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THE MISSION TO ATHENS
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26
Acts 17:16-21

John 4:23-24

 

“God is a Spirit:
and they that worship him must

worship him in spirit and in truth.”

 

THE MISSION TO ATHENS
 
Athens was the most celebrated city of the ancient world. However, it was wholly given to idolatry. There is a sarcastic saying of the Roman satirist that it was “easier to find a god at Athens than a man.” When Paul first reached Athens, he was alone.
 
Debated with the Jews: While waiting for Silas and Timothy to arrive, he went to reason with the Jews in their synagogue. Paul also fearlessly confronted the Jews and the religious people in marketplaces.
 
Discoursed with the Philosophers: Paul met “certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks” (Acts 17:18). The philosophy of the Epicureans “was a system of atheism, and taught men to seek as their highest aim a pleasant and smooth life and were called the ‘Sadducees’ of Greek paganism” (Easton). The Stoics “taught that there was one Supreme Being, but many subordinate gods, and that man had similar faculties to the gods. Intellect was to be their guide, and pleasures and pains of the body were not to be regarded. From this sect the English word ‘stoic’ is derived. Pantheism, fatalism, and pride were the leading features of the stoics” (Morrish).
 
“Athens then had more that was splendid in architecture, more that was brilliant in science, and more that was beautiful in the arts, than any other city in the world; perhaps more than all the rest of the world united. Yet there is no account that the mind of Paul was filled with admiration; there is no record that he spent his time in examining the works of art; there is no evidence that he forgot his high purpose in an idle and useless contemplation of temples and statuary. His was a Christian mind; and he contemplated all this with a Christian heart. That heart was deeply affected in view of the amazing guilt of a people that were ignorant of the true God, and that had filled their city with idols reared to the honour of imaginary divinities; and who, in the midst of all this splendour and luxury, were going down to the gates of death” (Barnes).
 
Do we have the burden to evangelise?
 
THOUGHT: Am I worshipping other gods (self, money)?

PRAYER: Father, convict my heart to love Thee with my all.

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