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Bibles to the book of Acts and 
chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. The next two Lord's Days we're going 
to have a look at Paul's proclamation of the living and true God before 
those Athenian pagans at the Areopagus. Before he gets to 
the Areopagus, he is in Athens. The Areopagus, of course, is 
in Athens. But he first comes to Athens, 
generally speaking, preaches in the synagogues and in the 
marketplace. And then he is brought to the 
Areopagus in order to elaborate upon, in order to expand upon, 
this Jesus and the resurrection that he has proclaimed in the 
synagogues and before Gentile worshipers in the synagogues. 
and as well to pagans in the streets of Athens, in the marketplace. 
Acts 17, or in Acts 17, specifically verse 16 to verse 34, we have 
the largest recorded sermon by the Apostle Paul in the book 
of Acts. It is his largest sermon. There 
are larger sermons than the Apostle Paul's here. Peter's on the day 
of Pentecost is a larger sermon. The godly Stephen in Acts 7 delivers 
a larger sermon. That doesn't mean that Paul's 
is somehow inferior or anything like that. But just to note, 
this is Paul's largest sermon in the book of Acts. And the 
sermon contains much of a remedy against the godless and mad religion 
of the pagans of Athens. He preaches strongly the triune 
God of heaven and earth over and against the pagan and idolatrous 
conceptions of deities that were rampant in the day. And this 
morning, we want to take up verse 16 to verse 21, and then next 
Lord's Day, Paul's sermon proper in verse 22 to verse 34. So I'm 
going to read the entirety of the section, Acts 17, beginning 
in verse 16 to the end of the chapter. Once again, this is 
the Word of God. Now, while Paul waited for them 
at Athens, His spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the 
city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the 
synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and 
in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. 
And some said, What does this babbler want to say? Others said, 
He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached 
to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought 
him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine 
is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange 
things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what 
these things mean. 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. Then Paul stood in 
the midst of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, I perceive 
that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing 
through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found 
an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Therefore, 
the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. God, who made the world and everything 
in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in 
temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands, 
as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, 
and all things. And He has made from one blood 
every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and 
has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their 
dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that 
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 
have our being, as also some of your own poets have said. 
For we are also His offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring 
of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like 
gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly these times of ignorance 
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 
because he has appointed a day on which He will judge the world 
in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given 
assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. And when they 
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while 
others said, we will hear you again on this matter. So Paul 
departed from among them. However, some men joined him 
and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named 
Damaris, and others with them." Amen. Well, let us ask God's 
blessing upon our remaining time. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, 
we rejoice now that we can engage in this act of worship, the preaching 
of the word. We would pray, Father, that you would help us now, that 
you would help preacher, that you would help hearer. We pray 
for that measure, that presence of your Holy Spirit in illuminating 
our minds and causing us to know with a greater earnest and with 
greater joy and with a greater apprehension the things of our 
blessed Savior, the things of our triune God, and that knowledge 
of the truth. And we just pray, Lord, that 
all of this, that we engage in with respect to the preaching 
of the Word. We do pray that it would be unto Your glory's 
sake. We pray that You would help us, not simply to leave 
this place having had our minds filled with a knowledge of the 
Word, but rather with that knowledge of the Word, we would contemplate 
it, we would roll it around, we would rejoice in it. and that 
we would just not leave it there, but that we would seek to live 
in light of it, and that you would strengthen us by your spirit 
to take this truth out into the world, that we might tell others 
of the riches, the excellencies of so great a Savior and Lord 
God, that we might conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel 
of Christ. So do be with us now, and might you be praised. In 
the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Once again, 
the Apostle Paul comes to Athens, and we didn't read the portion 
leading up to it, but you're familiar, no doubt, with the 
ministry in Berea, in Thessalonica. Paul leaves Timothy and Silas 
there, and at the outset of the verse that we read there, verse 
16, we note that Paul is waiting there for them. He's waiting 
for Timothy and Silas to come and to join him there. And while 
he is waiting, he's not vacationing. While he's waiting, he doesn't 
just go to the local watering hole to lubricate his pipes and 
wait for Timothy and Silas. But rather, what he does is, 
he engages in a proclamation of the living and true God in 
a defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ before these Athenian 
idolaters. And hopefully as a Christian, 
as you read this passage, and hopefully perhaps with the help 
or not with the help of the preacher, as we engage in preaching and 
we consider this passage, You're confronted in a wholesome way 
with the glory of God empowering a minister of the Gospel, this 
Jew from Tarsus, to proclaim the riches and the glories and 
the majesty of this God in the face of a people who had 30,000 
small g gods. Those who were just surrounded 
by more gods than people, to paraphrase one old philosopher. 
He comes with great power and with great beauty. The Apostle 
Paul defends the one and only living and true God in the face 
of the madness and the darkness and the folly of idolatry. Now, 
just very briefly before we get to two main things from verses 
16 to 21, just some introductory stuff with regards to the context. 
