Paul’s Sermon On Mars Hill

Introduction

Have you ever contemplated, or maybe you were brave enough to even try to calculate how much time you spend waiting. Whether it’s waiting in a waiting room at the hospital or a doctor’s office. Whether in Orlando it’s waiting at a traffic light for it to go through its four cycles of green before you can actually leave the intersection. Or whether it’s waiting in the shopping mall while your wife is shopping. I’ve calculated that the average husband waits about twenty-five hours a day. That may be a slight exaggeration. But we spend a lot of our time waiting, don’t we? And what do you do while you’re waiting? Do you take a nap? Again, based upon the waiting time at intersections at traffic lights in Orlando, I venture most of you do look at your phone and check your emails and update the system on your iPhone while you’re waiting.

In Acts chapter 17, we have a beautiful story of what the Apostle Paul did one day while he was waiting. The Apostle Paul finds himself in the city of Athens. And he’s waiting. He’s waiting for two of his traveling companions to join him. And while he is waiting, something remarkable happens. And that’s the sermon that Paul preaches on Mars Hill. So that’s what I’d like to talk to you about this morning, as this famous sermon of the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 17. You might be surprised to know how really very few sermons are actually recorded in the text of Scripture. There’s enough, but there’s not maybe as many as we might think. We hear stories of Paul or Peter or someone else preaching, but to have really the text of what we believe the entirety of the sermon is somewhat unique.

And here we have the entirety of Paul’s sermon as well as some of the logic behind it of what motivated him to preach this particular sermon on this day while he was waiting. And I’d like for us to do two things with this sermon this morning. Number one is to look at that background. Why did Paul preach this sermon the way he preached this sermon? And so we’ll talk about a little bit of the reasoning behind the preaching of this sermon. And then we’ll very quickly just analyze or outline the sermon itself. But before we do that, let’s remind ourselves how we got here, or maybe more specifically, how Paul got here. This is Paul’s second of his three missionary journeys. You remember on that first missionary journey, he takes with him Barnabas.

And it seems to be the intent on this second journey for Paul and Barnabas to go again. But because you remember, because of the dispute between Paul and Barnabas over whether or not to take John Mark with them. Causes them to decide that it might be best to split up. And so Barnabas takes John Mark and goes up into Cyprus and begins to preach. And Paul this time takes Silas with him. And they travel up through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. And then they come to the region of Derby and Lystra, and it’s here at Derby and Lystra that Paul meets a young man. Young man by the name of Timothy. Timothy had either already obeyed the gospel or maybe obeyed the gospel because of the preaching of Paul here in Lystra and Derby.

And Timothy goes with Paul and Silas on the remainder of this trip. And this will surely help solidify the bond between this spiritual father and son. They leave Lystra and Derby and go through Phrygia and Galatia, and it was Paul’s idea, it seems, to go further, deeper into Asia, but the Holy Spirit tells him no. And so he passes by Mycia, and he was denied to go into Bythenia again by the Holy Spirit of God. And then he comes to the city of Troas. And it’s in Troas that Paul receives that famous call. He sees a vision of someone saying, Come and help us. We call that that Macedonian call. We even sing about it in some of our songs. And so Paul makes his way with Timothy and Silas, and Luke joins them at this point in Troas, and they pass over, and they go to Samothrace, Neapolis, and then finally to Philippi.

And we remember the events in Acts chapter 16 there in Philippi of the conversion of Lydia and the wonderful story of the conversion and the miracles surrounding the salvation of that Philippian jailer. And Paul leaves Philippi, leaves Luke behind there in Philippi, and Paul, Silas, and Timothy, then go on to Thessalonica. And in Thessalonica, there were some who received the gospel and obeyed it, but there were those troublemaking Jews in that city who stirred up the authorities and the rulers, and they literally ran Paul out of town, and so he goes to Berea, where famously in Acts 17, verse 11, those in Berea were more noble. They were willing to listen to the gospel. But the troublemakers from Thessalonica followed him to Berea, and so Paul again literally has to run out of town.

He leaves Timothy and Silas behind in Berea, and he goes down to Athens with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as they can. And so here’s Paul doing what we do, a great portion of our life. He’s just waiting.

