The Pilgrim Path---Acts 17: 16 – 21 

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

“HIS SPIRIT WAS PROVOKED…”

From Simon Kistemaker: Apart from the derisive question which the philosophers had asked, they regarded Paul with a measure of respect because his teaching related to the quality and essence of life: morality, death, judgment, and resurrection. Paul’s teaching was a novelty to them, and they mistakenly thought that Paul was proclaiming a doctrine about two deities: Jesus and his feminine companion Anastasis (Greek for “resurrection;” see NEB). They had not heard about Jesus and had no teaching on the resurrection; hence their comment that Paul “seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.” However, Paul preached the good news of Jesus and taught that he had risen from the dead. This was newsworthy and called for a formal address by Paul.

As the Apostle Paul “soaked up” the atmosphere of the City of Athens---he was stirred by their IDOLATRY…

Some translations convey the idea that he was “agitated” by their paganism…

---He was driven to do something to help them…

---He was broken-- that so many of them were spiritually blind…

---He was ready to dispel their darkness with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus…

---He would give them the WORD---in dependance upon the Spirit---in hopes that some would be brought to life “in” the Savior…

---He actually “cared” about these people---He did not want them to be separated from God forever by the “debt” of their own sin…

We are reminded by these Sacred texts that we must BE salt and light where we are. We must live the Gospel---AND we must SPEAK the reality of the Good News of Jesus to people. Quite a few people have no idea of Christ’s role as a Savior---OR of the judgment to come.

Are we agitated by the spiritual idolatry around us? Or are we dead---to the spiritually dead?

How will you give---and pray---and labor, to show your concern?

From Thomas Watson: What greater dishonor is there to represent the infinite God by that which is finite; the living God by that which is dead; and the maker of all things by that which is made? The idolatrous are enemies not to their own souls only, but to their children!

From John Duncan: O sinner, lay it to heart: thy conversion, perhaps, concerns thee little; thy conversion concerns thy God very much.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason