So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps 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 exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.”
Acts 17:22-34 NASB1995
Paul addresses the group on the Areopagus with one of his most interesting sermons to date. These are not members of a synagogue who would be familiar with the OT prophecies about the Messiah. These are pagans, idol-worshippers and amateur and professional philosophers who are sitting around debating their place in the universe. Recall in my last devotional I mentioned that ancient Athens had 30,000 gods. Paul notes that they are very religious and even have altars to an UNKNOWN GOD. Enduring Word has a good explanation for how this unknown god came into being:
In all things you are very religious: Many ancient observers noticed the religious character of Athens, and some thought that Athenians were the most religious of all people. But when Paul said this of the Athenians, he didn’t necessarily mean it in a positive way. Religion can lead one away from God, and if we trust in a false religion, it is little credit to say of us that we are “religious.”
I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD: Paul understood that in their extensive pantheon, the Greeks had an UNKNOWN GOD, who covered any god that may have been neglected. Paul wanted to reveal the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD.
Athens was filled with statues dedicated TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Six hundred years before Paul, a terrible plague came on the city and a man name Epimenides had an idea. He let loose a flock of sheep through the town, and wherever they lay down, they sacrificed that sheep to the god that had the nearest shrine or temple. If a sheep lay down near no shrine or temple, they sacrificed the sheep TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Paul is being circumspect, even if he is subtly pointing out that religion is not necessarily a good thing and he plans to use the idea of the unknown god to tell them about the True God. He doesn’t insult them or scream at them that they are sinners and must repent, like some itinerant street corner preacher. Paul captures their attention in a polite way and treats them like fellow human beings.
Speaking of itinerant street corner preachers, we used to attend local baseball games in the downtown area for many years. During those years, almost without exception, there was a preacher who stood near the busiest pedestrian intersection and would loudly proclaim God’s wrath and urge the game attendees that were heading home to repent before it was too late. He held signs that were similar to the ones in the photo above. He suffered incredible verbal abuse from the fans (including from us, regretfully, when we were still wandering in the humanist wasteland), but he would just brush it off and continue to loudly proclaim judgment against total strangers. I can guess that not one single soul came to the Lord through this belligerent approach to evangelization. In fact, one time in more recent years, we went up to him and apologized for our previous abuse and wished him the best. His response is best left out of this devotional, because he certainly wasn’t a typical representative of Christian faith.
This is interesting commentary from Pastor Brian Bill, quoted on Precept Austin:
"First words matter. If he [Paul] loses his audience—either by boring them or insulting them—he’ll never get them back again. To Paul, the Athenians were like blind men groping in the dark towards a God they did not know and could not find. But no kind person makes sport of the blind. Write it down in large letters: You cannot insult a person into the Kingdom of God [my emphasis]. Were not the Athenians idolaters? Yes they were. But he didn’t begin by saying, “I’ve come to expose your sins, you dirty, wretched, hell-bound, idol-worshipping, heathenistic pagans. Thank God I’m here because I’m going to lead you to Jesus.” They wouldn’t have given him the time of day if he had said that. Are you courteous when you spend time with people who are not Christians yet? Or, are you secretly angry with them because of some of the things they do? If so, we need to remember that people without Christ are going to sin. In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised when non-Christians act like non-Christians. Are you kind and gracious or are you abrasive? Non-believers can pick up on our attitudes so we need to be careful. I think the early church had a good handle on this. They were so thankful for the grace of God in their own lives, that they extended this same grace to others. I’m intrigued by what we read in Acts 2:47 when it says that the believers were praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. That tells me that Christians were fun to be around. They were winsome. Upbeat. Full of grace. Non-Christians wanted to hang out with church people. Question. Do non-Christians feel that same way about you? If not, work at being more courteous." (Sermon).
Paul goes back to the beginning and speaks to the nature of God as the Lord and Creator of all things. God does not dwell in temples and He does not need anything from people since He Himself gives life and breath and things to all people. This must have been shocking, particularly to the Epicureans, who are probably the equivalent of nihilists who are also gourmets (life has no meaning or purpose, so try to make yourself comfortable and enjoy what you can). God as Creator is a stumbling block for many but Paul speaks of this immediately.
The Stoics would also find this strange, because they believed God was in everything, so how could He create and be above all creation? Of course this viewpoint is as ludicrous as the current scientific theories that life on Earth came from a comet or asteroid with random patterns of RNA material that assembled themselves somehow and then turned into a variety of species; those same scientists can never explain where that life material originated from nor can they recreate even the most fundamental building blocks and make them viable. I take great comfort in the idea of God as Creator because it is such a perfect explanation for everything we see and experience, including nebulous things like love that can’t be explained and that has no bounds within time or space (a hat tip to Christopher Nolan and the movie “Interstellar”).
