Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ

Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2001-04-01

Synopsis: John Weaver teaches from Acts 17 and Colossians 2 the absolute necessity of a biblical philosophy or worldview. He contrasts the Apostle Paul's God-centered worldview with the humanistic philosophies of the Epicureans and Stoics, showing how Paul's sermon on Mars Hill systematically refutes their materialism, evolutionism, pantheism, fatalism, and denial of judgment. Weaver emphasizes that every person has a worldview that determines how they live, and that Christians must interpret all of life through the lens of Scripture, starting with God rather than man.

[John Weaver] All right, let's open our Bibles today to Acts 17 and Colossians chapter 2. Acts chapter 17, Colossians chapter 2. Actually, the point of this message today is really twofold. Number one, it is to reinforce in your mind the absolute necessity for a biblical philosophy. And number two, it's also to demonstrate to you that we really cannot understand scripture until we understand things in their context, and when you begin to analyze scripture and see things in the context, then, of course, you're going to see the whole point that the Lord has directed your attention to. So let's look at chapter 17. Let's begin reading with verse 15.

[John Weaver] And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now, while Paul waited for them in 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.

[John Weaver] Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others, some, he seemeth to be a setter for the 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 who 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, You men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you are too superstitious.

[John Weaver] For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you 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 worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth it all life and breath and all things. and have made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and the vows of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.

[John Weaver] For in him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own prophets have said. For we also are his offspring." For as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God went down. But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

[John Weaver] And others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men claimed on him and believed among the witch was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Demarius and others with them.

[John Weaver] Now hold Acts 17, but look in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 2. Now I want you to mark chapter 2 of Colossians because we'll probably come back there. I just want to read verse 8 right now. Colossians 2 verse 8. Paul writes,"...beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

[John Weaver] Now, I want to demonstrate to you today from Scripture the absolute necessity of having a biblical philosophy or a biblical worldview. In fact, Acts chapter 17 contrasts for you a humanistic or a pagan worldview and also a biblical worldview. And you're going to see, I believe, in this passage that your worldview also determines how you live. Now, every one of us has a philosophy. Every one of us has a worldview. It may be a partial instead of a complete worldview. And it also may be humanistic instead of biblical. But everybody has a worldview.

[John Weaver] Now, stop and think about this. And I've mentioned this to you before. In reality, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Your nerves do not break down. They still continue to function. Well, what is it that is broken down? It's your philosophy. It's your worldview. In other words, the way you see things and the way you handle things no longer work, and you don't know what to do, and you go to pieces. And so in reality, it's not your nerves that is broken down. It is your philosophy. It is your worldview. I want you to understand that there is a biblical philosophy of life. Let's take the word philosophy. It is actually made up of two words, phileo, which means I love, and sophia, wisdom. Philosophy basically means a love of wisdom. A philosopher is someone who loves wisdom. And by the way, God is the chief philosopher, for He is omniscient and Jesus Christ is wisdom incarnate. So let me give you very quickly a definition of a worldview.

[John Weaver] Listen carefully, I'll explain it. Someone has put it like this, and I believe this is the correct definition. It is man's scientific total view of all created reality. Man's scientific total view of all created reality. When we say it is man's view, we mean it is qualified and is limited by our human capabilities and inabilities. So our views are never ever going to be perfect. They may be biblical in the areas Now that we study and apply the word of God, but they are not total and they're not complete in the sense because we're not perfect in and of ourselves yet. So it is man's view.

[John Weaver] Secondly, when I talk about a scientific view, I'm not necessarily talking about science in the laboratory, but I am talking about the fact that the scientific view, as opposed to a naive view, in other words, we've actually tried to study and ascertain what is right and what is wrong based upon an honest investigation of the facts and reality. And when I say told you, I'm saying that we recognize that everything is interrelated and everything answers to God. And when I say created reality, I mean the fact that it deals with the entirety of God's creation. So that would be law, that would be economics, that would be government, that would be family, that would be everything included. So basically a worldview is your own scientific total view of all created reality.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to go back to Colossians chapter 2. I want you to see in Colossians chapter 2 that God is not forbidding philosophy. What God is forbidding in Colossians chapter 2 is a humanistic, unbiblical philosophy. He says in verse 8, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, now look, and vain deceit after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. What is it that's condemned in this verse? It is a philosophy that is after the rudiments of the world. It is a philosophy that is after the traditions of men and not after Christ. There is a Christian philosophy and there is a humanistic philosophy. So therefore, if the philosophy is biblical, if it is after Christ, it is not forbidden. The only philosophy that is forbidden is that which is against Christ and against the Word of God.

[John Weaver] So every one of us has a worldview. The problem with our worldview is usually it is not biblically based. It is not theocentric. It is not God-centered. And so what we have to do is come back and center our philosophy around the Word of God.

[John Weaver] Now, in our text, in Acts chapter 17, I'm going to be coming back there. In Acts chapter 17, you have a Christian philosopher who would be the Apostle Paul in this instance. who is opposing humanistic or pagan philosophers. Now, I want you to look in Acts chapter 17, because in order to understand the sermon that Paul preaches, you've got to understand the history and the context. And I want you to begin looking there. And let me give you the three points I'm going to deal with very quickly. First of all, in verse 17, we have the therefore of Paul's determination. therefore disputed he in the synagogue, then you have the therefore or the then I should say of. Paul's opposition in verse 18. Then certain philosophers of Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And then you have the then of Paul's declaration in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill.

[John Weaver] So this passage actually automatically divides itself into three parts. So let's begin with the therefore Paul's determination. And you can only see this in verses 15 through 17. Watch carefully. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens. and receiving a commandment of the silence in the movies for to come to him with all speed they departed and while Paul waited for them in Athens. His spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city holy given to adultery.

[John Weaver] Disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him." First of all, I want you to note, it was a human determination. And I'm using that word in reference to the fact that you and I are not mechanical, we are not machines. Paul saw the city wholly given to idolatry, and Paul willingly, voluntarily determined to enter into a witnessing or a preaching experience with these individuals. So he actually determined. Note, secondly, it was a heavenly determination, for verse 16 says, and while Paul waited for them at Athens, now look carefully, his spirit was stirred in him.

[John Weaver] Now let me ask a simple question. What made Paul act, humanly speaking? And the answer comes back, It was because there was a heavenly determination. God stirred his spirit. Now, please understand, when the word stirred is used here, it is a passive in the Greek, which means Paul was not active. He was acted upon. In other words, God was moving upon the Apostle Paul. Do you remember what the Bible says? The Bible says,"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Philippians 2 verse 12. And then he explains it in verse 13. He says,"...for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure." You work it out only because God has already worked it in. So here's a good, clear illustration of how God was working in the Apostle Paul. God stirred him, and therefore he went out and preached. The same truth is found in Isaiah 26 and verse 12.

[John Weaver] He said, Behold, thou hast ordained peace for us. Why? For thou hast brought all our works in us. The only reason you and I do anything that is right and holy and godly is because God stirs us and gives us grace. God must first act in us and on us and through us before we act in obedience. So it was a human determination. It was a heavenly determination. And thirdly, in verse 16, it was also a holy determination.

[John Weaver] For look what he says. Now, when Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. How can you say that's a holy determination? Because Paul's heart beat. for God's honor and God's glory.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note something. It was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul. And pity will not move us, or at least not for long. It was not the fact that these people that were lost that moved the Apostle Paul. They were lost. Well, what moved Paul was he saw The glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols. What does God say in Isaiah 42 and verse 8?

[John Weaver] Let me quote it for you. We'll look in Psalm 96 together, but listen if you go to Psalm 42 and verse 8. He said, Behold, I am God, and beside me there is none other, and my glory will I not share with idols. And so the truth is, God will not share His glory with idols. Now, look in your Bibles to the book of Psalms, Psalm 96. And let me show you, beginning there with verse 1. We're talking about God's honor and God's glory. Psalm 96, begin there with verse 1.

[John Weaver] Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Now watch verse 3. Declare His glory among the heathen. Say wonders among all the people. His wonders among all the people. For the Lord is great and greatly be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

[John Weaver] Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come unto his courts.

[John Weaver] Now go back to verse 4. He says, For the Lord is great and greatly to be feared. and greatly be praised, he be feared above all gods." Verse 8, given to the Lord the glory due in his name. What did Paul see in Acts chapter 17? He saw the glory that was due in the name of the Lord and the praise that was due only to the one true and living God being given to idols. So it was not pity that moved Paul. It was not the fact that the people were lost that moved Paul. It was the fact that God's honor and God's glory was being given to false gods.

[John Weaver] Now, if you were to take time and go back to Isaiah chapter 6, we're not going to do it right now just to save time. There's a lot I've got to share with you today. But if you were to go back to Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah says to the Lord, Here am I, Lord, send me, there's a human determination. in the fact that Isaiah is saying, I am willing to go.

[John Weaver] If you would look at verses six and seven, you'll find there is a heavenly determination because it was a seraphim that took the coals from the altar and touched his lip and purged him. And then you'd go back to verses 1 through 5, you'd see it was a holy determination, because what did Isaiah sing? He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up, and His train also filled the temple. And what were the seraphim doing? They were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. Every time you find in the Bible someone doing something for God, there was always before that human determination a heavenly determination, and the basis of it was a holy determination. You'll find that same thing in Exodus 34 and Exodus 33, dealing with Moses. Now, go back in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. Watch this carefully. In Acts chapter 17, having seen now In verse 16, that Paul's spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

[John Weaver] Look at verse 17. Therefore, disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with him that met with him. Now let me tell you what the word disputed means. It does not mean that Paul got into a knockdown, drag out argument. The word disputed actually means to reason or to argue in a logical, reasonable manner. So he went into the synagogue where these Jews were, and the devout persons. Who were the devout persons?

[John Weaver] Well, they were Grecian proselytes. Look back in verse 4. Acts 17, verse 4. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. So Paul goes into the synagogue now, and notice if you would please, the Bible says, and in the market daily with them that met with him. So whenever the synagogue was meeting, Paul went in and would reason with them. When the synagogue was not meeting, then the Apostle Paul was in the market on a daily basis, reasoning, arguing, using logic, using a Christian worldview to tell them of the truth. Now watch. Look secondly, and here's where it gets interesting.

[John Weaver] You see the therefore of his determination. Secondly, here's the then of the opposition, verses 18 through 21. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others told me he seemed to be a set of four of the strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him into the Areopagus, saying, May we know of this new doctrine whereof thou speakest this? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers who were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new. Now, as Paul was busy preaching in the marketplace, he encountered opposition. And his opposition happened to be the Epicureans and the Stoics.

[John Weaver] Now, you've got to ask yourself this question. Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? Who were the stoics? And what did they teach? Why did they accuse the Apostle Paul of being a babbler? What is a babbler? What is the significance of the statement, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods? What is the Areopagus? Now, let me just tell you, if you do not know the answer to these questions, You're in no position to understand the Apostle Paul sermon.

[John Weaver] Because what you have is an excellent illustration of a Christian with a worldview confronting non-Christians with a non-Christian worldview. So they're going to tangle. And I want you to listen to me carefully. Your worldview determines how you act and how you behave. If your worldview is unbiblical, you're going to act unbiblically. If your worldview is biblical, then you're going to act biblically. Now, let's get started.

[John Weaver] Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? You said, well, the Epicureans were philosophers. Yes, they were Greek philosophers. That's a good answer. But let's be a little more specific. Epicurus lived from 342 to 270 BC. His disciples were known as the school of the garden because he taught from a garden in Athens. And he was the master that instructed them. The best known Epicurean philosopher was the Roman poet Lucretius. Now, you've got to ask yourself, what did the Epicureans teach?

[John Weaver] By the way, as I go through these things with you, will you remember what Solomon said? There's nothing new under the sun. And will you also remember that the same heresies that the Apostle Paul is confronting in Acts chapter 17 are with us today under a little different name. But there's still the same heresy. OK, what did the Epicureans teach? First of all, they taught materialism.

[John Weaver] Now, materialism is the theory that matter is the only reality and everything in the world, including what they would call the gods. including feeling and thought, everything was explained in terms of matter. Matter was the only thing that counted. Therefore, to the Epicurean, comfort, pleasure, wealth of an individual was the highest gold and the greatest pleasure. They were a materialistic people. The more you had, the more you enjoyed life, the better off you were.

[John Weaver] Now, is that philosophy still with us today? Well, a lot of Christians have that philosophy, don't they? They're good Epicureans and don't even know it. But that was one thing they taught. They taught materialism. Secondly, they taught evolutionism. Because Epicurus taught that the universe, plants, animals, and man evolved from atoms. Have you heard of atomistic evolution? Well, of course you have. Darwin didn't come up with the first idea of evolution. I mean, the Epicureans taught this long before Darwin ever came along. So they were materialists. They were evolutionists. They also taught that there was no such thing as human immortality. What they taught was this.

[John Weaver] When you're dead, you're dead. You're annihilated. Just like a dog. When a dog dies, he's dead. That's it. It's the end of it. Nothing else. No life after death. No judgment. No eternal life. No eternal suffering. Just when you're dead, you're dead. So they denied human immortality.

[John Weaver] Fourthly, they believed in fatalism. What do I mean by fatalism? They believe that every event that happened was naturally caused. In other words, caused by nature. And I know I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. I cringe and I get angry every time I hear the weather forecaster say, Mother Nature. That just tears me up. That's a pagan term to the core. You're talking about the goddess of earth, the earth mother, which is pure paganism. And that's what these Epicureans taught. In other words, everything comes naturally. Everything comes by chance or luck or fate.

[John Weaver] To the Epicurean, there was no such thing as a supernatural intervention of God. There was no miracle. There was no supernatural. And for the Epicurean, the greatest evil was the fear of death. Why should you fear death? Because when you're dead, that's it. You're out of it. You will know nothing.

[John Weaver] Now, the whole system of Epicureanism had a practical end in view. What was their end? What was their purpose? Here's what they basically taught. Here's the summation of their doctrine. That the good life is in man's power. That man can be happy, and the way to be happy It's to have the best of everything and live in serene detachment. The greatest good and the highest goal was to have pleasure without pain.

[John Weaver] Hey, I know a lot of preachers that preach that. Pure Epicureanism. In fact, one of the pleasures that they emphasized was intellectual pleasure. Look down in verse 21. He says, for all the Athenians and the strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. You know, just an intellectual pleasure. How would you like to just spend your day just talking, trying to find out what you can find out? You know, I think after a while I'd get old. I mean, I want to learn, but I don't think I just want to spend my days talking and doing nothing else. But that's part of their pleasure. Now, here's what happened.

[John Weaver] Since the Epicureans wanted pleasure without pain, their philosophy, however, deteriorated into hedonism. Now, you know what hedonism is. Hedonism is the philosophy, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. In other words, do whatever you're going to do because you're going to be dead like a dog that's going to be all over with. But the Epicureans basically taught you wanted positive pleasure without pain. Pain was to be avoided.