But you remember the story that while he is here at Athens, as Mark read in our Bible reading this morning, he kind of plays the tourist. And so he walks around the city, and everything that he sees in the city is dedicated to a false God. And into an idol. Everywhere there’s an altar, everywhere there’s a temple, everywhere there’s a shrine or a statue to some idol, to some false God. They have taken it so far that not only do they have these idols or these shrines or these temples to these named gods, but he observes one to what they’ve just simply inscribed, the unknown God. If you go to Washington, D.C., you can go to the tomb of the unknown soldier. And that tomb is dedicated, we have grave markers in Arlington and other national cemeteries of soldiers who have given their life on the battlefield, and their name is inscribed upon the marker there.

But in Washington, we have the unknown soldier, the tomb of the unknown soldier, in case we’ve missed somebody. We want to enshrine and remember everyone who’s given their life for this country. And so if we’ve missed somebody, or if there’s someone unknown, or their remains cannot be found, then we have a memorial to the unknown soldier. In Athens, they had a memorial to the and just in case there’s a God out there that we haven’t found out about, we doubt it because we we’ve got altars for all of them. But in case there’s a God that we don’t know about or a shrine that we haven’t set up, we’ll have one to the unknown God. Luke and the text says that this stirred up Paul’s spirit while he was waiting.

And he began to preach in the synagogues to the Jews and those Athenians, because they were so curious about religion and such matters, they said, we want to hear more about this. And so they take Paul to the Areophagus or to Mars Hill, and Paul, before that largely Gentile audience says, I want to introduce you to the unknown God. In other words, I want to tell you about a God that you don’t know. You’ve got a shrine to him, and I want to tell you about him. In a way, you’re worshiping him. You’re not worshiping him in spirit and truth, but in a way you have searched for him. And now I want to tell you about that unknown God. And Paul begins and proceeds from there to preach to them about the one true and living God.

1. A Sermon That Had to Be Preached

So let’s talk about first about the sermon itself and what motivated it and how Paul approached this pagan Gentile audience. The first thing that we note is that this is a sermon that had to be preached. Paul’s spirit was stirred within him, and he just couldn’t help but deliver this message. And it’s a message that not only had to be preached from Paul himself, but it’s a message that needed to be preached to these people at that time. And so what we witness here in Paul’s second journey in the city of Athens is a Godly man who was stirred and motivated and moved by the things that were around him. That’s lesson number one. And lesson number one is that should be us. Paul didn’t spend his time waiting in idleness.

He was moved and he was motivated. Paul may have been angered by the things that he saw. But he was motivated and moved by that anger, by that lack of care and knowledge of the one true and living God. And the question this morning is that me.

At one time, at least, when I was living there, I don’t know, I haven’t looked up the recent statistics. You can look those up for me. But at one time when I was living there, there were more chickens grown and killed in Coleman County, Alabama than any county in the United States of America. If you ate a chicken, it came from Coleman. Chickens require chicken houses. And if you’re a city person, you may not know that chicken houses kind of have an odor to them. And a strong odor. And so the entirety of the county I grew up in smelled like a chicken house. And if you visited Coleman, you would, what some of you are doing now, you’d wrinkle up your noses and go, ooh, what’s that smell?

But to those of us who live there, we’d say, What smell? We’ve gotten used to it. I don’t know how long it takes for your nostrils to die and lose that sense of smell to distinguish that odor, but it happens over time, and you you just didn’t hear it. You didn’t smell it anymore. We had grown numb to that. Where I grew up on the side of the hill in Coleman County, a little community of Longview.

Huey was mentally challenged, and Huey loved to sing. And Huey and I had a lot of things in common. One was our lack of ability to carry a tune. Huey’s favorite song was the old Hank Williams rendition of I saw the light. And Huey would beat on a trash can and sing at the top of his lungs. I saw the light. And he held those concerts daily. When I was in school, middle school and high school, I’d have friends come over. That’s what you do when you’re in middle school and high school, and they’d hear that song, and they’d say, What is that? Because it would just echo through those hills and those trees. What’s that sound? To which I would say, What sound? We’d have gotten so used to hearing Huey sing, we loved it, and we we never even heard it.

