Acts 17:15

They that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens... And while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met him. And then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him... And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? (Acts 17:15–19)

Paul shows us how to bring the unchanging gospel into a culture that does not share our worldview—by changing the method, never the message.

Paul Arrives in Athens

At the time Paul arrived, Athens was no longer the political and commercial powerhouse it had been at the height of the Greek Empire. But within the Roman Empire, Athens was still a philosophical center, a university town of sorts. It was the city of Pericles, Demosthenes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, and Euripides. Some of those names you recognize, others you may not, but their thoughts and words transformed Western civilization and Western thought.

Paul was escorted to Athens by men from Berea, who brought him there to protect him from the uprising beginning in that city. He had left Silas and Timothy behind. As soon as Paul arrived and looked around, he was so stirred that he sent his companions back with a commandment in verse 15: "Come here with all speed." So they departed, and Paul was left in Athens on his own.

It appears Paul intended to wait for Timothy and Silas before beginning his outreach. But notice verse 16—Paul could not wait. He could not stand alone any longer. His spirit was stirred within him; he was provoked to action when he saw what was going on in the city.

What Stirs Us?

As I meditated on this passage, I began to wonder: how are we stirred to action? What stirs us? Or have we ever even been provoked in our emotions to stand up and do something?

Many things provoke us. The images of devastation in Haiti have moved many Americans to give financially, even when they themselves are hurting. Reports of famine and sickness in other nations stir us. Some people are stirred by political changes and feel they have to do something. But that was not what stirred Paul. It was the spiritual condition of Athens that moved him.

As we drive through North County and San Diego County, as we see what is happening around us in the marketplace, on TV, on the radio—are we stirred by the spiritual condition? I prayed this week for myself, my family, and our church, that God would open our eyes to see the spiritual condition for what it really is in our community, and that we would be stirred.

A City Wholly Given to Idolatry

Notice what stirred Paul at the end of verse 16: the city was wholly given to idolatry. Literally, the whole being of Athens, its heartbeat, was idolatry. Some historians have calculated that Athens had upwards of 30,000 idols, gods, and objects to which they offered incense and sacrifice.

There is in man, created by God, an innate pull toward worship. God created us to worship. As a result, man who does not know God will worship just about anything that comes before him. Misdirected worship is idolatry, and this city was filled with it.

Our own society is no different. We think we have progressed because we don't have altars on the roadside with silver and gold gods. But people still bow down and sacrifice—not animals, but their money, time, intellect, and power. People sacrifice to sports teams and celebrities. We even have a show called American Idol. People bow to money, political power, pleasure, and sex. How is that any different from the Greek gods people looked up to 2,000 years ago?

Four Groups in Athens

In verses 17 and 18 we meet four different groups. As was his custom, Paul started at the synagogue, where he met the first group—the religious separatists. These were both Jews and Gentile God-fearers. They worshipped the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, more fully revealed in Christ. But their God was one among thousands in Athens, and they had little reach into their community. Most Jewish communities by this time were content to keep to themselves, gathering on the Sabbath and waiting for people to come to them.

Sadly, as you look at the landscape of Christianity in America today, that is often the case. The church has become much like the old Jewish synagogue, where we gather in rooms and wait for people to come to us.

The second group, in the marketplace, we might call the thoughtless idolaters—the common people. They held a live-and-let-live mindset, living in a pluralistic society very much like ours. The people of Athens were generally willing to listen to new ideas. You were far less likely to be beaten for your religious perspective in Athens than in Thessalonica or Philippi.

In verse 18 we meet two more groups. First, the Epicurean philosophers—the atheistic existentialists. They followed Epicurus, a materialist who came about 400 years before Paul. He didn't believe in superstition or divine intervention, and his later followers focused primarily upon pleasure as the chief purpose of life. They didn't completely deny gods, but held a deistic mindset: if gods existed, they were far away and wanted nothing to do with humanity. The worst possible life was one lived in pain.

The fourth group, the Stoics, were the self-sufficient fatalists. They followed Zeno, another Athenian philosopher from about 400 years earlier. The Stoics emphasized goodness and peace, a peace of mind obtained through virtuous conduct in accord with nature. They held that errors in judgment caused destructive emotions, and that a truly balanced person would never experience such trivial feelings.

The Message Never Changes, But the Method Does

Notice how similar these four groups are to our society today. Paul ministered to all four, and he always brought them to the word of God. Ultimately, the message did not change, but the method did. As we go through Acts 17, we'll see that Paul's method with these philosophers was different from how he dealt with other groups in other cities.

The message doesn't change because the gospel is universally and absolutely relevant for every human being. But when Paul ministered among the Jews, he was speaking to people with a common understanding, history, and a theistic worldview. He could simply go through their history—the law and the prophets—and show their fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth.

Among these Gentiles, the message of Christ did not change, but the way he brought it was completely different. This matters for us living in 2010 in America, because we are living in an Athenian culture—a first-century, Greek-minded, Hellenistic culture, whether we realize it or not.

When the gospel was first preached in Judea, among people with a theistic worldview, it sprang right out of their understanding. But as it went into the Hellenistic world, it met a pluralistic society with relativistic views: you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe. People talk about postmodern America as so progressive, but it is no different than when Paul went to Athens 2,000 years ago.

Fifty or a hundred years ago, America was founded on Judeo-Christian values with a theistic worldview. During the Great Awakenings, preaching was simple—you preached Christ to those with a theistic worldview, and they came in droves, just as in Jerusalem. But in Athens that was not the case.

The problem is that the church today still tries to preach to a theistic worldview in a nation that no longer has one. So over the last twenty years, the church has wrongly changed the message and not the method. We've tried to make the message more palatable—a feel-good, happy-go-lucky message. But the gospel is about repenting and turning to Christ because you are a sinner doomed for hell. The church has wrongly changed the message to reach a different culture, when it should have changed the method.

They Encountered Him

Notice in verse 18: certain philosophers encountered him. He didn't go seeking them and drag them to his message. When you go out to fulfill the commission God has given us, God will bring people into your path. Pray something like this—"Father, would you bring into my path this week people I can bring the gospel to?"—and He will answer.

When they encountered him, they said, "What will this babbler say?" They came with a bias, recognizing his Jewish background by look and speech. The word translated "babbler" literally means a seed picker—like a bird in the marketplace that picks up a seed here and a seed there. They saw him as one who gathered bits from various philosophies and religions to sound impressive. They thought he knew little, but they wanted to hear him because they loved new ideas.

They took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?... For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. (Acts 17:19–21)

It was the freshness of Paul's message that earned him an invitation to Mars Hill. The Areopagus literally means Mars Hill. There was an actual hill where philosophers gathered, but there was also a council of philosophical judges called the Areopagus. Since we'll see at the end that an Areopagite becomes a follower of Jesus, it's plausible Paul was taken before those judges. They loved hearing new ideas—it was their pastime. We have baseball; they had rhetoric, debate, and philosophizing. They would take your ideas, break them apart, and spit them back to reveal their own great intellect. Anything like our world today?

To the Unknown God

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. (Acts 17:22–23)

The word translated "superstitious" or "religious" literally means demon-fearers, because most of these false gods were rooted in demonic things. Athens had so many deities that they had catch-alls. You could offer to Diana, Apollo, Jupiter, or Mars—but just in case you missed a god, you could sacrifice to the unknown god.

Six hundred years before Paul, a great plague came to Athens. In the Greek mindset, a plague meant the gods were angry and must be appeased. But which god? With 30,000 gods, that's a problem. So Epimenides had a flock of sheep loosed in the city, and wherever a sheep lay down, they offered it to whatever god's temple was nearest. Some sheep lay down where there was no temple, so they built altars to the unknown god. The plague went away, and those altars remained.

So Paul says, "The one you ignorantly worship, I declare to you." The word "unknown" is the Greek agnostos—in Latin, ignoramus. With the Jews, Paul could begin with Moses and the prophets right up to Jesus. But with the Athenians, his approach changes.

