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Paul Before Areopagus in Athens · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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  To study the passage of scripture that we read earlier.
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  ! This account in Acts 17 of Paul's time in Athens.
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  !
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  Listening to half of a telephone call.
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  You know when you're in a room and someone's on the phone and you can hear what they say,
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  but you don't know what the person at the other end is saying,
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  and you have to somehow imagine what's being said.
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  When we get to Paul's speech before the council here, the Areopagus,
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  that's the approach we'll be taking.
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  We'll hear what Paul says, but then we'll also realise why he says it.
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  Because we get a chance to listen in to the other end of the phone call.
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  But we need a bit of background first.
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  Paul is here in Athens, and as far as we know it's the first time he's ever been there.
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  He's on his second missionary journey, and if we wind back,
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  Paul, as a young man, probably never expected that this is what he would be doing.
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  Never expected it.
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  He was someone who was zealous, absolutely zealous,
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  for the upholding of the faith of the Old Testament.
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  And when Jesus appeared, claiming to be the Messiah, that was an anathema to someone like Paul.
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  And although he comes into the story after Jesus' death and resurrection,
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  he was someone who wanted to crush the church wherever he could find it.
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  And one of the saddest references we have is at the end of Acts chapter 7,
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  when Stephen is speaking before the Sanhedrin, and is then stoned to death.
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  And in the book of Acts chapter 8, it says that Saul approved of his execution.
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  And then, by his own writings later we know, Saul went after other people, saved people, believers,
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  and had them not just put in prison, but put to death.
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  And the big change for Saul, as he was then known, was on the road to Damascus,
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  where he met the risen Lord Jesus, where his life completely changed.
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  And a man called Ananias was sent to Paul.
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  And it's interesting to read what he was told by Jesus about Paul,
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  because this in a way became Paul's recurrent theme in life, ever after.
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  Jesus said to Ananias,
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  Go, for he Paul is a chosen instrument of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles,
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  and kings, and the children of Israel.
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  For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
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  So, in learning that, in Damascus after his conversion, there were two aspects.
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  One was, he was going to bring the good news, the good news of Jesus,
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  not just to the children of Israel, but right across the Gentile world,
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  to non-Jewish people, and to those in authority, to those who were kings.
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  So, he was going to, as Jesus put it, carry my name.
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  But there would be more than that.
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  In doing this, he would suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus.
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  And how that has been the same for Christians down the centuries.
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  The two things go together.
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  To carry the name of Jesus, and to suffer for the name of Jesus.
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  So, this, what I would say is, whenever you read about Paul,
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  always remember these words.
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  Because these are the words that stayed with him, all through his life.
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  And were the confirmation to him, about what his purpose was, in God's sight.
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  So, in Athens, we find him on his second missionary journey.
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  He's traveled a long way.
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  He'd been in Jerusalem, he'd been in Antioch, but he's heading west.
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  And he fully expected to go to Rome.
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  But, as we read in chapter 18, the Emperor Claudius had caused all Jews, no matter who they were,
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  to leave Rome and get completely out of the country.
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  And this, we hear at other times in Paul's writings, how he was blocked from going to Rome at this time.
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  But, eventually, he did go.
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  He did go under different circumstances.
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  And we know from the end of the book of Acts, he preached the good news of Jesus in Rome.
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  And that even those of Caesar's household heard the message and believed.
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  The thing is, Paul also knew that he was an apostle to the Gentiles.
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  And he tells us that in Romans 11, verse 13.
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  And he declares, I am an apostle to the Gentiles.
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  The thing is, in terms of the Gentile world at that time,
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  with the way the book of Acts is written, God has obviously inspired Luke, the writer,
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  to make sure that the major population centers of the Gentile world are visited.
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  That the visits there are mentioned.
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  There are other visits that we know must have happened that Paul went to Crete, the island of Crete,
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  but it's not mentioned in the book of Acts.
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  It doesn't mean it didn't happen. It did.
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  But, the whole way the book of Acts is written is to show any reader that the gospel spread,
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  starting at Jerusalem, as Jesus had originally said, and then to all the ends of the earth.
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  And the significant places the gospel had to reach, first the political center, Rome.
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  And as I've said, that eventually does happen.
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  But also, Athens.
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  Athens was the intellectual center of the Roman world.
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  So, here is Paul in Athens.
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  And we're going to focus now on his dealings with people in the marketplace,
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  and then also being taken to the council called the Areopagus.
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  And, for those who know this from the authorised version, what's called Mars Hill.
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  Because the translators at that time put things into what they regarded as a classical language,
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  which was Latin.
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  So, Mars Hill.
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  And now is the time when we listen to half of the phone call,
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  but we can then be told what's being said at the other end.
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  The first thing to look at is that Jesus and the resurrection are Paul's message.
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  And it happens twice.
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  Once in the marketplace, and once when he speaks to the Areopagus.