[John Weaver] So the true Epicurean, the true Epicurean would never be a drunkard. Why? Although he would enjoy his wine and whatever else he wanted to enjoy, he would do it moderately. Because if you turn out to be a drunkard, there's pain in that, and there's cirrhosis of the liver, and there's DTs and all these other things. So the true Epicurean wanted pleasure, but he wanted pleasure without pain.

[John Weaver] But his philosophy deteriorated into pure hedonism. Now, the Epicureans were the atheists of the Greek philosophers. They had no positive faith in anyone or anything. To them, the universe just happened. There was no lawgiver, there was no creator, there was no redeemer, there was no judge, and their chief end in this life was to enjoy the pleasures of this life without pain. So pleasure without pain would basically be the philosophy or the slogan for the Epicureans.

[John Weaver] Now, who were the Stoics? Let me tell you. Zeno was the founder of the Stoics. He lived from 335 to 265 B.C. and it was in the city of Sycheion in Cyprus, he began to teach from a portico or a porch. And the Greek word for porch is stoa. Since he was teaching from this porch, hence his followers became known as Stoics.

[John Weaver] Now the Roman senator Seneca was a Stoic. And you remember the most noble Roman of them all, Emperor Marcus Aurelius? He himself was a Stoic as well. Well, what did the Stoics teach?

[John Weaver] Now listen carefully, because we're going to get into some real modern day philosophy and heresy. The Stoics taught, first of all, pantheism. You know what pantheism is? Pan means all, theism, God. Everything is God. Pantheism taught that God is not a personality, that God is not a real genuine person, that this desk is God, that you're God, that I'm God, the earth is God, that bird is God, that cow is God. In other words, God is not some self-existing individual who is transcendent from heaven and earth, no. The world here.

[John Weaver] Here's one of their statements. Listen carefully. The world is the body of God and God is the soul of the world. And apart from the world, God has no existence.

[John Weaver] Now, to them, to the stoics. The name God or the term God was just another term for fate or causation or consequence, so to the stoic, There was no sovereign, all-wise God who ruled according to his will. No, no. It was just simply fate. It was just simply chance, because everything is God. They were pantheists. Secondly, the Stoics taught naturalism. By naturalism I mean this, that man is capable of obtaining the good life, and the good life consists of not wanting things any other way than they already are. In other words, we acknowledge the cycle of nature.

[John Weaver] And yes, we might pursue knowledge, but we're going to pursue knowledge with a detachment because if we don't learn what we want to learn, we might be disappointed and disappointment is bad. If we serve others, we do so in a disinterested way, because if we're serving others, our service may be rejected, and that would be hurtful, and we don't want to be hurt. Stoicism is known for its unemotionalism, for its disinterestedness, for its passionlessness, He said, Brother Weaver, I'm not a Stoic.

[John Weaver] Sure you are in a lot of ways. Have you ever told your sons, husbands, fathers, have you ever told your sons, come on boy, keep a stiff upper lip. Boys don't cry. Where did that come from? Not from the Bible. Jesus wept. Don't show your emotions. Now, husbands, come on now. You can't put your arm around your wife and kiss her out in public. I mean, what would people think? Well, they might really think you love your wife. I kiss my wife all the time, everywhere. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I love her.

[John Weaver] You know, hey, that's all right. And listen, it's all right for men to cry. This idea of you keep a stiff upper lip, that's pure Stoicism. The Stoics also taught individualism in the sense by that they meant it's only the individual that counts, so don't get involved in anything. Boy, are Christians good Stoics. Because they don't want to get involved in anything today. The Stoics taught indifferentism.

[John Weaver] So it doesn't matter to them, to a stoic, which God you served, because, I mean, after all, we're all going to the same place. To them, which would just be death, but, I mean, you know, it didn't matter to them. I've heard people who profess to be Christians say, well, it really doesn't matter, we're all working for the same place. Well, if you're working for it, I've got news for you. You're going to get to where you're working for, but it ain't going to be where you think it is.

[John Weaver] Because salvation is not by works, it's by grace through faith. So here you have the Epicureans and the Stoics. Now watch it. The Epicureans emphasize pleasure, and the Stoics emphasize pride. The Epicureans and the Stoics were the Sadducees and the Pharisees of Greek philosophy.

[John Weaver] Now, the best-known Stoic philosopher was a man by the name of Cleonthes, or Aretas. And if you look in Acts 17, verse 28, The Apostle Paul quotes him. Here he is. Acts 17, notice if you would please, verse 28. The Apostle Paul says, 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. So in that instance, the Apostle Paul is quoting Cleopas. Now watch this.

[John Weaver] You have the Epicureans, you have the Stoics. Paul is preaching and teaching. All of a sudden he encounters these philosophers, and they say that Paul is a babbler. Look at it, Acts chapter 17, and notice verse 18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Tell me where Paul was preaching and teaching when he encountered the philosophers? In the marketplace. Now, the Greek word for the marketplace is the agora. The agora was the center of public life in ancient Greece. It was where the poets met, the artisans, The politicians, the orators, the statesmen, the philosophers, everyone went to the marketplace. It was a place where you not only bought and sold, it was a place for conversation, for visiting, for idleness, for teaching.

[John Weaver] Now, north of the Agora is the craggy eminence referred to as the Areopagus. Eastward is the Acropolis.

[John Weaver] Now, the whole area is filled with altars and temples and gods and relics. It was in this Agora, in this marketplace, where the porches and the gardens were, where the philosophers taught their students. It was in this marketplace where Paul was preaching and teaching when he was accused of being a babbler. Now, what in the world is a babbler? I like this word. And I want to show you how they really tried to put down the Apostle Paul. And by the way, if you don't think that the worldly philosophers will endeavor to put down a Christian philosopher, you just look at the Christians on the talk shows and see how the talk show host does everything he can to make the Christian look like an absolute fool and idiot. And so here these Epicureans and these Stoics, and some of them refer to Paul as a babbler. Probably it was the Epicureans who called him this. But the word for babbler is spermalagos.

[John Weaver] I'll go ahead and tell you this. Spermalagos is a hypoxilogamina. How does that suit you? Hapax is a Greek word which means just once. Logamma refers to words. So a hapax logamma is a word that occurs just one time in the Bible. So this is the only time this word occurs. It's a bad word. And the word is spermalogos. And here it means, it has basically three meanings. Neither one of them are very attractive. But the first one, spermalogos, refers to a bird that pick seeds from the ground, or a seed picker. Why would they call Paul a seed picker?

[John Weaver] What they were referring to him was, was an ignorant plagiarist. He really didn't know what he was talking about, and whatever he was saying, he just stole from someone else. That kind of reminds you of some modern day plagiarists. I'm not going to name any, One of them got his doctorate by stealing. Who'd you say? Yeah, it was Martin Luther King. He was a plagiarist. He stole.

[John Weaver] And of course, so did some of our presidential candidates as well. So they're calling Paul a babbler, a seed picker, an ignorant plagiarist.

[John Weaver] Secondly, the word means a pauper, one who prowls the marketplace, a parasite who lives by his wits, hence a contemptible and worthless person. And thirdly, it means the perpetual and useless chirping and chattering of a bird. Let me put that in modern-day colloquialism. It means someone who just runs off at the mouth. Someone who is continually talking and making noise and not saying anything. So here, the Epicureans, who were the atheists, When Paul is preaching Jesus and the resurrection, they say, this man is a babbler. He's an ignorant plagiarist. He's a seed picker. He's a pauper. He's a parasite. He's just running off at the mouth. He knows not what he's talking about. Isn't it amazing? What does the Scripture say in 1 Corinthians 1? The preaching of the cross is what? Foolishness.

[John Weaver] to those who are unsaved. And it still is. These Greek philosophers thought they were all-wise and all-knowing, and here comes a man with the truth, and they call him a nitpicker and a plagiarist and a parasite. Well, what does it mean then in verse 18 when he says,"...he seemeth to be a set-apart of strange gods."

[John Weaver] Now, in all probability, it was the Stoics who charged him with this. Are you listening? In Athens, the introduction of strange gods was a capital offense, if by such introduction the home deities were rejected and the state religion disturbed. In other words, you could get the death penalty for preaching a strange God if it messed up the state religion.

[John Weaver] Now you've got to remember, during Paul's time, who was in charge of the Greek Empire? The Romans. And what did you have to do once a year if you maintained your legitimate status as a religion in Rome. Once a year, you had to swear by the genius of Caesar. You had to say that Caesar's Lord and Lord Caesar gives you the right to believe what you want to believe. So here Paul is, although Athens is in Greece, yet the Romans had conquered. And if you introduce a strange God, if it meant Tearing down of the state religion, you could face the death penalty. Now, very clearly, neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics understood Paul's message when he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

[John Weaver] So, the Bible says in verse 19, look carefully, and they took him and brought him unto Areopagus. What is the Areopagus? Well, that word is really two words, Areon Pagon. Areopagus literally means the hill of Ares, who was the Greek god of war, which corresponded to the Roman Mars. And the Areopagus was the hill in front of the Agora. However, listen carefully, the Areopagus was not just the hill in front of the Agora. The word Areopagus also refers to the court, or to the council of Areopagus. It was this council that took note of murders, impieties, immoralities, and they were very attentive to blasphemies against the gods. So when the Stoics charged Paul with being a set-aforth of strange gods, they did not take him to the hill Areopagus, they took him to the council of Areopagus, where he was to be judged. And by the way, if you will skip down very quickly in verse thirty four, you'll find that one of those councilmen got converted by Paul's preaching.

[John Weaver] How the assertive men claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius, the area of a guide. That is a man who was on this court or who was on this council. He certainly would not be a hill, he was on the council. And so it was this court or this council that Paul was brought before because he was a set of forth of a strange God.

[John Weaver] Now, this court evidently functioned not only politically and educationally, but also judicially and legally. And so the apostle Paul, then, is brought before this council.

[John Weaver] Now, this council or this court had the power or the authority to take official actions in questions of hearing upon public teaching in the city. So Paul is doing some public teaching, and so now Paul is brought before the court.

[John Weaver] Now, skip down in your Bibles to Acts 17, verse 22. This brings me to the third point I want to start trying to tie things together. We worked our way down. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Now, what is Mars Hill? It's the Areopagus. It's the same thing. Mars Hill, Areopagus, same thing. Same hill, but he's now at the hill, at the council. Then Paul stood in Mars Hill, the midst of Mars Hill, and said, now here he begins his direct declaration.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just tell you that the Apostle Paul's message is not to be construed as a formal apology. By the way, I know I've told you this before, but I want to refresh your minds. When we say that Pastor So-and-so is offering an apology for the faith, that does not mean he's standing up and saying, I'm sorry that we believe what we believe. Apologetics is the arm of theology that is termed defending the faith. So apologetics is a defense of the faith, not an apologizing for the faith, okay? So Paul is not necessarily giving a formal defense here, although he is certainly defending certain aspects of the faith.

[John Weaver] Now, let's begin in verse 22, and let me show you the then of Paul's declaration. There's a lot of things that we can learn from the Apostle Paul. Verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. Would you like to know what the word superstitious really means?

[John Weaver] Now, it's not talking about don't walk under a ladder. If a black cat crosses your path, throw salt over your shoulder. The word superstitious, some of you have marginal references in your Bible. It means religious, literally. He says, you men of Athens, I perceive it in all things, you're too religious. Do you realize that you can be religious but lost? You can be religious and be unbiblical to the core.

[John Weaver] Now, what Paul did was this. I want you to note, he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them. He's acknowledging the fact that they're religious. He says, you're just a little too religious. You know what most of us do? And I want to tell you, I have to bite my tongue at times, but isn't it amazing how we want to just jump down everybody's throat when we know they're wrong? We want to straighten them out so quickly and tell them off. But you know something, I'm going to tell you, you will never reach anyone by making them mad at you to begin with. It's just not going to do it. You see, I've got just enough rebellion and sin left in me. If you tell me I'm not going to do something, I'm going to do it just to show you. You know, if you tell me I'm wrong, I'm not going to listen to you because I'm going to show you, you know, that's the way people are. Let's be honest.

[John Weaver] So Paul began with courtesy and care. And he said, look, I know you're religious. I know you believe certain things, but look in verse twenty three. And I like this. He says, for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare unto you." Now, I want you to watch what the Apostle Paul did. You know how smart.

[John Weaver] Remember now, you could get the death penalty for introducing a new God into the society if it detracted from the Roman state religion. So the apostle Paul said, look, I found an altar out there with this inscription to the unknown God. Look, I'm not introducing a new God to you. I'm just telling you about the one that you don't know anything about. Let me explain who he really is. So Paul just got himself out of a legal quagmire by using their own altar to the unknown God. So he said, I'm going to declare this unknown God to you.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look, and I want you to please try to remember everything that I told you that the Epicureans and the Stoics taught. Because everything that Paul is going to say goes right straight smack dab contrary to what they taught. Note, if you would please, in verse 24, he declares creationism as opposed to Epicurean evolutionism. He says in verse 24, 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. In other words, God is the Creator. The earth did not evolve.

[John Weaver] It did not just happen. It did not just begin by luck, chance, fate, or fortune. No, no. God created the earth and everything in it.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to see what He's doing. He's not just saying, look you stupid Epicureans, you're wrong. He probably wanted to say that. But what he is saying is, I'm declaring the truth to you. And he does so without telling them how stupid and ignorant they really are. You follow me? Now watch it. So he says, God is the creator. Now I want you to note, secondly, he not only deals with the fact that God is the Creator. He also, in verse 24, declares the sovereignty of God over heaven and earth as opposed to the pantheism of the Stoics. He says in verse 24, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth.

[John Weaver] Ah, we've got a sovereign. We have an ultimate. We have an absolute. The earth is not God. The world is not God. Materialism is not God. No, no, no. We have a transcendent God who is above His creation. We have One who is absolutely sovereign. Now, God's handiwork may be seen in the earth and in the world, But God Himself is exalted far above heaven and earth. So, He teaches creationism. He teaches the absolute sovereignty of God.

[John Weaver] And look at verses 24 and 25. He now teaches the incorporeality of God, or the immateriality of God, or let me say it another way, the spirituality of God. He says in verse 24, the latter part, that he, as Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands."

[John Weaver] Now, what is he saying? He is saying, and teaching the truth of John 4, verse 24, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He's saying, look, you Stoics, you want to think that God is material? No, no, no. He's not material. He's immaterial. It is true He is Lord of heaven and earth, but He is spirit.

