The Gospel to the Philosophers

INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Thank you to Hilton for preaching last week as my family went camping.

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Today we are continuing our journey through the Book of Acts by looking at , as Paul finds himself walking through the city of Athens alone.

As you turn there in your Bibles ...

Do you ever wonder how you should relate and interact with the culture around you as a christian?

tells us that Jesus has placed us in the world yet says we are not “of” the world.

Jesus prays that we would be protected from the evil one, sanctified by truth, and sent into the world.

Today’s passage is a description of what this can look like and serves as an example for how we can:

See & Feel the Culture’s Story

Share the Hope of God’s Story

Connect the Culture’s Longings to the Satisfaction only found in Jesus

Connect Topic to Felt Need

Pray

SEE & FEEL THE CULTURE’S STORY (16)

Background

the Jerusalem counsel in Chapter 15, Paul and Silas began what people call Paul’s second missionary journey

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17:16 “Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols”

“Waiting for them...”

Paul left Nerea and made the 200 mile trip down to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy behind. He was alone as he strolled through the magnificient city of Athens. The Athens of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno.

Athens was the intellectual center of the world with scholars from all over the world calling it home.

“saw that the city was full of idols...”

What are idols?

What did Paul see?

As Paul walked through the city - it syes he saw a city fulls of idols.

The root of this in the original language of Greek is where we derive theatre.

Taking a step back from the busyness of life - the chaos - the tempo to observe and watch

A what Paul saw - broke his heart - he saw a city full of idols

Pausanias, a 2nd century Greek traveler and geographer, visited Athens 50 years later, said it was “easier to meet a god or goddess on the main street of Athens than to meet a man”

Population of 10,000 people with more than 30,000 statues of gods or goddesses.

What are idols?

When we hear the word “idol,“ most of think about images carved into stone. In Athens, this was true.

Zeus - the cloud gatherer and father of all men and gods

Hera - the goddess of marriage

Aphrodite - the goddess of love and beauty

Athena - the goddess of Athens over handicrafts and agriculture (work)

Dionyssos - the god of wine, celebrations, and ecstacy

Poseidon - the god of the seas, earthquakes and tidal waves

Demeter - the goddess of fertility, agriculture, and seasons.

Parthenon of Athena...

Ares - the god of war

Artemis - the goddness of fertility

How would you feel feel if I said that our culture, our city also is saturated with idols?

Are we really that much different. Every culture is dominated by its own set of idols.

We have our own gods of beauty, power, money, acheivement, and pleasure.

We may not have a stone statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, lining our streets but out check-out aisles are lined with photoshopped images of women that cause many young women and men to be driven to eating disorders and depression.

Based on statitistics provide by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders:

Over 30 million people suffer from an eating disorder

1 person dies every hour from an eating disorder

13% of women over the age of 50 engage in some form of an eating disorder.

We too make our sacrifices to the false goddess of beauty.

We may not burn incense to Athena, the goddess of career success, but we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting our families and children to achieve the next promotion or pay raise.

Even our modern poets, like Harry Chapin in 1974, sang of the empty pursuit in his song, Cats in the Cradle.

My child arrived just the other day He came to the world in the usual way But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay He learned to walk while I was away And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew He'd say "I'm gonna be like you, dad" "You know I'm gonna be like you"

The dad is always busy and so the son become just like his dad.

Just this week I was listening to the program ’On Point’ on NPR and that subject was, “Have Americans Made Work Their New Religion.”

Derek Thompson says, “We’re encouraged to find meaning in work — to believe that we are defined by our work. So much so, that work has morphed "into a kind of religion — promising identity, transcendence, and community."

“We tell people to pursue their passions, to hustle for their hobbies, to seek deep meaning in their day jobs, but then you look at the jobs that actually exist in the economy, and the jobs that exist were not invented to give us meaning. They were designed to sell things to people, to turn the gears of consumerism."

We sacrifice family and relationship to an empty god and receive nothing in return but brokenness And loss.

Pleasure - the list could go on - the examples, etc

Dionysos - the god of alcohol, parties, and esctasy

Read the lyrics to the popular pop or country songs.

Definition of Idolatry -

Traditional idol worship still occurs in many places around the world - where images are carved into stone or precious metals. Kirsten took a picture of a billboard while in Thailand that reminded people that images of buddha are not for decoration - in fact, it’s illegal. These images are meant for worship.

In God says about the leaders in Israel that, “These men have set up their idols in their hearts.”

An idol “is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Tim Keller says, “God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our heart deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.”

What do we see?

“It is impossible to understand a culture without discerning its idols” Tim Keller

“his spirit was provoked within him...”

What did Paul feel?

“Provoked” - irritable (translated as such in ), to rouse to anger, spur or prick

Paul was born a Jew, a deep conviction there is only one God and he is surrounded by lies. His spirit is agitated and annoyed.

At the same time each of the 30,000 idols demonstrates the Athenians’ hunger for God yet complete spiritual emptiness.

It like walking down a street of starving children, stomachs bloated with malnutrition. They are surrounding by stone carving of food (Fruits and vegetables, fish, loaves of bread, pizza, ribeye steak, etc) but it that cannot satisfy because its all made of stone but the kids don’t know better so they begin eating mouthfuls of gravel hoping to satisfy their hunger.

What do we see and feel as we look at the longings in our culture?

