← Back to sermon library

Well, you can turn to the book 
of Acts. We're in Acts chapter 17. We're presently surveying the 
second missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts 15.36 to 
Acts 18.22, took place in the years AD 49 to AD 52. The second journey included Derbe, 
Lystra, Phrygia, and Galatia, sites visited on their first 
missionary journey. In addition, God leads Paul to 
Macedonia. starting from Troas, he goes 
to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and finally Corinth, 
before returning to Antioch. So this morning, we are in Athens 
with the Apostle Paul. It's a big section, so we're 
gonna break it into two parts. This morning, we'll look at the 
ministry in Athens in verses 16 to 21, and then God willing, 
next Sunday morning, we'll take up the sermon at Mars Hill, verses 
22 to 34. But I'll read the section, and 
then we'll look at it in detail. So, beginning in Acts 17, 16. 
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 worshipers, 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, and 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 all 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. Let us pray. Father, thank you for the Word 
of the living and true God. We acknowledge that it comes 
from you. We acknowledge that it's God-breathed, 
that it's infallible, it's inerrant, it's glorious and wonderful. 
And we pray that your Spirit, the Spirit who gave us the Word, 
would come now to teach us the Word, that we would understand 
what this passage means, we would see the significance, not only 
in its original context, but its significance for us in this 
present world. We ask again that you would forgive 
us for all of our sin and anything that would darken our understanding 
and our minds. We ask that the Holy Spirit would 
indeed reign freely in our midst, guiding, leading, directing, 
and helping each one of us. And for those who are not saved, 
those who have not tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we 
pray that today would be the day of salvation, that as sinners 
here of Jesus and the resurrection, they by grace would look unto 
Him in faith and know the joy of everlasting life. And we pray 
this in His most blessed name. Amen. Well, as I said, we have, 
first of all, the ministry in Athens, which is recorded there 
for us in verses 16 to 21. And then Paul is summoned to 
this place called Mars Hill or the Areopagus. And there he preaches 
this sermon in verses 22. Not only does he preach, but 
there is response or reaction to that message. And that's how 
this chapter ends. And then of course, Paul ends 
up going to Corinth. And so that'll be the last place 
on the second missionary journey. And then he'll return to Antioch 
and for a time there, and then he'll go back out on the third 
missionary journey. So I want to look at this ministry 
in Athens under three observations. First, the apostle was provoked 
in verse 16. Secondly, the apostle preached 
the word in verses 17 and 18. And then the apostle was challenged 
according to verses 18 to 21. So if anything, at least at this 
particular juncture, we learn something of Paul. Not that that's 
the end of our inquisition or our inquisitiveness with reference 
to Scripture, but he's a great example, he's a great paradigm 
for us on how we are to navigate in this present world. And then 
as Paul preaches at the Areopagus, the focus is obviously on our 
triune God. So let's look at, first of all, 
the apostle was provoked. Most likely, when he first arrives, 
according to this previous section, he is alone. If you look back 
in chapter 17 to verse 14, Then immediately the brethren sent 
Paul away to go to the sea. That's because there was persecution 
there in Berea. Jews from Thessalonica had traveled 
that 45 miles because they wanted to try to silence the apostle. 
And so the disciples of Christ said, we need to get Paul out 
of here. So it says in verse 14, they immediately sent him 
away to go to the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 
Those were his other teammates on the missionary team. Verse 
15 says, so those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens, and 
receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him, with 
all speed they departed. So they do come, Paul then ends 
up sending Silas back to Thessalonica, and then he sends Timothy elsewhere 
as well. Or no, Timothy goes back to Thessalonica, 
and Silas goes back to some unknown location in Macedonia. So at 
least initially Paul is alone here in the city. And in verse 
16 it says, while Paul waited for them at Athens, Now Athens 
was a famous city, a very renowned city. It had lost its political 
influence by this time, because now Rome, the Roman Empire, was 
the sort of main man with reference to world empires. But they gave 
a lot of liberty to the city of Athens. It was considered 
a free city. They were able to conduct their affairs without 
any sort of molestation from the Roman state. But it had lost 
its political preeminence, but it continued to represent the 
highest level of culture attained in classical antiquity. It should 
not be surprising that you have these philosophers there. It 
was the seat or citadel of philosophy at that particular time. It had 
been home to Socrates, it had been home to Plato, and the adopted 
home of Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno. In fact, J.C. Ryle said, here lived the most 
learned, civilized, philosophical, highly educated, artistic, intellectual 
population on the face of the globe. So that is where Paul 
finds himself now. And it is to this that we consider. Notice the provocation in his 
spirit according to verse 16. While Paul waited for them at 
Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the 
city was given over to idols. We last saw the verb that's used 
there. It's our word paroxysm back in 
chapter 15. If you go back there, we notice 
that Paul and Barnabas divide. And the text tells us that there 
was a paroxysm, there was a provocation of spirit. You see it in verse 
39. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from 
one another. The paroxysm became so sharp 
that they parted from one another. So Paul in Athens is experiencing 
this. It means to cause a state of 
inward arousal, to urge on, to stimulate, especially provoke 
to wrath or irritate. Now, Paul is in good company 
as he experiences this provocation of spirit. The Greek translation 
of the Hebrew Old Testament uses this very word of God Almighty 
in several contexts to tell us his response to idolatry. If you look back in your Bibles, 
we won't go to each of these passages, but you can consider 
them later, you'll see in Deuteronomy 9, verse 7, Deuteronomy 9, 18, 
Deuteronomy 9, 22, again in Psalm 106, 28, and 29, Isaiah 65, two 
and three, and then Hosea 8, five. The great translation, 
or this word rather, is there to show the provocation of God 
relative to idols. The Apostle Paul is not alone 
in his response to this city given over to idols. Greg Bonson, 
I think, describes this well. What is taken today by tourists 
as a fertile field of aesthetic appreciation, the artifacts left 
from the ancient Athenian worship of pagan deities. I mean, if 
you went there, you'd probably stand in awe and marvel at the 
architecture, at all the things that were there, at that time. 
