The Second Missionary Journey - Paul Preaching in Athens

Alright, if you would please take your Bible. Turn to Acts chapter 17. Tonight we are moving along in our study of the second missionary journey. And the last time we were in this study, we saw the great gospel success that Paul and the missions team had in Berea. And this reminds me of the title of the series, what I am calling the Acts of the Holy Spirit. We are seeing the acts and the actions of the Holy Spirit in and through these men. And I think we are seeing that obviously. Now, if you did not get that message that we had a few weeks ago, I urge you to do so.

Because in that message we learned what it means to be Berean and we saw the call and the responsibility to be Berean. And my prayer is that we will be the Berean Christians God wants us to be. And I am encouraged. I am thankful. I want to pass that on. Because I do see you being Berean. Being Berean. Now, if we have been paying attention, we have noticed that the missions team has really encountered the same gospel success and the same persecution in each of these cities. It is almost like a broken record. In Philippi they had great gospel success. Lydia was converted to Christ.

I believe the demonic possessed girl who was set free, I believe she came to Christ. The Philippian jailer and others in his household came to Christ as well. So we know that a church was born they met in Lydia's house. And of course Paul and the others were persecuted. You may say pastor that is not quite a good description because they were beaten and put in jail. In Thessalonica they had great gospel success. Jews and many devout Greeks including some of the leading women of the city they savingly believed in Jesus from Paul's preaching in the synagogue. So a church was born in Thessalonica.

But many of the Jews rose up in opposition and they had to smuggle Paul out of the city at night. And in Berea they had great gospel success. Just like in Thessalonica they went to the synagogue in Berea preaching the gospel. The Bereans were more noble minded. That meant they were more open to the truth of God's Word as Paul taught it. As a matter of fact they studied the scriptures to see if what Paul was preaching and teaching was true. Just like in Thessalonica Jews, Greeks and some high standing Greek women believed. So a church was born there. And persecution arose so they had to send Paul off to Athens.

And that is where we are tonight. Paul preaching and ministering in Athens. Now I know I've said this a few times in our study in the second missionary journey. But the scriptures note more than 1,400 different cities, more than 25 ministries in those cities. And in this second missionary journey we are seeing city after city, gospel ministry in those cities, great gospel success. People are coming to faith in Christ, Jew and Gentile, churches are born. Again it's like a broken record. Now church I have a purpose in mentioning these cities like this and quickly revisiting their great gospel success in those cities.

It's not reviewed just for review sake. Think about it. What we're seeing is this. No matter what city, no matter if it's a big or small city, an important or a less important city, they did the same thing in every one of these cities. They did the same thing in their missions work. First they went to the people accordingly. They went to the synagogue if there was a synagogue there so they could find Jews. If not they went to somewhere like the riverside where they would find Jews meeting. They went into the city the marketplace to engage non-Jews. Simply they went to the people.

Then second they preached one message to the Jews but they preached a different message to the non-Jews. They had one style of music for the Jews but different music for the non-Jews. They had one missions approach for the Jews but a different strategy in missions for the non-Jews. Well you know I'm just making that up because they didn't. They preached the same gospel. They preached the same Jesus as God's Messiah. They preached man's need to come to Christ and be saved. They preached the same gospel to all. Their missions approach, their mission strategy was just the same. No matter the town, no matter the people.

Again they did the same old thing. It was a broken record. And church listen, we need to hear that because no matter the town, no matter the people, no matter the time, no matter the country, no matter the culture, men and women need the same gospel. Cities, towns, peoples need the same church, a gospel church. You see? And if we have an opportunity one day to help revitalize the church, if we have the opportunity to be firsthand in helping plan a church, well what will we do? We'll do what we know to do. We'll do what we're doing here. We'll do what they did.

And last time I checked if we do what Paul and these others did, well we're being biblical. Now tonight we find Paul and Athens. I've already mentioned that. Now look at verse 13 to 14. We covered this two weeks ago. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they, that's the persecuting Jews from Thessalonica, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. That would be Jews and Gentiles in Berea. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. They stayed in Berea.

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens. In other words, they had some escorts to get him out of town. And after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. They left him in Athens. So he was alone in Athens. Now a question. What was Athens like? I've been giving you some basic information about these cities. Was it an important city or was it some kind of a backwater village? Well, Athens was one of the most famous, most important cities of the ancient world.

Athens was known as the intellectual and cultural capital of Greece, even though its political power had declined under Roman rule, and really even though it was quite a few years past its zenith in Paul's day. Now scholars in the scriptures tell us that the city was filled with philosophers, scholars, all these grand temples, as well as magnificent works of art. And these things attracted people from all over the empire. So when Paul went to Athens, he didn't go to some backwater, obscure, isolated town. Really, that's what Lystra was. Lystra was way off the beaten path of the trade routes.