You know, Acts 17 doesn't come to us in a vacuum. Acts 17 is 
part of the Bible. And what is the larger context 
then with regards to Acts 17? What is in the background? Well, 
first off, if we're to back up in redemptive history, because 
remember, this is connected. In the Old Testament, we have 
the promise of the coming Christ. As that proto-evangelium, the 
first proto-gospel is delivered to Adam and to Eve in the garden, the skull-crushing seed of the 
woman would crush the head of the serpent. God's revelation 
builds upon that glorious promise of the coming Christ. And so 
there is an anticipation of this Christ that would come. Joined 
with the promise of the coming Christ, which remember, the Old 
Testament is not solely concerned with, but primarily concerned 
with. It is the scope of the whole. 
with that promise of the coming Christ, joined to it is the promise 
of Gentile inclusion in the covenant blessings of God. Remember that 
the Gospel or the promise of Christ is not just a promise 
that Israel would be blessed, though Israel would be blessed. 
It's not just a promise that the region of Judea and those 
sort of surrounding areas would be blessed, but it is a promise 
that this Christ would come to give deliverance to Israel and 
deliverance to Gentiles as well. the Savior of the Jews and the 
Savior of the Gentiles. So the promise of Christ, the 
promise of covenant blessings including Gentiles, and then 
we get to the New Testament and we see exactly that happening. Christ comes. in accordance with 
the promises. The promises were not vain, the 
promises were not empty, but that Christ promised in the Old 
Testament comes, and in the New Testament we have a record of 
the perfect fulfillment of those promises. And not only that, 
but the inclusion of Gentiles as promised in the Old Testament 
is realized in the pages of the New Testament. We have Christ 
coming, and He's coming as, yes, the Savior of the Jews, but also 
as a light shining in those dark places of Gentile madness. He calls Gentiles, and by His 
apostles as well, He calls Gentiles to faith in Him. He perfects, 
or he promises, rather, to build his church. Remember this in 
the back of your minds whenever you read through the book of 
Acts, whenever a preacher is preaching from the book of Acts, 
that the promise of Christ in Matthew 16 is foundational to 
the book of Acts. The Lord Jesus Christ promises, 
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail 
against it. The book of Acts comes and it 
is the unfolding, the opening up of the fulfillment of that 
promise that Christ would build his church. He promises, or after 
the His saving work, the perfection of His saving work, which is 
the crux of the matter of biblical revelation, His death upon Calvary's 
cross, and His subsequent revelation. We then have the immediate context 
in the book of Acts, the pouring out of the Spirit. These things 
are all connected, brethren. Remember that our Bibles come 
with them, or there's a particular character that our Bibles come 
delivered to us with. And one of those beautiful characters 
that attest to its divine inspiration and authority is the consent 
of all the parts. And not only the consent of every 
writer, ultimately the one divine author, yet those he superintends 
to bring these books to us and to the sons of men, All that 
they proclaim, all that they promise, and all that unfolds 
is connected. And so, in the book of Acts, 
we have the pouring out of the Spirit. Christ pours out, having 
ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, He pours 
out His promised Spirit, and He empowers ministers of His 
to go about and spread the Gospel for the growth of the Church. 
Remember, that growth that He promised. And so the book of 
Acts follows after a particular outline. Christ says, I will 
send you, my apostles, my disciples, out into the world, first to 
Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, then to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. There's Athens. So he sends them 
out, and he also says, I will give you my spirit. And to paraphrase, 
to empower. to arm, to equip you, to help 
you as you proclaim my gospel of saving grace. And then we 
have, of course, even more immediately in the context, the salvation 
of the Apostle Paul and his commissioning by Christ as an apostle of his. I want you just to turn with 
me before we then finally get back to our text, you can turn 
with me to Acts 26. Because this is the launching pad, if you 
will, for our consideration of the Apostle Paul bringing the 
gospel of saving grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to those Athenian 
idolaters in Acts 17. Notice in Acts 26, we have the 
Apostle Paul recounting his conversion and his call to the apostolate. 