[John Weaver] Now listen carefully to what I'm about to say. God is not a spirit. God is spirit. And by the way, do you know why everybody wants to materialize God? I might deal with this. I'm probably going to come back in a few weeks and just bring several messages on the nature of God and deal primarily with one aspect on the spirituality of God. But do you know why people want to materialize God? Do you know why they want an idol? Do you know why they want God confined in a temple or in a church or around an altar?

[John Weaver] Let me tell you why. Because when you get your God confined to a material object, when you walk away from that material object, you're on your own. And you've got control over your God. You've got Him right where you want Him, you see. That's why a lot of folks want a material God. I never will forget the woman... I was in Wilmington, North Carolina, preaching, and I saw this little statue she had on her dashboard. And I asked her, I said, what is that statue on your dashboard? Oh, she says, that's my statue of Jesus. She said, I wouldn't think of going anywhere without my Jesus. I said, ma'am, I wouldn't either. But he doesn't live on my dashboard. He's in my heart.

[John Weaver] I mean, you know, come on. You see what I'm saying? Here you got pure paganism trying to materialize God. By the way, you remember the Syrians got defeated because they did that. They said God is the God of the hills, but He's not the God of the plains. They were wanting to materialize God and just put Him in one little location. So Paul then denies not only evolutionism, he not only denies pantheism, he denies the materialism.

[John Weaver] Notice, if you will, in the latter part of verse 25, Through verse 28, Paul declares God's providential control over everything as opposed to Epicurean fatalism. He said in verse 25, the latter part, Let's read it all, neither is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he, that is the sovereign God, giveth it all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations and men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed 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.

[John Weaver] For in Him we live and move and have our own being, as certain also of your own prophets have said, for we are also His offspring." So what he's saying is, look, it is God who controls everything. It's God who's placed the nations. It's God who's provided for us. It's God who set the boundaries. God's providential care is opposed to the fatalism that these Epicureans were teaching. And so Paul is saying, look, everything that you fellows have said and everything that you've taught and everything you believed is wrong, and yet he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter. Look in verse 29. He says, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, if your own poet is correct, We ought not to think that God had His liking to go over silver or stone, given by our men's advice. He said, if we are the children of God, God can't look like an idol. By the way, and I'm not going to preach this here, but I've often been asked, what does God look like?

[John Weaver] Well, first of all, as I said earlier, God is Spirit. which means he has no body. However, when God did become incarnate and lived on this earth, who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, he looked just like one of us. He didn't look like an idol. He didn't look like a stone image. You follow what I'm saying? So the Apostle Paul is saying, look, you folks have no idea about the truth of God.

[John Weaver] And yet at the same time, he is now pronouncing the Christian philosophy and showing how it is directly opposed and contrary to humanistic philosophy. So he destroys the materialism then of the Stoics. And then look in verses 30 and 31. In this passage, He destroys the disinterestedness of Stoicism and the annihilationism of the Epicureans. He says in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but look what he says, but now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why does God command men to repent? Here's why. Because He, God, hath appointed a day in which He, God, will judge the world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ, whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He hath raised Him from the dead.

[John Weaver] What's the Apostle Paul saying? Just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just as surely as there is a bodily resurrection, there will be a judgment. And you will not escape. And all of your pagan philosophy and all of your humanistic ideas will go down the tubes at that particular time. You will find out who is right. It's kind of like Paul stuck his tongue in his cheek and said, a babbler am I? A seed picker? A pauper? Some ignorant plagiarist? Ooh, you just wait. You will find out. who was the true philosopher and who had absolutely no philosophy. So he destroys the philosophy of the Epicureans and the Stoics.

[John Weaver] Now, thankfully, and by the way, let me just go ahead and point this out. Do you realize this is the response that you always have when the word of God is preached and taught? Look in verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, Some, what? Mocked. And others said, what? We'll hear thee again with this matter. In other words, we're not going to mess with it now. We'll put it off. But verse 34 says, Howbeit, certain men claimed unto Him and believed. Inevitably, invariably, when the truth is taught, you're going to have some mockers, you're going to have some postpone entertaining the truth, and you're going to have some, by the grace of God, who believe.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make some applications. I want you to note that our worldview, our philosophy must be just like the Apostle Paul's. What am I talking about? His philosophy started with God. It was theocentric. It was God-centered. We are too used to saying, I think, I believe, I've heard, I've been taught. None of those things really matter. What really matters is what does the Word of God teach? And we've got to come back to the fact, here is God and here is His Word.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you folks, if you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God. We have got to have a theocentric worldview, a theocentric, a God-centered philosophy to understand what is going on, what is happening, and how to interpret things in light of the Scripture. For instance, let me tell you something. Let's suppose the stock market crashed tomorrow. What are the humanists going to say? I'll guarantee it will be vastly different from what the Christians say if the Christians have a biblical philosophy. Do you know why this world is so much in debt and so dependent upon a stock market and paper money? Because they don't have any idea of a biblical philosophy of real money. There's differences. I can look out and see something and say, that is a clear incident of God's judgment. Somebody else will say, but it just happened. It was coincidence. It was chance. It was late. Look, it was fake. No, no, no. You cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation.

[John Weaver] We've got to interpret in light of the Word of God. If we understand that God is sovereign, it will also temper us in our arguments, in our reasoning, Now, I've told you this before and I've confessed it and I acknowledge it. There are times, there are times I have wanted to take men and women to buy the shirt, hold them up against the wall, slap them four or five times and say, what in the world is wrong with you?

[John Weaver] How can you be so blind? How can you be so stupid? And yet I know That wouldn't help matters. It would make matters worse. I want to do it still, you know, but it really wouldn't help. But if I understand that God is sovereign, are you listening to me? And that illumination and understanding is the gift of God, then I can still be kind and courteous, teach the truth, and committed in the Lord's hands and say, Lord, if you don't open their eyes, they're still going to be blind as a bat and go on my way. You follow me?

[John Weaver] Let me tell you, folks, we can't convert everyone. We can't save everyone. We can't make people believe right and we can't make them do what's right. What is our responsibility? To teach the truth and to stand up for the truth. And what they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him. And so if some mock us, so be it. If some say, well, we're not really interested in that right now, so be it. Inevitably, invariably, however, There are going to be certain individuals who will cleave to the truth and say, that's what I wanted. God opened my eyes and showed me His truth. You see, folks, if you do have a thoroughly biblical worldview, inevitably, invariably, you're going to have conflicts. Please understand that. Everywhere you turn, we're men of peace and we want peace. But you're going to have conflicts. Why? Because everybody's going to think you're a nut and you're a fanatic and you've gone off the deep end because you want to do things biblical and right.

[John Weaver] So don't be discouraged. You be encouraged. And make sure that everything in your life is theocentric, God-centered. And you interpret things in light of divine, special revelation. You look through the lenses of Holy Scripture. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful today for Jesus Christ, for His grace and love and mercy to us. We ask you to help us, to build us up in the most holy faith, and Father, we do pray, especially for a Christian worldview, that we would be biblical in our thoughts, in our attitudes, in our actions, in our conduct, that we might bring honor and glory to Thee. In Thy name we pray. Amen.

Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	11815172302
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ
Genre	Sermon
Date	2001-04-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 078: Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover - Volume 1 — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	96

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

Weaver introduces the twofold purpose: to reinforce the necessity of a biblical philosophy and to demonstrate that Scripture must be understood in context. He reads Acts 17:15-34 and Colossians 2:8.

All right, let's open our Bibles today to Acts 17 and Colossians chapter 2. Acts chapter 17, Colossians chapter 2. Actually, the point of this message today is really twofold. Number one, it is to reinforce in your mind the absolute necessity for a biblical philosophy. And number two, it's also to demonstrate to you that we really cannot understand Scripture until we understand things in their context, and when you begin to analyze Scripture and see things in the context, then, of course, you're going to see the whole point that the Lord has directed your attention to. So let's look at chapter 17. Let's begin reading with verse 15.

Scripture Reading — Acts 17:15-34

And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now, while Paul waited for them in 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 Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others, 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 who 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, You men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you 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 you 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 worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth it all life and breath and all things. And have made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily 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 prophets have said. For we also are his offspring. For as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to 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 everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they had 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 claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Now hold Acts 17, but look in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 2. Now I want you to mark chapter 2 of Colossians because we'll probably come back there. I just want to read verse 8 right now. Colossians 2 verse 8. Paul writes,

Scripture Reading — Colossians 2:8

"...beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

Defining Worldview and Philosophy

Weaver defines philosophy as 'love of wisdom' and worldview as 'man's scientific total view of all created reality.' He explains that Colossians 2:8 forbids only humanistic philosophy, not biblical philosophy.

Now, I want to demonstrate to you today from Scripture the absolute necessity of having a biblical philosophy or a biblical worldview. In fact, Acts chapter 17 contrasts for you a humanistic or a pagan worldview and also a biblical worldview. And you're going to see, I believe, in this passage that your worldview also determines how you live. Now, every one of us has a philosophy. Every one of us has a worldview. It may be a partial instead of a complete worldview. And it also may be humanistic instead of biblical. But everybody has a worldview.

Now, stop and think about this. And I've mentioned this to you before. In reality, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Your nerves do not break down. They still continue to function. Well, what is it that is broken down? It's your philosophy. It's your worldview. In other words, the way you see things and the way you handle things no longer work, and you don't know what to do, and you go to pieces. And so in reality, it's not your nerves that is broken down. It is your philosophy. It is your worldview. I want you to understand that there is a biblical philosophy of life. Let's take the word philosophy. It is actually made up of two words, phileo, which means I love, and sophia, wisdom. Philosophy basically means a love of wisdom. A philosopher is someone who loves wisdom. And by the way, God is the chief philosopher, for He is omniscient and Jesus Christ is wisdom incarnate. So let me give you very quickly a definition of a worldview.

Listen carefully, I'll explain it. Someone has put it like this, and I believe this is the correct definition. It is man's scientific total view of all created reality. Man's scientific total view of all created reality. When we say it is man's view, we mean it is qualified and is limited by our human capabilities and inabilities. So our views are never ever going to be perfect. They may be biblical in the areas that we study and apply the word of God, but they are not total and they're not complete in the sense because we're not perfect in and of ourselves yet. So it is man's view.

Secondly, when I talk about a scientific view, I'm not necessarily talking about science in the laboratory, but I am talking about the fact that the scientific view, as opposed to a naive view, in other words, we've actually tried to study and ascertain what is right and what is wrong based upon an honest investigation of the facts and reality. And when I say total view, I'm saying that we recognize that everything is interrelated and everything answers to God. And when I say created reality, I mean the fact that it deals with the entirety of God's creation. So that would be law, that would be economics, that would be government, that would be family, that would be everything included. So basically a worldview is your own scientific total view of all created reality.

Now, I want you to go back to Colossians chapter 2. I want you to see in Colossians chapter 2 that God is not forbidding philosophy. What God is forbidding in Colossians chapter 2 is a humanistic, unbiblical philosophy. He says in verse 8, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, now look, and vain deceit after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. What is it that's condemned in this verse? It is a philosophy that is after the rudiments of the world. It is a philosophy that is after the traditions of men and not after Christ. There is a Christian philosophy and there is a humanistic philosophy. So therefore, if the philosophy is biblical, if it is after Christ, it is not forbidden. The only philosophy that is forbidden is that which is against Christ and against the Word of God.

So every one of us has a worldview. The problem with our worldview is usually it is not biblically based. It is not theocentric. It is not God-centered. And so what we have to do is come back and center our philosophy around the Word of God.

Paul's Determination (Acts 17:15-17)

Paul's determination to preach was human (voluntary), heavenly (stirred by God), and holy (motivated by God's glory being given to idols). Weaver references Philippians 2:12-13 and Psalm 96 to show that God's honor moved Paul.

Now, in our text, in Acts chapter 17, I'm going to be coming back there. In Acts chapter 17, you have a Christian philosopher who would be the Apostle Paul in this instance, who is opposing humanistic or pagan philosophers. Now, I want you to look in Acts chapter 17, because in order to understand the sermon that Paul preaches, you've got to understand the history and the context. And I want you to begin looking there. And let me give you the three points I'm going to deal with very quickly. First of all, in verse 17, we have the therefore of Paul's determination. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue, then you have the then, I should say, of Paul's opposition in verse 18. Then certain philosophers of Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And then you have the then of Paul's declaration in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill.

So this passage actually automatically divides itself into three parts. So let's begin with the therefore of Paul's determination. And you can only see this in verses 15 through 17. Watch carefully. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens. And receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. And while Paul waited for them in 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. First of all, I want you to note, it was a human determination. And I'm using that word in reference to the fact that you and I are not mechanical, we are not machines. Paul saw the city wholly given to idolatry, and Paul willingly, voluntarily determined to enter into a witnessing or a preaching experience with these individuals. So he actually determined. Note, secondly, it was a heavenly determination, for verse 16 says, and while Paul waited for them at Athens, now look carefully, his spirit was stirred in him.

Now let me ask a simple question. What made Paul act, humanly speaking? And the answer comes back, it was because there was a heavenly determination. God stirred his spirit. Now, please understand, when the word stirred is used here, it is a passive in the Greek, which means Paul was not active. He was acted upon. In other words, God was moving upon the Apostle Paul. Do you remember what the Bible says? The Bible says,

Scripture Reading — Philippians 2:12-13

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

Philippians 2 verse 12. And then he explains it in verse 13. He says,

Scripture Reading — Philippians 2:12-13

"...for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure."

You work it out only because God has already worked it in. So here's a good, clear illustration of how God was working in the Apostle Paul. God stirred him, and therefore he went out and preached. The same truth is found in Isaiah 26 and verse 12.

He said, Behold, thou hast ordained peace for us. Why? For thou hast wrought all our works in us. The only reason you and I do anything that is right and holy and godly is because God stirs us and gives us grace. God must first act in us and on us and through us before we act in obedience. So it was a human determination. It was a heavenly determination. And thirdly, in verse 16, it was also a holy determination.

For look what he says. Now, when Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. How can you say that's a holy determination? Because Paul's heart beat for God's honor and God's glory.

Now, I want you to note something. It was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul. And pity will not move us, or at least not for long. It was not the fact that these people that were lost that moved the Apostle Paul. They were lost. Well, what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols. What does God say in Isaiah 42 and verse 8?

Let me quote it for you. We'll look in Psalm 96 together, but listen if you go to Isaiah 42 and verse 8. He said, Behold, I am God, and beside me there is none other, and my glory will I not share with idols. And so the truth is, God will not share His glory with idols. Now, look in your Bibles to the book of Psalms, Psalm 96. And let me show you, beginning there with verse 1. We're talking about God's honor and God's glory. Psalm 96, begin there with verse 1.

Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Now watch verse 3. Declare His glory among the heathen. His wonders among all the people. For the Lord is great and greatly be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come unto his courts.

