Getting God’s Message Out.
Acts 17:16-34
What do you do when you are surrounded by things that make you uncomfortable?
When Paul came to Athens, he walked through town and was upset by all the idols that he saw there.
Now just think about the different ways he could have responded to it.
1. He could have just left town. He had been run out of Thessalonica and Berea. Why waste time here?
2. He could have checked into a hotel and watched the Olympic games, and just ignored everything. Why should these people listen to him, a Jew. These were the educated elite of Athens! They were arrogant academic egg heads who loved to argue the latest issues. Let someone else deal with them.
3. He could have just admired the diversity of the religious scenery and appreciated the many forms of worship of the culture of the day. I mean everyone has a right to worship like they want to, right? No one should be cramming their religious views down anyone else’s throats, so live and let live, right.
What would you do if you were there in Athens and saw all the idolatry there? What would Jesus want you to do?
Illustration: I heard about two salesmen who were sent to a place in Africa to sell shoes. When they arrived they noticed that everyone was walking about barefooted. Both called back to the home office to report. One said, “I’m coming home, there’s no use opening a store here, they don’t even wear shoes.” The other one practically shouted, “Send me everything you’ve got, this is a perfect place, we’ll be the first shoe store here!”
Perspective on a situation makes a huge difference.
Here in Acts 17, God has given us a great example of how to handle a city lost in sin. Paul is exhibit “A” for Action against Idolatry. So, instead of sitting on his hands, he proclaimed the gospel to anyone who would listen. I love the way he vented his frustration. Not with violence, but with vigilance. He unleashed the most powerful weapon there is! He publicly presented the truth about God proclaiming Jesus, judgment and the resurrection. And look at what happened.
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols.
17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.
18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. And some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"-- because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
20 "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; we want to know therefore what these things mean."
In the face of sin, we need to react God’s way. What made Paul so upset? At least these four things:
1. Paul was convinced that idolatry was so bad that it must not go unchallenged.
2. Paul was also convinced that God’s honor was at stake here. These people should be respecting the will of God who made them.
3. Paul was convinced that the message of Christ could save them. He had first hand experience in the power of the Word of God.
4. Paul was convinced that he must not be silent. All it takes for evil to abound is for those who know God to do and say nothing.
Are you convinced that God’s Word is true? Will you prepare to give an answer for the hope that is within you? You have a mouth. When the Lord saved you from sin, he saved your mouth too. He has a job for it. 1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
This verse says that God chose you, anointed you as priest, sanctified you, and made you his own so that you would declare his praises. He called you out of darkness. Your job is to call others out of there too.
But first you must be convinced, convicted and converted. Convinced that Jesus is the Christ who died for our sins, convicted that you are a sinner, and converted by the glorious gospel of God’s grace. If you aren’t convinced, you can’t convince anyone else.
Paul was convinced. Are you? Convinced people are compelled to share their faith.
Some people just want a nice church membership with the church of their choice where they can come get their religious duties out of the way and then go back home in time to watch the ball game. Listen, Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that you and I could have a comfortable pew on Sundays and Wednesdays. The best preacher money can buy can’t do your Christian service for you. You and I will face God some day. We will. Today, hear his voice. Jesus commissions you and I to go tell others the good news. Let’s show Jesus we believe he died for us. Let’s tell others about him. Let’s invite others to come to know him! Are you convinced? Show it by bringing someone to Jesus.
Next we turn to the content of the sermon of Acts 17
These Epicurean and Stoic philosophers represented the cultural egg heads of the day. These were two schools of thought that clashed in ideological combat regularly. Epicureans believed the highest good was pleasure, stoics believed the highest good was detached moral calm. Passion, anger and fear were fine for the Epicurean, but the stoic sought to find peace in rational unemotional peace. They were probably wondering which side Paul would lean toward and wanted to hear his views. As Paul preached the Epicureans might loudly “Amen!” points they appreciated, but the Stoics would sit silently in unemotional thought.
Listen to the lesson they heard from the lips of this Jewish Christian come lately to Athens.
22 And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
24 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
25 neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things;
26 and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,
27 that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ’For we also are His offspring.’
29 "Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."
33 So Paul went out of their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
His outline is simple, profound, and pointed. It is aimed at their hearts. Epicureans didn’t believe in God’s workings among men or in life after death. They are probably the ones that sneered at the resurrection. Stoics, on the other hand, might have been more inclined to hear more about this.
In just over 250 words this record of Paul’s message sums up a tremendous package of theological concepts about God, man, righteousness and judgment. Paul saves resurrection till the end of his message because he knows that this will be a hurdle for them. But it is also the proof of Jesus claims as Lord and judge of the world.
There was not a large response. Perhaps this was in Paul’s mind when later he wrote to the Corinthians and said, 1 Cor. 1: 26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,
29 that no man should boast before God.
