February 13, 2022
Acts 17:16-34
“The Unknown Made Known”
Service Overview: Paul found inroads to presenting the gospel to the people of Athens by reasoning with them from where they were at, and by finding connecting points they would appreciate and understand. Indeed, Paul became all things to all people so that he might save some.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
Background Information:
- Five hundred years before Christ, Athens was a powerful Greek city-state… the cradle of Western civilization, home to Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum. It was the city of Pericles, Demosthenes, Socrates, Sophocles, and Euripides—the thinkers whose ideas shaped the world for centuries. (Ray C. Stedman, God’s Unfinished Book: Acts, 226)
- The Stoics and the Epicureans—are the only two schools of philosophy ever mentioned in the sacred Scripture. The fact that they were flourishing when Paul came to Athens is something of a commentary on what had taken place in the academic world of the first century, something that has taken place in every culture throughout the history of the Western world. It is all the more relevant to us today because, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are living in almost the exact intellectual climate that Paul encountered in Athens on that occasion. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 270)
- Worship to an unknown god was rather common in Greek culture at this time for two reasons: 1) If one were very religious, they might recognize that there is a god who has not had stories or myths spoken about them yet still demands sacrifice. Thus, there would be an “unknown” god that while they do not know what he is or what he does, they may still satisfy him. 2) It was common for the belief of god to be beyond human comprehension. Especially in Epicurean philosophy, if there were any gods to exist, they were much greater and higher than anything in existence to be recognized. So while recognizing the necessity of god being the greatest being, there was no actual knowledge of anything about them because they were too high for human knowledge. (Lacy Saunders)
- According to Athenian legend, a deadly plague was stopped centuries earlier when the people of Athens turned a flock of sheep loose within the city. Wherever the sheep were found, they were slain and sacrificed as an offering to a god. If a sheep was slain near the altar of a recognized god, the people dedicated the sacrifice to that god. But if a sheep was slain where there was no altar nearby, an altar was quickly erected and the animal was sacrificed to an unknown god. (Ray C. Stedman, God’s Unfinished Book: Acts, 229)
- It was said that there were more statues of the gods in Athens than in all the rest of Greece put together and that in Athens it was easier to meet a god than a man. (William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 130)
The question to be answered is…
Why is it Paul utilizes secular philosophies in his approach with the Athenians?
Answer…
Paul’s mission as a disciple, was to make disciples; making the good news of Jesus knowable to anyone.
The word of the day is… Know
What about Paul should grab our attention in this text?
- Paul’s passion; seeing the lost saved.
(vv. 16, 23, 30-31 | Pro. 11:30; Mat. 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 2:38; James 5:20; Jude 1:23)
When Paul walked around Athens, he did not just “notice” the idols. He looked and looked, and thought and thought, until the fires of holy indignation were kindled within him. For he saw men and women, created by God in the image of God, giving to idols the homage which was due to God alone. (Stott, Acts, 80)
[Paul] wasn’t just a little bit peeved or annoyed; his heart was in turmoil. His insides were in a paroxysm of distress as he looked across this city noted for its brilliance but drowning in evil. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 270)
- Paul’s approach; nuanced to his audience.
(vv. 22-23, 28 | Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 15:1-32; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 9:22; 1 Peter 3:15)
Paul’s strategy was not simply to rail against the Greeks’ love of intellect and the Jews’ love of power, but to show them that they were pursuing those things in a self-defeating way. (Timothy Keller, Center Church, 124)
[Athens] was a spiritual marketplace where truth was relative, worldviews and gods littered the landscape, and the average person wouldn’t know the difference between Isaac and an iPad. Paul knew he wasn’t in Jerusalem anymore. So he didn’t take an Acts 2 approach, much less give an Acts 2 message. He had to find a new way to connect with the culture and the people in it. (James Emery White, Meet Generation Z, 86)
- Paul’s message; turn to and trust the risen One to save.
(vv. 29-31 | Mat. 3:2; 4:17; Luke 5:32; 13:3; Acts 2:38; 3:19; Rom. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9)
Everyone knows that people are accountable for how they live. We are creatures, and we know that we did not make ourselves. We were made by Almighty God, and at some point we are going to have to answer for every single thing we have done and said and thought. People hedge their bets and build an altar off in a corner to an unknown God. Paul did not believe for a moment that they did not know who God is, and he used that altar publicly to expose the folly of their godless religion. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 274)
Conclusion… What might we glean from Paul about sharing our faith in our current culture?
