The Good News for Postmodern People - Paulus in Athens (Acts 17:16-34)

[Stephan Choe]

October 20, 2023

Key Verse 31: "For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

Most young people today try to avoid conflict. They try to keep the peace while often growing up in homes shattered by divorce and emotionally scarred families.

In this postmodern age, people do not want to believe in absolute moral or universal truths.

Therefore, it is very difficult to teach them a traditional Christian faith.

How can we convey the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them?

Today's Bible text tells us how Apostle Paul communicated the Gospel to "postmodern" people of his time.

People of postmodern society

Paul's missionary account in Athens begins something like this.

When Paul was in Athens, he saw a city full of idols and addicted to idolatry (16). This indicates that polytheism was widespread.

Paul spoke daily in the synagogue or in the market to those who gathered there.

Then some philosophers, namely Epicureans and Stoics, argued with Paul.

Epicureans said that material pleasures should be enjoyed unobjectionabe.

Paul argued with the philosophers of Epicureans and Stoics (18).

Epicurus (342-270 B.C.) held that pleasure was the chief end of life, the pleasure most to be enjoyed being a life of tranquility, free from pain, disturbing passions, superstitious fears, and fear of death. He did not deny the existence of gods, but argued in a deistic manner that they had no interest in human life.

The Cypriot Zeno (340-265 B.C.) was the founder of Stoicism, which took its name from the "painted stoa" (portico or portico) where he usually taught in the Athenian Agora.

Stoics said that one can achieve unshakable happiness through one's own intellect, and that regardless of life's circumstances. That's where the word stoic comes from, meaning 'unshakable, equanimous'.

Epicureanism and Stoicism were the popular pagan alternatives at that time. The present tendency of the world of our day is similar.

When Paul preached the gospel of Jesus and the resurrection to the Athenians, some of them said, "What is this babbler trying to say?"  Others said, "It looks like he is trying to preach foreign gods." (18).

These people believed in different gods. Paul also found an age on which it says, "to the unknown god."

These people thought that there must be one God or several gods. But because they did not know God or gods, they called Him "unknown God".

Many of today's people believe in an unknown god or several unknown gods. Many of my former fellow students think that different religions are equal.

Today, the majority of Germans have no conviction about the correctness of the Christian faith. Thus, they have no common religious basis.

Most people in Europe have not experienced a personal encounter with God. A part of them are Muslims, and Buddhism is fashionable. Europe has become culturally diluted and diverse. They are open to new religions. No one questions the validity of such trend. CDU/CSU seats in the Bundestag in Germany are only about a quarter of total seats. And many of CDU deputies are not really Christians. The majority of deputies represent different currents of the world.

Information overload has left people feeling culturally naked, spiritually malnourished, and emotionally uninspired. Although people have machines and means to access vast amounts of information, they hardly know how to interpret and apply it properly from the ocean of information.

Many people in Europe have abandoned their traditional religious affiliation.

This does not mean that no one wants to be a Christian anymore. Today, as in Paul's time in Athens, there are "God-fearing" people.

But the way people think has changed greatly.

These people of Athens called Paul "babbler," took him and led him to the Areopagus to learn new doctrine from him (19).

These people are similar to today's people in Europe or USA.

They want to know more and more about the numerous religious beliefs, but they know little about what they believe and why they believe it.

In Europe there are many religious institutions, Christian, Muslim, and other religious institutions.

But they have lost their Christian ethics and morals and no longer know what is right. Their moral compasses have been reprogrammed to point to a new north. Their sense of the divine has been corrected so that they have little reverence for God. They also have no intention of respecting the divine rules. That is why they have ignored biblical commandments and legalized gay marriage and more.

They have replaced the presence of God with well-intentioned but superficial religious activities. They have substituted cultural idols for the eternal God. They have traded the supremacy of the Creator for the centrality and indulgence of self. All these distractions have left them spiritually bankrupt, morally corrupt, and ethically unsound.

Two extremes in European and American society are as follows:

First, some are so open-minded that they accept almost any idea as valid (v. 17b).

Paul apparently encountered this attitude. These people seemed to be open to all ideas.

Secondly, others react negatively to traditional Christianity (18).