Notice Acts 26, beginning in verse 12. While thus occupied 
as I journeyed, this is Paul speaking, as I journeyed to Damascus 
with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, 
O King, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter 
than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with 
me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice 
speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, 
why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against 
the goads. So I said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom 
you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, 
for I have appeared to you for this purpose. to make you a minister 
and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the 
things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from 
the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now 
send you to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness 
to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified 
by faith in Me." These words of the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere 
that Paul went, these words were the fuel that burned the fire 
of Gospel proclamation. As Paul went about to city after 
city in the Gentile world, as he would go into synagogues first 
to preach to the Jews when they by and large rejected him, he 
would then go to the Gentile places of discourse and discussion 
and all of those things, and he would do exactly what the 
Lord Jesus Christ here tells him to do. He says, I now send 
you to the Gentiles, verse 18, to open their eyes in order to 
turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to 
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. blessed commission of 
the Apostle Paul. And so now coming back to Acts 
17, we want to consider verses 16-21. With that in our background, 
the Apostle Paul is now, by the commission of Christ, making 
known the light of Christ to Gentiles in darkness, that they 
may turn from Satan to God and receive the forgiveness of sins. So the first thing that we want 
to do, or we're going to do two things with our remaining time, 
We're going to look at the preacher and the people. So there are 
two things, the preacher and the people. So first note, the 
preacher, and specifically the first sub-point here is his observation. The preacher is obviously the 
Apostle Paul. So what is his observation? Well, we have that in verse 16. Notice the preacher, the Apostle 
Paul, and his observation at Athens. Now, while Paul waited 
for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when 
he saw that the city was given over to idols. is a number of 
things we want to observe here, because this is very important, 
not only for our consideration of the Apostle Paul in his time 
and on this occasion, but also for us in our own day, as we 
no doubt traverse the earth, as we go about our various doings 
and travelings. And we're confronted with something 
perhaps not identical to this time and this Athens, but we 
have, if you will, our own Athens, where the world is marked by 
idolatry. The world is marked by those 
that will not have Christ. The world is marked by those 
who mock and scoff or say maybe we'll hear something with respect 
to this Jesus and the resurrection. Notice what we have here with 
regards to his observation. We have first the provocation 
of his spirit. Language here is quite clear. Now while Paul waited for them 
at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the 
city was given over to idols. What does this language mean, 
the spirit, his spirit was provoked within him? Well, first off, 
it doesn't mean that he just had a curmudgeonly repudiation 
of things deemed undesirable. You know, we can sometimes be 
marked in our humanity, we get sort of puffed up or ignorant 
in our own religiosity, and we can have this sort of curmudgeonly 
repulsion at anything that we just don't like. You know, we 
ought to have a wholesome repulsion, there ought to be a wholesome 
severity by which we react to idolatry and sinfulness, but 
very often we can have this grumpy, curmudgeonly response to anything 
that we just don't like. And that's not what the Apostle 
Paul is, that's not what he is gaining by this observation. 
When we read that the spirit, his spirit is provoked within 
him, that's not what it is. It is a wholesome and exemplary 
response to religious and ethical perversion. A wholesome and exemplary 
response to religious and ethical perversion. Because that's what 
the text says here. His spirit was provoked within 
him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. His 
anger is aroused. The language can also be used 
to speak to exasperation. Something so provokes the spirit 
to anger that one becomes exasperated. There is such a gross, in this 
context, abuse of idolatry that Paul's spirit is provoked. He 
is brought to a place of wholesome anger and indignation against 
the irreligion that he observes. You can turn with me to Judges 
2 for a moment. If you can find your way back 
to the book of Judges, we have something there in Judges 2 that 
is similar. And in this occasion, on the 
part of God Himself. See, this language of provocation 
in Acts 17, verse 16, is the same language that the Old Testament 
translation, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the 
Hebrew Old Testament, the same word is used with respect to 
God and in the same context, the context of idolatry. Notice 
in Judges 2, beginning in verse 11, Then the children of Israel 
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals, and 
they forsook They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who 
had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other 
gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. 
And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to 
anger. So you see, this instance of 
the Apostle Paul in Acts 17-16, he is following after that apostolic 
admonition, be holy for the Lord your God is holy. He is brought 
to this position of provocation. He is brought to a wholesome 
indignation because of idolatry. You know, instead of and the 
occasion is different or the instance is different. Not that 
the Athenians have an excuse because they absolutely do not. 
The Jews in the time of the judges knew better because they had 
been the recipients of the oracles of God. They were his covenant 
people. And they departed from Yahweh 
who had revealed himself to them, their covenant Lord. And they 
went a whoring after the Baals and the gods of the nations that 
surrounded them. Now the Athenians aren't off 
the hook here. Why? Because the heavens declare 
the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. 
The light of nature discloses that there is one and only living 
and true God who is to be worshipped, praised, trusted in, adored. and they, like the Jews, though 
in a little bit of a different way, heap to themselves all manner 
of gods, all manner of small-g gods who are no gods at all, 
to the exclusion, to the repudiation, to the rejection of the living 
and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So rightfully, the 
Apostle Paul is provoked in his spirit. It is a wholesome, an 
exemplary response to religious and ethical perversion. And what 
was the reason for it? We know in the context, and we're 
going to get there in a moment to the observance of the madness 
of idolatry, but perhaps we could observe a threefold part to his 
provocation. And the first is the glory of 
the one true God. You see, because what does idolatry 
do? It steals the glory of the one 
true God and ascribes it to all manner of, as the Book of Romans 
says, as the Apostle Paul himself writes in the Book of Romans, 
four-footed things, creatures, birds of the air, fish of the 
sea, men, anthropomorphic deities fluttering about in the stars. Those sorts of things are upon 
Mount Olympus. The glory of God is stolen away 
from the only one that is due glory and praise and honor, and 
it is transferred to created things. The glory of the one 
true God is in the background as Paul is receiving this provocation 
of spirit. He is provoked because he knows 
and has been made known by grace the glory of the one true God. 
You see, the glory of God is not to be cast away. It is not 
to be traded in for these small g gods who are no gods at all. The glory of the one and only 
living and true God in three persons, blessed Trinity, is 
cast off for these idols who are nothing. Secondly, what's 
the reason for this provocation? Well, the law of that one God. 
the law of that one God to whom and to whom only is glory due. 
