Paul Witnesses in Athens (Acts 17:16–34)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 24, 2025

Last week, the sermon was about learning and studying the Scriptures. I focused on the Bereans and how, when there was a new idea, they went back to God’s Word. They checked the Scriptures to see what the Scriptures had to say about this new teaching that the Apostle Paul taught. Then they found out that this teaching did not contradict the Scriptures. They discovered the Scriptures prophesied about Christ, and they became Christians.

Tim Keller writes, this was in 2003:

Let me give you an example from popular culture. I didn’t see this show. I read about this in an interesting article. This article talks about when Howard Stern was on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Howard Stern had written a book about his life, and he was on there hawking the book. Interestingly enough, the article says Howard Stern repeatedly provoked Leno with language and behavior that pushed way past the rules of live network television.

Of course, Leno could get in terrific trouble if things are said and done on his show that go way past the boundaries of propriety. We all know there are certain boundaries for live network television. Of course, Howard Stern was blowing right by them and just trying like crazy, daring Jay Leno to make a moral judgment and say, “Stop that. You shouldn’t be saying that.”

The writer says something like, “Stern repeatedly dared him to play the role of the moralist who presumes to tell others how to live. The usually unflappable Leno was visibly disturbed. Wanting to avoid having to make any moral judgments, he tried to change the subject and started sorting through a bag of best-selling books that included Stern’s autobiography. Refusing to be silenced, Stern praised his own book but degraded and trashed every other book Leno retrieved and resolutely persisted in challenging Leno to make some moral judgment.

What Stern did not see was the inordinate amount of moral zeal with which he did this. He was extremely self-righteous in his denunciation of everyone else’s self-righteousness. He was absolutely moralistic in his insistence that no one else could make moral pronouncements. It was wrong.

In short, Stern embodied the contradiction of our culture in living and vivid color. We publicly declare all values to be constructed. We profess, therefore, a morality that is thin and lightweight, but daily experience itself retains a moral thickness and weight that contradicts the logic of the culture. The truly significant moment came as the show was going to a commercial break.

Exasperated with Stern, Leno reached into the bag one more time and pulled out one more book. It turned out to be a Bible. For one brief moment, Leno became a prophet. Holding it up and looking into the camera, Leno said simply, ‘Suddenly, everything in this book makes perfect sense.’ ”

What you deny, though, with the mouth you will always affirm. You might say, “No one should make any moral judgments.” What would be wrong with that if there were no such thing as a moral judge? You can’t not know there’s something wrong. It’s not just, “This feels to be wrong,” it is wrong. It’s not just that we have moral feelings. “Well, I feel this is wrong, and I feel that is wrong.” (Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).)

So, what is our standard? Do we go back to the Bible for truth? On one end of the spectrum, we must be sure that we are not corrupted by culture, which means that we know the faith and we go back to God’s Word. On the other end of the spectrum, we must be prepared to be a witness. How can you cross cultural barriers to be a witness? The Apostle Paul did this. Do you know culture?

1 Chronicles 12:32:

…from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command…

Everyone has a worldview, which concerns the way that we view the world. Most of the time, these are under the surface, and we do not think about them. The Bible gives us a Christian worldview. But we also must know where others are coming from. The Apostle Paul did. Sometimes we are afraid of culture. Sometimes we are offended by culture, and we withdraw. Or we are delighted by culture, and we assimilate. The Apostle Paul was distressed by the culture, and so he engaged the culture through the Gospel.

I want to look at Acts 17:16-34 and make the case that he knew the culture and he was ready to engage the culture.

[I am deeply indebted to Dr. Bill Brown, former President of Cedarville University, for some of my information]

1. Now, let’s look at the passage. How does Paul engage culture?
   1. There certainly is a lot in this passage.
   2. When we understand where the culture is coming from and where their thinking is, we are better equipped to engage the culture.
   3. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot ever fence it out.” (J. R. Tolkein; Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod; Fellowship of the Ring)
   4. There are three approaches to culture, and we’ll see Paul’s approach:
      1. We can be offended by culture, which leads to withdraw.
      2. We can be delighted by culture, and we assimilate.
      3. We can be distressed by culture, and so we engage culture.
   5. The latter is what the Bible calls us to do. . . . Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—2 Peter 2:7-8
   6. James 4:4: You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
   7. This is what the Apostle Paul did.
   8. Verse 16 says that Paul was distressed by what he saw:
   9. Acts 17:16 (NASB95) Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
   10. Are we distressed by the sinful culture?
   11. But Paul did not get distressed so much that he buried his head in the sand. He did not assimilate with the culture either. He engaged the culture. Later, we see that Paul reasoned in the synagogue. He talked to the people.
       1. Acts 17:17–21 (NASB95) 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.  18  And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—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 which you are proclaiming? “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
       2. Could he do that if he did not know the culture? No. Could he reason with them if he did not know Christianity and the Scriptures? No. Could he reason with them if he were not seeking the Lord? Not really. If we are not seeking the Lord, we can win an argument but lose the person.
       3. REMEMBER, WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO WIN ARGUMENTS BUT REACH PEOPLE WITH THE GOSPEL.
2. Paul’s method:
   1. 1. 1. Acts 17:22–34 (NASB95) 22     So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.  23   “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24      “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26      and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28    for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29    “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30   “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31    because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” 32        Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” 33 So Paul went out of their midst. 34    But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
         2. We saw that Paul was greatly distressed by the culture (verse 16);
         3. We see Paul sought to understand the culture (verse 23)- he was passing through and examining… He saw an alter to an unknown God. That was also His bridge to connect to the gospel.
         4. He started where they were (verses 22-23), he quotes two of their own poets. That is like us quoting a rock band.
         5. Paul begins with a positive about the truth he found (verse 22);
         6. Paul knew culture. He knew and quoted sources (verses 22 and 28);
         7. Lastly, he communicated the Gospel (verses 18 and 30-31).

The Gospel changes society.

Tim Keller shares:

Nicholas Kristof, who writes an op-ed column for the New York Times editorial page twice a week usually, is a very influential, very smart guy. He went to Africa. Just six weeks ago he wrote this column. In Africa one of the things he saw, which is something that is getting more publicity now, is in large parts of the world born-again Christianity, if you will, is spreading like wildfire. Millions of people are becoming Christians.

When he went there and he looked at so many of the social problems in Africa, he saw Christians dealing with them. He saw orphanages, hospitals, places that cared for AIDS sufferers all being run by, pushed by, supported by Christians. Here’s the most interesting part. This is a quote from his column.

“Pentecostalists, who make up one of the fastest-growing sects, preach faith healing and raising from the dead, but they also give a substantial voice in church to ordinary village women. And that in turn empowers women in the home and community. ‘In our Mozambican culture, women don’t have an active voice in the family,’ explained Ana Zaida, who teaches Bible school. ‘But in Christian life, we discover that not just the husband but also the wife can have a role.… So the wives fight to transform their husbands.’ ”

This is the last line in the column, believe it or not. The New York Times says, “Yet while it sounds strange to say so, evangelicals may be Africa’s most important feminist influence today.” What is he seeing? I’m not sure he knows what he’s seeing, but I’ll tell you what he’s seeing. When you tell a poor African woman the gospel … What is the gospel? Everybody in the world is equally lost. It doesn’t matter your pedigree. It doesn’t matter your race, male and female, rich and poor. Everyone is lost. (Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).)

We live in a culture that is considered post-Christian, or we could call it pre-Christian, which means that we are ripe for revival. We are ripe for an evangelical movement. I want to be part of that movement. I want to be used of God. We see that Paul engaged the culture. I hope you will as well.

There was a music professor at a European school. He grew old, and he could not take care of himself. He had no one, so the school adopted him, and he lived in a men’s dorm. Every day, one of the men would come and say, “Professor, what is the weather like?” The professor would respond, “It is changing; the weather always changes.” He would then strike his tuning fork against his wheelchair and say, “This is middle C, it never changed, it is constant. The weather can change, but middle C does not change.”

What is your middle C? I hope it is the Scriptures, as it was for the Bereans. Cling to the Scriptures because culture will change. But don’t run away from culture. Study culture, be a student of the culture like the men of Issachar of 1 Chronicles 12:32, and then be like Paul and engage the culture with the heart and the mind of Christ.

1 Cor. 9:23

 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Remember, you are never alone; the Holy Spirit is with you.

Do you know Jesus? Maybe today you realize that you are assimilated into the culture. It is time to commit to Christ.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray