All right, here's what we want
to read to get us going. Now, while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout person, and in
the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, what will this
babbler say? other some. He seemed to be a
set-aforth of strange God, because he preached unto them Jesus and
the resurrection. And they took him, not by force,
but they invited him, and they took him and brought him unto
Areagapis, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof
thou speakest is? For you bring certain strange
things to our ears, We would know therefore what these things
mean. Then notice in verse 21 in bracket,
for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Now, we look at verse 16. Athens
was a city like no other. We look in verse 21 at the character
of the people that they spent all their time in seeking the
latest thing or something that they had not heard. Let me begin
by saying that the gospel, when it was sent forth, met many competitors
along the way. There were many that which promise life and happiness
and eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ embrace the Lord as He
is in the Gospel. But when Paul was sent forth,
and others as well, to preach the Gospel by the Holy Spirit,
like a mighty Samson did Paul the Apostle go around and triumph
over all of those heresies one by one. When Paul went forth
to preach the gospel, he labored chiefly, were performed among
two sorts of people. Generally, there were two sorts
of people that were in the congregation or that Paul dealt with. First
of all, in every place seems there were the Jewish legalists,
those that heard Moses read in the synagogue every Sabbath day
according to Acts 15 and verse 21. And they, of such persuasion
as that, perceived the gospel to be blasphemy against Moses,
Acts 6 and verse 11, and a changing of all the custom and the law
that Moses had delivered unto them. And they opposed it on
that ground, Acts 6 and verse 14. And they violently resisted
and were antagonistic toward the doctrine of the gospel and
of free grace. And I guess we could say that
it may not be a stretch to say that Paul actually suffered the
severest persecution from his very own countrymen, that is,
from his fellow Jew. He preached among them. But secondly,
Paul preached the gospel, what I like to call raw pagan. Now, there were two kinds of
pagans. maybe more, some raw pagans,
strictly idolater, some who believed in God, some who had been proselytes
over to Judaism. But Paul also preached the gospel
to those that we might call raw pagan. They served their vanities,
as we read in Acts 14 and verse 15. And they served those that
were by nature no gods, as Paul said in Galatians 4 and verse
8. But nevertheless, God called
from among the Gentiles by His grace, for He visited them to
take out of them a people for His name, Acts 15, And verse
14, and many that sat in heathen darkness have come to the glorious
light that is in Christ and that is in the gospel. And Paul preached
the gospel in many places and in many situations. And as he
did that, he fulfilled his commission, given in Acts 9 and verse 15,
as a chosen vessel unto the Lord, that he might bear Christ's name
among the children of Israel, preach the gospel unto them,
and preach the gospel to others beyond Kings, Gentiles, and that
sort as well. We have to compliment Paul. how
faithful he was to his calling and commission, having received
grace from the God of heaven and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul made three missionary
journeys, as you are probably aware. And the incident in our
text this evening that we are considering occurred on the second
missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, and in the city of Athens. And the facts are these. Acts
17, 1 through 9. Paul had been at Thessalonica,
but was spirited away in the night under the cover of darkness
after the Jews created a great uproar against him. The brethren
sent Paul to Berea, where there he enjoyed one of his best audiences,
who searched out from the Scripture whether or not the things were
so, and yet here came some Judaizer, stirred up the people again,
and Paul is moving on. So the disciples then brought
Paul down onto Athens. And here he waited, biding his
time, for Silas and for Timothy to join him. You see that in
chapter 17, verse 14 and 15. Now this, let me say again, is
a unique portion of the Scripture in that it finds Paul among not
those Jewish antagonists that seem to be everywhere that he
went, But it finds him here among curious philosophers. Another
sort of person altogether from that that usually hounded, offended,
and persecuted Paul. And it also shows us something
else. It shows us a different approach
that Paul took in the city of Athens as he dealt with those
philosophers and not with those who were Jews and knew Moses
and the prophet and the psalm and all of that. Now verse 16,
where we began our reading, verse 16 commences our story that we
want to consider this evening. Paul in the city of Athens, in
the country or nation of Greece, waiting there, and Luke the historian
writes to let us know the reaction of Paul to the city. For Athens
was not like any other city that Paul had ever visited or had
preached the gospel. It had once been the city. It had once been the metropolis
of Greece, as we like to say in its heyday. It was not only
the political, but also the cultural capital of all of Greece. And through it, though it had
lost some of its former magnificent Yet some of its eminence was
still available. And yet, as F.F. Bruce wrote
in his commentary on the Book of Acts, and I'm quoting, Athens
