An Altar in the University Quad Text: Acts 17:16-34
Introduction: A Holy Vexation
We live in a time when many Christians believe the proper posture toward a hostile culture is one of quiet retreat. We are told to be nice, to be winsome, to not make waves, and to keep our faith a private matter between ourselves and God. The Apostle Paul would not recognize this approach. When he entered Athens, the intellectual and cultural capital of the pagan world, the very epicenter of sophisticated idolatry, he did not have a quiet time. He did not admire the architecture and keep his thoughts to himself. The text says his spirit was "provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols."
This provocation was not the petty offense of a man whose personal preferences were violated. This was a holy vexation. It was a righteous theological heartburn. Paul saw the glory that belonged to the one true God being lavished on carved stones and philosophical abstractions, and it stirred him to the very core. Athens was the ancient equivalent of Harvard, Yale, and Silicon Valley all rolled into one. It was the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It was a city that prided itself on its intellectual prowess, its artistic achievements, and its open-minded tolerance for every god and every new idea. And Paul saw it for what it was: a graveyard of idols, a monument to man's desperate and futile attempt to worship anything and everything except the God who made them.
This passage is a master class in presuppositional apologetics and public square evangelism. It is not a call for us to be obnoxious and belligerent. But it is a direct refutation of the idea that we can be faithful while being silent. Paul enters the public square, engages the dominant worldviews of his day head-on, and proclaims the resurrected Christ as the central fact of all history. He does not begin by trying to prove God's existence with neutral arguments. He begins with God and shows that without Him, nothing else makes any sense. He confronts their worldview not by starting on their turf, but by showing them that the very turf they are standing on belongs to God.
We live in Athens. Our cities, our universities, our halls of government are filled to the brim with idols. They are not made of stone, for the most part, but are fashioned from ideologies: materialism, secularism, sexual autonomy, and the worship of the State. And like Paul, our spirits ought to be provoked. Not to anger, but to action. Not to despair, but to proclamation.
The Text
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. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. 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 proclaiming the good news of 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 speaking? 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 newer.)
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 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. 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; 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; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 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; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” In this way, Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
(Acts 17:16-34 LSB)
The Seed-Picker in the Marketplace (vv. 16-21)
We begin with Paul's arrival and initial engagement.
"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. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present." (Acts 17:16-17)
Paul's response to idolatry is not to start a protest; it is to start a conversation. He begins to reason. He doesn't just shout slogans. He engages in logical, theological discourse. And notice his two-front approach. He goes to the synagogue, his customary starting point, to reason with those who already have the Scriptures. But he also goes to the agora, the marketplace, the public square, to reason with anyone who will listen. This is crucial. The gospel is not just for the religious; it is for the world.
His public reasoning attracts the attention of the local intelligentsia, the Epicureans and the Stoics. These were the two dominant philosophies of the day. The Epicureans were essentially materialists, who believed the gods, if they existed, were irrelevant and the goal of life was to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. They were the philosophical ancestors of our modern secular humanists. The Stoics were pantheists, who believed that a divine logic, or Logos, permeated everything, and the goal of life was to live rationally and accept one's fate with detachment. They were the ancestors of our New Age spiritualists.
Their initial assessment of Paul is dismissive. They call him an "idle babbler," which in the Greek is spermologos. The word literally means "seed-picker." It was a term for a bird that pecks at scraps in the marketplace, or for a person who picks up bits and pieces of information here and there without any coherent system. They thought he was an intellectual amateur, peddling a patchwork of foolish ideas. They also misunderstood him, thinking he was proclaiming two new gods, "Jesus" and "Anastasis" (the Greek word for resurrection). The pagan mind is so saturated with polytheism that it cannot even comprehend monotheism at first.
Yet, their curiosity is piqued. As Luke notes, the Athenians loved nothing more than to hear the latest new thing. So they bring him to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill. This was the ancient and venerable council of Athens, a place for serious philosophical and religious debate. What began as a provocation in Paul's spirit has now led him to the most influential stage in the pagan world.
The Known God Declared (vv. 22-29)
Paul's sermon is a masterpiece of rhetoric and theology. He does not begin with an insult, but with a compliment that is also a subtle indictment.
"Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 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." (Acts 17:22-23 LSB)
This is brilliant. He establishes a point of contact. He finds common ground. He doesn't say, "You are wicked idolaters." He says, "I see you are very devout." He notes their altar to an unknown god, likely built out of a superstitious fear that they might have missed a deity and incurred its wrath. Paul takes this monument to their ignorance and turns it into his sermon text. He says, in effect, "You admit there is a God you do not know. I am here to make the formal introduction. The one you are groping for is the one I am proclaiming."
From this starting point, Paul systematically dismantles their entire worldview by defining the true God. First, He is the transcendent Creator: "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" (v. 24). This one statement refutes both Epicurean materialism and Stoic pantheism. God is not part of the cosmos, and He is not an absentee landlord. He made it, He owns it, and He cannot be contained by it. Your Parthenon is very impressive, but it is infinitely too small for Him.
Second, He is the self-sufficient Giver: "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" (v. 25). Pagan religion is fundamentally transactional. Humans give things to the gods to appease them or to get things from them. Paul says this is utterly wrong. God is not a cosmic vending machine. He is not needy. We are the needy ones. The Creator/creature distinction is absolute. We are utterly dependent on Him for our very next breath.
Third, He is the sovereign Ruler of history: "and He made from one man every nation of mankind... having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation" (v. 26). This strikes at the heart of Athenian pride. They believed they were a superior race, sprung from the soil of Greece itself. Paul says no, you are all cousins, descended from one man, Adam. And your history, your borders, your rise and fall as a nation, are all under the sovereign decree of God. There is no room for racial arrogance or historical chance in a Christian worldview.
The purpose of this divine providence is theological: "that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him" (v. 27). General revelation in creation and history is meant to make men seek the Creator. Paul then affirms God's immanence: "though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist" (vv. 27-28). He even quotes their own Stoic poets to support this point. He is demonstrating that their own best thinkers have glimpsed a truth that only finds its fulfillment in the Christian faith. He is taking their own worldview and showing its internal contradictions.
The argument comes to a sharp point in verse 29. If we are God's offspring, created in His image, living and breathing beings, how could it possibly make sense to think that the God who made us is like a lifeless lump of gold, silver, or stone, shaped by human hands? Idolatry is not just a sin; it is profoundly irrational.
The Universal Demand and the Decisive Proof (vv. 30-31)
Having deconstructed their worldview, Paul now moves from philosophical reasoning to direct, authoritative proclamation. The tone shifts from observation to command.
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31 LSB)
This is the hinge of the sermon. The "times of ignorance," when God allowed the nations to walk in their own ways, are over. The arrival of Jesus Christ has changed everything. God is no longer simply inviting; He is "commanding." And this command is universal: "everyone everywhere." There are no exceptions. The command is to "repent," to have a complete change of mind and direction, to turn from idols to the living God.
Why is this command so urgent? Because of a future certainty: judgment. God has "fixed a day." This is not a vague possibility; it is a divine appointment. The world will be judged, and the standard will be perfect "righteousness." The judge will be the "Man whom He determined," Jesus Christ. The transcendent Creator will judge His world through the incarnate Son.
This is an audacious claim. How can Paul stand on Mars Hill and declare a coming judgment with such certainty? He provides the evidence, the definitive proof: God has "furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead." The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a fine point of theology for insiders. It is the public, historical, verifiable proof that validates everything Jesus said and did. It is God's own stamp of approval on His Son. It is the guarantee that judgment is coming and that Jesus is the judge. The sermon is not an appeal to a vague spirituality; it is grounded in a brute historical fact.
The Threefold Response (vv. 32-34)
The response to this message is immediate and divided. This is what always happens when the gospel, and particularly the resurrection, is clearly preached.
"Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, 'We shall hear you again concerning this.' ... But some men joined him and believed..." (Acts 17:32, 34 LSB)
First, there was mockery. "Some began to sneer." The Greek mind, influenced by Platonism, saw the body as a prison for the soul. The goal was to escape the physical realm, not to have the body restored. The idea of a bodily resurrection was, to them, grotesque and foolish. This is the response of the proud intellectual who cannot stomach a truth that violates his philosophical categories. Our modern Epicureans, the materialists, sneer because the resurrection violates their closed system of cause and effect.
Second, there was procrastination. "We shall hear you again concerning this." This is the polite, academic dismissal. It is the response of the perpetually curious who love to analyze and discuss new ideas but never want to commit to one. They want to keep the conversation going, but they do not want to bend the knee. This is perhaps the most dangerous response of all, because it feels reasonable, but it is a refusal to obey the command to repent now.
Third, and gloriously, there was conversion. "But some men joined him and believed." Even on Mars Hill, the hardest of soils, the seed of the gospel found purchase. Luke names two converts: Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus itself, one of the intellectual elite of the city, and a woman named Damaris. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and it can break through philosophical pride, cultural sophistication, and entrenched idolatry. God always reserves a remnant for Himself.
Conclusion: Your Athens
We are not called to win a majority vote in Athens. We are called to be faithful witnesses there. The lesson of Mars Hill is that we must engage our culture with courageous clarity. We must, like Paul, be provoked by the idolatry that surrounds us, not in a spirit of self-righteousness, but in a spirit of zeal for the glory of God.
We must learn to be bilingual, speaking the language of Scripture and the language of our culture, so that we can do what Paul did. He found their "altar to an unknown god," their point of ignorant worship, and he proclaimed the truth to them. What are the altars in our culture? They are inscribed with words like "Social Justice," "Equality," "Freedom," "Science," "Authenticity." Our task is to say, "The true justice and freedom you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you in the person of Jesus Christ."
We must reason with them, showing them that their worldviews are incoherent and cannot bear the weight of reality. We must proclaim the fundamental truths: God is the transcendent Creator, the self-sufficient Giver, and the sovereign Ruler. We are His creatures, utterly dependent and accountable to Him.
And above all, we must drive everything to the central, non-negotiable point: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the proof. This is the fact of history that changes everything. And because of it, God commands everyone, everywhere, to repent. The response will be the same today as it was then. Some will sneer. Some will stall. But by the grace of God, some will believe.
So do not be intimidated by the intellectual pride of our age. Do not be silenced by the demand to keep your faith private. Stand in your Athens, and with courtesy and courage, proclaim the God who made the world, and the Man He raised from the dead.