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.
Introduction
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.
Paul's Commission in Acts 26
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.
The Preacher: Observation and Response
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.
Paul's Observation: Spirit Provoked
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.
Threefold Reason for Provocation
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.
One Message to Jews and Greeks
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.
The People: Philosophers and Their Reaction
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,
Who Were the Epicureans?
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.
Who Were the Stoics?
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
The People's Response to Paul
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.
Application
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.
Closing Prayer
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.