The reading of God's Word will continue in the 17th chapter of the book of Acts. If you have your Bibles with you this morning, you'll begin with verse 15. Hear now the Word of the Lord. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens. And receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said, what does this babbler want to say? Another said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. They took him and brought him to 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. For all the Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear. some new thing. This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we ask again that Your Spirit might be with us richly to teach us the truth of Your Word. May You give us ears to hear and eyes to see the truth that You will reveal to us this morning. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Well, I think it's very appropriate that we consider the Apostle Paul's arrival here at Athens on the Sunday where we remember the ascension of Jesus to the Father's right hand of power. Pentecost Sunday will follow next week where we remember the outpouring of the promised Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And then in the church calendar is normal or ordinary time. beginning with what we celebrate as Trinity Sunday and continuing until the Advent season. Now, Linda and I are going to be off to the Oregon Family Camp for the next couple of weeks for a little rest and relaxation. And Mike will be bringing you two important messages on these events. Lord willing, our missionary to Russia there in St. Petersburg, Blake Purcell, will be in our pulpit the following week to challenge us regarding the Great Commission and foreign missions today. So I want to use my time today to show how the confrontation that Paul will have with those here in Athens should remind us of how the coming of Jesus and His ascension and the coming of the Spirit have changed everything. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, when we get into the heart of the message on Mars Hill, this is certainly a message that is near and dear to me. There was a very insightful pastor who gave me a copy of Wilbur Smith's apologetics book, Therefore Stand, when I was a hardened evolutionist. And it was his work through this sermon of Paul's in that book that brought me to Christ. So I'll be spending a little bit of time. And when I return, Lord willing, we'll look at that message in detail. And I'll probably basically follow the outline that Mr. Smith used in his book, looking at the futility of unbelief, the glory of God as the Creator, and the power of the resurrection. I want to make the case this morning that Paul confronted the wisdom of the world here in Athens with the truth that Jesus is now King of Kings and Lord. of Lords. It is a confrontation that continues down to our day. Political power at this time had shifted to Rome, but Athens was still considered the cultural and intellectual center of the world. It would be like someone approaching Stanford or Harvard or Oxford Universities today. John Calvin described Athens of Paul's day as the mansion house of wisdom, the fountain of all arts, the mother of humanity. But then he quickly adds that they did exceed all others in blindness and madness. As Paul would later write to the Romans, professing that to be wise, they became fools. Now this strikes Paul immediately as he waits for his companions, with Luke telling us that his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Now there was a reason that this city was filled with idols, but I want us to notice that Paul is provoked by what he sees. He is moved in a passionate way Similar to how Jesus wept over Jerusalem or longed to have more workers for the harvest of lost souls that he perceived. Now, there is a place, I believe, here for us to really check our spirit and our attitude in this life. When and where are we provoked in this way? Can we go to a stadium packed with tens of thousands of people and only enjoy the ball game? Now, there's no prohibition against sports in the Bible. And we can certainly go and enjoy a day at the game. But I want to make the point that if we do not at some point groan over the lost state of many in attendance, then perhaps our hearts have grown just a little cold. In the same manner, there is certainly no biblical prohibition against enjoying a fine dinner out or even meeting some friends for coffee or a drink. But if our hearts do not go out to those that we will see in such settings who are very lost, again, we need to consider our And this should apply not just to sports or secular entertainment. We have a tradition with several families here in the church of watching a performance of Handel's Messiah each year over at the Mondavi Center. It is always moving. And it is stunning to this day to see how those who attend rise for the Alleluia Chorus. But again, I think we need to be properly provoked by those who are not reacting in faith. Even some or most of the performers who sing those glorious passages. And I know from first hand that it can be done wrongly. Because I loved to have the choir that I was a part of sing the Alleluia Chorus when I attended a liberal church as a child. not understanding or meaning a word that I was enthusiastically singing. Now