John Stott provides a fitting analysis of Paul’s assessment of the spiritual darkness of Athens: Paul’s reaction to the city’s idolatry was not negative only but also positive and constructive. He did not merely throw up his hands in despair, or weep helplessly, or curse and swear at the Athenians. No, he shared with them the good news of Jesus. He sought by proclamation of the gospel to prevail on them to turn from their idols to the living God…The stirrings of his spirit with righteous indignation opened his mouth in testimony.

• Let’s continue the story from Scripture: Acts 17 from vs 17. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
• So, as Paul’s ministry custom was, he went first to the synagogue to speak with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks he found there, and then he went to the market place to interact with anyone he could find there.
• It was in the marketplace that Paul ran into some Epicureans and Stoics.
• The Epicureans were an interesting group.
• They believed that everything happened by chance – they believed there were gods, but they were remote and uninvolved in life.
• They believed that death was the end and that there was no afterlife.
• So, they believed that the chief end to life was pleasure.
• “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” is a classic Epicurean philosophy.
• The Stoics, on the other hand, were the opposite.
• They believed that everything was god, and everything that happened was the will of god.
• Their emphasis was on personal discipline and self-control.
• In their mind, pleasure was not good and pain was not evil.
• They taught that people should strive to accept the laws of the universe, however harsh.
• They strove to be emotionless and worked toward a state founded on reason.
• They believed that the soul survived the body, but only in a kind of ethereal state.
• To summarize and compare the two philosophies, the Epicureans’ goal was to, “Enjoy Life!” and the Stoics’ goal was to “Endure Life!”
• That day in Athens, the Stoics and Epicureans smugly stroked their beards as they listened to Paul, and they were interested enough in his strange new ideas that they granted him a formal hearing – they invited him to speak on a higher plane – literally – and they escorted him up the hill called Mars to the Areopagus.
• Paul’s moment had arrived to proclaim the good news of Jesus in the most esteemed of settings!

Let’s sneak in, find a seat, and listen to Paul speak in the meeting of the Areopagus, the Bible says, Paul said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:| TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone–an image made by man’s design and skill. 30. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31)

I’m guessing that what Luke gives us here is a Reader’s Digest version of Paul’s sermon. Notice that Paul began where they were, and like all good preachers, he led them to where they needed to go. Paul started with such a courteous beginning – no insult, no frowning put down, just a courteous, truthful observation – by saying that “I observe that you are very religious…” Then Paul focused his sermon on something familiar so that he might explain something unfamiliar. It was a brilliant approach on his part. They knew precisely which altar Paul was speaking about. Perhaps that altar to the Unknown God had been a source of anxiety for some, after all, they didn’t want to leave any gods out and make them angry.

Imagine how interested they must have been when Paul said, “You know that unknown god down there on the corner of Zeus and Poseidon? I actually know that God’s name, and I know what that God requires. (Did he have their attention? Absolutely!)

1. Who is that unknown God?
2. He is the creator of heaven and earth.
3. He is the Lord and Master of all things.
4. He is the one who gives life and breath to all living things.
5. And guess where this God lives? He doesn’t live in man-made temples.
6. Imagine how many man-made temples there were in Athens! None are God’s home.
7. What does this unknown God want from and for people?
8. He wants them to seek Him, and He promises that they will find Him.
9. And He wants them to repent, because a day of judgment is coming.
10. And what is the proof that this day of judgement is coming? God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus will be the judge.
11. Notice how Paul slipped in those two “R” words before the people could tune him out.
12. And what was the response of the listeners?
13. “Repent…you’ve got to be kidding!”
14. “Resurrection…preposterous!”
15. The Bible says: 32. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33. At that, Paul left the Council. 34. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
16. The response that Paul received is similar to the response we receive today.
17. Every effective sermon results in some sneering and rejecting.
18. Some are intrigued enough to return for a second hearing.
19. And a small group of others believe.
20. Which category are you in at this point?
21. Are you among the doubters and rejecters?
22. Are you among the interested and intrigued?
23. Or are you among the group of devoted believers?
24. We must always remember what is at stake…the souls of people…their eternal existence.