The Apostle Paul is a student of the law of God. That law being 
a very reflection of God's own nature and character. And so 
when God commands, I am the Lord your God who brought you out 
of bondage in Egypt, when that one Lord God proclaims, me only 
or you shall only serve me and no other gods, we are to, people 
are to, take that seriously. And that was something of the 
source of this provocation. This one and only God who alone 
is to be glorified. His law is in view as well. The law of that one God. Not 
only that first word of the Decalogue, but the second word as well. 
You know, Paul walks into Athens, and maybe none of you have ever 
been to Athens. I haven't, so I can't speak from 
experience. When Paul walked into Athens, maybe we should 
just try and entertain what he might have cast his eyes upon 
while he's waiting for Timothy and Silas. He's looking at all 
of these edifices and statues and buildings and everything 
else, and while the modern mind is drawn to the beauty of architecture 
and the aesthetic perfection of Greco-Roman construction and 
all of those things, Paul was horrified. Paul was horrified 
because all of these edifices are bedecked with all of these 
creatures and gods and things of the darkness of idolatry. 
So he doesn't take out his camera and start snapping photos. Of 
course, he doesn't have one, but you get what I mean. Paul 
doesn't start sketching these beautiful edifices on papyri. No, he's horrified because what 
is it but it speaks to the madness and to the darkness of those 
who have traded the glory of the incorruptible God for four-footed 
things and things of our creation. the glory of the one true God 
and the law of that one God. Only that God are we to serve 
because He is the only living and true God. But secondly, we're 
not to make graven images. And remember, graven images does 
not just apply to, oh, we can't make graven images of the other 
gods, the pagan gods. We can't do that. But we're free 
to make images of the one living and true God. No. We're not. 
Remember the golden calf in the wilderness was not a pagan deity 
so-called, but they would say, this is Yahweh who redeemed us 
from out of Egypt. And they're judged for that. 
They're condemned for that. We are to make no graven images, 
whether of a deity of the nations, whether a deity of the pagans 
that surround us, or the one and only living and true God. 
That's why there are no images in this church, because we're 
commanded not to make them. The second commandment precludes, 
commands against the creation of any images of the living and 
true God. And you know, some of the reasons 
for that among many, which we may rehearse last time, is the 
language that Paul himself brings out here when he says, Him I 
proclaim to you. And then when he later says, 
since He is Lord of heaven and earth, and that He does not dwell 
in temples made with hands, nor is He worshipped with men's hands, 
as though he needed anything. We cannot contain our God. Our 
God is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of his 
glorious perfections. We are to worship him, not with 
the workings of men hands, not bowing down before golden calves. And thirdly, what is the reason 
for this provocation of spirit? A knowledge of the deliverance 
that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to souls in bondage. You 
see, the apostle Paul cast his eyes upon the landscape of Athenian 
madness, and he saw those who were in bondage to sin, in the 
darkness of sin. It's the heart of a preacher, 
it's the heart of a Christian pastor, it's the heart of an 
apostle to have this provocation of spirit, because he knows the 
glory of the deliverance, the knowledge of that deliverance 
that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. You may be here this 
morning and you're, you know, you're not bringing sacrifices 
to any sort of Greco-Roman altar. You're not, you know, paying 
your dues and your observances before some sort of pagan deity. But there is something, if you're 
outside of Christ, that you're latching onto some measure of 
idol or some measure of idols. And you're just like these Athenians 
before whom Paul's spirit was provoked unto exasperating yet 
wholesome anger. The heart of the Christian preacher 
is that you would know this Christ, because only in this Christ is 
there deliverance from the madness of idolatry and the darkness 
of unbelief. So the glory of God, the law 
of that one God, and a knowledge of the deliverance that the gospel 
of that God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, brings to souls in bondage, 
this is behind the provocation with regards to Paul as he cast 
his eyes upon Athenian idolatry. And secondly then, what is the 
reason for the provocation of spirit with respect to the context? It is clearly the language, and 
we don't have to rehearse it much longer because we just spent 
time on it. But notice, his spirit was provoked within him when 
he saw that the city was given over to idols. Now, I just alluded 
to it briefly as we opened up the sermon this morning, but 
how bad was it? How bad was the idolatry? Because 
in our own day, we don't really see all that much in the way 
of in-our-face idolatry as far as structures and statues. Not 
that we don't, but as far as structures and statues and architecture 
and all of those things. It was bad in the city of Athens. 
In fact, Athens was probably the worst of the known world. 
John Gill writes this, the Athenians far exceeded others in the worship 
of the gods and care about religion. They had an altar for mercy, 
another for shame, another for fame, and another for desire, 
and expressed more religion to the gods than others did. They 
had an altar dedicated to 12 gods, and because they would 
be sure of all, they erected one to an unknown god. In short, 
they had so many of them that one jestingly said to them, our 
country is so full of deities that one may more easily find 
a god than a man. So that with all their learning 
and wisdom, they knew not God. Many have reported that there 
were possibly around 30,000 deities that were worshipped and acknowledged 
by these Athenian idolaters. Horrible. Everything was a god, 
really. Everything. And so Paul comes 
into Athens as he waits for Paul and Timothy, and he sees the 
city given over to idols, and his spirit was provoked within 
him. And then what's his response 
then? Remember, we're looking at the preacher first, his observation 
with many sub-points there, and now, secondly, his response. 
