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Reading Acts 17:16-21 where Paul comes to Athens and is provoked by the idolatry to preach the gospel, and the Epicureans and the Stoics are bewildered by this. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Apostle Paul came to Athens, full of Greeks who desired to know something new. What he said to them might have been new to them at the time, but it's old words that we need to come back to in the Gospel, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.
Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Book of Acts, we've been in Chapter 17, reading about Paul's second missionary journey. We have read of him going through Thessalonica and then Berea, and at last here, he comes to the capital Greek city of Athens.
I'll start reading in verse 16. Let me go all the way to verse 34. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. And also, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.
Some were saying, what would this idol babbler wish to say? Others were saying, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities, because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which you are speaking?
For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God.
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
For in him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are his offspring. Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man.
Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, through a man whom he determined, having furnished proof to all, by raising him from the dead.
Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, we shall hear you again concerning this. In this way Paul went out of 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.
And that is the conclusion of chapter 17. We will not get to Paul's sermon until next week, when I do the New Testament study on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We will look at the sermon that Paul delivered at the Areopagus, and spend those three days just studying that sermon.
For right now, we have kind of this introduction to Paul's sermon, the time that he is spending there in Athens, and the little bit of preaching that he was doing at the marketplace before he was then brought to the Areopagus.
So we're looking at verses 16 to 21 today. And one of the things that I want to tie this into is what's stated in verse 21. This is actually a parenthetical reference, depending on the translation that you're reading.
But it's said there in verse 21, all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer. There's a lot of that that's going on in our culture today.
There is that desire and that clamoring for something new. At the same time, we may also encounter people who want to hear of old things. So we'll consider that also. But this is what Paul encountered while he was in Athens, and I think we'll find many similarities with the way our own culture lives and behaves, even in the church in America today may act like this as well.
So coming back to verse 16, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. Now, let me ask you, does your spirit get provoked by that as well?
Do you look around at what is going on in the culture and is your spirit provoked within you? When you see in your own community and your own city, you see a bunch of idols. Now, the idols in our culture may manifest themselves in many different ways.
We may see like just clear examples of idols. I'll give you an example of this. So it's often said that it's only a primitive or ancient culture that will make these statues that resemble other gods and will then fall down and worship them.
Only a pagan or primitive culture would do something like that. And that is not our culture today. Oh, yes, it is. Now, we see that all around us, even within our culture. I'll go to five below. Are you familiar with that store?
So the whole point of that store is supposed to be that everything in the store is five dollars and below. Well, that was until we got to the pandemic in twenty twenty and twenty one. And then all of the inflation that has resulted from that.
And now any of those stores that were like Dollar Tree or five below that, that they're trying to advertise their prices on the sign. Now, when you go into them, Dollar Tree is not just stuff that's below a dollar, a dollar or less.
And five below is not just stuff that's five dollars or less. Now it's even more than that. So we don't even see dollar menus at fast food restaurants as much anymore, thanks to the inflation of all of these prices.
So it used to be that at five below, everything was five dollars or less. But that's not the case anymore. Anyway, at five below, they have idols. Like actual idols, you can buy Buddha statues or you can buy a statue of Ganesh, which is the Hindu god.
And you probably or at least the people who buy these idols, they probably treat them like a good luck charm. But even that's still idolatry. They still think some spirit exists out there that would be pleased with me having this idol in my home and I might get good karma.
Or some blessing from some spiritual entity out there, the Hindus may be on to something. And though I'm not a Hindu myself, I'm going to buy one of these Ganesh statues so that I can have a little more luck in my home.
That is it's just straight up idolatry. And it is exactly the way that these Greeks and even the pagans in the Roman Empire would behave in such ways. A little bit later on in Acts, we're going to get to Ephesus.
And one of the one of the hot things in Ephesus was making little statues of Diana or Artemis. And if you bought one of those little statuettes, it would be like having Diana or Artemis in my home. And there's going to be some blessing that will come to me as a result of that.
So just like they did this in ancient times. So you have the same thing that would happen today. People would buy these little good luck charms and believe that there is some spiritual blessing that they get as a result of that or even material blessing through the spirits that they think that they are honoring.
Now, here's another one is all of the different Roman Catholic symbols that you can find in the culture and even in people's homes. Now, I live in southern Arizona, Casa Grande, Arizona. And there was a friend of mine who was hosting a Bible study in his house.
My family went over to his house. And when we came in, there is a little there's like this thing that's been made in the entryway. It's this arch inset in the wall. And they just had like a few greeting items in their family pictures and whatnot.
And when we walked in and I saw that, I guess I made some sort of gesture at it, kind of snickered or something like this. And he said, yeah, you know, we just kind of use this to put our family photos in or something.
I really don't even know why this is. Here, why it's set so high up above everything, it seems rather out of place. Why would an architect make the decision to put something like this in the house? And I said to him, well, because the point is to create a shrine there.
That is the reason why it's made that way. And usually the shrine that gets put in this little arch cavity that's made in the entrance of the home, usually what gets put in there is a statue in a shrine to Mary.
