Understanding Paul’s Sermon on Mars Hill (Part 2)
This week, we picked up where we left off with Paul’s visit to Mars Hill after doing some review of the Five W’s that we discussed last week. After making sure we were all on the same page and remembered what is was that Paul was all about (preaching the gospel: 1 Corinthians 9:16). I read the entirety of Paul’s sermon aloud in class:
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31, NASB)
Then, I went through the passage verse by verse and tracked down Paul’s allusions to or quotations of not only Old Testament scriptures, but also of Jesus Himself. The list below is not exhaustive, but it should serve to illustrate clearly what Paul is doing:
Paul’s Allusion to Other Scriptures
Acts 17:22
No scriptural references (that I can think of) here. But one thing I neglected to point out last week was that Paul wasn’t just invited to go talk to the Areopagus, but rather he was seized or taken by force. In short, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter, he was being put on trial for the “strange things” he was bringing to the ears of the people (Acts 17:20).
Acts 17:23
Here, Paul quotes or at least captures the sentiment of Jesus when the latter was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. He said “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:22)
I want you to notice something about this verse before we move on. Have you ever really stopped to think about the significance of the fact that the Athenians had erected an altar “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”? The Greeks worshiped 12 major gods (Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Ares, Apollo, Demeter, Dionysius, Hades, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, and Zeus), but they also worshiped quite a few lesser deities. So let’s just say that had “dozens of gods.”
With all of these deities at hand, they still found it necessary to erect an altar to yet another god. Have you ever asked yourself why? Some of my students suggested that it was because none of their gods could satisfy them, which I think is close…but I think there’s more to this. Upon first glance, we might (and many people do) reach the conclusion that Paul was starting from where the Athenians were and he reasoned them to the true and living God, but I don’t think that’s what Paul was doing at all.
You see, the same guy who preached this sermon is also the same one who wrote the epistle to the Romans, wherein we see:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. — Romans 1:18–23, emphasis mine
Note what Paul says in Romans…it’s not that everyone knows that a God exists, but rather that the only true God exists (Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 96:4, 5); and they know this because His handiwork is clearly seen in creation, and as we learn in Romans 2, because of the conscience within every man.
Paul understood full well that all men have clearly seen God’s eternal power and divine attributes on display in creation, but that they reject Him and go after false gods because they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). The Athenians were trying to hold the “beachball of truth” of God’s identity under the water, but that beachball escaped their grasp and bopped them on their collective noses in the form of an altar to an unknown God. So, despite their plethora of gods, they knew within themselves that they missed one…and worshiped Him in ignorance.
When you look at this sermon through the lens of what Paul was taught by Christ about our sinful state, it’s hard to look at this sermon in any way other than that Paul was starting with special revelation given to Him by Christ (Galatians 1:12), and he was reasoning from that revelation, not to it. Put another way, special revelation (which became scripture) was not his conclusion, but rather it was his very premise—the platform from which he launched all of his speeches.
Acts 17:24a
There were quite a few connections in the first part of verse 24 to other scriptures:
Genesis 1:1
Exodus 20:11a
Deuteronomy 10:14
Psalm 24:1, 89:11, 115:16, 146:6
Isaiah 42:5
Matthew 11:25
Acts 17:24b
The second part of the verse has a few, too:
1 Kings 8:27
Isaiah 66:1, 2 (Quoted by Stephen in Acts 7:48–50)
Why do I bring this up? Because Paul was an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Stephen, and without a doubt heard Stephen’s full sermon (Acts 8:1)
Acts 17:25
Job 22:2
Psalm 50:10–12
Acts 17:26
Genesis 5, 10
Deuteronomy 32:8
Job 12:23
Malachi 2:10
Acts 17:27
Deuteronomy 4:7
Jeremiah 23:23, 24
Acts 17:28
Job 12:10
Daniel 5:23
Paul also does something interesting here—he quotes two Greek poets:
They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one, Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies. But you are not dead: you live and abide forever, For in you we live and move and have our being. — Epimenides, Cretica 1 (c. 700-600 BC)
“Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken. For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus. Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity. Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus. For we are indeed his offspring” — Aratus, Phaenomena (c. 315 – 240 BC)
Again, we might be tempted to think that Paul was starting where they were and trying to bring them along to God, but I contend that what Paul is actually doing here is saying “Look, you know that God exists…you worship Him in ignorance because you are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Your own prophets also know this truth, and they point out the absurdity of your belief that He is ‘like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man’ (Acts 17:29). How is something that you make going to make you?"
Acts 17:29
Isaiah 40:18
Isaiah 40:25
Acts 17:30
Here, Paul basically pivots from showing the Athenians that their own faith undermines itself, and is a demonstration of the God they say they don’t know, but actually do, to directly confronting his audience and challenging them to repent.
Why is it that so many in Christian apologetics today spend time arguing for God’s existence (even though the unbeliever already knows full well? Why do they spend so much time trying to prove to the non-believer that God’s Word is “very highly probably true”? And if they do eventually get to the gospel (some don’t really make this a priority), we almost never hear the apologists of our day calling people to repent of their unbelief, repent of their immorality, and submit every aspect of their lives to the living Christ?
A better question is, “Why did I spend so much time doing that?” It’s only because of God’s' seemingly endless patience with me that I’m still alive and permitted to teach my brothers and sisters in Christ…even though I was so wrong-headed about it for so long.
Acts 17:31
Psalm 9:8
Isaiah 5:16
Matthew 10:15, 12:36
John 5:22
Here, we see Paul not only calling his audience to repent, but also warning them of the judgment to come. The gospel presented by Paul was more than “Jesus died for your sins so that you can live forever with Him in heaven.” That’s true enough, but it’s not the entire picture…the gospel also encompasses coming to grips with our utter depravity and lostness before God and the certainty of judgment and eternal hell for those who die in unbelief.
Now is the acceptable day of salvation. Every single one of us will stand before Christ to be judged by Him, but unless you repent and He is your Lord (i.e., master, as in “we are his slaves”), then you face a future in the eternal flames of hell:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ — Matthew 7:21–23
Homework
Even though the word apologia was not used in Acts 17:22ff, Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill was clearly a “defense, as in a court of law,” for he was compelled to appear before the judicial body of the Areopagus (the guys who tried people for olive tree arson and religious infractions). But we should not stop here, for there are more Scriptures to consider as we attempt to “follow [Paul] as he follows Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Let’s take a look at Paul’s other apologias to see if we can see a pattern:
The word apologia appears in each of the following passages. Read each and sketch out Paul’s approach in each case. What do they have in common?
Acts 22:1–21
Acts 24:10–25
Acts 26:2–29