Making Jesus Known in a Pagan World

Acts 17:16-34

Finally!  After having been booed out of town (to put it mildly) from Thessalonica (vv1-9) and then again from Berea (vv10-15), Paul now finds himself with a bit of down-time, a bit of me-time in his stop-over in Athens, as he waited for Silas and Timothy to catch up with him.

What will he do?

One can imagine him, like any tourist with time to kill, wandering around this proud city renowned for its history, learning, culture, seeing what he might find in the marketplace that you can’t get in Antioch, putting his feet up, taking it easy.

However, in v16 Luke records for us that Paul’s spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So much for some time off.

Well, what ensues is both interesting, and I hope instructive – as Paul finds himself trying to make Jesus known in a pagan world – not too dissimilar to where we find ourselves today in Western society.

I want to look at this under three headings:  Paul’s motive, method, message.

Motive

He had found himself in a completely pagan city.  He saw all that was around him and it moved him.

Why?

What stirred him more than anything else is that God was being robbed of his glory.

The thing that moves him most is a concern for the glory of God.

Which immediately presents us with a challenge, doesn’t it.  In our “politically correct”, “tolerant”, “multicultural” culture, are we going to have the biblical eyes – the biblical nerve – to see our culture in the context of idolatry?  Are we going to be properly provoked by that?

I’m not talking about getting all red-faced and ranting and raving.  Will we have a serious, deep-seated understanding that sees the real, sinister nature of anything that sets itself up as a rival to God – even if it doesn’t always look like it on the surface?

Alistair Begg: “It will not do for us to be concerned about the issues in our culture for a lesser motive than the glory of God and the praising of his name.  It is insufficient to say, ‘I am concerned about this because of what it will mean for my grandchildren.  I am concerned about this because of what it means for our nation being de-stabilised and politically compromised and internationally abused.’  You can be concerned about that until you die, but that’s not the motivation for the proclamation of the good news of the gospel.”

As we look across our communities and our nation, do we have that passion for God’s glory?  Are we grieved that idolatry tramples all over it?

Have we become distracted by lesser issues, or have we just become desensitised to it all?

Some of us have found ourselves in a similar situation to Paul, visiting cities brimming with culture.  What do we do?  We take photos.  We go to the museums and the shows and the parks.  We take in the history and culture.

There is nothing wrong with those things necessarily.  As we look around at our culture and we just don’t see what Paul saw.

It’s very easy to read through what is really a masterful address – clever, clear, convicting – and think, ‘look, there is no way I’d ever be able to do that.  I’m glad Paul did, and I’m happy if others do, but for me, it’s not really my thing.’

Maybe it’s not you.  God doesn’t expect all of us to be able to give an evangelistic sermon, or stand in the city centre and deliver such an address.

However, I wonder if at least part of the reason we don’t even get close to saying what Paul said is because firstly we don’t see what Paul saw – that Australia, Tamworth, is full of idols that are robbing God of his glory.

Could it be that we’re not that provoked by the idols around us because they’re also our idols?

Well, what an encouraging start to the sermon!

It is because when you’re on the cause of the glory of Jesus, you can’t lose and so Paul went for it.

If we want a renewed energy to our evangelism, then let’s share Paul’s attitude when it comes to the glory of the Lord Jesus.

If we can learn from Paul’s motive, we can also learn from his method.

Method

In v17, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Paul’s reasoning in the synagogue and marketplace catches the attention of some of Athens’ finest philosophers, who invite him to speak at the Areopagus—the Supreme Court of sorts—to explain himself.  What does Paul say?

Well, it’s not quite what we perhaps expect to find.  It’s not the sort of full-on, step-by-step gospel presentation that we might have come across in our favourite evangelistic tract.

He does three things we can model off when it comes to engaging in our culture.  He does many things we can’t model, but here are three.

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.

1. Explore

Listen to the verbs Paul uses:  I perceive, for as I passed along, I observed, I found.

Paul has spent time carefully looking at the culture around him.  He’s listening.  He’s watching.  He’s looking for ways in—a chink in the armour that he can exploit.

He sees that the Athenians are very religious.  So much so that they don’t want to risk leaving any gods out—they’ve got this altar “to the unknown god” to cover their backs just in case.  So Paul appeals to their apparent open-mindedness.

If we want to make Jesus known in a world that knows very little about him, we need to do something that many of us might not be very good at in our relationships: we need to listen.

