Paul in Athens

From Macedonia to Athens

vision (calling)

synagogue

jealous Jews

beaten up

next city, again ...

Paul arrived in Athens

citizens and gods 1:1.5

“a forest of idols”

early Christians were called atheists because they only believe in one God instead of the many Gods the Greeks and Romans had

The Message of Acts 1. What Paul Saw

In the Parthenon stood a huge gold and ivory statue of Athena, ‘whose gleaming spear-point was visible forty miles away’.

Acts 17:16 ESV

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.

ESV: his spirit was provoked

NIV: he was greatly distressed

to see that the city was full of idols

in LXX: Is. 65:2–3; see Dt. 9:7, 18, 22; Ps. 106:28–29; Ho. 8:5.

Reason: Yahweh is a jealous God. Ex. 34:14

What he saw

What he felt

What he did (Response:)

SO he reasoned ...

w/ the Jews in the synagogue (weekly)

w/ passers-by in the marketplace day by day

w/ a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers

Epicureans & Stoics

The Message of Acts 3. What Paul Did

it was characteristic of Epicureans to emphasize chance, escape and the enjoyment of pleasure, and of the Stoics to emphasize fatalism, submission and the endurance of pain.

What he said: preaching Jesus and the resurrection (Ac 17:18)

Gospel vs. Greek philosophies

a commissioned apostle vs. wish to know some strange things (20) 只当新闻说说听听（21），以为胡言乱语（18）

a personal God/Creator and the Son vs. paganism/philosophy

Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus

Areopagus? like universities (Todd Friel on campus clips)

just some foreign gods

the exact charge against Socrates, for not honoring the Greek gods and for believing in the one true God

Read the text:

God is the Creator of the universe (v.24)

vs. Epicureans: world is atoms and chance

Stoics: everything is fate, everything is god

2. God is the Sustainer of life (v.25)

3. God is the Ruler of all the nations (v. 26-28a)

4. God is the Father of human beings (v. 28b-29)

Paul quotes Greek/stoic poet (Cleanthes) to expose their own inconsistency.

5. God is the Judge of the world. (v.30-31)

v.30 God overlooked your ignorance

a Jew called the Greeks ignorant!!!

Romans 1:20–22 ESV

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

“Every song has a composer, every book has an author, every car has a maker, every painting has a painter, and every building has a builder. So it isn't irrational to take this simple logic a little further and say that nature must have had a Maker. It would be irrational to believe that it made itself.”

― Ray Comfort, Hell's Best Kept Secret

The Message of Acts 4. What Paul Said

But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? Because of the certainty of the coming judgment. Paul tells his listeners three immutable facts about it. First, it will be universal: God will judge the world. The living and the dead, the high and the low, will be included; nobody will be able to escape. Secondly, it will be righteous: he will judge … with justice. All secrets will be revealed. There will be no possibility of any miscarriage of justice. Thirdly, it will be definite, for already the day has been set and the judge has been appointed. And although the day has not yet been disclosed, the identity of the judge has been (10:42). God has committed the judgment to his Son, and he has given proof of this publicly to everybody by raising him from the dead. By the resurrection Jesus was vindicated, and declared to be both Lord and Judge.

to recap:

A. a universal God, Creator

B.a righteous Ruler and Judge

C. a definite day and an appointed person to judge

Conclusion: Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. God commands all people everywhere to repent!

The only hope: the crucified and resurrected Jesus

Romans 4:25 ESV

who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What to do？ Repent!

1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

How Paul challenges us:

1. Have we ever been provoked by the idolatrous culture of the contemporary world?

v.22 you Athenians are religious

Are we religious? (Piper: modern religion)

Are we distressed??

Piper: [In] the world we live in ... the main idol is self, and its main doctrine is autonomy, and its central act of worship is being entertained, and its two main shrines are the television and the cinema, and its most sacred genuflection is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse.

2. And are we prepared to proclaim the full biblical gospel?

(creation, fall, judgment, salvation)

H. Richard Niebuhr depicted the creed of liberal Protestant theology, which was called “modernism” in those days, in these famous words: “A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.