What is his response? Notice verse 17. Therefore, he 
reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile 
worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened 
to be there." You see, this provocation of spirit did not just end with 
the provocation of spirit. but it poured forth into a zealous 
response to defend the living and true God and to steal these 
idolaters away from the madness of that idolatry unto a knowledge 
of that one and only living and true God and Jesus Christ whom 
he did send. He is not discouraged. He is 
not so taken aback by the idolatry that he cannot function. You 
know, He isn't just overtaken by some provocation. He's not 
just overtaken in exasperation as He looks upon all of these 
idols, but rather this wholesome provocation unto indignation 
against the darkness of idolatry, again, pours out in this response. And what is the response? It's 
the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As often as we 
gather, as often as we come together, you're going to hear that language, 
you're going to hear that observation, and hopefully it isn't received 
unto the rolling of eyes, but unto the warming of the heart 
that the answer to man's plight, the answer to man's deadness 
and sin, the answer to man's idolatry, is the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Everywhere you go, Everywhere 
you go, whatever sin it may be, whatever madness it may be, whatever 
darkness it may be, there are not multitudinous answers, there 
is one answer. It's Jesus Christ, Him crucified, 
Him risen again for the salvation of sinners. And Paul, as a response 
to the provocation of spirit, preaches the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. And notice there are two reasoning 
venues, two venues that he goes to here. The language in verse 
17 is this. Therefore he reasoned in the 
synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, And in 
the marketplace daily with those who happen to be there. Now, 
the mind reading that might say, well, isn't that three venues? 
Isn't he talking to Jews in the synagogues and then to Gentile 
worshipers wherever they worship? And then in the marketplace daily 
with those who happen to be there? No. Probably what it is, is that 
he's speaking to Jews and Gentile proselytes in the synagogues 
in the first place. Remember Romans 1.16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone 
who believes. To the Jew first. and also to 
the Greek. Well, probably what we have here 
in verse 17 is we have Jews and Gentile worshippers. They're 
called God-fearers, or they're called worshippers of God, Gentiles 
who worship God. They're Jews who gather together 
in synagogues for their worship and instruction out of the Old 
Testament. They didn't call it that, but 
That's what they're gathering together for in the synagogue. 
So Jews and Gentiles in the synagogue, and then Greeks that are gathered 
together wherever Paul went in the marketplace. Those are the 
two reasoning venues. Now the narrative that follows 
doesn't touch upon what's going on with Paul in the synagogues, 
but I believe from the rest of Acts, we know what's going on 
in those synagogues. There is, and you can write down 
this word, there's sort of a two-fold kerygma in the book of Acts. Kerygma kids just simply means, 
and kerygma adults just simply means a pattern of proclamation. And so there is apostolic kerygma, 
apostolic patterns of proclamation in the book of Acts. And it's 
twofold, depending on the audience. Not different content, not different 
God, different Christ, but two methods of deliverance and two 
ways of treating the proclamation. For the Jews, what it is, is 
calling them to reflect upon the Old Testament, causing them 
to reflect upon the Old Covenant promises that Moses, that all 
of the prophets, that the law of the prophets and the Psalms 
all testified concerning Christ. And that this Christ that came, 
that you put to death upon Calvary's cross, that is the promised Christ. That is the Messiah. And He has 
come to give repentance and forgiveness of sins according to all that 
the prophets have spoken. So with respect to the Jews and 
the Gentile worshipers in the synagogues who would have been 
familiar with the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, he's going 
to be proclaiming that tailored message which touches upon their 
own prophetic literature, the oracles of God. Now, when he 
comes to Gentile worshipers, as well, excuse me, when he comes 
to the Greeks, the Athenian idolaters in the marketplaces, it's a different 
kerygma, it's a different pattern of proclamation. He deals with 
their own specific Grecian errors, he deals with their own Athenian 
errors. And we'll notice that more next 
time, but there's two particular, actually probably three people 
in view, types of persons. There's the Epicureans and the 
Stoics, and generally the men of Athens that aren't Epicureans, 
that aren't Stoics, that are caught up in worshipping any 
and all of those 30,000 deities. And so, again, there are two 
reasoning venues here, the synagogue, and then secondly, the marketplace. 
The marketplace that's in view here, when we read, and in the 
marketplace daily, with those who happen to be there, it's 
a different sort of marketplace than what we have in the gospel 
accounts. Not that the two conflict, but 
different geographically and culturally. In the gospel accounts, 
We have sellers of wares and kids playing their games in the 
streets when we read the gospel accounts. That's what we find 
there. We have hiring going on in the streets of Jerusalem and 
the surrounding areas, for example. So it's sort of a different marketplace. 
