“Made Known in Athens”

Scripture: Acts 17:16-34

As we continue to follow Paul on his three Missionary Journeys, we have seen how he was led by a vision of the man from Macedonia pleading for him to leave Turkey and to cross into the European regions of Thrace and Macedonia, which are, today, the country of Greece. The Mediterranean ports in this area were thriving with international trade, which brought a wide variety of philosophical, religious, and political thought to bear on the people. It had become widely accepted that you could believe and live in any way that you wanted to, without being condemned for your practices.

Today, we find Paul in the city of Athens, where the international flavor thrived as well or better than in any other city of the day. Philosophical and religious discussions could be found on nearly any street corner, and the fact that very little was every accomplished in those conversations didn’t bother anyone!

But Paul was about to enter into some of these verbal contests himself, and his words about Jesus were going to make a difference in the lives of many people.

Read Acts 17:16-18

Paul, being the astute evangelist and observer of people that he was, would enter into conversations with whoever and wherever someone would listen to him. Jews or Greeks, synagogues or markets, common everyday people or the elite, it made no difference to him. The fact that Epicureans and Stoics would even allow him into their conversations was, in and of itself, evidence of God at work. They had very different views on religion – the Epicureans believed in the gods, but that they had removed themselves from human lives and existence, and did nothing to impact our lives. The Stoics, on the other hand, believed that everything was of and because of God, that a piece of God was imparted to every life, and that when the person died, that bit of God returned to its source. But even at that, they agreed with the Epicureans, in that God did little, if anything, to make a difference in the lives of the people.

Paul had his work cut out for him, and he entered into the debate with the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul’s faith in Christ was difference from everything that these intellectuals had ever known, and it didn’t make much sense to them. Intellectually, Jesus does bring a whole new approach to our life, as well as to God’s desire to be part of this life. And these “marketplace philosophers” didn’t quite know how to deal with Paul, so they needed to bring some more learned men into the discussions.

Read Acts 17:19-23

The Areopagus was a sort of “high council” of intellectual thought in Athens. I have no doubt that this is the very place that Paul wanted to be – he just needed an invitation to speak to them. This doesn’t mean that they could influence thought throughout the city, but it did mean that if you could debate with them, you could hold discussions with practically anyone in the area.

The city was brimming with statues of idols in every part of the town. If you had ever heard of some god, there was a place in Athens that honored them. Paul had spent quite some time walking around, looking at each statue, learning what they represented, and why people would consider them worthy of their life. And then it happened – he found one that represented everything that the populace didn’t know about God.

Paul had his opening to begin discussions with the learned men of Athens – by acknowledging a statue to the Unknown, they were admitting that they didn’t know everything that was worth knowing. And this is the lesson that we all need to understand – that if we don’t understand the objections that others have toward our Lord Jesus, we have no starting point to convince them otherwise! Far too many of us feel that ungodly thought, perverse understandings, denial of God’s truth, and other aberrant ways should have no place in our conscious, so we don’t make any effort to consider why others feel that way.

But Paul is telling us that if we don’t have a grasp on what others are thinking, how others are reasoning, we will never have a chance to share the truth of Jesus Christ with them. We have to discover their point of uncertainty, and use that as our “in”.

The problem, though, is that we need to be thoroughly versed in what we believe before we begin to bring others into the Light of Christ. If our darkness is in alinement with theirs, they will use our own “point of uncertainty” against us! We need to seek out God’s word for our lives, we need to be part of Bible study, we need to have a true heart for our Triune God, if we want to have any chance of winning others for Christ.

Paul was prepared to debate the world. So listen to what he told them.

Read Acts 17:24-31

He began with creation and the order that God placed within it. He raised the issue of God’s presence, and what constitutes showing honor to Him. He put the issue of an aloof God to rest, that if you want a God who doesn’t care a hoot about you, then look elsewhere, but if you want a divine presence who helps you, and cares about you, and wants a relationship with you, then this is the one who you need to know everything about! And if you truly know him, then the need of manufactured images is no longer needed, for His greatest desire is to live within and for each and every one of us.

He tells of the Messiah – the Anointed One of God. The One who paid for our sinful ways with his own life, and who, by the power that is inherent within him, rose from the grave into new life, to, one day, judge, not in the things we have done in this life, but in the faith and trust we have shown to him.

Read Acts 17:32-34

There had to be something for the learned men of the Areopagus to object to, and it was the resurrection from the dead. Wouldn’t it have been far easier to Paul to win converts if he had just left this one stumbling block out of his witness? Of course it would, and a lot of people intentionally leave out the difficult truths about Jesus, but that becomes a false teaching, doesn’t it! One of the problems in the Church today is that there are far too many preachers and teachers who only tell about the Love of God, and leave out all of the correction, and commandments, and the need for repentance from our sin, and God forbid that we should even mention that there will be a day of reckoning for the life we have lived in the here and now!

If we are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we have to share his entire word, and not just the parts that everyone likes! Anyone who has every raised a child knows that you can’t just prepare them for the easy parts of life – they have to know how to deal with everything that the world is going to throw at them! And saying “No” from time to time, and correcting their behavior through discipline, is a necessary and vital part of showing them the deepest expression of our love. And that same concept is vital in our walk with our Glorious Savior.

But there were some who didn’t like Paul’s description of this God they were missing, they saw the issue of resurrection from the dead as bogus. There will always be something about Jesus that folks can’t quite accept, but there will also be those who will accept, and who will believe, and who want to hear even more about the God who Paul knew, and who we know, and the One who they had apparently missed out on.


Who is it that is waiting to hear about Jesus from you? We seldom know, and there will be those scoffers in our life, too. But witnessing for Jesus always involves risk – risk that someone won’t like what we have to say, risk that we will have to go to places that we aren’t comfortable in, even risk that we won’t say the right words. But if we hold back, if apprehension keeps us from walking with the Lord, the risk is even greater – that someone will be left out, never knowing that Jesus is the right God for them.

Are any of us willing to let someone, anyone, miss out on eternal life, simply because we aren’t comfortable? Paul wasn’t, and neither should we. Share Jesus, just as he has shared Himself with you.