A. Understand your audience.
(Ecclesiastes 3; Romans 1:18-23; Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 9:22; Ephesian 3:8-9)
It has always been good missionary policy to express the gospel in terms that would be intelligible to the hearer without altering the essence of the message. (Phillip A. Bence, Acts: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, Kindle Location, 3516)
If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now—not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground—would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defence but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not only against cool intellect on the other side, but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether. (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, 58)
B. Seek and begin on common ground.
(Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 9:22; Colossians 1:28; 4:6; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 1 Peter 3:15)
Paul does not simply dismiss a culture’s aspirations; rather, he both affirms and confronts, revealing the inner contradictions in people’s understanding. This is why it is so important to enter a culture before challenging it. Our criticism of the culture will have no power to persuade unless it is based on something that we can affirm in the beliefs and values of that culture. (Timothy Keller, Center Church, 125)
Paul’s critique seems to go out of its way to find common ground with philosophers and poets, but his presuppositions are not drawn from Platonism or Stoicism but unambiguously from the Old Testament. (David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, 496)
C. Nurture people’s innate knowledge of God.
(Ps. 19:1-3; Gen. 1:27; Acts 14:15-17; 17:28; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 3:8-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7)
Every thinking person asks, “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” Science attempts to answer the first question, and philosophy wrestles with the second, but only the Christian faith has a satisfactory answer to all three. (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, 378)
Modern sociology and anthropology have found that man is incurably religious, homo religiosos. No matter where we go, we find people practicing religion, most of which is animistic and idolatrous. Yet when scholars go into these primitive places and begin to probe, people will talk about the big God who lives on the other side of the mountain. They cannot erase from their consciousness the knowledge of the Most High God. That was as true in Athens as it is among the aborigines today. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 274)
D. Be clear with the message, trust God for results.
(John 6:40; 11:25-26; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 10:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 John 1:9)
If we judge Paul’s preaching in each city merely by the number of visible salvations, we come close to the Athenian sin of idolatry. Looking for big, instant results is a modern Western phenomenon, not God’s standard for evaluating His servants. (Phillip A. Bence, Acts: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, Kindle Location, 3536)
Gospel Application…
You Only Live Forever. How you respond to Jesus determines what that forever looks like.
(Mat. 25:31-46; John 3:16-17; 12:48; Acts 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 6:23; 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Rev. 20:11-15; 21:4)
What do you do with Jesus? That is the greatest question you and I will ever deal with. It is the question that determines ultimately where we live, where we move, and where we will have our being. It is not an optional matter. God simply will not tolerate our rejection of His only begotten Son. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 282)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- What philosophies and pagan religions have you encountered before?
- What caught Paul’s attention immediately about Athens? What did he feel about what he saw? What are the idols in your community?
- How might Paul’s approach to the Aeropagus serve as a model for us as we share the good news of Jesus with others?
- What five things does Paul say about God?
- How does our current culture reflect the culture of Athens during Paul’s day? How does, or should this inform how we interact with those who ascribe to the plethora of modern philosophies we encounter?
Quotes to note…
Something interesting to note here, however, is Paul’s emphasis on how everything depends on this “unknown god” for their existence and being. I believe this is no coincidence, since the foundation of Greek philosophy was first and foremost built on the search for what they called “the first cause.” The first prominent philosophers (Thales being the first recorded and prominent ones include Anaximander and Pythagoras) focused less on how to live well or if we might live for a next life and more on the thing in the world that 1) exists in itself and 2) gives existence to other things. There were a lot of theories (the elements, “the undividable,” even numbers), but how Paul introduces the gospel to the Athenians suggests that the “first cause” is the God he brings good news of. (Lacy Saunders)
If you seek physical pleasure as the single purpose of life but you fail to achieve it, you will be constantly frustrated. On the other hand, if you search for physical pleasure and achieve it, you will be bored. Those who seek physical pleasure as their ultimate goal lose both ways. (R.C. Sproul, Acts, 272)
Note that Paul did not come in and blast their religion without seeking to understand it first. Nor did he fail to do some appropriate observation of their culture, art, and architecture before addressing the fallacies. We would do well to learn from his example. (Grant R. Osborne, Life application Bible Commentary: Acts, 301)
Though God has been patient, this repentance is imperative. God has “set a day” in which He is about to judge the inhabited earth with justice (in righteousness) “by the man he has appointed,” whom He has designated. That is, there is a judgment day coming and God has revealed who the judge will be (cf. Dan. 7: 13– 14; John 5: 22,27). That this day is actually coming and that there will be no escape from it, God guaranteed to everyone by His raising that Man (Jesus) “out from among the dead ones” (lit. trans.). (Stanley M. Horton, Acts, Kindle Location 6779-6783)
Men were destined for freedom in Christ; the human heart was meant, in God’s great plan, to soar in fellowship with the Creator. Everywhere in Athens there was evidence of the aspiration, the yearning, the creative quality of the human spirit. But alongside was also the evidence of the vanity and disillusionment of the quest. (Arnold E. Airhart, Beacon Bible Expositions: Acts, 197)
Like Paul, we must have open eyes and broken hearts. (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, 376)
Idolatry is the basic problem of our society. We read in the papers about a breakdown in moral values; lack of commitment by people to people, causes, or standards; dishonesty in many forms; irresponsibility. But do we realize that the reason for the breakdown is spiritual? If people have a concept of God that is noble, they will find it ennobling and will do better. But if we lose sight of God, as America has in our day, then we lose sight of the only thing that can lift up ours or any other civilization. (James Montgomery Boice, Acts, 297)