Peter had said, "In no other is salvation, neither is there any other name under heaven given among men by which we are saved" (Acts 4:12).

When Paul preached in Athens, most of the Athenians rejected the gospel of Christ because the gospel claimed the only way of salvation. This situation is the same as the situation of the people in Athens in Paul's time.

Many people today reject Christianity because they claim it is the only way to salvation.

Our society wants to debate endlessly about religions (vv. 19-20).

The debates are endless, mainly because absolute truth is rejected.

A university professor says, "Almost every student believes that truth is relative. Students fear not error but intolerance. They ask, 'What right do I have to claim that one culture or religion is better than another?'"

Respect for God, Christianity, and the Bible has dwindled to the point of disappearing.

Students or people today have their own kind of "Areopagus" on many university campuses across the country, as well as on television and in the print media. The debate rages and God's Word is further marginalized every day.

In Romans 1:21-25 & 28, Paul writes about such people:

"21 For though they knew about God, they did not praise Him as God nor give thanks to Him, but fell into futility in their thoughts, and their unintelligent hearts were darkened. 22 Those who thought themselves wise have become fools, 23 and have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image like that of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things. 24 Therefore God has given them over to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts, so that they dishonor their very bodies. 25 They have turned God's truth into a lie and have worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

28 And as they have esteemed it nothing to know God, God has given them over to a perverse mind, so that they do what is not right."

People today are surrounded by extensive knowledge. Through education, the Internet, and the media, people are exposed to extensive information. The economy is better than it has been for years, and people are even living longer. But fear reigns in their hearts and minds. They lack peace of mind. They are looking to quench their thirst for soul.

Most churches in the West try to give knowledge, but this knowledge does not give them peace of mind, because most churches do not proclaim a true message of Christ, but a postmodern message. They do not understand that postmodern people need the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why people don't want to attend church, but go somewhere else to quench their sea-soul thirst.

Although we are in a radically changing culture around us, we are to pay attention to a generation of young people who no longer think and process information the way the generation before them did. Views of truth and reality itself are changing completely, and it is no exaggeration to say that in many ways people are not the same as they were a generation ago.

The church has become unimportant for many people of our generation. No wonder that searching people look for other religions, Eastern mysticism, etc. are looking for other religions, eastern mysticism, etc. to fill their spiritual emptiness. They want to find the answers to the questions about the meaning of life.

We have increased in knowledge and have become more anxious. We have adopted many views and many answers, hoping to find a better way, and we have lost the peace of a real experience.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Solution (23)

Paul says to the people of Athens, "I went around and looked at your shrines and found an altar on which was written: to the unknown God. Now I declare to you what you ignorantly worship." (23)

And Paul proclaims to them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Only Jesus Christ can give people a life and an eternity. He alone can give people the love of God and a good relationship with God. He alone can give people the forgiveness of sins, true healing of spiritual wounds and salvation from eternal judgment.

Are we ready to accept Jesus and communicate Jesus Christ to others?

We need to proclaim Christ in a postmodern society. The message of Jesus Christ is always "foolishness" to those who are lost. On the surface, we would think that modern people would not accept the message of Jesus Christ. But they do accept it the Good News if we convey it adapted to postmodern thinking.

However, the good news of Jesus Christ is exactly what this postmodern society really needs. If we live according to our Christian faith, the people around us will see the need for the gospel despite all the confusion of society.

The pluralism and paganism of our time were the common experience of the prophets and apostles. In Mesopotamia, there were thousands of gods and goddesses, many of which were known to the Israelites - sometimes even too well. Therefore, the assertion that the existence of religious pluralism today makes the belief in the uniqueness of Christianity completely impossible has no justification. If this had been the necessary consequence of the encounter with a multitude of other religions, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul would have abandoned the biblical faith.

The gospel of Jesus Christ reads:

"That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen by Cephas, afterward by the twelve. After this he was seen of more than five thousand brethren at one time, most of whom are yet alive, but some have fallen asleep" (1Co 15:3-6).

And

"Behold, I tell you a mystery: but we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; and that suddenly, in a moment, at the time of the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1Co 15:51-52). Amen!