Acts 17:16-34
The Gospel goes to Athens
- What Paul saw
- What Paul felt
- What Paul said*
(*This basic outline comes from John Stott’s commentary on Acts)
- What Paul saw:
When you look at the world around you, what do you see?
Perhaps you see things from a worldly perspective: you see nothing beyond wealth, status, worldly circumstance – those are the things this world tells us really matter.
And maybe that is all you see when you look at yourself:
how rich you are; how beautiful you are; the comfort and desirability of your worldly position and circumstance.
These are the things that the world tells us we need to have – seek – change – improve – at all costs.
And it’s not that some of those things don’t matter – some people’s worldly situations involve significant suffering which ought to be alleviated when possible;
but none of those things ultimately matter.
And, when Paul looked around Athens – Athens was filled with beautiful art, was filled with magnificent architecture, was filled with temples and carved statues – but those things weren’t the things that he saw;
When Paul looked around Athens – Athens was full of intellectual people, full of philosophers, full of religious sophistification – but those weren’t the things he saw;
When Paul looked around Athens, he saw their spiritual condition; he saw their spiritual lostness; he saw v16 that the city was “full of idols” – literally: that it was submerged in idols – the picture is that this city was drowning in idolatry.
v 22: Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.”
This isn’t a compliment – this is a negative statement exposing that in all their idolatry, they were lost in ignorance when it came to Spiritual Truth;
and we see that because of what Paul says next:
v 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god.
They were “so religious” and so comprehensive in their idolatry that just in case they might miss a god with all their idols and temples; they had a “miscellaneous” god; a “whatever other god might be out there”
And this, is an admission of ignorance – that with all their gods and with all their altars – they nevertheless are so uncertain that they have a “just-in-case-we-got-it-wrong-or-missed-something-with-all-the-others”
because the title “unknown god” – is an admission of not having knowledge – the greek word is where we get our english word “agnostic” – which literally means “not knowing” or “not having knowledge”.
And Paul goes on to say: “So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
In all their religious-ness, they are ignorant – they are lost – they are blind.
The thing that Paul saw – though the world would have looked at Athens and been impressed and in awe;
Paul looked at Athens and was grieved that they were spiritually lost – they were spiritually blind – they were spiritually dead and did not have the Truth – the only thing that could give them life and hope and peace and joy – the things that all their idols could never give them.
What would Paul see in our culture in our day? Their objects which showed their drowning in idols were temples and statues;
But what would Paul see in our lives? Maybe not “I see your altars”, maybe not “I see your temples”;
but, “I see your _______”
(What Paul saw);
2. What Paul felt:
v16 “he was greatly distressed” – literally: “he was provoked in his Spirit”
Paraphrase: “His whole soul was revolted at the sight of a city given over to idolatry.”
He saw them in their spiritual lostness – and that is the thing he cared about; that is the thing he was grieved over; that is the thing which welled up compassion in him such that he was moved to proclaim Jesus to them.
Idolatry is not just one of those neutral cultural differences from one culture to the next – it is spiritual blindness and lostness; it is the rejection of the one true & living God – and an embrace of a false god which is no god at all.
And that’s why Christians have always been passionate and zealous about missions and evangelism: because they see the spiritual realities of these things that the world often wants to believe to be mere superficial cultural differences.
This is the same idea which describes God’s reaction to idolatry in the OT; and God’s reaction is being grieved and filled with jealousy.
And that word “jealousy” sounds wrong to our ears to apply to God; but it’s important to remember that God says that he is jealous; it is one of his attributes.
Just as much as God is love, God is jealous: Exodus 34:14 – “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
Stott: “Jealousy is the resentment of rivals, and whether it is good or evil depends on whether the rival has any business to be there.”
For example: in a marriage, jealously is good because no rival belongs; and a spouse that isn’t jealous at the introduction of a rival doesn’t value the marriage and doesn’t love the spouse in the way they ought.
Because the relationship – for it to be what its supposed to be – is necessarily characterized by exclusivity.
And that is all the more true with God – because he is the only true and living God – and he made us for himself, to live in a relationship with him – but we have introduced rivals – false gods to take god’s exclusive rightful place – and his love for us provokes his jealousy at the introduction of a rival.
Idols have no business being there; they have no business stealing from God’s glory or taking worship which belongs rightly and exclusively to him.
Paul was filled with compassion for those who were submerged in darkness; and he was grieved for God’s glory which is rightly due to him yet he was being robbed of; which is what those religious people longed for as the fulfillment of their desires and the source of truth and hope and peace and joy and security in life yet they were ignorant of and deceived into looking for those things in places where they would never be found.
And this is where Paul goes with what he says.
Stott: “We do not speak as Paul spoke because we do not feel as Paul felt; and we do not feel as Paul felt because we do not see as Paul saw.”
What do we feel when we see the lost condition of people around us? Do we feel compassion? Do we feel zeal for God’s glory?
In Scripture we see 3 motives for evangelism:
Obedience to Jesus’ command; but an even greater motive than obedience is:
Compassion for those who are spiritually lost; and the greatest motive is:
Zeal for the glory of Jesus.
