As a result of the persecution caused by the Jews from Thessalonica, Paul went from Berea to Athens. Upon arriving in Athens, Paul “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.” (16, 17) Athens had a history of being a cultural town of art, and learning. Therefore, people couldn’t accept Paul’s teaching easily. Even under those conditions, Paul preached about Jesus and the resurrection. Today let’s look at Paul’s evangelistic spirit and 3 things that we can learn from him through the Athens evangelism.
I. Holy distress (vs.16)
As a result of the persecution caused by the Jews from Thessalonica, Paul fled from Berea to Athens. Athens was about 320km from Berea. However, it was the cultural center of world. Philosophy, ideologies, art, everything was born and flowed out of Athens to even the present day world. The Parthenon as well as the many structures built on the acropolis, as well as the outdoor theaters, music halls, many other structures speak to the fact that Athens was a town or architecture and art. The Areopagus or Areios Pagos is the “Rock of Ares”, north-west of the Acropis, which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. They also investigated corruption there. It was a free state and practiced democracy. Athens was a town where the people were intellectual and learned in the classical Greek great philosophies and ideologies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. When Paul came to Athens the time of her greatest glory was gone, but its influence was still there. In classical Greece, Athens was representative of the beautiful towns of that period. While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy who were in Berea, he probably thought he would look around this beautiful town. He walked around the town.
As he walked around the town he noticed the many idols and “he was greatly distressed” (16) There was the Parthenon temples which was sculptured by Pheidas and Praxiteles. In the town square there were statues of famous Athenian citizens like Conon. To be sure these were made by human technique and planning and they are outstanding pieces of art. However, they are nothing more than idols made for festivals of other gods. They weren’t made by the real living God, but they are idols made by man’s hands. This is the greatest insult to the real living God. Therefore, Paul who saw this and “he was greatly distressed” (16) The word “distressed” is often translated as “burning with anger”. It is used 2 times in the New Testament. One is here and the other is I. Cor. 13:5. Here it is translated “easily angered” and Paul is saying that one of the fruits of spirit is “not easily angered”. Paul also tells us in other places that we should not be angered. (Ephesians 4:31, Gal. 5:20) Even so Paul here in today’s passage is burning with anger. Let me explain this paradox. Christians as a rule are not to be angry. When they feel anger coming on they should remember that love patient and kind and through the encouragement and help of the Holy Spirit have victory over the flesh, and strive to please the Holy Spirit. However, there are times when a Christian must get angry. We should be angry at times like what Paul is experiencing now when God’s righteousness is being insulted. When God’s name is not praised but insulted. At those times Christians shouldn’t be quiet about it. In cases like that Christians should be angry. In other words, Paul’s anger was a holy anger coming from the righteousness of God.
How about us? Are there not times when we take the position of “See no evil. Speak no evil”? Are there times when we are quiet and do not stand up for what we believe in, and are just conformed to the world? In Matt 5:13 Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. When salt looses its saltiness it is of no use. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” (Matt. 5:13) He didn’t say “Try to become the salt of the earth.” Or “You will become the salt of the earth.” He said, “You are the salt of the earth.” (Matt. 5:13) Salt gives flavor and preserves. We are salt. Therefore, we need to allow God just to work through us to give flavor and preserve our society. When God’s name is being insulted, we shouldn’t be still, but like Paul, we need to be distressed.
Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” (16) For hundreds of years people had been coming to Athens and probably very few people looked at the idols and were distressed. Let’s think about what is the difference between those people and Paul.
The biggest difference was the way they looked at things was different. Most people thought that they had come to a great cultural city and they looked at the magnificent buildings, architecture, and sculptures and were amazed and thought “wonderful!” “wonderful!”. Paul was different. He came to this cultural city and looked at many art objects, but he looked at them through God’s eyes. He looked at them thinking about how God thought about them. Therefore, no matter how great a piece of art, they were only idols. Also no matter how great a philosopher was speaking, it was only a discussion void of God.
How about you? What type of eyes are you looking with? By looking at things through the eyes of God, we are able to have holy anger like Paul. In Japan too we can see many historical buildings connected with Buddhism. These idols too are great Buddhist art, but if we look at them in the same way as other people do then we won’t have the holy anger like Paul did here. Only by seeing things as God sees them can be able to not be conformed to this word and walk in life as salty Christians giving flavor and preserving the world.
II. Preaching Jesus’ resurrection (vs.17-18)
Verse 17 starts with “So he…” This means that Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” (16) and therefore, he … The rest of the verse tells us what he did. “He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.” (17) In other words, Paul’s holy anger led him to preach the Word of God.. When he saw that the city was full of idols he felt he had to do something about it, so he preached the Word of God.
When we realize how wonderful the salvation is that God’s Word teaches us about, and we want many people to know about this great grace, then we want to share God’s Word. Here is another way we are motivated. We are motivated when we see people living so far from God that we feel we have to do something about it, and thus feel motivated to preach the Word of God. Therefore, Paul “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.” (17)
Then “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ’He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’” (18) The Epicureans were started about 300 B.C by the philosopher, Epicuris. This school of philosophy, called Epicureansim, denied a future life entirely and taught that the purpose of life was to attain the happy tranquil life, characterized by peace and freedom from fear and the absence of pain, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. Their motto was, “enjoy life”.
The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were representatives of two of the three major philosophical schools of thought in Paul’s day. The Stoics also began about 300 B.C. and was started by a man named Zuno from the island of Cyprus. Zuno taught that a man’s happiness consisted in bringing himself in harmony with the course of the universe. His disciples were taught to bear evils with indifference and to be independent of externals. Materialism, pantheism、and fatalism were the leading features of this philosophy. Their motto was, “endure life”. Zeno taught in the Stoa (Porch) so his teaching came to be known as Stoicism.
Some of the philosophers called Paul a “babbler” (18) The word babbler originally meant “gathering seeds”. It was used for birds picking up seeds. It came to be applied in Athenian slang to one who gains a hand to mouth living in the markets by picking up anything that fell off the loads of merchandise that was carried about. Thus it began to mean someone who picks up bits of information and repeats without really knowing what it means. A babbler is someone who talks idly with no purpose. In verse 28 Paul is preaching to the Greecian philosophers. Possibly they saw Paul’s wisdom as lacking in comparison with themselves and saw Paul as a babbler quoting others like the poets in verse 28.
Then others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” (18) The reason they were saying this is given at the end of verse 18. “They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Paul was originally a Jew so he believed in only one God. However, when the Greeks heard Paul teaching that Jews was God and the Father who was God raised Jesus, they understood this to mean that Paul was preaching about a new God. They themselves believed in many different gods so they thought that he was preaching about a new religion that was just one of many.
The Greeks were so full of wisdom, but they couldn’t understand the simple message that God sent his world and died on the cross for our sins, and 3 days later rose again and anyone who believes in this will be forgiven of all their sins and will receive eternal life. Later Paul wrote I Cor. 1:20-24 to another Greek church in a different town, Corinth.
We can’t know God through the wisdom of man. God uses the preaching of the Word of God to save those who believe. For people who rely on the wisdom of this world, Christ on the cross seems stupid. However, for those believe Christ is the wisdom of God, the power of God. Thus the message that we need to share is words of the cross.
Therefore, Paul in Athens where the air breathes of wisdom spoke to the top intellectuals and philosophers about the same way thing that he always talks about, the words of the cross. He shared about Christ and the resurrection. We will look at that message next week, but if we look at verse 28 we can see that Paul shared about Jesus with the philosophers in a way that they could understand by using quotations made by poets and philosophers of that time. However, the center of his message was Jesus, the cross and the resurrection. He spoke the Gospel straight even though the philosophers had complained that his level was low. Sometimes we try molding our message to meet the thinking and values of the person that we are sharing with and make it so that it is easy for the other person to accept. As a result the message sometimes becomes lopsided, missing important points like sin. However, we need to be like Paul and preach the Gospel straight forward.
Sometimes we worry that it is difficult for people to be interested in the Bible so we fail to share about the Gospel, but talk about what people want to hear. More than sharing the Gospel, we think up events and programs to try to get people to come. However, when do things to just get people to come and it lacks the Gospel, then it lacks taste. The Gospel is different that joke shows or something that you hang out to talk about. The Gospel message is life. It is by the Gospel that we are saved. We need to think in our hearts that now we are sharing the Gospel and share the Gospel straight forward.
III. The new teaching (vs.19-21)
After the philosophers complained that Paul was a babbler and that he was advocating foreign gods, next “they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” (19) They said this not because they wanted to believe in Christ or were interested in Christ, it was because they are always wanting to hear new ideas and they wondered what was so unusual about Paul’s teaching. This was because “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)” (21) They would here a new ideology or religion, accept it and then some new one would come around and they would give up their last one and accept the new one. They were always giving up old ideas for new ones. Actually there are a lot of people like this. They think that new is best. They are interested in the fads. The Athenians were like this. Therefore, no matter how much Paul told them about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they weren’t able to understand the meaning of what he was saying. They were only interested because it was new. Therefore, they were not able to comprehend the grace of salvation of God nor were they able to experience the wonderfulness of God’s kingdom. The important thing is listening to and accepting God’s Word which never changes, and living by it. If we do that we will be able to experience the love of God which never changes and we will be thankful and praise God daily.
The words that Paul spoke about the Jesus’ resurrection were for the Athenians new. However this was not the new teaching that they were searching for. They were looking for new news new news like the journalist puts out. When a magazine comes out it is really news, but after sometime it becomes old news. However, the newness of the Gospel is not like this. The gospel is really a new teaching. It is not by the wisdom of God, but is by the revelation of God that it is a new teaching. It is a teaching of eternal life. God’s Word never changes. It never ends.
What are you living for? Are you living for this new teaching, the real word of God?
II Tim. 2:13
Let’s trust in this trustworthy Christ, and live a new life.
No matter what, let’s trust in God.
Duet. 33:27
Let’s believe in the real teaching of the Gospel and we will live the blessed life.