The Greco-Roman world, and here specifically in Athens, the marketplace 
was more where people gathered together to do what verse 21 
says. 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. So there's a lot of 
philosophizing going on. There's a lot of discussion going 
on like that. in the Greco-Roman marketplaces 
over and against those of Judea. That sort of thing. Now, what 
we have in view here, perhaps if you were to think, okay, what 
passage, let's say, in the Pauline Epistles might come to your minds 
when we read here in Acts 17, Therefore he reasoned in the 
synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in 
the marketplace daily with those who happen to be there, what 
passage might come to mind? Or maybe it's not so obvious, 
but let's turn there together. 1 Corinthians 1. You know what 
we just said? That there are two sort of patterns 
of proclamation, but the same message. There are two patterns 
of apostolic preaching, but one message. And that one message 
is found here in 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 21. In fact, we'll back up to v. 
20. V. 20 of 1 Corinthians 1. Where 
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is 
the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the 
wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God 
the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God 
through the foolishness of the message preached to save those 
who believe. Notice v. 22. For Jews request 
a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. but we preach Christ 
crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 
but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power 
of God and the wisdom of God." You see, there may be two particular 
kerygmas, but one message. There may be two types of people, 
Jews and Greeks, but there is only one answer, and that is 
Christ and Him crucified. Yes, it's foolishness to the 
Greeks. Yes, it's a stumbling block, 
a rock of offense to the Jews. But nevertheless, when Paul goes 
to Jew and Gentile worshipers and the synagogues, when Paul 
goes to those Greeks in the marketplaces, casting around ideas and rolling 
around empty vanities, and philosophies in their minds, the message is 
Jesus and the resurrection. The message is the gospel of 
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We want to move on to the people 
then. The preacher, we've noted his observation, the provocation 
unto an anger, a wholesome indignation, and his response, having been 
provoked due to the idols, due to the madness of idolatry, he 
goes and he proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the narrative 
includes something of the people that are hearing his proclamation. 
These who are caught up in that irreligion that provoked Him 
unto anger. These who are caught up in the 
madness of idolatry. Notice in verse 18. What we want 
to notice first is who are they? Who are these people? Who is 
his audience? Verse 18, then, certain Epicurean 
and Stoic philosophers encountered him. Now, later on in the preaching, 
we'll notice in verse 22, and this includes Epicureans and 
Stoics, but in verse 22 we read, then Paul stood in the midst 
of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, And so while we would 
have primarily the message being targeted to Epicureans and Stoics, 
it goes out to all the men of Athens who are within earshot 
that they might hear of the glory of the one true God and of Jesus 
Christ whom he has sent. But notice in verse 18, then 
certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. Now, who were 
these cats? Who were these characters, these 
Epicureans and these Stoics, just very briefly, because it's 
good to know who they are. And this isn't just going to 
be a rehearsal of interesting facts, because when we get to 
v. 22-34, Paul's message is targeted 
at these two groups of people. His response in proclaiming the 
one true God serves well as a remedy to Epicurean errors and stoic 
excesses. And so, let's have a look then, 
who are these Epicureans? Well, the Epicureans are named 
after a man named Epicurus. He founded a school in 300 BC 
in Athens. And the Epicurean philosophy 
was one of pleasure. that pleasure for the individual, 
pleasure for body and soul was the primary goal of human existence. Now, not a sinful, perverse, 
now it is sinful, but not the sinful sex, drugs, and rock and 
roll perversion of perhaps an ungodly hedonism. where all they're 
seeking after is this immoral pursuit of pleasures. No, they had a strict ethic that 
was no doubt an ungodly ethic because it was not rooted in 
God's revelation, not rooted in His law, but they had an ethical 
system where they would repudiate the excessive pleasures that men 
were seeking after. sex and drugs and all those sorts 
of excesses, but nevertheless they sought after a particular 
type of pleasure to body and soul. One of their own philosophers, 
actually Epicurus himself, wrote this, by pleasure we mean the 
absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. So they 
were not about titillations of sense, but the absence of pain, 
the avoidance of trouble, and freedom from annoyances. So let's just give you an example. 
For example, they would repudiate adultery. they would see adultery 
as something that is not ethically sound. Now, their reason for 
rejecting that, or their reason for rejecting adultery as a sound 
practice, was not from the Christian vantage point. The Christian 
vantage point is the reality and the character and the nature 
of God himself and the law that he has written upon the hearts 
of men, codified at Sinai and perpetuated in the new covenant 
through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord. So God, the glory of God 
and God's law are in the background of the sin of adultery and how 
Christians navigate rejecting that as wholesome in any way, 
shape, or form. The Epicureans would reject adultery, 
but they would do it because it brings pain to body and soul, 
not because God has established a law, not out of any divine 
virtue, but Solian alone, because it does not bring pleasure. It 
does not bring good things, but only pain to body and soul. Epicureanism was a godless religion. Now, it was not atheistic, But 
it was godless in the sense that though they would have had some 
measure of polytheism, bear with me, the type of polytheism was 
a deistic polytheism. If you've never heard what deism 
is, it was a big problem, it's been a problem for a while, but 
it was a big problem when our confession of faith was being 
written. In the 17th century, there was a movement called deism, 
and the idea was sort of like this. God has created, God has 
set in motion the universe and the earth upon which we dwell, 
but then has backed off. It doesn't intercede in any measure 
of providence, And special revelation is repudiated and replaced with 
simply the light of nature. And so if you ever read our confession 
in chapter 20, there's a chapter that's added over and against 
the Presbyterians. Not over and against, but the 
Presbyterians and the Congregationalists don't have chapter 20 in their 
confession. The Baptists are specifically targeting deism 
there. The idea that God just set the earth in motion, left, 
leaves it to men, and now what the real pursuit is, is the pursuit 
of human knowledge, the pursuit of our own human reason rather 
than the reason and the clarity of God's revelation. Well, the 
Epicureans were sort of like that. They believed in a polytheistic 
deism, a multitude of gods, and these gods really weren't involved 
in human affairs. They just did their thing in 
their own little god world and never interfered or helped or 
mingled with men. And as well, they believed that 
there was no afterlife. One of their own philosophers 
after Epicurus wrote, when we are, death is not come, and when 
death is come, we are not. So they rejected the afterlife. 
