Paul in Athens (Part Two)

Scripture: Acts 17:19-21 (ESV)

¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ²¹ Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Devotion:

            On day two of our visit with Paul in Athens, we find him being led to the Areopagus (Mars Hill). Mars Hill served as an open-air forum. It could be used for legal proceedings, but that was not its only function. Since we find no judicial language in the text, we assume that the Athenians brought Paul there to hear what this new teaching was. For Paul, this presented a golden opportunity to share the gospel with some of the thought leaders of Athens.

            Paul’s teaching would have sounded strange to the people of Athens because (despite what some detractors say) this teaching of Jesus was unique in the 1^st century as it still is today. As Paul notes in the following verses, the people of Athens prided themselves on their worship of many different gods. New gods meant new temples, which meant new people coming to Athens to spend their money purchasing what their gods required for worship.

            However, Athens generally hosted the temples of many different gods, and the people there were genuinely curious about “new” religions. The 21st-century world is not that different from 1st-century Athens. People today are tired of hearing about “old” religions like Christianity. They want something new and different. Therefore, strange, and diverse teachings are continually being introduced on the internet (the 21st-century equivalent to Mars Hill). These teachings often gain hundreds of thousands of “followers” seemingly overnight.

            Some modern Christians despair over this situation. They fear that the good, the true, and the beautiful God we worship will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Jesus, however, declares that the Christian religion will endure. We probably will have to change our approach to delivering our message, but the message will not change in content. These new “religions” will have their fifteen minutes of fame. However, since they are not founded on the firm foundation of the gospel, they will not, indeed, cannot last.

            Today, the internet provides a way of spreading the message of Christ in ways that Paul and his companions never could have dreamed of. I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago that gathered 300,000+ views. Could an unknown theologian of the 1st Century have gathered that size crowd? We, as Christians, must take advantage of this way of communicating the gospel more effectively. Let us set aside our fears and pursue excellence in teaching the Bible in new ways to a new audience. Let us pray for success.

Prayer:

            Lord, we come to you humbled by the opportunities presented by tools like the internet. Help us strive to present the gospel honestly and winsomely to a public that, while curious about religion, is wary of Christianity for various reasons. May we seek to bring your word to the ends of the earth so that all may hear and have an opportunity to respond to your gospel rightly taught. Amen.