“Exploring” is about patient observing, charitable watching and listening.  It’s about careful description without jumping to conclusions or caricaturing.  It’s about being empathetic, asking lots of questions and gathering lots of information.

It’s about finding out what people are actually saying, putting what they’re saying into your own words and asking, “Is this what you mean?”

You know from your own experience, you’re more likely to listen to someone who’s spent the time genuinely listening to you.

If we are going to engage, it helps to know what we are engaging with.  We need to be on “receive” mode, describing what’s there without prescribing what we think should or shouldn’t be there.

What do people think?  What are people saying?  What do they actually believe?

How does what they believe answer questions like: Who are we as human beings?  What’s our place in the universe?  What’s gone wrong? What’s the solution? What happens when we die?

It means doing a little digging, asking questions and listening.

Then having listened carefully and charitably, then we can afford to be a little more suspicious.

What are the objects of worship today?  What are the assumptions?  What are our idols?

To be able to reason with people, it helps to know what you’re actually reasoning against.

Explore.  Which is why evangelism is often best done in ongoing relationships where you can ask questions, listen, observe.

2. Explain

Paul then moves on to explain what he believes.

He says, “What you have been unable to discover through investigation, has been revealed through revelation.”

“You’ve been very investigative”, he says, “I applaud you for that, you’re asking good questions, you’re thinking down the right lines, you’re hedging your bets by having this particular shrine to the ‘unknown god’.”

“Now”, he says, “what you’ve been unable to discover by way of your investigation, let me tell you that God has made known by way of revelation.”

V24, The God who made the world and everything in it, [is the] Lord of heaven and earth.

In other words, “Let me tell you first of all about this God – he is the creator of the universe.”

This is of course very different from Epicurean emphasis on chance, or the stoics form of pantheism.

It’s actually very good news because without the doctrine of creation, what are you left with?

You’re left with what one of our own poets in our day said:

Ernest Hemingway: life is a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness.

When your view of everything is just time + matter + chance, and you instil that into the minds of a whole generation, no wonder you get to a point in history where never have we had so much, yet never have we been so depressed.  Inexplicable.

Except when you think about the fact that if you are the product of your DNA being introduced to itself in a slimy pool somewhere, and if your death is as significant as spilling a bit of milk on the kitchen floor, then what’s the point of anything?

Paul says to these people who are asking these questions, listen, you are the product of the handiwork of a creator God.

He is the God who made everything, he made the world.

Why don’t you just try that next time you’re meeting with someone for coffee or whatever it might be?

Well I’d like to start with the doctrine of creation, tell them.  You are not a random collection of molecules held in suspension.  You have been purposefully made.  Your nose is on the way it should be, your eyes are exactly where they are, you’re all put together the way a creator wanted to.

What a wonderful starting point.

Then tell them, by the way, the reason you woke up this morning is because the God who created you also sustains you.

The reason you even have synovial fluid in your joints so that you don’t walk around like this… is because God is sustaining your life, v25.

The reason you get saliva in your mouth, the reason your eyelids are not stuck open like this… or closed shut like that… is because God is the sustainer of life.

You say, that’s kind of remarkable stuff, a little over the top isn’t it?

No, it’s not over the top at all.  Every single person in existence is more dependent on God, than the person on life-support is dependent on the machine for their next breath and heartbeat.

God is not in need of us.  He sustains life.  He’s not in need of sustenance.

We depend on God, for life and breath and everything.  He doesn’t depend on us.

He is the ruler of nations, v26.

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.

In other words, history and geography are under the control of a sovereign creator God.

That’s what he’s saying.  History is linear.  It’s not random.  It’s not cyclical.

There’s a point, there’s purpose.

He did all this that we might know him, v27.

God is relational.  He made us to know him.

Yes, God has made everything, sustains everything and is sovereign over everything, and is in no way dependent on this creation.

At the same time, he is a personal God who can be spoken of in personal terms and who engages with his creation personally.

Therefore, he’s a God a who is not so far off that we can’t know him, nor is he so near that he is indistinguishable from his creation.

There’s heaps more we could say about all of this of course, but time doesn’t permit.  Except to say this:

When this is the God we’ve got, why wouldn’t you get passionate about his glory?

We’ve got so much good stuff to explain … that’s far better than any of the alternatives.  Let’s not hold back.

3. Expose: Showing up the idols as destructive frauds

Having given an explanation of who God is in vv24-28, he then says, v29, “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.”

