October 17, 2025 • 28 mins
Why are people so fascinated with the supernatural—ghosts, spirits, haunted houses, even Bigfoot? Recent surveys show that nearly half of Americans claim to have had a supernatural encounter. Yet with all this obsession comes fear, confusion, and anxiety. In this episode of The Wisdom Journey, Stephen Davey explores Acts 17 and Paul’s encounter with the Athenians at the Areopagus. Surrounded by idols and altars—even one dedicated “To the Unknown God”—Paul took the opportunity to introduce the people of Athens to the true and living Creator. His boldness offers us a timeless example for engaging a world that is still searching for answers. Learn how to counter superstition with truth, how to graciously redirect people from speculation to revelation, and how to proclaim the God who alone provides peace, forgiveness, and eternal life. This message will help you see superstition for what it really is—and give you confidence to share the gospel in a confused world.
Stephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Scott (00:07):
Paul, we're told, went into the marketplace every day
with those who happened to bepresent.
So picture Paul, he's righthere in the middle of all of
this and he's startingconversations with people.
You know, he's introducinghimself.
Maybe he's even calling out aspeople leave, you know, one of
the temples.
Hey, I'd love to hear aboutyour God if you'd like to hear
(00:30):
about mine.
Some might call itconfrontational evangelism.
As if evangelism isn'teventually confrontational.
Stephen (00:52):
Have you ever wondered if the chance encounters in your
life were really chance at all?
Maybe it was the conversationon an airplane, a co-worker
stopping by your desk, or aneighbor at the mailbox.
What if those weren'taccidents, but divine
appointments?
The Apostle Paul had one ofthose moments in Athens.
(01:15):
He didn't plan it, but God did.
And it opened the door for Paulto speak with some of the most
influential thinkers of his day.
In today's message, StephenDavies shows you how God still
arranges those kinds ofencounters for you, and how you
can be ready when they come.
Scott (01:37):
In his book on discipleship, Mark Bailey, the
current president of DallasSeminary, who will be with us
again here, I believe, in a fewmonths, included a humorous and
true story.
It's amazing that it was indeedtrue, and he wrote about it.
And it's about how things canchange in their value based on
(01:58):
events in life.
He writes that a businessmanhad wanted to own one particular
Porsche sports car, and everyday he'd look through the
classified ads at Porsche's forsale.
And when he'd find one, theywere always way out of his
range.
He knew that.
He knew he could never affordone, but he would keep looking.
One morning he was surprised tofind an ad for a brand new
(02:19):
Porsche on sale for $500.
He assumed it was a typo andthat a couple of zeros had been
left off, three or four of them.
And the next morning he checkedthe ad again, and he couldn't
believe it.
The same ad was running, abrand new Porsche, just the one
he wanted, on sale for $500.
This guy figured that he hadnothing to lose.
Bailey, right?
So he decided to call thenumber, and when he did, a woman
(02:42):
answered the phone and he askedher if it was a typo.
And she said, no, that's thesale price.
A brand new Porsche availablefor $500.
She said, in fact, she wassomewhat surprised no one had
called.
He was the first caller.
Um, and he couldn't believe it.
He decided to drive over andsee for himself.
And when he arrived, it was arather beautiful estate.
He drove through this gatedentrance, and there sitting in
(03:04):
the driveway was this new model,a Porsche sitting in the
driveway.
And she she met him out there,and uh he got out to examine the
car, and he's thinking tohimself, it must not have an
engine.
But it did.
He asked her again about theprice, just to make sure, and
she said, kind of with an air ofdisinterest.
Yes, that's the price.
So he got the keys and took itfor a test drive.
(03:26):
The car ran perfectly.
It was in mint condition.
In total disbelief, he handsthe woman $500 cash, watched her
sign over the deed to him, andthen he drove away rather
quickly, lest she changed hermind.
And he enjoyed this sports carfor about a week or two, and
then he began to feel badly.
He wondered if she knew.
(03:49):
So he decided to call her.
When she answered the phone, hetold her who he was and then
said, You know, were you awarethat this car that you sold to
me is listed for more than$150,000?
And she said, Oh, yeah, I knewthat.
Well, then why did you sell itto me for only $500?
And without pausing for even amoment, she answered, Well, I'll
(04:11):
tell you why.
Three weeks ago, my husbandleft me and ran off with another
woman, and the last thing hesaid to me was, Sell the Porsche
and send me the money.
So I did.
You know, I've been checkingthe ads ever since, uh, reading
that story.
Something very valuablesuddenly becomes virtually
(04:34):
worthless.
I was at the store too long agoand saw a woman in one of the
aisles wearing a sweatshirt thathad a message and big letters
across it, and I saw it, andthen I stopped and did a double
take to make sure I read itright, and sure enough I had,
and it said without anyembarrassment at all, the words,
I want it all.
(04:54):
I want it all.
She evidently had no idea thateven if she had it all, all the
things in her life could change,and everything she had would
have its value reversed.
For every human being on theplanet, there is a coming day
(05:20):
when all of the values are goingto change.
In fact, in light of who Godis, that reconstructs for us in
our own minds and in our ownlives what we place value upon,
right?
And the reverse is true, ofcourse, things that the world
considers worthless are one daygoing to be very valuable,
(05:43):
priceless.
Now, by the time the ApostlePaul arrives in Athens, it's a
city that we could say had itall.
