The Acts of the Apostles 67
Subtitle: The Unknown God
Acts 17:16-23. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 2, 2024.
Today, our problem is not that God is unknown, but that we have not taken time to know the God who is now known. However, in first-century Athens, the One True God was all but known to them.
Athens was full of idolatry, temples and shrines. We are not sure who made the first idols, but we do know that false gods were part of the Tower of Babel. The people of the earth were rebelling against the instructions of God to Noah and his sons. They built a city and a tower called Babel, which means “gate of god” or “a god gate.” Since they are in rebellion to the One True God’s instructions, we know they are attempting to connect with fallen “gods,” which are not really gods.
They end up being judged by Yahweh and scattered through the confusing of their languages. He also casts them off and gives them over to those spiritual beings that they were seeking. He then turns to Abram and proceeds to make a new nation for Himself.
Being cast off is a theme within the Old Testament. Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden eastward. Cain was later cast out even further east. This is most likely the reason for the orientation of the Temple of God. It has him seated in the temple looking to the East awaiting the return of His wayward children. Of course, the Holy Spirit is out there working on the hearts and minds of the lost to bring them back.
It is in this environment that the nations develop false religions that involve idols and sacrifices to spiritual beings that are actually demons, and or, fallen spiritual beings. Most likely, these are the result of the “doctrine of demons” talked about in Scripture. False religion and idolatry is not truly religion. It is actually a permission system that allows spiritual beings to manipulate and control the individual. If enough people follow these systems, then they can manipulate whole cities, nations, even a whole world. Remember this. When Jesus came, it wasn’t just the Gentiles who were completely manipulated by these fallen spiritual beings. Even Israel had been corrupted and harnessed to do the work of these beings. Yet, these spiritual beings are merely creations of God who are in rebellion to Him.
Let’s look at our passage.
The Gospel comes to Athens (v. 16-21)
Paul had left Silas and Timothy in Berea and sailed 300 miles south to Athens. It appears that he planned to wait for them.
Athens was home to the Acropolis, a raised area within Athens that had the Parthenon, a large temple to the false goddess Athena (for which the city is named). To the northwest was a smaller, rocky hill that was called the Areopagus (Greek for Mar’s Hill). The Areopagus was an open-air forum for the philosophers of Athens. They would gather there to present new idea and to debate.
While Paul is waiting for Silas and Timothy, he notices the heavy idolatry and false religion that it has. Of course, this is no surprise for a city named after a false goddess. Yet, let’s recognize that Paul preferred to minister with other people, rather than doing so alone. We could imagine the help of the gifts of the Holy Spirit through others. We could also imagine the encouragement in ministry when one labors with other believers. Still, Paul’s default is to minister in groups, as opposed to going solo.
We are told that the city was “given over to idols.” The words give the picture of being covered in idols, or inundated with idols. They were everywhere he looked. There were not only temples to the various gods that were recognized by the Greeks, but there were also shrines to these gods throughout the city to enable convenience in worshiping these false gods.
We are told that Paul was “provoked” by this heavy idolatry. He is not provoked to anger. Perhaps, if he saw such in Jerusalem, there would be cause for righteous anger. This is a provocation to action that would be similar to waiting for the EMTs to arrive while noticing that the wounded person is bleeding out in front of you. You would be provoked to action.
Such spiritual provocation is an evidence of the Holy Spirit within us. These people have been lost for centuries, even millennia. They are in dire straits and desperately need the good news about Jesus the Christ.
Have we become so anesthetized to the sin of the world around us that it no longer provokes us to action? Is it not a big deal to the Church anymore? We should desire and pray for the Holy Spirit to provoke within us a heart for those who are lost. We need to have enough of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit within us that we cannot help but be provoked to evangelism.
Thus, Paul begins preaching Jesus. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but something had to be done. He was alone as a human being, but the Lord Jesus was with him through the Holy Spirit. Paul first goes to the synagogue and reasons with the Jews and the Gentile God-fearers that were there. However, he was also going into the marketplace each day and reasoning with the people there.
I love the phrase in verse 17, “those who happened to be there.” Have you ever just happened to be somewhere, whether for good or for bad? Perhaps, it was just the normal day that they went to the market, or perhaps, something had happened to change the day, delay the time, etc. Regardless, some people “just happened” to meet a man named Paul in the marketplace, and he struck up a conversation with them. Such coincidental meetings are not by accident. The intersection of a Spirit-filled believer’s life with the lost is never by chance. God works through such “chance” meetings. We need to be quick at recognizing this.
At this point, several philosophers run into Paul. Philosophers love to talk, to hear themselves talk, and to hear new ideas. Luke mentions two different philosophical schools that he interacted with: the Epicureans and the Stoics.
The Epicureans were materialists who saw happiness as the highest goal in life. Though this meant they were into the pleasures of the flesh, they also recognized that such pursuits in excess always led to diminished happiness. Thus, they promoted a moderated pursuit of pleasures that involved self-restraint.