It was very small, and the people of the city and region even spoke the old Lyconian language, which says that they were not heavily influenced by Greek culture and thought. But when Paul went to Athens, he entered the intellectual capital of the world. Athens was the university city of their day. He was entering the cultural capital of the Greek world of all of the cities that held onto and propagated Greek culture, values, and thought. Athens was at the top of the list. The only thing missing in Athens, again, was great political power that they had about a century before.

Political power had waned, again, because of Roman rule and Roman influence. So here we have Paul. He's on his second missionary journey. He's alone here, and he's entering Athens. Now, the title of the message is "The Second Missionary Journey, Paul Preaching in Athens." And I have done this a few times. I'll kind of alter the message, because we can see some different themes and different ways we could title the message. Now, let's read our verses, verses 16 to 21. Verse 16 to 21. "Now while Paul was waiting for them," we know that's Timothy and Silas, "at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, 'What does this babbler wish to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus in the resurrection.' And they took him and brought him to the Aragopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting, for you bring some strange things to our ears.

We wish to know therefore what these things mean.' Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." Now, this is how I want to approach the verses tonight. First, I want us to see that Paul was provoked by the sin in the city. Paul was provoked by the sin there in the city. Second, we see that Paul preached in the synagogue in the city, and there's more here in verse 17 than you know. And last, I want us to see that Paul was engaged by the philosophers of the city. This is in verses 18 to 21. Now we'll not cover all of verses 18 to 21.

Give us kind of an overview of what we see there. A couple of lessons there. We'll pick up with those verses next week. So, number one, notice Paul was provoked. A longer way of saying that is this. Paul was provoked by the sin and sinfulness of the city. Here we see that Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy because they remained in Berea, while Paul slipped out of the city. We read about that. Now, we do not know how long he waited for them, but while he was waiting, it really appears that he was busy. I know the text doesn't say this, but in my mind, Paul was not sitting still waiting. He was walking the city in the spirit.

In my mind, he was walking, looking, praying, seeking the Lord and getting a feel for two things right away. First, for the spiritual condition of the city and the people. Second, for how he was going to react spiritually. So, right here in verse 16, we have Paul waiting, but yet he's checking things out spiritually, and he was doing this being led of the spirit, full of the spirit. And I want us to see two specifics here. First, he was provoked spiritually. Now, all the modern translations say provoked. The King James says he was stirred. And this word provoking or stirring, it means to stimulate, to arouse, to irritate, and urge on.

But it's more than that. It really means to become very angry. And we have seen this before. MacArthur points out that a corresponding word is used in Acts 1539 when that sharp disagreement came up between Paul and Barnabas. We learned that it was really an anger between the two. But here in Athens, this means that Paul was stirred up. He was irritated. He was provoked to great anger. Now, question. Was this a selfish anger and irritation? Was this a sinful anger and irritation? Was it wrong that Paul was angry like this?

Now, I think we know instinctively, we know a selfish and sinful irritation and anger, but do we see that one can have a right, a good, a spirit-led, spirit-filled, even a holy anger and irritation? Have you ever thought about that? As we will see, Paul's great anger was not sinful, but spirit-filled, spirit-led. His truly was a holy anger. In my mind, I think about when Jesus cleared the temple. He did that more than once. Well, he was angry. He even fashioned a whip on one occasion and drove the money changers and the animals out of the temple. That was a holy anger, not a sinful anger.

The second he was provoked because of the city, it was full of idols. Here, Luke tells us that the city was full of idols, not the people, but the city. Of course, if the city was full of idols, well, then the people were too. One writer in Nero's court wrote that it was easier to find a god, little G, in Athens than a man. Now, think about that. It's a secular writer now in Nero's court. He wrote that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man. Lucian was famous in their day for writing these witty dialogues that mock Greek mythology, pagan religions and superstitions and the philosophers.

He said of the city, "On every side there were altars, victims, temples, and festivals." In other words, they're pointing out that the city was full of idols, temples, in these demonic, obviously, festivals. There are many historians from this time and even after that describe a city just full of idols, all these different religions, all these temples, and they had all these different religious festivals, very demonic, very pagan, that were connected to those idols and those temples. But Albert Barnes points out something that really, really caught my attention. I'm really putting it in my words.