You probably look at it on Google. But he says, with reference to 
Paul, it represented to him not art, but despicable and crude 
religion. Religious loyalty and moral considerations 
precluded artistic compliments. These idols were not merely an 
academic question to Paul. They provoked him. As Paul gazed 
upon the Doric temple of the patron goddess Athena, the Parthenon 
standing atop the Acropolis, and as he scrutinized the temple 
of Mars on the Areopagus, he was not only struck with the 
inalienable religious nature of man, but also outraged at 
how fallen man exchanges the glory of the incorruptible God 
for idols. And some of that comes out in 
Romans chapter one. Now with reference to this response, 
it also indicates the universal application of God's 10 commandments. It was a breach of the Decalogue 
when Israel bowed to Molech. It was a breach of the Decalogue 
when Israel bowed to Dagon. It was a breach of the Decalogue 
when Israel bowed to Baal. It is a breach of the Decalogue 
when the Athenians bowed to their idols as well. If Paul had been 
taught dispensationalism, or if Paul had been taught New Covenant 
theology, perhaps the First and Second Commandments wouldn't 
have had such sway in his heart. But as he gazes upon this city, 
given over to idols, it provokes his spirit to wrath. It provokes 
his spirit to a heightened sense of irritation. And again, he's 
not alone. Yahweh of Israel, when he sees 
the idolatry rampant among Israel, is provoked in a like way. As 
well, you have 2 Peter 2, verse 8. What does it tell us there 
about Lot? Not the same word, but the same 
idea. His righteous soul was tormented 
living in Sodom and Gomorrah. As well, Paul is consistent with 
the psalmist in Psalm 119. David says in verse 53 of Psalm 
119, he says, indignation has taken hold of me because of the 
wicked who forsake your law. There is an anger that wells 
up in the people of God when they see the law of God transgressed. When they see the wholesale rejection 
of God and His Word, it is symptomatic of the people of God to respond 
with that indignant spirit. But David doesn't stop there. 
There are three emotional responses, if I can use that language, that 
David expresses that the wickedness of man elicits from him. So in 
verse 53, there is that, I'm sorry, verse 53, there is that 
indignation. But then in Psalm 119, verse 
136, he says, rivers of water run down from my eyes because 
men do not keep your law. So there's an indignant spirit 
with reference to the lawlessness of man, but he's not a monster. He is not a machine. There are 
rivers of water that run down from his eyes. In other words, 
he weeps as he sees the transgression of man. The Apostle Paul himself 
will write to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 3. I have 
warned you about these enemies of the cross. I have told you 
this with many tears. He's affected by the reality 
of the lawlessness of man. But then in the third place in 
Psalm 119 verse 158, he says, I see the treacherous and am 
disgusted because they do not keep your word. It's not always 
easy to know the right response when we see the sorts of things 
that we see in this present world. But we see among God's people 
some things that are consistent. There isn't indignation about 
idolatry, about lawlessness, about the rejection of God. There 
is a disgust when we see the sorts of things that obtain in 
the various unfolding of events in this world. I mean, if any 
of you saw any of the images over this past week in the United 
States, there is a great deal of disgust and a great deal of 
indignation to be had. But then this river of waters 
run down from my eyes because men don't keep your law." Brethren, 
we are not machines. Brethren, it's okay for us to 
express grief at rebellion against the living and true God. Matthew 
Poole explains why Paul was provoked or what this provocation meant 
in his heart. He says in the first place, with 
grief for so learned and yet blind and miserable a place. 
This is the citadel of human learning and it is actually chocked 
full of idols. There is grief on the part of 
the apostle. He says, secondly, with zeal 
and a holy desire to instruct and inform it. In other words, 
he wants to set them straight because they have lost their 
way. And then thirdly, with anger and indignation against the idolatry 
and sin that abounded in it. Sometimes people ask, well, how 
do we respond to such things? I don't know, but I do know this, 
that the people of God are marked by provocation of spirit, and 
the things that Matthew Poole describes here are the very things 
that David manifests in Psalm 119. We shouldn't forget about 
our Lord Jesus Christ either. When he goes to heal that man 
in Mark chapter 3, the man with the withered hand. The religious 
leaders, the religious sort of experts in that day, they chide 
and they try to break in upon this so that he can't do this. 