They had had it all, and theystill had a lot of it,
literally.
In fact, 500 years before Paularrived in Athens, and we're
back in Acts chapter 17, Athenshad birthed democracy.
(06:06):
Athens had birthed the conceptsof parliament and individual
rights and freedoms and law thatis still used today by much of
the Western world.
Athens was the home of theworld's most famous university
prior to the arrival of Paul,where Socrates and Plato had
(06:29):
walked the hallways as facultymembers.
In fact, Plato's most famousstudent, Aristotle, also taught
in this university and in thecity streets with his disciples
tagging along.
Athens had been at one pointthe religious center of this
region with all of its whitemarbled temples to the gods of
(06:53):
the Pantheon.
The streets were lined withstatues of the gods.
Fifty years before Paularrives, here in Acts chapter
17, to the city of Athens,Caesar Augustus had rebuilt many
of the temples and publicbuildings that had been
destroyed in battles andprevious wars, sort of returning
(07:15):
Athens to some of its goldendays.
And now Paul arrives.
In the timing of God and thedeclaration of the gospel, it
was time in the providence ofGod for Athens to hear of this
God who alone had the attributesthat they claimed belong in
(07:38):
some form or fashion to theirmany gods.
Luke gives us an account hereof this scene where Paul
arrives, and as Luke is writingit, he describes Athens in at
least two different ways.
One of them is this.
We're going to see that Athenswas intuitively religious.
(08:00):
Intuitively religious.
Look at what he records for usin verse 16 of Acts chapter 17.
Now, while Paul was waiting forthem at Athens, this is Timothy
and Silas, his spirit was beingprovoked within him as he was
beholding the city full ofidols.
(08:21):
The word translated observinghere in verse 16 is the word,
which gives us our word theater.
And I think Luke is probablywriting a little
tongue-in-cheek.
He's using a play on wordssimply because Athens would have
been absolutely famous in thatworld for her theaters.
(08:42):
Many of them were dedicated tomany of their gods.
Just to give you an idea, weknow that the city-state of
Ephesus nearby had a theater.
And in the theater were 29golden statues of Artemis.
There were 60 statues of Nike,the god of victory.
(09:09):
And still in that one theater,there were 60 statues dedicated
to Eros, the god of eroticism.
So imagine in one theater, youhave 150 statues giving honor
and glory to these three gods.
(09:29):
Imagine what it would have beenlike in Athens.
Well, the truth is we don'thave to imagine.
Pliny, the Roman author wholived during the days of Paul,
wrote that Athens had not 150statues, but 73,000 statues to
their gods.
(09:50):
Pausanias, a Greek geographerwho visited Athens a few decades
after Paul was the one whowrote that now rather famous
statement that in Athens it waseasier to meet a god than a man.
They were literally everywhere.
They aligned the streets, theywere in every public building,
(10:11):
their temples filled the hills,filled the valleys in this
region.
It reminded me of my tourthrough India some time ago.
The religious fervor isliterally everywhere.
Everything revolves aroundtheir gods and their goddesses.
(10:32):
The nation is given to it.
They have, by the way, 300,000from which you can choose.
Temples are everywhere.
Gurus are everywhere with theirfollowers of any particular
god.
One day, in fact, I was walkingdown a street and I heard
(10:53):
singing.
And I looked over, and in abuilding that was several
stories high, but the bottomfloor was open, just support
columns, there on that cementslab were at least a hundred
people sitting, singing.
They were singing and clapping.
And I could tell, at leastmusically, that they were
singing the same thing and theywere singing the same tone or
(11:17):
notes over and over again.
And I asked my host, you know,who they were.
It was actually very, verybeautiful music.
And he said, Well, they arefollowers of that guru.
You'll see him.
He's sort of sitting up infront of them, facing them, and
he's leading them in singingpraise to their God.
And I said, Which God?
And he said, You know, I reallydon't know.
(11:38):
I can't tell.
Which God?
The Athenians, frankly, everynation on the planet is
convinced that the world isfilled with an unseen spirit
world.
And in that respect, they areabsolutely correct.
They're correct.
They're right.
Mankind knows intuitively thatthere's something more out
(12:01):
there.
The world, the cosmos, theuniverse, we're told in
Scripture, reveals some of theattributes of God and his power
and creative ability.
And then Romans 2 tells us thatthe conscience has been
stamped, imprinted with the lawof God, so that they know
(12:21):
there's truth.
They know when they're doingsomething wrong.
They know stealing a chicken iswrong.
They know killing someone iswrong or whatever.
So the citizens of Athens,though, are just like that.
They can't really, frankly,they can't get enough gods to
satisfy their religious hunger.
And you read here in verse 16that Paul's spirit was provoked.
(12:45):
Now, typically you'll hear thatsort of translated or expounded
as negative.
It may not be negative.
It doesn't mean he was angry.
It doesn't mean he's ready fora fight.
You can actually take that wordand turn it positively to speak
of being absolutely filled withanticipation and excitement.
(13:08):
I think that's probably morehow he was feeling than angry.
He's like that proverbial shoesalesman.
Remember, he arrived in a citywhere no one owned any shoes.
He packed up and the next daywent home telling his employer,
no one in this city wears shoes.
Another salesman arrived thenext day and immediately wired
(13:31):
his employer saying, Send all ofthe shoes you can.
