Acts 17:22-27 

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

Introduction

The word “Areopagus” literally means “the Hill of Ares,” –Ares is the Greek god of war; it is also called Mars Hill—Mars is the Roman god of war.

Areopagus or the Hill of Ares or Mars Hill is an open space on top of rocky hill in Athens where the Supreme Court was held at that time.

The Greek philosophers brought Paul to a meeting of the Areopagus. Paul took that opportunity to teach about an unknown god to the people of Athens.

How did Paul learn or get the idea on how to connect with witnessing what he observed when he went sight-seeing around the city of Athens? How did he come up with the idea that the altar of an unknown god should be properly referred to the God who created the universe?

It appears like it just randomly came out of Paul’s mouth, right?

1.  Discern

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

Why did Paul address the people of Athens ignorant of the thing they worship?

Those who attended the meeting of Areopagus were philosophers—lovers of wisdom. they were supposed to be highly trained and widely knowledgeable of many things. They should know and investigated empirically what they worship  but Paul did not hesitate to call them ignorant. It’s an insult at some point, right?

As he waited for Timothy and Silas, he went around sight-seeing. Perhaps he was looking for witnessing opportunity as he observed their spiritual lifestyle. And based on what he saw, he assumed that the people of Athens were very religious.

The people of Athens were respectful of what is divine; they might also be very superstitious because of thousand altars and statues of gods erected in Athens.

Paul said that he looked carefully. He investigated, not just  did sightseeing but he also read inscriptions; and that was why he found an altar of an unknown god.

¹⁸ A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 

The philosophers called Paul a babbler; a babbler is a gossiper, one who picks up seeds and trifles like a bird who picks up scraps of knowledge from here and there.

 

While other philosophers thought that Paul was proclaiming new god named Jesus and the other god is named resurrection. Most often, Paul was perceived to be out of his mind and the philosophers of Athens had no idea. They were just ignorant about the True Living God.

Paul was very confident in proclaiming the true living God because of his personal experience with Him; this testifying about real experience with Christ is witnessing. If there’s real personal experience with Christ, testifying is spontaneous.

A witness before a judge tells what is experienced; no training needed in testifying.

No Training

An eager believer was hesitant to share the gospel because a seminary graduate said that he should take evangelism training first.

I joined a short-term mission but I did not have any formal training in evangelism. I read and memorized the “Classic Evangelism Explosion” gospel presentation and used it with “Simplified Bridge Illustration” tract.

Ironically, that seminary graduate who told the eager believer to take necessary evangelism training first, that seminary graduate was one of the judges who voted to choose me as “Evangelist of the Year” — without formal evangelism training, they selected me as “Evangelist of the Year!”

Training in evangelism is very helpful but conversion comes from the Lord. Success in witnessing and sharing the gospel is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Witness testifies personal experience; evangelist explains or proclaims the gospel. When Paul stood before Greek philosophers, he did not need to use highfaluting words to impress them; he did not need to convince them. He just proclaimed the truth about the living God and hope that they would seek, search, personally experience and discover the truth about God.

2. Discover

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

The Greeks have 30,000 gods. They have a god of a particular thing: the god of sky is different from the god of war, god of wisdom, god of love, music, sea, animals, peace, agriculture, festival, kings, language, justice, night, day, etc.

They did not have any idea about the one true God who is God over all creations, seen and unseen, living and non-living, celestial and earthly things. They were ignorant of the God who gives life and breath to everything else.

Paul introduced to them the God who created humans for the purpose that humankinds would seek and discover his Creator. Interestingly, those philosophers who were lovers of wisdom were not able to find the true living God using their human intellect. It is only by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that mankind seek, discover, believe, and experience the Living God not by human exerted effort.

Philosophy Professor

Professor: If you are a Christian, therefore, you believe in GOD?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Professor: According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that?

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard, felt, touched, smelled, or seen the Professor’s Brain? … No one appears to have done so. So, according to the Established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that You have No Brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then Trust your Lectures, sir?

(The Room was Silent. The Professor stared at the Student, his face unfathomable)

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on Faith, son.

Student: That is it sir . . . Exactly! It is only by FAITH that man comes to know and accept the existence of God.

It is helpful to be knowledgeable in defending our faith but let’s not forget that only by God’s grace that a person would believe in Him. It is by faith that a person comes to know and personally experience God.

Faith is a gift from God. Pray when you go witnessing that God would give faith to your contact; pray and discern the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Human effort, training, and biblical knowledge are very useful instruments in evangelism or sharing the good news but sharing about your personal experience with Christ, you just need to recall your true personal experience, not others. It is by power of the Holy Spirit that our listeners would believe in the Lord.

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