The context of Paul’s Mars Hill Sermon
When we look at Paul’s Mars Hill sermon given in Athens in Acts 17, he is well into his second missionary journey. His plans were changed early in the journey when the Holy Spirit kept him from preaching the word in Asia and then he received his Macedonian call in Troas. He diverted to Philippi and went from the Philippian jail to Thessalonica and then on to Berea.
Paul met tremendous opposition in Thessalonica. Those that opposed Paul in Thessalonica went to Berea to stir up opposition there and stirred up the crowds when they found out Paul was teaching in Berea that Jesus is the Christ. Paul slipped away from the mob, got in a boat, and went to Athens.
Paul left Silas and Timothy in Berea to continue to do the follow up work there and in nearby Thessalonica. Those who helped Paul get to Athens left him there. Paul sent word back to Silas and Timothy to come as quickly as you can. While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he went to the Synagogue to reason with the Jews there.
We do not have the message that Paul spoke at the Synagogue in Athens. There is only one verse about Paul speaking to the Jews in Athens (Acts 17:17). We do know what Paul consistently said when he addressed his fellow Jews from his other sermons. We see the consistency from Paul’s sermon at the Synagogue (Acts 13:14-22) and to the Jewish crowd at the Temple in Jerusalem (Acts 22:1-21) and to the Jewish leaders at Rome (Acts 28:17-20).
When Paul spoke to his fellow Jews, he addressed them every time as “my brothers.” He used the Aramaic language when he spoke to his fellow Jews. Paul would tell them his background as a Pharisee and that he studied under Gamaliel and trained in the law. He would tell them how zealous he was for the traditions of their ancestors and how he himself was a persecutor of the church.
Paul would explain how that in his pursuit of persecuting the Christians, dragging them off to prison, that this led him down the Damascus Road where he had his encounter with Jesus Christ. He would consistently tell them how this encounter with Jesus changed his life.
When Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he realized that Jesus, who he was persecuting, is the Messiah, the very one that he and all the Jews were waiting for. It became clear to Paul that Jesus is the awaited Messiah foretold of in the law and the prophets. Paul would take time and show them from the law and from the prophets that Jesus is the Christ.
Paul was also clear that his call to proclaim the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ wasn’t just for the Jews, but that his call was for the gentiles too. He even showed them that this plan for the Messiah was for Jews and Gentiles was told already by the prophets. It wasn’t until Paul told them that his call was to the gentiles that they would stop him right there and here no more. There would be a riot and he would have to be protected from the mob or be torn to pieces.
That was his normal pattern when he proclaimed the gospel to the Jews. He would then announce that since they were rejecting his message he would go to the gentiles. But each time some Jews believed. There is no mention of Jews believing in Athens, but normally that is mentioned when he preached in the Synagogue. That is what had just happened in Thessalonica when Paul preached for three weeks about the resurrection. There in Thessalonica some Jews believed.
In Berea the Jews accepted Paul’s message with great eagerness. But the opposition mob from Thessalonica that forced him to depart from there in the cover of darkness had now come to Berea. Those who troubled Paul in Thessalonica had come to Berea to put a stop to Paul. That is when the Berean believers escorted Paul out of Berea to Athens.
It seems that Paul is by himself in Athens because the new believers from Berea, ones who gladly received Paul’s message of Jesus Christ, who brought him to Athens had already returned to Berea. And Timothy and Silas were still in Berea doing the follow up work there. And we don’t really know where Luke is, so it seems like Paul may have been on his own at this time. And we read that Paul was distressed while in Athens because he found Athens filled with idols.
He was preaching in the marketplace when Paul spoke to the Greeks. In the marketplace the stoic philosophers and other Greek philosophers are debating with Paul publicly in the marketplace and people are wondering what is this that Paul saying.
That’s when they took Paul to the meeting of the Areopagus. Sometimes we refer to the Areopagus as Mars Hill and his message as the Mars Hill sermon. That’s because Mars Hill is a Romanized reference to Areopagus. The Parthenon is right next to the Areopagus. There are a few New Testament versions that refer to Acts 17:19 and Acts 17:22 as Mars Hill, but most versions refer to this place in Athens as the Areopagus.