Nobody here wears any yet.
See, that's the attitude Paulhas.
I think Paul is the kind ofperson who would say, not, oh, I
can't believe it, I gotta getout of sledgehammer, I've got to
do whatever I can do and endthis.
I think he's saying, oh, look,they worship gods.
(13:53):
I can't wait to tell them aboutthe true God.
Athens was intuitivelyreligious, that's first.
Second, Athens wasintellectually curious.
Notice verse 17.
So he was reasoning in thesynagogue with the Jews and the
God-fearing Gentiles.
(14:14):
That word reasoning, we'vealready encountered that.
Dialegomi means to dialogue.
That is, he's not preaching asermon like I am, uninterrupted,
at least that's the plan.
He's asking and answeringquestions.
He's dialoguing with them.
He's bringing up texts andasking them questions about
(14:35):
that.
What do you think about that?
What do you think that means?
Well, if that means that, whatdo you think about this text
over here?
That was the kind of approachthat he was using in the
synagogue.
And he evidently kept at itbecause we read nothing of
unrest.
We read nothing of them kickinghim out.
We don't read anything of ariot as in the previous cities
(14:57):
we've studied so far in thisseries.
Not in Athens.
They want to know more.
These Gentiles who arepandering toward Judaism and the
Jewish community, they'redeeply intellectually curious.
I think it's tragic, however,the implication here from Luke's
(15:19):
silence indicates that therewasn't any response to the QA.
There isn't a riot, but thereisn't a revival either, so to
speak.
They're just curious.
I was on a plane a few daysago, and I asked the man sitting
next to me eventually as wechatted away what he would say
(15:41):
to God if God asked him why heought to be allowed into heaven.
And he gave me a brief answerthat was all about himself and
all about his works and allabout what he had given to the
community and what he was doingin his church.
And then he said, But you know,you you said earlier in our
conversation that you pastorchurch, I'm really interested in
what you have to say.
And so I took 45 minutes.
(16:02):
It was a two-part series, youknow, we had an intermission.
And and when I got finished, hewasn't really interested.
Curious.
But after hearing it, notreally interested.
That's this crowd here.
Intellectually curious.
You see, it's one thing to becurious, it's another thing to
(16:25):
be converted to Christ.
Now, Paul here isn't satisfiedwith staying in the synagogue
where he's no doubt experiencedand I would think probably very
comfortable in that kind ofenvironment, reasoning
intellectually with these Jewsand Gentile proselytes.
So I want to point out uh verse17.
(16:47):
Notice further, Paul, we'retold, went into the marketplace
every day with those whohappened to be present, those
who happened to be there in themarketplace.
Now here's what's happening.
Paul has decided, as he'swaiting for Timothy and Silas,
to go into the agora, themarketplace.
(17:10):
A G, it's spelled, O-R-A.
Today, we might call itdowntown.
That's the picture I want youto have in your mind.
We might call it the mall,another accurate picture.
You might even call it theCentral Plaza if you're in South
America.
It's literally acres and acresof shops all lined up and
(17:35):
temples and fountains and parksand some buildings and people
streaming in and out of theirtemples, dedicated there at the
Agora.
The remains reveal what thosetemples were.
We have temples there dedicatedto Zeus and Aphrodite and
Apollo and Ares and Nike andeven one to Caesar Augustus for
(17:58):
being such a great guy torebuild all these other
buildings.
So picture Paul.
This is what we would calltoday open-air evangelism.
(18:23):
We might refer to it as coldcalling.
In other words, you don't havean appointment, you've never met
that person, but you're goingto start a conversation.
Some might call itconfrontational evangelism, as
if evangelism isn't eventuallyconfrontational, right?
He's involved in all of it.
(18:43):
And Luke writes here that whatPaul is doing, he sort of
indicates that it's random.
You notice?
He's talking to those whohappen to be there, who just so
happened to be there that day.
Well, don't be fooled.
I mean, Luke obviouslyunderstood, as did the Apostle
(19:04):
Paul, that every conversationwas anything but random, right?
Paul is depending on God'sSpirit to lead his steps and
bring people to that mall, bringpeople to sit by that fountain,
uh, bring people to shop, uh,bring people to walk out of that
temple at just that very momentfor this encounter.
(19:29):
Our evangelism explosion teamsgo out weekly and they call it
divine appointments.
I love that terminology.
Because it isn't random.
Every conversation you havewith someone about the gospel,
it might seem random, or theyjust so happen to be here, but
(19:51):
it is divinely ordained.
Well, on the north side of theagora, uh, this downtown plaza
was an old building.
In English, it would betranslated the painted porch.
Kind of sounds like it'd bepsychedelic and strange music
(20:12):
and lights.
It wasn't, but that was what itmeant.
The painted porch.
It was a large gathering place,especially for philosophers.
Now, evidently, Paul made hisway over there because of what
we read in verse 18.
Notice.
And some of the Epicurean andStoic philosophers were
(20:35):
conversing with him.
You can translate that verb,arguing.
I would have loved to havelistened in as the greatest
Christian apologist.
Apart from Christ, the greatestphilosophically minded
theologian is in an intellectualargument with the Epicureans
and the Stoics.
(20:57):
These are the descendants ofSocrates and Plato, and they
hang out at the painted porch.
This open area, and they'redebating and discussing and
talking about the latestphilosophies of the day and the
latest speculations or whateverthey may be.
