NT Wright: We've Got It WRONG About Paul! | Pastor Reacts

Paul, after all, has been seen often as the Protestant apostle, but here he is apparently affirming pagan symbols, quoting pagan poets and philosophers.

Is that the typical formula for evangelism that we tend to use today? No. Christians have argued over Paul's speech and how that informs our own methods of evangelism.

I'm convinced that we can do what he did today with our own circles of influence, amen? We're not invading someone else's story with the gospel, no.

We're simply showing people that their story already fits into the gospel. What really happened with Paul at the

Areopagus in Acts chapter 17? Was it what we've been taught or something else entirely?

N .T. Wright made a video recently where he explored what's really going on in this famous passage of the

New Testament, but is he onto something or not? So let's do this.

Let's take a look at his comments and see if they line up with scripture. To be clear, I'm convinced that there is something that we're all missing about Paul's speech in Acts 17.

So whether Wright points it out or not, I'm going to share with you what I think is going on as well.

So buckle up. We're about to go deep into the scripture. But first, welcome back to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective

Christian that you are meant to be. That means understanding how to share the gospel in unique circumstances, like the

Apostle Paul did in Athens. Make sure to like, sub, and share this one around, but only if it blesses you.

Amen. So Paul's speech at the

Areopagus is absolutely fascinating to me. I've wrestled with this speech for years before I finally preached on it myself, and many

Christians will point this out, which is a fact. Paul does not present the typical evangelistic formula that we are all used to, particularly today in the 21st century.

So he doesn't do Romans Road, he doesn't do Way of the Master, right? He does something else that's unique for that moment in front of the

Athenians. Although I would argue this is not outside of the broader approach that Paul advocates for.

He does something unique. So before we go any further, just so we're clear and you got it in your mind, let's take a look at Acts 17.

Now, this speech doesn't happen out of nowhere, okay? It is brought about because of something that happens back in verse 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.

So he reasoned in the synagogues with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Okay, stop. Notice, Paul does two things here. And apparently these are both part of his regular routine.

He goes to synagogue on the Sabbath, and he reasons with the Jews and the devout persons or the

God -fearers, right? And he does so by using the Tanakh, presumably, that Jesus is their

Messiah. But he also goes to what my translation calls the marketplace. What's that,

Nate? Thanks for asking. The marketplace was this area called the Agora, okay? Now, just about all of the

Greek cities had one of these. This was an open area near the city gates that acted like a town hall or a public square type of arena where a lot of business was conducted.

But also people would go down there to seek work, and they would also engage each other in important discussions.

And primarily, they would discuss philosophical and political issues, but they would also allow for religious discussion.

And that's where Paul comes in. Paul sees this space as an opportunity to talk about Jesus.

To me, the present -day town hall that exists for us is YouTube. I see important parallels here.

But anyway, Paul makes it a practice to go to these places, and then this happens. Verse 18.

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.

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 live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Okay, that's a very revealing statement by Luke. And I think it would be important to come back to this at some point because it tells us something about the nature of the

Athenians. I think Paul recognized this about them. So, I don't think

Luke is the only one who noticed this, and sort of included it in his writings. I think Paul zoomed in on this quality also, and he let it shape his comments at the

Areopagus. So again, it's very important that we understand who these people were.

Apparently, they were folks who spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Today, we would call these people information junkies, right? Verse 22, 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 is 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 got overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Okay. That is the first time that we see a typical component of everyday evangelism.

In about what? Like nine verses, Paul mentions repentance finally, right?

Verse 31, 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. Okay. And now we see the resurrection of Jesus finally mentioned as well.

Is that the typical formula for evangelism that we tend to use today? No. Right?

This is what N .T. Wright is pointing out in his video. So let's go back to his comments.

Some have therefore concluded that this speech represents something Luke wants to do or say, but without much historical reference to Paul himself.

And some have seen the speech rather as an essay in natural theology in which one might begin with symbols in the culture rather than with Scripture or with Jesus and try to fit the gospel into that culture rather than have the gospel address the culture with a fresh word.

And that has been contentious, partly because it's not at all clear that that is what Paul is doing and partly because that approach to theology is itself highly controversial.

And that's true. Christians have argued over Paul's speech and how that informs our own methods of evangelism today.

So for example, you'll have on one side of the fence reformed presuppositionalist types, right?

And then on the other side of the fence, you'll have, what would you say? Classical or evidentialist types.

And they'll both be looking at Paul and try to argue that his speech reinforces their own method of engaging non -believers.