while it is important that we share Paul's passion and heart that he could be provoked, we need to understand that the idols of our day will be much more subtle than those that he confronted. This is where we need the big picture of history. Athens was at that time the intellectual high point of the nations. The nations that had been deceived by Satan. As Pastor Wilkins rightly points out in his lectures on church history, the demons who were worshipped in Babylon and Chaldea were the same ones that made up the Roman and Greek pantheons. Only the names had been changed. We should remember the great humanist statues that was seen in the king's dream and interpreted by Daniel to get a proper understanding of the picture here. You know, if we read that dream and its interpretation, it should be stunning to us to think of that great statue. A statue with a head of gold and a chest of silver standing on thighs of bronze and legs of iron. But in the end, that grand statue is crushed by a stone cut without hands, our Lord Jesus." And what did Daniel say happened to that great statue? It became as dust or chaff that would blow away in the wind. Luke is here reminding us as Paul comes to Athens that the kingdom of Jesus has confronted and defeated the kingdom of Satan. Over the next thousand years, the glory of Greece and Rome would be nearly forgotten and Christendom would come to rule the civilized world. Brothers and sisters, it is not an exaggeration to point out that the church was the one that preserved the writings of the Greek and Roman scholars. And if they had not done so and even reintroduced them through the work of Thomas Aquinas and others, we would know very little of them today. Now, of course, that's a blasphemous statement in any intellectual circle today, because they consider themselves to be the inheritors of this great wisdom to be the wise men of our day as these men were at Athens. Christians, well you know, they're just ignorant people who can be easily manipulated. But no matter what these modern intellectuals may think, this is the picture that the Bible has given us. Satan has been defeated. His demonic influence over the nations is waning. And it is now the kingdom of Jesus that will fill the earth. As we've said many times, this is the story of the book of Acts. But is it hard for us to believe that? I mean, as we look at history, there's certainly been setbacks along the way. Because the Spirit of God has chosen to use vessels of clay. to accomplish His great work. It's easy for us to get discouraged, not only about the revival of Greek and Roman thought in our age, but also the physical appearance of Islam in formerly Christian lands, or the fact that it's probably Mormonism that is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Sure, it's hard to believe that the kingdom is going to fill the earth, and it's easy to get a little depressed at times. But I think when we're tempted to do that, we should consider those 120 who were gathered in the upper room after Jesus had ascended to heaven and left them alone. And He did, by the way, give them just a small task. He told them to go out and disciple all the nations. They could have gotten a little depressed too. And then, of course, we could also think of Paul coming alone to the great center of pagan thought here in Athens. But you see, Paul knew where history was going. And so should we. So with that in mind, let's see what's the stage here in Athens. As we saw last week, Paul has been escorted from Berea by faithful saints and he's now sent them back with instructions to bring Timothy and Silas to join him as soon as possible. Paul continues his usual pattern of going to reason with the Jews first in the synagogue along with the God-fearing Gentiles. Luke gives us no detail about the response of the Jews here in Athens. However, he does mention that Paul then reasons daily in the marketplace, which seems a little bit different than what we've seen in these other cities. I suspect it has something to do with his being alone and probably not doing any tent making as he would have done in the other cities along the way. And as I mentioned last week, we have to remember this with Luke, he's giving us a flow and not all the details. Thessalonians, Berea, and even back to Philippi. And that isn't always given to us in all of the details. We know from Paul's epistles that he carried his own weight in terms of making money. So, he would have been working during the week, which helps us to realize that we have a calling even in the midst of our vocations. Now, Paul encounters here in Athens Two groups of philosophers which are very similar to what we would face today. As Solomon writes in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is certainly nothing new under the sun. The Epicureans were the material or secular humanists of our day. Adams were the building blocks of everything that is around us in the material world. the machine. And for them, death was the end of both the body and the soul. They tolerated talks of gods and had lots of idols in their cities, but they did not believe that they related to anything in real life. The highest calling in life was pleasure. It might sound familiar to Americans. It is these same Epicurean philosophers who practiced what we might see