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  So, we should be alert.
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  If there's a pattern developing, why is that?
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  And, in fact, he gets people rather confused.
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  They say, the philosophers say, he's speaking about foreign divinities,
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  meaning foreign gods, plural.
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  Because they were hearing a name, Jesus, and they were hearing another word,
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  which in Greek for resurrection is Anastasis.
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  And they were hearing Jesus and Anastasis.
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  And that word, Anastasis, can be mistaken for a name.
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  In fact, in the modern world, the woman's name Anastasia actually comes from this.
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  So, Anastasis, Anastasia, means resurrection.
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  And Paul is deliberately doing this.
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  So, I won't tell you what the other side of the conversation is, of the telephone conversation on this one,
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  until we get to it again when he's in front of the council.
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  But hold that thought.
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  He speaks of Jesus and the resurrection.
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  And strangely, not Jesus and the cross, which is what he would normally do when he spoke in the synagogue.
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  So, Jesus and the resurrection.
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  So, hold that thought.
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  We're going to come back to it.
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  The next thing of interest that Paul says is in verse 26,
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  when he speaks about all mankind is made from one man.
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  That God had done this.
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  All mankind from one man.
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  Now, from those of us who know the scriptures, we know that that is true.
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  From Adam.
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  But why did he say it so explicitly here?
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  This is when we get a chance to hear what's happening at the other end of the telephone call.
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  It came down to how the people of Athens looked at themselves.
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  They believed that they were very special.
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  More special than all the other races of the world.
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  So, they didn't condescend to being descended from someone common.
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  They believed they were descended from someone very special.
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  And that it was all the other nations of the world who were descended from one man.
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  And Paul knows that.
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  Paul knows that.
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  So, he deliberately goes out to provoke them.
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  And if there's one other thing to say about people in Athens,
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  they were very arrogant.
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  Very arrogant.
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  They looked down on anyone else.
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  In fact, they did this to Paul in the marketplace.
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  When they talk about him as a babbler, it's extremely condescending.
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  There's nothing of respect there.
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  They're doing him down.
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  Now, Paul doesn't mind that.
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  He is going to tell them the whole truth.
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  And he is going out to demolish their views, their beliefs, and tell them about Jesus.
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  So, the conversation on where is descent from, the Athenians, the men of Athens, believed that they were so special,
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  that they were not descended from the same common ancestor as the rest of mankind.
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  The next thing to look at in Paul's speech, there are two quotes here.
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  One of them, which we often use in our prayers, is,
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  In him we live and move and have our being.
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  And then the next one is,
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  For we are indeed his offspring.
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  Now, a brief reading of scripture, a quick reading,
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  You might assume that those come from the Old Testament.
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  But they don't.
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  If you've got an ESV Bible in your hand,
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  Look at the footnotes, and it tells you where those quotes come from.
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  They actually come from Greek literature.
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  So, a bit unusual here.
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  Paul is not quoting the Old Testament as he normally would in the synagogue.
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  He is actually quoting Greek literature.
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  The first quote,
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  In him we live and move and have our being,
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  comes from a writer called Epimenides,
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  who lived in Crete 600 years earlier.
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  And then the second one, actually two poets said it.
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  One is Cleanthes and the other Aratus,
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  and they lived about the same time.
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  For we are indeed his offspring.
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  Now when Aratus, when we look at this man called Aratus,
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  he came from exactly the same city, Tarsus,
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  that Paul came from.
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  So here we have Paul quoting Greek literature to Greeks.
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  And one of those sayings was actually from a poet in his own city,
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  from about 200 years before.
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  And Luke, who writes this, is very clever.
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  When you look at what it says, just above it's,
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  as even some of your own poets have said,
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  which implies that it's plural.
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  Two different poets have said this.
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  And Paul confirms that.
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  The people listening knew that.
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  And they're saying, who's this chap who knows this?
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  The thing is, Paul again knows that these are the things that this audience need to hear.
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  This is how he's going to make contact with them.
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  And then the final thing he says to the Areopagus.
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  It's about God judging the world in righteousness,
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  and by one man, that's Jesus,
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  giving assurance by raising him from the dead.
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  That this is a historical fact.
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  That's when people begin mocking.
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  That's when the meeting comes to an end.
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  And this is where we're on the telephone call again.
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  We hear this side of the phone call.
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  But what's the other side?
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  What did Greek people of that time understand?
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  It comes down to the court that Paul is speaking in.
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  He's been forced to come.
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  He's probably had some sort of written citation, a summons to come.
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  It's a very formal setting.
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  But Paul knew something about all the people who are listening to him.
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  There's one core belief that they have to have
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  if they sit as a council member there.
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  And that goes back to 500 BC.
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  So 500 years earlier.
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  We actually have the foundational writings about this council, the Areopagus.
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  And there was one belief they had to have.