In the text here now, there is no indication that Paul was enamored with any of these things. There's no indication that he admired these things in any way. There's no record that he spent time examining their art. There's no record that he spent time reading some of their great learning. There's no time recorded here that he was affected or even absorbed into that culture. One scholar I ran across said, "This was not a Holy Spirit sightseeing trip." Barnes goes on to say, and I'm quoting him, "His was a Christian mind and he contemplated all this with a Christian heart." Let me repeat that and I will elaborate on it.

Barnes says Paul had this Christian mind and he contemplated all that he was seeing in the city with a Christian heart. So here we have Paul waiting for his ministry partners in Athens, but he was not idly waiting. He was in the city. Obviously he was walking. He was moving about. He was observing the city and observing the people and he was stirred up, even greatly angered with this holy anger that the city was full of idols and idolatry. Now there are a few things we need to ask and apply to our lives from what we see here.

Now there are times I ask you to kind of think about things, think about what I'm going to say and ask, "Is our culture full of sins and idols and idolatry? Is our culture full of sins and idols and idolatry?" And on top of that, have we grown indifferent to those things? Have we just kind of grown accustomed to those things, those sins, those idols, that idolatry that is in our country and in our culture and even in our city? Have we just grown accustomed to those things? I remember when I was a little boy, do one on a trip to one of the homes where my dad lived. My dad had an unusual home life. He lived in many different places.

He really never put his feet down very long, but we were in one of the homes that he lived in for a little while with a relative. It was right across the street from a paper mill. Y'all ever smelled a paper mill? Oh, it stinks. And I'll never forget, I asked my dad, "How did you live here with that smell?" He said, "Well, son, you stay here for a while. You just get used to it." Now I turn that around. Is our culture full of sins and idols and idolatry? We would say yes. And have we grown indifferent to the stink? Have we grown accustomed to the stench of the sins and idols and idolatry in our culture?

Maybe we need a work of the Spirit of God in us to open up our eyes to the sins, the idols, the idolatry of our culture, city, state, and country. But we can't stop there when our eyes are open. If our eyes are open and we smell the stench of the sin, idols, and idolatry, and we see the sin, idols, and idolatry as it really is, maybe we need the Spirit to move upon us where we are like Paul, irritated, provoked, and even moved to a holy anger. I was talking with an anchored in truth brother this week, yesterday, a pastor friend of mine. And I was gripped.

He was just going off about different things in the culture and different things that he sees on social media. And he was talking about, "Look, our country's headed to another civil war. And it's a civil war about different views and ideas in life." And I even talked to him today through text message. And I said, "Brother, yesterday, you convicted me. You were Pauline." He said, "What do you mean?" And I quoted the verse because honestly, he was pretty provoked and angered about sin that he was seeing in the culture. Now I want to continue here.

Are we unlike Paul in that we are enamored with, we're even admirers of sin and idols and idolatry in our country and culture? Could it be that we are unlike Paul and that we kind of are enamored with, maybe we are even admirers of sin and idols and idolatry in our country and culture, maybe even those who commit those things. We wouldn't do it, but they do. And we kind of look up to them. Look folks, the very sin and idolatry in our culture and country that should provoke us to a holy anger. It can even be entertainment for many professing believers. Think on those things. I'm going to revisit some of these things next week.

Maybe this needs to be a topic of conversation in your home. Maybe this needs to be a topic of conversation with a Christian brother or sister over lunch this week, while you're driving and you talk with a brother or sister this week, that kind of thing. Maybe we need to talk about these things because we need a work of God in us here. So Paul was provoked to a holy anger because of the idolatry in the city of Athens. Next number two, Paul preached. But a longer way to say that is this. Paul preached in the synagogue and the marketplace. We see this in verse 17. Now what we have here is simple.

And the same thing we've seen in their other stops in those other cities. Again, it's just a broken record. They keep doing the same old thing. First he preached in the synagogue. Here we see that Paul went to the synagogue, like he always did, to engage with the Jews in any God-fearing Gentiles he may find. But notice something here. He went to the synagogue because he felt the city and the people were too full of idols to be reached. Is that what the text says? No. This reminds me of a conversation I had quite a few years ago with a man that I know who is Church of Christ.

Now we have to be careful here because Church of Christ, they are not a Christian denomination. They truly believe in a works-based salvation. They believe you must be baptized to be saved. Well, that's adding works to grace. And when you do that, you move from salvation by grace and grace alone to a work salvation. It's no salvation at all. You're getting outside of the boundaries of what we would call orthodox Christianity. But the point I'm making here is this. In that conversation he brought up the fact that they had been a part of starting a work down in New Orleans, but it didn't work.