(What Paul saw; what Paul felt):
3. What Paul said
This sermon is a somewhat famous sermon of the Apostle Paul’s – also known as the sermon on Mars Hill which is what Areopagus (v22) translates to.
And it’s famous as one of Paul’s sermons to unbelieving non-jewish audience who wouldn’t have familiarity with the Scriptures – of which we saw the other main example back in chapter 14 when they preached in Lystra – the main difference between here and there is the higher degree of intellectual and philosophical sophistication here in Athens; whereas in Lystra they would have been less educated. And you see some of that reflected here as Paul is preaching to philosophers and quoting poets that these philosophers would be familiar with – and he’s not quoting scripture – and so one of the reasons this passage is famous is people think that it’s an example of Paul abandoning the Bible in favor of finding “common ground” with his audience – and preaching form the culture instead of preaching from the bible.
Some people think it’s an example of Paul preaching with incredible cultural sensitivity;
And there is a degree of truth here – because Paul doesn’t explicitly quote scripture and Paul does make cultural references to find some common ground with his audience – which certainly shows that he knows his audience – he didn’t quote philosophers when he was talking to more “common folk”;
But, although Paul doesn’t explicitly quote scripture by referencing chapter and verse, he does unmistakably allude to Scripture;
And though Paul does find some common ground in his sermon by referencing things in the culture that his audience would be familiar with – those things aren’t what’s driving his sermon – those things aren’t where he’s finding the source of truth – those are just places in the culture just happens to have stumbled upon part of the truth;
But the sermon is founded on biblical truth that runs all throughout it, even if he isn’t quoting chapter and verse.
And, what is the main point of his sermon, except that: The biblical God is the God of all and so has a claim on all people; that they have rejected this God and lived in ignorance of the one whom they should honor; and that God has raised Jesus from the dead who will return as Judge of all whom reject him.
But: if this sermon is an illustration of cultural sensitivity; then Paul needs to go back to cultural sensitivity training.
Certainly in his sermon he finds a common ground and point of appeal – just as he would in the Synagogue – it’s not long before that common ground turns to critical challenge – and as soon as he finds a piece of common ground to stand on with his audience – that soon does he begin to challenge their worldview.
And Paul in fact is giving a theology lesson: he is teaching the doctrine of Creation, and what it means that God is Creator.
3 positive statements; 3 negative statements:
Positive:
- He is the Creator of all
- He is the Sustainer of all
- He is the Ruler of all
Positive:
1. He is the Creator of all things
v24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth”
“He made the world and everything in it” – implication: he owns the world and everything in it.
This, Paul is saying, ought to be evident to every person who lives in God’s world:
People have an innate sense of god – because the world in which we live points to his existence and reality.
“During the French revolution, it was said by one of the spokesmen of the Enlightenment: “We will pull down your steeples so that you will not be reminded of your superstitions,” to which Christians replied, “Yes, but you will not be able to rip the stars out of the sky.”
You belong to him; you are his; you owe your very existence to him; and so you are not your own; but you belong to God the Creator.
And because he’s Creator: he can’t be minimized: v29 – “therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill.”
Did you notice: “we should not think that the divine being…”
What we think about God matters; we aren’t free to think whatever we like about him – because when we do, we inevitably minimize him; we try to “create” him and make him after our desires and wishes – rather than realize he has created us.
See: that puts everything upside-down: we’ve been made by him, so we can’t try to be his maker. He can’t be minimized, to something that we conceive and create; he can’t be lowered down to the level of “creation”, because he is “creator” – and in the biblical worldview there is a definite distinction between those two things – something that is confused in other world-views – where “divine” beings are minimized down to human-like beings or objects within the creation; and where human beings or created things are elevated to divine beings:
this is what Paul in another place described as “the great exchange”:
where the glory of the immortal God was exchanged for things in the creation;
where the truth of God was exchanged for a lie;
where the worship rightly due to God was given to created things rather than the Creator – who is to be forever praised.
The glory of the one true living God & creator of all was robbed of him and traded for things which have no glory and which are no gods at all.
Idolatry makes God a suspicious reflection of ourselves and our desires. like us. And a god who is just like us, a god who is thought up and made by us, is no god at all – he is just a figment of our imagination – and your imagination can entertain you but it can’t help you or save you or provide for you or hear you or talk to you or answer your prayers or do anything for you.
(creator of all things)
2. He is the sustainer of all things:
v25 “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
He is the giver of all gifts.
If the implication of God as Creator is that he owns you, then the implication of God as Sustainer is that you owe him! Because you haven’t given him anything, but he has given you everything.
Every breath is enabled by God; every breath of air is given by God; and so every breath ought to be breathed out in gratitude to him, with conscious recognition that that breath was graciously given by him.
And, so he can’t be manipulated: v25 “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.”
This doesn’t mean that we don’t serve God; but it means that we don’t serve God as if that service meant that we were supplying God with some need that he in himself lacked; such that we could then manipulate him and control him – maniplete him by with-holding what he needs; and control him by only supplying what he needs under certain conditions – with our list of demands.
