We're not in Kansas anymore Toto...

A Babbler In Athens

(Acts 17:13-21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 11, 2012)

[13] But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. [14] Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. [15] Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.First century Judaism was full of controversy. At the center of the controversy was one Man: Jesus of Nazareth. Who was He? Was He the Savior of the world, or was He an imposter who deceived the people? To settle that question, ministers like the Apostle Paul turned to the Old Testament Scriptures and proved from them that it was necessary that the Messiah would suffer, die, and be raised on the third day.

Those who believed this message became Christians, and many non-Jews who were interested in the Jewish Scriptures and others who saw the love of the new disciples joined with them. That was first century Christianity, a growing movement that has continued to the present day, expanding to all the earth. Those who rejected this message remained Jews and were part of a dwindling number of people that also still exists today, but remains a very small minority group.

As Jesus had warned, this controversy would get violent, and those who believed in Him would suffer for His Name's sake. That is still true today. In Acts 17 it was the Jews from Thessalonica who heard about Paul's activities in Berea who followed him to that more remote location in order to make life difficult for him there, hoping to thwart the progress of his efforts.

[16] Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. [17] So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Though they succeeded in part, they ultimately failed. Paul was pushed out of Berea, but he was sent by the church on to Athens. Alone there for a time, he waited for Silas and Timothy to join him. But God was with him, and Paul's spirit was provoked within him. He found it difficult to be calm in the midst of a city that was full of idols. (As an aside, what gets you all worked up?)

He did not wait for his colleagues. He got right to work as a messenger of good news, both in the synagogues as he had always done, but also now in the marketplaces every day with those who happened to be there.

Paul could not be content to leave the city as he found it. His spirit was troubled. It was not enough for him to stay among the enclave of Jews in this educated city. He insisted on engaging non-Jews right in the public square. To do less than that would have been unbearable for him. He had to preach the message of Christ. But how to do that?

[18] Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. [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.He had to understand the people he would be engaging. More than that, he had to make them understand his message. This was not an easy task.

Understanding the Christian gospel is not a matter of IQ. It is also not necessarily aided by advanced degrees in philosophy. There were many people in Athens who chased down new ideas about the meaning of life, and about what it meant to live a good life in a difficult world. Some of them conversed with Paul and they had a hard time understanding his message.

Notice that they called Paul a “babbler.” Roughly translated, that means something like, “You're not from these parts, are you stranger.” Paul had grown up in another section of the empire among the Jewish minority in Tarsus. He was educated in the Pharisee subculture in Jerusalem. That was the life that he understood.

When he was left in Athens all by himself as a messenger of Jesus Christ, he encountered an entirely different challenge. If he could have been content to stay in the synagogues he might have not had this experience. Have you every found yourself trying to talk to someone about faith or holiness and the other person does not seem to get your message at all? That was what happened to Paul. The best that people could make out from what he was saying is that he was a preacher of foreign gods.

What was Paul talking about? The passage tells us: “Jesus and the resurrection.” That is the message that we have come to believe is the most precious news that heaven could ever be spoken on the face of the earth. Jesus is the Savior of the world. His resurrection followed His saving death on the cross. In every time and place the true message of Jesus and the resurrection is the message of a foreign Deity. It is never a message that comes by nature out of first century Athens or twenty-first century Exeter. It is heaven's message come to earth, and only the Holy Spirit can make any town or any individual heart receptive to it. But we are assured of this: “To all who would receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

When Paul started talking to strangers in Athens about the message that could deliver that city from idolatry, the people shook their heads and tried to find some philosophers who would be willing to listen to him. When some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers tried to make sense of Paul's message of Jesus and the resurrection, they took him to the place in town where people talked about all kinds of new ideas and judged them. They wanted to understand his message, not to follow it, but to catalog it along with the other intriguing messages of the world. They just wanted to know. But we are messengers of the Resurrection Man and the King over all.

If we stay in our enclave, we do not have Paul's troubling experience. But the Lord has His ways of getting us out of our hiding places. He has more people for us to love, people we care about. He will show us evil in places where we never thought it would thrive. When we speak about what matters most to us, we may seem to be dangerous babblers talking about foreign deities.

There are times in life when we suddenly realize that we are not where we thought we were. Recognizing that fact is the first step to figuring out how to speak the truth in love in that place.

1. Compare and contrast Paul's experiences in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens.

2. What is the significance of Paul going on to Athens and Silas and Timothy remaining in Berea?

3. Why was Paul's spirit provoked within him in Athens?

4. How does Luke's description of Athenian life prepare us for Paul's message in the following passage?

OT Passage: Exodus 19:1-6