What the Elites Need to Hear

We have heard a lot this election season about "elites." It seems like the story of the election has been "The people are revolting against the elites." In the democratic party - that was the narrative that explained the Bernie Sanders campaign and of course, in the Republican party - that's the narrative that they say explains the rise of Donald Trump. It seems like you cannot turn on talk radio or cable news show without hearing the term "elite" get mentioned.

Who are these elites? They are the educated people. The people who went to the best schools. The people who have money and the influence that goes with money. Amanda and I had supper in Effingham on Friday night at the wood fired pizza place downtown and there was a table of people next to us loudly discussing the merits of different wines they'd tasted in different parts of France. That's the elites.

The upper crust. The self-important.

The elites are the cultural movers and shakers in our country. They run the news. They run Hollywood. They run the publishing houses. They put out the art. They curate the restaurants. They shape the culture and they know it.

In our passage this morning - the apostle Paul goes to ground zero for the elites of his day. He goes to the famous ancient city of Athens. And the question I want us to ask and answer this morning is: "What do the elites need to hear?" I think we'll find an answer here. I also think we'll find out that the problem of the "elites" isn't that much different than our problem.

Let's read the second half of Acts 17 and then we'll jump into it.

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)"

"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

"And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

My outline is really simple. Three points: what paul saw, what paul said, how paul said it.

Let's jump in first with:

1. What Paul Saw Paul has come in this story to one of the greatest cities of the ancient world: Athens. Athens was the educational and cultural center of the world and had been for hundreds of years. It was the New York City of it's day. It was where all the important stuff was. It was a ridiculously important town.

So, let's look at...

What His Eyes Saw His eyes would have seen something like this:

Athens was home to the greatest philosophers of all time. Ever heard of Socretes? - born and lived in Athens. Plato? - He set up his famous philosophy school in Athens. Aristotle? - headquarters - Athens.

It was the education center. It was the Yale and Harvard of it's day. It was where all the smart people lived.

You know, Paul was a pretty educated guy himself, in this passage he quotes four different Greek poets, he had to have learned all about the great city Athens.

In the center of this impressive city was a mountain called "the acropolis." "Akro" is greek for "high" and "polis" is greek for city. It was this insanely impressive city build up on a hill so everywhere you looked you saw it's impressive buildings.

When I was in college, my family met us in Nashville to do some site seeing and we visited a replica of one of those buildings - the parthenon - there. Even the replica was incredibly impressive and awe inspiring. Someday I'm going to go see the real thing.

But let's talk about this acropolis for a minute because it kind of tells us a lot about the city of Athens. You see, the Parthenon wasn't just a pretty building that was put there to be impressive. It was a temple. It was a temple to the Greek goddess Athena. In the middle of the temple was this massive statue to Athena - who was the goddess of war, wisdom and crafts.

So that was the Parthenon. But if you look at the rest of the Acropolis, you realize what the purpose of the Acropolis was - you see, it wasn't just the temple to Athena there. There were actually like 7 other temples there to different gods and goddesses. Nike - the goddess of victory. (By the way, that's where the shoe company gets it's name - Phil Knight visited there when he was backpacking around the world as a hippy.) Zeus. Apollo. Augustus. It was this magnificent and impressive tribute to idolatry.

So that brings me back to what Paul saw. You see, his eyes saw this impressive place, but let's see...

What His Heart Saw vs. 16 says:

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."

Paul saw a city that was "wholly given to idolatry."

He wasn't the only person to say this about Athens. A historian of the time said there were more gods in Athens then there were people. It was an idolatrous place.

Now, I want to talk about "idolatry" for a minute. We here in America tend to look at places like Ancient Greece with all their idolatry and we tend to think: "What a bunch of morons. What a bunch of Neanderthals. Who in the world would worship gods that are made out of wood and stone?"

And if you think like that (I know I have in the past) you are totally missing what this kind of idolatry was.

You see - they weren't worshiping these gods as gods. It was much more subtle than that. They were worshiping what these gods represented. And what these god's represented was human achievement, they represented happiness without the one true God.

I was in Menards the other day. (Sorry Chuck) and an old song from Fleetwood Mac came on the radio. I'm not endorsing Fleetwood Mac - but most of you have probably heard the song "Landslide" right? It's a very memorable song. In the middle of the song, Stevie Nix asks this question:

O mirror in the sky, what is love?

Did you catch that? Did you catch what that song is saying? She says "O mirror in the sky." Let me tell you something about most people. Most people aren't worshiping the one true God. Even if they call themselves Christians. They are worshiping "the mirror in the sky." They are worshiping a reflection of themselves.