Now go back to verse 4. He says, For the Lord is great and greatly to be feared. And greatly be praised, he be feared above all gods. Verse 8, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. What did Paul see in Acts chapter 17? He saw the glory that was due unto the name of the Lord and the praise that was due only to the one true and living God being given to idols. So it was not pity that moved Paul. It was not the fact that the people were lost that moved Paul. It was the fact that God's honor and God's glory was being given to false gods.

Now, if you were to take time and go back to Isaiah chapter 6, we're not going to do it right now just to save time. There's a lot I've got to share with you today. But if you were to go back to Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah says to the Lord, Here am I, Lord, send me, there's a human determination in the fact that Isaiah is saying, I am willing to go. If you would look at verses six and seven, you'll find there is a heavenly determination because it was a seraphim that took the coals from the altar and touched his lip and purged him. And then you'd go back to verses 1 through 5, you'd see it was a holy determination, because what did Isaiah sing? He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up, and His train also filled the temple. And what were the seraphim doing? They were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. Every time you find in the Bible someone doing something for God, there was always before that human determination a heavenly determination, and the basis of it was a holy determination. You'll find that same thing in Exodus 34 and Exodus 33, dealing with Moses. Now, go back in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. Watch this carefully. In Acts chapter 17, having seen now in verse 16, that Paul's spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Look at verse 17. Therefore, disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with him that met with him. Now let me tell you what the word disputed means. It does not mean that Paul got into a knockdown, drag out argument. The word disputed actually means to reason or to argue in a logical, reasonable manner. So he went into the synagogue where these Jews were, and the devout persons. Who were the devout persons?

Well, they were Grecian proselytes. Look back in verse 4. Acts 17, verse 4. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. So Paul goes into the synagogue now, and notice if you would please, the Bible says, and in the market daily with them that met with him. So whenever the synagogue was meeting, Paul went in and would reason with them. When the synagogue was not meeting, then the Apostle Paul was in the market on a daily basis, reasoning, arguing, using logic, using a Christian worldview to tell them of the truth. Now watch. Look secondly, and here's where it gets interesting.

The Opposition: Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18-21)

Weaver explains the beliefs of the Epicureans (materialism, evolutionism, denial of immortality, fatalism, pleasure without pain) and Stoics (pantheism, naturalism, unemotionalism, indifferentism). He clarifies terms like 'babbler' (spermologos) and 'Areopagus' (council, not just a hill).

You see the therefore of his determination. Secondly, here's the then of the opposition, verses 18 through 21. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others told me he seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him into the Areopagus, saying, May we know of this new doctrine whereof thou speakest this? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers who were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new. Now, as Paul was busy preaching in the marketplace, he encountered opposition. And his opposition happened to be the Epicureans and the Stoics.

Now, you've got to ask yourself this question. Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? Who were the Stoics? And what did they teach? Why did they accuse the Apostle Paul of being a babbler? What is a babbler? What is the significance of the statement, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods? What is the Areopagus? Now, let me just tell you, if you do not know the answer to these questions, you're in no position to understand the Apostle Paul's sermon.

Because what you have is an excellent illustration of a Christian with a worldview confronting non-Christians with a non-Christian worldview. So they're going to tangle. And I want you to listen to me carefully. Your worldview determines how you act and how you behave. If your worldview is unbiblical, you're going to act unbiblically. If your worldview is biblical, then you're going to act biblically. Now, let's get started.

Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? You said, well, the Epicureans were philosophers. Yes, they were Greek philosophers. That's a good answer. But let's be a little more specific. Epicurus lived from 342 to 270 BC. His disciples were known as the school of the garden because he taught from a garden in Athens. And he was the master that instructed them. The best known Epicurean philosopher was the Roman poet Lucretius. Now, you've got to ask yourself, what did the Epicureans teach?

By the way, as I go through these things with you, will you remember what Solomon said? There's nothing new under the sun. And will you also remember that the same heresies that the Apostle Paul is confronting in Acts chapter 17 are with us today under a little different name. But there's still the same heresy. OK, what did the Epicureans teach? First of all, they taught materialism.

Now, materialism is the theory that matter is the only reality and everything in the world, including what they would call the gods, including feeling and thought, everything was explained in terms of matter. Matter was the only thing that counted. Therefore, to the Epicurean, comfort, pleasure, wealth of an individual was the highest goal and the greatest pleasure. They were a materialistic people. The more you had, the more you enjoyed life, the better off you were.

Now, is that philosophy still with us today? Well, a lot of Christians have that philosophy, don't they? They're good Epicureans and don't even know it. But that was one thing they taught. They taught materialism. Secondly, they taught evolutionism. Because Epicurus taught that the universe, plants, animals, and man evolved from atoms. Have you heard of atomistic evolution? Well, of course you have. Darwin didn't come up with the first idea of evolution. I mean, the Epicureans taught this long before Darwin ever came along. So they were materialists. They were evolutionists. They also taught that there was no such thing as human immortality. What they taught was this.

When you're dead, you're dead. You're annihilated. Just like a dog. When a dog dies, he's dead. That's it. It's the end of it. Nothing else. No life after death. No judgment. No eternal life. No eternal suffering. Just when you're dead, you're dead. So they denied human immortality.

Fourthly, they believed in fatalism. What do I mean by fatalism? They believe that every event that happened was naturally caused. In other words, caused by nature. And I know I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. I cringe and I get angry every time I hear the weather forecaster say, Mother Nature. That just tears me up. That's a pagan term to the core. You're talking about the goddess of earth, the earth mother, which is pure paganism. And that's what these Epicureans taught. In other words, everything comes naturally. Everything comes by chance or luck or fate.

To the Epicurean, there was no such thing as a supernatural intervention of God. There was no miracle. There was no supernatural. And for the Epicurean, the greatest evil was the fear of death. Why should you fear death? Because when you're dead, that's it. You're out of it. You will know nothing.

Now, the whole system of Epicureanism had a practical end in view. What was their end? What was their purpose? Here's what they basically taught. Here's the summation of their doctrine. That the good life is in man's power. That man can be happy, and the way to be happy is to have the best of everything and live in serene detachment. The greatest good and the highest goal was to have pleasure without pain.

Hey, I know a lot of preachers that preach that. Pure Epicureanism. In fact, one of the pleasures that they emphasized was intellectual pleasure. Look down in verse 21. He says, for all the Athenians and the strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. You know, just an intellectual pleasure. How would you like to just spend your day just talking, trying to find out what you can find out? You know, I think after a while I'd get old. I mean, I want to learn, but I don't think I just want to spend my days talking and doing nothing else. But that's part of their pleasure. Now, here's what happened.

Since the Epicureans wanted pleasure without pain, their philosophy, however, deteriorated into hedonism. Now, you know what hedonism is. Hedonism is the philosophy, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. In other words, do whatever you're going to do because you're going to be dead like a dog that's going to be all over with. But the Epicureans basically taught you wanted positive pleasure without pain. Pain was to be avoided.

So the true Epicurean, the true Epicurean would never be a drunkard. Why? Although he would enjoy his wine and whatever else he wanted to enjoy, he would do it moderately. Because if you turn out to be a drunkard, there's pain in that, and there's cirrhosis of the liver, and there's DTs and all these other things. So the true Epicurean wanted pleasure, but he wanted pleasure without pain.

But his philosophy deteriorated into pure hedonism. Now, the Epicureans were the atheists of the Greek philosophers. They had no positive faith in anyone or anything. To them, the universe just happened. There was no lawgiver, there was no creator, there was no redeemer, there was no judge, and their chief end in this life was to enjoy the pleasures of this life without pain. So pleasure without pain would basically be the philosophy or the slogan for the Epicureans.

Now, who were the Stoics? Let me tell you. Zeno was the founder of the Stoics. He lived from 335 to 265 B.C. and it was in the city of Citium in Cyprus, he began to teach from a portico or a porch. And the Greek word for porch is stoa. Since he was teaching from this porch, hence his followers became known as Stoics.

Now the Roman senator Seneca was a Stoic. And you remember the most noble Roman of them all, Emperor Marcus Aurelius? He himself was a Stoic as well. Well, what did the Stoics teach?

Now listen carefully, because we're going to get into some real modern day philosophy and heresy. The Stoics taught, first of all, pantheism. You know what pantheism is? Pan means all, theism, God. Everything is God. Pantheism taught that God is not a personality, that God is not a real genuine person, that this desk is God, that you're God, that I'm God, the earth is God, that bird is God, that cow is God. In other words, God is not some self-existing individual who is transcendent from heaven and earth, no. The world here.

Here's one of their statements. Listen carefully. The world is the body of God and God is the soul of the world. And apart from the world, God has no existence.

Now, to them, to the Stoics, the name God or the term God was just another term for fate or causation or consequence, so to the Stoic, there was no sovereign, all-wise God who ruled according to his will. No, no. It was just simply fate. It was just simply chance, because everything is God. They were pantheists. Secondly, the Stoics taught naturalism. By naturalism I mean this, that man is capable of obtaining the good life, and the good life consists of not wanting things any other way than they already are. In other words, we acknowledge the cycle of nature.

And yes, we might pursue knowledge, but we're going to pursue knowledge with a detachment because if we don't learn what we want to learn, we might be disappointed and disappointment is bad. If we serve others, we do so in a disinterested way, because if we're serving others, our service may be rejected, and that would be hurtful, and we don't want to be hurt. Stoicism is known for its unemotionalism, for its disinterestedness, for its passionlessness. He said, Brother Weaver, I'm not a Stoic. Sure you are in a lot of ways. Have you ever told your sons, husbands, fathers, have you ever told your sons, come on boy, keep a stiff upper lip. Boys don't cry. Where did that come from? Not from the Bible. Jesus wept. Don't show your emotions. Now, husbands, come on now. You can't put your arm around your wife and kiss her out in public. I mean, what would people think? Well, they might really think you love your wife. I kiss my wife all the time, everywhere. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I love her.

You know, hey, that's all right. And listen, it's all right for men to cry. This idea of you keep a stiff upper lip, that's pure Stoicism. The Stoics also taught individualism in the sense by that they meant it's only the individual that counts, so don't get involved in anything. Boy, are Christians good Stoics. Because they don't want to get involved in anything today. The Stoics taught indifferentism.

So it doesn't matter to them, to a Stoic, which God you served, because, I mean, after all, we're all going to the same place. To them, which would just be death, but, I mean, you know, it didn't matter to them. I've heard people who profess to be Christians say, well, it really doesn't matter, we're all working for the same place. Well, if you're working for it, I've got news for you. You're going to get to where you're working for, but it ain't going to be where you think it is. Because salvation is not by works, it's by grace through faith. So here you have the Epicureans and the Stoics. Now watch it. The Epicureans emphasize pleasure, and the Stoics emphasize pride. The Epicureans and the Stoics were the Sadducees and the Pharisees of Greek philosophy.

Now, the best-known Stoic philosopher was a man by the name of Cleanthes, or Aratus. And if you look in Acts 17, verse 28, the Apostle Paul quotes him. Here he is. Acts 17, notice if you would please, verse 28. The Apostle Paul says, 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. So in that instance, the Apostle Paul is quoting Cleanthes. Now watch this.

You have the Epicureans, you have the Stoics. Paul is preaching and teaching. All of a sudden he encounters these philosophers, and they say that Paul is a babbler. Look at it, Acts chapter 17, and notice verse 18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Tell me where Paul was preaching and teaching when he encountered the philosophers? In the marketplace. Now, the Greek word for the marketplace is the agora. The agora was the center of public life in ancient Greece. It was where the poets met, the artisans, the politicians, the orators, the statesmen, the philosophers, everyone went to the marketplace. It was a place where you not only bought and sold, it was a place for conversation, for visiting, for idleness, for teaching.

Now, north of the Agora is the craggy eminence referred to as the Areopagus. Eastward is the Acropolis. Now, the whole area is filled with altars and temples and gods and relics. It was in this Agora, in this marketplace, where the porches and the gardens were, where the philosophers taught their students. It was in this marketplace where Paul was preaching and teaching when he was accused of being a babbler. Now, what in the world is a babbler? I like this word. And I want to show you how they really tried to put down the Apostle Paul. And by the way, if you don't think that the worldly philosophers will endeavor to put down a Christian philosopher, you just look at the Christians on the talk shows and see how the talk show host does everything he can to make the Christian look like an absolute fool and idiot. And so here these Epicureans and these Stoics, and some of them refer to Paul as a babbler. Probably it was the Epicureans who called him this. But the word for babbler is spermologos.

I'll go ahead and tell you this. Spermologos is a hapax legomenon. How does that suit you? Hapax is a Greek word which means just once. Legomenon refers to words. So a hapax legomenon is a word that occurs just one time in the Bible. So this is the only time this word occurs. It's a bad word. And the word is spermologos. And here it means, it has basically three meanings. Neither one of them are very attractive. But the first one, spermologos, refers to a bird that picks seeds from the ground, or a seed picker. Why would they call Paul a seed picker?

What they were referring to him was, was an ignorant plagiarist. He really didn't know what he was talking about, and whatever he was saying, he just stole from someone else. That kind of reminds you of some modern day plagiarists. I'm not going to name any, one of them got his doctorate by stealing. Who'd you say? Yeah, it was Martin Luther King. He was a plagiarist. He stole.

And of course, so did some of our presidential candidates as well. So they're calling Paul a babbler, a seed picker, an ignorant plagiarist. Secondly, the word means a pauper, one who prowls the marketplace, a parasite who lives by his wits, hence a contemptible and worthless person. And thirdly, it means the perpetual and useless chirping and chattering of a bird. Let me put that in modern-day colloquialism. It means someone who just runs off at the mouth. Someone who is continually talking and making noise and not saying anything. So here, the Epicureans, who were the atheists, when Paul is preaching Jesus and the resurrection, they say, this man is a babbler. He's an ignorant plagiarist. He's a seed picker. He's a pauper. He's a parasite. He's just running off at the mouth. He knows not what he's talking about. Isn't it amazing? What does the Scripture say in 1 Corinthians 1? The preaching of the cross is what? Foolishness.

to those who are unsaved. And it still is. These Greek philosophers thought they were all-wise and all-knowing, and here comes a man with the truth, and they call him a nitpicker and a plagiarist and a parasite. Well, what does it mean then in verse 18 when he says, "...he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods."

Now, in all probability, it was the Stoics who charged him with this. Are you listening? In Athens, the introduction of strange gods was a capital offense, if by such introduction the home deities were rejected and the state religion disturbed. In other words, you could get the death penalty for preaching a strange God if it messed up the state religion.