The Stoics are best known for their great control under pressure. Someone could be screaming and spitting in their face, and yet, they would remain calm, cool and collected. They valued self-control, wisdom, justice, and courage.
Luke mentions two different responses to Paul by these philosophers. Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?” This is a negative response. “Babbler” was a term that referred to a small bird that would flit around the marketplace grabbing seed and food from whatever happened to fall on the ground. When used of a person like Paul, it pictured him as a guy who traveled around and had gathered a large amount of curious ideas from other places. He is not an original thinker, or the adept of a particular philosophical school. He is just like that little bird picking up whatever has happened to fall in front of him. They are clearly dismissively putting him down.
The second response is just on the positive side of zero. They believed him to be proclaiming some foreign gods. Thus, they wanted to hear more of what Paul was talking about. A marketplace is not conducive to learning about new things, so they invite Paul to the place in town where such ideas could be heard and debated, the Areopagus.
However, notice that verse 18 ends with this, “because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” Paul did not change his message because he was in Athens. He doesn’t water-down the message to make it more appealing to them. He was telling them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
We must never lose sight that all people need to hear about Jesus. We can debate with people on the demerits of idolatry and false religions, but more than this, they need to hear about Jesus and what he has done for them. No matter what culture the person you address comes from, the Gospel of Jesus has a way of cutting through to the heart of them all. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus hits home on the great questions of life that all cultures can understand, even though the noise of that culture can make it hard to hear the truth.
Paul preaches at the Areopagus (v. 19-23)
We won’t get into the meat of Paul’s sermon today. I will leave that for next week. However, let’s recognize that God gives Paul the opportunity to address some of the most important thinkers of Athenian society, and Paul doesn’t hold back.
If you are worried about what gives you the authority to stand up within foreign cultures and call them to believe on Jesus, then understand this. We are authorized by Jesus who has been given all authority over the heavens and the earth. We don’t force people as individuals, nor do we seek to use the power of government to force the masses to conversion. No amount of force upon the flesh can change the heart of a person. Christians are not to operate in the power of the flesh, but rather, to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul first points out their high degree of religiosity. Cities like Athens would have temples for each of the main gods of their pantheon, along with multiple shrines throughout the city for convenience. This would be multiplied greatly in the cities that had a long history of rich commerce, and military stability. Paul is not really complimenting them, but they most likely took it that way, at least at first.
Instead, Paul is trying to connect with their mindset. He had been doing some reconnaissance while waiting for Silas and Timothy. He noticed that they were so religious that they even had an altar with the inscription, “To the Unknown God.” Apparently, six to seven hundred years earlier, a plague had come upon the city. The elders were perplexed at what to do. A man named Epimenides counseled them to release a flock of sheep. Wherever the sheep would stop, they would then be sacrificed at the nearest temple or shrine. Of course, some of these sheep did not stop within town and went into the country. These were then sacrificed to “the unknown god,” in the hopes that it would be accepted as a humble entreaty. The plague came to an end, and sacrificing to “the unknown god” became a part of Athenian culture.
Paul uses this to gain a better hearing from them. They clearly do not know about Yahweh. Yahweh is not just the God of Israel. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and everything that is within them. He tells them that he plans to reveal who this God is that they have been ignorantly trying to worship. Sometimes, it is better to find a place of common ground that can serve as a vehicle for gaining a hearing and delivering the truth. We should not “find common ground” in order to dilute the Gospel. This is not what Paul is doing.
In the end, no one can come to faith in Jesus, but by the help of the Holy Spirit. Thus, a brute-force attack on people and their ideas is generally not effective. It just riles up their flesh, which is already hostile to the things of the Spirit of God. Paul is led by his love for Jesus, and the love that Jesus has for these Greeks.
There were good reasons why these Athenians didn’t know the One True God. Their ancient fore-fathers had rebelled against Him at the Tower of Babel. Even following their judgment, they refused to repent and wait for God’s salvation. Rather, they cast off restraint and were led by demons into false religion and idolatry. Later generations would be born into darkness without any true idea about how these religions had come about in the first place. The truth of these false religions is that they are permission systems that enable spiritual beings to manipulate whole societies.
Notice verse 21. “For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” We are not much different today. Our culture is always seeking something new. With the rise of the internet, we are able to drop into the modern equivalents of the Areopagus and hear all the latest and greatest trinkets from around the world. In truth, we can become the babblers that the philosophers accused Paul of being. We have become a people trapped in our sins and trapped within philosophies that do not give us the truth, but rather, give us a lie.
Instead of being a person trapped in bondage to sin and to philosophies, Jesus calls us to be a free person used by the Holy Spirit to set such slaves free. May God strengthen our hearts to rise up courageously in this generation to share the Good News about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and what it means for our future!