Acts 17
17 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to sufferand rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they draggedJason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
In Berea
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagusand said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 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.
24 “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. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 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. 27 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.28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “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. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 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.”
32 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.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council.34 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 then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagusand 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.
Acts 17: 22-23
When I first became a Christian, the two most influential churches were both called Mars Hill. One was led by Mark Driscoll. He was a take-no-nonesense man’s man from Chicago whose ministry was centred around helping men to stop drifting through life and to become strong men centred on their families. The other was led by Rob Bell. He was a revelation and the most gifted communicator of a generation. He took Bible passages and would make them come to life in a way that made people stop in wonder, allowing them to lean in and grasp difficult moments in scripture in a way that made sense in their lives. Mark was a general, Rob was a poet.
The ministry of both men was inspired by this passage from Acts where Paul speaks to the crowd on Mars Hill. It was a landmark moment, when Paul took something that was understood in their culture and he used it as an entry point to talk about Jesus and introduce them to a new Kingdom culture. There had been a shrine to an anonymous god in the city of Athens, which Paul used it to present the Gospel. In many ways, it was genius as he used the shrine as a Trojan Horse to introduce them to God. The result was that people responded and they planted a church - people have been inspired ever since…
… except that it didn’t work. Not in the long term. There was fruit at first but there is no book in the Bible to the church of Athens. They recieved the Gospel but did not remain faithful when it got difficult. They had added Jesus to their lives but had not given their lives to him.
This idea didn’t work for Mark or Rob either - not for long. Mark became increasingly angry with culture. He became heavy handed as a leader, hurt many people and lost his church. Rob‘s church closed at around the same time. He had become increasingly unorthodox in his teaching. He was so in touch with culture that it began to shape how he spoke about the Bible, until he was no longer able to remain in Christian leadership. He was compromised.
This has been the pattern for so many other leaders, as we engage with culture and its challenges the temptation is to entrench ourselves in our views or to compromise. Both lead us astray because they are two sides of the same coin. We want to change culture but it ends up changing us. This is the lesson for us as we work in modern culture, to be aware of giving it too much of our focus: the temptation is to idolise or villainise. As we reach out to our friends and neighbours, we can love or hate culture in our hopes of making the Gospel more palatable. This is the only time Paul tried this approach; he learns and develops as he continues in his ministry.
Life as a Christian is in many ways a strange thing. We are in a world that does not belong to us. This affects our relationship with politics, ethics and cultural trends. We do not need to run away from the world but nor do we embrace it. We walk confidently as aliens, embracing our otherness and shining with the light of a better Kingdom. That is our centre, our focus, our message and our joy.