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  And that was that a resurrection of the human body was impossible.
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  All of them, if they were going to be accepted into membership on this council,
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  had to state that they did not believe in a resurrection.
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  And Paul knows that.
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  So he deliberately provokes them with it.
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  He did that in the marketplace.
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  And he's doing it again now in the council.
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  And it leads to the meeting actually breaking up in disorder.
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  But the curious thing is, even for this one talk,
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  one of the council members called Dionysius believes.
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  Believes in Jesus.
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  It says other men did as well.
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  And then a woman named Amaris.
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  The very fact that she's named tells us something about Greek society.
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  She was someone who was very highly regarded.
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  She had high status.
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  And she believes, as did others.
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  And so people sometimes say that Paul was a failure in Athens.
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  But just think about these things over the next few days.
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  See what Paul did.
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  See what he did.
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  And see the effect that one talk in this high power council led to these conversions.
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  And people coming to a saving faith in Jesus.
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  Shall we summarise as we come to the end of our meeting.
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  Let's look at Paul.
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  Here he is the apostle to the Gentiles.
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  And he displays a profound understanding of the Greek world in which he has been sent to as that apostle.
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  He reveals an education in Greek life to a very high level.
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  And then God takes that and uses it.
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  He uses it now in Athens and he uses it again and again.
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  Another thing to notice.
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  Paul's use of Greek is at the highest level.
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  He's someone who is used to debating with university professors.
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  Not just in Hebrew, but here in Greek.
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  The experts tell us that he wrote superb Greek.
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  The Greek of Paul's letters is second to none.
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  And that's what opened doors.
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  If you look at a map of the world at that time.
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  The main language right across the Middle East was Greek.
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  Which may come as a surprise.
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  Where Arabic is spoken now, it used to be Greek.
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  In places like Baghdad, it was Greek.
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  In fact, I said Paul was not able to go to Rome at this time.
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  Greek would have got him by in Rome as well.
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  And even to this day, there are some villages in southern Italy where they still speak Greek.
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  If Paul had turned round from facing west towards Rome, where he is in Athens, and looked east.
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  And he posed the question, how far could Paul have got speaking Greek?
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  How far could he have got?
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  He could have gone 4,000 miles.
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  4,000 miles to what is now Delhi in India.
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  The province of the Punjab in India.
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  And all of that was because of, in the time between the Testaments, a ruler was raised up.
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  Alexander the Great.
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  In the Greek speaking world.
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  And he went and conquered right through what is now Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India.
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  And what he left behind were Greek speaking communities.
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  So, Paul could have been used right across the Middle East.
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  From the furthest west in Rome, to the furthest east in Delhi.
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  And it's strange to think places like Kabul, Greek was spoken.
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  And in fact, in the Khyber Pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan,
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  there are wall carvings written in the same Greek as the New Testament.
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  In Kandahar, where British troops served, they have found Greek tablets with, again, the same Greek of the New Testament.
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  And it was all for God to use.
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  So, in Paul's case, he had his education. God used it.
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  He had the language. God used it.
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  And then, the final thing about Paul is what we said at the beginning.
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  We got a surprise when we read about Paul in Philippi.
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  We discover he's a Roman citizen.
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  We discover later in Acts, he was born as a Roman citizen.
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  It wasn't something he bought.
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  It was inherited from his parents.
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  And apparently, that was because Caesar Augustus gave every resident in Tarsus Roman citizenship for supporting him in a civil war.
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  So, Paul has this honor.
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  But citizenship should be seen more as an honor.
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  It wasn't something that everyone else had.
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  So, it's more akin to an MBE or an OBE in modern life.
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  But it opened doors.
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  And God used that.
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  So, God used his education.
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  He used his language.
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  And he used his citizenship.
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  And notice the times.
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  Paul used that citizenship.
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  Very, very astutely.
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  Now, what about us?
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  Each of us who have come to a saving faith in Christ Jesus,
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  we're in his service.
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  In the same way as Paul at his conversion entered Jesus' service, so did we.
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  Not, perhaps, on the same scale as Paul.
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  But the same things that apply to Paul apply to us.
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  We have been chosen.
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  We have been chosen to carry Jesus' name before those around us.
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  We also are not promised an easy life.
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  There may be suffering along the way.
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  But we, in prayer, can walk along in the same footsteps as Paul.
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  We can speak to others around us about Jesus, the cross, the resurrection.
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  We can let them know how Jesus can really change their lives.
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  And in this modern world with so much misery,
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  we have got the most wonderful message to tell people.
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  And the thing maybe to see individually,
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  in the same way that Jesus used so many things about Paul's past,
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  gifts he'd been given like Roman citizenship,
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  each of us probably have attributes.
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  If we look closely, we'll realize Jesus will use those,
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  and is using those, for us to carry his name before those around us.
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  Amen.
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  And may God bless those few thoughts as we studied his word.