In Acts 17:16-34, Paul gives a speech in the Athenian Areopagus seeking to persuade the Greeks of the city to accept the Gospel.

Transcript:

Acts 17:16-18. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 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 happen to be there. 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 for foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Let us pray. Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that you would lead us by the example of your apostle Paul.

That from the testimony that, that he offered to the city of Athens, that we might learn ourselves how we can testify to the truth of the gospel in our own time and place. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.

Most of us know at least two languages. And by that I mean that most of us have at least kind of two sets of vocabulary. I want you to think about your job, or maybe a hobby that you're passionate about. There are all kinds of terms associated with both your work and play that is sometimes just lost on other people 'cause they're not familiar. People who don't know sports won't know what you mean when you talk about things like a triple- double, or a fade route, or an indirect kick. Medical professionals know all kinds of technical words for pharmaceuticals that are lost on the rest of us. Skilled tradesmen, mechanics, engineers, IT professionals grapple with all kinds of challenges that can be difficult to explain outside of the terminology of their trade. It can sound like babble to the untrained ear.

To the unfamiliar, you have to begin by talking about winning and losing, how a medicine will make you feel better, and the basic goal of your project. And from this small start, they can begin to understand what you mean.

If you're a Christian, and especially if you've been one for a long time, then you too have a set of vocabulary that will be lost on some people. The Bible is familiar to us, not necessarily familiar to others. Words like atonement, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, have meaning in our minds, but are foreign or misunderstood by others. When we talk, it can sometimes sound like babble. Paul was met by a similar challenge during his time in Athens. His message had plenty that was familiar to the Jewish mind, but all that was mostly foreign to the Greek mind. They couldn't understand what he is really getting about, and so we find a helpful example from him here in what it looks like to clearly communicate the gospel in such a way that it can be accepted or rejected, as the case may be, by those who are unfamiliar with the world of the Bible. And so we continue today in Acts 17, first looking at verses 16 through 18.

As you recall, Paul had to eventually make his way to Athens because of persecution that he had received in Berea. Originally, he had a, a great reception in Berea, but then some Jews from Thessalonica came and caused trouble for him there. And so he went ahead to Athens. Silas and Timothy were not with him at this time. And while he's in Athens, Luke says he became greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. Now, many of you may be familiar with the city of Athens and think of it as kind of a city of, of philosophy, and that is, that is certainly true. It's known for its philosophy and we have plenty to say about that today. Just to kind of point out, Athens is there at the, at the end of the area of Achaia, very close to the coast, and in Athens, alongside there being many philosophers, there is quite a bit of religion. If you look at this map here, and this is provided by this video by Manuel Bravo on YouTube, you can see the layout of the city and you see this kind of main thoroughfare here, and it leads right to the center of, of Athens. And then you have the Acropolis here, in which you have the Greek Parthenon.

Now many of you will be familiar with that, with that imagery. Maybe you've seen that image before. This was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Now if you pay attention a little bit, Athena, Athens, you see the connection. Scholars think that actually she got her name from the city of Athens because she was just the goddess of Athens, and so she became known as Athena. Doesn't, I mean, it looks kind of impressive now, but it looked even more impressive in its heyday. Again, from Manuel Bravo, you would see it would've been a very extravagant temple and it would've featured this large statue of Athena, this gleaming statue. And, and you know, when we see some of these things, we, um, we tend to think that, oh, you know, that would've been kind of a beautiful thing to take in. And nowadays when we see these things, we, we can appreciate some of the artistic quality about them, I think because they're dead things now at this point, they're purely manifestations of human artistry. But at that time, there were living religious symbols, living symbols of religious idolatry, and the city was permeated with them. It wasn't just as though it was fixed on, on the Acropolis, throughout the city they had altars all over the place, statues all over the place. It disturbed Paul to see this.

And so in light of this, he began, and as he would anyways, he began reasoning in the synagogue. We've seen him do that in, in other cities with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks there. It'd be interesting to know what he talked about with them, because to live in such a city, you probably had to go along to get along a little bit. So maybe he was challenging them about how they were getting along there. But he didn't just talk with them. He also talked with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the marketplace. Now, the marketplace, and the Greek word for this is agora, scholars think that it probably wasn't likely the traditional Agora, which is quite old, but rather the Roman agora, which is depicted here, and if we, I don't know if I, I might not have a picture of it, but if we go back to this image, you can actually see it here. It kind of looks like a little square with lots of tents, because they would've been selling things, but they weren't just exchanging materials. They were also exchanging ideas. Athens was a place where they were passionate about talking about new ideas and Paul was engaging with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.

Now, you might not know much about those, those philosophies. And so just to give you a very kind of simplistic summary of, of those two schools of thought. Epicureanism, founded by Epicurus who lived around 307 bc, the philosophy that he put forward was very kind of materialist in nature. That is, that there wasn't really much to consider in terms of the supernatural, didn't absolutely deny the possibility of the existence of gods, but basically maintained they're totally irrelevant. Life is just about the, the actual physical substance of, of existence, uh, and what Epicurus commended was pursuing a hedonistic form of life. Now when we hear the word hedonism, we kind of think of like, oh, someone, like, just pursuing pleasures without end, kind of a debauched sort of life. And that could have happened with some that subscribed to this philosophy, but that's not actually what Epicurus was prescribing here. His philosophy was that virtue is defined by whatever will make you happy. And so because he kind of knew the volatility of life, he actually recommended that people very live a very simple kind of minimalistic sort of life. And we actually kind of encounter those kind of philosophies around us today with people saying, you have to, you know, get rid of the clutter, kind of cut back and, and, and find just happiness in the simple things of life. So that was kind of the philosophy that, that Epicurus commended. And then you had the Stoic philosophers, and Stoicism was founded by Zeno, who lived around the same era, 300 bc. Stoicism is a little bit more of a thorough going sort of philosophy, it's pantheistic in nature, so it believes that God exists, but that God kind of is in everything. That's what pantheism means. And that this God is providential, he's benevolent, and that as human beings we should seek to live a virtuous life. Happiness is found in us being virtuous, kind of living unto our end as, as human beings. And, and it was a very predominant school, critical, both of these schools critical of, of pagan religions, kind of thinking that they're kind of simplistic and they're missing the bigger, the bigger picture here.

And so Paul's engaging with them, and as he's engaging with them, they, they have some thoughts about him. They say, what is this babbler saying? Now that term babbler in verse 18 in the Greek is called spermalogos, which means cocksparrow. You're wondering, how they get from cocksparrow to babbler? Well, what the translators are trying to do here is to try to communicate to us the sense of what they're, what they're saying here, which is he's just kind of picking up ideas in their minds and just babbling them. They think he's kind of a, kind of a amateur philosopher who's just kind of copycatting some of their ideas and just spitting it out...