GOOD NEWS FOR CULTURED PAGANS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 19, 2023 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: April 19, 2023 from Acts 17:16-34

Theme: Paul’s time in Athens gives us an example of how to present the gospel of Jesus to cultured pagans.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There’s a fascinating video available online. You can watch it anytime. It’s a video of the time when the great evangelist Dr. Billy Graham gave a TED Talk.

TED Talks have become something of an intellectual institution in our day. The name is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design; and it’s a forum that posts short international and informational talks online for free. It advertises itself as “ideas worth spreading”. And while it is typically steered toward a decidedly secularized expression of intellectual discourse, it chose to give the platform to Dr. Graham in 1998. It was an opportunity that he couldn’t miss. And so—keeping to the general theme of the forum—he gave his TED Talk on the subject of the marvelous advancements of technology that he had seen in his lifetime; and he celebrated the ways that those advancements had made life better for people around the world. But he also took the opportunity to testify to the participants in that forum that technology alone could never end the harsh realities of evil, suffering, and death. That, he told his audience, could only happen after the world accepted Jesus Christ. It’s a marvelous and encouraging video; one in which Dr. Graham brought the good news of the gospel very effectively to an audience of what we might call ‘cultured pagans’.

Now; I should define the term, “pagan”; because to most Christian people, it has a bit of a connotation. In the context of Paul’s experience in an ancient culture, a ‘pagan’ would not have been the same thing as an ‘unbeliever’. An ‘unbeliever’ would have been someone who heard the good news of the gospel and refused to believe it. Very often, such an unbeliever would give themselves over to their unbelief through ungodly convictions and behaviors. A ‘pagan’ however, would have been someone who didn’t embrace one of the main religions usually associated with their nation or people-group. In our case, that basic religion would be Christianity. And while it’s true that many unbelievers today are fond of calling themselves ‘pagans’; to my thinking, it may be that someone is a pagan simply because they never heard the gospel. Such people may not live in an intentionally and expressly wicked and immoral manner. It may be that they simply do the best they can because they have never heard the message of the gospel.

I suggest that such folks aren’t so much ‘un-believers’ as ‘never-really-heard-ers’.

In Acts 17, we read the story of how the apostle Paul came to the ancient city of Athens, in the region of Achaia in Greece. It was a city of intelligent people who were characterized by a kind of cultured ‘paganism’—a cultured ‘never-really-heard-ism’. And Paul was invited into a public forum—enjoyed by those intellectuals—in order to give what was essentially the ancient version of a TED Talk to introduce the good news of Jesus to them. Paul wisely seized this opportunity. And what he said in this forum gives us an example—for our own day, and in our own city—of presenting the message of the gospel to the cultured pagans of our time.

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Now; let’s remember where we left off in our last time together. Paul, Silas, and Timothy had just ministered to the Macedonian cities of Thessalonica and Berea. They began by preaching the gospel in the synagogues, and their preaching was well-received by many. But some of the unbelieving Jews stirred up the general populace against the missionaries. Paul had left Silas and Timothy to minister in Berea; but he went down south to Athens—urging them to come to him as soon as they could.

And so, the second half of Acts 17 picks up the story with Paul in the great city of Athens—that great intellectual and philosophical center of the ancient world. What an opportunity it would present! And so, in verses 16-17, we read of …

1. PAUL’S BURDEN (vv. 16-17).

We’re told in 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 (v. 16).

It was a cultured city; but it was one that was given over to idolatrous beliefs and practices. Everywhere Paul looked, he saw false gods being honored and worshiped and appealed to. It deeply grieved his heart. Perhaps, in this respect, he was behaving very much like Lot in the Book of Genesis—living, as he did, in the midst of the wicked people of Sodom. The apostle Peter wrote that “that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2 Peter 2:8).

A man of God who has been transformed by the love of Jesus just can’t keep quiet when he sees such idolatry going on all around him. But he was wise and careful. And so, he began as he always sought to do; by preaching first to the Jews in the city, and then moving out into the marketplaces to speak to the common, everyday folks. Verse 17 says;

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 (v. 17).

He began where he was; and he did what he could with what he had. It doesn’t seem that he attacked the idolatry of people directly; but rather, that he spoke of Jesus—and the subject of the people’s pagan beliefs came up ‘indirectly’ as a result. Whenever we faithfully proclaim Jesus, the contrast with other beliefs simply can’t help but become evident.

Well; such an approach drew attention. And so, in verses 18-21, we find …

2. THE PEOPLE’S REACTION (vv. 18-21).

Some of the philosophic thinkers of the predominant schools of thought took notice. Verses 18-19 say,

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 (v. 18).

The name “babbler” was a bit of a put-down. It may be that they could tell—by the way he spoke—that he was a foreigner. But the name itself meant “seed-picker”; and it described someone who went around gathering ‘scraps’. Figuratively speaking, it would have referred to someone in that culture who picked up this little bit of philosophical thought, and that little bit of philosophical thought, and tried to form a patchwork philosophy all their own. (We certainly see people doing that today; don’t we?) But this can’t be taken to mean that Paul’s message was confusing and unclear. It seemed that others took him in a much more serious way. They could tell that he was proclaiming the message about someone named Jesus who was raised from the dead; and so they assumed he was proposing yet another god for worship.

