Sermon Tone Analysis

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We are going to consider a passage telling us of an experience Paul had when he encountered a group of people who had been known for their interest in worldly things.

In fact, this entire culture had taken a huge interest in worldly things for about 500 years and that culture has significantly impacted all Western culture.

The trouble is the people Paul encountered in Acts 17 verses 16-34 loved human words, but rejected Gods Word.

J.I. Packer once said, “The church is in trouble.

The trouble is that we are not taking our God seriously enough.

What is the proof of this?

We are not taking an interest in His Word.”

In the first half of Acts 17 Paul traveled to three cities, but in the last city, mentioned in verse 10, Berea, he encountered a group of people who were exactly opposite to the people of Athens, whom we will learn about this morning.

The Bereans Paul encountered loved God’s Word, but the Athenians loved human philosopher’s words.

Before we dig into the text, I would like to share details about the culture in Athens which should help us understand the text.

(Athenian Culture)

From about 500 BC until about 300 BC, Athens had entered it’s golden age.

Athens produced many world famous philosophers and cultural icons.

I’ll highlight three such persons.

The first prominent Athenian was...

Prominent Athenians

Socrates lived from 470 until 399BC and was a polarizing philosophical figure who did not believe in the Greek Gods and loved asking questions which he knew could not be answered.

(SLIDE: Parthenon) Pericles was a general and very important political person in Athens from 461AD for more than 30 years.

He was responsible for building the Acropolis and Parthenon shown in this image.

and he desired to unite Greece, but the city-state, Sparta, opposed this causing the Peloponnesian war to begin.

Plato 429BC - Founded the “Academy of Athens” where many famous philosophers studied.

This academy was the first place of higher education in the Western World.

Athens was far past its prime when Paul appeared in Athens in Acts 17:15 which was about 51AD.

Even so, it was still considered to be the seat of learning and philosophy.

A contemporary of Nero, named Petronius, stated that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man.

It was this setting which Paul found revolting.

Lets start reading Acts 17:16...

Paul, revolted by idolatry, took action by preaching in the synagogue and marketplace, or Agora.

This was normal in Athens.

Zeno, the founder of the Stoics mentioned verse 18, once taught his students in the Stoa, or covered porch earning his group the name “Stoics.”

Education was an Athenian value which, by the way became the model for Modern Day Western Civilization.

All Athenians and foreigners were educating each other in public spaces, but all their words and knowledge held no value.

Their knowledge was not fundamentally rooted in God’s truth.

Paul was no babbler, he wasn’t teaching foolish things, his lectures in marketplace and on the Areopagus were the only valuable lessons taught that day, any following day, or any prior day.

The philosophers who heard Paul in the marketplace led him to the Areopagus because they had never heard anything like the Gospel before.

(Slide: View of Mars Hill/Areopagus)

On the screen, you can see Mars Hill also known as the Areopagus as it stands today.

That stone outcropping in the lower left of the image is where Paul preached in verse 22 and the view would have been spectacular.

From there they would have seen most of the temples where various deities were worshipped.

The Areopagus was close to the Parthenon and Acropolis and here is the modern day view.

Paul’s view would have been even more spectacular.

(Slide: View of the Acropolis from Mars Hill/Areopagus)

The Areopagus was was where Athens rulers had once met and it had also served as a courtroom.

Socrates was tried and sentenced to death there about 400 years earlier.

What Paul said next is something that I have always admired him for.

He used something specific to Athenian culture to witness to the philosophers and whoever else happened to be there beginning in verse 22...

Acts 17:22–23 (ESV)

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

23 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.

Paul had personally seen a blinding light and personally interacted with Jesus on the road to Damascus years earlier.

Paul had seen and come to know the one true God and his entire purpose in life from that point on was to make God known to those who did not know him.

Paul had a perfect opportunity here to proclaim the unknown God!

I desire to communicate two main points this morning.

The first point is this...

How Does God Make Himself Known?

(17:24-30)

This point is critical because a segment of today’s modern thinkers, called agnostics, believe that God cannot be known and that God cannot be proven to exist.

Paul’s message recorded in God’s Word blows agnosticism to bits.

Paul argued that God not only exists, but He wants to be intimately known.

He gave proof that God desires to be known by arguing that...

God is the ultimate Creator! (17:24-26)

He made the world (v24, Gen 14:19,22)

In verse 24, I can imagine Paul sweeping his hand out in a gesture toward the Acropolis and the temples of Athens below when he said..

Acts 17:24–25 (ESV)

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything

The Stoics believed Athenian gods were created by human imagination.

Those gods, Athena, Zeus, Hermes, and so on were made up because people needed examples of true virtue which all people should strive to achieve.

They heard through Paul that there really is a God who exists who is not made up by mankind.

The Epicurean philosophers heard that the unknown God was and is the only deity worthy of worship.

The unknown God has limitless power.

In verses 24 and 25 Paul declared that God “made the world, and also made from one man every nation of mankind.”

Only one God exists, and not only did he create something from nothing, but he....

He gives life and breath and everything (v25)

in verse 25.

Humans were created to look like God, not the other way around.

Genesis 1:26 declares “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Life is a gift from God.

I also find Acts 17:25 quite interesting because, if we think about it, we find a huge contrast between how God used his breath and how the philosophers were using their breath.

God’s breath, God’s Word breathed out gives life to all who hear it.

God gives humans breath so that breath will be used to worship God.

Athenians were using their breath to debate God’s very existence.

The philosophers were the ones who were babbling as though they knew nothing!

Paul continued… God can be known because...

He made all the nations.

(v26)

Paul argued that Adam and therefore all his descendants are proof of God’s existence in verses 25-26.

Acts 17:26 (ESV)

26 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,

God did not leave man to “evolve” on his own, but the unknown God was all sovereign.

He alloted days and seasons for each person to live and die.

He created seasons for nations and governments to rise and fall.

He determined where on earth those nations would even dwell.

Every aspect of creation points to a God who desires to be intimately known.

(Pause)

We find Paul’s next point in verses 27-30.

God is...

God is not far from us (v27-30)

When Paul spoke verses 27-30, the Epicureans would have taken notice.They believed the gods were unconcerned with human existence.

They believed the god’s were only concerned with their own pleasures therefore a person should only seek pleasure and happiness.