The Gospel in the Marketplace

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. 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.

Introduction & Background

What is the Marketplace?

VI. Paul Witnesses to the Greek World (15:36–18:22)

1. Parting Company with Barnabas (15:36–41)

2. Revisiting Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium (16:1–5)

3. Called to Macedonia (16:6–10)

4. Witnessing in Philippi (16:11–40)

(1) Founding a Church with Lydia (16:11–15)

(2) Healing a Possessed Servant Girl (16:16–24)

What is the Marketplace

(2) Healing a Possessed Servant Girl (16:16–24)

(3) Converting a Jailer’s Household (16:25–34)

The Deliverance (16:25–28)

The Witness (16:29–34)

5. Establishing Churches in Thessalonica and Berea (17:1–15)

(1) Acceptance and Rejection in Thessalonica (17:1–9)

(2) Witness in Berea (17:10–15)

6. Witnessing to the Athenian Intellectuals (17:16–34)

(1) The Athenians’ Curiosity (17:16–21)

(2) Paul’s Testimony Before the Areopagus (17:22–31)

I. What is the Marketplace

In Paul’s day Athens was but a shadow of its former glory in its “golden age” in the fourth and fifth centuries b.c. Corinth was now the leading city of Greece commercially and politically.

Even Athens’ native population had dwindled, estimated at some 5,000 voting citizens.

But this was considerably augmented by the nonnative population, particularly the artists, the students, and the tourists.

And there were the buildings and the works of art, mute testimony to its former grandeur.

This is not to say that Athens was no longer an important city.

It was still considered the cultural and intellectual center of the Roman Empire, and it is in this perspective that Luke portrayed it.

Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 365–366). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Today the marketplace are those arenas where we trade goods and exchange ideas.

The Mall

The Job

The Store

The Internet

All of these places are good soil for the Word of God.

II. Epicureans and Stoics Today

Epicureans were thoroughgoing materialists, believing that everything came from atoms or particles of matter.

There was no life beyond this; all that was human returned to matter at death.

1 Corinthians 1:20–21 ESV

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

Though the Epicureans did not deny the existence of gods, they saw them as totally indifferent to humanity.

They did not believe in providence of any sort;

and if one truly learned from the gods,

that person would try to live the same sort of detached and tranquil life as they,

as free from pain and passion and superstitious fears as they.

The Stoics had a more lively view of the gods than the Epicureans, believing very much in the divine providence.

They were pantheists, believing that the ultimate divine principle was to be found in all of nature, including human beings.

This spark of divinity, which they referred to as the logos, was the cohesive rational principle that bound the entire cosmic order together.

Humans thus realized their fullest potential when they lived by reason.

By reason, i.e., the divine principle within them which linked them with the gods and nature, they could discover ultimate truth for themselves.

The Stoics generally had a rather high ethic and put great stock on self-sufficiency.

Since they viewed all humans as bound together by common possession of the divine logos, they also had a strong sense of universal brotherhood.

The mention of these schools is not incidental. Paul would take up some of their thought in his Areopagus speech, particularly that of the Stoics, and thoroughly redirect it in line with the Creator God of the Old Testament.

Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 366–367). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The world thinks it is wise, when in essence it only deals in foolishness...

Romans 1:22 ESV

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

1 cor

1 Corinthians 1:20–21 ESV

In the marketplace do not win people over with worldly wisdom, win them over with God’s Word...

Colossians 2:8 ESV

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8 ESV

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

So in the world the Gospel sounds strange and we cannot waste our time on foolish arguments

III. Strange Things and Wasting Time

Strange Things

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

1 cor

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 cor

Wasting Time

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge Chapter 17

21 spent. Ep. 5:16. Col. 4:5. 2 Th. 3:11, 12. 1 Ti. 5:13. 2 Ti. 2:16, 17.

. . , . . ,

Ephesians 5:16 ESV

16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Colossians 4:5 ESV

5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

2 Thessalonians 3:11 ESV

11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.

2 Thessalonians 3:12 ESV

12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

1 Timothy 5:13 ESV

13 Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV

16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

2 Timothy 2:17 ESV

17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,

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