This is important for us. If we went as missionaries to the Philippines, Russia, or a tribe in Africa, we would spend time getting to know the culture and seek to bring the gospel in a way they could understand. Yet we fail to do that in our own culture, wrongly assuming everyone shares our theistic worldview. We should gauge the culture and speak in a way they can understand. We don't make the gospel relevant—it is relevant—but we speak so they understand. That doesn't mean putting on an act; it means recognizing they may see the world differently than you do.

God the Creator, Sustainer, and Near One

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. (Acts 17:24)

Paul immediately explains their unknown God: He is the creator of heaven and earth and everything in it, and therefore master and Lord of all. The Greeks had primordial deities—gods over sky, sea, and earth, the sun god, moon god, wind god, each with jurisdiction. But Paul says, "I want to tell you about the one true God who created all of this and is Lord over it. Because He is so omnipresent and awesome, He does not dwell in temples made with hands." This is the same thing God told David and Solomon, and spoke through Isaiah: "What is this house you will build for me?" The temple in Jerusalem was not where God dwelt; it was where His people could meet with Him. God is spirit, and now He dwells in us—we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. (Acts 17:25)

God does not need anything from man to exist or to maintain His power. Quite the opposite—man needs Him. He is the creator and sustainer of life. He gave us life and sustains it by giving us breath and all things. Without man, the idols of this world would not exist. But without the one true God, man would not be here. We did not create Him; He created us.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. (Acts 17:26)

God created man of one blood. We all have a common ancestor—Adam. From Adam came Eve, and from them, all the nations, down to you and me. God determined where they would live and the appointed times and boundaries. Have you ever wondered why you live here, at this time in history? God determined and purposed that. But why?

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. (Acts 17:27)

God placed man upon the earth so that we would seek Him, grope for Him, find Him, and see that He is not far from us. The Greek understanding was that the gods, if they existed, were far away and wanted nothing to do with humanity. But the one true God created man for fellowship. He is right here, waiting to be found.

Speaking Truth They Could Understand

This is the same truth God spoke through Jeremiah—but Paul did not say "the prophet Jeremiah said," because they would scratch their heads and ask, "The prophet who?" You may have done this with an unbeliever: you say "Ezekiel said," and they go, "What?" You say "Abraham said," and they go, "Abraham Lincoln?"

In Jeremiah 29:11—which you've seen on greeting cards—the Lord declares thoughts of peace, to give a future and a hope. But look at verses 12–14:

Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord... (Jeremiah 29:12–14)

God created us to seek Him. So you shall call upon Him, seek Him, and find Him when you search with all your heart. Paul revealed that very truth to the Athenians without citing the reference. (You can actually talk with someone from the Bible without using the verse reference, and God won't get mad. Half the time I forget the reference anyway.)

Hebrews 11:6 says the same: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28)

We could not exist apart from His constant care and attention—this is the common grace of God, extended to all mankind. Notice that Paul quotes two Grecian poets here. "In him we live and move and have our being" is from Epimenides; "For we are all his offspring" is from Aratus. The philosophers knew these men well.

Paul didn't quote them as prophets or as teachers of God's word. He quoted them because these specific words revealed truth, and by them he could build a bridge to a pagan audience. Worldly, pagan people often reveal nuggets of truth—though those nuggets are buried in heaps of trash. Consider, "I can't get no satisfaction." Just about everything else they said was worthless, but that was true. From time to time, worldly people who know nothing of God can say things that hint at biblical truth. We can do the same: use what is true and say, "See, this is right," even while everything else is trash.

Why We Should Not Worship Idols

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. (Acts 17:29)

If God created us and we are His offspring, then we carry some—not all—of His attributes. We have the capacity for thought, the ability to create and invent, the aptitude for love, the power to communicate. All of these came from God.

So we ought not to think God is like silver, gold, or stone. Gold, as precious as it is, cannot think, love, create, or communicate. It is inanimate. Why would we bow down to something that has none of the characteristics we have and call it our God? Isaiah 40 says it is the most foolish thing: you cut down a tree (a strong one, so your god won't rot), burn part of it to warm yourself, cook your meal over part of it, and then bow down to the rest and say, "Thank you for feeding me." The psalmist said the gods of this world are silver and gold, the work of men's hands—eyes that cannot see, mouths that cannot speak, feet that cannot walk—and those who trust in them are fools.

