Reaching Today’s World

Text: Acts 17:16-34

Introduction: Dr. Bill Brown, president of Cedarville University, wrote an article on evangelism in the 2004 summer edition of the school magazine The Torch. In his opening paragraph, he wrote: “Harry Potter, Britney Spears, Michael Moore, Howard Stern—all are major influencers of our culture’s values and behavior. Should Christians ignore them, enjoy them, or engage them? From the biblical perspective, the challenge to engage is clear. We are called, after all, to be salt and light in the world. The time has come to be serious about engaging the world with the heart and mind of Christ. I want Cedarville University students and friends to be able to confront the world around them and give an answer for the hope that is within them (1 Peter 3:15). So how do we go about it?”

         I have found a helpful answer to that question in Acts 17. So, how do we go about it? The apostle Paul had arrived in Athens, the intellectual capital of the world. While he waited for his co-workers to join him, he decided to walk the city streets. Acts 17:16-34 records not only his reactions but also his consequent actions. This passage serves as a 21st-century model for reaching our 21st-century world. Here is Paul’s action plan:

1.  What he saw: “The city was given over to idols” (17:16). Paul saw the Acropolis, the spectacular Parthenon, the colossal statue of Athena. The further he walked, the more he saw of the 30,000 idols and altars of this great city. He was there, not as a tourist, but as an evangelist. And so when he finally came upon an altar with the inscription “to the unknown god” (v.23), it triggered him spiritually and emotionally!

2. What he felt: “His spirit was provoked within him” (v.16).

His soul was deeply stirred. The depth of his emotional upheaval is revealed when we learn that the Greek word for provoked is our English word paroxysm, which is defined as “a sudden outburst of action or reaction; intense inner turmoil, anger.” Even more help comes from recalling that in Acts 15 this is the same word describing the heated argument between Paul and Barnabas over the addition of John Mark to the missionary team. We know what Paul was upset about in the Acts 15 story. He was angry that Mark had bailed out during their first missionary trip. What was Paul angry about in Acts 17? He was angry that the God-given capacity to worship the Almighty God had been misdirected into the abomination of idolatry!

3. What he did (17:17-18). Yes, his soul was stirred, but he did not withdraw in despair. Instead, he engaged the culture in an effort to evangelize. The places where Paul engaged the culture can become a 21st-century template:

• The Synagogue. He began where the Jews of Athens and the Gentile followers of Judaism were gathered. He reasoned and discoursed on the theme of Jesus and the resurrection. Our modern-day counterpart is the church. But the reality we face is this—church attendance is declining. So we need to note where Paul went next.
• The Agora. “In the marketplace daily” (v.17). This was the place of buying and selling—the mall of today. Paul rubbed shoulders with the Monday through Friday crowd. Here he found not only shoppers but those who embraced a worldview that was contrary to everything Paul believed. They insulted him by calling him a “babbler” (v.18, “ ‘a seed picker,’ or gutter sparrow, a small bird that snatches up scraps of food. Paul was being accused of grabbing at bits of knowledge without fully digesting or thinking through what he taught.”—Nelson Study Bible, p. 1852), a country bumpkin who didn’t know very much. But Paul’s heart was passionate to see people saved, and so he went to Mars Hill.
• Mars Hill. “They took him and brought him to the Areopagus” (v.19). John Stott writes in his book The Message of Acts: “The word ‘Areopagus’ means literally ‘the Hill of Ares (the Greek equivalent of Mars)’, so ‘Mars’ Hill’. Situated a little northwest of the Acropolis, it was formerly the place where the most venerable judicial court of Athens met.” By Paul’s day, the court was nothing more than a council. 

Paul was active in and excelled at speaking in the three venues of the synagogue, marketplace, and intellectual centers of his day. May we follow in his footsteps!

4. What he said (17:21-32). The following is what I’ve gleaned for today from a message shared 2,000 years ago:

• Paul was conciliatory in tone (v.22). Like him, we are not out to win an argument but a soul for Jesus.
• Find out where people are on their spiritual journey and begin there. For Paul, this meant the book of Genesis (vv.23-27).
• Stay current with the books people are reading, the movies they are watching, and the music they are enjoying. Paul was able to quote from the city’s poets without visiting the local library (v.28).
• Stay with the basics. For Paul, it was the resurrection and the Second Coming (vv.29-31).
• Be grateful for the response to your testimony (vv.32-34).

Conclusion: This quote from the Scottish pastor George MacLeod encapsulates what I’ve learned from Acts 17:

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and in Greek . . . ; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died, and that is what He died about. And that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen out to be about.”