They rejected the resurrection of the body. They rejected the 
doctrine of the resurrection. That's why some mock Probably 
what we have in view there are the Epicureans, the rejection 
of the afterlife and the resurrection, but we're going to spend more 
time next week on how Paul answers their idolatry and their perceptions 
of reality. And secondly, we have these Stoics. 
These Stoics were, or the religion of Stoicism, the philosophy of 
Stoicism, was founded by Zeno, in fact, right around the same 
time as Epicurus founded Epicureanism. So these two wicked cousins grew 
up together in the same area. Zeno was shipwrecked off the 
coast of Athens, I don't know, I'm trying to remember geographically. 
Anyway, off the coast of Greece somewhere. I'll look it up for 
next time. But he was shipwrecked, a Phoenician, Zeno, shipwrecked, 
and he comes to Athens and he propagates and proclaims this 
philosophy that he had, which if you've ever heard of pantheism 
was very close to that with their understanding of of deity they 
had this idea that God is everything or that everything is God and 
so divine imminence to the exclusion of any notion of a living and 
true God who is marked by transcendence we'll notice next time that you 
see these again aren't just interesting facts Paul's targeted proclamation 
is exactly at both of these bodies of people. That's why Luke includes 
them, then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And the 
Stoics, like the Epicureans, rejected a bodily resurrection. So notice then, finally, what 
they say. What do these Epicureans and 
Stoic philosophers that encountered the apostle Paul say? Well, first 
they insult him. First they insult him. Notice 
the language of the text. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic 
philosophers encountered him. This is verse 18. And some said, 
what does this babbler want to say? So they insult the Apostle 
Paul. It's interesting. They were all 
about, apparently, spending their time in nothing else but either 
to tell or to hear some new thing. So, you know, this is sort of 
right up their alley. But, you see, it comes and it 
cuts to the heart of sinful man because he'll hear everything 
save for the one and living true God and Jesus Christ whom he 
has sent. So he says, what does this babbler, 
they say, what does this babbler want to say? Now the idea here 
is, when we read this babbler, and you've probably heard this 
before, the development of this terminology, and it is an idiom, 
it is an Athenian phrase, started out to describe birds that were 
picking seeds, a seed picker. It was applied to birds that 
would fly down from buildings, pick up seeds, fly away, that 
sort of thing. It developed into a derogatory term to describe 
people who made their living traveling the marketplaces and 
perhaps picking up scraps of merchandise that fell from the 
carts of merchants. And so they're seed pickers. 
They're these idle pickers of various things. It developed into the arena of 
ideas, and one who would just pick and grab different ideas 
and slap them together into some sort of philosophy became an 
idle babbler, a seed picker, one of these people who ultimately 
are bringing worthless or confused philosophies or religion to the 
ears of men. Now, we know that that's not 
what Paul is. Paul comes as a preacher of Christ. Paul comes as a preacher 
of true and proper reason. Paul comes as a proclaimer of 
the gospel of the living and true God. But they insult him. They use, as one man has called 
it, derogatory Athenian slang in order to insult the Apostle 
Paul. And we read that others said, 
this is, they either, so they insult him, and then this second 
The second response by the people is either they misunderstand 
him and his proclamation, or they lay an informal charge of 
proclaiming foreign deities. Notice, others said, verse 18, 
he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached 
to them Jesus and the resurrection. So if we take this first to mean 
that they misunderstand him and his proclamation, the thrust 
of the text means this. When we read, because he preached 
to them Jesus and the resurrection, they thought that he was preaching 
two deities, two gods, Jesus and this the resurrection. And 
that's why we read he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, 
plural, foreign gods. And so this Paul, they misunderstood 
perhaps, is a proclaimer of foreign deities, this Jesus and this 
the resurrection. The other approach to the text 
is that they're laying an informal charge of proclaiming foreign 
deities. Perhaps some of you know, or 
perhaps some of you don't know. Actually, that probably describes 
all of you here. Some of you know this, and some of you don't 
know this. But four centuries ago, Socrates was brought before 
this same council at the Areopagus, and he was charged with proclaiming 
foreign gods, among other things. And so some have sort of connected 
this to Socrates. Four centuries ago, there was 
a man, Socrates, who stood here, was put to death by being forced 
to drink hemlock because he was a proclaimer of foreign gods. 
