Acts chapter 17 and verse 16. And perhaps you'll remember that
Paul and Silas and Timothy had been at Thessalonica. They had
been chased out of Thessalonica. They had gone to Berea. There's
your little map there, perhaps. Paul had been whisked away in
the night because the troublemakers from Thessalonica had come and
endeavoured to arrest him and to do him hurt, even in Berea,
where the people themselves in Berea had been more noble in
their approach and acceptance and listening to the gospel being
preached. And Paul was taken by the believers
in Berea down to Athens. And here he is now in this city
of Athens. And of course, we know about
Athens from classical history. We know that it was a center
of learning. It was a center of culture. It
was a center of philosophy. It was a center of language and
drama and arts. And so many things went on in
Athens. And this is where Paul finds
himself in this little section of Acts 17 that is before us
today. So let us read from verse 16. 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 persons, 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 seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is. For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but to tell
or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. And hath made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation. that they should seek the Lord,
if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and
have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them,
howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which
was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and
others with them. Amen. May God bless this reading
to us. So as Paul waited in Athens for
Silas and Timothy to come to him, he saw the idolatry that
was there in that place. And we're told that his spirit
was stirred. When he saw the darkness, when
he saw the ignorance of all of these people who imagined that
they were so cultured, so intellectual, so wise, so clever, so scientific
in their thoughts and in their philosophies, And the apostle
Paul looked at them, and he saw that they were in darkness, and
he saw that they were without true light. Isn't it interesting,
the cleverer men and women seem to get, the further and further
away from God their wisdom takes them. So the Apostle Paul began,
as he often did, to speak to the Jews. He went to the synagogue. and there he engaged with the
Jews and it was seen with the devout people, probably Gentiles
that had identified with the Jews in their synagogue. But
he also went into the marketplace and there he met the common people,
there he met the people in the streets, the guys that were behind
the market stalls, the ladies that were doing their shopping,
maybe some of the beggars that went up and down amongst the
rows of traders. and there in the streets he engaged
with anyone who would listen to him. And he was there right
down at that very basic level where the common people met,
the Apostle Paul took the gospel of Jesus Christ. There as he
was speaking to the shopkeepers and the customers and the beggars
in the street, Who should pass by but some of these philosophers
and educated men? And I don't know where they were
going, but perhaps they were going to Mars Hill. Perhaps they
were on their way to what was basically just a big debating
society. where they all got together and
exchanged stories and said, I've heard something new or I've heard
something new and tried to fit it into their worldview and tried
to take advantage of one another and show how clever they were
and how able they were to debate and discuss and learn things.
And these Epicureans and Stoics, they saw Paul speaking and they
thought, well, here's somebody we don't recognize. Here's a
new face in town. I wonder what he's talking about?
And they listened to him for a few moments. And then they
said, this man has got some new doctrine. We should take him
with us and we'll let the people at Mars Hill in the Aregopolis
speak and there they can all question him if they want to
do so. and Paul went with them into
this place called Mars Hill. And there, as he was placed before
all the people, they asked him if he would speak and if he would
tell them about his new doctrine. And the apostle got up, and you
do have to admire Paul. You do have to admire him. Ten
minutes ago he was speaking to one of the shopkeepers. Now he's
standing in front of the most intelligent people in the whole
of the most cultured city in the known world. And they say,
OK, take it away. Let's hear what you've got to
say. Give us your message. And I don't imagine that he had
a lot of time to prepare his sermon. But as he looked around,
he saw all of the altars that were set out for the worship
of the many gods that the people of Athens worshipped. And he saw a strange altar, an
altar which said, this is to worship the unknown God. And the apostle Paul took his
cue from that altar and he turned and he said to all the gathered
clever people there, this unknown God that you worship, I am going
to declare him to you. And I think they must have been
riveted. They must have thought to themselves,
wow, this is interesting. Here's a man who obviously hasn't
been phased by the fact that we have put him right into the
centre of our group. and immediately he started to
speak about the God of creation and the Lord Jesus Christ. This God whom you worship in
ignorance, I declare unto you. And he preached the Lord Jesus
Christ right at the very centre and heart of man's vain wisdom
and idolatry. Some people say that Paul's sermon
began with creation, and that's true. But actually what he was
doing was he was systematically contradicting the views of the
people around about him. He was saying that you think
that this world has just been like this forever or that it