Paul then says that all mankind came from one man (and woman) created by God. This was also a shocking concept to the Greek philosopher hobbyists. The Greeks considered themselves and their culture superior to the “barbarians”. The Athenians even looked down on other Greeks outside of their splendid city. This commentary from Ray Pritchard quoted in Precept Austin is so good about this so-called racial “superiority” that infects our world:
In Malachi 2:10 the prophet asks, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” The answer is yes, we have one Father and one God who created us all. This struck hard at the pride of the Athenians who thought themselves superior to others. They divided the human race into two parts—the Greeks and the Barbarians (everyone else). The men of Athens thought their city the greatest in Greece so they felt themselves a cut above the ordinary Greeks. Paul neatly punctures their balloon by telling them they aren’t really any different from anyone else. The theory of racial superiority has led to horrible results in history. Just over a half-century ago [now more than 80 years ago - my interjection] the Nazis elevated the “pure Aryan” race and used that as an excuse to murder 12 million Jews, Slavs, Ukrainians, Russians, and others deemed inferior and unworthy. In our own country the belief in white superiority fueled slavery, segregation, and the Jim Crow Laws. It still causes men to loathe and fear others of a different color.
Against the evils of racism Paul declares, “We’re all from the same stock. Fruit from the same branch. Born into the same human family.” This is the basis for Christian reconciliation between the races and the various ethnic groups in society and in the church. It is also confirmed by common sense. The more you travel around the world, the more common humanity seems to be. Superficially we are very different in our appearance, background, language and customs. But scratch deeper and you discover that all people are substantially the same. Once past the surface, you discover no fundamental difference between a savage in the jungle and a corporate lawyer on Wall Street or between a woman in a brothel in Rio and a refined graduate of Vassar College. Everywhere we are the same—the same longings, regrets, dreams, hopes, the same need to love and be loved, the same desire to bear children and raise a family, with the same sense that there must be a God of some kind who made us.
Only One Race—the Human Race
The Christian gospel is fundamentally incompatible with racial prejudice. The Bible teaches us four crucial facts we must never forget:1. All people are equally created in God’s image.
2. All are deeply loved by God.
3. All are stained and tainted by sin.
4. All are able to be redeemed.Those four facts form the basis of the doctrine of Christian equality. All people regardless of their background are significant, loved, fallen, and redeemable. Those four facts are true of all people no matter what color their skin happens to be. No race has any advantage over any other race. No group is better than any other group.
“Othering” has become a dangerous mindset once again in our society. People are demoted to less than human for the way they vote, the beliefs they have, the roles that they play, their education, their race. When human life is described by current-day idle thinkers as meaningless and random or that only certain people are truly the “legitimate” ones to rule over us, then that poisons minds and makes it much easier to kill CEOs of companies that you dislike or to willingly execute millions because of their ethnic background. It makes it much easier to destroy unborn humans for convenience because that embryo (made in God’s image) has less value to you than a cat or dog.
Paul describes humans as having appointed times and boundaries of their habitation from God. Humans are also filled with the desire to seek God, to grope for Him and find Him, even though He is not far away. In Him we live and move and exist because we are His children. This is a fundamental truth that I rejected for a few decades. I stopped seeking God and instead became occupied with ways of proving that He doesn’t exist. But all of that idleness and endless skepticism and intellectual solipsism led me right back to God! He was still there! I wagered that life was better with Him than stumbling around in darkness and then repented. Gotquestions.org has a marvelous answer to the question of the immanence of God:
God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation. (It is not to be confused with imminence, which refers to the timing of Jesus’ return to earth.) A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not. His sovereign control extends everywhere simultaneously.
Pantheism and deism twist many people’s view of how God relates to His creation. Pantheists believe that everything is God or is a part of God, making Him equal with His creation and unable to act upon it. Deists hold that God is distinct from His creation but deny that He plays an active role in it. Contrary to these and other false views of God, the Bible says that God is both different from His creation and actively upholding it.
Transcendence (God exists outside of space and time) and immanence (God is present within space and time) are both attributes of God. He is both “nearby” and “far away,” according to Jeremiah 23:23. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). That is God’s transcendence. “In him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). That is God’s immanence.
God’s omnipresence is closely related to His immanence, and Psalm 139:1-10 describes it in beautiful detail. In the New Testament, Paul declares that God “Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” and “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 28). God guides, governs, and provides for His creation, even though He is so far above it (Ephesians 1:11; 4:6).