It says that Jesus looked at them with indignation. And of 
course, Jesus in Matthew chapter 21, cleansing the temple. Did 
he go in there and say, hey guys, I'd like for you to vacate my 
father's house because, you know, zeal for that house has consumed 
me and I don't like you being in here. No, he drives the animals 
out and he turns the tables over and he chases them away. And 
yet that same Jesus in Matthew chapter 23 looks at the city 
and he laments over it. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how 
many times I wanted to gather you together the way that a hen 
gathers her chicks and you were not willing. Brethren, it's not 
always easy to know how to respond, and that's one of the reasons 
why we need to be in the Scripture. Now, notice, secondly, what Paul 
does. See, we're provoked in our spirit, 
but what do we do? Do we go to our therapist? I'm 
not going to say that's always the worst thing in the world, 
if you so have one. I don't know that you need to 
pay somebody. You can talk to your wife, you can talk to your 
husband, you can talk to whoever. Do we throw darts at the pictures 
of our enemies? What do we do? Look how it affects 
the Apostle Paul. There's this provocation of spirit 
because the city is given over to idols. And what does he do? 
He acts. He acts consistently with his 
principles. He acts consistently with what 
he knows. Notice verse 17, how it starts off. Therefore, there 
is a connection between verses 16 and 17. As a result of the 
provocation of spirit, as a result of having seen a city given over 
to idols, therefore Paul does something. And in the first place, 
Paul goes to the synagogue. We've seen that is his custom 
in these missionary journeys. He goes to the synagogues and 
there he preaches that Jesus is the Messiah. John Gill says, 
with them at the synagogue he disputed. Not about idolatry. That's not what Paul would have 
addressed in the synagogue. He says, not about idolatry or 
the worship of many gods to which they were not addicted. Remember, 
they were Jews skilled in the Old Testament that should have 
been faithful to Yahweh of Israel. Not that you couldn't preach 
to them against idolatry, not that you couldn't have preached 
those sermons, but as we've seen in Thessalonica, As we've seen 
in Berea, what Paul does in the synagogues is he takes their 
scripture, he takes their Old Testament, and he tells them 
that that scripture testified, prophesied, declared that the 
Christ or Messiah must suffer and that he must be raised again. 
And then he would say to them, this Jesus I preach to you is 
the Christ. So he's doing the same thing 
in the synagogue in Athens. So Gil goes on to say, "...nor 
about the one true and living God, whom they knew and professed, 
but about the Son of God, about the Messiah, contending and proving 
that Jesus of Nazareth was He." So Paul, provoked in his spirit, 
does what Paul, having been provoked in his spirit, would naturally 
do. He preaches Christ. But he doesn't just go to the 
synagogue. Notice what else he does. He 
goes to the marketplace. He goes to that sort of central 
feature of Athenian life. Everybody went to the marketplace. Everybody would be found there. 
Philosophers, shoppers, persons of all sorts would be there in 
the agora. in that marketplace, so Paul 
knows that's where I must go, and that's where I must preach 
the gospel concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The provocation 
of the Spirit not only promoted in him preaching in the synagogue, 
but it also provoked him to go to the marketplace. Now, the 
text doesn't tell us what he said specifically. It doesn't 
say that when he was in the marketplace, he had three-point sermons and 
this is what it looked like. But we know from the end of verse 
19 what Paul was saying in the Agora. He was preaching Jesus 
and the resurrection. What does a city given over to 
idols desperately need? They need to hear about Jesus 
and the resurrection. What does any man, woman, boy 
or girl in sin desperately need to hear? Jesus and the resurrection. This is Paul's passion. This 
is what Paul's about. You poke Paul and he bleeds gospel. That's the kind of man we are 
dealing with in this particular situation. So the end of verse 
19, it says, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached 
to them Jesus and the resurrection. So he preaches synagogue, he 
preaches marketplace, and that leads us thirdly to consider 
the fact that the apostle was challenged. Now notice the parties 
who challenged him. Verse 18a tells us. then certain Epicurean and Stoic 
philosophers encountered him. Now, it probably helps us to 
have a little understanding of what kind of philosophy Epicurean 
and Stoic philosophy is. Epicurean philosophy, the followers 
of Epicurus, he lived in 341 to 270 BC. They did not believe that the 
gods created the earth. They did not believe that there 
was providence. They didn't deny the existence 
of gods, but they did not think that the gods were interested 
in the goings-on of men. In some sense, they were a bit 
deistical. There's an old sort of a heresy 
that always attaches itself to the true preaching of God's Word. 
Deism, the thought that God made the world the way that a watchmaker 
makes a clock, and then he just puts it up on the shelf, and 
then he lets it do its thing. Now, again, these guys didn't 
believe that gods made the world. I say gods because they didn't 
deny the existence of the gods. They just didn't see any relevance 
for the gods in their lives. They were sort of agnostic. They 
were sort of secularistic. And they were caught up with 
pleasure, though not the kind of pleasure we might think. It 
wasn't sex, drugs, and rock and roll sort of pleasure. tranquility, 
it was a peaceful life, it was calm, it was composure. Now, 
certainly persons affected by Epicureanism that had a more 
twisted bent would have pursued the sex drugs and rock and roll, 
but in essence, as far as Epicurus was concerned, they were just 
trying to do their thing in the existence that they had in this 
present world. Now, with reference to the Stoics, 
they were the followers of Zeno. You say, why weren't they called 
Stoic? Or why wasn't he called Stoic? 
