Teaching in Athens - Acts 17

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

Paul begins in a genius manner.  He commends them for their religious ways.  He has observed them closely, then he notices something that makes no sense and shows it to them.  They worship everything, even an unknown god.  They actually have an alter to a god they do not know.  So, he is going to tell them who God is.  I wonder if Paul is discussing the foolishness of being so religious that you worship everything, even a god you don't know.  Or was he intent to say that this god that you know is a god but don't know his name, is the actual only God and I'm going to tell you more about Him.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Paul starts at the beginning and gives what I would call the 10,000 foot view.  It’s an overview of who God is and how man fits into this picture.  Missionaries in many foreign places begin their ministries this way.  They start at the beginning and teach from Genesis.  They show how from the beginning there has been a need for a Savoir.  It might be months before they ever declare Jesus to the people as our Savoir. 

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”³³ At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴ Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Paul is interesting enough to cause a second meeting with some.  And some believe.  Anytime any of us teach or serve following the Spirit of God, people are going to have to make a choice.  Believe or not believe.  Some are repulsed and mock you and leave.  Others want to hear more, and some believe.  It was the same then as it is now.  We just have to be willing to teach, serve, and preach when we can to who we can.