So while some have said that all this represents Luke, not Paul, others have suggested that perhaps Paul tried a bit of natural theology and the resurrection at Athens, and obviously it didn't work.

So when he went to Corinth, he took a radically different line. And as he says in 1 Corinthians 2,

I determined to know nothing in my dealings with you except Jesus the Messiah, especially his crucifixion.

Result, lo and behold, Paul stayed in Corinth much longer and established a thriving church.

That's kind of an easy superficial reading. In other words, Paul tried an approach at the

Areopagus that he ultimately disagreed with later. And then he shifted tactics by the time that he got to Corinth.

All right. So that's one view of Paul by looking at Acts 17 and other places. I don't think that's the case. And I don't think

Wright believes that either. Let's knock that suggestion on the head before we go on. When Paul actually summarizes his gospel in 1

Corinthians 15, he stresses the whole thing, the Messiah, his death, his burial, and particularly his resurrection.

There is no either or between Calvary and Easter, either evangelistically or theologically.

And we must note, as we were discussing in a previous session, that a good deal of Acts, including the important early speeches, likewise focuses on the resurrection with only brief statements about the cross.

So this speech isn't actually out of line in that respect at least. One more serious misconception to put aside as we begin.

Many people have supposed that the Areopagus was a kind of philosophical debating society. Luke has just mentioned in verse 18 that Paul had been arguing with the

Stoics and Epicureans in the marketplace, and it's been assumed that this address is Paul's attempt to put his own position in that debate.

Well, there are indeed philosophical arguments going to and fro here, as we shall see, but the Areopagus wasn't a debating society.

It was a law court. It was the highest court in Athens, composed of leading citizens, founded, according to legend, jointly by the god

Apollo and by Athens' own tutelary deity, the goddess Athene. Okay, I'm glad he pointed this out.

Like I said, I've preached on Acts 17. And well, just as an aside, a preacher, as a preacher, you have to make certain decisions of like what to leave in and what to leave out.

So the thrust of the message that you're bringing to the fore takes precedence for the congregation. Okay, so I've never had a chance to talk about this before, but I'm happy to now.

Wright's correct. A lot of people believe that the Areopagus was just another marketplace, you know?

It was another agora where people would come and engage philosophical and religious ideas.

But wait a second, they already had that space. It was the agora, right? No, the

Areopagus was probably more like a court. And Paul was brought there not because of guilt or charges that they were bringing against him, but because this was meant to be an open inquiry.

Think of something like the Senate or congressional hearings where people are subpoenaed to come and answer questions.

This was probably what Paul was facing. Look closer at his specific address to the court in verse 22.

Paul says this, men of Athens, and then he goes on, right? Men of Athens, people of Athens, right?

Paul is addressing this court, which represents the city and its culture. But the question is, why?

Why was he invited there? Well, the clues are back in verse 16 and 18. Okay, take a look at this.

While Paul was waiting, his spirit was provoked within him. Why? Because he saw that the city was full of idols.

Now, some of the philosophers, they were talking to him, and they were saying things because he was preaching

Jesus and the resurrection. Paul's problem is idolatry. That's what he's seeing in this city.

So what do you think he's saying at the Agora to the philosophers, right?

Think about that. Whatever he's saying, it's something about their idolatry, right?

I think what he was saying at the Agora tracks along what he says at the Areopagus. I think his speech at the

Areopagus is essentially whatever it was that he was saying in the marketplace. So we can just put these pieces together now.

But Paul was telling the Athenians that their gods were illegitimate. And it caught the attention of the city, which then led to his standing before the

Areopagus court. Now, it wasn't illegal at the time to look at what's happening and question the legitimacy of the

Greek gods, okay? But it was still socially unacceptable to do, right?

We have to remember, Athens has a checkered past with this kind of a thing, okay?

There was another man from Athens several hundred years prior to Paul who also questioned the religious tradition, who also questioned the gods, but he was killed for it.

His name was Socrates. Socrates was put on trial for going to the

Agora, where Paul eventually went. And Socrates was condemned to death for allegedly corrupting the youth and denying the existence of certain gods and even positing the existence of new gods or something, right?

Now, fast forward hundreds of years, and here comes Paul essentially doing something very similar in the same place.

The Athenians want to know what the heck is going on. So, you know, anyway, it's a little bit of history there.

And I just think it helps to bring in the proper perspective when thinking about Paul's speech here.