Well, it comes from stoa, which was a pillar or a colonnade in 
the agora or in the marketplace. That's where Zeno would go to 
teach his philosophy. Now, Zeno lived about 340 to 
265 BC. They were essentially pantheists. So for them, everything was God. They would have been big fans 
of the Beatles. They would have thought that 
was wonderful, that whole mindset, that whole idea. They emphasized 
harmony with nature and freedom from emotion. They didn't want 
passions. That's why occasionally you'll 
hear hear that reference today, oh, he's a real stoic. That typically 
means he doesn't smile, he doesn't show any emotion. Doesn't usually 
mean he's devoted to the philosophy of Zeno, but that's the way it's 
sort of evolved in our own usage. So these are two pretty big, 
pretty respected philosophical systems in that particular time 
at that particular day. Now notice the question they 
pose. In the first place, they insult 
him, and in the second place, they narrow down the issue. Look 
at the insult in verse 18. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic 
philosophers encountered him. And some said, what does this 
babbler want to say? What does this babbler want to 
say? The word literally means picking 
up seeds in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication 
lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information 
here and there. A scrap monger or a scavenger. They picked up little bits. It's 
pretty much widespread today in the social media age. We get 
a little bit here. We get a little bit here, we 
get a little bit here, and we sort of piece together our worldview. If you are a student of theology, 
please don't do that. Read theology books from the 
front to the end. Picking up seeds and bits here 
and there do not provide consistency, it does not synthesize the material, 
and you end up very imbalanced and very lopsided. So that's 
kind of the idea that they are predicating in the Apostle Paul. 
He's a seed picker. He's like one of these sparrows 
on the side of the road, just picking up things, gobbling up 
things, and he's pieced together this particular philosophy that 
he is now presenting here in our fair city of Athens. Bruce 
says, the Stoics and the Epicureans alike, much as they might differ 
from each other, and they did. You've got to appreciate that 
in the Bible. The people that hate Jesus oftentimes become 
friends with one another. That has been from the beginning. Remember Herod and Pilate? They 
didn't like each other until they found common ground in their 
opposition to our Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, Stoics and 
Epicureans alike, much as they might differ from each other, 
agreed at least on this, that the new fangled message brought 
by this Jew of Tarsus was not one that could appeal to reasonable 
people. They looked on him as a retailer 
of secondhand scraps of philosophy. a picker-up of learning's crumbs, 
a type of itinerant peddler of religion not unknown in the Agora, 
and they use a term of disparaging Athenian slang to describe him. So this is the insult that they 
throw his way. Now they clarify the issue in 
the rest of verse 18. It says, others said he seems 
to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them 
Jesus and the resurrection. Now there's some question if 
these persons understood that Paul was preaching two gods, 
one named Jesus and the other Anastasis. We've heard the word 
Anastasia, that means resurrection. So they perhaps thought he was 
preaching a plurality of gods, namely Jesus and then resurrection. Some say that's precisely what 
they thought. Others say that's not what they 
thought. I simply put it out there to tell you that again, 
they looked at him as a piker. They looked at him as a novice. 
They looked at him as a picker up of seeds and a scavenger. And this is their problem. Now that brings us to the investigation. Notice in verses 19 to 21. In 
the first place, the philosophers took him. Now, we shouldn't understand 
that to be a violent taking. We shouldn't understand that 
to be them seizing him and bringing him to the official court at 
the Areopagus. In verse 33, he departs. In verse 
33, he leaves. This isn't an official trial 
where the Apostle Paul has to give a defense on the threat 
of sanction if he doesn't toe their particular line. No, they 
seize him in the sense, or they take him in the sense, they want 
to bring him up there so that they can hear more about what 
is happening in terms of his words. Notice it says that they 
took him to the Areopagus. The old King James has Mars Hill, 
and there's a reason for that. The Areopagus or the Hill of 
Ares. Ares was the Greek god of war. In Roman or in Latin, it would 
have been Mars. So Ares Hill would be Mars Hill 
in the Roman sort of understanding of it. Now this was northwest 
of the Acropolis in Athens. But the Areopagus is to be understood 
here less as a place. and more as the council. And 
it was this council, in terms of Athens, that had quite a lot 
of power. In terms of the council, they 
tried crimes and they regulated, for example, city life, education, 
philosophical lectures, public morality, and foreign cults. Again, that's not how they're 
functioning in this capacity, but that's how they did function 
in that capacity, so that everybody's clear. It's not so much the Areopagus 
or Mars Hill as the location northwest of the Acropolis, but 
it's rather the place where the highest court in this particular 
city, the city of Athens, no less, gathered together to hear 
this particular brother preach to them concerning Jesus and 
the resurrection. Now, notice what our text goes 
on to say. Verse 19, they took him and brought 
him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new doctrine 
is of which you speak. Now, I'm not a real appreciator 
of Epicureanism or Stoicism, but I do respect the fact that 
there is a marked contrast between then and now. Because if there's 
something we don't understand, if there's something we don't 
agree with, what do we do? We attempt to silence them. We attempt to shut them up. We 
don't want to hear about Jesus and the resurrection. We don't 
want to hear about the gospel. We'd rather put you into jail. 
