Acts 17:19-31 Paul's sermon on Mars
Hill. Areopagus is a transliteration of the Greek words which mean the hill of
Ares, the Greek equivalent of Mars, the Roman god of war. The hill of the god
of war seems an odd place for philosophers and visitors to spend time telling
and hearing new things. But apparently
this was well enough established that the Athenians who had heard Paul preach
Jesus and the resurrection in the marketplace thought he should go there,
because it was strange and new to them. So Paul went and preached. This message
is substantially different from the gospel that he preached to the Jews.
Paul's
sermon starts with the pagan religion of the Greeks, and quite politely praises
them for their religious devotion. He then turns this to an opportunity to
preach, first of all explaining that the one true God, of whom they were
ignorant but (in his politeness implied) worshiped anyway. He used a
philosophical argument that goes back to Aristotle's deduction that there must
be an immovable mover to explain the existence of the universe. This is a very
simple argument. Everything that we know in the universe has a cause. We can
follow the causal chain backwards as far as our understanding will allow us,
but it will never explain why the causal chain exists. Somewhere upstream in
this causal chain stands a first cause that is not subject to the law of cause
and effect. There must, or else nothing would exist.
The
next step for Paul is to connect this immovable mover, this first cause, who
created the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, to His
present, continuing presence in the world and in the lives of people. He
invokes the concept of Adam, the first human, without naming him, and the sovereignty
of God over all the peoples of the earth, even though they may be ignorant of
Him. His argument here is that even though the argument from first causes
establishes the necessity of God's existence, we have more information than
that. Every person senses a need for God (he does not quote Solomon here, but
again a common theme is that God has set eternity in man's heart, per
Ecclesiastes 3:11). Every person senses God's immanence, for it is truly part
of the human makeup to be aware that in Him we live and move and are. In this
last word, a prolonged present tense case of the verb 'to be'. God created us
and we are. We exist. In Him.
Paul
was evidently well enough versed in Greek writings to quote one of their own
poets, Aratus, who in his poem titled Phaenomena
had said that we are His children. Except that in this poem, Aratus was
referring to Zeus. The introduction to the poem is an interesting description
of Zeus, which, if one were to substitute the word 'God' for 'Zeus', would not
be a bad ode to God. In fact, the immanence and loving care of Zeus described
in this passage are exactly germane to Paul's description of God
From
Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed; full of Zeus are all
the streets and all the market-places of men; full is the sea and the havens
thereof; always we all have need of Zeus. For we are also his offspring; and he
in his kindness unto men giveth favourable signs and wakeneth the people to
work, reminding them of livelihood. He tells what time the soil is best for the
labour of the ox and for the mattock, and what time the seasons are favourable
both for the planting of trees and for casting all manner of seeds. For himself
it was who set the signs in heaven, and marked out the constellations, and for
the year devised what stars chiefly should give to men right signs of the
seasons, to the end that all things might grow unfailingly. Wherefore him do
men ever worship first and last. Hail, O Father, mighty marvel, mighty blessing
unto men.... [
The poem goes on, after this
introduction, to describe the constellations. Many of these constellations are
familiar to us, and in fact could be identified with those named in Job.
Paul
then goes on to distinguish the God of the Jews and Christians from pagan gods
by attacking one aspect of idolatry, that is, the concept that men can make a
meaningful representation of God out of physical things. The idols do not
represent God and the characteristics that idols represent are limited to human
nature. God is transcendent and even in our highest achievements and most noble
actions, He is fundamentally unlike us. Paul then goes on to deliver the
gospel, that God raised Jesus from the dead. Except that Paul links this to the
statement that through Jesus, God will judge the world in righteousness. This
presentation of the gospel seems to omit the good news that punishment for sin
was paid for by Jesus. But obviously appealing to Jesus' fulfillment of the Law
of Moses and all the Prophets had foretold would not have meant anything to the
Greek philosophers. These Greek philosophers were not really pagan idol worshipers, they were atheists, so it is hard to tell how what Paul said about
the Greek gods would have been received.
Paul
gives us an example of how to attempt to reach people that basically have
rejected all forms of faith. Much like the modern world.
• A logical appeal to the evidence for God based on the
things we can see and touch
• An appeal to the innate sense that every person has of
God's presence
• Evidence for the love of God manifested in daily life
• The universality of mankind's sense of God, of our
responsibility before Him for our moral condition and actions, and our failure
to live up to our own understanding of right and wrong
• The transcendence of God's nature and character over human
nature and character
• The transforming power of Christ's death as atonement to
reconcile us to God, as evidenced by His resurrection
This is not to suggest that this is a
template for witnessing to atheists and intellectuals. We should instead look
at this passage as an example of how the Holy Spirit can inspire us to shape
the aspects of the gospel message that will reach the person that is the
hearer. Each person and situation is unique.
Acts 19:32-34 The Athenians' response
to Paul. Some of the atheists sneered at Paul's message, but apparently others
indicated they wanted to hear more. Some actually believed and joined him, of
whom two are named. Dionysius was evidently a member of the court of Ares that
met on the hill of Ares. Being of that court suggests that he may not have been
either a Stoic or an Epicurean.
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