Paul went from Berea to Athens and looked around the city. “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.” (16, 17) Paul preached that Jesus is the Savior. “(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)” (21) So some people wanted to know what the new teaching that Paul was proclaiming so “they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus.” (19) Then they asked to know more about the new teaching that he was presenting. Today’s passage is the famous sermon that Paul gave at the Areopagus. This is an example of an evangelistic sermon preached to a purely Gentile audience so it has implications for us today. Therefore, today let’s look at 3 implications from this passage.
I. To the unknown god (vs. 22,23)
To answer the Athenian request, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” (19) “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.’” (22) Just before this sermon, Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” (16) However, now, he shows no sign of being greatly distressed, now does he cut down the Athenians for being worshippers of idol, but in a composed voice and showing respect, he says, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.” (22) This way of talking is different from how he usually talks to the Jews. When he spoke to the Jews, first he spoke from the Old Testament showing that the Messiah, the Savior that was prophesized in the Old Testament was Jesus Christ whom they had put on the cross and killed. Therefore, they need to repent and believe in the Savior Jesus. This message is different because the listeners are Greek, in other words, Gentiles. They didn’t have such a great knowledge of the Old Testament. Therefore, they didn’t know what the Old Testament was teaching about the Messiah. Therefore, Paul emphasized their burning, zealous religious heart.
Here when Paul talks about their religious heart, he is talking about the heart that all humans have. No matter what religion a person is, all people have this heart of faith. For some people this heart isn’t for god, but philosophy or values or money, or power, but all people have this religious heart.
Genesis 1:26, 27
When God made man, He made him in the image of God. “In the image of God” means the reasoning, morality, and the religious spirit that man has. In other words it is the spirit of man that reaches out to something greater than man. It is “the heart of prayer”. All humans have such a heart. Therefore, even if you do what you want to do, eat what you want to eat, live however you want to live, etc. it doesn’t mean that you are content. When we reach out to something greater than ourselves, the God who made us and worship Him, pray to Him, fellowship with Him, etc. we are able to have real contentment. The French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Catholic philosopher, Blaise Pascal said, “Until I rest in you, my heart is moving.” By our hearts reaching out to God, praying to God, and by fellowshipping with God, we are able to have real peace. This is because we were made in the image of God. Paul spoke to the Athenian who had such a religious heart.
He did this by talking about the “Unknown god”. In verse 23 we can see that when Paul walked around Athenian, he saw people praying at the altar of the “unknown god”. Though there are a number of reports of such altars, only Diogenes Alerts in the “Lives of the Philosophers” gives a reason for their origin. According to Alerts, once when Athens was plagued by pestilence in the sixth century B.C. and the city rulers had exhausted all their strategies to abate it, they sent to Crete, asking the prophet Epimenides to come and help. His remedy was to drive a herd of black and white sheep away from the Areopagus and, wherever they lay down, to sacrifice them to the god of that place. The plaque was stayed and Diogenes Laertes says that memorial altars with no god’s name inscribed on them may consequently be found throughout Attica.
When Paul went to Athens, one of these altars was still standing there. People were fervently worshipping there. The Greecians thought that no matter what god, if you didn’t show interest to that god, that god would get angry. This feeling is easy for us Japanese to understand. When you think about what to do to keep the god from getting angry, of course worshipping the god is the most sensible thing to do. It is said that at that time in Athens there were more than 3,000 religious buildings or monuments there. Plus there were altars to “The unknown god”. More than being the zealous religion of the Greeks, it was more a lack of peace spiritually. They really didn’t care about what they were worshipping. They just wanted to appease the god’s anger.
Towards this situation, Paul said, “Now you worship something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.” (23) Paul is saying that God is not an unknown God, but a God that we can know.
Psalms19:1
All of nature which was made by God is a finger print of its creator, God. However we can only dimly see God through nature. Through nature we can see that something greater than ourselves made this world, but we can’t see what this god is like. To know who the creator is, to know who the unknown god is, we must look at Jesus Christ. Also we must look at the Bible which reveals Jesus Christ and is the greatest present that God has given us. Therefore, next let’s look at who God is.
II. Knowing the unknown god. (vs. 24-31)
1. (vs.24,25) The real God is “The God who made the world and everything in it”. (24) In other words, He is “the Lord of heaven and earth” (24) Therefore He needs no help nor requires nothing to exist. He gives life and breath to all living things.
Isaiah 42:5, 6; 44:24; 45:18
The real God made heaven and earth. He gives life to all living creatures. He takes our hand and leads us. He makes us part of his chosen people. He is the Lord. There is no one else. Last week we saw that the Stoics taught that a man’s happiness consisted in bringing himself in harmony with the course of the universe. They thought that nature and God are identical. The Universe is the only thing deserving the deepest kind of reverence. They do not believe in a personal god or creator. They promoted the idea that god is better understood as a way of relating reverentially to nature and the universe. Nature itself is sacred. Paul here is telling them that the real God is different. The real God made the whole world. God is completely dependent from all things. God can exist by Himself. Even the heavens can’t contain Him. Therefore, no matter how large the Pantheon is it could never contain God.
2. (vs. 26) The Lord of creation, the Great God has a personal relationship with each person. God controls history and in each age what countries there are, which countries will be strong, what kind of cultures will be there, and how history will flow is all determined by God. From the beginning of history, God has always been a part of it, and history is moving according to God’s plan. If you look at the Jewish history recorded in the Old Testament you can see this clearly. God didn’t just create the world, but even today is leading through history. Even us who live in this age, God is leading each individual one of us.