We'd rather take your livelihood from you. We would rather dispossess 
you from your families. We would rather throw you into 
a prison or better yet, even execute you so that we don't 
have to hear these things. At least in Athens, they had 
open ears and at least wanted to try in something that wasn't 
already garden variety approved in terms of their particular 
worldview. So they wanted to hear the new 
doctrine. May we know what this new doctrine is of which you 
speak. How do you think Paul received 
that? Do you think Paul said, oh no, I'm up at the battle against 
these Epicureans and Stoics? Paul's heart's probably leaping 
out of him. Of course I want to go to Mars Hill. Of course 
I want to go to the Areopagus. Of course I'm happy to tell you 
about Jesus and the resurrection. How many times in the lives of 
evangelists do we get this sort of an opportunity? How many times 
do you get the philosopher saying, well, we want to bring you up 
before this royal court, as it were, and we want you to tell 
us what you believe. God did open those doors for 
the Apostle Paul. Remember that time when he goes 
into the synagogue and they say, do any of you men have anything 
to say? What does Paul do? Paul stands up and he preaches 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether it be in a Jewish synagogue 
in Acts 22 or whether it be in the city of Athens, if Paul is 
given opportunity to speak concerning Jesus, guess what Paul's going 
to do? He's going to speak concerning 
Jesus. And that is precisely what these men wanted. They then 
acknowledged that it was strange to them, for you are bringing 
some strange things to our ears. Now to their, you know, on their 
behalf, it sure seems strange. A triune God, the Father sending 
the Son, the Son coming into the world, the Son taking on 
our humanity. with all the essential properties 
and the common infirmities thereof, and yet without sin. And that 
Son, living in obedience to the Father's law, that Son always 
doing what was right, saying, it is my meat to do the will 
of Him who sent me. Jesus' delight was the law of 
His Father, and that was crucial, not only for Jesus and His relationship 
to the Father, but for us. because our delight is the opposite. We don't like the father's law. 
We transgress the father's law. The father says, don't engage 
in idolatry. We build idols. The father says, 
keep faithfulness with your spouse. We go running around. The father 
says, don't kill people. We kill people. God most high 
has given a law and Christ obeyed that law, certainly with reference 
to the father and himself, but with reference to us. It answers 
to the righteousness that you and I desperately need. It answers 
to the imputation of the act of obedience of our Lord Jesus. 
So when Paul is preaching this to the Stoics and the Epicureans, 
you can see why they'd say, wow, that is strange. But not only 
did the son obey the father in his 33 years, the son was ultimately 
delivered up. Yes, by the Jews because of envy. Yes, by the Romans because of 
just just cowardice, but ultimately by the Father for love. God so 
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth on Him shall have everlasting life. So not only did the Son 
have to live a life of obedience to the Father, but ultimately 
He's delivered up to death. And that death is unique. He 
didn't die a martyr's death, though in one sort of corollary 
way it was. But the death was atonement. 
The death was substitution. The death was the just taking 
the punishment due for the unjust. The death reflected what we find 
in the book of Leviticus, that Israel's approach to God came 
through a bloody knife and a smoking altar. Apart from the shedding 
of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sins. 
Again, not to vindicate or to defend the Stoics and the Epicureans, 
but you could see why, if you had no concept of the true and 
living God, a triune God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, 
who creates, who is sovereign in rulership, and who ultimately 
is the judge and the redeemer of men, you would think this 
is newfangled and strange. So Jesus goes to the cross, and 
there Jesus receives in Himself the penalty that is due for us. 
Again, He satisfies the righteous requirements of His Father. He 
antitypes all of the types of the Old Testament. He fulfills 
everything that had been said concerning Him in the Word of 
God. But it's for us, us men, and our salvation. He went to 
the cross not because He was a malefactor, but because we 
are. He went to the cross not because 
He was a criminal, but because we are. He went to the cross 
not because He was an idolater, but because we are. And the Father 
laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. And the prophet Isaiah, 
in that last servant song of Yahweh, says that Yahweh was 
pleased to crush Him. Why? Again, for us men and for 
our salvation. We not only need the imputation 
of the righteousness of Christ that is grounded in his act of 
obedience, but we need the forgiveness of sins. And we get that from 
the blood of the crucified Son. It is a glorious and a wonderful 
gospel. But notice he preaches Jesus 
and the resurrection. Christ didn't stay in the tomb. 
Christ was buried. Christ there remained for a time, 
but on the third day he was raised again. Paul will later write 
to the Romans in Romans chapter four. He will say that Christ 
was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for our 
justification. So as Paul speaks these truths 
to the people of Athens in the Agora, it piques the curiosity 
of these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. So they take Paul 
and they bring him up to Mars Hill so that they can hear this 
new teaching. So they can hear these new strange 
things articulated by the mouth of this particular missionary. 