has been formed by some gathering of atoms and that God isn't interested
in it. which was the view of some of
the Epicureans and some of the Stoics. But he said, God created
this world. And not only did he create it,
but he manages it and controls it. And not only does he control
it, but he has placed everybody in exactly the place where he
has ordained them to be. And he contradicted their views
of science and religion and the things that they professed to
believe. And so he was directly taking his message to these men. He wasn't letting them think
that this was just some idea or notion or disconnected concept. He said, this contradicts your
ideas. This is the truth. And you believe
what is false. You believe a lie. You think
that the world just came into being, but my God created the
world. You imagine that God can be worshipped
in temples made of stone and wood. Not my God. My God must be worshipped in
the heart and worshipped through the spirit. You think that God
desires something from all men and that he's pleased when we
bring our offerings and lay them upon these altars. My God is
sovereign. He made all things and he needs
nothing from us. He manages all things and he
ordains all things. And this is the true God, and
this is the God of glory. And so the Apostle Paul set forth
God and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of
the hearing of these people. And he shows that the true God
is knowable. He shows that the men and women
of this world understand that there is a God. That's the reason
why they had so many altars. but that they couldn't reach
the true God out of their own wisdom. And of course the apostle
builds upon that when he writes to Romans in Romans chapter 1
and Romans chapter 2. But here he begins to show them
the true identity of this one true God. And he said that in
times past, God allowed men to remain in their darkness, feeling
around as it were, thinking that there must be something more,
there must be something else, but not being able to lay hold
upon him. And now, he said, God's not going
to look over that anymore, but he commands all men everywhere
to repent. And then Paul made a specific
application which was personal and direct. He said, this God
that I have just revealed to you, this God that you call the
unknown God, this God who created all things and needs nothing
from men, this God who commands you to repent, is coming in judgment. and he is going to judge every
one of you that hears my voice today. And that's the same message
that we have to preach to the world today. God is coming and
men might think they're really clever and men might imagine
that they're philosophers and that they're artists and that
they're able to reason and think and God commands repentance for
sin, and God is coming to judge this world. The Apostle Paul said, not only
is God coming to judge this world, but he is going to judge the
world by one who is appointed to the task. And to prove that
what I'm telling you is true, To confirm that this message
that I've declared before you this morning is right, God raised
that one who will judge the world from the dead, thereby testifying
that he himself is the Son of God. Now that reference to the
resurrection, particularly mentioned by Paul as it was, was purposeful
by the apostle in order to create a reaction, and it did. And he says, all of you, all
of you people here, all of you who are listening, he says, this
judgment has already begun because God has raised the judge from
the dead. And that gospel which he preached,
that revelation of God, that declaration of the unknown God,
it caused division amongst those who heard, just as it does everywhere
it is preached. And some mocked and others considered
and said that they would want to hear a little bit more. But
Paul had stated his message and he was done. And now he left. the Mars Hill and he left the
Holy Spirit to do his work in the hearts of those to whom the
message had been preached. You know, we can't change men's
hearts. We can't change our own heart. We can't change the hearts of
those that we love. only the Holy Spirit can open
a heart. And the Apostle Paul left the
work of God to God, and the Holy Spirit opened the hearts of some
who were there. This should give us great encouragement. We see here the power of God's
grace. We see here that irresistible
work of God the Holy Spirit, that while some mocked and laughed
others were challenged and touched, and that hearts were opened.
Dionysius, the Areopagite, seems to have been a man from the very
centre of that great debating society. He was called, indeed,
one from Mars Hill, which is what Areopagite means. And he was one who was obviously
identified with that place, and therefore probably one of the
important individuals of the city. And a woman named Damaris,
who may or may not be Dionysius's wife, or perhaps another lady
altogether. And we are told others with them.
And they claimed to Paul. They went with him. They stuck
to him. They wanted to hear more. They wanted to hear about this
Jesus that had been raised. They wanted to know about this
repentance for sin. They wanted to know about the
gospel of salvation. And this was the beginning of
a little church fellowship there in the city of Athens. We're
encouraged when we read these narratives, these incidents from
the life of the Apostle Paul, because it shows us that God
works through the preaching of the gospel to gather his people
to himself. Paul was laughed at by all the
smart people, all the clever people, all the philosophers,
all the teachers, laughed at him. But sovereign grace plucked
one here and two there, to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to enter into the experience of God's love and mercy and grace
through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. May the Lord bless these