Over the past month, we learned that: Paul, Silas and Timothy had been taking the good news of Jesus throughout modern day Turkey and into Greece, all under the clear guidance of the Holy Spirit. In both Thessalonica, where a few of the Jews and “a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4) come to faith in Jesus, and Berea, where “many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (Acts 17:12), riots were incited against the apostles. From Berea, Paul was hastily spirited off to Athens, while Silas and Timothy remained there until a later date.

In Athens, Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” and he began to debate in both the synagogue with the Jews and in the marketplace with the Greek philosophers about the good news of Jesus. Athens was a city of high culture, fascinated with the latest of philosophy and religious thought. The Areopagus was a center of temples, cultural facilities, and a high court and, intrigued by the gospel, some of the Greek philosophers invited Paul there to present his teachings about Jesus and the resurrection. Paul’s speech will offer us a pattern to replicate as we reach into our world.

“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.”

“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”

Paul’s words offer us a way to get our heads in the proper space to approach the culture around us with the good news of Jesus. Do you find it difficult to bridge the gap between culturally held ideals and the good news of Jesus when presenting the gospel to someone?

Paul is not offensive in his tactics; his approach is both tactful and courteous to his listeners. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”. (1 Peter 3:15-16) Paul’s approach very clearly communicates respect for the Athenian philosophers and a gentleness in confronting their misplaced beliefs.

Recall that Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols”. Ancient Athens was a city where the temples of the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome occupied every prominent inch of real estate. For a former high ranking Pharisee of Judaism, the idols that surrounded Paul in Athens were an absolute affront, yet getting these men to hear the gospel was an infinitely higher goal than ridiculing them for all of their idols.

Paul seems to well understand the predicament of the Athenian philosophers and also knows just how they got there. A “Romans 1 pattern” Rather than batter the Athenians for their lax morality, Paul sought to return to the root of the issue and point to a solution. Rather than attacking the Athenians at a behavioural level, Paul looked to establish a reference point within the Athenian worldview to call them to repentance.

Knowing them to be a religious people, Paul capitalized on this fact Knowing them to be a religious people, Paul capitalized on this fact. He borrowed from their “philosophies”. The “unknown god”: right within their mess of a theology lay something redeemable, something true which Paul could use as an anchor for his message. The “unknown god” to whom they had been offering sacrifices was about to be revealed, not as a god among many, but as the one true God of creation.

The third ingenious approach by Paul is that his speech centres, not on the Athenians themselves, but on simply revealing who God is and then declaring the facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Paul mentions that even Greek writers of high regard understood aspects of the true God of Israel, though they had been misconstrued and misapplied within the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods. Paul used familiarly understood concepts as hooks for the Greeks to grasp what otherwise would have been viewed as very foreign ramblings.

The crucial reaction of the Athenian listeners comes in response to Jesus’ death and resurrection. “… we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:21-24) Though some walked away, Luke informs us that some become followers of Jesus. Having preached in Thessalonica, Berea and Athens and having seen God’s power at work in establishing churches in these places, Paul left for Corinth.

A BACK TO BASICS SERMON SERIES People in our world are often really searching for “something” –there exists a “Romans 1” type longing for God within them. God’s will is that, after initiating an awareness of His presence in the world, people would then seek and find Him. Our role in evangelism is to point people to Jesus, to the beautiful reality of His life, death and resurrection in terms that connect with the place they are.   SIMPLIFIED: A BACK TO BASICS SERMON SERIES

When it comes to evangelism, how often do we simply bear witness to Jesus – revealing who we’ve come to know Him to be – and how often is our focus on convicting or convincing our audience of their sin? Might we be a people who embrace our ministry of reconciliation, seeing countless people in Mount Albert and beyond grasp onto Jesus and leave lives of sin, to the glory of God. May we become a church that embodies such a ministry.