They wanted further explanation. Notice again, the end of verse 
20, here in many ways they best even professing Christians. Therefore, 
we want to know what these things mean. Is that true for the entirety 
of the Christian church? Are we as concerned with reference 
to the life and the death and the resurrection of our Lord 
Jesus Christ as these epicurean and stoic philosophers are? Paul, 
we want you to teach us. We want you to tell us. We want 
you to amplify. We want you to explicate. We 
want you to expound. We want to know something of 
what it is you're telling. You get Christians in churches 
that can't stand sermons that go longer than 15 minutes. Where's the spirit of the Epicureans 
and Stoics among the people of God in our day and age? Is it 
ever the case that we say, therefore, we want to know what these things 
mean? They were more serious on their 
investigation of Jesus and the resurrection than many who profess 
faith in Jesus and the resurrection. We don't like long sermons. We 
don't like doctrine. We like feeling. We like experience. We like raw, raw sessions. We 
want you to make us feel good. Brethren, the job calling of 
a pastor ain't to make you feel good. Let me just tell you that. 
I don't think it's necessarily to make you feel bad, so I try 
not to do that. But it's outlined very clearly 
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. And the church has lost her way 
here. Preach the word. Be ready in 
season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with 
all longsuffering and teaching. Why, Paul? For the time will 
come when they will no longer endure sound doctrine. Look at 
Paul's logic. They don't want sound doctrine. 
Preach sound doctrine to them. What is Paul saying under inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit? And this is very revolutionary 
and very countercultural, but what he is saying is simply this. 
God doesn't care what you want. God knows precisely what you 
need, and that is His Word. And so the task of ministry is 
to preach that Word. And the task of the hearer is 
to exhibit something of this philosophical spirit manifested 
by pagans in the first century in Athens, where they say, therefore, 
we want to know what these things mean. Try to find a Christian 
today. Now, I'm not picking on all of 
you. I love you, and I love the fact that our church actually 
does get to traffic in these things. But go to some of these 
other places and ask for a basic explanation of the Trinity. A 
basic explanation of the hypostatic union. The what? A basic explanation 
of blood atonement. A basic explanation of how the 
functioning happens or how the work between the consistency 
or the usefulness or the... What's the word I'm looking for? 
The relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. Oh, 
well, yeah. Brethren, these are basic Christian 
doctrines. I realize the Trinity is not 
easy to get one's mind wrapped around, but apart from the doctrine 
of the Trinity, we go to hell. That's what Jesus says, unless 
you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And yet we 
meet people in the church today that don't manifest this spirit. 
Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. If we are 
believers, we want to understand what these things mean because 
we love them. We love the Savior. We love to 
consider his life, his death, his resurrection. We love the 
New Testament epistles. We love the Old Testament. We 
love the story of Samson and how he functions like Jesus. 
We love the story of the prophets. And when I say story, I don't 
mean fake or made up. I mean narrative. If we were 
academics, I'd say, we love those narratives. The rest of us just 
say story. Story doesn't mean it's false 
or it's wrong or it's a fable. But the people of God want the 
word of God 16 ounces to the pound. They want to know the 
significance of atonement. They want to know the doctrine 
of justification by faith alone. They want to know the contours 
of the doctrine of sanctification. They want to ponder the doctrine 
of glorification. Isn't this a glorious emphasis 
that Paul has here in the city of Athens? Jesus and what? The resurrection. Isn't that 
the most comforting thought we can have on a Sunday morning 
when we have watched our neighbors to the south basically destroy 
themselves? There's something bigger. There's 
something on our horizon. There's a future state of glory. There is a place wherein righteousness 
dwells. There is a place that is surrounded 
by the very presence of God Most High. There is a place that the 
believer is on his or her way to that transcends everything 
that we see in this world. I don't think it's accidental 
that Paul is emphasizing, in a city filled with pagan philosophy, 
something that they would have found most offensive. For the 
Greeks and the Romans, the idea, or the Greeks specifically, the 
idea of resurrection, they might imbibe the idea of the immortality 
of the soul. But the thought that somebody 
would die and be raised again, it shouldn't surprise you that 
some mocked. It shouldn't surprise you at 
all, because that was offensive to them. Paul knew it. Paul is 
skilled. When Paul preaches at Mars Hill, 
he quotes one of their own poets. He quotes Epimenides. We've already seen him quote 
him in Titus chapter 1. He also quotes a pagan poet by 
the name of Eratos. Paul going to Athens knows what 
he's going to face. Paul going to Athens knows that 
he's gonna meet these philosophers. Paul knows that the Stoics are 
pantheists. Paul knows that the Epicureans 
deny God's existence in terms of, or God's power in terms of 
creation. So where does Paul start his sermon? With the doctrine 
of creation. He goes on with the doctrine 
of God's rulership over all men, over all nations, and he ends 
up at the judgment to come. Paul precisely knew his audience 
and he spoke to them in language that they knew. They didn't like 
it, they repudiated it, they despised it, they rejected it, 
though we do see that even from among that Areopagus, Dionysius, 
the Areopagite, one that sat in their council, was picked 
off by the sovereign grace of God. It is glorious. And then 
this woman, Damaris, as well. Brethren, that's what Paul is 
facing. And then before we conclude application, 
notice verse 21. I didn't see this in any of the 
commentators except Bach. It's his last name. I think his 
first name is Daryl. You know, you see something that's 
not in the rest or something that you've never thought through. 