retained unchallenged prestige and her former glory was not
completely dimmed. He wrote again later, he continued
to represent the highest level of culture that one might imagine
in that day. Now the city of Athens had been
called the eye of Greece and the mother of arts and of eloquence. It was a different city. It was
famous for its arts and its sculptures and its culture as well. Science,
literature and such like as that. Its magnificent building, the
magnificent structures that were there by that Grecian architecture
of that day and age. But the thing that stands out
to Paul is what became evident as soon as he strolled himself
about the city, in this place and in that, mingled among those,
some who gathered in the marketplace and declared there in the end,
verse 16, he saw the city wholly given over unto idolatry. It was full of idols. Everywhere
you looked, they said, in this city, you could see an idol. And Luke notes the effect of
all of that upon the sight of Paul. His spirit strained at
the least, as it were. His spirit was stirred within
him, or more literally, the spirit in him was provoked, I think
we might say that, when he saw is much too mild in our English. It is seeing or surveying the
spectacle that is there before his eyes. It could be said like beholding,
looking intently on the nature and the structure of the city. Seeing it everywhere that he
turned in that place. It filled the apostle with a
flurry of emotion, as one said. And his spirit stirred greatly
within him. His spirit was sharpened. It
was set on edge. Whereas James A. Alexander claims
the works described Violent excitement. There was violent excitement
in the apostles. What did Paul feel? Was it grief? Was it anger? Was it wonder? Was it shame? And perhaps was
it a form of compassion for their ignorance and their blindness?
and perhaps a zeal for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke
does not exaggerate when he describes a city wholly given to idols,
being full of idols. idle fool. I'm interested in
reading various writers have described the scene that greeted
the Apostle when he arrived and visitors to the city of Athens. Some speaking of the plethora,
that is, the excessive profusion of temples and statues and such
as that everywhere in the city. For example, Petronius said,
quote, in Athens it was easier to find a God than to find a
man." And Pausinias stated that Athens had more images than all
of Greece combined together. Xenophon called Athens one great
altar, one great offering unto the God. Live your oath. In Athens are to be seen images
of gods and men of all descriptions and made of all kinds of material
that were available. Now these Paul calls devotions
down in verse 23. That is, these are your objects
of worship. These are the things that you
worship. And he found one everywhere that
he went and everywhere that he looked. And in the 22nd verse,
look what Paul says to them. He says to them when he is allowed
to speak, he says unto them, I perceive that in all things
you are too superstitious, or you are unusually devoted unto
your deities or unto your divinity. But in spite of that, they were
always seeking more, always desiring to hear of another. Remember
in verse 21, they spent all their time seeing and hearing something
new. And in this regard, they were
unlike the Jew who violently opposed Paul as soon as they
heard from him the gospel. And they persecuted him from
city to city, following him from place unto place. Now the Athenians,
fearing that they might have missed a god, that there might
be one they hadn't heard about, instead invite Paul to speak
unto them, saying unto him, we would hear more. Let's go back.
to verse 17, the last part, and verse 18, Paul had contact in
this city with two sorts of people. Number one, of course, were the
Jews ever present. And this took place on the Sabbath
day. or on the Sabbath, Paul would
go into the synagogue. He reasoned with them. He desired
a rather discourse with them. He addressed them, no doubt using
the Old Testament Scripture in order to convince the Jew that
Jesus of Nazareth perfectly fit the Old Testament Scripture and
was therefore the Messiah. But a second class also greeted
the apostle there. Paul had daily discussion with
persons whom he encountered along the way, usually in the marketplaces
where they would gather, called also the Agora, A-G-O-R-A. This was not just and only a
business place where buying and selling were conducted, but here
also people gathered every day. We might call it in East Texas
the Spitting Whittle Club, for they met here in the marketplace
each day. Here were the sitters. Here were
the talkers and the people who had nothing to do. And they did
it in this particular place in the city on the public square. As one said, the Athenian Agora
was used as a public meeting place For shade-tree philosophers,
if we might refer to them in that way. For idlers that came
and here they met. People of leisure. It was a place
where philosophers taught. It was a place where philosophers
discussed the issues of life. And of course, as providence
would have it, Paul encountered or came in contact with these
people and begin having discussions with them back and forth. He with them and they with him. And then Luke gets more specific
in verse 18 saying certain, some of the philosophers of a particular
kind, the Epicurean and the Stoic persuasion having or holding
discussions back and forth with the apostle. And they convened
daily for, hear this term, mental jousting. That's what they like
to do. They like to throw out new things.