Its name means hill or rock of Ares, Ares being the Greek version of the Roman god of war, Mars, hence the frequent translation

Mars Hill. The craggy hill in question is a mile or so to the west of the Acropolis, which is the largest hill in the city center, on which to this day you see

Athena's great temple, the Parthenon, and sundry other temples and other buildings. There are debates as to whether in Paul's day, the court actually met on Mars Hill or somewhere closer to the middle of town, but the point is that it was indeed a court, not a discussion group.

The court in question, the Areopagus, had been set up initially to try the most serious cases, including capital ones.

Its first defendant was the legendary Orestes, who was on trial for avenging his father

Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra. The point here, anyway, is that Paul is being put on trial.

So when in verse 19, Luke... Well, now, that's disputed, actually.

So, you know, others would disagree with Wright and point out that this was more of an informal inquiry, right?

Potentially, depending on how Paul performed, I mean, that could have led to more serious charges, but at the time of his speech, this was nothing too serious.

And I actually agree. I think that view is correct. I don't agree with Wright. Says that they took him up to the

Areopagus. The Greek word epilambano means to seize or arrest. It certainly wasn't about Paul being invited to give a learned paper at next week's seminar.

That's a funny line. Again, it depends on what these words mean in their context, okay?

But notice, what does not happen, as far as Luke records, is a formal charge of any kind.

And after Paul gives his speech, he leaves, apparently of his own free will. So was this an arrest?

That seems more harsh of a term. That's why earlier I was using the word subpoena as a kind of analogy or illustration or whatever.

I think that's closer to what happened to Paul. Having said that, I could be wrong about that.

So, you know, take what I say with a grain of salt. It's fascinating to ponder. You know what I mean, right?

Just get into the history of all this stuff. Am I the only one that finds this interesting? Does this interest you at all? Let me know in the comments below.

All right. So why the fuss? What is the charge? And how does it relate to the charges that were leveled at Paul in Philippi and Thessalonica and later in Corinth and Ephesus?

In verse 18, we hear the reaction of the Athenians to what Paul has been saying in the marketplace. He seems to be preaching foreign divinities.

At one level, this seems trivial. They heard him banging on about Jesus and Anastasis, and they assumed that Anastasis resurrection might be a new goddess, perhaps

Jesus's spouse. Well, Paul sorts that one out at the end of his speech, but the point, as we saw earlier, was that ancient towns and cities, though playing host to many gods and goddesses, distrusted the import of foreign gods.

That might mean political subversion, bringing in a new divinity who might try to take over, undermining the social fabric with its tightly woven religious elements.

Remember the shout in Thessalonica that Paul and Silas were turning the world upside down, teaching Judean customs, claiming that there was another king called

Jesus. Think ahead to Ephesus, where the focus of the riot is that Paul and his friends are proving a threat to the local goddess

Artemis. And with dark irony, when Paul gets back to Jerusalem, he's accused of polluting the temple there.

So again, I think you're seeing the slight difference in interpretation between Wright and others, including myself.

So Wright thinks this was a more serious formal visit to the court. I think it was less serious.

The point is, the Areopagus does appear to set the stage for Paul's other official court appearances.

Moving forward in the book of Acts, you'll notice Paul enters into a series of civil troubles that brings him in front of a number of different courts.

Okay? And Paul's goal was never simply to be a gadfly, you know, his goal was to spread the gospel.

That's why he said this to Agrippa in Acts 26. And Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.

He was there for the gospel of Jesus Christ, plain and simple. And I think there are some principles here that help us think through what it looks like to share the gospel today.

And I'll talk about that in a moment. By the way, I'm using my Logos Bible app to read the Bible with you. If you've been on the fence about Logos, you know, they've made it even easier to use.

Now you can jump onto a monthly subscription fee and gain access to excellent commentaries and resources all at your fingertips.

For more on this, as well as my list of recommended reading, go to logos .com forward slash wise disciple. We're picking up a regular theme.

Back in Athens, the city's most famous trial was that of Socrates in 399 BC. Socrates was charged with impiety and corrupting the young.

The chief evidence against him was that he didn't acknowledge the city's official gods. And here it is.

He was introducing new divinities. Time for the hemlock, Socrates. So we must read verse 19 differently.

This isn't an innocent inquiry with the officials merely asking, can you please explain what you're talking about?

It's a suspicious, perhaps sneering, half accusation. Are we able to know what this new teaching of yours is all about?

And the answer is yes. Okay, so that's the end of that video.

And I think it's actually a nice setup for us because I want to show you what I think Paul was doing with the

Athenians at the Areopagus. I'm not entirely sure I got that from right.