The Mars Hill Message
After speaking at the Athens marketplace and making an impact by telling them about the resurrection, Paul is invited to speak at Mars Hill (the Areopagus). This is the place where everybody spent their time listening to and talking about new ideas. The message Paul gives is to the Greek stoic philosophers at the Areopagus. We can assume that because Paul was in Greece and that we know he used the Greek language other times when he spoke to Greeks (Acts 21:37) that he spoke in Greek at the marketplace and at the Areopagus.
Paul begins addressing the philosophers on Mars Hill by beginning where they are at and bridging the gospel to them. He first is complementing them on being religious. He used their own language. Then he refers to the inscription on one of their altars. He also is quoting one of their own poets. Paul begins the Mars Hill sermon in a very sensitive way, but just hang on because, Paul shifts his message to focus on the resurrection and judgment and has the Athenians sneering at him very soon.
Paul first says “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously (Acts 17:22). That statement should draw in the philosophers of the Areopagus. He told them he Looked around Athens at their shrines and found one inscribed, “to the unknown God”. He told them, “I am here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, to know who you’re dealing with (Acts 17:23).
Very soon into Paul’s message he was saying things about idols that in other places nearly got him killed, like in Ephesus (Acts 19). He calls them to repent from thinking of God like an image of gold, silver or stone. Paul is telling them at Mars Hill, we do not make God instead, God made us. It is a bold message to preach in Athens, a place full of idols.
Paul tells them that from one man God made all the nations. We must seek God and find God. He is near. This is when Paul quotes their own poet, “We are his offspring”. In the message summary we read Paul only mentions the resurrection. This is what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 with some of the same themes that parallel what he addresses in his Mars Hill sermon: creation, all nations from one man (Adam), raising him from the dead, (Christ and the Resurrection).
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:20-24)
Probably Paul told them all that he had also written in 1 Corinthians 15. When Paul mentions the resurrection at Mars Hill, the crowd is split. Some sneered at the resurrection, and some wanted to hear more. At that Paul left the council at Areopagus (Mars Hill).
The results of the Mars Hill Sermon
There was a division among the philosophers at Mars Hill. Not only did some want to hear more also some believed.
But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:34)
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Conclusion
What might have happened beyond what we read in the New Testament? There are early church history writings that say that Dionysius a member of the Areopagus went on to become the Bishop of Athens. What we know of Paul and his ministry pattern we would expect that he would have kept contact with this group if they were genuine believers ready to grow in faith.
Paul’s pattern:
Abide in Christ
Enter new places
Preach the Gospel
Disciple new believers
Start churches
Develop leaders
Exit to new places for ongoing ministry
It was his pattern to pour into new believers like Dionysius if he was genuinely interested in following Christ. He would always disciple new believers and start a church. In Athens he would have continued his pattern when people responded to the gospel. For the next year and a half Paul was fifty miles away from Athens in Corinth (Acts 18:11). His two letters to Thessalonica we have in Scripture, but there is no record of a letter to Athens or to Berea either. The difference with Berea is that we know he revisited and continued to invest into Berean leaders like Sopater (Acts 20:4, Romans 16:21)
After his year and a half in Corinth he stayed for three years in Ephesus a couple hundred miles away (Acts 20:31). When Paul left Corinth, he stopped in Crenchreae (Acts 18:18). That is very close to Athens, but no mention of him going back there again. If Paul did not return to Athens, he did sail right past it on several occasions.
If Dionysius of the Mars Hill council and a woman Damaris and the others who believed were sincere Paul would have made sure they were discipled, and a church started. That is why he was waiting for Silas and Timothy, so that the work of follow up and church planting would be done in Thessalonica and Berea.
We don’t read in the New Testament that he ever returned to Athens, or hosted Dionysius in Corinth, or wrote a letter to the church in Athens. If the church history is correct and a church did form in Athens, then we can assume Paul was in on it even if there is no mention of it in the New Testament. That was who Paul was at his core, preaching the gospel, discipling believers, and starting churches from Jerusalem to Illyricum through the power of the Spirit of God (Romans 15:19).
Paul preached the gospel on any occasion and at every opportunity. He was ready to go to great lengths to show that Jesus is the Christ and explain, creation of the world and of man, Who God really is, how to know God, and the resurrection. We need to follow the example of Paul sharing Christ at any occasion and at every opportunity.
