Acts 17:13-34

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Acts

Rusty's notes

• We left off last week with… Paul & Silas were in Berea sharing the Good News and they were testing it with the Old Testament.
• Many became believers

A SHORT MINISTRY IN THESSALONICA
Acts 17
51 AD
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and upsetting the crowds. 14 Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to go to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there.

• There is now a Church of believers in Jesus established in Berea

15 Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.

• Manuscripts vary with “if by coast” or “by sea”.

 
PAUL IN ATHENS
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

• Paul arrives in Athens alone.
• Athens is the cradle of Greek philosophy and democracy.
• It is a free Greek city with a population of no more than 50,000. Athens is full of idols and pagan temples—so much so that wherever Paul turns, statues, temples, and shrines fill his horizon.

17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

• Synagogue indicates there are a group of Jews in the community.
• Synagogue on the Sabbath and the marketplace during the week.

18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?”

• What makes Paul ignorant?
• What makes him a showoff?
• Epicureans were thoroughgoing materialists, believing that everything came from atoms or particles of matter.
• There was no life beyond this; all that was human returned to matter at death.
• Epicureans believe that the chief aim of life is the pursuit of mental pleasure. They also believe that pain, suffering, and superstitions should be avoided.
• Stoics were pantheists, believing that the ultimate divine principle was to be found in all of nature, including human beings.[1]
• Stoics believe that humans should be free from passion, so they suppress their affections and accept all things as the will of the gods.

Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus (Mars Hill),

• The Areopagus was both a court and a hill, due to the fact that the court traditionally met on that hill.
• The term Areopagus means hill of Ares.
• Ares was the Greek god of war.
• The Roman equivalent god was Mars, hence the KJV “Mars’ hill”.
• This hill was located beneath the acropolis and above the agora.[2]

and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?

• Paul needed to be questioned because it was something they had not heard before.
• Resurrection?
• They could not understand Paul’s concept of resurrection at all.
• Epicureans did not believe in any existence after death, and Stoics believed that only the soul, the divine spark, survived death.[3]

20 Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

THE AREOPAGUS ADDRESS

• In the following narrative Paul works among Gentiles for eighteen months in Corinth and for nearly three years in Ephesus, but no example of his preaching is given.
• The reason quite simply is that it has already been given—in Athens, in the very center of Gentile culture and intellect.[4]

22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

• Paul now calls them ignorant.
• There is a play on the concept of ignorance. To worship an unknown (agnōstō) god is to admit one’s ignorance.
• Greek mythology and even Roman mythology. (Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Poseidon, etc)
• Paul would now proclaim a God who was unknown to them.
• In fact, this God, totally unknown to them, was the only true divinity that exists.[5]

24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands.

• This pandemic that we are experiencing is turning the Church Building upside down.
• Even Solomon said as he dedicated the new temple in Jerusalem…
• 1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God indeed live on earth?

Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.” [6]
25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.

• It was a commonplace of Greek philosophy to view divinity as complete within itself, totally self-sufficient, totally without need.
• Paul’s words resonating with the Greeks.
• There is but one sovereign God, Creator of all.
• To know him they must abandon all their other gods.
• Otherwise he would remain to them the “unknown god.”[7]

26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

• The God whom Paul proclaimed was no local Jewish cult God.
• He was the one sovereign Lord of all humankind.[8]
• All nations came from one man (Adam).

27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

• We, as humans were created to seek after God.
• It is not far from us because nature reveals there is a God no matter where you may be.
• Here Paul quoted from the poet Epimenides: “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”
• Then he added a quotation from two poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, “For we are also His offspring.”[9]

28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since we are God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

• This led to Paul’s logical conclusion: God made us in His image, so it is foolish for us to make gods in our own image!
• Greek religion was nothing but the manufacture and worship of gods who were patterned after men and who acted like men.[10]
• If humanity is like God, then God is not like gold or silver or any such material representation.
• Only the creature can express the true worship of the Creator, not the creation of the creature, not something made by human design and skill.[11]

30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

• BOOM!!!
• You are not ignorant anymore!
• The Sovereign God is no longer the “unknown god”
• You have heard the Good News!
• Listen for the testimony of those who witnessed Jesus after the crucifixion.
• And if this is true, you need to believe and repent because judgment is coming!
• Repent: to change your mind. Change your mind about all these gods and dependence on self.

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.”

• It was the doctrine of the Resurrection that most of the members of the Council could not accept.
• To a Greek, the body was only a prison; and the sooner a person left his body, the happier he would be.
• Why raise a dead body and live in it again? And why would God bother with a personal judgment of each man?
• This kind of teaching was definitely incompatible with Greek philosophy.
• They believed in immortality, but not in resurrection.[12]

33 So Paul left their presence. 34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. [13]

• There were three different responses to the message.
• Some laughed and mocked and did not take Paul’s message seriously.
• Others were interested but wanted to hear more.
• A small group accepted what Paul preached, believed on Jesus Christ, and were saved.[14]
• There is little fruit in Athens, and no church is planted there.
• Only a handful of converts are made.
• Paul’s ministry in Athens would be considered a failure considering the results from other locations.
• But if the Aeropagite was made up of 30 members and 1 of them, Dionysius, became a believer, it is significant.
• Intellectualism will often lead you to your own abilities rather than to a God who wants to live your life for you.

[1] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 366). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 368). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 367). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 365). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 371). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Ki 8:27). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 373). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[8] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 374). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[9] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 473). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[10] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 473). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[11] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 376). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[12] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 474). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[13] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 17:1–34). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[14] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 474). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.