact he didn’t even wait for Timothy and Silas! The people - their opportunity came and passed them by…Today - if you hear His voice!