They like to throw something out and see what kind of response
it would get. So let us give a short description
of these two schools of philosophy that Paul encountered in Athens. First of all, his name, the Epicurean. These were followers of the man
Epicurus, who lived from about 341 to about 270 BC. It is said he died in Athens,
if I remember correctly. And he taught, his doctrine was,
or teaching, or philosophy was, that the chief pursuit of life
is pleasure, that one ought to seek a nothing but pleasure. The aim of existence, he said,
was serenity of life and pleasure. In addition to that, it is said,
he denied creation. And according to John Gill, very
knowledgeable on these things, he taught that the world came
into being by a consensus of atoms. The world came into being
simply by chance, according to him. Now acknowledge the existence
of a God, but said that that God took no part in human or
in mundane affairs. Now the second sort that are
mentioned are the Stoic. These were disciples of the philosopher
by the name of Zeno, who was a contemporary of Epicurus living
from about 335 B.C. to 263 B.C. Now the name Stoics that they
had, which was their name and how they were recognized, it
means a painted porch. That's kind of the meaning of
the word. It means a painted porch, the
parties or the porches, or the porties as one might say, for
they differed in belief from the Epicurean in that they did
profess a supreme being as well as divine providence going on
in human affairs. They believed in moral good and
at the same time they greatly stressed the rational faculty
and ability of man and extolled human ability and the ability
of the human mind to reason. Now needless to say, both of
these are strongly at odds with the Christian gospel, with its
means of coming to know God, finding salvation and happiness
and such like. Paul's hearers readily poured
contempt upon the Christian, calling him a gatherer of scraps
from various places, which he had then pieced together to make
a hodgepodge as they viewed it. Weighing his words in their own
scale, they slandered him as if he were, quote, a retailer
of second-hand scraps of philosophy, a type of itinerant peddler of
religion, unquote. That's how they saw Paul. That's what they thought when
they heard his view and his doctrine. And they mocked him, calling
him this Ignorant plagiarist, for he'd gotten all these seeds
from everywhere. They say in the Greek, the picture
is that of a bird picking up seeds and scraps here and there.
We've all seen them do that in the parking lot. And they likened
him onto that. And it's something that was no
more than empty chatter unto them when they first heard of
Paul. Now this is the only time, I
think, that the exact word is used in the Scripture in Acts
17 and 18, philosophers, a certain philosopher. And we find that
the word is a combination of two words. Put together, philos,
meaning dear, friendly, or fond. Translated friend and friends,
and some thirty times in the New Testament you'll find that
word translated friend or friend. Then the second part of the word
is sophos or sophos, which is most commonly translated wise
in other places in the New Testament. Thus, meaning one who is fond
of, one who is a lover of wisdom, yet not the wisdom of God, not
the wisdom of the gospel, but the wisdom of man and the wisdom
of the world. Thus, one's philosophy is one's
outlook on life and related matters and the world. It is their worldview,
as we might say, of it. It is then a study of the belief
and the grounds of them, why they believe it, and such like.
Now, one's philosophy is their theory on a particular subject
or a particular matter. Thus the idea of convicting of
an individual or even of a school of thought, have you heard the
saying, their philosophy, his philosophy, their philosophy
is this or that or the other. So F.F. Bruce wrote on Acts 17
and 18, Stoicism and Epicureanism represent attempts by pre-Christian
paganism to come to terms with life, unquote. And this they
did day in and day out. They would solve the mysteries
of life. They would get all the answers
to the deep mystery. They would answer the questions
that one might have or that one might raise, and solve and provide
solutions for the problems of life and of the world. As we saw in their two views
of these schools there in Athens, there was not agreement. No,
they differed greatly on their issues. on the same issue. They
were rivals on many things and they butted heads. And might
we add that post-Christian philosophy, that is since Christ and the
gospel, have made no improvement over their counterparts of long,
long ago of olden times, so that there is no consensus among those
who are lovers of philosophy and worldly wisdom. There is
no unanimity of opinion among them. Opinions are as many as
there are people sometimes. But they are all over the map,
if we may say, at various times on the same issue. Still we cannot
conclude that the philosophers of old were fully atheistic. They acknowledged good, they
acknowledged evil, and some even acknowledged a living soul. Many endorse the pursuit of virtue
and the avoidance of evil, even while being ignorant of the cause
of evil and not knowing the true sanctification required a work
of the grace of God for it to be effectual. That which philosophy
casts into the hands of men is put in the hands of the grace
of God by the Scripture. An old writer, I like his books.
