PART 6 – KEEPING IT TOGETHER
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Chapter 32 - PAUL IN ATHENS
best sermon, worst response
In the last chapter we considered the parable of the Good Samaritan within the larger context of Jesus’ life and ministry, and saw how its place in the “big story” could help us draw some very significant conclusions and insights that would otherwise be lost.
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Now we will turn to an incident in the life of the apostle Paul, and see how an overall understanding of Paul’s life and missionary journeys can lead to a deeper understanding of the incident in question.
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We begin with the passage in Acts 17 that describes Paul’s experience in Athens, one of the locations on Paul’s second missionary journey through Macedonia and Greece.
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Paul’s stay in Athens --- Acts 17:16 – 18:1
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So it happened that Paul was waiting for his travelling companions in Athens. He was very troubled to see that the whole city was a hotbed of idolatry, but as was his custom, he went along to the synagogue to discuss the Gospel of Christ with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles. He also went to the public square every day and spoke with those who happened to be there.
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Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers started meeting with him to discuss his ideas. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, some of them dismissed his arguments, saying, "What on earth is this fool babbling about?" Others said, "He seems to be promoting new ideas about strange, foreign gods."
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So they persuaded him to come with them to speak before the High Council, in order to present this new teaching. "You are presenting some rather strange ideas,” they said, “and we want to know what it's all about." The Athenians, as well as the foreigners living there, were intent on discussing all the latest ideas.
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So Paul made the most of this opportunity to address the Council:
"Men of Athens, I noticed that you are a very religious people, because I have seen your numerous shrines as I was walking around the city.
One of your altars has carved on it: 'To an Unknown God.' This is the God I'm telling you about, and you are worshiping him without even realizing it.
He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't need us to build temples for him to live in, in fact he doesn’t need to us to provide for him or to give him anything at all. He is the one who gives us life and breath. He satisfies our every need.
He created all the nations of the earth from one human ancestor in order to inhabit the world. He has determined when each nation should rise and fall, and has set their boundaries. God’s purpose is that all peoples will seek after Him, reach out towards Him and perchance find Him-- though in reality He is not far away from any of us, because we live and move and have our very existence in and through Him. As certain of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
Since this is the case, we shouldn't think of God as an idol – as something designed by human skill and craftsmanship from gold or silver or stone. In past times, God has overlooked this conceit of man and put it down to human ignorance, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.
God has decreed a day to judge the world with justice and righteousness, and has appointed His representative to sit in judgement. He has proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead."
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When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed at him, but others said,
"You must come to speak to us again, to discuss this matter further."
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So Paul finished his meeting with the Council. As a result, a few people were convinced by his arguments and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Council, a woman named Damaris, and a few others.
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After this, Paul left Athens and travelled on to Corinth.
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You may well have heard sermons or read discussions of Paul’s “Sermon on Mars Hill”. The fact that Luke chose to include this particular sermon in his account of Paul’s journeys shows that he considered it a very positive and powerful example of Paul’s preaching. It is also a great example of how Paul was able to “contextualize” his message for a Gentile audience.
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But what does this passage tell us about the overall impact of Paul’s ministry in the city of Athens?
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How do the congregation of the Jewish synagogue respond to Paul’s message?
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What about the Athenians?
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What can we tell about those who did respond to his message?
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What was Paul’s emotional reaction to his time in Athens? How do you think he was feeling by the time he left and traveled on to Corinth?
You should probably come to the conclusion that the response to Paul’s preaching was, to say the least, disappointing, and that Paul himself was not exactly enthused by his time in Athens. But to get a real sense of the depths of Paul’s despondency and frustration we need to compare his experience in Athens with what has gone before.
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The immediate precedent to Athens was Paul’s experience in Thessalonica and Berea, which takes up the first half of Acts 17…
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Thessalonica and Berea --- Acts 17:1-15
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After they left the city of Philippi, Paul and Silas (and Timothy also was accompanying them) traveled through the Roman province of Macedonia (which is in the north of present-day Greece) until they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
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Paul followed his usual practice and began preaching at the synagogue, where he used the Scriptures to reason with the people for three Sabbaths in a row. He explained the prophecies about the coming Messiah, and argued that Jesus had come to suffer and rise from the dead in fulfilment of these prophecies, and that he was indeed God’s promised Saviour.