The immanence of God is also supported in the story of the Bible as a whole. The very existence of God’s Word in written form testifies to God’s interest and action in His world. Israel’s survival throughout biblical history and Jesus’ Incarnation bear powerful witness that God is present and involved. He is literally “sustaining all things by His powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3). He is Immanuel, “God with us”; He is immanent.
I also found a gem from Ray Pritchard quoted on Precept Austin that I must share:
1) “In him we live.” Our very life is held in God’s hand. Do you understand you are completely dependent on God for the life you possess? Your life is not really yours—it comes from God and He can take it back any time He wants. James 4:14 reminds us that life itself is like a vapor that appears for a brief moment and then vanishes away. Anyone who has ever blown hot breath on a cold windowpane knows you have to work fast to write your name in the vapor before it disappears. That’s your life—all 70 or 80 years of it. It’s a vapor that begins to disappear the moment you are born. Sometimes we forget how fragile life can be. This week someone reminded me that there is a thin line between where you are right now and utter catastrophe. Just one phone call and your life could be changed forever. Things happen so quickly—a speeding car, a stray bullet, a sudden stroke, an unexpected heart attack, and people are saying, “Doesn’t she look so natural?” (Ed: He's speaking of the corpse in the coffin!) Sometimes the line is so thin as to be nonexistent. If you want to know what your life is like, go to the cemetery and look at any headstone. There is a name, two dates and a dash. That’s what you get when you die: a little “-” to summarize your whole earthly existence. We move because He first moves in us.
2) “In him we move.” Raise your arm above your head. Now wave it around. What made your arm move? Your muscles did. Who told the muscles to move? The electrical impulses did. Where did those impulses come from? From the brain through the nervous system. How does that all work? I’m not sure but the scientists can explain it. Now here’s the important question: Where did the power come from to make all that happen? It comes from God. You cannot move a hand or a foot or open your mouth to speak unless God gives you the strength to do it. We move because He first moves in us.
3) “We have our being.” Have you ever wondered why you are you the way you are? (Your friends have probably wondered that from time to time.) Where did your personality come from? Who gave you your unique genetic blueprint? We know that inside each cell in your body is a DNA code that contains every secret to your physical existence. For one person it reads: Blue eyes, brown hair, 5’7”, good at tennis, bad at math, with a tendency to overeat, and a birthmark above your right knee (plus a few million other details). Everything about you is in your DNA—that double-helix code that contains all your secrets. Who arranged your DNA? God did. That’s what Psalm 139:13 means when it says he knit you together in your mother’s womb. The things that make you unique come from God. (Acts 17:26-28 How God Reveals Himself to Us)
I cannot tell you how many times I have thanked God for bringing us back into the fold before some calamity occurred!! We were both running around the world as smug agnostics, taking risks, driving, flying, eating the wrong things, but He was there looking out for us and making sure that our “-“ will mean something much greater than dying with the most toys and stuff.
Paul continues his sermon by noting that because we are Children of God, then we ought not think that the Divine Nature is like silver or gold or stone. By moving past this ignorance, God is declaring that people must repent. He introduces the group to Jesus, the Man who was brought down and died and was resurrected (the ultimate proof) and will judge humans in all righteousness. John MacArthur has a marvelous commentary on making repentance the core of our Christian faith, from Precept Austin:
Over the past five years or so, I have had opportunities to minister in many of the nations that we used to call “Iron Curtain” countries. There I have encountered a surprisingly vigorous evangelical church—solidly biblical, doctrinally orthodox, and alive. Western Christians generally do not comprehend or appreciate the vitality of Eastern European churches without visiting them firsthand. The churches are full—often uncomfortably packed—with crowds standing outside looking through windows. The people are earnest in their commitment to Christ in a way that is rare among Western Christians. Their services are worshipful, subdued, yet intensely passionate. Spontaneous weeping is as common as laughter. Prayer for the lost and personal evangelism are on the hearts and minds of these people more than social activities and sports. The focus of their message to the world is a clear call to repentance.
Eastern European Christianity typically refers to new Christians as “repenters.” When someone comes to Christ, fellow believers say the new Christian has “repented.” Usually new believers are given the opportunity to stand before the church and verbalize their repentance. In nearly every church service I have attended in the former Soviet Union, at least one new convert has made a public confession of repentance.
It is entirely biblical for the church to make repentance the chief feature of its message to the unsaved world. After all, the gospel calls people to come to the One who can deliver them from sin. People who don’t feel guilt and want to be delivered from the power and penalty of sin wouldn’t even want a deliverer.
Did you realize that our Lord’s Great Commission demands that we preach repentance? Luke alone of all the Gospels records the content of the message Jesus commanded His disciples to preach: “that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (Luke 24:47). As we shall shortly see, repentance was the substance of the church’s message to a hostile world throughout the Book of Acts.
The Bible is clear: Repentance is at the heart of the gospel call. Unless we are preaching repentance we are not preaching the gospel our Lord has charged us to preach. If we fail to call people to turn from their sins, we are not communicating the same gospel the apostles proclaimed.
The Western church has subtly changed the thrust of the gospel. Instead of exhorting sinners to repent, evangelicalism in our society asks the unsaved to “accept Christ.” That makes sinners sovereign and puts Christ at their disposal. In effect it puts Christ on trial and hands the judge’s robes and gavel to the inquirer—precisely opposite of what should be. Ironically, people who ought to be concerned about whether Christ will accept them are being told by Christians that it is the sinner’s prerogative to “accept Christ.” This modified gospel depicts conversion as “a decision for Christ” rather than a life-transforming change of heart involving genuine faith, repentance, surrender, and rebirth unto newness of life.
Holy cow!!! The altar call at many current-day churches does mention sin, but also has an “accept Christ” flavor to it. The Lutheran church we attended didn’t even bother with an altar call. Many churches even want you to text “Jesus” to a number so that they can see that you have made this “choice”. I never thought about it this way, but the sinner is not sovereign in this choice and is not choosing Jesus like you would a type of ice cream. The sinner should first be on their knees in sorrowful repentance begging the Creator of the Universe to forgive them! No wonder so many churches are full of people who keep embracing their sins over their salvation, because they think they are in charge of their decision. Maybe that street preacher wasn’t so wrong after all in his approach asking people to repent, repent, repent!
Well, Paul has ended his sermon. The reactions are as expected - many are sneering, but others are intrigued and want to hear more about this Man and the resurrection. A few come to faith, with two mentioned by name. I’ll end this with a good summary from Enduring Word:
However, some men joined him and believed: The results at the Areopagus seemed small, yet some did believe. Among those believing were a man named Dionysius (who must have been a regular participant at the Areopagus) and a woman named Damaris.
Some criticize Paul’s sermon in Athens because there is no detailed reference to the cross or specific quotes from the Old Testament. Some think Paul compromised his message for an intellectual audience, and therefore there were few conversions.
This idea continues, saying that when Paul went next to Corinth, he decided to preach the cross and the cross only, even if it seemed foolish (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5). Because Paul preached this way in Corinth, the thinking goes, he saw much better results.
[William] Ramsay popularized the theory that Paul was disappointed by his “meager” results in Athens, and went on to Corinth preaching the gospel with a pure focus on the cross, and without any attempt at philosophical explanation.
Yet Paul’s sermon here was eminently Biblical. “Like the biblical revelation itself, his argument begins with God the creator of all and ends with God the judge of all…The speech as it stands admirably summarizes an introductory lesson in Christianity for cultured pagans.” (F.F. Bruce)
As well, Paul did preach Christ crucified in Athens. In Acts 17:30-31 he specifically mentioned the resurrection, and how could he preach the resurrection without preaching the cross which came before it? This is obviously a short extract of Paul’s speech on the Areopagus; what is recorded takes barely two minutes to say.
“We learn from Paul that we cannot preach the gospel of Jesus without the doctrine of God, or the cross without the creation, or salvation without judgment.” (John Stott)
In addition, it is dangerous to judge the content of the message by the magnitude of the response. “The reason the gospel did not take root there probably lay more in the attitude of the Athenians themselves than in Paul’s approach or in what he said.” (Richard Longenecker)
Well, I certainly didn’t expect all of these intriguing bunny trails in this analysis. This study was so revealing and I personally think Paul’s sermon was exactly right for the intended audience. You might reach one out of twenty if the hearers are arrogant, self-righteous, and blinded by their philosophy (or science).
My next devotional examines Acts 18:1-4: Paul travels to Corinth.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - This path that we have taken to write devotionals is Your way of guiding us into closer and closer fellowship with You. I ask repentance (again) and am grateful beyond words for where we are in our lives, as we get closer to putting a number to the right of the “-“ on our tombstone. Amen
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 12/08/2024 to review commentary for Acts 17:22-34
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 12/08/2024 to answer the question, What is the Immanence of God?
Pretty good. Remember that Paul had been building up to, practicing for, this fully Greek theological sermon for months. His sermons to Jewish synagogues were almost wholly of a different type. But these hearers spent their days arguing philosophy and theology. The result is we learn a lot of things about God and his ways we wouldn’t have learned sitting in a synagogue sermon. Paul was putting his hellenistic training together with his synagogue-Jewish training. It is remarkable. Now, we need to learn to communicate that well to our recent generations.