And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” (Acts 17:19-20)
The Sermon On The Hill
Athens was one of the most celebrated cities of the ancient world. It was the capital of Attica and the chief seat of Grecian learning and civilization during Greece’s golden age. The Athenians loved spending much of their time outdoors, discussing philosophy, religion, and new ideas. Athens was a city given wholly over to idols, to which a Roman satirist remarked that it was “easier to find a god at Athens than a man.” It is in this city the apostle Paul found himself as he waited for Silas and Timothy to join him.
While roving the marketplaces of Athens and seeing the excess of idol worship, Paul was torn in his spirit to reason in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons. The marketplace became a pulpit for the apostle to challenge the idolatrous life of the Athenians. Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers challenged the teachings of Paul. Some called Paul a babbler and proclaimer of foreign gods. The Athenians had not heard of the Christ proclaimed by Paul as one who had been killed and raised from the dead. This was a novel religion to them.
West of the Acropolis in Athens stood a bare, shapeless mass of rock some 380 feet high. It was called the Areopagus or Mars Hill (after the Greek god of war Ares; corresponding to the Latin Mars). Paul took the sixteen steps to the top of Mars Hill and stood in its midst, invited to explain his teachings. As the apostle of Christ stood on Mars Hill, the temple of Mars was near, the Parthenon of Minerva facing him, and the sanctuary of the Eumenides just below him, and the beautiful temple of Theseus in view; what courage it took to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. Paul did not shy away from declaring the whole counsel of Christ to an assembly filled with idolatry.
Paul’s sermon commends the assembly for their religious zeal. The Athenians were so intense in worshiping gods that they had an altar inscribed “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” It was common among the Greeks and Romans to build altars to unknown gods in case they had missed worshiping a god they did not know about. Allowing a play on words, the apostle turns the attention to the true and living God they knew nothing about. Paul wants the people to learn about his God and His nature and character. Paul wants the Athenians to recognize the God who made the world and everything in it. Paul’s God was the Creator of the world. He is Lord of heaven and earth.
In a remarkable play on words that would excite the Athenians, who loved their temples and gods, Paul explains that his God does not dwell in temples adorned with gold, silver, and precious jewels. The Jehovah of Paul is not worshiped with the hands of men; He is not dependent upon men, and He needs no help from men. This is in contrast to idols who are created by the hands of men and cannot save themselves. Jehovah God needs nothing because He is the God of life.
Paul declares that only one God has made every nation of men from one blood. The God of Paul is the God of all men. The Greeks had their gods, and the Romans had their gods. The God of Paul was for the world. His God established all men in every place in the limits of the habitation of His will. The God of Paul desires for all men to seek Him and find Him. Even the poets of Greece concluded that all men are the offspring of the one true God. Worship to the one true God does not come from gold or silver or stone, or something shaped by art and man’s devising. God demands worship in spirit and truth. Paul showed the Athenians true worship of the one true God.
To affirm that his God was the true God, Paul told the shocked Athenians that Jesus of Nazareth was killed and raised from the dead by the power of Jehovah God. The resurrection was the key component of Paul’s teaching to the Athenians. Because they did not believe a man could be resurrected from the dead, some mocked Paul. They wanted to hear more. Some believed Paul and became disciples of Jesus. In a city given over to idolatry, the gospel changed the lives of some because Jesus was raised from the dead. Paul’s sermon on the hill remains relevant today. Salvation comes from accepting that Jesus rose from the dead, and salvation comes by the death, burial, and resurrection of the sinner. Preach it.
