PT-3 "Intro to Acts 17:16-34)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2018 9:29 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-3 “Intro to Acts 17:16-34”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 17:16-34

            Message of the verses:  “16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. 18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"-because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? 20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

    22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “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. 24  "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; 25  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; 26  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, 27  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; 28  for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ’For we also are His children.’ 29 “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. 30  "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31  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."

    32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this." 33 So Paul went out of their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.”

            As we look at this introduction to this section I wanted to let my readers know that we will actually be going over verses 16-21 in this introduction and then pick up the first main point beginning with verse twenty-two.

            One of the things that I have thought about when I looked at this passage before was how Paul felt when he was looking over the city, how terrible he felt because of all of the idolatry that he saw, all of those people who worshiped them, unless they would hear about Jesus Christ and except His forgiveness that they would end up in hell, and then one more thing which comes at the end of this section telling how few people had actually accepted Christ while Paul was there.  Both of these things seem to go together, both of these things are very sad indeed.

            It was because of Paul’s saddened emotions that he decided to do something about these people who were worshiping idols so he “was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.”  As we have been studying Acts we have seen and written about Paul’s pattern of going to the Jews first and then going to the Gentiles after that, as in most cases the Jews had not been interested in the coming of their Messiah.  This was very difficult on Paul as seen when he wrote to the Romans:  “1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

            After following his normal plan of ministry, or we could say evangelism we see that he went “in the market place” something that Athens was very famous for, and while there he was dialoguing “every day with those who happened to be present.”

            I suppose that you could say that not only was Paul effected by those in Athens, but he also made an impact on those whom he engaged in debate with as they were “some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.”  John MacArthur adds that “they along with the Cynics, represented the three most popular contemporary schools of philosophy.”

            We will now look at a few quotes to help understand who these different groups are.  “Central to Epicurean philosophy was the teaching that pleasure and avoidance of pain is the chief end of man.  They were materialistic, who while not denying the existence of the gods, believed they did not intervene in the affairs of men.  They taught that, at death, the body and soul (both composed of atoms) disintegrate; there is no afterlife.”

            Next a quote from “The Stoic Philosophers, on the other hand, saw self-mastery as the greatest virtue.  They believed self-mastery comes from being indifferent to both pleasure and pain, reaching the place where one feels nothing.   In contrast to the practical atheism of the Epicureans, the Stoics were pantheists.

            “The extremes of Stoicism and Epicureanism sum up the futility of man’s existence apart from God.  F. F. Bruce writes:

‘Stoicism and Epicureanism represent alternative attempts in pre-Christian paganism to come to terms with life, especially in times of uncertainty and hardship, and post-Christian paganism down to our own day has not been able to devise anything appreciably better.’

            “Although they differed radically in their philosophic beliefs, both Stoics and Epicureans were united in their contempt for Paul’s teaching.  Some of them were saying derisively, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say.’  Spermologos (idle babbler) literally means ‘seed picker.’  The Word

Evoked images of a bird pecking indiscriminately at seeds in a barnyard.  It referred to a dilettante, someone who picked up scraps of ideas here and there and passed them off as profundity with no depth of understanding at all. (John B. Polhill, The New American Commentary:  Acts).’

“Others, misunderstanding completely Paul’s message, thought him ‘to be a proclaimer of strange deities—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.’  They may have thought Paul used the term anastasis (‘resurrection’) as the proper name of a goddess.”

            As we read on we find that Paul had created enough of a stir that according to verse 19 “they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?”  The “Areopagus” according to John MacArthur was a court, so name for the hill on which it had once met.” 

            We see the reason that they wanted him to come in verses 20-21 “20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)”

            Now as we usually do we quote the last paragraph of John MacArthur’s introductory comments to see where we will be heading as we continue to look at the remain verses in this rather long section:  “The theme of Paul’s message to the assembly was how to know the unknown God.  That involves three steps:  recognizing that God is, recognizing who He is, recognizing who He is, and recognizing what He has said.”  We will begin the first part of “recognizing that God is” in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Understanding what these false teachers believe and taught is good to know because there are many who desire to teach similar things today, and because of what Paul said to them we know what we can say to those who believe similar things today.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  When a bank teller is trained they are not trained to know what counterfeit bills look like, they are trained to know everything to know about real money so that they can spot counterfeit bills.  Same is true in Christianity, that is know the truth and then when false doctrine come along you will know that it is false.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Lot” (Luke 17:29).

Today’s Bible question:  “What two men are considered to have written the last two chapters of Proverbs?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/14/2018 10:55 AM