Why Did The Men Of Mars Hill Listen To Paul?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts Chapter 17, Dave, we finished Verse 18, last week—

Dave:

After a manner of speech, I mean, we did our best.

Tom:

Right, so we pick up with Verse 19.

Dave:

We have to keep moving, Tom.

Tom:

That’s what I’ve heard.Our producer Gary says, Keep rollin’ guys.Anyway, Verse 19:“And they took him, (and of course that refers to Paul, he’s in Athens.The philosophers, the Epicureans, the Stoics and so forth encountered him and they wanted him to present his case.)“And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears:we would know therefore what these things mean.For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.”Doesn’t sound like they are too serious, Dave, want to be entertained, want to have their ears tickled.

Dave:

Well, they are not interested in truth, or if they are they certainly haven’t found it.If you found truth, you know what the truth is, you’re not looking for some new thing.We have truth in our hands, the Word of God, and we can prove it, we’ve done it a few times on this program.We know for certain the Bible is God’s Word, every word of it is true, and we can document that for the next 30 hours, but most of our listeners believe that.This is why we say, search the scriptures daily.

Tom:

It’s like Jesus prayed to the Father, Sanctify them by thy truth.Thy Word is truth.

Dave:

Exactly.So, we are not—Oh, my, maybe there is another religion out there.Oh, is there some new idea that we could—Oh yeah, let’s try to find something new.No, we have found the Lord, He found us, and we can sing the song:All that I want is in Jesus, He satisfies, joy He supplies, life would be worthless without Him, all things in Jesus I find.So, but these people didn’t know the truth.I’m not sure, going back to my days of philosophy and so forth, how seriously they were really interested in truth.

Tom:

Well, you have a diversity of groups here.The Epicureans, they were into pleasures, okay—the Stoics, they were into denying the flesh.

Dave:

Right, but anyway, they want to hear some new thing, and that’s interesting.Let me read that verse again:“For all the Athenians and strangers which were there (that is, at Areopagus) spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.”I mean, What’s the latest, guys?Oh, Oh, I heard this.Okay, it’s kind of pitiful, Tom, and why is it that they want to hear of him?Well, it says in Verse 18, He preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection, and they say, He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods.What is this?We’ve got all kinds of gods, we never heard this.Well, so they bring him there, and here they are giving Paul a platform, and Verse 22:Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill,The Areopagus—I’ve been there a few times—and said:“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”It’s kind of a slam—You brilliant geniuses, you philosophers, you Epicureans and Stoics, you just want to hear some new thing, you guys are really superstitious.Why do you want to hear something else?And then he goes on and he says:You’ve got so many gods out there, for, verse 23, “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God.”Wow, you want to be sure you’ve covered them all.Well, there is a God who they thought was unknown, and maybe this is the one they were addressing.I don’t know, but He has written His law in every conscience, and we all know.These people knew what was right and what was wrong, and they knew, surely, that you can’t make up for breaking the law in the past by keeping it in the future.They all knew that they had sinned, they all had that conscience, and they all knew that there was not one of their gods that was able to forgive them.It wouldn’t work!So, Paul is simply bringing them the good news that in their hearts they know that they need.

Tom:

Dave, I just want to go back to something here where it says, Paul saying: I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.I find it amazing that men, women who are very intellectual, they may be brilliant in some areas, and so on, certainly in their fields of science and so forth, but that doesn’t deny superstition.I remember driving when I was in Chicago, I went by this Hindu temple.This is in the suburbs of Chicago, and I drove up, and the parking lot, interestingly enough, there were Lexis, Mercedes-Benz, and so on, and they were going to give a tour of this temple, and I went in.Again, the people in there, you just looked around, the tour guide told me, Well, we have mainly doctors here, we’ve got architects, we’ve got lawyers, and so on and so forth.Yet, I watched them from inside the temple, feeding these idols, feeding them food, bowing down to these idols, and so on.How does that square?But that’s not just Hindus here in this country, you could run the gamut of professionals.They are in Santa Maria, they are into all kinds of superstitions.

Dave:

Tom, it is ridiculous, and the Bible makes fun of them, mocks them.Isaiah says, They cut down the tree, they chop off some of it to warm themselves, burn it, and cook their meat, and then they pull a little splinter out to pick their teeth, and then, a part of it they fashion it into a god.It has eyes that can’t see, it has ears that can’t hear, it has a mouth that can’t talk, it has feet that can’t walk, you’ve got to carry it around, this god of yours, and then the Spirit of God says:And they that make them and worship them are like unto these idols, these dumb idols!And Paul talks about it to the Corinthians, These dumb idols, you would carry it after this.They can’t do anything for you.So, that’s superstition.Tom, you know, Carl Sagan used to worship the cosmos, and he said, If we need to worship some higher power, what about the sun and the moon, how about that, doesn’t that make sense?Well, it doesn’t make any sense but Tom, it gets worse.I forget exactly when it was but not too long ago NASA, one of the scientists, and I forget his name, sorry, but he said:We think—(Carl Sagan is dead, of course)—he said, We could just feel—some of the astronauts said:We could just feel Carl Sagan watching over us.There seemed to be some miracles on this trip, and we think he’s out there watching over this space program.

Tom:

Is that superstition, Dave?

Dave:

I could say that is superstition.I have found, all over the world talking with literally thousands of people, most people believe what they want to believe.You can’t make them believe the truth, of course we can’t.You know, Jesus said, to talk about this sower who went forth to sow, and the seed fell on different kinds of soil.Some of it fell on good ground, and some of it was full of thorns and briars and stony, and so forth, couldn’t take root, but some of it fell on good ground.Interesting for a Calvinist now because Jesus said:The good ground is an honest heart, willing to hear the truth.So there are those who have an honest heart, willing to hear the truth.That was not the case with very many at Areopagus, but it was the sum, and when we get farther into the chapter we find some of them believed.

Tom:

Verse 23:“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotion, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God.Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.”Now we’ve got about 30 seconds, Dave, we will have to pick up with this next week, but what do you think?

Dave:

Well, he’s going to tell them who the true God is.Let me tell you who He is, and he goes on, God that made the world and the heavens and all things and so forth, we know the Scriptures.He doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, He’s not worshipped with men’s hand, He doesn’t need anything from you folks here on Mars Hill.But anyway, we’ll have to come back and talk about that.But Tom, there are a lot of people today in Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Catholic churches, and they think that if they could just give God something, charitable gifts or whatever, then that would make some points for them with God.He doesn’t need that, but He wants to give you eternal life as a free gift.