And so, they sought to hear more. And that’s when Paul was—as it were—given the opportunity to give a TED Talk. Verses 19-21 tell us;

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 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 (vv. 19-21).

The Areopagus—translated ‘Mars Hill’—was a public speaking forum that was named after the false god ‘Areos’—or ‘Mars’; who was the Roman god of war. In keeping with the Athenians’ tendency to hear some new thing, they gave the invitation to Paul to explain himself more fully. What an opportunity God gave to him! Just think of what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:15;

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear …(1 Peter 3:15).

So then; this leads us to …

3. THE MESSAGE TO CULTURED PAGANS (vv. 22-31).

Paul’s words give us a fascinating case study in how to present the gospel to ‘cultured pagans’—bright, intelligent people who have never really had the opportunity to hear the message of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Notice how he began in a very respectful manner—and with a point of connection to the people and their beliefs. In verses 22-23, we read;

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 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 …” (vv. 22-23).

Just what the nature of this belief of theirs was isn’t told to us. But it seems to reflect the idea that they knew that their pagan beliefs and practices were not enough. It was as if there was a ‘god’ somewhere out there that they had not yet known or appeased. And so, imagine their interest when he announced that he was going to explain to them who this ‘unknown god’ is!

Then, having caught their attention in a culturally respectful and relevant way, he goes on to speak of some things that they knew inwardly—simply as a product of being made in God’s image. He told them, in verses 24-28;

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 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’” (vv. 24-28).

Now; Paul’s strategy had a good theological basis. In Romans 1:19-20, he wrote concerning unbelievers that …

what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse … (Romans 1:19-20).

I would suspect that it would only be hardened ‘unbelievers’ who would deny this and fight against it. But if all people were honest about it, they’d admit that they know something of God their Creator. They can see His works. They have the testimony of His existence within themselves. He has put an ‘internal preacher’ within the chest of everyone He made.

And notice the remarkable truths that Paul appealed to. He affirmed—as all of his hearers already knew—that (1) the God who made all things could not be confined to a temple made with human hands; that (2) since He made and gives life to all things, He is not worshiped by men’s hands … as though He had any needs that human beings could meet; that (3) He made all people on the earth from “one” [or, as some manuscripts have it, “one blood”; that is from Adam and his wife Eve]; and that (4) He has acted sovereignly over the history of the nations of humanity that were born from our first parents—sovereignly determining their times in history and the boundaries of their nations; and (5) this was all so that the people of this world would seek their Creator in the hopes that they might grope for Him and find Him. And notice that Paul even quoted one of their own poets—Epimenides–who testified some 700 years prior that God is not far from humankind; “for in Him we live and move and have our being … For we are also His offspring”. If God is the very ground of our being, then how can He be ‘far away’ from us?

This all must have appealed greatly to the folks on Mars Hill. In all that Paul had said so far, there wouldn’t have been anything that was intellectually objectionable to them. They would have been nodding in agreement. But then would come the surprise. Paul boldly said that this meant that they should all repent of their idolatry, and worship the one true God—the God who had been unknown to them; but was now made known through His Son. Paul went on to say, in verses 29-31;

“Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (vv. 29-31).

Imagine! Paul put his finger upon one of the most predominant features of that city—its idolatry—and urged the people to change their thinking about it. And what’s more, Paul was not being cryptic about Jesus. As the Athenians had already testified, they knew he was telling them about a Man named Jesus who Paul testified to be God in human flesh … and who was raised from the dead.

That leads us, finally, to …

4. THE GOSPEL’S IMPACT (vv. 32-34).

Verses 32-34 say;

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them (vv. 32-34).

I remember one preacher telling me that he thought Paul’s time in Athens was a failure because he had resorted to having a philosophic discussion with them instead of boldly declaring the gospel. But I don’t agree. For one thing, I don’t agree that Paul failed to preach the gospel. And for another, though it may be that the reaction wasn’t immediate and dramatic—like in Thessalonica or Berea—the people nevertheless listened. They seemed to put their decision off with a casual, “We will hear you again …” Perhaps they’d schedule another TED Talk. But there definitely was a reaction. Some believed. Dionysius the Areopagite believed. His name suggests that he was an official in the Mars Hill council. Dionysus was—you could say—the first Martian convert. (But if you do, you’d better be prepared to explain what you mean.) A woman named Damaris also believed; and she must have been a woman of significance for her name to be mentioned like this. Others believed also. So; this was far from a failure. It was most definitely a beginning!

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So then; think of what we have learned from this story. In it, we’ve been given an example of how to reach ‘cultured pagan people—such as those who live in our own city—with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s approach, was (1) to observe the culture and learn how it was that the people groped and felt after God, (2) to appeal to the inherent sense of the truths about God that we all have as beings created in His image, (3) to show that human beings cannot reach God unless God first graciously reaches down to humankind in mercy, (4) to declare that God has done so through the Person of Jesus Christ, (5) to declare that God has given proof of this by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and (6) to now call all people to repent and believe.

How basic! How simple! May God use us—in the ‘Mars Hill’ forums of our day—to reach the people around us who have not yet heard … but who want to and desperately need to!

AE