I.e., come one guys these other things you’ve got here are pathetic if you stop and think about it.  He’s exposing.

This is not an easy step: getting people to “stop and think” about their assumptions, what they believe, what they worship.  These are things that our friends are enchanted by, but that are slowly killing them.  How do we get them to sit up and listen?

This is where we have to do the theological equivalent of a Paddington Bear “hard stare”.  It’s about popping bubbles or tipping cold water—trying to show that these idols are destructive frauds.

However, always doing it respectfully.

So, for example: when people say they don’t believe in God, you could try replying, “I bet I don’t believe in the God you don’t believe in too”.

Today, more than ever, we need to distinguish the living God of the Bible from what other people think God is like.

As we speak and listen, let’s make sure that we are clearing the ground by dealing with the misunderstandings that people have.  “Look, I know what you think about who God is, but from now on when I talk about ‘God’ I mean this…”

“When I talk about God I’m not talking about someone who lives in a temple, or is served by human hands as though he needed anything.”

It might be done by showing up inconsistencies.

For example, when people use phrases like “it was meant to be” – well hang on, that doesn’t quite fit with the idea that we’re all here by random chance.  You can’t really talk about what was meant to be when everything’s just an accident can you?

It might be done by showing up deficiencies.

Questions like:

• How is that working for you?
• I’m really interested to know—why does this seem so compelling to you?
• If you’ve got a moment, can I show you why that might not be the best way of looking at it?

We need to show up the pathetic-ness of people’s idols: they may talk a good game but that’s all they are—talk.  At the end of the day, they have no real answers for the real questions in life like: Who are we as human beings?  What’s our place in the universe?  What’s gone wrong? What’s the solution? What happens when we die?

Exposing: show up the idols as destructive frauds.

Message

Paul’s speech comes to a crescendo with this impassioned appeal:

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.”

There are two things to note here.

First, even though Paul needs a bigger run-up, as it were (vv22-29), as we do today, he still gets to who Jesus is.  That’s the message – who is Jesus?

Here the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof that a just judgment is coming.  The resurrection is the greatest public proclamation to the whole world that Jesus has been vindicated and given all authority.  He is both just Judge and Saviour Lord.  It’s this reality that we’ve got to end up proclaiming at some point, no matter what “mocking” may result (v 32).

Second, Paul is not shy about calling for repentance (v 30).  Idols are not a “stepping stone” on the way to Jesus.  Christianity is not an extra that you can tack onto your existing lifestyle.  Repentance is a 180-degree turn from idolatry to Jesus.

So here’s our last challenge: in our sentimental, “progressive” culture, we must not forget to talk about judgment, together with the command (yes, command) for repentance and faith.

To talk about such things, of course, is countercultural—but not as unpersuasive as we sometimes think.

Bob Dylan… “you’re gonna have to serve somebody”.

Yes, in our cultural context there is an ongoing and sometimes legitimate suspicion of authority, which means that when it comes to God, many people imagine him as a divine dictator.

We know, however that it’s so different when it comes to Jesus don’t we?

Jesus Christ is the Servant King who has the might and the right to rule his creation.  For those who bow the knee, his yoke is easy and his burden light.

We also know the idea that every human being is accountable for their actions and that there will be a judgment in which all wrongs will be righted is actually attractive.

What’s the alternative? “Imagining” a world where “above us” there is “only sky”.  That history is heading somewhere and means something actually resonates with us deep down.

When we do appeal to people to repent, then, like Paul, we can expect a mixed response:

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.

When we speak to people about Jesus, however lovingly we do it, some people will “mock”—they’ll think we’re stupid, or bigoted, or both and that’s OK—that’s normal.

Others will have had their interest piqued and will be open to hearing more another time.

So don’t set your expectations too low because Jesus is Lord of all, if we prayerfully and faithfully share the gospel with lots of people, we can expect some people to respond in belief. Sometimes it’s the people we’d least expect, as with Dionysius the Areopagite, in verse 34, or a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Christians in Athens… “I wonder if we’re in ch17?”

We have a great message.

God created, God sustains, God rules, God judges, God saves, and perhaps even in his kindness and patience would lead you towards repentance.

No other message even comes close.

Give us an attitude that is passionate for the glory of the Lord Jesus.  Give us what we need to be wise and discerning that we might be able to understand the times and know what to do, how to best engage people with the gospel that the name of the Lord Jesus might be made famous we pray.