Tim Keller gives this definition of idolatry. He says idolatry is:

Idolatry is not simply ritual worship, but a whole sensibility and pattern of life based on making particular finite values and created things into god-like absolutes.

In other words - idols are a reflection of your values and aspirations. We still have idols in America today - we are just a little bit more subtle about them. We don't build giant statues of them - we put them on giant buildboards. We don't have the Temple of Athena Nike - we have Soldier Field. We don't have to go to Athens to worship our gods - we can get them in the New York Times or at Harvard or on the TV.

You might be saying - not me. Not me. Let me ask you a couple of questions before you get high and mighty:

What do you think about when no one is around and you have a few minutes of solitude? Do your thoughts go to a bigger house, to a bigger bank account, to some romance you want?

William Temple said:

"Your religion is what you do with your solitude."

If there is something your mind constantly goes to - it's probably an idol.

Here's another question: What do you spend your free time and money on? If you are overspending on something - like your house or your car or your boat - it's probably because that thing aligns with an idol of your heart.

Here is one more question for you: What makes you angry? When you don't get something and you fly off the handle. When you can't live without something - that something is probably an idol in your life.

So back to Athens. Athens was no different than New York or Chicago or anywhere else. It was a big beacon that said "you can do it", "you can go your own way", "you can be happy and successful without God."

So what did Paul see at Athens - he saw that the problem of the elites is the same problem as everyone else - they are trying to make it without God.

Let's look secondly at:

2. What Paul Said (18) Paul didn't just idlely look on. He did something about it. He spoke up. He had a message for the elites at Athens. It's found at the end of verse 18.

"because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection."

Paul looked at the idolatry of Athens and brought the exact same message he brought to the jews at Thessalonica and Berea and everywhere else. He told them about the person of Jesus Christ. He told them about the one who lived a perfect life for them and who died on the cross for them and who rose again for them. He preached to them the message of salvation.

Do you know what the elites need? They need the same gospel as the truck drivers and the coal miners. They need Jesus.

Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 1. Turn there and look at verses 18-25:

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

Notice - the Jews didn't want the gospel because they were looking for a sign. The Greeks didn't want the gospel because it's too simple for them. But both groups - and everyone in between will only be saved by one thing: by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Look at our world today. THere are plenty of people who are trying to save themselves with religion like the Jews. They are going to miss it. There are plenty of people who are trying to save themselves with education and accomplishment like the Greeks - they are going to miss it. The only message that saves people is the message of Christ.

There is one more thing I want you to look at and it's...

3. How Paul Said It In this passage, Paul is preaching in Athens and they bring him to a place called the Areopagus. It was this big rock next to the Acropolis where they had religious trials. They were putting Paul on trial here.

I wish I could go into a lot more detail about the groups that brought him there: the stoics and the epicureans, but we don't have time. A really basic overview would be that the stoics were the under armour people - their motto was "rule yourself" and the epicureans were the "life is good" people. The stoics saw life as something to be endured, the epicureans saw life as something to be enjoyed. But both of these groups had a problem with Paul's message.

So Paul is given this opportunity to defend himself and what he is teaching to these very sophisticated philosophical leaders. Notice what he does:

A. He seized the opportunity. He jumps right in and starts preaching the gospel to them. But he presents it a little differently. He says that he saw an altar to "the unknown god" and so he uses that as his jumping off point. Then when he's preaching, he speaks their language. He references their poems. He quotes three different Greek poets in just a paragraph.

But listen, he's going to the same place he always went.

B. He clearly presented the gospel. In verses 30-31 Paul says:

"but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

Now, these Greeks didn't know the Old Testament - so Paul didn't preach the Old Testament to them - but He still went right to Christ. Right to Christ's death and resurrection and He told them what they needed to do about it. They needed to repent and believe.

One more thing about the way he said it and we'll be done:

C. He spoke boldly. He starts with:

"I perceive that e are in all things too superstitious" and ends with "God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent" and in the middle he presents them a message he had to know many would scoff at.

He was bold.

Did Paul know some would mock? Sure he did. Did he know some people would think he was a foolish idiot? Obviously. I'm sure it bothered him just like it would bother you.

But do you know what else Paul knew. He knew that that was the only message that can save the elites - just like it's the only message that can save the non-elites. They needed to hear the gospel.

So some people mocked it. Some people were polite but didn't accept it. And look at verse 34:

"Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

Even in this land of elites - some people believed it. They believed the gospel and saw their life changed and we will meet these people in heaven someday.

Conclusion