And this is no coincidence thatPaul makes his way over there,
(21:20):
and who are they?
Well, in short, the Epicureansbelieved that life is short and
death ends your existence.
So what you need to do is liveand get out of life as much
pleasure and uh and joy aspossible, uh, as much excitement
(21:42):
as you can stand.
And as far as the gods areconcerned, and there are gods
out there, but as far as they'reconcerned, they really don't
care because actually the godsare trying to get all the
pleasure they can get out oftheir existence.
Get all you can because theperson in the end with the most
toys wins.
(22:02):
Sound familiar?
It's the Epicurean philosophy.
The Stoics argued that all godswere really the same.
They all reflected this Godprinciple.
This God principle.
And you need you you didn'tneed to get all worked up about
any one God.
In fact, all the gods werebasically saying the same thing.
(22:27):
So live your life, and youdon't have to worry about all
this.
You don't have to get dogmatic,you don't have to make your
decision, you don't have to makeup your mind about really
anything, because in the end,you will become part of this God
principle.
You'll be one with the cosmosand live forever.
Athens and America are very,very similar.
(22:50):
And every other country, by theway.
These are predominantphilosophies in life.
Either the universe is anaccident out of nowhere, they're
teaching children now thatthat's called the Big Bang
Theory, and have for you know ageneration.
And when life is all over,that's all there is, so get as
(23:12):
much enjoyment as you can out oflife because the guy with the
toys wins.
Or don't get too dogmatic aboutany religion because all the
religions effectively say thesame thing.
There's this God principle, andyou've got divinity in you, and
one day you're gonna liveforever wherever you want to
live, wherever you think it'd benice to live, and don't get all
(23:32):
worked up.
That's Athens, and that's ourworld today.
Notice what the Epicureans andStoics are saying.
Verse 18 again, a little lateron there in that verse.
It says, What would this idol,they're saying, what would this
idle babbler wish to say?
Not very kind.
(23:53):
Others are saying he seems tobe a proclaimer of strange
deities because he was preachingJesus and the resurrection, and
I can't help but kind ofchuckle at that statement.
These people are surrounded bysome really strange gods and
goddesses, and I'm going tobring some more of this to your
attention in our nextdiscussion.
(24:13):
And it's interesting to me thatthey think Paul was the one
proclaiming something strange.
Jesus is a strange deity?
Well, the truth is for Paul totalk to them about God the Son
dying to redeem humanity, thatwould have been strange.
(24:37):
If you understand that the godsto them didn't care about the
people, and the gods definitelywouldn't die to save people.
But this God Paul is describingand will not only died to
(25:06):
redeem sinners because he lovedthem, but he came back to life.
That's really strange.
And it was shocking to them.
In fact, it was entirelydifferent than all of the other
gods combined.
And by the way, wherever you goin the world, the God we
(25:29):
believe in, according toScripture, is different from any
other God on the planet or inthe universe.
It's still true to this day.
Paul seems to have gained somecredibility because of what they
did next.
Look at verse 19.
And they took him and broughthim to the Areopagus, saying,
(25:54):
May we know what this newteaching is which you are
proclaiming.
We want to know more.
You're bringing some strangethings to our ears.
We want to know, therefore,what these things mean.
Then Luke adds this commentary.
Now, all the Athenians and thestrangers visiting there used to
spend their time in nothingother than telling or hearing
something new.
And that gives you the ideathat this is perhaps some kind
(26:16):
of trivial conversation, but itwas far from trivial.
This is actually a trial.
The Areopagus was both a titlefor a hill, also known as Mars
Hill, after the Roman god Mars,who was on trial for murder.
And the Areopagus was also theformal name of the high court of
(26:42):
Athens, and it met on thathill.
Now, according to Athenian law,no religious system, no new
religious system could operate,no new deity could be officially
followed or recognized, no newtemple could be built, and they
assume that Paul is probablygoing to want to build one
(27:03):
without the permission of theAthenian council.
And you need to get in yourmind that you have 50 men in
this council, and it's reallythe Supreme Court, the Oval
Office, and Congress all rolledup into one.
(27:24):
Okay?
In fact, to this very day, theSupreme Court of Greece is
called the Areopagus, the hill.
And we in America borrowedthat.
We talk about capital what?
Hill.
The hill.
The decisions are made on thehill.
All this goes back to Athens.
(27:44):
Well, in the days of Paul, theAthenian council was meeting on
this hill, and it jutted 500feet into the air.
Next Lord's Day, Lord willing,I'm going to show you some
pictures of this.
It was the perfect outdoormeeting place, and it had a
panoramic view of Athens.
(28:05):
And the reason I want to I wantyou to visualize it is because
when Paul delivers his message,he's probably going to be
pointing at different thingsthat they can see from the hill.
So here they come up this hill,and Paul is following them, you
know, the proclaimer of thesenew, strange, you know, deities.
(28:30):
He's going to stand before theSupreme Court of Athens.
But you need to know, I thinkfrom Paul's perspective, he's
probably saying this is theultimate divine appointment.
Is this great or what?
He will begin to introduce tothem the unknown God, and as he
does, he's going to introduceone stunning attribute after
(28:54):
another.
In fact, each phrase is goingto be freighted with so much
truth about God as he introducesthem to this new and living,
true and living God.