And this is very common in our part of the world because we are really close to the Mexican border. That is a heavily Roman Catholic country. And so when you have people that would move from Mexico into the United States and they would settle in these new homes, these new developments that have been built around in our community, they would want something like that in the house, probably incorporated that in into the design plans so that they could have their little Mary shrine or probably even a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe that they would pray to her and light candles to her, thinking that some sort of blessing is coming to them because they're praying to who they believe to be Jesus' mom, even though that's not really who they're praying to.
So we see this kind of idolatry that happens in our culture all the time, whether it's just straight up pagan or there are people who believe they are being Christian in their acts of idolatry. It's still idol worship.
And Paul's heart is provoked when he is walking along in Athens and he sees all of these these signs of worship all around him. Now, this is going to play into the sermon that he is going to preach there at the Areopagus, because the way that he starts that sermon is saying this is verse 22.
Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. We can see around us that we do live among a religious people, and it doesn't matter how secular you may think the culture is becoming.
Certainly there is a growing secularism, but there is still a lot of spirituality. We live among a people who are a very religious people, and may our hearts be provoked to want to share the gospel with them.
Hopefully that desire for religion is a door that we can step through. Apologetically, so that we can help to turn their gaze away from their idols and to the Lord Jesus Christ. It becomes an opportunity for us to share the truth of who really gives eternal life.
And that is Jesus, who gives us spiritual fulfillment, who makes the way for us to God. It's through faith in Christ. That's exactly what Paul is going to get to when he preaches there at the Areopagus.
But for now, as he's walking along and he's seeing these objects of worship, his spirit is being provoked that these people would turn from their idols to the Lord Jesus Christ. I had read to you earlier this week when we were reading about Paul and Thessalonica at the start of this chapter, how Paul says of them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, I believe it's verse 9, the testimony of you has gone out everywhere, how you turn from your idols to worship the true and the living God.
And Paul is desiring to see that work of the spirit happen here in Athens as well. So in verse 17, he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews, just like we saw in Thessalonica, just like we saw in Berea.
So Paul is doing here in Athens. Also, he is going into the synagogue, reading the scriptures and showing how Jesus is the Christ. And he's reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles.
So you have some Gentiles who have been convinced of the truth of Yahweh, the Hebrew God is the true God. And they would listen to the law. They had heard the testimony of Moses and of the other prophets and of the wisdom books.
They would listen to these things being read in the synagogue. And so they have become God fearers. Paul is showing to them that the Messiah that's been spoken about in the prophets is Jesus. Jesus is the one who has fulfilled all of these prophecies concerning the Messiah.
He who died and was buried and rose again is the one that we must believe in to have the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with God. He is building his kingdom through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So he is reasoning with him in the synagogue. But it says also in verse 17, he's going out into the marketplace and sharing these things with those who happen to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.
Some were saying, what would this idle babbler wish to say? Others were saying he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and of the resurrection.
Now, who are these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and what's with these questions that they were asking? Well, the reason why Luke mentions Epicurean and Stoic philosophers is because these represented the two most prominent philosophical teachings that were going on in Athens at the time.
And remember, Athens is a capital city of the Greeks. This was also a very influential cultural center in the Roman Empire, even though it's primarily Greek, very influential among Romans as well, though the city had experienced a significant population downturn.
At the time that Paul is there, there's probably only about anywhere from 25 to 50 thousand people that are living in Athens at the time. You might think of it as a major metropolitan area, but Thessalonica was probably bigger than Athens at this particular time.
Nonetheless, it's a major port city and it is a center of a lot of religion, a lot of religion. Since this was a place, many temples had been built. Of course, we read about the Areopagus, which was a place many statues of gods would have been positioned.
So this is the kind of influence that Athens has, but especially regarding philosophy. Now, what is Epicurean philosophy and what is Stoicism? Epicurus, who was the Greek philosopher for whom the Epicureans are named, Epicurus believed in finding happiness in simple things like the pleasure of philosophical conversation.
So Epicurus idea for happiness and the true meaning of life is is just having simple conversation or enjoying a glass of wine or enjoying a good meal. This was the kind of philosophy of the Epicureans.
They believe that all that exists is in these minuscule packets of of invisible matter. It's kind of like it's like atoms, atoms and molecules. But before atoms and molecules could be studied, before there were microscopes to study such things, they believe that there were these little tiny little pieces of matter and that made up everything that existed.
Even the human soul itself wasn't something spiritual, but was actually something material. And it would it would disintegrate upon death. There was not really an afterlife for people. Once they died, the soul just simply ceased to exist.
The gods exist in such a way that is so high and above us, we can't even really attain to the places where they live. So for us, when we die, the soul just becomes nothing. Death is therefore the cessation of existence.
So to get the most out of life, just enjoy the simple things. That was what the Epicureans taught. Well, how about the Stoics? Well, the Stoicism is not named after a guy named Stoic. That's a character in How to Train Your Dragon.