Paul says this again in verse 28. This is a quote from a Greek poet. In 600 B.C. Epimenidus said this in his poem “Cretica”. In 300 B.C. Atatus said the same thing in his poem “Phaenomena”. Paul quoted these poems to share that God isn’t far from each of us. He is close, in fact, He is living in us. God is not a being that is far from us. The real God is the creator of the world, the Great God and even heaven can not contain Him, but at the same time, He is within us. We live within Him and move and have our being in Him.
3. Paul gives his conclusion in verses 29-30 We were made by God, and are the offspring of God. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” (28) so therefore, it is unthinkable that God is “made by man’s design and skill” of gold or silver or stone. (29) A child can’t make anyone he wants his father. A child’s father is his father. In the same way, we were made by God and are the offspring of God so we can’t just make some other god to worship. We need to worship the real God that created the world and us.
Next let’s look at why the Greeks missed seeing God
1. (vs.27) They really didn’t seek God. If they would have sought God and reached out to Him, then they would have found Him. If we seek God, we will find Him.
Matt. 7:7-11
Are you really seeking God? Are you really searching for God? No matter who you are, if you seek, you will find Him.
2. 2. (vs. 30) If you are really seeking and don’t find God, it is because you are searching in the wrong place. “Ignorance” means that the problem is not that God did not introduce himself enough. The problem is on man’s side that he doesn’t know what he should naturally know. “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” (30) The reason is given in verse 31. Man can become righteous by believing in Christ who died for our sins and rose again. He is inviting us to look to the cross and return to Him and repent.
Do you know the story, “The blessed yellow handkerchief” by Matsutake? His wife miscarried and he couldn’t take it, got drunk and then got in a fight and killed the other person. As a result he was arrested and put in jail. Finally his sentence was over and he was released. He bought a post card and wrote it to his wife saying that if she was still waiting for him to put up a yellow handkerchief. If there was no handkerchief hanging then he would never go near her again. When he approached the place on the bus he was so scared to look outside that he asked other people riding on the bus to look for him. The other riders were astonished to see tens of yellow handkerchiefs hanging. That was the message of love from his wife.
God like the yellow handkerchiefs has put up many crosses throughout the world. He is telling us to look at them. God loved us so much that he was willing to give up his son to die on the cross and this God is waiting for you. You may even be seeking God, but you have not found him because you are searching in the wrong place. It’s no good just to have a religious heart. If you are trying to find God by your own strength, you won’t find Him. Man seems to always be making other things gods, rather than looking towards the real thing. Rather than searching for the real God, they make themselves the center, and they search for gods that fit their own personal needs. There is no other way that we can know the real God but by the Bible which tells us about Him.
John 14:6
“I” is Jesus Christ. There is no other way to know God, but through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only truth. Also he is the only way to life and salvation. He is the only name by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12) What is important is not how much we believe or how deep a faith we have, but who we believe in and what we believe.
God “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.” (31) Therefore, we need to believe in Him. “Sin” means missing the goal. Our aim is off. We need to change and aim at God. This is repentance. Even “now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” (30) Return to God. Believe in God. Fear God and obey his commands. This is everything.
III. Seeking the real God. (Vs. 32-34)
In other words, we need to seek the true God. In verses 32-34 tell us the response of the Athenians to Paul’s message. There are three different responses and in all ages men make the same type of responses toward the Gospel.
1. “some of them sneered” (32) Some people hear that Jesus rose and they sneer because they think it is impossible.
2. Others say, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” (32) This type of person tries not to get involved. They want to just look on. This type is quite common among us Japanese because we don’t like to argue. This type of person, when he hears the Gospel, he won’t say that he disagrees; he just finds many different excuses for running away. “My kids are still small so I‘m too busy.” “When I find the time, I’ll come.” etc. These excuses always make believing in the future tense. In reality no matter how long you wait they never believe.
3. “A few men became followers…and believed.” (vs.34) The Bible tells us that there are some who did believe and followed Christ. There were a lot of people who sneered and some that refused to take any real interest, but there were some who did believe and followed Christ. It was a small group, but even so, some people did believe in Christ, and followed Him. Here Dionysius and Damarius are mentioned. Dionysius was a member of the Areopagus so he was used to listening to cases and always looked at whether there was proof for what was being said. However, the important thing is not whether there is proof or not, but whether a person’s heart is prepared or not. In other words, whether a person has prepared his heart by repenting or not is what is important.
According to church history Dionysiu became the first pastor of the Athens church. In the 2nd and 3rd century, many great Christian leaders were a part of the Athenian church. The influence that they had was greater than we will ever know.
We are living under the same circumstances as Athens. There are few people that respond to the Gospel when we preach it. There are those that sneer and others that make excuses. The closer we get to the end times, the more and more these types of people will increase. Even so, there are some who believe and follow Christ. God is not an unknown god, but a God that can be known. Those who search for Him will find Him. The important thing is whether we are searching for him or not and whether we are searching in the right places or not. God has made us righteous through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and rose 3 days later. Jesus shows us God and is the way to God and salvation. We need to have only an open heart towards Him. We need to search after him. Open your hearts to the only true God. Seek Him and believe in Him.
II Cor. 6:2
Now is the time.