Maybe there's another part to that video. But here's what I'm convinced. I'm convinced that we can do what he did today with our own circles of influence.

Amen. So let's go back and take a look at the text. But this time around, I want us to put on our

Ben Franklin glasses. Okay, you know what I'm talking about? Did you ever see National Treasure with Nicolas Cage, right?

He has to put on the glasses of Benjamin Franklin. And then you can see the hidden messages in ancient documents.

That's what I want us to do right now. I want us to see something that's not obvious at first glance.

Okay, there is a grid here in Acts chapter 17 that actually shapes

Paul's gospel message. All right, let's call it the gospel grid. This grid consists of four universal categories.

They are identity, purpose, suffering, and redemption. This is how

Paul communicates the gospel to the Greeks. It's why I think we don't see the normal formula that we're familiar with in the 21st century.

It's because Paul has taken this grid of universal categories, and he's really put it on top of his speech in such a manner that the

Athenians, their beliefs are challenged, you know? And it actually leads to the gospel for them to really consider it.

Now, watch how this breaks down in the text. The first category is identity, and it's found in verse 22.

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

Okay? Paul's saying, hey, I see that your identity is rooted in your religion, and I'm acknowledging that out loud.

Who you are rests in that, in your religion. You're very religious in all respects. Okay, file that away.

Identity is now on the table. Now, let's look at purpose. Look at verse 23. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship,

I also found an inscription to the unknown God.

Okay? Stop right there. Paul is talking about how the Greeks expressed their identity. Remember, their identity is rooted in their religion.

So, how do they express their identity? Through their worship. Their purpose surrounds worshiping these false gods.

And the Greeks were really good at it. So, if you were a visitor to Athens in the first century, you would be surrounded by a smorgasbord of false gods.

It would be incredibly hard to ignore. And again, Paul is acknowledging that out loud to them.

Okay? I see your identity, and I see your purpose. But then watch this. The next thing

Paul points out is that there's a huge problem. They've rooted their identity in their religion. They've centered their purpose on their identity, and now there's a big problem.

Look at the second half of verse 23. What therefore you worship as unknown, this

I proclaim to you. Imagine a group of thinkers that prided themselves on their intellect.

Right? They wrote poetry about it. They developed an entire culture around the elevation of their own intellect.

And then Paul walks in. And basically, he just calls them ignorant to their faces.

You know what I mean? Imagine their reaction. So look at it. This is from the NASB, verse 23.

Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. Okay?

By the way, everything that he's saying, it's all part of Paul's plan. He's telling them that they have a huge problem.

The problem is of ignorance, and it's actually keeping them from intellectual enlightenment, which is a huge deal for the Athenians, by the way.

So in other words, he's turning the knife very methodically where it hurts. Right?

And because of their ignorance, they're not fulfilling their purpose or their identity. They're actually suffering from this ignorance.

Remember, their identity is rooted in their religion. And so Paul is saying, you guys are religiously ignorant.

That's a humongous slap to the face. Right? You see that? So we have these categories on the table, right?

Identity, purpose, suffering. And then finally, Paul moves to the category of redemption.

Now he takes a few verses. This is verses 24 to 29. I'll just sum them up. He basically explains the history of humanity, right?

God made all things. And from one man, he made all of mankind. And he made mankind with a purpose to seek him, to seek

God. But guess what? God doesn't live in temples and he's not served by human hands. Oops.

That means the Greeks have a huge problem. This problem of religious ignorance. And then in verse 30,

Paul shows them how the problem can be solved. It's redemption. Look at this. The times of ignorance.

There it is again. 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. In other words, the problem of suffering from religious ignorance that has led to the

Athenians' inability to fulfill their identity and their purpose. This problem can be redeemed. But they need to repent.

They can't keep going the way they're going. They need to completely turn from their false idolatrous ways and go in a completely opposite direction.

And they need to do that because God is going to judge the whole world through Jesus. Time is of the essence.

And while there's still time, the Greeks, they need to repent. Okay. So let's stop.

Let's take a step back, right? Again, identity, purpose, suffering, redemption. It's all there as a grid on top of Paul's speech here.

The question is, why did Paul do it this way? Why did he follow this trajectory?

And the answer is because he knew something about the gospel that we need to remember today. Listen to me now.

We don't need to try and fit the gospel into someone's story. Everyone's story already fits into the gospel.

Think about that. See, I'm afraid a lot of us, we tend to look at sharing the gospel like we're stuck in an escape room.

An escape room with no doors of communication. And so we're just kind of wandering around, feeling around the walls.

