Our Scripture for this morning continues in the book of Acts from last week. Last week we looked at how Paul was preaching the Gospel of Jesus in the Greek city of Thessalonica, in northern Greece. However, after just a few short weeks he was run out of town by the leaders of the synagogue there. Paul then moved on to the smaller village of Berea, where he also began preaching the Gospel. When those in Thessalonica heard he was preaching in Berea, they hurried there, and under threat of harm, chased him out from there, too. Now, as our Scripture opens today, we find Paul in the city of Athens.
Paul was waiting for his companions to arrive, which would be several days, and while waiting, he didn’t want to waste any time just sitting around. There were souls in this city, just like everywhere, and they needed to hear the message of Jesus and be saved. He would use this time of waiting to do what the Lord called him to do, spread the saving message of Jesus. Paul’s usual practice when coming to any community to preach was to go to a local synagogue and begin witnessing that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Then as the message spread, he would witness to both Jews and Gentiles. However, here in Athens, there was no synagogue to attend, and very few Jewish people to begin his ministry with. Paul would need to use a different approach to reach these Athenians.
When Paul ministered to people, he came to them where they were intellectually when witnessing about God. He would start at a point they could understand. For the Jews, it was from Old Testament Scriptures. For pagan Gentiles, it was nature and creation. If Paul started witnessing to pagans by quoting from the Old Testament, it would not have been very effective. Few Gentiles had much, if any, acquaintance with those Scriptures, and that wouldn’t have been the best, most effective way to reach them.
When we speak to people about Jesus, we may have one way that we feel the most comfortable in using, and that way might work for some people. However, sometimes we need to change our approach to comfortably and effectively reach others. Paul knew he needed to find common ground with the intellectual Athenians, and that was through their religious nature, and their love and appreciation of the world around them.
In his walks around the city while waiting for his friends, Paul had noticed a shrine to “the unknown god” (vs. 23). Having an astute mind, he thought this was just the key he needed when witnessing. He would introduce them to the true God, one that was previously unknown to them! Paul was not endorsing this pagan god, but was using the inscription as a point of entry to begin witnessing. The apostle then proceeded on by establishing some common ground with them, emphasizing what they could agree on about God, the One who created all things (vs. 24-29).
Paul emphasized that God created mankind, and that all men are equal in His sight, since all came from one man, Adam (vs. 26). Most Jews did not bother to witness to Gentiles, as they believed that God did not care for them, and many Greeks would have felt their scorn. Paul, though, told them that this was not so. He also told them that no man had any excuse for not knowing about God because He has revealed Himself in man’s conscience and in the physical world (vs. 27).
The Apostle did not stay on the topic of nature, though. He was certainly not pushing a worship of nature. He moved his message right along, on to Jesus, His death for us, and His resurrection (vs. 30-31). That is the most important thing to remember when witnessing to others. We may start at one point, some common ground, or a particular interest that the other person may have, but then the conversation must come around to Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross.
Paul knew that the Lord wanted him to bring the message of Jesus to everyone he came into contact with, and he knew his methods would have to change, depending on who he was with. However, each method would always end with telling them the one and only important thing, and that was Jesus, and salvation through Him.
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