Tim Keller said, “It is impossible to understand a culture without discerning its idols?”

Do we looking with discerning eyes as we live in world that Jesus says we are in but not of?

Can we discern the idols? Do we prayerfully consider these things as we go about our week.

I don’t always. This week I found myself listening to the news and the radio differently. What is really being said? What longing are people trying to fulfill? How does the gospel connect to these longings?

What do we feel as we discern our culture’s idols?

Sometimes I fear that Christians looks at the culture’s idols with a sense fondness? Either for how they once lived or desire to try it out. There is an unhealthy desire for the false hope being offered by the world.

Sometimes - people respond with judgment and separation. The people are seen as fools who will get what they deserve. There is a coldness.

Paul’s example encourages us to respond with truth and love that exposes the lie and helps them connect with the satisfaction only found in jesus.

SHARING GOD’S STORY (17-21)

Paul find 3 groups of people willing to listen in Athens:

The Religious (Jews and God-fearing Greeks)

Street Pagans

Intellectuals (Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers - the two competing philosophies in Athens at the time)

Epicureans believed everything happened by chance and death is the end of the line - annihilation, no afterlife. Sure there are gods but they don’t bother themselves with us so keep things simple in life and seek pleasure.

Stoics believed there were gods in everything and whatever happened was your destiny. Life happened to you according to the gods

These are the educated, the learned, the ones society looks to for wisdom

Paul Preaches Jesus and the Resurrection...

The message of the Gospel does not change based on the audience receiving the message.

The Gospel is Jesus - his life, death, and resurrection

It doesn’t matter if you are:

Rich or poor

Rich or poor

Jew, Greek, Caucassian, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Indian - it doesn’t matter

educated or uneducated

religious or non-religious

One Gospel Message:

Jesus is God and man

He lived a perfect life that each one of us has failed to live on our own

He died on the cross to pay the penalty of wrath and anger against for our sin

He rose from the dead, so that by turning from ourselves and turning to God - by grace, through faith in jesus we might be saved.

The Response was Divided:

“Babbler”

This was the clever ironic sarcasm of the day.

Literally means, “seedpicker” - describing birds picking up seeds and grain but came to mean someone who took the ideas of others and passed them off as their own without really understanding what they were saying.

Others seemed interested because it was something new.

We don’t get a sense that they believed but there was curiosity to hear more.

CONNECTING THE TWO STORIES | GOSPEL & CULTURE (22-34)

Paul begins to build a bridge for the people from their culture to the gospel

Compliment

“I perceive that you are very religious...”

Remember how Paul’s spirit was provoked, agitated, angered at the false worship?

I’m sure he was ready to destroy every last one of the 30,000 idols in Athens but instead he begins by building a bridge

I picture him holding out his hand rather than holding up a fist ready to fight.

Connects their Story

“To the unknown God...”

Athens is the center of intellectualism

These are the philosophers, yet they don’t know everything and when it comes to what is most important - they lack understanding.

“I will proclaim to you...”

Paul starts with their story and retells their story in light of the gospel.

Begins with God’s Story

The truth about God always helps us better understand ourselves.

There is one God who made the world and everything in it, he made everything in heaven and on earth, and he doesn’t live in temples made by man, nor is he serve by human hands.

This challenged their whole worldview:

Stoics believed in many different gods

Epicureans were practical atheists.

This is similar the worldview of our culture:

Modern intellectuals would hold to a belief of random chance and evolution

The message of a divine being who created heaven and earth challenges the modern academic perspective

Yet Paul says God is the Creator, the Lifegiver, and he seeks us out.

Retells Their Story

God made you

God is seeking after you as his creation

“God commands all people everywhere to repent...”

Because God has fixed a day in the future when he will judge the world...

Epicureans and Stoics believed either annihilation and absorption but not resurrection, not judgement

A popular statement in Paul’s day that was written 500 years prior by Aeschylus said, “When the dust has soaked up a man’s blood, once his is dead, there is no resurrection.”

The righteous who have believed in Jesus will be saved and those who reject him will be punished.

We know this to be true because Jesus was raised from the dead.

Call for a decision

One commentary said, “Everything is fine as long as we remain theoretical, but when we call for action, men begin to shift their posture and look at their watches. Seeing their accountability to the truth God makes many uncomfortable.”

I believe this is true for both the hearers and the speakers.

We’ll see how the people respond

Earlier this month the Barna Group released a study showing that almost half of practicing Christian Millennials (1981-1996, 22-37 year olds) say that evangelism is wrong.

95-97% of all age ranges believe that sharing your faith means being a witness about Jesus.

The same percentage says that the best thing to happen is for them to know Jesus

Millennials also feel more equipped than other generations to share their faith.

YET, almost half also believe it is somewhat wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with others of a different belief system in the hope that they will change their mind and follow Jesus.

This is exactly what Paul says, “God commands all people everywhere to repent.” To change, to turn from one thing to the best thing - Jesus.

3 Different Responses

“Some mocked”

The hecklers

“Delayed - hear more later”

No immediate response, let’s keep talking - no decision or change is really needed

These are interesting ideas

Maybe later - but there was no later. 18:1 Paul left Athens

When people were angry he argued

When people persecuted he would return later

When people were apathetic - he left.

“Believed”

Those who repented and believed in Jesus

APPLICATION

How will you respond personally to the Gospel?

How will you engage they culture in which you live?

See & Feel

Pray & Speak