Paul Confronts Satan’s City
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 12 March 2017
This is the story of Paul in the great city of Athens. Now in Acts 17 the Apostle Paul and company were on the second missionary journey. The church was established in Antioch, the first church outside of the area of Palestine as a missionary base to reach the rest of the world. And Paul was sent out from there. The first time with Barnabas and the second time with Silas, and they went through Galatia and founded a church in Philippi.
Then they founded churches in Thessalonica and Berea but because of persecution Paul had to flee. He left Luke in Philippi and left Silas and Timothy in Berea and now he is alone in Athens. And some would tell us it is the low point of his ministry. He left all of his friends to carry on the work of discipling, and he was persecuted continually. And here we learn this great principle from him in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” When things are tough we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us.
Let us see what kind of a man Paul was. He was not only a Jew, he was a Pharisee, a student of the great teacher Gamaliel. He was expert in the law, he was an expert in the Old Testament. Beyond being a Jew he was a Roman citizen with special knowledge of politics. Beyond that he was a Greek, by virtue of his environment, he was raised in Tarsus which was influenced by Greek culture, art and philosophy.
And adding to that he had a brilliant mind. He had an intense commitment. He was a tireless pursuer of any goal that he set. He was a fearless preacher. He was a great question and answer dialogue man. He was well-travelled and well-read. In Acts 17:28 he says, “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.” Here he quoted two Greek philosophers.
Now beyond Paul there is the city called Athens. And some historians tell us that Athens in its prime in the 4th and 5th century B.C. was the greatest city in the world and maybe never has been equaled since. The art, the literature, the architecture and the philosophies that existed in Athens in those years has never had a match. Now Athens was in the province of Achaia and technically Corinth was the capital but Athens was the major city.
Historians say that Athens at the time of Paul was also the intellectual center of the world. And Athens offered a place for almost every god in existence. So it was a pagan city in the fullest sense, super cultured. Added to this was its philosophical bent. Socrates and Plato were from Athens. And Athens was the adopted city of Aristotle, Epicurus who founded the Epicureans and Zeno who founded the Stoics.
However it still was a city without God. It had a god for everything and then after all of those gods they had another statue called “the unknown god" because all the gods they had never satisfied them, so they still looked for another one. That is the absolute frustration in idolatry. But God is about to do a mighty works as Paul confronts the city. This is the cross verses the cults.
Let us see how Athens effected Paul. It says that it aroused his spiritual interests. In Paul's day everything was alive and the buildings were all marble and gold glittered from one end of the city to the other. Statues were everywhere and it was absolutely breathtaking. Imagine walking in that city and being overwhelmed by the wonder of the culture and the arts, the wonder of the architecture and everything that was there.
Verse 16, “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.” That was his only comment. Because he could see beyond the superficial, he had the ability to look beyond the cultural facade and see the reality of men’s hearts. There is not one line in Paul’s writings about the architecture.
Renan, the French atheist said, "That ugly little Jew abused Greek art by describing those statues as idols.” Here was a man who was indifferent to the things that usually pre-occupy us. We usually focus only on the façade, the outside. But Paul sees things with spiritual eyes. 1 Samuel 16: 7 says, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” How do you see this city? We too should recognize the many men that are damned to eternity.
That's what hurt Paul. He didn't get real excited about the superficial things. In Revelations 3:17 we have some insight on how Jesus looks at churches. The Lord says to the lukewarm church, “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Our Lord saw the church at Laodicea with spiritual eyes.
When Paul walked into Athens, he saw two things. One, verse 16: full of idols. Two, verse 23, “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.” In spite of all their gods, they still were not satisfied!
How do you see your city? Do you see it like Paul saw Athens? Our people here have filled our city with idols to imaginary deities and they are lost. Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives above the city of Jerusalem, and you know that Jesus cried and said in Matthew 23:37, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Paul also saw the people of Athens being lost. What do you see?
Two, Paul hated idolatry because it steals the glory of God. Paul said, I'm preaching Christ, the obedience of the faith for the sake of His name, for the sake of His glory. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 2 Cor. 4:15 tells you, “For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”
How did Paul look at the city? One, he saw that all these men were lost. Two, he saw that they did not give glory to God. There's a third thing that Paul did. Verse 17, “Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” He preached to the Jews and Gentiles and then he went to the marketplace. He gave the Judaism background and then put Christ in that context. He also gave the Gentile context and fit Christ in that.