It takes a bit of time to process it and wonder. Just because it's 
in one, it's not in the others, doesn't mean it's necessarily 
false. But I thought it was an interesting observation that 
he made. Luke basically comments in verse 21 on who the real seed 
pickers are. It ain't Paul, it's them. Look 
at verse 21. He 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. Who's the seed 
picker? Is it Paul preaching the gospel? Is it Paul preaching Israel's 
book? Is it Paul whose consistency 
and whose structural integrity is airtight from A to Z? Is it Paul that's the seed picker? 
No, it's the Athenians. These guys would sit there stroking 
their beards, wanting to hear new things. Just dazzle us with 
new things. Give us more seeds. Be a scrap 
monger. That's what these men are doing. 
I think there's some merit in that interpretation. I think 
Bach's right. Whether he cares if I endorse 
him or not, I highly doubt. But I thought that was on the 
right line. Now, let's conclude with a few observations. First, 
the response to human depravity. As I've already mentioned, it's 
not always easy to know how to respond to the sorts of things 
that we are witnessing. It's not always easy to understand 
how we are to respond. when it appears at times that 
government is overstepping their boundaries relative to the church. If you think that is a suspicious 
statement, I invite you to come back tonight, or at least tune 
in, because we're going to look specifically in Titus 3, 1 to 
3. Talk about God's providence. It's a passage calling Christians 
to submit to civil authority. Well, we need to understand what 
that means and what that looks like. But when we look around 
and we see that sort of thing, we're not really sure how to 
respond. Are we okay to be angry? Are we okay to grieve? Are we 
okay to be disgusted by it? We see the sorts of things we've 
seen over the past week in America. One of the most difficult things 
I ever saw was last night, that man that was brutalized in Dallas. 
I thought he was dead. I thought that's what I witnessed 
on Twitter, of all places, to find out this morning that he 
is alive. And I thank God for that. That is a wonderful thing. 
I don't know if the guy's a Christian. I don't know his state before 
the Lord, but he was brutalized. horribly, shockingly so. How do we respond to that? How 
do we deal with that? Is it right to have a provocation 
of spirit? Brethren, we are not Epicureans 
and we are not Stoics. Our Lord Jesus wept over the 
city of Jerusalem. Our Apostle Paul wept when the 
enemies of the church tried to make inroads. Our Apostle Paul 
and our Jesus got angry at the prevailing wickedness of men 
in their generation. So it is not wrong to have a 
provocation of spirit. It is wrong for us to act in 
an ungodly and in an unbiblical way. That's what's wrong, and 
that's wherein the challenge lies. When Christ turns over 
those money tables, or the tables of the money changers, when he 
drives out those beasts, he does it as the holy, harmless, and 
spotless one. That ain't us. So brethren, before 
you start running into false churches and turning over their 
tables, check your heart to make sure that it's not sinful anger. But the existence and the presence 
of the provocation of spirit is consistent with Yahweh, as 
I've already mentioned in the Old Testament, it's consistent 
with our Lord Jesus Christ, it's consistent with the Apostle Paul. But in Paul's case, we see how 
that provocation of spirit is processed and dealt with. He 
preaches. He tries to correct. He tries 
to fix the problem. See, this is one of the most 
unfortunate things in a time of national crisis. The people 
that actually have the answers, not to how to fix viruses, but 
how to help people deal, have been shot down. We have been 
closed down. We have been silenced by and 
large. Praise God there is an internet. Some of us remember when there 
wasn't. Some of us remember when there 
weren't cell phones. When if you didn't have a church 
to go to, You couldn't tune in to watch your pastor's ugly face 
screaming at you. That's the way it used to be. 
What if it was that way now? Would we be as content? Would 
we be as okay not getting to obey our master when he says, 
do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is 
the custom of some? And then he says even more as 
you see the day approaching. What's his point? The day there 
isn't the eschatological day, the second coming of the Lord 
Jesus. Check the notes, brethren. I've preached that passage. It 
is the day of God's judgment via historical circumstances 
in the Roman decimation of Jerusalem in AD 70. Amazing. We have this calamity on our 
horizon and Paul is telling us, Don't forsake the assembling 
of yourselves together. Paul, but don't you know what's 
gonna happen? That doesn't change where you 
need to be. Paul, don't you understand? Everything's 
gonna be sacked in Jerusalem, our homeland, our country, our 
beloved brothers and sisters. Don't forsake the assembling 
of yourselves as is the custom of some. You need to be in church. 
You need to be praising. You need to be worshiping. But 
Paul, it's a pandemic out there. Yeah, and they've told you stay 
and sufficient away from each other and wash your hands. Hey, 
I think I can even do that one. Boy, if they can do it at Walmart, 
I'd like to think we can do it here in the church of the living 
and true God. Duh, we don't understand how 
to stand away from each other. We still hug. That's not how 
we function, brethren. We're trying to be responsible. 