on that sad bumper sticker today. He who dies with the most toys wins. Now the Stoics, on the other hand, were like the mystics of our day. Believing that God was in everything. To be one with nature and others was to be one with God. The oneness was the high calling of life. And at death we are reabsorbed into the great life force. Now, if this sounds like we're being in touch with the force and avoiding the dark side out of the Star Wars movies, that's because it's exactly what the Star Wars movies were teaching. Now I hope you can see how similar Paul's confrontation with these Epicureans and Stoics is to what we might face today. Today's evolutionists believe that matter is eternal and that we are more complex in the arrangement of our atoms than that which surrounds us. At bottom, they believe with the Epicureans that we should eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we will die. And that is all there is. The pantheists of our day are seen in the Eastern religions, which have flooded into the West with yoga classes. Much of this comes out of a reaction against the coldness of materialism. It's hard for us to live that way, knowing that there has to be some meaning to love and relationship. However, in the end, these pantheists have no way to place any value on the individual with striving to be one with everything as the final goal. If you think about a drop of water that rejoins the Pacific Ocean, you can begin to see how difficult it is to see the importance of the individual in the end. Not that the humanists and pantheists of our day let any of this bother them. They do no more so than the Epicureans and Stoics did in Paul's day. As Paul explains in the first chapter of Romans, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They had rejected the glory of God that was revealed in His creation that surrounded them and suppressed the conscience that God had placed within them. And when people do such foolish things, their hearts and their minds become so hardened that they cannot see their own foolishness. I often use the example today that we spend an awful lot of money and time teaching children that they're nothing but animals. and then were surprised when they act like animals. The reaction to Paul was very similar to how Christians are treated today. These grand philosophers referred to him as a seed picker. That's what the word literally means. It's probably translated babbler in most of our modern translations. that they are the wise men who understand how the world really works. And this man is like a sparrow that flits around picking up just the crumbs that fall from their grand table. There's another difference that we should notice, I think, with these proud philosophers that Luke now introduces. So far in the missionary journeys, we have pretty clearly seen faith or conflict. Clear outward demonstrations of the sheep and the goats. Those who believe the Gospel and those who reject the Good News. Those who come to faith and were baptized. And those who rejected the faith and tried to drive Paul and his companions from their midst. These proud Epicurean and Stoics believe that they are above. All the Athenians and the foreigners who were with them spent their time in nothing else but to either tell or hear some new thing. They sincerely believed that they were the determiner of all truth. They were the grand judges of all that others believed. Allowing, of course, that there were many paths to God. As we study the message that Paul will deliver on Mars Hill, we will see that he not only presents the gospel, but he also tears down these walls of pride that they have erected. And we must do the same today. And so I want to take a moment to review just a bit of that first chapter of Romans. There Paul explains how these professing wise men became fools. It will help us to better understand why we must have the same confidence to confront modern man with the gospel as Paul did those philosophers here at Athens. Now if you look at the book of Romans that Paul wrote, you can see a kind of a broad outline where he clearly presents the need for the gospel, and then the power of the gospel, the reach of the gospel, and the results of the gospel as lives are changed. But in chapter 1, after stating that he is not ashamed of the gospel, Paul begins declaring that all are under the condemnation of sin and in need of the gospel. He will expose the Jews as hypocrites, which is something that we must do with some proud religious liberals in our day. However, Paul begins by focusing on the philosophers of the world, like these Epicureans and Stoics here in Athens, or the humanists and mystics of our day. picking up at verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It is very important that we see the point that Paul is making here. These lack faith because of ignorance. God has given them truth that they are suppressing. They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, they suppress the truth because of sin. Paul is going to go on to declare that God is revealed in two important and universal ways. Picking up again with verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. I've often seen all men and women, both boys and girls, that live in this world have to get up and live in God's universe. They don't get to make up one of their own. They might try, and Hollywood thinks they can on a regular basis, but it's not going to work. All of them also have a conscience within them. Even the most hardened sinner is still suppressed in a God-given conscience. Both of which should bring forth thankful worship of God for these gifts. And yet Paul says they refused to give God any glory and they were unthankful. If you want to understand the importance, the critical importance of thanksgiving, then you need to understand the progression that Paul shows here. When we are not thankful, our thoughts become darkened and futile. and some very bad actions will follow, even in the lives of Christians. It is certainly the true state of these proud Epicureans and Stoics, and of our modern skeptics as well. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Paul's heart was provoked by all of the idols that he saw there in Athens. And it was because he could see firsthand the truth about what happens when men become fools. They changed the glory, he would write to the Romans, of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man and birds and four-foot animals. creeping things. We don't have the same idols as our cities these days. You'll still see some Greek and Roman statues. You don't have people falling down in front of them. But we have become very foolish nonetheless. Our idols are in the classroom. where the evolutionary charts prove that man was never made in the image of God, but he is just another animal. A four-legged beast that Paul refers to that somehow has two legs. And when you consider the modern environmental movement, we can clearly see the truth that Paul goes on to proclaim being worked out in our Verse 24, Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of men, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. If you want to think about something that should provoke us the way those idols did Paul, then I would say that we should recoil every time it says, Mother Nature. It says, love your mother. Picture of the creation rather than God. Those are the things that should provoke us in our day. Paul will go on in this chapter to show how God gives such people over trial, passions, and a whole list of other things. I don't have time this morning to go through all that. I'll leave it to you as your homework if you haven't been part of our Roman study. But do take a moment to look at it and see where we're at in our nation today. Whether our hearts, what we see around us today. And the second, are we properly prepared to confront the foolishness of our day? Are we truly provoked by the fact that evolution is taught in our schools and proclaimed as truth in our universities and accepted without question? Or do we just go along because, you know, to share the Gospel, we don't really want to make any waves. We need to have the heart that Jesus had when He wept over those who refused to be thankful in Jerusalem. And we need to remember Paul's warning in chapter 1, that such things deserve to die. Do them but give approval to those who practice them. They know they're going to hell and they want to take others with them. And finally, if we get to the point where we are truly provoked and want to reach out to the lost, we need to evaluate over and over whether we're fighting the right battles in the right order. Do we ignore the fundamental crisis of having the truth suppressed in unrighteousness because we would rather deal with the sins of passions or others on the list that Paul gives? Do we confront the abortionist who is killing children while giving the philosophers of our day who declare that the child has no ultimate worth a pass? Do we preach the gospel of forgiveness to a needy sinner, but then allow them to think that whether Adam and Eve were real people is not important? These are not either-or situations. And I don't want you to take that. It should be a part of much-needed balance in our Christian witness. We must oppose abortion because they are in the image of God. Let's not pull back from getting at the root of the problem. We must share the gospel with those in need. But we remember, we need to remember, that if we did not preach it, then the fall and sin are not real either. And they will rightly ask the question, as all liberal churches do, well, in that case, just what is it that we need to be saved from? The contrast for Paul there at Athens was very stark, as he was surrounded by all these idols to the various gods. It is just as stark today that God would be the truth. We should be provoked each time. that we gaze upon a National Geographic or watch a secular TV show or movie or hear a park ranger talking about millions and billions of years. That's when we should be provoked. Or when one of those nice Buddhists comes along and gently says, you know, there are many paths when we should be provoked. These are the things that should provoke us today. and cause us to be ready to reason with those in the marketplace. Now, Lord willing, in a few weeks we will consider in detail how Paul appealed to these foolish men. And I trust, as we see how he handled the foolish men of his day, that we will learn that the challenge has not changed much in 2,000 years. We are still called on. to confront the same foolishness with the same truth about the good news.