God created us unique and distinct because He made us in His image. Lions never dig up gold to make something beautiful; they seek only food to survive. But God created us for a purpose: that we would seek Him, know Him, and glorify Him.

The Command to Repent and the Coming Judgment

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. (Acts 17:30)

Imagine if God immediately judged every wrong thought, word, or deed. Few of us would have survived past being a toddler. God is gracious, long-suffering, and patient. Much of the sinful thing man does is out of ignorance, as the Athenians worshipped the unknown god for centuries. But now they were responsible for the truth. Paul had preached the gospel to them, and now they had one choice. God commands all men everywhere to repent. Why?

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)

God will set His own perfect, righteous standard and judge us by that perfect plumb line. My life and your life do not measure up, and He will judge accordingly—whether the sin was done in ignorance or not. And who will be the Judge? The man whom God ordained and proved by raising Him from the dead.

In John 5:22, Jesus said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." And in verses 26–27: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Jesus is the one who will stand and judge at the last day.

The Response: Mockery, Dismissal, and Belief

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. (Acts 17:32)

The Athenians listened right up to the point Paul spoke about Jesus and the resurrection. As long as he spoke of philosophy, science, poetry, morality, or even their false gods, they were all ears. But as soon as he spoke of the resurrection, they turned him off. Some mocked; others were dismissive.

It's the same in our culture. You can talk about anything, but as soon as you mention Jesus, they mock or dismiss you. A few weeks ago Brit Hume said on Fox News that Tiger Woods should turn to Christ and seek forgiveness, and he was belittled for it. That same week, others on another network mocked him: "Who does he think he is? How dare he bring his religion into the public square?" You can talk about Hinduism or Buddhism and be praised as learned, but mention Christ and they say, "How dare you?"

I noticed Larry King Live recently discussing life after death, and the panel was three men of Hindu background—Sanjay Gupta, Deepak Chopra, and Dinesh D'Souza (who professes Christianity but believes in theistic evolution, not biblical creation). They were propped up as the experts. But bring a Christian who says Jesus died and rose so we could live with Him forever, and you're called a narrow-minded, bigoted Bible-thumper. They will mock you and dismiss what you say.

Departing—With a Few Who Believed

What was Paul's reaction? Verse 33: "So Paul departed from among them." We tend to take such rejection as a personal attack. We shouldn't. It's an attack on Christ. We should grieve that they rejected Him and His gospel, but don't take it personally.

Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. (Acts 17:34)

Some believed—including Dionysius, one of the rulers of the Areopagus council, a woman named Damaris, and others.

Paul did not belittle their beliefs, though he could have. He looked for an inroad for the gospel in the culture and found it in the unknown god. Then he preached Christ: God as creator and originator, the giver of life and every gift, the God who seeks relationship with man and is intimately involved with us—unlike the distant gods of Greece. He showed that man cannot exist apart from God, and then brought them to the reality of judgment: unless you repent, you will perish. The message did not change; the method clearly did.

Preach the Truth With Power

I believe the church in America still expects mass evangelism to produce mass fruit—thousands coming to faith as in Jerusalem. That didn't happen in Athens, and it won't happen in our culture. Most will mock, some will be dismissive, and only a few may believe.

But the gospel still needs to be preached with power. Don't change the message. Don't try to make it more palatable, happy-go-lucky, and feel-good. Just preach the truth. Yes, look for an opportunity and an inroad—but preach the truth.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your word, and especially for this passage, because it gives us insight into our own culture today. Even though we are 2,000 years removed from Athens, here in America we are living in a Hellenistic culture. Lord, give us the ability, by Your Spirit, to speak the truth into this culture. Open our eyes that we would see the spiritual condition of those around us. Open our mouths to speak words of truth without lessening the impact of the message. And Lord, though they be dismissive or mocking, may we still be steadfast in these last days. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.