That can happen to us spiritually, can’t it? We hear that foul language, and at first we wince at it, but eh, I’ve heard it so much now I don’t even notice it. We see our culture getting more and more godless, and at one time maybe it shocked us and hurt us and even angered us.

We don’t even hear it or smell it anymore. But here was Paul in this city, rife with idolatry, and his spirit was stirred.

Become a little motivated by what we see and recognize these people need God.

2. He Taught the People From Where They Were

But what’s interesting to see is he taught the people from where they were. If you compare Paul’s sermon in Acts chapter 17 to Peter and the apostles’ sermon in Acts chapter 2, you’ll see some great differences. Now, what’s interesting, if you track those two sermons, is they all have the same conclusion. Jesus Christ, him crucified and resurrected. That’s where both sermons end up. But the lead up to that point is vastly different. In Acts 2, it started with the idea of Old Testament prophecy, the prophecy of Joel, the prophecies of David, and Christ being the fulfillment of those, and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. And Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. In Acts 17, Paul’s sermon does not mention David, Prophet Joel, Abraham, or even the Old Covenant at all.

The obvious difference is, as in Acts 2, they were speaking to a Jewish audience who had been very familiar with those Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ. But to a Gentile audience who would have been largely unfamiliar, or even if they were familiar vaguely with those biblical characters, or maybe even they’d studied and knew the prophecies, they would have had no impact upon them because they didn’t believe those things. And so Paul did the same thing Peter and the apostles on the day of Pentecost did, led by the Holy Spirit. They taught those people from where they were.

We have to be wise and astute enough to realize that here is someone. Here is someone who believes in God, who believes in Jesus Christ. They believe in the inspiration of the scriptures. And so I can start there and preach to them Christ and Him crucified. But here’s another person that doesn’t believe in God. Doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God, doesn’t believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and so it does no good to say, let’s turn to Acts chapter 2. We have to start where they are. And say, let’s talk about God and your belief in God.

3. Show Them God

And that’s really how he starts the sermon, isn’t it? I want to tell you about that God that you don’t know. When we see the world around us, and we’re not numb to the wickedness, to the idolatry that lives around us, and we are moved and stirred in our spirits to preach the gospel to people where they are now. Let’s never forget what we’re trying to do. We are not trying to get them to join our social club. I love South Bumby. I love the people. I even love the building.

But I don’t go out into the community in Orlando and say, come see our building. Come meet our nice people. I’m not even moved and motivated and tell them that they need to be a part of the same church that I’m a part of. I need to do what Paul did and show them God. Look with me earlier in Acts chapter 11. You might hold your finger or a bookmark there in chapter 17. But in Acts chapter 11, notice what Paul does here. In Acts chapter 11, Paul is in the city of Antioch. And again, in Antioch, there are people who need God. And so Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, again teaches these people where they were. And notice what he does, what he teaches them.

Acts chapter 11, look beginning in verse 20. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. What did they preach? What did they teach? Jesus.

When they heard that, they turned to the Lord. Verse 23. Now, when he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all with purpose of heart that they should continue with the Lord. And then lastly, verse 24, he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Quickly, don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. I’m not minimizing the importance of the body of Christ of the church, even of the local church. But notice what Paul did here. He didn’t try to convert them to the Antioch church of Christ. Paul and Barnabas and the other teachers here, it says they preached to them Jesus and encouraged them to come to the Lord.

I understand sometimes that our language is not as precise as maybe it should be, and we don’t always mean exactly what we say in our lack of precision. But we often use the expression of a brother or sister in Christ that’s fallen away. And we might say they left the church. And I guess I don’t have a problem with that. But we understand that the great danger was they’ve left the Lord.

4. This Unknown God Was Actually Knowable

They can live without us. But they left the Lord. And sometimes we might encourage, or speaking of encouraging somebody that’s falling away, we may say about them or to them, they need to get back in church. And again, I understand what we mean by that. But we understand the emphasis is they need to get back to the Lord. And so Paul introduces them to God. And to Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. Now let’s look at the sermon itself in the time that we have left. Go back to Acts chapter 17. The first thing Paul tells them in this sermon is that this unknown God was actually knowable. Notice what he says beginning in verse 22. Paul stood in the midst of the Areophagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you’re very religious.