And he made the comment that it's just too sinful there for the work to work. Now I bring that up for a reason. We must never think or believe that a culture, city, or a people are too pagan to be reached with the gospel. And we can do that more than we know. We must never think or believe that a culture or a city or a people are too pagan to be reached with the gospel. Well, we have an anchored in truth missionary and his wife in a very closed Muslim nation. We can kind of see those people as kind of hard to reach or impossible to reach. Think about that.

Now we know that Paul always went to the synagogue first and when he first went into a new city. But we must remember why he did this. I have said that in going to the synagogue he would find Jews and Gentiles who believed the Old Testament scriptures. He would have found people who worship the God of the Old Testament, but there's more. And I probably should have brought some of this up before. Paul had two great reasons why he did this.

In Romans 1.16 he said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek." This speaks to the fact that the gospel and God's redemptive plan in Christ was meant to be proclaimed to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel first. So he went to the temple first because it was for the Jews first. And in Romans 9 verse 3 Paul said, "For I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh." This speaks to the great personal burden that Paul had for his own people, the Jews.

He literally says, "I wished I could go to hell if my Jewish brothers and kinsmen could be saved." Now this is my point. Yes, Paul went to his own people out of a great personal burden for his own. But the number one reason was that it was God's plan to take the gospel to the Jews first. Now before I move on, let me ask. Are we burdened by our own? Paul certainly was. And the people he was burdened for were not family. These were Jews that wanted to kill him. And he says, "I wished I could go to hell and let them be saved." Are we burdened for our own?

Our family, our immediate family, our extended family, our parents who are lost, our siblings who are lost, our children. I've shared my testimony many times. I was lost. And some people in my family came to faith in Christ and started witnessing to me. They had a burden for their own. Second, he preached in the marketplace. Now all the translations say that Paul went to the marketplace. In the original, this word speaks of what we would call a marketplace. That's the best translation we can find. And it was west of what's called the Acropolis. I'll get into the Acropolis next week.

And we need to see that this was more than a big store like Walmart. This was even more than a shopping center. This was more than a farmer's market like we have in our downtown. This marketplace was two things. First, it was a marketplace where people would buy and sell goods. Second, it was a forum or a public gathering place where people would gather for many different reasons besides buying and selling goods. So this is what you had at the marketplace in Athens. It was literally the heart of the city and public life. Buying and selling goods took place there.

People gathered there at the marketplace to discuss politics, philosophy, religion, current events. All kinds of philosophers, teachers, and men of learning would gather there at the marketplace looking for an audience. Even ordinary people would gather there to discuss and debate the latest ideas, the latest topics, and the latest current events. And at the marketplace, there were merchant shops where food, clothing, and other everyday goods were bought and sold. There were public buildings used for city business. We think about the courthouse and things like that.

There were many statues and there were many monuments honoring gods, heroes, emperors, as well as well-known Athenians. There were open places where they could gather to talk, debate ideas, even gather a small audience to speak. And even though Athens was a large city, the marketplace was the center of Athenian life. Now notice why this is important. Not only did Paul go to the Jews in the synagogue, he went out to the people. He went to where the people were, the masses were, where they gathered. And Luke tells us that he reasoned with the people every day. But we need to see something that may surprise us. I know this will surprise some.

This may even irritate some. Luke tells us that Paul went to the marketplace and he reasoned with those that were there. Verse 17, he reasoned with them. And the word used here for reasoned, it does not mean preach. It means to talk, to discuss, to dialogue, even to engage in a Q&A question and answer. Now on the surface we might not see anything here, but some scholars point out Paul's manner and method in sharing Jesus in the gospel here. Bible scholar John Stott says that Paul purposefully adopted the famous method of dialogue that Socrates was known for. And that involved question and answer.

Stott says, and I quote, he was in fact a kind of Christian Socrates, although with a better gospel than Socrates ever knew. Now this is the point. Paul did not go into the marketplace preaching. Now he preached to the Jews at the day of Pentecost. He went, he met the people where they were. He engaged them. He talked with them. He dialogue with them in a manner and a style that the people were accustomed to and a manner and a style that they would receive. Do you see that? He went into the marketplace not preaching. He met the people where they were. He engaged them where they were. He talked with them.

He dialogue with them even in a Q&A in a manner and a style that the people were accustomed to and that they would receive. Did he alter the gospel? No. Did he change his message about Christ Jesus? No. He changed his method of delivering the gospel to meet the people where they were. He changed his method of communicating the gospel with the people, but he never changed the gospel message. Quite a few years back we had some people in our town who would go to the movie theater here in Brookhaven in the parking lot and they would preach to people going into the movie. Now I had a problem with their message.

