The Unknown God
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning Friends,
My name is Oscar, and I am a Student Pastor.
Paul in Athens
Last week we read about Paul in Berea and how Paul, as was his custom, went into the Jewish synagogue and reasoned with Jews who were more noble than those in Thessalonica. The Bereas received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to verify if what Paul was saying was true. Many believe, however, Jews from Thessalonica found out that Paul was in Bereas, which is about 36 miles west, and arrived to agitate the crowd seeking Paul. The Brothers in Berea sent Paul away and took him as far as Athens. So we left off last week, with Paul alone in Athens.
But before we go into the text…INTRODUCTION
Church, let’s look at the text together…open your Bibles to Acts, chapter 17, we will be reading versus 16 through 34. If you do not have a Bible with you, there are some in front of you under the chairs…if not, please raise your hand and an usher will bring one to you.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Paul’s ministry in Athens shows how he altered his approach in carrying out his mission to the Gentiles. His earlier speech at Pisidian Antioch depicts his message to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles (13:16–41), but his speech in Athens (vv. 22–34) shows how he approached Gentiles who had no knowledge of or commitment to the God of Israel.
Setting the Stage
Athens (Athēnai) is located 227 kilometers (141 miles) south of Berea and is the capital of Greece and the city-state of Attica.
Athens makes its sole biblical appearance in the book of Acts, where Paul delivers a sermon to the Athenians on the Areopagus (or Mars Hill) in AD 51.
Ancient Athens was located at the southern edge of the Attic peninsula in Greece. Positioned about five miles north of Piraeus, a port city, Athens enjoyed the benefits of a sea town with the security of being placed on the slope of Mount Lycabettus. Athens was also centrally located to defend the passage from the region of Attica to the Peloponnese, a large southern peninsula home to the Spartans. Although the thin, rocky soil could not support much agricultural life, Athens boasted crops of vine, fig, and olive (Burckhardt, The Greeks and Greek Civilization, 16–17). Clay was also an important resource to Athens, but the city thrived from the discovery of silver in the mines of Laurium to the southeast, ca. 483 bc (Hammond, A History of Greece, 529). The city of Athens is crowned by the Acropolis, the highest point of the hill around which the ancient city developed. The city walls were built in the fifth century bc and spanned a circumference of around 5–6 miles. Known as the “Long Walls,” the city walls also spanned the distance from Athens to Piraeus in an attempt to secure port trade, supplies, and resources (Hammond, A History of Greece, 1–18, 254; Hill, The Ancient City of Athens).
The Athenians were polytheists - they believed that there were many gods. If you know anything about Greek mythology you woul be familiar with a number of their gods like Zeus, Hera, Hades, Ares, Poseidon.
The Stir
Paul is in Athens awaiting the arrival of Silas and Timothy, verse 16...Paul’s spirit was provoked due to the city being full of idols. It was easier to find an idol than an man in Athens.
What did Paul do when provoked? Paul went and reasoned with the Jews and devout persons in the synagogue and the marketplace.
Why the marketplace…remember Athens boasted crops of vine, fig, and olive.
Paul see’s that he has an opporutnity to preach to anyone who happened to be there.
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
While Paul is reasoning with the Jews and the Gentiles of Athens, he attracks the attention of two groups of philosopher, the Epicurean and the Stoic.
Epicureanism was a system of thought that asserted there was no connection between people and the divine. This belief was expressed in a desire to seek contentment and satisfaction and to avoid pain and discomfort.
Stoicism was an essentially pantheistic system of thought that prioritized logic over all other faculties.
In speaking with these two groups of philosohers, some viewed him as a proclaimer while others viewed him as a blabbler. Because Paul was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection, Paul was brought to the Aeropagus.
Your Bible may say “Mars hills” or “hill of Aries.” Aries was the god of war in Greek mythology, who is called Mars in Latin. This was the name of a location and also of the civil and religious council that met there.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
What was this new teaching that Paul was presenting? The end of verse 18…he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Now the resurrection was contradictory both to the Epicurean idea that death ended all existence and the Stoic idea of uniting with the divine and disengaging from the material.