And when he does, and as hedoes, he is going to change the
(29:17):
value.
Overything.
(29:49):
Be sure and join us.
You've been listening to Wisdomfor the Heart with Stephen
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for the Heart.
Paul, we're told, went into the marketplace every day
with those who happened to bepresent.
So picture Paul, he's righthere in the middle of all of
this and he's startingconversations with people.
You know, he's introducinghimself.
Maybe he's even calling out aspeople leave, you know, one of
the temples.
Hey, I'd love to hear aboutyour God if you'd like to hear
(00:30):
about mine.
Some might call itconfrontational evangelism.
As if evangelism isn'teventually confrontational.
Stephen (00:52):
Have you ever wondered if the chance encounters in your
life were really chance at all?
Maybe it was the conversationon an airplane, a co-worker
stopping by your desk, or aneighbor at the mailbox.
What if those weren'taccidents, but divine
appointments?
The Apostle Paul had one ofthose moments in Athens.
(01:15):
He didn't plan it, but God did.
And it opened the door for Paulto speak with some of the most
influential thinkers of his day.
In today's message, StephenDavies shows you how God still
arranges those kinds ofencounters for you, and how you
can be ready when they come.
Scott (01:37):
In his book on discipleship, Mark Bailey, the
current president of DallasSeminary, who will be with us
again here, I believe, in a fewmonths, included a humorous and
true story.
It's amazing that it was indeedtrue, and he wrote about it.
And it's about how things canchange in their value based on
(01:58):
events in life.
He writes that a businessmanhad wanted to own one particular
Porsche sports car, and everyday he'd look through the
classified ads at Porsche's forsale.
And when he'd find one, theywere always way out of his
range.
He knew that.
He knew he could never affordone, but he would keep looking.
One morning he was surprised tofind an ad for a brand new
(02:19):
Porsche on sale for $500.
He assumed it was a typo andthat a couple of zeros had been
left off, three or four of them.
And the next morning he checkedthe ad again, and he couldn't
believe it.
The same ad was running, abrand new Porsche, just the one
he wanted, on sale for $500.
This guy figured that he hadnothing to lose.
Bailey, right?
So he decided to call thenumber, and when he did, a woman
(02:42):
answered the phone and he askedher if it was a typo.
And she said, no, that's thesale price.
A brand new Porsche availablefor $500.
She said, in fact, she wassomewhat surprised no one had
called.
He was the first caller.
Um, and he couldn't believe it.
He decided to drive over andsee for himself.
And when he arrived, it was arather beautiful estate.
He drove through this gatedentrance, and there sitting in
(03:04):
the driveway was this new model,a Porsche sitting in the
driveway.
And she she met him out there,and uh he got out to examine the
car, and he's thinking tohimself, it must not have an
engine.
But it did.
He asked her again about theprice, just to make sure, and
she said, kind of with an air ofdisinterest.
Yes, that's the price.
So he got the keys and took itfor a test drive.
(03:26):
The car ran perfectly.
It was in mint condition.
In total disbelief, he handsthe woman $500 cash, watched her
sign over the deed to him, andthen he drove away rather
quickly, lest she changed hermind.
And he enjoyed this sports carfor about a week or two, and
then he began to feel badly.
He wondered if she knew.
(03:49):
So he decided to call her.
When she answered the phone, hetold her who he was and then
said, You know, were you awarethat this car that you sold to
me is listed for more than$150,000?
And she said, Oh, yeah, I knewthat.
Well, then why did you sell itto me for only $500?
And without pausing for even amoment, she answered, Well, I'll
(04:11):
tell you why.
Three weeks ago, my husbandleft me and ran off with another
woman, and the last thing hesaid to me was, Sell the Porsche
and send me the money.
So I did.
You know, I've been checkingthe ads ever since, uh, reading
that story.
Something very valuablesuddenly becomes virtually
(04:34):
worthless.
I was at the store too long agoand saw a woman in one of the
aisles wearing a sweatshirt thathad a message and big letters
across it, and I saw it, andthen I stopped and did a double
take to make sure I read itright, and sure enough I had,
and it said without anyembarrassment at all, the words,
I want it all.
(04:54):
I want it all.
She evidently had no idea thateven if she had it all, all the
things in her life could change,and everything she had would
have its value reversed.
For every human being on theplanet, there is a coming day
(05:20):
when all of the values are goingto change.
In fact, in light of who Godis, that reconstructs for us in
our own minds and in our ownlives what we place value upon,
right?
And the reverse is true, ofcourse, things that the world
considers worthless are one daygoing to be very valuable,
(05:43):
priceless.
Now, by the time the ApostlePaul arrives in Athens, it's a
city that we could say had itall.
They had had it all, and theystill had a lot of it,
literally.
In fact, 500 years before Paularrived in Athens, and we're
back in Acts chapter 17, Athenshad birthed democracy.
(06:06):
Athens had birthed the conceptsof parliament and individual
rights and freedoms and law thatis still used today by much of
the Western world.
Athens was the home of theworld's most famous university
prior to the arrival of Paul,where Socrates and Plato had
(06:29):
walked the hallways as facultymembers.
In fact, Plato's most famousstudent, Aristotle, also taught
in this university and in thecity streets with his disciples
tagging along.
Athens had been at one pointthe religious center of this
region with all of its whitemarbled temples to the gods of
(06:53):
the Pantheon.
The streets were lined withstatues of the gods.
Fifty years before Paularrives, here in Acts chapter
17, to the city of Athens,Caesar Augustus had rebuilt many
of the temples and publicbuildings that had been
destroyed in battles andprevious wars, sort of returning
(07:15):
Athens to some of its goldendays.
And now Paul arrives.
In the timing of God and thedeclaration of the gospel, it
was time in the providence ofGod for Athens to hear of this
God who alone had the attributesthat they claimed belong in
(07:38):
some form or fashion to theirmany gods.
Luke gives us an account hereof this scene where Paul
arrives, and as Luke is writingit, he describes Athens in at
least two different ways.
One of them is this.
We're going to see that Athenswas intuitively religious.
(08:00):
Intuitively religious.
Look at what he records for usin verse 16 of Acts chapter 17.
Now, while Paul was waiting forthem at Athens, this is Timothy
and Silas, his spirit was beingprovoked within him as he was
beholding the city full ofidols.
(08:21):
The word translated observinghere in verse 16 is the word,
which gives us our word theater.
And I think Luke is probablywriting a little
tongue-in-cheek.
He's using a play on wordssimply because Athens would have
been absolutely famous in thatworld for her theaters.
(08:42):
Many of them were dedicated tomany of their gods.
Just to give you an idea, weknow that the city-state of
Ephesus nearby had a theater.
And in the theater were 29golden statues of Artemis.
There were 60 statues of Nike,the god of victory.
(09:09):
And still in that one theater,there were 60 statues dedicated
to Eros, the god of eroticism.
So imagine in one theater, youhave 150 statues giving honor
and glory to these three gods.
(09:29):
Imagine what it would have beenlike in Athens.
Well, the truth is we don'thave to imagine.
Pliny, the Roman author wholived during the days of Paul,
wrote that Athens had not 150statues, but 73,000 statues to
their gods.
(09:50):
Pausanias, a Greek geographerwho visited Athens a few decades
after Paul was the one whowrote that now rather famous
statement that in Athens it waseasier to meet a god than a man.
They were literally everywhere.
They aligned the streets, theywere in every public building,
(10:11):
their temples filled the hills,filled the valleys in this
region.
It reminded me of my tourthrough India some time ago.
The religious fervor isliterally everywhere.
Everything revolves aroundtheir gods and their goddesses.
(10:32):
The nation is given to it.
They have, by the way, 300,000from which you can choose.
Temples are everywhere.
Gurus are everywhere with theirfollowers of any particular
god.
One day, in fact, I was walkingdown a street and I heard
(10:53):
singing.
And I looked over, and in abuilding that was several
stories high, but the bottomfloor was open, just support
columns, there on that cementslab were at least a hundred
people sitting, singing.
They were singing and clapping.
And I could tell, at leastmusically, that they were
singing the same thing and theywere singing the same tone or
(11:17):
notes over and over again.
And I asked my host, you know,who they were.
It was actually very, verybeautiful music.
And he said, Well, they arefollowers of that guru.
You'll see him.
He's sort of sitting up infront of them, facing them, and
he's leading them in singingpraise to their God.
And I said, Which God?
And he said, You know, I reallydon't know.
(11:38):
I can't tell.
Which God?
The Athenians, frankly, everynation on the planet is
convinced that the world isfilled with an unseen spirit
world.
And in that respect, they areabsolutely correct.
They're correct.
They're right.
Mankind knows intuitively thatthere's something more out
(12:01):
there.
The world, the cosmos, theuniverse, we're told in
Scripture, reveals some of theattributes of God and his power
and creative ability.
And then Romans 2 tells us thatthe conscience has been
stamped, imprinted with the lawof God, so that they know
(12:21):
there's truth.
They know when they're doingsomething wrong.
They know stealing a chicken iswrong.
They know killing someone iswrong or whatever.
So the citizens of Athens,though, are just like that.
They can't really, frankly,they can't get enough gods to
satisfy their religious hunger.
And you read here in verse 16that Paul's spirit was provoked.
(12:45):
Now, typically you'll hear thatsort of translated or expounded
as negative.
It may not be negative.
It doesn't mean he was angry.
It doesn't mean he's ready fora fight.
You can actually take that wordand turn it positively to speak
of being absolutely filled withanticipation and excitement.
(13:08):
I think that's probably morehow he was feeling than angry.
He's like that proverbial shoesalesman.
Remember, he arrived in a citywhere no one owned any shoes.
He packed up and the next daywent home telling his employer,
no one in this city wears shoes.
Another salesman arrived thenext day and immediately wired
(13:31):
his employer saying, Send all ofthe shoes you can.
Nobody here wears any yet.
See, that's the attitude Paulhas.
I think Paul is the kind ofperson who would say, not, oh, I
can't believe it, I gotta getout of sledgehammer, I've got to
do whatever I can do and endthis.
I think he's saying, oh, look,they worship gods.
(13:53):
I can't wait to tell them aboutthe true God.
Athens was intuitivelyreligious, that's first.
Second, Athens wasintellectually curious.
Notice verse 17.
So he was reasoning in thesynagogue with the Jews and the
God-fearing Gentiles.
(14:14):
That word reasoning, we'vealready encountered that.
Dialegomi means to dialogue.
That is, he's not preaching asermon like I am, uninterrupted,
at least that's the plan.
He's asking and answeringquestions.
He's dialoguing with them.
He's bringing up texts andasking them questions about
(14:35):
that.
What do you think about that?
What do you think that means?
Well, if that means that, whatdo you think about this text
over here?
That was the kind of approachthat he was using in the
synagogue.
And he evidently kept at itbecause we read nothing of
unrest.
We read nothing of them kickinghim out.
We don't read anything of ariot as in the previous cities
(14:57):
we've studied so far in thisseries.
Not in Athens.
They want to know more.
These Gentiles who arepandering toward Judaism and the
Jewish community, they'redeeply intellectually curious.
I think it's tragic, however,the implication here from Luke's
(15:19):
silence indicates that therewasn't any response to the QA.
There isn't a riot, but thereisn't a revival either, so to
speak.
They're just curious.
I was on a plane a few daysago, and I asked the man sitting
next to me eventually as wechatted away what he would say
(15:41):
to God if God asked him why heought to be allowed into heaven.
And he gave me a brief answerthat was all about himself and
all about his works and allabout what he had given to the
community and what he was doingin his church.
And then he said, But you know,you you said earlier in our
conversation that you pastorchurch, I'm really interested in
what you have to say.
And so I took 45 minutes.
(16:02):
It was a two-part series, youknow, we had an intermission.
And and when I got finished, hewasn't really interested.
Curious.
But after hearing it, notreally interested.
That's this crowd here.
Intellectually curious.
You see, it's one thing to becurious, it's another thing to
(16:25):
be converted to Christ.
Now, Paul here isn't satisfiedwith staying in the synagogue
where he's no doubt experiencedand I would think probably very
comfortable in that kind ofenvironment, reasoning
intellectually with these Jewsand Gentile proselytes.
So I want to point out uh verse17.
(16:47):
Notice further, Paul, we'retold, went into the marketplace
every day with those whohappened to be present, those
who happened to be there in themarketplace.
Now here's what's happening.
Paul has decided, as he'swaiting for Timothy and Silas,
to go into the agora, themarketplace.
(17:10):
A G, it's spelled, O-R-A.
Today, we might call itdowntown.
That's the picture I want youto have in your mind.
We might call it the mall,another accurate picture.
You might even call it theCentral Plaza if you're in South
America.
It's literally acres and acresof shops all lined up and
(17:35):
temples and fountains and parksand some buildings and people
streaming in and out of theirtemples, dedicated there at the
Agora.
The remains reveal what thosetemples were.
We have temples there dedicatedto Zeus and Aphrodite and
Apollo and Ares and Nike andeven one to Caesar Augustus for
(17:58):
being such a great guy torebuild all these other
buildings.
So picture Paul.
This is what we would calltoday open-air evangelism.
(18:23):
We might refer to it as coldcalling.
In other words, you don't havean appointment, you've never met
that person, but you're goingto start a conversation.
Some might call itconfrontational evangelism, as
if evangelism isn't eventuallyconfrontational, right?
He's involved in all of it.
(18:43):
And Luke writes here that whatPaul is doing, he sort of
indicates that it's random.
You notice?
He's talking to those whohappen to be there, who just so
happened to be there that day.
Well, don't be fooled.
I mean, Luke obviouslyunderstood, as did the Apostle
(19:04):
Paul, that every conversationwas anything but random, right?
Paul is depending on God'sSpirit to lead his steps and
bring people to that mall, bringpeople to sit by that fountain,
uh, bring people to shop, uh,bring people to walk out of that
temple at just that very momentfor this encounter.
(19:29):
Our evangelism explosion teamsgo out weekly and they call it
divine appointments.
I love that terminology.
Because it isn't random.
Every conversation you havewith someone about the gospel,
it might seem random, or theyjust so happen to be here, but
(19:51):
it is divinely ordained.
Well, on the north side of theagora, uh, this downtown plaza
was an old building.
In English, it would betranslated the painted porch.
Kind of sounds like it'd bepsychedelic and strange music
(20:12):
and lights.
It wasn't, but that was what itmeant.
The painted porch.
It was a large gathering place,especially for philosophers.
Now, evidently, Paul made hisway over there because of what
we read in verse 18.
Notice.
And some of the Epicurean andStoic philosophers were
(20:35):
conversing with him.
You can translate that verb,arguing.
I would have loved to havelistened in as the greatest
Christian apologist.
Apart from Christ, the greatestphilosophically minded
theologian is in an intellectualargument with the Epicureans
and the Stoics.
(20:57):
These are the descendants ofSocrates and Plato, and they
hang out at the painted porch.
This open area, and they'redebating and discussing and
talking about the latestphilosophies of the day and the
latest speculations or whateverthey may be.
And this is no coincidence thatPaul makes his way over there,
(21:20):
and who are they?
Well, in short, the Epicureansbelieved that life is short and
death ends your existence.
So what you need to do is liveand get out of life as much
pleasure and uh and joy aspossible, uh, as much excitement
(21:42):
as you can stand.
And as far as the gods areconcerned, and there are gods
out there, but as far as they'reconcerned, they really don't
care because actually the godsare trying to get all the
pleasure they can get out oftheir existence.
Get all you can because theperson in the end with the most
toys wins.
(22:02):
Sound familiar?
It's the Epicurean philosophy.
The Stoics argued that all godswere really the same.
They all reflected this Godprinciple.
This God principle.
And you need you you didn'tneed to get all worked up about
any one God.
In fact, all the gods werebasically saying the same thing.
(22:27):
So live your life, and youdon't have to worry about all
this.
You don't have to get dogmatic,you don't have to make your
decision, you don't have to makeup your mind about really
anything, because in the end,you will become part of this God
principle.
You'll be one with the cosmosand live forever.
Athens and America are very,very similar.
(22:50):
And every other country, by theway.
These are predominantphilosophies in life.
Either the universe is anaccident out of nowhere, they're
teaching children now thatthat's called the Big Bang
Theory, and have for you know ageneration.
And when life is all over,that's all there is, so get as
(23:12):
much enjoyment as you can out oflife because the guy with the
toys wins.
Or don't get too dogmatic aboutany religion because all the
religions effectively say thesame thing.
There's this God principle, andyou've got divinity in you, and
one day you're gonna liveforever wherever you want to
live, wherever you think it'd benice to live, and don't get all
(23:32):
worked up.
That's Athens, and that's ourworld today.
Notice what the Epicureans andStoics are saying.
Verse 18 again, a little lateron there in that verse.
It says, What would this idol,they're saying, what would this
idle babbler wish to say?
Not very kind.
(23:53):
Others are saying he seems tobe a proclaimer of strange
deities because he was preachingJesus and the resurrection, and
I can't help but kind ofchuckle at that statement.
These people are surrounded bysome really strange gods and
goddesses, and I'm going tobring some more of this to your
attention in our nextdiscussion.
(24:13):
And it's interesting to me thatthey think Paul was the one
proclaiming something strange.
Jesus is a strange deity?
Well, the truth is for Paul totalk to them about God the Son
dying to redeem humanity, thatwould have been strange.
(24:37):
If you understand that the godsto them didn't care about the
people, and the gods definitelywouldn't die to save people.
But this God Paul is describingand will not only died to
(25:06):
redeem sinners because he lovedthem, but he came back to life.
That's really strange.
And it was shocking to them.
In fact, it was entirelydifferent than all of the other
gods combined.
And by the way, wherever you goin the world, the God we
(25:29):
believe in, according toScripture, is different from any
other God on the planet or inthe universe.
It's still true to this day.
Paul seems to have gained somecredibility because of what they
did next.
Look at verse 19.
And they took him and broughthim to the Areopagus, saying,
(25:54):
May we know what this newteaching is which you are
proclaiming.
We want to know more.
You're bringing some strangethings to our ears.
We want to know, therefore,what these things mean.
Then Luke adds this commentary.
Now, all the Athenians and thestrangers visiting there used to
spend their time in nothingother than telling or hearing
something new.
And that gives you the ideathat this is perhaps some kind
(26:16):
of trivial conversation, but itwas far from trivial.
This is actually a trial.
The Areopagus was both a titlefor a hill, also known as Mars
Hill, after the Roman god Mars,who was on trial for murder.
And the Areopagus was also theformal name of the high court of
(26:42):
Athens, and it met on thathill.
Now, according to Athenian law,no religious system, no new
religious system could operate,no new deity could be officially
followed or recognized, no newtemple could be built, and they
assume that Paul is probablygoing to want to build one
(27:03):
without the permission of theAthenian council.
And you need to get in yourmind that you have 50 men in
this council, and it's reallythe Supreme Court, the Oval
Office, and Congress all rolledup into one.
(27:24):
Okay?
In fact, to this very day, theSupreme Court of Greece is
called the Areopagus, the hill.
And we in America borrowedthat.
We talk about capital what?
Hill.
The hill.
The decisions are made on thehill.
All this goes back to Athens.
(27:44):
Well, in the days of Paul, theAthenian council was meeting on
this hill, and it jutted 500feet into the air.
Next Lord's Day, Lord willing,I'm going to show you some
pictures of this.
It was the perfect outdoormeeting place, and it had a
panoramic view of Athens.
(28:05):
And the reason I want to I wantyou to visualize it is because
when Paul delivers his message,he's probably going to be
pointing at different thingsthat they can see from the hill.
So here they come up this hill,and Paul is following them, you
know, the proclaimer of thesenew, strange, you know, deities.
(28:30):
He's going to stand before theSupreme Court of Athens.
But you need to know, I thinkfrom Paul's perspective, he's
probably saying this is theultimate divine appointment.
Is this great or what?
He will begin to introduce tothem the unknown God, and as he
does, he's going to introduceone stunning attribute after
(28:54):
another.
In fact, each phrase is goingto be freighted with so much
truth about God as he introducesthem to this new and living,
true and living God.
And when he does, and as hedoes, he is going to change the
(29:17):
value.
Overything.
(29:49):
Be sure and join us.
You've been listening to Wisdomfor the Heart with Stephen
Davy.
As we close today's episode, Iwant to tell you about our
research.
That can transform the way youstudy the Bible.
If you've ever had a questionabout Scripture, but you weren't
sure where to turn, we'vecreated a tool to give you
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answers you can trust.
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Unlike a general internetsearch, which often brings up
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Whether it's a deep theologicalquestion or something practical
for daily life, you'll findclear guidance, available
anytime on your phone, tablet,or computer.
Give it a try today atwisdomonline.org forward slash
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And be sure to join us nexttime right here for more Wisdom
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