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Some of the Jews were persuaded by Paul’s arguments and joined with Paul and Silas as followers of Jesus. So did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few important women of the community. However, some of the Jews were incensed by Paul’s preaching, so they rounded up a rabble of disreputable characters from the marketplace and used them to start a riot in the city streets. They led the rabble to the house of a man called Jason, one of Paul’s converts, hoping to drag out Paul and Silas and deliver them to the mercy of the mob.
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But in the event, Paul and Silas were not there. So instead they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers and took them before the city council. The Jewish ringleaders told the council:
"These men have stirred up trouble everywhere they’ve been. Now they are causing trouble here, too. This man Jason is in cahoots with them. All of them are guilty of treason against Caesar, because they claim to serve another king, one called Jesus."
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These accusations threw the people into uproar, and the city council into a state of confusion such that they did not know how to handle things. So the council officials made Jason and the other believers guarantee bail, and released them until they could arrange a future hearing.
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The same night, the believers took Paul and Silas (and Timothy) out from the city under cover of darkness, and sent them on to Berea.
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When they arrived there, they went as usual to the Jewish synagogue. The people of Berea proved to be more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. They listened eagerly to Paul's message and searched the Scriptures daily to make sure that what Paul and Silas were teaching was really true. As a result, many of the Jews believed the Gospel message, as did many of the Greek population, including (as in Thessalonica) many prominent women.
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But the news of Paul’s activities got back to the Jews in Thessalonica. So a number of them followed Paul to Berea and stirred up trouble there too. The believers acted immediately to protect Paul from further danger. They took Paul down to the coast and escorted him all the way to Athens, while Silas and Timothy remained behind in Berea.
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After delivering Paul safely to Athens, they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him there as soon as they could.
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If you have the time and the motivation, I would suggest that you read the story from the very beginning of Paul’s missionary experience in Acts 13, but the situation in Thessalonica and Berea gives us a very typical picture of Paul’s mission strategy, with very common responses to his teaching and presentation of the Gospel message.
Let’s summarize some of the most important aspects of Paul’s missionary journeys.
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Paul typically travelled as part of a mission team, never (at least out of choice) on his own. On his first missionary journey he was accompanied by Barnabas and Timothy. There was some kind of falling-out between Paul and Timothy, so Paul set out on his second journey with Silas, while Barnabas and Timothy returned to Cyprus, but here in Macedonia Timothy has rejoined them. It’s clear from his use of “we” pronoun in parts of his account that Luke also travelled with Paul from time to time, and It’s probable that Paul was often accompanied by junior “journeymen” who came along to learn and serve as interns or trainees.
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Paul always began his ministry at the local synagogue, wherever there was one, and gave the Jews the opportunity to respond to the Gospel before moving out to the Gentile population.
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Paul and his team generally stayed in one location until either (a) they had established a core community of believers that would be able to continue worshipping and witnessing after they moved on, or (b) were forcibly evicted. In this case Paul would return at a later date, where possible, to consolidate his work, and establish leaders/pastors to continue growing and maturing the believers.
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There was always a response, though it could be either positive or negative. Synagogue congregations were often split in their responses, some becoming believers and others strongly opposed to Paul’s message, but the Gospel never failed to make a strong impression…
… except here in Athens!! Athens represents a serious blip in Paul’s missionary experience.
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This is (as far as we know) the only time when Paul arrives and leaves any place completely on his own. These are exceptional circumstances. Paul has been extricated from a high-risk situation in Berea, and escorted down to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy to establish the emerging community of believers, with instructions to follow him on when they are able. Paul finds himself alone in a foreign city – an unfamiliar culture – and surrounded by idols on one hand, and Greek philosophy and intellect on the other. No wonder he finds it difficult to cope with the superstitious and intellectually ever-changing environment.
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In spite of being disturbed in his spirit by the idolatry he sees around him, Paul finds a way to adapt his message to the cultural context in which he finds himself, using the altar to the unknown god as an analogy to introduce the message of the one true God, who calls all men to seek him and find him through the risen Christ. Some of those who heard Paul’s sermon declared that they “wanted to hear more”, but there is no suggestion that any further discussions took place, and those who did respond to the Gospel message are apparently very few.
