Text: Acts 17:22-31
The passage I just read is a favourite of mine. There’s not too many accounts of evangelism to Gentiles in the New Testament. And so, this passage about Paul preaching to the Gentiles in the city of Athens stands out. Another reason that this story stands out is because Paul speaks about faith and God, but he begins from the perspective of paganism. Usually, evangelism in the New Testament begins with an account of the Old Testament hope that was fulfilled in Jesus and how his crucifixion, death and resurrection has saving power. But in the story I just read, Paul began his discussion with the Athenians by addressing their own worship practices.
The people of Athens were a very religious people. After arriving there, Paul was distressed about all the idols that the Athenians worshipped. He spent some time arguing with the Jewish leaders in the synagogue, and he also debated with the philosophers in the marketplace. When they got to the topic of religion, they brought Paul to the Areopagus, where the people of Athens worshipped their idols. It was here that Paul explained his beliefs about God and the resurrected Christ more clearly.
When preaching the gospel to the Jewish community, the apostles would often begin by referring to the prophets. When Stephen the Martyr gave his testimony, he began with the story of Abraham, he told the story of Egypt and the Exodus, of King David and of Solomon. The common evangelistic strategy was to connect the life of Jesus, and his ministry, to the story of the Old Testament. But when Paul stood before the Athenians, he couldn’t go there. Those connections didn’t matter to the Athenians - they paid no respect to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His message would have to be different.
Paul pointed out the altar dedicated to an unknown god. Instead of directly assaulting their worship of idols; instead of attacking their beliefs, he made an appeal to something they were already doing. They were worshiping an ‘unknown god’; and so Paul stepped-in and claimed to know something about this unknown god.
This ‘unknown god’, Paul said, was the creator of everything – he is the Lord of heaven and earth. This God is not housed in shrines, he is not made of precious metals, or imagined by mortals. No – this God is the one who gives life and breath to all living things. All the inhabitants of the earth are the descendants of God’s handiwork.
Paul had three main points to his talk in the Areopagus. First of all – he explained to his listeners who this God was. He was the Creator of everything – the giver of life. He was the one who raised Jesus from the dead. Secondly, Paul made it clear what this God wasn’t. God wasn’t housed in a shrine. God wasn’t in need of anything. God didn’t need people to burn incense. God didn’t need people to sacrifice their children. God is all-sufficient in himself. Paul writes that God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything. God doesn’t need us in order for him to be God. Furthermore, God couldn’t be found by just searching for him as you would search for a path or a coin. God revealed himself to humanity, and He has shown Himself to us most fully in Jesus Christ.
So far, Paul explained what God was and what God wasn’t. The third point – his main point - was to lay out the evangelical challenge. The good news that Paul had for the Athenians was that they were not far from this God – this God was all around them and that they were being welcomed to embrace God as their Lord. Paul said that they were God’s offspring – and as God’s children they should turn from their idols, they should repent and turn to Him in worship. He told them that there was a coming day of judgment, and that this was their chance to be made righteous by the same man that God had raised from the dead. In a nutshell, Paul called them to turn to Jesus.
This message is a familiar one for you and me, but for Paul – this message was burning on his lips. As a Pharisee, Paul had spent a lifetime serving God with his hands, earning points with God by going the extra mile. Paul was zealous in his religious practice. He spent the first half of his life thinking that if he just tried hard enough he could find God through his own works. The message he preached to the Athenians was as shocking to him as it was to his listeners.
It was a shock to hear that God doesn’t need us or our service. God is not in need of anything. God is completely fulfilled in His own being, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was a shock to hear that God was everywhere and not housed in some temple or shrine. God’s Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. God’s Spirit was poured out on the folks in Jerusalem at Pentecost. God was close at hand, yet you couldn’t put God in a box.
In one of his letters, Paul admitted that his credentials as a Pharisee didn’t matter – they didn’t impress God. The only thing that God wanted of Paul was that he repent and turn to Jesus and proclaim him Lord. In his conversion experience, all those earlier works and credentials became nothing – instead, Paul was made righteous by Jesus Christ who was faithful to God. It was Jesus’ work on the cross that saved Paul from the punishment of sin.
How often do we come to think that our credentials matter to God? How often do we come to think that the institutions we have strived to build are somehow containers for all that is holy? Have we come to believe that God is somehow in our possession because we have a church building or a Christian school? Have we come to believe that we have a higher standing with God because we have attended lots of worship services? Do we believe that God has needed our acts of service – as though God owes us a favour for helping him out?
King David is a good example of all of this. He spent his lifetime doing what he thought was a great service to God. He defended God’s people. He established them as a nation. Yet his greatness was never a matter of what he accomplished. His greatness was that he was a man after God’s own heart. He yearned to know God more and more. He longed to be led by God as a sheep is guided by the shepherd. We may think that we have accomplished great things and that these things impress God. We may think that we have a handle on God. When Paul spoke with some of the most respected men in Athens – the philosophers of that great city – Paul said that there was only one thing that mattered; and that’s the gospel.
The good news is that you are children of God by the fact that, in Jesus, God has adopted us as his children, not counting our sins against us. God has claimed us as his children. The appropriate response to this good news is that we repent of our self-focused lives; that we repent of our idols; and that we turn towards Jesus – the one who was raised from the dead. In him, the righteousness of God has become our righteousness.
May we join the apostle Paul in recognizing that our institutions, our credentials, our years of work and accomplishments are not what make us anything special. We have been called children by the God who created all things – find your identity in that fact. Celebrate the love God has shown you in Jesus Christ; and may that love be a banner over you – so that others might know one thing – this is a child of the Living God. May all of your words and deeds be a testimony to your adoption as children of God, and may God’s name be glorified in all that you do and say. Amen.
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