Stoicism was founded by a guy named Zeno, who believed that the meaning of life was freedom from suffering. So the more that you can reduce your suffering, the happier you will be. And suffering can be reduced or the or the reduction of suffering can be accomplished with the right kind of thinking.
Contrary to the Epicureans, the Stoics did believe that there was this omnipresent, rational soul that continued on in existence even when the body died. And the more knowledge that you stored up for yourself, the better that eternal existence would be.
Proper ethics required one to live in accordance with what was sound reason, putting off any irrational emotions or pursuing those things that may have brought physical pleasure for a while, but then ultimately did not lead to anything fulfilling.
One of the Greek philosophies of that time was hedonism, or that a person should seek immediate gratification. This was common from the Greek philosopher Aristippus, who taught these things. You just you just need to eat, drink and be merry.
That's what life is all about. That's how to find true happiness. If you have a desire for something, you need to fulfill it now. If you don't fulfill it now, that's just not that's just going to make you miserable.
So to avoid this misery, then store up for yourself the things that make you feel good. Well, the Stoics did not believe that at all, because something that was pointed out by the Stoics was, yeah, you try to to fulfill all your fleshly desires in this stuff.
How do you really feel about it? Once you have had your party, you feel pretty miserable about it, don't you? So this is obviously not the way to reduce suffering and have a more fulfilled life. These were the two most prevailing thoughts in Athens at the time, that which was taught by the Epicureans and the Stoics.
So even they are conversing with Paul, some saying, well, what is it that this idle babbler would wish to say? He's just babbling on about something. Let's listen to him. But I don't really I don't really think what he has to say is of much consequence.
And then another question being, well, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. Now, they already know that this is what he's talking about.
He's proclaiming about Jesus and the resurrection, even though when we get to this sermon, again, as we're going to study it next week, when we get to Paul's sermon at the Areopagus, the name of Jesus is never mentioned.
But that does not mean that Paul wasn't proclaiming Christ, because, of course, he says at the end of the sermon that God is going to judge everyone by one man that he has raised from the dead. That's the Jesus that he is talking about.
They know that he is proclaiming about Jesus, but they're they're not convinced by what he has to say. So they think, let's have him speak among the gods and then the gods will decide whether or not what this guy is talking about is truly from the gods.
So that's why they bring him to the Areopagus. Another name for Areopagus is Mars Hill. This is why you have churches founded that are called Mars Hill. The two most famous, or I should probably say infamous, was the church in Michigan that was led by Rob Bell.
He had a church that was called Mars Hill. And the one that was led by Mark Driscoll in Seattle, Washington, also called Mars Hill. Now, there were some similarities between Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell.
But since then, we have we've seen them quite diverge from one another. Mark Driscoll is still regarded as a sound teacher, even though he's not. He is a liar and a grifter. So he goes into whatever is popular and whatever is going to be the most advantageous for him.
Whereas Rob Bell has very clearly and obviously left the faith. It's, I think, easier for most people to discern that Bell is a wolf who's not even in sheep's clothing anymore. It's like he doesn't even present himself as a Christian anymore.
He's just a pagan muser. But these guys both had churches that were called Mars Hill, and that's named after this place that Paul comes to. Really don't think we need to be naming our churches after pagan places of worship.
But anyway, that is where the name comes from. So they bring him to the Areopagus to stand him among the gods and say, may we know what this new teaching is which you are speaking for you are bringing some strange things to our ears.
So we want to know what these things mean. And they think it will be easier to discern what he's talking about if he's preaching from the place of the gods. Now we get to this final statement that I opened with in verse 21, this parenthetical reference, which says that all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.
And this is something that we see happening even in the church today, that we want something new. We don't want to go back to the older traditional ways. Those things are old and stodgy. Show us something new.
But just as we examined with the Bereans yesterday, we still need to come back to the scriptures in all things and test everything according to what God has said in his word. My friends don't love something new beyond the old paths that we have been given in the word of Christ.
Come back to these day by day. Nothing new will ever show you more than what we need from the word of God. Know that this word is sufficient in all matters of saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. When it comes to wanting to know what is the meaning of life, well, even that is spoken about in the Bible, that we may know what it means to be children of God in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, among whom we are to shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of truth, holding out to them the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is what people need to be saved.
There are any number of topics and things that we can talk about, things that are happening in the culture today, are all worthy of discussion, but it still must always come back to the gospel. That is the power to save.
Faith in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. That is the most important message that we could share, and we must continually be coming back to this.
Even when Paul is standing among them at the Areopagus, he brings it back to the guy who died and rose again, for he is the one who will judge the world in righteousness. The only way to be saved is to have faith in Jesus.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and I pray that it is something that we continuously come back to. This never gets old for us. We are always learning something new about you, who you are, what you are doing in the world, even through the gospel of Jesus Christ that is being proclaimed.
So help us to love the gospel and share it with others, for it is only through the gospel of Christ that anyone is saved. As we have also read about in Acts, there is no other name in heaven or under it by which men can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ.
It is in his name that we pray, amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.