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As for the Jewish population, there seems to have been no response at all, either positive or negative – maybe influenced by the attitudes of the Greek people among whom they lived – and it seems they chose rather to ignore Paul’s efforts rather than oppose them.
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Luke does mention a few believers – among them Dionysius and Damaris – but although his usual custom would be to stay on and disciple the new believers as long as he was allowed, he simply leaves and travels on to Corinth. He doesn’t even wait for Silas and Timothy to catch him up there.
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This is very uncharacteristic behaviour for Paul. Why leave these young believers, few as they are, to fend for themselves? And why does he never seem to have any interest in them in the future? We have no record that he ever went back to Athens, or wrote to encourage the believers he left there. It seems that Paul might just want to forget that his experience in Athens ever happened.
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Are we exaggerating the level of Paul’s disappointment and depression? The following passage concerning Paul’s stay in Corinth can also throw light on Paul’s emotional response by showing how much he needed God’s encouragement and comfort to restore his faith and his confidence in God’s loving care and concern.
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Paul in Corinth ---- Acts 18:1-11
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After he arrived in Corinth, Paul met up with a Jewish refugee called Aquila. Aquila was born in Pontus, on the southern coast of the Black Sea. He had been living in Rome with his wife, Priscilla, but they had been forced to leave when the Emperor Claudius Caesar evicted all the Jewish population. Aquila and Priscilla earned their living by making tents, just as Paul did. So Paul lived and worked with them and they became close friends and colleagues.
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After Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He tried to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, but they opposed his message and insulted him. So Paul turned his back on them and told them,
"Your blood is on your own heads -- I have fulfilled my responsibility and given you the opportunity to believe. From now on I will go and preach to the Gentiles instead."
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After this he gave up preaching at the synagogue. But he began meeting with those who did believe at the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God and lived, ironically, right next door to the synagogue. And while most of the Jews rejected his message, Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. And there were many others in Corinth who also heard Paul, became believers, and were baptized.
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One night God spoke to Paul in a vision and said to him,
"Don't be afraid, Paul! Speak out! Don't be silent! I am with you here in Corinth, and no one will attack you or harm you, because there are many people in this city who belong to me."
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So Paul stayed in Corinth for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.
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In so many ways, Paul’s experience in Corinth contrasts with and provides a commentary on his experience in Athens. The positive aspects of his time in Corinth highlight the negatives in Athens…
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In Athens, Paul was alone and isolated… here in Corinth he not only has the company, once again, of Silas and Timothy, but also finds friendship and companionship with Aquila and Priscilla who seem to have become real soul-mates, not just mission co-workers (though they prove to be that too).
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In Athens, his preaching at the synagogue seems to have fallen on deaf ears… in Corinth there was a strong response, even though mostly negative, and Paul was used to dealing with rebellious Jews. But there was one very significant Jewish family – that of Crispus the leader of the synagogue – who did believe and were baptized, and that must have been a great encouragement.
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In Athens, most of the Greeks (with just a few exceptions) shrugged off Paul’s teaching and were notably disinterested… in Corinth there were many Gentiles who took his teaching seriously and became believers.
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In Athens, Paul was so discouraged that he left the few believers behind with little effort to establish them and disciple them… in Corinth Paul was able to establish a meeting of believers at the home of Titius Justus and to stay and disciple them for one and a half years.
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But perhaps the greatest evidence of the low point that Paul came to in Athens is the vision which God gave to Paul. That fact that God needed to encourage Paul at all to speak out and preach the Gospel shows how low Paul must have been feeling. And God’s promises that “I am with you”, and “no one will harm you” tell us that Paul must have been deeply unsettled by his recent experiences.
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But God is gracious. He doesn’t chide or condemn Paul for his negativity and his loss of confidence. Rather he encourages him, provides him with close friends, gives him success in his ministry, and allows him to stay in a settled and safe environment for one and a half years, in order to restore and refresh his faith, regain his confidence in God’s grace, and prepare for the next stage of his missionary journey.
Questions for discussion…
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