“Aseity” (or, independence, or self-sufficency): That God is self-contained.
He is totally independent – he doesn’t need anything outside of himself; within himself he has all he needs; he doesn’t need anyone to give him anything, he doesn’t need anyone to supply him with anything, he doesn’t need help from anyone;
he needs nothing; rather he provides everything.
he needs nothing; we need everything!
He depends on nothing, we depend on Him for everything.
EX: When rooting for a football team, you feel like they need you – that your cheering is holding them up and sustaining them and if you stop they’ll collapse. But it’s not true with a football team; and it’s not true with God.
And what that means, is that God has everything he needs, so he owes us nothing – because we did nothing such that God would be obligated to us.
And, God provides everything we have, so we owe him everything.
And we tend to get that backwards: we tend to think that we don’t owe God; but rather he owes us: and we tend to serve him out of that assumption – that this is another wonderful sacrificial godly thing I’m doing for God to put him in my debt – but God is indebted to no creature;
We owe him all we have; we owe him all our lives.
(creator; sustainer):
3. He is the Ruler of all things:
v26 “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”
(from one man) – they believed in their own racial superiority, but Paul affirms that we all have a common humanity – and so one race isn’t superior to another – but later in v 28 – “we are his offspring” – is a reference to our common humanity because of our common Creator.
If God is the creator of all, then all people have their origin in him – and despite the differences in language or place of origin or appearance – we share a common bond with one another.
We are all made in the image of God, and because God is our Creator, we all share in that common humanity as God’s offspring – his creatures made in his image.
So we all started from one man, from which nations emerged; and the resulting history of that humanity, was all marked out by God.
He is sovereign over all history; over all people; over all places. Things don’t just happen, and God doesn’t just respond to what happens, but he plans out history.
He is sovereign over all history; over all people; over all places.
And so he can’t be contained: to one time or one place or one people:
v24 – he does not live in temples built by human hands.
he can’t be contained in a man-made temple because he isn’t limited by time and space, but is immense and eternal –
in one sense, His temple is the whole universe – but in another sense he can’t even be contained in the whole universe but is outside of it, and above it;
Where in pagan religions there were many gods and each god had it’s own little sphere over it’s own little space over it’s own individual group of people with it’s own little limited abilities – and so they needed many gods because no 1 god was absolute – within no 1 god was present what they needed from god; here Paul is showing that there is 1 God who is absolute and so over all –
And so Christianity can’t be held captive or identified with 1 culture or geographic region or ethnicity – and it never has been in it’s history – unlike many other religions Christianity has always proved itself to cross over those boundaries because it is transcendent over human boundaries because God is God over and rules over all – everyone everywhere.
in fact, the repetition of that little word “all” is all over this passage – because God is the God of all – and he wasn’t distant and absent from the world as some of them believed – but he was near to it and in fact ruled over it with power;
And life wasn’t random as some of them believed, but he rules over human history – moving it along his purposes towards his goal.
And so if all this is true: if God is your maker; if God is the giver of not only your life but all good gifts in your life; if God is sovereign over your life:
Then: You must seek him. v27 – “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.”
God’s purpose in creating, providing, ruling: is “so that we would seek him, and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from anyone of us.”
He’s not far from us – though he can’t be contained, or minimized – though he is absolute and above and over all – he’s not distant; he’s not unreachable – but he is near to us.
A god who is absolute, but not accessible – even though he would be able to help us, can’t be sought and can’t be found and so that help goes unused and un-received.
But A god who is accessible, but not absolute – he can be found but once he’s found can’t be of any help because he’s ultimately in the same situation as we are.
But God is absolute and accessible. He’s not far from us;
but the problem is, that we’re far from him.
Though we’re obligated to seek him, the passage suggests that the results of that are uncertain: even though he’s near to us, that it’s very uncertain that we would find him – because in our sin – in our blindness & lostness – we are far from him
“Reach out for him” – “to feel around for” or to “grope around in the dark after something.
the picture is, of someone who is in a dark cave and just feeling their way around in hopes of finding the way out that their looking for but not much hope of being able to.
And that’s the picture of us in our idolatry.
And if that’s all that the Christian message is, then it ultimately doesn’t give too much hope. But the Christian message is, that when we should have searched for him but didn’t, couldn’t; he came and searched for us.
He entered in;
Lewis: “The idea that God is hiding from us is like imagining a cat is hiding from a mouse.” God isn’t hiding from us; but all the way back to the garden Adam and Eve hid from God and ever since then, even though God is near to us – he’s seen and evident all around you just open your eyes! – but ever since then, we’ve been hiding from Him, running from Him, rejecting Him;
We have lived in ignorance of the one we should be ever-mindful of; we have despised the one we owe all debt of gratitude to; we have rebelled against the one we owe every obligation of obedience to; we have given exchanged the glory of the living God for worthless idols that have no life, and that can’t give us life or anything else.
Yet he sent his Son, not just to search for us, but to find us; not just to appear but to die for us and be raised again; and he who came first as Savior, who will come again as judge.
And so v30: “in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”