Now, what we don’t know by that statement, did Paul mean that as a positive or a negative? But he says you’re very religious, or some translations say you’re very superstitious, because as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is he worshiped with men’s hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life and breath and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from any of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are his offspring. Paul says, I want to tell you about that unknown God. He not only tells them you should know him, but he says, in essence, you can know him, and maybe goes so far to say, you do know him, if you want to be honest about it. This God is put in contrast with the many gods that they worship. Now he said to them, as I went through your city and saw all your shrines, altars, temples, idols, I perceive that you are very religious. Now, what may seem odd and even shocking to our ears is that those people in that city would probably have viewed Paul as being not very religious.

5. The One God of Everything and Everybody

And the reason was is because look at Paul. Poor Paul, he just has one God. We’ve got fifty without even trying. Paul’s not very religious because he’s just gotten with the one. But Paul tries to open their eyes to the ignorance of that perception and say, the God that I serve is bigger in his singularity than the totality of all of your false gods. They had a lot of gods because they needed a lot of gods to cover all the arenas and aspects of life. They had to have a God of the daytime, a God of night, a God of the mountain, a God of the valley, God of corn, God of wheat, God of the. They had to have God covering everything. He says, My God made the world and everything in it.

6. We Are His Offspring

That was a radical idea. Not only is he the one God of everything, he says he’s the one God of everybody. Every nation, every village of people had their own distinct God. And the argument constantly was throughout the Old Testament into the new, my God’s better than your God. Let’s fight about it and see who wins. But Paul says, God made everybody from one blood. All nations of the earth were made by this one God. And then he says, because of that, we are his offspring. Therefore, verse 29 says, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. He shows them the ridiculous, the foolishness of idolatry, that you would make some kind of graven image and say, That’s my God.

Bow down to it. This is a one-verse summarization of the arguments that Isaiah makes or God makes through Isaiah of the foolishness of bowing down in front of a lifeless, dead idol. He says, the divine nature is knowable to us because we are his offspring. We learn something about God from nature, but we also learn something from God in just looking in the mirror. If I am his offspring, if I’ve been made in his image, then I know something about God. That which distinguishes me not just from the rocks and the trees and the plants, but that would distinguishes me from other animal life is that divine spark, that divine image that is put within me. And the Bible makes numerous arguments. In the book of Genesis, the argument is made, you shall not shed man’s blood.

Why? Because he’s made in the image of God. Do you recognize that from the scriptures, the only reason we cannot take the life, murder our fellow man, is not because of what that person means to their family, not because what they may contribute to society, not because it breaks the mores laws or codes of man. The reason we can’t take someone’s life is because that person was made in the image of God. That’s the only thing that protects us from one another. The Holy Spirit, through John would argue that because we’re made in the image of God, it doesn’t make any sense for us to hate one another. James says it doesn’t make any sense for us to just curse one another and bless God, who is because we’re made in the image of God.

We are his offspring. That argument goes both ways. Paul here’s using the argument, we can know something about God because of who we are. The fact that we can love and dream and hope and think tells us about a God who can love and dream and think.

Conclusion

And repent. Repent, he says, of your ignorance and come to Him. We live in a world that needs God. Let’s be moved to introduce them to the God that they should know. And the God that we know and love. And urge with the motivation, the anger, and the love of Paul for people to come to God and repent. Will you bow with me, please? Dear God and Father in heaven, the God of all of earth and everything in it, the God of everybody. We marvel, Father, that you simply spoke, and everything we see, know, and hear came into existence. May we be moved to be in awe and love of you, Father. May we also be moved and stirred by our surroundings. We’re so sorry, Father.

That as your people we have largely neglected you, rebelled against you, and even blasphemed you. Father, prolong our life on this earth that we might be a light, that we might be salt of the earth. Help us to stir our hearts within us to help this lost and dying world. Help us to love as you have loved. And help us want to save as you desire all men to come to a knowledge of your truth. Be with us, bless us, forgive us, and be patient that we might serve. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. We’re now dismissed to our classes.