Acts: To The Ends Of The EarthSample

The gospel now comes to Athens, the centre of intellectual and philosophical speculation in the ancient world. Paul is distressed to find the city full of idols (v. 16). The scholarly Luke shows his frustration at the "airy fairy" nature of the Athenians (v. 21).

Paul uses as his point of contact with the people the altar "To An Unknown God" (v. 23), and he reasons with the Athenians:

• you do not create a place for God to live—a temple. Rather, He has created a place for you to live (v. 24, 26);
• God is not dependent on us. We are dependent on Him (v. 25);
• God is not lost. We are. He has taken the first step towards us (vv. 26–28);
• we are God’s offspring. He is not our offspring (v. 29).

At every point the Athenians minimized God and maximized themselves. 

Paul preaches true wisdom; such wisdom is harmonizing with reality (v. 31)—the reality is that God has fixed the Day of Judgement. The proof of this is that He raised the judge from the dead. The resurrection of the judge proves that death was not the end for Him, and it will not be the end for us.

For there to be true harmony with this reality (v. 30), people must repent. They must end self-rule and recognize the rule of the one, true God.

Again, we read of the typical, divided response (vv. 32–34)—some sneered, others made further enquiry and, for Dionysius and Damaris and others, it was a never-to-be-forgotten day of repentance and new life. 

To be a Christian is to lose control of your life to Jesus. Such was the experience of these repentant Athenians.

Reflection

Athens was a place of knowledge and intellectual stimulation. Yet, here Paul finds ignorance of the grossest kind. What do you find especially confronting about Paul’s discovery? Can you think of contemporary parallels where places of knowledge become citadels of gross ignorance?