There was a priestess named Ninas, I believe, who as well was put 
to death. for, as a foreigner, coming to 
the Areopagus and proclaiming foreign deities. Others did not 
meet with death, but perhaps imprisonment and other sorts 
of things. But the idea may be here that 
they are charging him informally as a proclaimer of foreign gods 
as they had done more formally in the past. You see, at this 
time, Athens was not as prominent as it was three, four, five centuries 
before, but nevertheless, they did have a measure of philosophical 
primacy and academia, and so they're bringing an informal 
charge of proclaiming foreign deities. I believe it's probably 
the first option here. They misunderstood Paul. It's 
not that they're connecting him to Socrates, or it's not in that 
sort of area of understanding, but rather they misunderstood 
his proclamation, and they thought that he was preaching Jesus as 
one God, and the resurrection as another. And I think the context 
that follows supports this, because they ask him, may we know what 
this new doctrine is of which you speak? And then verse 20, 
for you are bringing some strange things to our ears, therefore 
we want to know what these things mean. It wasn't because Paul 
wasn't precise, it wasn't because Paul wasn't accurate in his proclamation, 
but simply because they could not and did not understand. And so they bring him to the 
Areopagus, and they ask for elaboration on Jesus and the resurrection. And that's what we're going to 
get to next time, because you see, Paul brings the answer to 
the plight of Athenian idolatry. He brings the only answer to 
any plight. sin, madness, the darkness of 
transgression, iniquity, idolatry, all manner of sins that encompass 
the earth. Everything breathed forth by 
the madness of men and thought by the minds of wicked sons of 
men is answered by Jesus and the resurrection. And so next 
time, Paul opens up. As they bring him to the Areopagus, 
they hear Paul. They ask him to bring forth this 
Jesus and the resurrection. And he does so with the beauty 
of a God-inspired apologist. So just for a minute and 37 seconds, 
before we go and eat some good grub, I want you to consider 
two things. First is, we should seek to imbibe 
the disposition and mind and spirit that Paul had regarding 
idolatry. We should seek to imbibe, to 
drink back, metaphorically, the disposition of mind and spirit 
that Paul had regarding the madness of this idolatry. We are to be 
like Paul. He is our exemplar. When we're 
faced with sin, with madness, with idolatry, with people seeking 
everything else except for the living and true God who daily 
gives them life, breath, and all things. When people seek 
after four-footed things and creeping things and all manner 
of satisfactions save for the only true and eternal and lasting 
satisfaction, the triune God in the Gospel of Christ, We are 
to have that provocation. We are to be exasperated wholesomely 
with a righteous indignation against anything that rubs against 
the glory of God, His law, and the redeeming and liberating 
Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we should respond in kind 
to that disposition. We should respond, you know, 
it isn't just good enough for us to be provoked in spirit. Now, all of us are not gonna 
be the Apostle Paul. All of us are not gonna be preachers 
of the gospel. In the very least, what you can 
do in responding in kind to the provocations of spirit is to 
pray. is to pray for those, is to bring 
before God in prayer those who are proclaiming the kerygma, 
the glorious pattern of apostolic preaching of this Christ, this 
God, this glorious gospel. Pray. Pray for ministers of the 
gospel. Pray for missionaries. As missionaries 
go out and bring the gospel to places of darkness and madness 
and idolatry, pray for those who bring Jesus Christ to those 
in need. But perhaps you can, in that 
prayer as well, pray for your own witness. As you go out into 
the workplace, into your own families, among friends, wherever 
you might find yourselves, pray that you would have this disposition 
of Paul, wherein righteous indignation, he delivered the truth of God, 
the glory of Christ, the power of the resurrection, so that 
those who hear might believe and have the forgiveness of sins 
and everlasting life. this week, seek to be like Paul, 
one provoked and yet one who responds, and the least in prayer, 
and perhaps even to shine forth the glory of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ to those in need. And if you're here this morning 
and you don't know that Christ, believe. You may not be an Athenian 
idolater that uses derogatory slang to insult, but you are 
following after some sort of idol. You are following after 
some sort of darkness and sin and transgression and wickedness 
and iniquity if you're outside of Christ. Find the answer in 
this Jesus and the resurrection, not two gods, but one glorious 
God, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son comes into the world 
to live a life of perfect obedience to the law of God in the stead 
of all who believe in his name. He's crucified upon Calvary's 
cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for guilty sinners. He's raised 
again, the resurrection, the third day. He's ascended to the 
right hand of the majesty on high. He sends proclaimers of 
his gospel into the world to preach the glorious gospel of 
the blessed God and all who believe. We'll have their sins forgiven 
and we'll have everlasting life with that Christ. Let us pray. 
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We rejoice in 
your truth. We thank you for what we read 
in this account of the faithful Apostle Paul going forth and 
proclaiming the riches of Jesus Christ. And we do pray that you'd 
help us to glory in your revelation to men to see this as a great 
victory of the truth of God in the face of idolatry. And we 
pray as we continue to consider it that we would be lifted up 
to high thoughts of You, our God, and that we would reflect 
with great joy upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's in 
Your name that we pray. Amen.