Village Identity
Core Village Thinking on Mission: A look at Paul's engagement with the Athenians
Christianity as a Holistic Faith: Acts 17:16-34 - 1. Emotionally Passionate 2. Intellectually Credible 3. Socially Respectable 4. Culturally Relevant 5. Spiritually Transforming
Athens was the home of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It was the cultural center of the known world - art, philosophy, and Architecture. The Athenians were fading in power, but they were still a "university city" - a city of great influence. Much like the US - they were tolerant, proud, and religious
Emotionally Passionate
Acts 17.16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
Ravi Zecharias says - You will never lighten any load until you feel the pressure in your own soul. When Paul enters Athens, he is by himself. He is distressed by the city full of idols. Paul finds himself emotionally involved with the city and its worship. It would be hard for him not to be overwhelmed by all the idols, there were at least 30,000 or so in Athens. Jesus was also emotionally impacted by the spiritual and physical plight of the people around him. In Luke 19.41 it states: Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. You and I need to look around and be emotionally involved in the spiritual and physical plight of those who live in Tucson.
Intellectually Credible
Acts17.17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul reasoned in the synagogue. This is his regular pattern - find those who know the one true God, and attempt to explain their need for Jesus and the culture’s need for transformation. This is an interesting concept. The truth of the Gospel - first, needs to be demonstrated inside the church community. Paul then moves on to the Agora (the place of assembly, for public debating, for elections, for trials, for buying and selling, and for any kind of business) the "Market Place." At the Agora, Paul is accused of being a babbler - literally they were calling him a seed picker. The word was often used to describe the beggars who sat around waiting for something to fall off the carts that passed thought the Agora. So, they accused him of having a buffet style religion. The text tells us that these critics were the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that everything happens by chance, no sovereign god is in control, there is no life after death, no resurrection, and pleasure is the highest good. On the other hand, the Stoics were pantheistic - everything is god, man has a spark of the divine. They were also Fatalistic - everything happens because god wills it. The Stoics tended to be spiritual but did not believe in a physical resurrection.
The Areapagus belonged to (Ares) Mars and was called Mar’s Hill; so called, because, as the story went, Mars, having slain Halirrhothius, son of Neptune, for the attempted violation of his daughter Alicippe, was tried for the murder here before twelve gods as judges. This place was the location where the judges convened who, by appointment of Solon, had jurisdiction of capital offenses, (as willful murder, arson, poisoning, malicious wounding, and breach of established religious usages). The court itself was called Areopagus from the place where it sat, also “Areum judicium” a “curia”. To that hill the apostle Paul was not led to defend himself before judges, but that he might set forth his opinions on divine subjects to a greater multitude of people, flocking together there and eager to hear something new. Paul was alone, but not afraid.
Socially Respectable
Acts 17.22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
A famous Indian proverb states - After you cut off a person’s nose there is no need to hand them a rose. Paul does not start out by insulting his audience. He compliments them - they are very religious - this is a good thing. They are seekers of God. Like Paul's listeners, Tucsonans are very religious, but they are very ignorant. I've talked to many people who don't even know who Jesus is, or if they do - they have no idea that he is connected to God. In Mere Christianity (pg.43), C.S. Lewis states - “If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth . . . As in arithmetic there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others. The first big division of humanity is into the majority, who believe in some kind of God or gods, and the minority who do not” With this concept in mind, Paul seeks common ground with his audience. He points out their alter to the "Unknown God." These alters have a funny story behind them. I believe, don't quote me on this, 600 years earlier there was a famine in Athens. The people had made sacrifices to all the Gods, but nothing happened. The great poet Epimenides suggested that they send sheep into the city, and whatever temple they stopped at then that was the God who needed a sacrifice. The only problem was the sheep were so hungry many of them died in the street, and so they were sacrificed to the Unknown God. Paul finds a place where God showed up in their culture and brings it to light. Where does God show up in our culture?
Culturally Relevant
Acts17:24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
Acts 17.29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." 32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Paul used their language and their communication form. He debated with them, quoting their philosophers and poets. He quotes Epimenides - In him we live and move and have our being (600BC Epimenides referring to Zeus). He also quotes Aratus 300 b.c. - we are his offspring. Paul seems to be saying that all things are pointers to the truth - Life is a puzzle with pieces everywhere. Also, Paul argues to the bible rather that from it. What parts of our culture are pointing towards Jesus? How can we use these in everyday life to point people towards God?
Spiritually Transforming
Acts 9:1 - 6 1Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 6So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Paul's life was transformed by Jesus. The message was not a “new way” of thinking about the gods, it was a life transforming relationship with the God of the Universe. He was not standing up in the Areapagus risking his life because he thought he had a few good ideas. He truly believed that the age of ignorance was going away and the age to the King was being ushered in. He was confident that if people would reach out to God - God would find them.
Pastor eric |