January 25, 2026. Through His Word
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Welcome
Intro
Last week:
Paul is brought to Athens after the Thessalonican Jews came to Berea and stirred up the crowd.
He is escorted to Athens without Silas and Timothy but as soon as Paul arrives, he sends word back that they should come to him as soon as possible.
While Paul waits he does some site seeing!
Pray
Pray
Paul Sees a City Given Over to Idols
Paul Sees a City Given Over to Idols
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.
Although the Hellenistic period in Athens had peeked during the reign of Alexander the Great (336–323 B.C.),
the architecture and art that represented the intellectual focus of the culture still stood.
Hellenism was humanism.
an outlook or system of thought focuses on human rather than divine or supernatural matters.
Among Hellenistic pursuits were philosophy, knowledge, science, mathematics, and the arts.
Figures carved in buildings and stand alone statues would have been common place as Paul roamed the city.
Among these would have been representations of the gods of Hellenism.
Zeus: King of the gods, god of the sky, thunder, and lightning.
Poseidon: God of the sea, earthquakes, and horses.
Hera: Queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and family.
Demeter: Goddess of agriculture, harvest, and fertility.
Aphrodite: Goddess of love, beauty, and desire.
Athena: Goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, and crafts.
Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, wilderness, archery, and the moon.
Apollo: God of the sun, music, poetry, healing, and light.
Ares: God of war, violence, and bloodshed.
Hephaestus: God of fire, metalworking, and crafts.
Hermes: Messenger of the gods, god of commerce, thieves, and travelers.
Dionysus: God of wine, festivals, madness, and ecstasy.
All of these false gods were man’s attempt of explaining away the existence of a Creator God.
It was hard for Paul just to be a tourist and take in all the sites ignoring the underlying belief that these idols represented.
In fact the scriptures say Paul was provoked!
This deeply troubled him.
So much so that it moved him to action.
Paul Reasoned with Jewish and Gentile Worshipers
Paul Reasoned with Jewish and Gentile Worshipers
Paul went and reasoned in the synagogue,
certainly using the scriptures to do so.
Remember this was his M.O.
2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”
Undoubtably, his point was;
“Do not get caught up in the futility of Pagan worship!”
“Focus on the One and True God!”
The God of the Scriptures.
Have you ever had to reason with someone about idols?
You may say; “I don’t know anyone that has a statue of Zeus in their front yard!”
This may be true, but idols are not limited to physical representations,
but encompass anything that takes priority over God in a person's life.
These can include things like money, career, relationships, social media, or even personal desires and achievements.
Essentially, anything that we elevate to a position of ultimate importance, seeking fulfillment and satisfaction from it
rather than from God, can be considered an idol.
Paul was disturbed deeply that the people of Athens had been given over to idols.
Like Paul, we too should be provoked to reason with someone caught up in idol worship.
And as always, the best place to start is to reason with ourselves.
Paul also Reasons with Intellectuals
Paul also Reasons with Intellectuals
He also went to the Marketplace every day and reasoned with whoever was there.
Apparently, the Marketplace was where philosophers debated and presented their humanistic views and wisdom.
Paul capitalized on them being there.
However,
The Philosophers Reason that Paul was a Babbler
The Philosophers Reason that Paul was a Babbler
18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. 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.
Epicureanism and Stoicism were prominent schools of Hellenistic philosophy.
Epicureanism, focused on achieving a tranquil life through minimizing pain and maximizing simple pleasures.
Stoicism, emphasized virtue, living in accordance with nature, and accepting what one cannot control.
These humanistic thinkers considered Paul a babbler.
The Greek meaning of a “babbler” was someone who acquired information from another, then passed on such information just to show off.
They saw Paul as someone trying to draw attention to himself;
Of course this was the last thing Paul intended to do,
his concern was for their souls, and to draw their attention to Jesus.
Others said Paul was proclaiming foreign gods to them,
gods in which they knew nothing about.
The Philosophers (lovers of wisdom) saw this as a chance to learn something new.
Remember: Philosophers examined the world through the lens of Reason, not religion.
So they do what any good philosophers would do;
They Reason Among Themselves
They Reason Among Themselves
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.
They took him and brought him to the Areopagus…
It was a rocky hill about 370 feet high, not far below the Acropolis and overlooked the Agora (marketplace) in Athens, Greece.
The word also was used to refer to the council that originally met on this hill to discuss judicial and legislative matters.
The name probably was derived from Ares, the Greek name for the god of war known to the Romans as Mars.
This is why this passage is often referred to as “Pauls Discourse on Mars Hill.”
Because the philosophers were always looking for something new,
Paul saw their invitation as an opportunity to preach his message.
Paul Acknowledges that They are Religious
Paul Acknowledges that They are Religious
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;
23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
While at first, Paul’s comment seems complimentary,
“I see you are very religious,”
Paul is criticizing their idolatry and lack of knowledge of the one true God.
They worship, but God is unknown to them.
Paul tells the men of the Areopagus,
while passing through Athens he noticed the inscription that read: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
So Paul uses this as a starting point
to point them to God
Someone they can know.
Paul saw the priorities of pagan worship in Athens and began to;
Proclaim the God of Creation
Proclaim the God of Creation
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.
Paul stands in the midst of men that like to debate and reason.
Paul does not debate nor does he reason with them.
He proclaims that God is the Creator of all
Because He is Creator of all
God cannot not live in temples that are made with man’s hands.
Implying the temples and statues of paganism and humanism cannot house the God of Creation
Because He is Creator of all
God has no need of anything man can give Him.
He is self-existant
Pagan worship often had the attitude of;
“I give to you, so you may continue giving to me.”
Their offerings to their gods were meaningless
Because He is Creator of all
He is the source of life, breath, and all things.
This is somewhat of a summary statement:
Because God is the source of life -
Because God is the source of life -
Man cannot expect to receive life from Idols which have no life in them.
Man cannot expect to receive life from Idols which have no life in them.
Yet this is what we do naturally as unregenerate men!
We search for life!
We give importance and devotion to something,
whether it's a deity, a set of beliefs, or a material possession
and expect it to give us life.
We will never know life until we come to Know God.
Not just know about Him,
but Know Him - relationally.
Paul continues;
God Created Man to Know Him
God Created Man to Know Him
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.
God has created MANKIND
and His purposes in doing so is that:
Mankind would seek Him.
Mankind would grope for Him (reach out)
Mankind would find Him
And once they find Him;
they would understand that He is near,
not distant or Unknowable
but personable and relational
knowing and understanding that in Him there is life!
The Athenian alter was inscribed “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”
It’s not that God cannot be known, or that He is distant,
He is not far from any of us.
If we do not know God;
it is probably because we are not seeking.
The "tyranny of the urgent" describes the tendency to prioritize immediate, pressing tasks over more important, but less time-sensitive, ones.
This can lead to neglecting long-term goals and values as people get caught up in reacting to the demands of the moment.
The concept, highlights how urgent tasks, while seemingly important, can ultimately detract from what truly matters.
We do not seek God, because we have been conditioned to to think seeking God is not an immediate need.
If we do not know God;
it is probably because we have not reached out to Him
Most of us do not reach out to God
because we have not seen our need for Him.
As long as things are going smooth and life doesn’t through us too many curve balls…we do not reach out.
Or even worse, pride keeps us from reaching to Him and we reach out to something other than God.
Jesus began His sermon on the mount with these words;
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We will never reach out until we realize that we are spiritually bankrupt.
We will not reach out to God until we acknowledge our own helplessness and look to Him for help.
If we do not know God;
it is probably because we are looking everywhere but where He can be found
These can include things like money, career, relationships, social media, or even personal desires and achievements.
Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples asked for God to be revealed to them.
Jesus’ reply was simply;
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Finding Jesus means finding God
We know God by knowing Jesus
The Wisdom of Man is Always Searching for Something New
The Wisdom of Man is Always Searching for Something New
Yet what we need has been provided since our need arose.
When we fell into sin and disobeyed God and were separated from Him.
God in His love for us has provided a way to Know Him once again.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, willingly suffered and died on a cross to atone for our sin.
Offering salvation and eternal life for all those who believe in Him.
Often can fool ourselves into thinking that there is plenty of time to get serious about Knowing God.
We delay Seeking Him
We delay Reaching Out to Him
and In turn, We never Know Him
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Maybe today, God is Reasoning with you.
And He has reminded you of who He is,
and all He has done so you can Know Him.
Maybe this means Knowing Him for the first time…
Maybe this means Knowing Him better.
In either case the solution is the same…
Paul’s Concludes
Paul’s Concludes
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.”
Repentance is the course of action.
Essentially, we are to turn from anything that we elevate to a position of importance, seeking fulfillment and satisfaction from it rather than from God,
and Turn to Him
Pray
Pray
Stand if you can as we continue worshiping our Creator.