If you ever run across one, I don't have, buy it for me. John Bryan
wrote on this subject, and I'm quoting, as human nature is depraved
and the heart of man is an impure fountain, no action springing
from it can be approved by God, though they are materially good,"
unquote, even if they are basically good. Philosophy would make human
good and virtue the savior of men. That's the trouble with
philosophy, that men might put their own self into a good position. That's why when philosophy and
the gospel met in the way, one of them must be excluded, for
they are mutually exclusive one of the other. Law and grace do
not mix, neither do philosophy and the Christian gospel. Philosophy
cries out human ability in the area of morality. and is proponent
of the praise of human wisdom and ability. The Word of God,
however, the Gospel proclaims all to be fallen and depraved
and condemned. Thus the Gospel and philosophy
do not prescribe the same remedy for one and the same problem. Philosophy is content with self-achievement. The gospel counts such as filthy
rags that we may know Christ and his power of resurrection. This again caused John Bryan
to say, quote, if credit be given to philosopher, we must be obliged
to renounce Christianity, unquote. Think about that. By the way,
God forbid that any should ever imagine to combine the two as
co-workers in bringing one to the salvation in Christ or even
to human virtue. We know what Paul has said of
human wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22. The Greeks seek
after wisdom. That's their greatest delight.
That's their goal. They seek after wisdom. And that, to such a degree, or
of such a caliber, that they can count the gospel as being
nothing but foolishness. It requires a philosopher to
deny his own wisdom and therefore espouse the wisdom of God, becoming
a fool that he might know the wisdom of God. Now, the gospel
is foolishness to the lover of philosophy, because it declares,
that is, the gospel declares that the salvation of sinners
comes only by and through the will, the work of God, and the
death and suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom
God has appointed our mediator. what Paul called Christ crucified. And the divinity of the gospel
revelation is seen in the fact that carnal reason would never,
in all the world, have ever come up with such a method for the
salvation of men as that which is set forth in the gospel. They
would, when left to their own understanding, stumble about
in darkness and in ignorance in their heart and in their mind. For example, notice again what
they, or some, thought. when Paul preached unto them
Jesus and the Anastasis. When he preached unto them Jesus
and the Anastasis, or Jesus and the resurrection, which means
standing up again, is the meaning of resurrection. In Acts 17,
verse 18, they took him to be a setter forth of strange God. a heralder of strange deity,
a foreign deity which they had not heard about, and their ears
burned that they might hear more. Jesus they took, on the other
hand, to be some strange new God, and the resurrection to
be another strange deity that they would learn of. And in verse
19, notice their behavior and the carriage of themselves toward
the apostle. They do not stone him. They do
not beat him as the Jewish rivals might have done. They do not
ride him out of town on the rail at the threat and the danger
of his life, but they take him and invite him and bring him
up to Mars Hill that they might hear more from this one of this
form of teaching. being spoken by Paul. Look at verse 20 again. They
refer to it as certain strange things. Certain strange things. Now the word strange seems to
have the meaning of startling or surprising. Strange and mysterious
are these things which you are bringing unto our ears. Rather than run them out of town,
they want to hear more. They want to hear these things
explained. They want to hear what these
things intend and what they mean. Not because they desire to embrace
gospel salvation, but because they were, according to verse
21, ever searching for some new thing. Another deity that they
might add to their repertoire. Another novelty. Something newer
than the latest. and to be among the first to
hear it and to spread it about. So we note this, in the providence
of God, their curiosity got Paul the opportunity to preach the
things of Christ to these students of the philosophers and in that
very place where the philosophers held forth on Mars Hill. And it is to be noted something
else, Very important about Acts chapter 17, and that is that
the apostle takes a different way with these kind of hearers
than he had with those that were in the synagogue, or those that
were Jews. To the Jews he could open the
scripture, quote the scripture, or they confess to believe in
them. While among the philosophers
who knew not the Scripture, nor Christ, he must declare unto
them, this unknown God whom you ignorantly worship, Him I want
to declare unto you." Of course, Paul passed by He saw an inscription
to the unknown God, making sure they didn't leave any out. Now,
the gospel is ever the same. However, whatever opposition
it meet, it never changes, though many Athenians have roosted in
the branches of Christendom, seeking or claiming new revelation,
new truths and such like, new light. Only the gospel, however,
is the power of God under salvation, and that because, as we saw this
morning, of what it is that is revealed there. Philosophy hath
no value if not based upon the truth of God Almighty, or to
err away from the truth of God. Only Christ can save, and there
are no gods besides Jehovah. If so, they are a strange deity. They exist only in the mind of
some who have conjured them up in their vain imagination. Now, I'll just close by saying
that our country has become another Athens. Gods of every sort, gods
of every name, and we have become a Babel, it seems, in our nation. But nonetheless, the gospel is
still the power of God unto salvation. May the holy God of heaven, preserved
by His providence and power, let the gospel be preached somewhere,
some places in our land. May God grant it to be so. What a blessing is the gospel.