Like, how do we find the right door to open up communication to share the gospel? That's the wrong way to look at it, ladies and gentlemen.

We're not invading someone else's story with the gospel. No, we're simply showing people that their story already fits into the gospel.

That's what Paul did. Paul looked at a foreign culture, never heard of Jesus, living their lives in their own way.

And he showed them that what they're doing already fits into his gospel message.

And all those categories that Paul was laying out in his speech to the Greeks, they all find their fulfillment in Christ.

You remember when Marvel used to make good movies, right? Those were the days, right?

I remember when I initially went to the theater, I saw Iron Man for the very first time, right?

We saw the first few movies, Iron Man, Thor, what was it, Captain America, whatever, right? We didn't realize what was going on.

Marvel made a bunch of films over a stretch of like 10 to 12 years. And then they connected them all together, right?

We didn't know this until we started watching the end credits from the movies. And then we realized, oh, wow, each character in one of these standalone films lives in the same world as all the other characters and films.

They call this the Marvel universe, right? And so what that meant was

Iron Man had to face the same battle that Captain America and everybody else had to face as well.

All the other characters had to wrestle with the same ultimate overarching story that comes to a head in the final

Avengers movies. Likewise, friends, everyone on the planet lives inside one grand overarching story inside one universe, you can call it the gospel universe.

And so our task as Christians is not to convince someone to leave their movie, to abandon their story and then jump to an entirely different movie universe.

Because again, I mean, if that's how we think about it, if that's how we approach this, then we'll find it difficult to talk about the gospel.

Oh man, like, you know, how do I start off a conversation about Jesus Christ, right?

How many of you have struggled like that before? And then we fumble our way through, or worse than that, we don't even say anything.

We become silent at a time when we should boldly proclaim the gospel. Friends, listen to me.

Our task in sharing the gospel is much more simple. All we need to do is show folks that the gospel is their universe.

Everyone lives inside the world of the gospel already. Because the gospel is the story of the whole world.

Whether you're a believer or a non -believer, it's the story of all of reality. Once you understand your job as a communicator of the

Christian faith, as an evangelist and a disciple maker, then I think that you can also see, golly, there's so many different doorways and pathways to the gospel in conversation.

It's all around us, actually. Basically everything in a person's life, whether it be their desires or their goals or their failures, right?

Even the material possessions that they have. It all exists inside the world that God has made.

And guess what? The world is dying to understand the true story of reality.

Having said that, I mean, there's something else to consider as well. Just because folks are in desperate need of hearing the gospel and understanding it, it doesn't mean they will be receptive to it, all right?

There are a number of reasons why people reject the gospel. And I think the most obvious one is they don't want it to be true, okay?

So people are going to dismiss you and a lot of them are going to get argumentative if you come at them with a message that they don't want to hear, right?

This has probably already happened to you a few times, right? Especially on social media, some folks immediately,

I don't know, they just get upset when they hear certain words like God, Jesus, the Bible, sin, right?

Well, if we know the big idea and we see that a lot of people shut down when we start talking about God, then let me go back to this, right?

Let me go back to this fundamental thing, Paul's gospel grid in Acts 17.

Let me remind you the four categories, identity, purpose, suffering, and redemption. Just like Paul, I am convinced that we can use these categories as a guide to shift our own conversations back to the gospel.

The reality is, friends, the apostle Paul knew all of this. I do not believe that he stood in front of the

Greeks and he said what he said in Acts 17 in the way that he said it with no game plan whatsoever. He knew what he was doing.

He understood that the Greeks, as well as all people, live in the world that God has made. We need to have his perspective.

Our goal is to show folks that the gospel is their universe. And we do so by noting the four categories, by sprinkling our conversations with specific questions designed to highlight those categories, and then set the stage for some excellent conversations in the name of Christ and of his gospel.

Amen? All right. Well, what do you think about all of this? Has Paul provided us a helpful way to share the gospel in our own circles?

Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to get your thoughts. But listen, listen, listen, keep going with this.

Okay? This video is going to be over in a second. But if you want to figure out a way to develop your skills and asking the right kinds of questions,

I've got the very thing for you. I need you to go check out my Patreon and look at my signature method of communicating the

Christian faith. It's called First State Evangelism, and it's going to help you navigate conversations in your own circles so that you can essentially do what

Paul did at the Areopagus, but easily and effectively. Jump into any support tier and that training will be available for you in my collections tab.

Hey, friends, God will bless your interactions with others. He will. So be thoughtful like Paul and pray that God gives you favor as you obey him.