Acts 17:22-34--Paul Addresses the Areopagus

Acts 17:22-34
English Standard Version

Paul Addresses the Areopagus
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

​32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

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Paul takes the information that he's gleaned through his eyes and ears as he has walked the streets of the city of Athens and had conversations with the Jews and devout religious people in the synagogues and the business people and common people in the marketplace.  Now Paul is going to engage them in the lecture hall where they met to discuss philosophy--thing of this more like inviting a guest lecturer to a college or university.  Listening to such lectures seems to be a way that the Athenians pass the time and is a sort of entertainment for them to give audience to speakers with new ideas.  I'd day say that they seem to be big on the idea of pluralism and were proud of their "diversity" and "inclusiveness" when it came to the vast pantheon of gods and goddesses they worshiped and they were pretty willing to add another idol and temple if they met someone who worshiped a different god--just as long as that god was okay with being one among many others.

Paul starts his lecture by telling the people how he has walked among them and taken note of how "religious" these people are (we'll see in a minute that "religious" does not equate with "moral").  They have a god or goddess for everything and everyone.  They even have an altar to "The Unknown God," so Paul starts there to say that he wants to tell them more about this God that they don't know.

The God that they don't know is the Creator of all things--the Maker of heaven and Earth and all that is in them.  He does not live in temples like the other gods they worshiped, for no temple could contain Him--nor is he served by human hands as the temples were full of pagan priests and priestesses in the service of their particular god or goddess.  This may make you scratch your head a bit because is there not a Temple to the LORD in Jerusalem and is there not a Levitical priesthood, the sons of Aaron, who serve Him day and night?  Notice that Paul's point here was that God does not need us.  God allows us to worship Him, but the Greeks believed in some way that the gods lived in the temples and that their sacrifices they brought provided sustenance for the gods (food to eat and wine to drink) and that without their tithes and offerings and their worship, their gods would become weak and possibly even be killed by stronger deities.  The Lord is not like that.

He Himself is the one that gave life to all mankind and to every other living thing--life, and breath, and everything we have comes from Him.  This is an important verse in the context of what is going on in our culture this week.  There is a spiritual war for the hearts of the people that starts with the fact that they don't want to believe that God is their Creator and the one who gave them life.  If God made them, then He has ownership and authority over everyone and everything--even those who rebel against Him and say they don't recognize His authority over them.  This is where Paul is going with his argument and it's the same kind of argument that we need to make in today's culture.

Paul then summarizes the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis for them to speak of the common ancestry that we all have through Adam and Eve and setting boundaries for them--not just the geographical boundaries of Genesis 10, but the boundaries of the commandments.  God fenced in an area for us live in safely, but we always want to know what is on the other side of the fence and imagine that God is withholding something good from us.  Was that not the temptation that Satan used when tempting Adam and Eve?  We also are not content to be told what is good and evil, but we want to be able to decide good and evil for ourselves--we want to be our own god.  We want to be self-reliant and self-determining--we are neither of these things, only God is.

Paul says that we have a desire to be close to God and have a relationship with Him.  The Greek poets had even written poems/songs about this and Paul quotes one of them to the people that they would have been familiar with.  "In Him we live and move and have our being, for we are indeed His offspring."

Paul then argues that if we are made in the image of God that we should not imaging God to be an idol made of silver or gold that is crafted by the hands of men.  We are the ones that were made in Him image and likeness.  He is the builder who fashioned us.  God is willing to overlook such ignorance from the Athenians and those like them who until now had not yet heard the gospel, but now that they are about to hear the gospel, they are called to repent and believe, the same as the Jews who have had the benefit of the Law, the Temple, and the Aaronic priesthood.  There is not a different Way for Greeks and Jews, there is but One Way, and that Way is the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is important we speak this message of exclusivity because as Paul says next, the LORD has fixed a day when He will judge the world through a Man that He has appointed--that man is Jesus who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Creator of all the things and the one who is the Judge of the living and the dead who holds the keys to Death and Hades (He has ownership over them).  This judgment will be a righteous judgment for Christ is the Righteous One who fully obeyed the Law that none of us could and so we can stand before Him on our own merits to be measured against His perfect righteousness and be found unacceptable or we can today, right now, at this very moment exchange our unrighteousness for His righteousness.  This is what the cross accomplished for us so that He would be declared "guilty" in our place and take our punishment so that we could be declared "innocent" in His place and receive the blessings that He earned.  Is it fair?  No!  Is it just?  Absolutely!  The punishment that none of us could pay could only be paid by Him, so paid the sin debt for you and for me with His own blood.  We just need to believe by faith.

How do we know that Jesus is the one that God has appointed to be the Judge of the Living and the Dead?  The Resurrection is proof that God has accepted His sacrifice and that He has declared that the debt has been paid in full.  The Father has exalted the Son and told Him to sit at His right hand until the day when the Father makes the Son's enemies a footstool for Him and the Father has told the Son to ask for the nations as an inheritance and He will be given them by the Father.  He will be the Righteous Judge over us and there will be no one entering His kingdom illegally.  Your name will have to be on the role of kingdom citizens and there is but one Gate and Door for you to pass through (which is Christ).  He will know all those that belong to Him like a Shepherd knows His sheep.  "My sheep know My voice and they listen to me."  That is, we obey His Word.  That is not to say that Christianity is a system of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" commandments to obey to try to earn enough righteousness to please God--we just said that's not how it works.  We need our sins imputed onto Christ and His righteousness imputed onto us, but if we truly love Him as we claim we do, then we will obey Him.  Those who say they love Him, but live in rebellion to His commandments prove themselves to be liars and the truth of God is not in them (Jesus is that Truth).  We have discussed much of this already in the book of Romans and the Epistles, so I will not go into a long explanation of Soteriology (the theology of salvation) today.

The Athenians were okay with this message until Paul got to the message of the Resurrection.  At this point some started to mock him.  Others said they wanted to hear more at another time, and a few repented and believed right there.  What I want to point out here though is that Paul gave an entire gospel presentation without using any big theological words.  He didn't directly cite any Scripture (though he definitely paraphrased and referenced the ideas of Scripture) and he was able to make some cultural connections with the people that he was speaking with.  All that said, Paul did not let their ignorance be an excuse.  Now they knew the truth and they would be accountable for what they had heard.  Paul will argue in Romans that all men are without excuse because all of us know that there is a Creator God and it is up to us to ask Him to reveal Himself to us.  If we do so, then He will speak to us through His Word and His ambassadors (that would be one of the roles of Christians) that He has commissioned and sent out on mission to declare His gospel message to the whole world.  There is one message that tells people one Way to be saved.  It is not a message readily accepted by either Jew or Gentile, but it is a message that both need to hear.