We're trying to be wise. But you see this sort of stuff, 
and at some point, the indignation starts to creep in. Can I make 
a confession? Part of my indignation is toward 
other churches. I have to fight that. Do you 
know what I'd like to think I would have done if I lived in America 
today? I don't care how big my church 
is. We would have met. Because I have to think churches 
are more essential than rioting. There was no social distancing 
in the image I saw. There was no concept of the Wuhan 
as they're burning and pillaging and looting and destroying. Where was the outrage? Where 
was the, you people need to wear gloves and masks in order to 
do that. No, that's reserved for the church. You can go out and loot, riot, 
destroy, burn, and decimate, but if you come to church, we're 
going to take you away to jail. Again, brother, I don't know 
that I can process all this stuff in the most consistent ways. 
I find great encouragement in the provocation of the Spirit 
of Paul here. I feel great encouragement at the provocation of the Spirit 
of David in Psalm 119. Indignation and disgust, but 
as well rivers of water run down from my eyes because men don't 
keep your law. There is a multifaceted response 
on the part of God's people. And in this instance, when he 
is provoked in the Spirit, he goes and he preaches. Now you 
might say, but I'm not a preacher. Then be a prayer. Pray for pastors. Pray for courage. Pray that men 
of God will take the pulpit again and proclaim the Word of God. 
That's what it's all about. Again, if some of this sounds 
dangerously suggestive that I'm advocating civil disobedience, 
I'm not. I'm going to highlight tonight 
the relationship between church and state. Just a bit of a preview. Everybody recognizes this. We 
all speak about it. Separation of church and state. 
The only time it gets invoked, however, is when the church gets 
political. Why isn't it invoked when the 
state gets overreaching? Where's the separation of church 
and state now? You claim to believe that? You 
claim to profess that? You claim that Western civilization 
is founded upon that? Amen! Let's be consistent. You have no prerogative under 
God to tell us to close the church. Again, don't leave crying, screaming, 
blogging, tweeting, Butler's a heretic. At least pay attention 
tonight. Give me that opportunity. Secondly, 
by way of application, the abiding validity of the Ten Commandments. 
The Bible is so clear on this. What happened? Again, a hermeneutical 
system was imposed or foisted upon men that caused them to 
reject God's moral law. That is a horrible, horrible 
situation. The Ten Commandments, the First 
and Second Commandments, are as abiding and as applicable 
now as they were in Athens in the first century, as they were 
in Israel in the 10th century BC. It's always the same. God demands that we worship and 
serve the true and living God in the first commandment. God 
demands that we worship and serve the true and living God in the 
right way in the second commandment. So, in other words, as God gives 
his commands, his commandments to men, those ten principles, 
those ten words, that we are to toe, we are to abide, we are 
to eat, he starts off with man's responsibility to God. Brethren, 
that is a lesson the church desperately needs to hear today. Our confession 
of faith is beautifully clear. The moral law doth forever bind 
all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof. and that not only in regard to 
the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority 
of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ and the gospel 
anyway dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation." There is confusion 
at this point, and we ought not to let it be so. Something as 
necessary as God's law for the restraint of man? for the tutelage 
of man and for the normative conduct of man? Brethren, we 
need to think properly on gospel, to be sure, but also on the law. If we don't properly understand 
the law and preach the law the way God intends, men will never 
see their need for gospel. It is absolutely crucial, as 
Machen says, that we return to a proper preaching of God's holy 
law. And then the final observation 
has to deal, not with law, but with gospel. Look at what happens 
when you preach the true gospel in a situation where you've got 
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. They insult him. They call him 
a seed picker. They then take him. Now, I think 
Paul was a willing participant, but perhaps he wasn't. Maybe 
he wanted to get to Corinth earlier. Maybe he didn't want to go to 
Mars Hill. They take him and they bring him up to Mars Hill. 
And then they mock him. They mock him for preaching Jesus 
and the resurrection. But look at what God does. Some 
do believe. It's a beautiful thing, brethren. 
When we preach the gospel, it's not our persuasiveness, it's 
not our ability, it's not our oratory, it's not our imploring 
of sinners, but it's God's sovereignty. It's the Lord who blessed the 
preaching by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And 
we pray that God does that today, that as the gospel is preached 
again live or through the internet, that the Lord Most High will 
convict the hearts of sinners, will convict the hearts of sinners 
in this very room, showing you your transgression against God's 
law, but showing you the glory of Jesus and the resurrection. 
Believe on Him and you will be saved. Let us pray. Father, thank 
you for your Word, and thank you for the clarity of law and 
gospel. Thank you for the example of 
the Apostle Paul. Thank you that you even show 
us provocation in the heart of a holy God. The Lord Jesus manifests 
this as perfect humanity, even indignation, and a zeal for the 
house of God that ate him up to the point where he drove out 
the money changers. We see not only that, but we 
see tears, we see pity expressed by God through the prophet Jonah 
with reference to the city of Nineveh. We see that compassion 
in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. We see it mingled 
in the apostle Paul as well. And God, I pray that you would 
help us to think biblically, help us to think righteously 
in this present evil age. And as well, God, help us to 
live in light of such things and to preach or pray. Help us 
to be faithful with reference to the needs of men. Ultimately, 
it is their salvation, their forgiveness of sin, the imputation 
of the righteousness of Christ. May we never forget that in the 
church, and may we always seek to be faithful relative to this 
calling. And we ask this through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen.