The Testimony in Greece (4) Athens: Paul & the Philosophers in Athens: Paul's Call to All (Acts 17:16-34)

Introduction

Have you ever visited another country and observed their culture. There is nothing like the fresh perspective that you have. Things jump out at you. Wow, the Maltese are so small. Why do Americans have to have everything so big? 50 different types of Coke. Why is England so gray? Ah, the smell of Asia? Paul likewise was struck by things in the cities he visited. And one of the things he was struck by was their religiosity. It made him angry.

Context: Paul’s Journey South to Athens

So let’s pick up the story. Paul is on his second missionary journey. He has crossed the Agean sea from Modern day Turkey. So now he is in modern day Greece. And you can follow Paul’s journey on the map in your outline.

The first big city was Philippi. That’s where Purple Lydia and the Jailer became Christians. But Paul was beaten up without a trial. But despite that humiliation, his visit was a success. He left Philippi with a small church that met in Lydia’s house.

So Paul headed south Next stop Thessalonica. Again, another important city. Paul’s message there was the same. The Christ must suffer and rise from the dead. And Jesus is that Christ. He took this message to the Jew first, then the Greek. And while Paul saw some Jews saved, a great crowd of God fearing Gentiles become Christian. These were Greeks attracted to the synagogue, and worshipped the God of Israel. Not surprisingly, the Jews were jealous. They drove Paul out of town. So the church sent him on 100 Km south to Berea. But now there was a church in Thessalonica. So Paul and Silas’ short stay of some weeks or perhaps months was a success. Paul and Silas left a church there. Later Paul would send 1 & 2 Thessalonians to that church. An enduring testimony to Jesus Christ in that city.

Next stop Berea. Again, same message, and again success. This time, many Jews believed, as well as some Gentiles. But the Jews from Thessalonica heard that God’s Word was preached in Berea. So they went there and drove Paul out. Again, Paul is pursued. Again, the persecution of Paul didn’t stop God opening hearts. For many people believed in Christ. And some of these new Christians took Paul to the sea, and escorted him to Athens.

Angered in Athens

In Athens, Paul was meant to be waiting for Silas and Timothy. Apparently, they could stay in Berea, even though Paul had to leave. Paul was a team player. His preferred mode of operation was to work closely with Silas and Timothy. But the churches in Berea, Thessalonica and Philippi needed some strengthening and encouragement. They were only new Christians and a young church, a few weeks old. They needed Silas and Timothy more than Paul. So Paul was left alone in Athens (1 Thessalonians 3:1-2 NIV)

But Paul, it seems, couldn’t help himself, because he was outraged and provoked to anger in Athens. The city was a veritable forest of idols and altars and statues and temples. Their superstition was rife, public, even an object of their civic pride. His spirit grew hot within him, and he could contain himself no longer. So we read:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there (Acts 17:16-17 NIV).

So great was the ignorance, so obvious the need, that Paul began dialoguing with them. First in the synagogues, as he had done in Thessalonica and Berea. But then in the city square and the market place. Not shouting at them, but talking with them, reasoning with them, appealing to them. And speaking the gospel of Jesus and the news of the resurrection of the dead into their need.

Before the City Leaders

Eventually, some philosophers heard him. They say, ‘Here is something new!’ And they loved the new. So they bring Paul to a public meeting to explain this new foreign teaching.

So before Paul in the Areopagus are the city leaders. One could imagine the civic leaders, the elders, the important, wealthy people. The sort of people who might be invited to hear a televised public lecture at the press club.

Among them are Epicurean philosophers. They belong to the skeptics society. They were hardened materialists. All they believed in was what they could see, feel and touch. So when some religious teacher comes with pie in the sky ideas they think, “Here we go” “Another charlatan and fraudster trying to dupe the gullible”. No doubt they agreed that the city’s idols were superstitious and ridiculous. If they lived today, they would love Richard Dawkins. They would listen to Philip Adams on Radio National. They would read the ethics of Peter Singer.

For them, there was no afterlife, no judgment, no immortal soul, no need to fear God. They were hedonists. Their creed was to maximize pleasure and peace and tranquility in the here and now and minimize pain. And that is basically modern western materialistic philosophy.

Also in the crowd listening to Paul were some Stoic philosophers. Their theology was pretty much that of the Jedi and George Lucas. Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi would be Stoics. They were pantheists. They believed in the force, which they called ‘the Logos’. God for them was an energy or force which was everywhere and in everything in the universe. The wise man was the one who lived according to this ‘logos’, this ‘force’, this law inherent in everything. As Yoda says, ‘feel the force flow through you. The rock. The tree. The ship.’ May the Logos be with you! (If I break off quoting Star Wars or sounding like Yoda you’ll forgive me, won’t you).

Religion as Groping Around in the Dark

So Paul starts off just by telling them what he sees. He says, 'Look, I’m new among you. This is the first time I’ve been to your city. Let me give you a visitors view. Let me tell you what I see. I’ll give you a generalisation, because clearly not all of you believe the same things. But this is what your city tells me that you are all about. You are very religious. You are very respectful of the many different gods you believe in. You have altars and statues and temples and rituals to pacify them. You pour money and time and worry and resources into these things. This tells me that you are ignorant. I’m not being rude. You admit it yourself when you have an altar to "An Unknown God". All of your religious efforts just seem to be groping and feeling around in the dark. Well, I’m here to turn the lights on. Let me tell you what you don’t know about God.'

And so Paul corrects them on three of their misunderstandings about God. Where does God live? What does God need? And what is God like?

Where Does God Live? (v. 24)

The people of Athens thought that their gods lived in temples. That’s why they spent money building them and time frequenting them. But this is folly. The true and living God doesn’t live in buildings. As Solomon said when he dedicated the true God’s temple:

But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! (1 Kings 8:27 NIV)

God holds the world in his hands, so to speak. So we cannot put God in a box, or a building.

Unfortunately, some current denominations think you can put God in a box. When I grew up as a Roman Catholic, going to mass, at the front of the building was a box called a tabernacle. That was where they put the reserved transubstantiated sacrament. Our school chapel at De La Salle Kingsgrove was getting a tabernacle. And this was a great honour, because God himself would be dwelling in the building. This is literally God in a box. Altars on which to sacrifice Jesus. A box to put Jesus’ flesh in. You can see why we needed a reformation.

But lets not point the finger at Roman Catholicism. How many times do we Anglicans think or say that church buildings are the ‘House of God’. How many Anglicans think that there are special places in church buildings behind which they cannot go, like behind the communion rail. There are no special places in church buildings. We need to demystify the whole thing. Perhaps you might like to have an excursion behind the rail or in the vestry. Because there is nothing magical or special about those spaces.

God does not dwell in houses made by the hands of men. Church buildings are rain shelters that enable us to comfortably meet together. So if this building got knocked over on Monday morning in a freak accident, nothing would have happened to our church, nor to God. Because Church is the people, not the building. So we’d just go and meet somewhere else.

But if one person said, ‘I don’t want to follow Jesus anymore – I’m kicking it in, it’s too hard to bea Christian!’ Then something terrible has happened to the church. I wonder what you would think is worse? That your church building was destroyed and you had to go and meet in the hall? Or that just one person in your church or Sunday school quietly, discretely, fell away from Christ, and stopped meeting to hear God’s word? Buildings are just for this life, and will not survive the Day of judgment and fire, no matter what heritage order is slapped on it. But people are for eternity, and will spend an eternity with or without God.

What Does God Need? (v. 25)

The people of Athens thought that God was served by hands. This is the co-dependent god. Our god needs us to worship him. Set up the statue, paint a picture of him, sacrifice on the altar, pay him attention, stroke his ego, pat his head. God needs us.

But the true God has no need of us. He doesn’t lack anything. He is completely self-sufficient. He didn’t even make us to love him, as if he needed our love. No, he was already love, being three persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. God was always love, and needs nothing from us to make him complete.

What is God Like? (v. 29)

The people of Athens thought very hard about what God might look like. They used their best materials to try and picture their gods: gold, silver, precious materials. Stone, so their statue would last. We might add to the list stained glass. The craftsmen would use their imagination and creativity and skill. It was a veritable creator’s workshop. They are the books of the illiterate, after all. And they would make an image or an icon of God. And they would use it as an aid to their respect of the one they are praying to.

But there is a problem with this. What happens when the football gets booted through the stained glass window? Ah, we’ve thought of that – chicken wire! OK, what happens when birds poop on the statue. Or the glue wears out on the Mosaic and the tiles fall off. Or the gold begins flaking off the icon. Well, you’ve got to maintain it, and dust it, and clean it, and repair it, and restore it. And immediately we see how different the crafted item is from God. God needs nothing. But these things said to represent him have to be continually cleaned and maintained and restored and protected from children by chicken wire -- and served by the hands of men. So they are not adequate representations of God, because God needs nothing from men’s hands!

The fact is, only God is allowed to make an image of himself. And he has already done it. That’s you and me. We are made in the image and likeness of God. So let’s not think we need any images of God. For every time we see another human being, we see the image and likeness of God in our world. That should be enough for us.

God is Closer Than We Think

Well, God not only has told us about himself. He lives nowhere on earth. He needs nothing from earth. He is like nothing that humans make, because God is like man himself. But God has also revealed things about humans. In this speech, Paul speaks from God about why God has put us where we live, what is our greatest need, and indeed what we are like.

Where Do We Live? (v. 26)

Firstly, God has made humans to live on the earth. We are earthlings, drawn from the earth. That was God’s idea. God made us from one man. In other words, every human comes from Adam and his wife, Eve. Aboriginal people, European people, Chinese people, African people, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean people. We are all one family, no matter what nationality you are from. Even though we look so different, we all come from Adam and Eve.

And this makes racism stupid. Because God made them in his image, just as he made us in his image. Thus we are brothers and sisters. And Jesus took on their nature just as much as he took on mine or yours. So the Christian cannot be racist.

And God worked out where everyone should live. It is God who set up the boundaries between nations. Think of our area here in Mulgoa and Warragamba and Silverdale. Where are the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Middle Easterners and Mediteraneans, the muslims? When we lived at Kingsgrove, it used to be easy to spot Jeremy at school because he was the only kid at school with red hair. Now at our local school there are plenty of other kids with red hair. Over recent years, there has been a significant change in the nationality mix in Sydney suburbs. And undoubtedly these migrants or their children will move here into your area, just as we have. And God says I have done it. I have brought them to a suburb near you. I have put the aboriginal people here, and you here, and the muslim people here, and the chinese people here. I’ve done it. God is the one who is in control of our immigration policy. Which is God, because I don’t think the Government is!

What Do We Need? (v. 27, cf. v. 25)

And why has God created multicultural Sydney. Well, he did this because of our greatest need. See, God knows we need food and shelter. But there is something more important than this. Verse 27

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:27 NIV)

The greatest need humans have is God. He doesn’t need us. But we need him. As Augustine says, ‘Our souls are restless, until we find rest in you’. God has made us humans with a God-shaped hole. And if we don’t seek after the true God, we shove it full of other stuff to try and give our selves meaning. False gods, in our society, money, power, sex, stuff, pleasure, relationships. All of this is a mistake, because God has put himself within reach. Bett Midler got it wrong when she sang, ‘God is watching us from a distance’. No, God is no cold, detatched, distant observer of his world. He is close. He was always close, if we had eyes to see him. Creation tells us he is close. So we never had any excuse. But now we have less excuse. Because God has come close in the person of Jesus. There is no need to send out the search party for God. God has come near to us, because Jesus has come near to us. As Paul says in Romans 10:

"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 10:8-11 NIV)

And so Paul says to the cultured Greek audience in Athens:

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31 NIV)

Ignorance was never any excuse. But now it is even less of an excuse. Because God has raised Jesus from the dead. After the first Easter, everything is different. For the resurrection of the dead has started. Jesus is the first-fruits of the resurrection. He is the earnest that everyone else will rise from the dead. So just as Jesus rose from the dead, so shall we. Jesus’ resurrection makes every burial really a seed planting. For our bodies when they die are sown and planted in the ground. And when Jesus returns, they will sprout from the ground, raised immortal, never to die. And when Jesus returns as judge, he will have a human harvest. Sprung up from the earth will be every human who ever existed. And then our judge Jesus Christ will sort us out. It will be a sorting with eternal consequences. For those who have lived for God and his Christ will be with him forever. But those who have lived for themselves with get just that. They will have only themselves forever, separated from God and his Christ forever. The good will be separated from the bad, the sheep from the goats. One lot off to hell forever, with their nice new resurrected bodies. But the rescued, the saved, the redeemed, the ones bought back, they will go to be with Jesus and his Father forever.

What must we do? (verse 30)

And so with this end in mind, God commands us to repent. Change your mind about what life is about. Stop stuffing ersatz god’s, artificial sweeteners, into that God shaped hole. That place in our hearts is meant for Jesus. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. The Jesus who we cannot now see is the Risen Judge. Believe in him, and you will be saved.

Let’s pray.

[1] Athens at this time was a free and allied city within the empire, and was a leading centre of learning, something of a museum of Greek culture: Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 513.

[2] Paul’s experience in Athens is not the result of planning: L T Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles: Sacra Pagina (Collegeville MI: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 312.

[3] Paul went to the Jews first, then God-fearers, then to the market place and city square.

[4] The innovation here is Paul begins to confront people in the city square, similar to the open air preaching of the Cynic: Johnson 1992: 312-3.

[5] Founded by Epicurus (341-270BC). Resolutely materialist, rejected religion, sceptical of religious claims, and saw tranquillity as freedom from passions and superstitions as the chief ends of man. Motto ‘Nothing to fear in God, Nothing to feel in death, Good [pleasure] can be attained, evil [pain] can be endured’: Diogenes the Epicurian, quoted in Witherington 1997: 514.

[6] Founded by Zeno of Cyprus (340-265BC). Pious panentheists, believing in providence and divine immanence, that there was a divine rational ordering principle that was in all things. The highest good was self-sufficiency or autonomy, and they were highly principled regarding ethical and civic duties: Witherington 1997: 514.

[7] Winter translates it as ‘power’, meaning ‘we have power to judge what this new teaching is’, followed by Witherington 1997: 517. This would then be a statement about the council’s jurisdiction to judge whether new gods may be included. But in the light of v. 21, this seems unlikely.

[8] Elaborately polite, expressing a desire to learn rather than cross-examine: Johnson 1992: 314.

[9] Following Johnson, who shifts the emphatic demonstrative to the beginning of the sentence: 315.

[10] See Isaiah 42:5 LXX, ‘Thus says God the LORD, the one making the heavens (ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν) and stretched them out, the one spreading out the earth and the things in it (ὁ στερεώσας τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ), and giving breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it (καὶ διδοὺς πνοὴν τῷ λαῷ τῷ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς καὶ πνεῦμα τοῖς πατοῦσιν αὐτήν): Witherington, 525.

[11] Gen 1:27-28, Rom 5:12, 1 Cor 15:45-49.

[12] A key element of the creation account is separating space and time in an orderly fashion. “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man (διέσπειρεν υἱοὺς Αδαμ), He set the boundaries of the peoples (ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν) according to the number of the sons of Israel [LXX ἀγγέλων θεοῦ]” (Deut 32:8 NASB); “You have set all the borders of the earth (ἐποίησας πάντα τὰ ὅρια τῆς γῆς); you have made summer and winter” (Ps 74:17): Johnson 1992: 315.

[13] Johnson translates ‘by him’ to avoid notions of participation in the divine, rather than dependence on him: Johnson 1992: 316.

[14] Allusion to a poem attributed to Epimenides of Crete. Minos of Crete is said to have addressed his father Zeus, attacking the idea that Zeus was buried on the island, “They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high – they Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies! But thou art not dead; thou art risen and alive for ever, for in thee we live and move and have our being’: I H Marshall, The Acts of the Apostles: TNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/Leicester: IVP, 1980), 288-9. In Greek thinking, a process of demytholisation was underway for the Stoics, in which Zeus was thought not to refer to the supreme deity of the pantheon but the Logos: Marshall 1980: 289.

[15] Greek Poet Aratus (born 310BC), from Phaenomena. Paul picks up the key word, genos, ‘family, offspring’.

[16] Recalls the ignorance of the Jerusalem Jews who rejected Jesus (Acts 3:17, 13:27): Johnson 1992: 317.

[17] Recall 24:47. Natural revelation needs correction: Johnson 1992: 317.

[18] Cf. LXX Pss 9:8, 95:13, 97:9.

[19] Cf. Peter in Acts 10:42: οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ὡρισμένος ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ κριτὴς ζώντων καὶ νεκρῶν.

[20] The success here is noted, but modest. He notes the social rank of Dionysius, who is a member of the Athenian council and thus of high social rank, and that a woman also was converted: Johnson 1992: 318-9. However, Luke gives no evidence of an ongoing church in Athens, and Paul says in 1 Cor 16:15 that the household of Stephanas were the first fruits of Achaia (τὴν οἰκίαν Στεφανᾶ, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀχαΐας), devoted themselves for ministry to the saints (καὶ εἰς διακονίαν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἔταξαν ἑαυτούς). Ellis argues it means they, like the Levites, are set apart for the service of the saints, but Fee says that ἀπαρχὴ means first converts with the promise of more to come: G D Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 829 fn 18. Fee says that ‘most likely Paul used the term τῆς Ἀχαΐας to refer in a more limited sense to the Peloponnesus, and especially to Corinth as the capital of the province: Fee 1987: 829 fn 19.