How do you win the world? Well, you just go out there and you find just whoever's around and you just tell them about Jesus Christ. Paul just took off and he was preaching in the marketplace. All the towns in those times had a center place, maybe a large court, the public buildings were there, the temples were there and around this big area would be a colonnade full of small shops and farmers would sell their crops.
And so Paul, after he finished at the synagogue, he slid into the agora and he talked to anybody who came across his path. It says at the end of verse 18, “He preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” Now they had a real hang-up on the resurrection when he went to the synagogue and preached about a dead, resurrected Messiah. Now in Athens they had a hang-up on resurrection, so he preached on resurrection.
How could Paul ever have an effect on a city like Athena? Well, he wasn't alone, the power of God was in him. And look what happens. He affected Athens first with contempt. Verse 18, “Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say? Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”
The Epicureans got their name from Epicurus who was a philosopher in Athens from 400 years before. Epicureans believed that everything happened by chance. There was no real reason for anything and nobody was in charge. Second thing, death was the end of everything. Three, they believed in all the gods but the gods were remote and didn't care. And fourthly, they believed that pleasure is the main purpose in life.
On the other hand you had the Stoics, who were the nice guys. They weren't out each for themselves. They believed, first, that everything was God. The trees were God, the dirt was God, they were God, and the buildings were God, in other words pantheism. If everything is God, nothing is God. Secondly, everything is the will of God. No matter what happens, everything is the will of God. They were fatalists.
And so these two groups run into Paul. They said in verse 18, you have picked up bits and pieces of philosophy and religion and slapped it all together and now you are trying to pawn it off as knowledge. So they mocked him. You always hear that Christianity is not even reasonable. That is what happened to Jesus in John 7:15, “Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”
But Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:18-19, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Verse 20, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So the first group mocked and there have always been mockers.
It says in the middle of verse 18, "Others said, He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” Whatever their assumption of foreign gods was, they didn't listen very well. But they were curious in terms of questioning. And they were looking for something new. This was interesting for them.
Verse 19-21, “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean. 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” The Areopagus was the name of the court.
And there are a lot of people like that in our world today, intellectualism is a god. They bow to the god of the mind. Paul said to the Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” In 2 Timothy 2:16 he says, “But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.”
So Paul gets up there in verse 22 and he preaches through verse 31 on God, the person of God, Christ and the resurrection. So there was contempt, questioning, and some curiosity and fourthly some conversion, some people got saved. Look at verse 34, “However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”
The beauty of the gospel reaches the most important people of Athens and the least important, the common woman. Ii is so beautiful that two people at both ends of the spectrum were saved in the same sermon. That's the power of the gospel to bridge the gap. But before the conversions ever happened there were the same old responses. Verse 32, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
So here Paul preaches the resurrection and they laugh at him. That is nothing new. Remember in Acts 2:13 they laughed and they said, - Oh, you guys are drunk. And in Acts 26:8 Paul told Agrippa, “Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?” Look at the answer in verse 24, “Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”
In the last days in which we live we can expect more of this. Jude 1:17-19 says, “Beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” There were not only mockers but there were also questioners.
Verse 32, "Others said, “We will hear you again on this matter!” You know that that is just as deadly as mocking the gospel. That is the same as in Acts 24: 25, “Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.” Hebrews 3:8 says, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness.” Delaying is rejecting, believe in Jesus, before you are too late.
But then there were some curious on that occasion and look what Paul did in verse 33, “So Paul departed from among them.” Paul left to see the response. Verse 34, “However, some men joined him and believed.” Here you have the conversion. And one was a member of the Areopagus court and one was just a woman who was not anything particularly special in the world. But she was special to God.
Do you know that our nation still worships Athenia, the deification of the human mind? They worship Demiter, mother earth, and they call it ecology. They worship Zeus, the god of force and power. They worship Bacchus and Remor, the gods of lust. And we still have our Epicureans, existentialists, materialists and heathenisms. We have our Stoics. They're the ethical society talking about brotherhood and helping the poor and God is in you and you are God yourself. Let us not be influenced by Satan the deceiver, be like Paul, bringing light to a dark world. How about you? Let’s pray.