They were yelling at people and telling them they were going to hell if we're going to the movie. Now the problem with that message is simple. You can't draw a straight line from going to hell because of a movie and you can't draw a straight line from extending from a movie and going to heaven either now. But not only did I have a problem with a lot of their message, honestly I had and I have a big problem with their method. Yelling at people and even preaching to people in a parking lot at the movie where they're going to the movie, that's not meeting people where they are in my opinion. To me they would have been better off.

Now this is my opinion, just engaging people one on one, discussing the gospel, sharing the gospel, calling people to come to Christ one on one. Now I know, I know my church history. I know that famous preachers of the past would preach open air, but I would say that in their day we can study the history and know the culture. Open air meetings, even church services in the open air were more common. Now I know, I may offend some, some will point to famous open air preachers like Whitfield and Wesley and how God used open air preaching in the great awakening. God used those methods, God was in all that, I think it was great.

But just think about what Paul did in Athens at the marketplace. What did he do? Just think about how people in our day and our marketplace like Walmart would be more open to hear the gospel. How will they receive it if we're like Paul or if we just preach at him? Think about that. So here we have Paul preaching and reasoning with people in Athens. He went to the Jewish synagogue first because that was God's plan and that was his heartbeat. Then he went to the masses and he reasoned with the people in the marketplace every day. And what did he do when he reasoned with the people? He shared the gospel, their need for Christ and salvation.

He shared the same message in the marketplace that he shared in the synagogue. He had the same message, a different method and approach. Now two things, a couple of observations and some application here. First, we should always be sharing the gospel in our church with those closest to us. But second, we should be faithful to share the gospel in our marketplace. Now what is our marketplace? We don't have a market like the Athenians, but we have a marketplace. It's in Aldi. It's at Walmart. It's at Sullivan's. It's at the farmer's market downtown. It's at Coley and Feed and Seed. It's at Juan's feed store. It's wherever we shop.

It's the restaurants we go to. We are in the marketplace all the time, just like those Athenians. It just looks different. And so we should be faithful to share the gospel in our marketplace. So Paul shared the gospel in the synagogue and there in the marketplace. Last number three, Paul was engaged. Longer version, Paul was engaged by the philosophers of the city. We see that in verses 18 to 21. I won't read the verses because of time. Now tonight I'm not going to go very deep here. I've already shared that.

Next week in our part two, I will explain who these groups are, what they believed, where they were meeting, and how Paul dealt with them. But tonight I just want to give an overall big picture of what we see here. We have seen that in Athens, Paul did what he did in every city. He went to the synagogue to the people to share the gospel and evangelize the lost. And while he was sharing the gospel and evangelizing the lost in the marketplace in Athens, we see that he came into contact with the city's leading philosophical groups, the Epicureans and the Stoics.

Again, next week we'll see who they were, what they believed, and how Paul dealt with them. And a curious thing about Paul's preaching came up. They were curious because he preached that Jesus rose from the dead. Then they brought him before the Aragopagus, that's a difficult one to say, not for any crime, not to be arrested, but to discuss what Paul was preaching, discuss what Paul was declaring, discuss what he was talking about. Like I said, next week we'll get into the who, where, what, how. But I want to leave us with one observation.

When we share the gospel in our marketplace and even in our family who are outside of our church now, we will run head first into what they believe. Our gospel will come into contrast with their gospel unless they believe the gospel we believe. Let me restate that. When we share our gospel in the marketplace and even with our family, those people outside of our church, we will run head first into what they believe. Our gospel will come into contrast with whatever gospel they have. That's exactly what happened to Paul in the marketplace. Now this is what I want us to see and apply.

In our family and the ones we evangelize in our marketplace, they're trusting in something. They're trusting in something. They may have a false salvation, a false gospel, and look, if we share the true gospel, it will contradict that. Think about it. When Paul was in the marketplace, we're going to see when he engages all of those philosophers, what if he tried to just get along with the culture? What if Paul did not want to make any enemies there in Athens? What if Paul didn't want to offend all of the leading philosophers of the city? What if he wanted to be politically correct? We see churches and pastors doing that today.

Any whim of thought, the new thing, what will make them stay in line with the culture? They'll just go with it. They'll adjust the gospel. We've seen it. And look, folks, the true gospel, the true gospel will always contradict the false gospel and what gospel or what hope of salvation people have every time. And sometimes it will make you some enemies. Now I want to close right here. Again, we'll pick up with these verses next week. This is all about the second missionary journey, Paul preaching in Athens. He's preaching, yeah, we're going to see that. He does transition into preaching, but notice Paul's reasoning in the marketplace.

Not just preaching, he's reasoning. There's a lot of different ways we could title this message in my opinion.