Sermon for Sunday Evening, June 4th, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Sermon Text
[Act 17:16-34 ESV] 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”–because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Introduction
We have now Paul’s great speech on the Aeropagus in Athens. This city was the most prominent in Ancient Greece just as it is the capital of the Modern country of Greece.
And in Athens is this “Hill of Ares.” That is what “Areopagus” means. “The Hill of Ares,” the Greek god of war. When the Romans took things over they tended to apply their own names to the places. So the Aeropagus was called Mars Hill.
There have been some churches that have taken that name – Mars Hill. I would caution against that, not only because there is a foreign god’s name right in the title of the church, but so far anyways churches with that name haven’t been exactly orthodox.
Well, there on the Areopagus Paul gives a great speech. It might be my favorite. And within sight of all who heard Paul was the great Greek temple called the Parthenon. The Greeks obviously had many gods, because the Parthenon was a temple to Athena not Ares. So when Paul said “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands” he was declaring that even this greatest temple could not contain the true God, and by comparison he exclaims that the Greek gods are nothing.
Incidentally, St. Augustine said that the Greek gods, and perhaps all other foreign deities actually do exist. But they are not gods. They are demons, angels aligned with Satan who seek human worshippers. Well, I don’t know. But it is an interesting theory. Rather than people inventing gods from nothing, they are tricked by demons to believe the demons are gods. But, I think, corrupt man certainly needs no assistance going the wrong way. Corrupt man can easily invent false gods on his own. And blaming demons for false worship gets nobody off the hook for that abominable thing.
So Paul preaches the True God. He who was, who is, and who is to come.
Paul preaches to unbelievers, and that is what I want to focus on this evening, as I’ve titled the sermon “Preaching to Unbelievers.”
Paul is usually talking to believers, or at least Jews who believe in God if not yet in Christ. His practice is to go to the synagogue. And he done so this time as well. “He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons.”
But he quickly extends his mission to the Greeks. He reasoned “in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” With anybody. Jew, Greek. Scythian, Barbarians, slave and free. Everybody needs to go to the marketplace at one time or another. And certainly everyone needs the Gospel.
There Paul meets philosophers. Stoics and Epicureans, two of the schools of thought in that day. You should see, throughout human history, how many schools of thought, how many philosophies come and go. But worship of the Lord God of Truth has not ceased from Adam to this very day. There has always been a remnant who believes.
Now these philosophers ask questions. They want to hear what Paul is preaching. They like knowledge. The more the better. They’ll listen to anybody. The Stoics, based on the similarities in thought, may have even been listening to Buddhists from the Far East. So these philosophers say to Paul: “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”
What an inroad for evangelism.
I used to think this almost never happens, and that if I want to do evangelism myself I have to push the subject. But I’ve now found multiple times with hikers that they are interested to know about the Lord. And I’m keen to tell them!
Paul is keen as well, to preach to unbelievers.
And his preaching to them varies a bit from how he would preach to the Jews, to the people of the book.
When he spoke to the Jews he did so on the basis of the truth of the Old Testament. Now when he preaches to the Greeks, he takes a different approach.
So how does Paul’s preaching (and preaching in general) to unbelievers differ from preaching to believers?
Well first, it should noted that preaching, in the church, is primarily for believers. This is a worship service, for those who worship the Lord. All are indeed invited, but this is first and foremost a time for believers to worship God, to hear His word, to grow in knowledge and faith, and be reassured of the Gospel – that they have salvation by the Grace of God through the death of Jesus Christ.
Unbelievers are welcomed. And many do come to the Lord through the preaching of the word. And praise be to God when that occurs.
The preaching to believers and unbelievers has many aspects that are the same. The same truth is proclaimed. The same Gospel command is given. The rhetorical art of persuasion is employed.
But for the believers, the truths of the word of God are already believed. And so they re-assure us, they re-mind us, they re-focus our thoughts on God.
The unbeliever, by definition, does not believe the Bible to be true. So preaching to the unbeliever demands much persuasion and it demands other points of common ground. Two of these which Paul employs are “common ground in creation” and “common ground as men.”
1) Common Ground in Creation
Paul focuses on creation when he says this:
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
The God who made he world and everything in it. He gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Paul says, in effect, “look about us.” Look around and see the trees and the sky and the rivers and the creature of all sorts. Did not God make this?
The Scriptures declare this to be true, that God made the heavens and the earth and all things therein. The Greeks wouldn’t believe the Scriptures, they might not have even read them or heard of them, but they like everyone live in God’s world.
Paul makes a similar argument or appeal in Romans 1:20
[Rom 1:20 ESV] 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
God is perceived in the things that have been made.
2) Common Ground as Men
Well, you can’t logically go from the existence of trees, and birds, and bees to the existence of God.
There is something else going on here. It is not that the people look to creation and first see God, but rather THEY ALREADY KNOW GOD and thus can infer that the order of the world and its very existence is dependent on God.
This is a much contested point. The Atheist is quite upset when you make it. The Biblical view is that man – all men, even unbelievers – know that God exists. God has implanted it on our minds. It is what Calvin called the “sensus divinitatus” or sense of the divine. We all know that God exists the unbeliever suppresses that truth. Paul seeks to persuade them to believe that knowledge which they already have.
Paul says: Yet he (God) is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
God exists, we live in his world, and are dependent upon him so fully that it can even be said “in him we live and move and have our being.”
It is as if Paul is saying “Wake up to this truth.” You already know it to be true. You depend on God. You didn’t create yourself. You didn’t decide what is true and what is just and what is beautiful. These are all dependent upon God, and we live in His world.
The Berean Jews searched the Scriptures – and rightly so. But the heathen Greeks will have to search their hearts, where they know God exists.
The Resurrection
Now, up to here the Greeks are following along. Paul has even quoted from their own poets. But then Paul gets to the resurrection. And he must. This is important. This is the Gospel. No one is saved merely be believing that God exists — even the demons believe and shudder — we must believe the Gospel.
When Paul emphasizes Christ’s resurrection this really “get’s their goat.”
They are not happy. They like knowledge, but none of this physicalness. But Christianity teaches that God came to earth in a physical body. And it teaches that Christ died, in the flesh, and rose again in the new flesh, and that one day though we die we shall rise again … in the flesh.
The Greeks didn’t like the flesh. They looked down upon this body. But this is the body which God made for us. We should not look down upon it.
So Paul preaches the resurrection. This needs to be heard by believers and unbelievers alike. For believers it is a reminder. But for unbeliever it is a crucial necessity; come and believe the Gospel. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.
The Gospel must be preached to unbelievers. Creation and the “sense of the divine” are great truths to proclaim, but the preachers job is not done until he preaches the Gospel. The Gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Just as with the Jews, some Greeks believed and some did not.
And from place to place the Gospel was preached and the church grew. It grew of Jews and of Gentiles. The truth was proclaimed. And though Paul was mocked, he was not phased. He kept preaching, for God made foolish the wisdom of the world, and it pleased God through the folly of the Gospel to save those who believe. The Jews demand signs and he Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to ALL, both Jew and Greek, and those who believe by the power of the Holy Spirit know that this Gospel is the power OF God and the Wisdom of God, far above anything of man.