Now you've got to remember, during Paul's time, who was in charge of the Greek Empire? The Romans. And what did you have to do once a year if you maintained your legitimate status as a religion in Rome? Once a year, you had to swear by the genius of Caesar. You had to say that Caesar's Lord and Lord Caesar gives you the right to believe what you want to believe. So here Paul is, although Athens is in Greece, yet the Romans had conquered. And if you introduce a strange God, if it meant tearing down of the state religion, you could face the death penalty. Now, very clearly, neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics understood Paul's message when he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

So, the Bible says in verse 19, look carefully, and they took him and brought him unto Areopagus. What is the Areopagus? Well, that word is really two words, Areios Pagos. Areopagus literally means the hill of Ares, who was the Greek god of war, which corresponded to the Roman Mars. And the Areopagus was the hill in front of the Agora. However, listen carefully, the Areopagus was not just the hill in front of the Agora. The word Areopagus also refers to the court, or to the council of Areopagus. It was this council that took note of murders, impieties, immoralities, and they were very attentive to blasphemies against the gods. So when the Stoics charged Paul with being a setter forth of strange gods, they did not take him to the hill Areopagus, they took him to the council of Areopagus, where he was to be judged. And by the way, if you will skip down very quickly in verse thirty four, you'll find that one of those councilmen got converted by Paul's preaching.

Howbeit certain men claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius, the Areopagite. That is a man who was on this court or who was on this council. He certainly would not be a hill, he was on the council. And so it was this court or this council that Paul was brought before because he was a setter forth of a strange God.

Now, this court evidently functioned not only politically and educationally, but also judicially and legally. And so the apostle Paul, then, is brought before this council. Now, this council or this court had the power or the authority to take official actions in questions of hearing upon public teaching in the city. So Paul is doing some public teaching, and so now Paul is brought before the court.

Now, skip down in your Bibles to Acts 17, verse 22. This brings me to the third point I want to start trying to tie things together. We worked our way down. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Now, what is Mars Hill? It's the Areopagus. It's the same thing. Mars Hill, Areopagus, same thing. Same hill, but he's now at the hill, at the council. Then Paul stood in Mars Hill, the midst of Mars Hill, and said, now here he begins his direct declaration.

Now, let me just tell you that the Apostle Paul's message is not to be construed as a formal apology. By the way, I know I've told you this before, but I want to refresh your minds. When we say that Pastor So-and-so is offering an apology for the faith, that does not mean he's standing up and saying, I'm sorry that we believe what we believe. Apologetics is the arm of theology that is termed defending the faith. So apologetics is a defense of the faith, not an apologizing for the faith, okay? So Paul is not necessarily giving a formal defense here, although he is certainly defending certain aspects of the faith.

Paul's Declaration on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31)

Paul courteously uses the altar to the unknown God to declare the true God. His sermon refutes Epicurean and Stoic errors by teaching creationism, God's sovereignty, spirituality, providence, and the coming judgment through the resurrected Christ.

Now, let's begin in verse 22, and let me show you the then of Paul's declaration. There's a lot of things that we can learn from the Apostle Paul. Verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. Would you like to know what the word superstitious really means?

Now, it's not talking about don't walk under a ladder. If a black cat crosses your path, throw salt over your shoulder. The word superstitious, some of you have marginal references in your Bible. It means religious, literally. He says, you men of Athens, I perceive it in all things, you're too religious. Do you realize that you can be religious but lost? You can be religious and be unbiblical to the core.

Now, what Paul did was this. I want you to note, he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them. He's acknowledging the fact that they're religious. He says, you're just a little too religious. You know what most of us do? And I want to tell you, I have to bite my tongue at times, but isn't it amazing how we want to just jump down everybody's throat when we know they're wrong? We want to straighten them out so quickly and tell them off. But you know something, I'm going to tell you, you will never reach anyone by making them mad at you to begin with. It's just not going to do it. You see, I've got just enough rebellion and sin left in me. If you tell me I'm not going to do something, I'm going to do it just to show you. You know, if you tell me I'm wrong, I'm not going to listen to you because I'm going to show you, you know, that's the way people are. Let's be honest.

So Paul began with courtesy and care. And he said, look, I know you're religious. I know you believe certain things, but look in verse twenty three. And I like this. He says, for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. Now, I want you to watch what the Apostle Paul did. You know how smart.

Remember now, you could get the death penalty for introducing a new God into the society if it detracted from the Roman state religion. So the apostle Paul said, look, I found an altar out there with this inscription to the unknown God. Look, I'm not introducing a new God to you. I'm just telling you about the one that you don't know anything about. Let me explain who he really is. So Paul just got himself out of a legal quagmire by using their own altar to the unknown God. So he said, I'm going to declare this unknown God to you.

Now, I want you to look, and I want you to please try to remember everything that I told you that the Epicureans and the Stoics taught. Because everything that Paul is going to say goes right straight smack dab contrary to what they taught. Note, if you would please, in verse 24, he declares creationism as opposed to Epicurean evolutionism. He says in verse 24, 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. In other words, God is the Creator. The earth did not evolve. It did not just happen. It did not just begin by luck, chance, fate, or fortune. No, no. God created the earth and everything in it.

Now I want you to see what He's doing. He's not just saying, look you stupid Epicureans, you're wrong. He probably wanted to say that. But what he is saying is, I'm declaring the truth to you. And he does so without telling them how stupid and ignorant they really are. You follow me? Now watch it. So he says, God is the creator. Now I want you to note, secondly, he not only deals with the fact that God is the Creator. He also, in verse 24, declares the sovereignty of God over heaven and earth as opposed to the pantheism of the Stoics. He says in verse 24, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth.

Ah, we've got a sovereign. We have an ultimate. We have an absolute. The earth is not God. The world is not God. Materialism is not God. No, no, no. We have a transcendent God who is above His creation. We have One who is absolutely sovereign. Now, God's handiwork may be seen in the earth and in the world, but God Himself is exalted far above heaven and earth. So, He teaches creationism. He teaches the absolute sovereignty of God.

And look at verses 24 and 25. He now teaches the incorporeality of God, or the immateriality of God, or let me say it another way, the spirituality of God. He says in verse 24, the latter part, that he, as Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands. Now, what is he saying? He is saying, and teaching the truth of John 4, verse 24, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He's saying, look, you Stoics, you want to think that God is material? No, no, no. He's not material. He's immaterial. It is true He is Lord of heaven and earth, but He is spirit.

Now listen carefully to what I'm about to say. God is not a spirit. God is spirit. And by the way, do you know why everybody wants to materialize God? I might deal with this. I'm probably going to come back in a few weeks and just bring several messages on the nature of God and deal primarily with one aspect on the spirituality of God. But do you know why people want to materialize God? Do you know why they want an idol? Do you know why they want God confined in a temple or in a church or around an altar?

Let me tell you why. Because when you get your God confined to a material object, when you walk away from that material object, you're on your own. And you've got control over your God. You've got Him right where you want Him, you see. That's why a lot of folks want a material God. I never will forget the woman... I was in Wilmington, North Carolina, preaching, and I saw this little statue she had on her dashboard. And I asked her, I said, what is that statue on your dashboard? Oh, she says, that's my statue of Jesus. She said, I wouldn't think of going anywhere without my Jesus. I said, ma'am, I wouldn't either. But he doesn't live on my dashboard. He's in my heart.

I mean, you know, come on. You see what I'm saying? Here you got pure paganism trying to materialize God. By the way, you remember the Syrians got defeated because they did that. They said God is the God of the hills, but He's not the God of the plains. They were wanting to materialize God and just put Him in one little location. So Paul then denies not only evolutionism, he not only denies pantheism, he denies the materialism.

Notice, if you will, in the latter part of verse 25, through verse 28, Paul declares God's providential control over everything as opposed to Epicurean fatalism. He said in verse 25, the latter part, Let's read it all, neither is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he, that is the sovereign God, giveth it all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations and men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed 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 prophets have said, for we are also His offspring. So what he's saying is, look, it is God who controls everything. It's God who's placed the nations. It's God who's provided for us. It's God who set the boundaries. God's providential care is opposed to the fatalism that these Epicureans were teaching. And so Paul is saying, look, everything that you fellows have said and everything that you've taught and everything you believed is wrong, and yet he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter. Look in verse 29. He says, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, if your own poet is correct, we ought not to think that Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. He said, if we are the children of God, God can't look like an idol. By the way, and I'm not going to preach this here, but I've often been asked, what does God look like?

Well, first of all, as I said earlier, God is Spirit, which means he has no body. However, when God did become incarnate and lived on this earth, who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, he looked just like one of us. He didn't look like an idol. He didn't look like a stone image. You follow what I'm saying? So the Apostle Paul is saying, look, you folks have no idea about the truth of God. And yet at the same time, he is now pronouncing the Christian philosophy and showing how it is directly opposed and contrary to humanistic philosophy. So he destroys the materialism then of the Stoics. And then look in verses 30 and 31. In this passage, he destroys the disinterestedness of Stoicism and the annihilationism of the Epicureans. He says in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but look what he says, but now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why does God command men to repent? Here's why. Because He, God, hath appointed a day in which He, God, will judge the world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ, whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He hath raised Him from the dead.

What's the Apostle Paul saying? Just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just as surely as there is a bodily resurrection, there will be a judgment. And you will not escape. And all of your pagan philosophy and all of your humanistic ideas will go down the tubes at that particular time. You will find out who is right. It's kind of like Paul stuck his tongue in his cheek and said, a babbler am I? A seed picker? A pauper? Some ignorant plagiarist? Ooh, you just wait. You will find out who was the true philosopher and who had absolutely no philosophy. So he destroys the philosophy of the Epicureans and the Stoics.

Responses to the Gospel (Acts 17:32-34)

The sermon produces three responses: some mocked, some postponed, and some believed (including Dionysius and Damaris). Weaver notes this is the typical response to biblical truth.

Now, thankfully, and by the way, let me just go ahead and point this out. Do you realize this is the response that you always have when the word of God is preached and taught? Look in verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some, what? Mocked. And others said, what? We'll hear thee again of this matter. In other words, we're not going to mess with it now. We'll put it off. But verse 34 says, Howbeit, certain men claimed unto Him and believed. Inevitably, invariably, when the truth is taught, you're going to have some mockers, you're going to have some postpone entertaining the truth, and you're going to have some, by the grace of God, who believe.

Now, let me make some applications. I want you to note that our worldview, our philosophy must be just like the Apostle Paul's. What am I talking about? His philosophy started with God. It was theocentric. It was God-centered. We are too used to saying, I think, I believe, I've heard, I've been taught. None of those things really matter. What really matters is what does the Word of God teach? And we've got to come back to the fact, here is God and here is His Word.

Applications: Developing a Theocentric Worldview

Weaver applies the message by urging believers to adopt a God-centered philosophy, interpret events through Scripture, trust God's sovereignty in evangelism, and expect conflict when living biblically.

Let me tell you folks, if you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God. We have got to have a theocentric worldview, a theocentric, a God-centered philosophy to understand what is going on, what is happening, and how to interpret things in light of the Scripture. For instance, let me tell you something. Let's suppose the stock market crashed tomorrow. What are the humanists going to say? I'll guarantee it will be vastly different from what the Christians say if the Christians have a biblical philosophy. Do you know why this world is so much in debt and so dependent upon a stock market and paper money? Because they don't have any idea of a biblical philosophy of real money. There's differences. I can look out and see something and say, that is a clear incident of God's judgment. Somebody else will say, but it just happened. It was coincidence. It was chance. It was fate. No, no, no. You cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation.

We've got to interpret in light of the Word of God. If we understand that God is sovereign, it will also temper us in our arguments, in our reasoning. Now, I've told you this before and I've confessed it and I acknowledge it. There are times, there are times I have wanted to take men and women by the shirt, hold them up against the wall, slap them four or five times and say, what in the world is wrong with you? How can you be so blind? How can you be so stupid? And yet I know that wouldn't help matters. It would make matters worse. I want to do it still, you know, but it really wouldn't help. But if I understand that God is sovereign, are you listening to me? And that illumination and understanding is the gift of God, then I can still be kind and courteous, teach the truth, and commit it in the Lord's hands and say, Lord, if you don't open their eyes, they're still going to be blind as a bat and go on my way. You follow me?

Let me tell you, folks, we can't convert everyone. We can't save everyone. We can't make people believe right and we can't make them do what's right. What is our responsibility? To teach the truth and to stand up for the truth. And what they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him. And so if some mock us, so be it. If some say, well, we're not really interested in that right now, so be it. Inevitably, invariably, however, there are going to be certain individuals who will cleave to the truth and say, that's what I wanted. God opened my eyes and showed me His truth. You see, folks, if you do have a thoroughly biblical worldview, inevitably, invariably, you're going to have conflicts. Please understand that. Everywhere you turn, we're men of peace and we want peace. But you're going to have conflicts. Why? Because everybody's going to think you're a nut and you're a fanatic and you've gone off the deep end because you want to do things biblical and right.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Necessity of a Biblical Worldview

Summary: Every person has a worldview that determines how they live; Christians must have a philosophy centered on God and His Word rather than humanistic ideas.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'every one of us has a philosophy... it may be humanistic instead of biblical... your worldview also determines how you live' (223.8-267.7s).

Contrast Between Christian and Pagan Philosophy

Summary: Paul's sermon on Mars Hill systematically refutes the Epicurean and Stoic worldviews by presenting the biblical doctrines of creation, sovereignty, spirituality, providence, and judgment.

Evidence: Weaver explains how Paul counters evolutionism with creationism (24), pantheism with sovereignty (24), materialism with spirituality (24-25), fatalism with providence (25-28), and annihilationism with judgment (30-31).

God's Glory as the Motivation for Ministry

Summary: Paul was moved to preach not primarily by pity for the lost but by zeal for God's honor when he saw idolatry in Athens.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'it was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul... what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols' (779.7-813.5s).

Sovereignty of God in Evangelism

Summary: God must first work in a person before they can respond in faith; believers should teach truth and trust God for results.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'God must first act in us and on us and through us before we act in obedience' (725.8-760.0s) and later, 'what they do with the truth is between them and God' (3840.5-3932.2s).

The Centrality of Scripture for Interpretation

Summary: Christians must interpret all events and ideas through the lens of divine revelation, not human reasoning or cultural norms.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'you cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation' (3753.0-3792.2s).

Inevitability of Conflict for Biblical Christians

Summary: A thoroughly biblical worldview will inevitably lead to conflict with the world, but believers should not be discouraged.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'if you do have a thoroughly biblical worldview, inevitably, invariably, you're going to have conflicts' (3840.5-3932.2s).

Key Arguments

Colossians 2:8 forbids only humanistic philosophy, not all philosophy.

Summary: The verse condemns philosophy based on human traditions and worldly principles, not a philosophy centered on Christ.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'if the philosophy is biblical, if it is after Christ, it is not forbidden. The only philosophy that is forbidden is that which is against Christ and against the Word of God' (500.7-519.6s).

Paul's determination to preach was a result of divine stirring, not mere human decision.

Summary: The Greek passive verb indicates God acted upon Paul, illustrating the principle of Philippians 2:12-13 that God works in believers to will and to do.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'when the word stirred is used here, it is a passive in the Greek, which means Paul was not active. He was acted upon' (661.7-725.8s).

The Epicureans and Stoics represent enduring humanistic philosophies that still influence modern thought.

Summary: Epicurean materialism, evolutionism, and hedonism, and Stoic pantheism, unemotionalism, and indifferentism are present in contemporary culture and even in the church.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'the same heresies that the Apostle Paul is confronting in Acts chapter 17 are with us today under a little different name' (1291.4-1325.8s) and gives examples like 'Mother Nature' and 'keep a stiff upper lip' (1502.7-1522.5s; 1909.9-1957.4s).

Paul's sermon on Mars Hill is a model for engaging non-Christian worldviews with courtesy and truth.

Summary: Paul began by acknowledging their religiosity, used their own altar to the unknown God as a bridge, and systematically presented biblical truth without initial insult.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them' (2810.9-2883.2s) and 'he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter' (3290.1-3329.7s).

The resurrection of Christ guarantees a future judgment, refuting both Epicurean annihilation and Stoic disinterest.

Summary: Because God raised Jesus from the dead, He has given assurance that He will judge the world in righteousness, making repentance urgent.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just as surely as there is a bodily resurrection, there will be a judgment' (3498.5-3552.1s).

A biblical worldview must be theocentric, starting with God and His revelation, not with man.

Summary: If you start with man, you end with man; only by beginning with God can you rightly understand reality and live accordingly.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'if you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God' (3650.8-3751.2s).

Scripture References

Acts 17:15-34

Context: The primary text of the sermon, read and expounded throughout. Paul in Athens, his sermon on Mars Hill, and the responses.

Colossians 2:8

Context: Read to show that only humanistic philosophy is forbidden, not biblical philosophy.

Philippians 2:12-13

Context: Cited to illustrate that God works in believers to will and to do, as seen in Paul's stirring.

Isaiah 26:12

Context: Quoted to support that God works all our works in us.

Isaiah 42:8

Context: Referenced to show God will not share His glory with idols, motivating Paul's holy determination.

Psalm 96:1-8

Context: Read to emphasize declaring God's glory among the heathen and giving Him the glory due His name.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Context: Referenced as another example of human, heavenly, and holy determination in Isaiah's call.

Exodus 33-34

Context: Mentioned as an example of the same pattern in Moses' life.

Acts 17:4

Context: Cited to explain who the 'devout persons' were (Grecian proselytes).

Acts 17:28

Context: Paul quotes the Stoic poet Cleanthes/Aratus: 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being...'

1 Corinthians 1:18

Context: Alluded to: 'the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are unsaved.'

John 4:24

Context: Referenced to support that God is Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth.

Historical References

Epicurus (342-270 BC)

Context: Founder of Epicureanism; taught from a garden in Athens; his philosophy included materialism, evolutionism, denial of immortality, and pursuit of pleasure without pain.

Lucretius

Context: Roman poet, best-known Epicurean philosopher.

Zeno (335-265 BC)

Context: Founder of Stoicism; taught from a porch (stoa) in Citium, Cyprus; his followers became known as Stoics.

Seneca

Context: Roman senator and Stoic philosopher.

Marcus Aurelius

Context: Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher.

Cleanthes (or Aratus)

Context: Stoic poet quoted by Paul in Acts 17:28: 'For we are also his offspring.'

Areopagus

Context: Both the hill of Ares (Mars Hill) and the council that met there; a court that judged matters of religion and public teaching.

Dionysius the Areopagite

Context: A member of the Areopagus council who believed after Paul's sermon.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Context: Mentioned as an example of a modern plagiarist, in connection with the term 'spermologos' (seed picker).

Important Quotes

In reality, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Your nerves do not break down. They still continue to function. Well, what is it that is broken down? It's your philosophy. It's your worldview.

Significance: Illustrates the practical importance of a worldview; a breakdown is a collapse of one's interpretive framework, not a physical nerve failure.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Significance: Key verse (Colossians 2:8) used to distinguish between forbidden humanistic philosophy and permissible biblical philosophy.

It was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul. And pity will not move us, or at least not for long. It was not the fact that these people that were lost that moved the Apostle Paul. They were lost. Well, what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols.

Significance: Highlights that Paul's primary motivation was zeal for God's glory, not mere compassion, shaping a God-centered approach to ministry.

You cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation.

Significance: Emphasizes the necessity of Scripture as the lens for understanding all events and reality.

If you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God.

Significance: Succinctly states the foundational principle of a theocentric worldview versus a humanistic one.

What they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him.

Significance: Encourages believers to faithfully teach truth without bearing the burden of results, trusting God's sovereignty in conversion.

Discussion Questions

How does your worldview affect the way you interpret daily events, such as economic changes or personal trials?

Context: Weaver contrasts humanistic and biblical interpretations of events like a stock market crash.

In what ways might modern Christians unknowingly adopt Epicurean or Stoic philosophies?

Context: Weaver gives examples like materialism, 'keep a stiff upper lip,' and disinterest in involvement.

What does it mean to have a 'theocentric' philosophy, and how can we cultivate it?

Context: Weaver stresses starting with God and His Word rather than human opinion.

How can we balance courtesy and truth when engaging with those who hold opposing worldviews, as Paul did on Mars Hill?

Context: Weaver notes Paul's courteous approach and use of the altar to the unknown God.

Why is God's glory a stronger motivation for evangelism than pity for the lost?

Context: Weaver argues that Paul was moved by seeing God's glory given to idols, not primarily by pity.

How does the doctrine of God's sovereignty help us handle rejection or mockery when we share the gospel?

Context: Weaver explains that understanding God's sovereignty allows us to teach truth and leave results to Him.

What are some practical steps to ensure our philosophy is 'after Christ' and not 'after the rudiments of the world'?

Context: Based on Colossians 2:8, Weaver distinguishes between biblical and humanistic philosophy.

Applications

Develop a Theocentric Worldview

Summary: Make God and His Word the starting point for all thinking, rather than human opinions or cultural norms.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'we've got to come back to the fact, here is God and here is His Word' (3650.8-3751.2s).

Interpret Events Through Scripture

Summary: Use the Bible as the lens to understand and respond to world events, personal circumstances, and cultural trends.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'you cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation' (3753.0-3792.2s).

Be Motivated by God's Glory

Summary: Let zeal for God's honor, rather than mere pity or human concern, drive your witness and service.

Evidence: Weaver explains Paul's motivation: 'what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols' (779.7-813.5s).

Engage Opposing Worldviews with Courtesy and Truth

Summary: Follow Paul's example by being courteous, finding common ground, and systematically presenting biblical truth without initial insult.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them' and 'he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter' (2810.9-2883.2s; 3290.1-3329.7s).

Trust God's Sovereignty in Evangelism

Summary: Teach the truth faithfully and leave the results to God, knowing that only He can open blind eyes.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'what they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him' (3840.5-3932.2s).

Expect Conflict and Do Not Be Discouraged

Summary: Recognize that a biblical worldview will inevitably bring opposition, but remain encouraged and steadfast.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'if you do have a thoroughly biblical worldview, inevitably, invariably, you're going to have conflicts... So don't be discouraged. You be encouraged' (3840.5-3932.2s).

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T02:26:21Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T15:52:58Z

Clean Transcript

Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

All right, let's open our Bibles today to Acts 17 and Colossians chapter 2. Acts chapter 17, Colossians chapter 2. Actually, the point of this message today is really twofold. Number one, it is to reinforce in your mind the absolute necessity for a biblical philosophy. And number two, it's also to demonstrate to you that we really cannot understand Scripture until we understand things in their context, and when you begin to analyze Scripture and see things in the context, then, of course, you're going to see the whole point that the Lord has directed your attention to. So let's look at chapter 17. Let's begin reading with verse 15.
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And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now, while Paul waited for them in 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.
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Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others, 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 who 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, You men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you are too superstitious.
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For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you 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 worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth it all life and breath and all things. And have made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.
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For in him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own prophets have said. For we also are his offspring. For as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to 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 everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
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And others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
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Now hold Acts 17, but look in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 2. Now I want you to mark chapter 2 of Colossians because we'll probably come back there. I just want to read verse 8 right now. Colossians 2 verse 8. Paul writes, "...beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
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Now, I want to demonstrate to you today from Scripture the absolute necessity of having a biblical philosophy or a biblical worldview. In fact, Acts chapter 17 contrasts for you a humanistic or a pagan worldview and also a biblical worldview. And you're going to see, I believe, in this passage that your worldview also determines how you live. Now, every one of us has a philosophy. Every one of us has a worldview. It may be a partial instead of a complete worldview. And it also may be humanistic instead of biblical. But everybody has a worldview.
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Now, stop and think about this. And I've mentioned this to you before. In reality, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Your nerves do not break down. They still continue to function. Well, what is it that is broken down? It's your philosophy. It's your worldview. In other words, the way you see things and the way you handle things no longer work, and you don't know what to do, and you go to pieces. And so in reality, it's not your nerves that is broken down. It is your philosophy. It is your worldview. I want you to understand that there is a biblical philosophy of life. Let's take the word philosophy. It is actually made up of two words, phileo, which means I love, and sophia, wisdom. Philosophy basically means a love of wisdom. A philosopher is someone who loves wisdom. And by the way, God is the chief philosopher, for He is omniscient and Jesus Christ is wisdom incarnate. So let me give you very quickly a definition of a worldview.
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Listen carefully, I'll explain it. Someone has put it like this, and I believe this is the correct definition. It is man's scientific total view of all created reality. Man's scientific total view of all created reality. When we say it is man's view, we mean it is qualified and is limited by our human capabilities and inabilities. So our views are never ever going to be perfect. They may be biblical in the areas that we study and apply the word of God, but they are not total and they're not complete in the sense because we're not perfect in and of ourselves yet. So it is man's view.
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Secondly, when I talk about a scientific view, I'm not necessarily talking about science in the laboratory, but I am talking about the fact that the scientific view, as opposed to a naive view, in other words, we've actually tried to study and ascertain what is right and what is wrong based upon an honest investigation of the facts and reality. And when I say total view, I'm saying that we recognize that everything is interrelated and everything answers to God. And when I say created reality, I mean the fact that it deals with the entirety of God's creation. So that would be law, that would be economics, that would be government, that would be family, that would be everything included. So basically a worldview is your own scientific total view of all created reality.
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Now, I want you to go back to Colossians chapter 2. I want you to see in Colossians chapter 2 that God is not forbidding philosophy. What God is forbidding in Colossians chapter 2 is a humanistic, unbiblical philosophy. He says in verse 8, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, now look, and vain deceit after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. What is it that's condemned in this verse? It is a philosophy that is after the rudiments of the world. It is a philosophy that is after the traditions of men and not after Christ. There is a Christian philosophy and there is a humanistic philosophy. So therefore, if the philosophy is biblical, if it is after Christ, it is not forbidden. The only philosophy that is forbidden is that which is against Christ and against the Word of God.
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So every one of us has a worldview. The problem with our worldview is usually it is not biblically based. It is not theocentric. It is not God-centered. And so what we have to do is come back and center our philosophy around the Word of God.
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Now, in our text, in Acts chapter 17, I'm going to be coming back there. In Acts chapter 17, you have a Christian philosopher who would be the Apostle Paul in this instance, who is opposing humanistic or pagan philosophers. Now, I want you to look in Acts chapter 17, because in order to understand the sermon that Paul preaches, you've got to understand the history and the context. And I want you to begin looking there. And let me give you the three points I'm going to deal with very quickly. First of all, in verse 17, we have the therefore of Paul's determination. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue, then you have the then, I should say, of Paul's opposition in verse 18. Then certain philosophers of Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And then you have the then of Paul's declaration in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill.
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So this passage actually automatically divides itself into three parts. So let's begin with the therefore of Paul's determination. And you can only see this in verses 15 through 17. Watch carefully. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens. And receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. And while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
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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. First of all, I want you to note, it was a human determination. And I'm using that word in reference to the fact that you and I are not mechanical, we are not machines. Paul saw the city wholly given to idolatry, and Paul willingly, voluntarily determined to enter into a witnessing or a preaching experience with these individuals. So he actually determined. Note, secondly, it was a heavenly determination, for verse 16 says, and while Paul waited for them at Athens, now look carefully, his spirit was stirred in him.
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Now let me ask a simple question. What made Paul act, humanly speaking? And the answer comes back, it was because there was a heavenly determination. God stirred his spirit. Now, please understand, when the word stirred is used here, it is a passive in the Greek, which means Paul was not active. He was acted upon. In other words, God was moving upon the Apostle Paul. Do you remember what the Bible says? The Bible says, "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Philippians 2 verse 12. And then he explains it in verse 13. He says, "...for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure." You work it out only because God has already worked it in. So here's a good, clear illustration of how God was working in the Apostle Paul. God stirred him, and therefore he went out and preached. The same truth is found in Isaiah 26 and verse 12.
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He said, Behold, thou hast ordained peace for us. Why? For thou hast wrought all our works in us. The only reason you and I do anything that is right and holy and godly is because God stirs us and gives us grace. God must first act in us and on us and through us before we act in obedience. So it was a human determination. It was a heavenly determination. And thirdly, in verse 16, it was also a holy determination.
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For look what he says. Now, when Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. How can you say that's a holy determination? Because Paul's heart beat for God's honor and God's glory.
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Now, I want you to note something. It was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul. And pity will not move us, or at least not for long. It was not the fact that these people that were lost that moved the Apostle Paul. They were lost. Well, what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols. What does God say in Isaiah 42 and verse 8?
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Let me quote it for you. We'll look in Psalm 96 together, but listen if you go to Isaiah 42 and verse 8. He said, Behold, I am God, and beside me there is none other, and my glory will I not share with idols. And so the truth is, God will not share His glory with idols. Now, look in your Bibles to the book of Psalms, Psalm 96. And let me show you, beginning there with verse 1. We're talking about God's honor and God's glory. Psalm 96, begin there with verse 1.
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Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Now watch verse 3. Declare His glory among the heathen. His wonders among all the people. For the Lord is great and greatly be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
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Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come unto his courts.
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Now go back to verse 4. He says, For the Lord is great and greatly to be feared. And greatly be praised, he be feared above all gods. Verse 8, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. What did Paul see in Acts chapter 17? He saw the glory that was due unto the name of the Lord and the praise that was due only to the one true and living God being given to idols. So it was not pity that moved Paul. It was not the fact that the people were lost that moved Paul. It was the fact that God's honor and God's glory was being given to false gods.
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Now, if you were to take time and go back to Isaiah chapter 6, we're not going to do it right now just to save time. There's a lot I've got to share with you today. But if you were to go back to Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah says to the Lord, Here am I, Lord, send me, there's a human determination in the fact that Isaiah is saying, I am willing to go.
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If you would look at verses six and seven, you'll find there is a heavenly determination because it was a seraphim that took the coals from the altar and touched his lip and purged him. And then you'd go back to verses 1 through 5, you'd see it was a holy determination, because what did Isaiah sing? He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up, and His train also filled the temple. And what were the seraphim doing? They were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. Every time you find in the Bible someone doing something for God, there was always before that human determination a heavenly determination, and the basis of it was a holy determination. You'll find that same thing in Exodus 34 and Exodus 33, dealing with Moses. Now, go back in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. Watch this carefully. In Acts chapter 17, having seen now in verse 16, that Paul's spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
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Look at verse 17. Therefore, disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with him that met with him. Now let me tell you what the word disputed means. It does not mean that Paul got into a knockdown, drag out argument. The word disputed actually means to reason or to argue in a logical, reasonable manner. So he went into the synagogue where these Jews were, and the devout persons. Who were the devout persons?
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Well, they were Grecian proselytes. Look back in verse 4. Acts 17, verse 4. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. So Paul goes into the synagogue now, and notice if you would please, the Bible says, and in the market daily with them that met with him. So whenever the synagogue was meeting, Paul went in and would reason with them. When the synagogue was not meeting, then the Apostle Paul was in the market on a daily basis, reasoning, arguing, using logic, using a Christian worldview to tell them of the truth. Now watch. Look secondly, and here's where it gets interesting.
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You see the therefore of his determination. Secondly, here's the then of the opposition, verses 18 through 21. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others told me he seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him into the Areopagus, saying, May we know of this new doctrine whereof thou speakest this? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers who were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new. Now, as Paul was busy preaching in the marketplace, he encountered opposition. And his opposition happened to be the Epicureans and the Stoics.
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Now, you've got to ask yourself this question. Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? Who were the Stoics? And what did they teach? Why did they accuse the Apostle Paul of being a babbler? What is a babbler? What is the significance of the statement, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods? What is the Areopagus? Now, let me just tell you, if you do not know the answer to these questions, you're in no position to understand the Apostle Paul's sermon.
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Because what you have is an excellent illustration of a Christian with a worldview confronting non-Christians with a non-Christian worldview. So they're going to tangle. And I want you to listen to me carefully. Your worldview determines how you act and how you behave. If your worldview is unbiblical, you're going to act unbiblically. If your worldview is biblical, then you're going to act biblically. Now, let's get started.
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Who were the Epicureans and what did they teach? You said, well, the Epicureans were philosophers. Yes, they were Greek philosophers. That's a good answer. But let's be a little more specific. Epicurus lived from 342 to 270 BC. His disciples were known as the school of the garden because he taught from a garden in Athens. And he was the master that instructed them. The best known Epicurean philosopher was the Roman poet Lucretius. Now, you've got to ask yourself, what did the Epicureans teach?
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By the way, as I go through these things with you, will you remember what Solomon said? There's nothing new under the sun. And will you also remember that the same heresies that the Apostle Paul is confronting in Acts chapter 17 are with us today under a little different name. But there's still the same heresy. OK, what did the Epicureans teach? First of all, they taught materialism.
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Now, materialism is the theory that matter is the only reality and everything in the world, including what they would call the gods, including feeling and thought, everything was explained in terms of matter. Matter was the only thing that counted. Therefore, to the Epicurean, comfort, pleasure, wealth of an individual was the highest goal and the greatest pleasure. They were a materialistic people. The more you had, the more you enjoyed life, the better off you were.
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Now, is that philosophy still with us today? Well, a lot of Christians have that philosophy, don't they? They're good Epicureans and don't even know it. But that was one thing they taught. They taught materialism. Secondly, they taught evolutionism. Because Epicurus taught that the universe, plants, animals, and man evolved from atoms. Have you heard of atomistic evolution? Well, of course you have. Darwin didn't come up with the first idea of evolution. I mean, the Epicureans taught this long before Darwin ever came along. So they were materialists. They were evolutionists. They also taught that there was no such thing as human immortality. What they taught was this.
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When you're dead, you're dead. You're annihilated. Just like a dog. When a dog dies, he's dead. That's it. It's the end of it. Nothing else. No life after death. No judgment. No eternal life. No eternal suffering. Just when you're dead, you're dead. So they denied human immortality.
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Fourthly, they believed in fatalism. What do I mean by fatalism? They believe that every event that happened was naturally caused. In other words, caused by nature. And I know I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. I cringe and I get angry every time I hear the weather forecaster say, Mother Nature. That just tears me up. That's a pagan term to the core. You're talking about the goddess of earth, the earth mother, which is pure paganism. And that's what these Epicureans taught. In other words, everything comes naturally. Everything comes by chance or luck or fate.
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To the Epicurean, there was no such thing as a supernatural intervention of God. There was no miracle. There was no supernatural. And for the Epicurean, the greatest evil was the fear of death. Why should you fear death? Because when you're dead, that's it. You're out of it. You will know nothing.
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Now, the whole system of Epicureanism had a practical end in view. What was their end? What was their purpose? Here's what they basically taught. Here's the summation of their doctrine. That the good life is in man's power. That man can be happy, and the way to be happy is to have the best of everything and live in serene detachment. The greatest good and the highest goal was to have pleasure without pain.
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Hey, I know a lot of preachers that preach that. Pure Epicureanism. In fact, one of the pleasures that they emphasized was intellectual pleasure. Look down in verse 21. He says, for all the Athenians and the strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. You know, just an intellectual pleasure. How would you like to just spend your day just talking, trying to find out what you can find out? You know, I think after a while I'd get old. I mean, I want to learn, but I don't think I just want to spend my days talking and doing nothing else. But that's part of their pleasure. Now, here's what happened.
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Since the Epicureans wanted pleasure without pain, their philosophy, however, deteriorated into hedonism. Now, you know what hedonism is. Hedonism is the philosophy, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. In other words, do whatever you're going to do because you're going to be dead like a dog that's going to be all over with. But the Epicureans basically taught you wanted positive pleasure without pain. Pain was to be avoided.
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So the true Epicurean, the true Epicurean would never be a drunkard. Why? Although he would enjoy his wine and whatever else he wanted to enjoy, he would do it moderately. Because if you turn out to be a drunkard, there's pain in that, and there's cirrhosis of the liver, and there's DTs and all these other things. So the true Epicurean wanted pleasure, but he wanted pleasure without pain.
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But his philosophy deteriorated into pure hedonism. Now, the Epicureans were the atheists of the Greek philosophers. They had no positive faith in anyone or anything. To them, the universe just happened. There was no lawgiver, there was no creator, there was no redeemer, there was no judge, and their chief end in this life was to enjoy the pleasures of this life without pain. So pleasure without pain would basically be the philosophy or the slogan for the Epicureans.
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Now, who were the Stoics? Let me tell you. Zeno was the founder of the Stoics. He lived from 335 to 265 B.C. and it was in the city of Citium in Cyprus, he began to teach from a portico or a porch. And the Greek word for porch is stoa. Since he was teaching from this porch, hence his followers became known as Stoics.
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Now the Roman senator Seneca was a Stoic. And you remember the most noble Roman of them all, Emperor Marcus Aurelius? He himself was a Stoic as well. Well, what did the Stoics teach?
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Now listen carefully, because we're going to get into some real modern day philosophy and heresy. The Stoics taught, first of all, pantheism. You know what pantheism is? Pan means all, theism, God. Everything is God. Pantheism taught that God is not a personality, that God is not a real genuine person, that this desk is God, that you're God, that I'm God, the earth is God, that bird is God, that cow is God. In other words, God is not some self-existing individual who is transcendent from heaven and earth, no. The world here.
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Here's one of their statements. Listen carefully. The world is the body of God and God is the soul of the world. And apart from the world, God has no existence.
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Now, to them, to the Stoics, the name God or the term God was just another term for fate or causation or consequence, so to the Stoic, there was no sovereign, all-wise God who ruled according to his will. No, no. It was just simply fate. It was just simply chance, because everything is God. They were pantheists. Secondly, the Stoics taught naturalism. By naturalism I mean this, that man is capable of obtaining the good life, and the good life consists of not wanting things any other way than they already are. In other words, we acknowledge the cycle of nature.
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And yes, we might pursue knowledge, but we're going to pursue knowledge with a detachment because if we don't learn what we want to learn, we might be disappointed and disappointment is bad. If we serve others, we do so in a disinterested way, because if we're serving others, our service may be rejected, and that would be hurtful, and we don't want to be hurt. Stoicism is known for its unemotionalism, for its disinterestedness, for its passionlessness. He said, Brother Weaver, I'm not a Stoic.
#49 | 31:07 to 31:49 | cleaned
Sure you are in a lot of ways. Have you ever told your sons, husbands, fathers, have you ever told your sons, come on boy, keep a stiff upper lip. Boys don't cry. Where did that come from? Not from the Bible. Jesus wept. Don't show your emotions. Now, husbands, come on now. You can't put your arm around your wife and kiss her out in public. I mean, what would people think? Well, they might really think you love your wife. I kiss my wife all the time, everywhere. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I love her.
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You know, hey, that's all right. And listen, it's all right for men to cry. This idea of you keep a stiff upper lip, that's pure Stoicism. The Stoics also taught individualism in the sense by that they meant it's only the individual that counts, so don't get involved in anything. Boy, are Christians good Stoics. Because they don't want to get involved in anything today. The Stoics taught indifferentism.
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So it doesn't matter to them, to a Stoic, which God you served, because, I mean, after all, we're all going to the same place. To them, which would just be death, but, I mean, you know, it didn't matter to them. I've heard people who profess to be Christians say, well, it really doesn't matter, we're all working for the same place. Well, if you're working for it, I've got news for you. You're going to get to where you're working for, but it ain't going to be where you think it is.
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Because salvation is not by works, it's by grace through faith. So here you have the Epicureans and the Stoics. Now watch it. The Epicureans emphasize pleasure, and the Stoics emphasize pride. The Epicureans and the Stoics were the Sadducees and the Pharisees of Greek philosophy.
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Now, the best-known Stoic philosopher was a man by the name of Cleanthes, or Aratus. And if you look in Acts 17, verse 28, the Apostle Paul quotes him. Here he is. Acts 17, notice if you would please, verse 28. The Apostle Paul says, 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. So in that instance, the Apostle Paul is quoting Cleanthes. Now watch this.
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You have the Epicureans, you have the Stoics. Paul is preaching and teaching. All of a sudden he encounters these philosophers, and they say that Paul is a babbler. Look at it, Acts chapter 17, and notice verse 18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Tell me where Paul was preaching and teaching when he encountered the philosophers? In the marketplace. Now, the Greek word for the marketplace is the agora. The agora was the center of public life in ancient Greece. It was where the poets met, the artisans, the politicians, the orators, the statesmen, the philosophers, everyone went to the marketplace. It was a place where you not only bought and sold, it was a place for conversation, for visiting, for idleness, for teaching.
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Now, north of the Agora is the craggy eminence referred to as the Areopagus. Eastward is the Acropolis.
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Now, the whole area is filled with altars and temples and gods and relics. It was in this Agora, in this marketplace, where the porches and the gardens were, where the philosophers taught their students. It was in this marketplace where Paul was preaching and teaching when he was accused of being a babbler. Now, what in the world is a babbler? I like this word. And I want to show you how they really tried to put down the Apostle Paul. And by the way, if you don't think that the worldly philosophers will endeavor to put down a Christian philosopher, you just look at the Christians on the talk shows and see how the talk show host does everything he can to make the Christian look like an absolute fool and idiot. And so here these Epicureans and these Stoics, and some of them refer to Paul as a babbler. Probably it was the Epicureans who called him this. But the word for babbler is spermologos.
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I'll go ahead and tell you this. Spermologos is a hapax legomenon. How does that suit you? Hapax is a Greek word which means just once. Legomenon refers to words. So a hapax legomenon is a word that occurs just one time in the Bible. So this is the only time this word occurs. It's a bad word. And the word is spermologos. And here it means, it has basically three meanings. Neither one of them are very attractive. But the first one, spermologos, refers to a bird that picks seeds from the ground, or a seed picker. Why would they call Paul a seed picker?
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What they were referring to him was, was an ignorant plagiarist. He really didn't know what he was talking about, and whatever he was saying, he just stole from someone else. That kind of reminds you of some modern day plagiarists. I'm not going to name any, one of them got his doctorate by stealing. Who'd you say? Yeah, it was Martin Luther King. He was a plagiarist. He stole.
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And of course, so did some of our presidential candidates as well. So they're calling Paul a babbler, a seed picker, an ignorant plagiarist.
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Secondly, the word means a pauper, one who prowls the marketplace, a parasite who lives by his wits, hence a contemptible and worthless person. And thirdly, it means the perpetual and useless chirping and chattering of a bird. Let me put that in modern-day colloquialism. It means someone who just runs off at the mouth. Someone who is continually talking and making noise and not saying anything. So here, the Epicureans, who were the atheists, when Paul is preaching Jesus and the resurrection, they say, this man is a babbler. He's an ignorant plagiarist. He's a seed picker. He's a pauper. He's a parasite. He's just running off at the mouth. He knows not what he's talking about. Isn't it amazing? What does the Scripture say in 1 Corinthians 1? The preaching of the cross is what? Foolishness.
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to those who are unsaved. And it still is. These Greek philosophers thought they were all-wise and all-knowing, and here comes a man with the truth, and they call him a nitpicker and a plagiarist and a parasite. Well, what does it mean then in verse 18 when he says, "...he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods."
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Now, in all probability, it was the Stoics who charged him with this. Are you listening? In Athens, the introduction of strange gods was a capital offense, if by such introduction the home deities were rejected and the state religion disturbed. In other words, you could get the death penalty for preaching a strange God if it messed up the state religion.
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Now you've got to remember, during Paul's time, who was in charge of the Greek Empire? The Romans. And what did you have to do once a year if you maintained your legitimate status as a religion in Rome? Once a year, you had to swear by the genius of Caesar. You had to say that Caesar's Lord and Lord Caesar gives you the right to believe what you want to believe. So here Paul is, although Athens is in Greece, yet the Romans had conquered. And if you introduce a strange God, if it meant tearing down of the state religion, you could face the death penalty. Now, very clearly, neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics understood Paul's message when he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
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So, the Bible says in verse 19, look carefully, and they took him and brought him unto Areopagus. What is the Areopagus? Well, that word is really two words, Areios Pagos. Areopagus literally means the hill of Ares, who was the Greek god of war, which corresponded to the Roman Mars. And the Areopagus was the hill in front of the Agora. However, listen carefully, the Areopagus was not just the hill in front of the Agora. The word Areopagus also refers to the court, or to the council of Areopagus. It was this council that took note of murders, impieties, immoralities, and they were very attentive to blasphemies against the gods. So when the Stoics charged Paul with being a setter forth of strange gods, they did not take him to the hill Areopagus, they took him to the council of Areopagus, where he was to be judged. And by the way, if you will skip down very quickly in verse thirty four, you'll find that one of those councilmen got converted by Paul's preaching.
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Howbeit certain men claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius, the Areopagite. That is a man who was on this court or who was on this council. He certainly would not be a hill, he was on the council. And so it was this court or this council that Paul was brought before because he was a setter forth of a strange God.
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Now, this court evidently functioned not only politically and educationally, but also judicially and legally. And so the apostle Paul, then, is brought before this council.
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Now, this council or this court had the power or the authority to take official actions in questions of hearing upon public teaching in the city. So Paul is doing some public teaching, and so now Paul is brought before the court.
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Now, skip down in your Bibles to Acts 17, verse 22. This brings me to the third point I want to start trying to tie things together. We worked our way down. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Now, what is Mars Hill? It's the Areopagus. It's the same thing. Mars Hill, Areopagus, same thing. Same hill, but he's now at the hill, at the council. Then Paul stood in Mars Hill, the midst of Mars Hill, and said, now here he begins his direct declaration.
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Now, let me just tell you that the Apostle Paul's message is not to be construed as a formal apology. By the way, I know I've told you this before, but I want to refresh your minds. When we say that Pastor So-and-so is offering an apology for the faith, that does not mean he's standing up and saying, I'm sorry that we believe what we believe. Apologetics is the arm of theology that is termed defending the faith. So apologetics is a defense of the faith, not an apologizing for the faith, okay? So Paul is not necessarily giving a formal defense here, although he is certainly defending certain aspects of the faith.
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Now, let's begin in verse 22, and let me show you the then of Paul's declaration. There's a lot of things that we can learn from the Apostle Paul. Verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. Would you like to know what the word superstitious really means?
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Now, it's not talking about don't walk under a ladder. If a black cat crosses your path, throw salt over your shoulder. The word superstitious, some of you have marginal references in your Bible. It means religious, literally. He says, you men of Athens, I perceive it in all things, you're too religious. Do you realize that you can be religious but lost? You can be religious and be unbiblical to the core.
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Now, what Paul did was this. I want you to note, he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them. He's acknowledging the fact that they're religious. He says, you're just a little too religious. You know what most of us do? And I want to tell you, I have to bite my tongue at times, but isn't it amazing how we want to just jump down everybody's throat when we know they're wrong? We want to straighten them out so quickly and tell them off. But you know something, I'm going to tell you, you will never reach anyone by making them mad at you to begin with. It's just not going to do it. You see, I've got just enough rebellion and sin left in me. If you tell me I'm not going to do something, I'm going to do it just to show you. You know, if you tell me I'm wrong, I'm not going to listen to you because I'm going to show you, you know, that's the way people are. Let's be honest.
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So Paul began with courtesy and care. And he said, look, I know you're religious. I know you believe certain things, but look in verse twenty three. And I like this. He says, for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. Now, I want you to watch what the Apostle Paul did. You know how smart.
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Remember now, you could get the death penalty for introducing a new God into the society if it detracted from the Roman state religion. So the apostle Paul said, look, I found an altar out there with this inscription to the unknown God. Look, I'm not introducing a new God to you. I'm just telling you about the one that you don't know anything about. Let me explain who he really is. So Paul just got himself out of a legal quagmire by using their own altar to the unknown God. So he said, I'm going to declare this unknown God to you.
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Now, I want you to look, and I want you to please try to remember everything that I told you that the Epicureans and the Stoics taught. Because everything that Paul is going to say goes right straight smack dab contrary to what they taught. Note, if you would please, in verse 24, he declares creationism as opposed to Epicurean evolutionism. He says in verse 24, 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. In other words, God is the Creator. The earth did not evolve.
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It did not just happen. It did not just begin by luck, chance, fate, or fortune. No, no. God created the earth and everything in it.
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Now I want you to see what He's doing. He's not just saying, look you stupid Epicureans, you're wrong. He probably wanted to say that. But what he is saying is, I'm declaring the truth to you. And he does so without telling them how stupid and ignorant they really are. You follow me? Now watch it. So he says, God is the creator. Now I want you to note, secondly, he not only deals with the fact that God is the Creator. He also, in verse 24, declares the sovereignty of God over heaven and earth as opposed to the pantheism of the Stoics. He says in verse 24, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth.
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Ah, we've got a sovereign. We have an ultimate. We have an absolute. The earth is not God. The world is not God. Materialism is not God. No, no, no. We have a transcendent God who is above His creation. We have One who is absolutely sovereign. Now, God's handiwork may be seen in the earth and in the world, but God Himself is exalted far above heaven and earth. So, He teaches creationism. He teaches the absolute sovereignty of God.
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And look at verses 24 and 25. He now teaches the incorporeality of God, or the immateriality of God, or let me say it another way, the spirituality of God. He says in verse 24, the latter part, that he, as Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands.
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Now, what is he saying? He is saying, and teaching the truth of John 4, verse 24, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He's saying, look, you Stoics, you want to think that God is material? No, no, no. He's not material. He's immaterial. It is true He is Lord of heaven and earth, but He is spirit.
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Now listen carefully to what I'm about to say. God is not a spirit. God is spirit. And by the way, do you know why everybody wants to materialize God? I might deal with this. I'm probably going to come back in a few weeks and just bring several messages on the nature of God and deal primarily with one aspect on the spirituality of God. But do you know why people want to materialize God? Do you know why they want an idol? Do you know why they want God confined in a temple or in a church or around an altar?
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Let me tell you why. Because when you get your God confined to a material object, when you walk away from that material object, you're on your own. And you've got control over your God. You've got Him right where you want Him, you see. That's why a lot of folks want a material God. I never will forget the woman... I was in Wilmington, North Carolina, preaching, and I saw this little statue she had on her dashboard. And I asked her, I said, what is that statue on your dashboard? Oh, she says, that's my statue of Jesus. She said, I wouldn't think of going anywhere without my Jesus. I said, ma'am, I wouldn't either. But he doesn't live on my dashboard. He's in my heart.
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I mean, you know, come on. You see what I'm saying? Here you got pure paganism trying to materialize God. By the way, you remember the Syrians got defeated because they did that. They said God is the God of the hills, but He's not the God of the plains. They were wanting to materialize God and just put Him in one little location. So Paul then denies not only evolutionism, he not only denies pantheism, he denies the materialism.
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Notice, if you will, in the latter part of verse 25, through verse 28, Paul declares God's providential control over everything as opposed to Epicurean fatalism. He said in verse 25, the latter part, Let's read it all, neither is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he, that is the sovereign God, giveth it all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations and men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed 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.
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For in Him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own prophets have said, for we are also His offspring. So what he's saying is, look, it is God who controls everything. It's God who's placed the nations. It's God who's provided for us. It's God who set the boundaries. God's providential care is opposed to the fatalism that these Epicureans were teaching. And so Paul is saying, look, everything that you fellows have said and everything that you've taught and everything you believed is wrong, and yet he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter. Look in verse 29. He says, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, if your own poet is correct, we ought not to think that Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. He said, if we are the children of God, God can't look like an idol. By the way, and I'm not going to preach this here, but I've often been asked, what does God look like?
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Well, first of all, as I said earlier, God is Spirit, which means he has no body. However, when God did become incarnate and lived on this earth, who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, he looked just like one of us. He didn't look like an idol. He didn't look like a stone image. You follow what I'm saying? So the Apostle Paul is saying, look, you folks have no idea about the truth of God.
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And yet at the same time, he is now pronouncing the Christian philosophy and showing how it is directly opposed and contrary to humanistic philosophy. So he destroys the materialism then of the Stoics. And then look in verses 30 and 31. In this passage, he destroys the disinterestedness of Stoicism and the annihilationism of the Epicureans. He says in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but look what he says, but now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why does God command men to repent? Here's why. Because He, God, hath appointed a day in which He, God, will judge the world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ, whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He hath raised Him from the dead.
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What's the Apostle Paul saying? Just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just as surely as there is a bodily resurrection, there will be a judgment. And you will not escape. And all of your pagan philosophy and all of your humanistic ideas will go down the tubes at that particular time. You will find out who is right. It's kind of like Paul stuck his tongue in his cheek and said, a babbler am I? A seed picker? A pauper? Some ignorant plagiarist? Ooh, you just wait. You will find out who was the true philosopher and who had absolutely no philosophy. So he destroys the philosophy of the Epicureans and the Stoics.
#89 | 58:18 to 59:12 | cleaned
Now, thankfully, and by the way, let me just go ahead and point this out. Do you realize this is the response that you always have when the word of God is preached and taught? Look in verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some, what? Mocked. And others said, what? We'll hear thee again of this matter. In other words, we're not going to mess with it now. We'll put it off. But verse 34 says, Howbeit, certain men claimed unto Him and believed. Inevitably, invariably, when the truth is taught, you're going to have some mockers, you're going to have some postpone entertaining the truth, and you're going to have some, by the grace of God, who believe.
#90 | 59:13 to 59:59 | cleaned
Now, let me make some applications. I want you to note that our worldview, our philosophy must be just like the Apostle Paul's. What am I talking about? His philosophy started with God. It was theocentric. It was God-centered. We are too used to saying, I think, I believe, I've heard, I've been taught. None of those things really matter. What really matters is what does the Word of God teach? And we've got to come back to the fact, here is God and here is His Word.
#91 | 1:00:00 to 1:00:49 | cleaned
Let me tell you folks, if you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God. We have got to have a theocentric worldview, a theocentric, a God-centered philosophy to understand what is going on, what is happening, and how to interpret things in light of the Scripture. For instance, let me tell you something. Let's suppose the stock market crashed tomorrow. What are the humanists going to say? I'll guarantee it will be vastly different from what the Christians say if the Christians have a biblical philosophy. Do you know why this world is so much in debt and so dependent upon a stock market and paper money? Because they don't have any idea of a biblical philosophy of real money. There's differences. I can look out and see something and say, that is a clear incident of God's judgment. Somebody else will say, but it just happened. It was coincidence. It was chance. It was fate. No, no, no. You cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation.
#92 | 1:00:50 to 1:02:31 | cleaned
We've got to interpret in light of the Word of God. If we understand that God is sovereign, it will also temper us in our arguments, in our reasoning. Now, I've told you this before and I've confessed it and I acknowledge it. There are times, there are times I have wanted to take men and women by the shirt, hold them up against the wall, slap them four or five times and say, what in the world is wrong with you?
#93 | 1:02:33 to 1:03:12 | cleaned
How can you be so blind? How can you be so stupid? And yet I know that wouldn't help matters. It would make matters worse. I want to do it still, you know, but it really wouldn't help. But if I understand that God is sovereign, are you listening to me? And that illumination and understanding is the gift of God, then I can still be kind and courteous, teach the truth, and commit it in the Lord's hands and say, Lord, if you don't open their eyes, they're still going to be blind as a bat and go on my way. You follow me?
#94 | 1:03:12 to 1:03:59 | cleaned
Let me tell you, folks, we can't convert everyone. We can't save everyone. We can't make people believe right and we can't make them do what's right. What is our responsibility? To teach the truth and to stand up for the truth. And what they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him. And so if some mock us, so be it. If some say, well, we're not really interested in that right now, so be it. Inevitably, invariably, however, there are going to be certain individuals who will cleave to the truth and say, that's what I wanted. God opened my eyes and showed me His truth. You see, folks, if you do have a thoroughly biblical worldview, inevitably, invariably, you're going to have conflicts. Please understand that. Everywhere you turn, we're men of peace and we want peace. But you're going to have conflicts. Why? Because everybody's going to think you're a nut and you're a fanatic and you've gone off the deep end because you want to do things biblical and right.
#95 | 1:04:00 to 1:05:32 | cleaned
So don't be discouraged. You be encouraged. And make sure that everything in your life is theocentric, God-centered. And you interpret things in light of divine, special revelation. You look through the lenses of Holy Scripture. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful today for Jesus Christ, for His grace and love and mercy to us. We ask you to help us, to build us up in the most holy faith, and Father, we do pray, especially for a Christian worldview, that we would be biblical in our thoughts, in our attitudes, in our actions, in our conduct, that we might bring honor and glory to Thee. In Thy name we pray. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T02:26:21Z

Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver teaches from Acts 17 and Colossians 2 the absolute necessity of a biblical philosophy or worldview. He contrasts the Apostle Paul's God-centered worldview with the humanistic philosophies of the Epicureans and Stoics, showing how Paul's sermon on Mars Hill systematically refutes their materialism, evolutionism, pantheism, fatalism, and denial of judgment. Weaver emphasizes that every person has a worldview that determines how they live, and that Christians must interpret all of life through the lens of Scripture, starting with God rather than man.

Introduction: The Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

Weaver introduces the twofold purpose: to reinforce the necessity of a biblical philosophy and to demonstrate that Scripture must be understood in context. He reads Acts 17:15-34 and Colossians 2:8.

Scripture Reading — Acts 17:15-34

And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now, while Paul waited for them in 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 Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Others, 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 who 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, You men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you 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 you 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 worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth it all life and breath and all things. And have made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily 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 prophets have said. For we also are his offspring. For as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to 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 everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they had 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 claimed on him and believed among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Scripture Reading — Colossians 2:8

"...beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

Defining Worldview and Philosophy

Paul's Determination (Acts 17:15-17)

Scripture Reading — Philippians 2:12-13

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

Philippians 2 verse 12. And then he explains it in verse 13. He says,

Scripture Reading — Philippians 2:12-13

"...for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure."

The Opposition: Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18-21)

Now the Roman senator Seneca was a Stoic. And you remember the most noble Roman of them all, Emperor Marcus Aurelius? He himself was a Stoic as well. Well, what did the Stoics teach?

Here's one of their statements. Listen carefully. The world is the body of God and God is the soul of the world. And apart from the world, God has no existence.

Paul's Declaration on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31)

Responses to the Gospel (Acts 17:32-34)

The sermon produces three responses: some mocked, some postponed, and some believed (including Dionysius and Damaris). Weaver notes this is the typical response to biblical truth.

Applications: Developing a Theocentric Worldview

Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	11815172302
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ
Genre	Sermon
Date	2001-04-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 078: Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover - Volume 1 — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	96

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Necessity of a Biblical Philosophy: Weaver introduces the twofold purpose: to reinforce the necessity of a biblical philosophy and to demonstrate that Scripture must be understood in context. He reads Acts 17:15-34 and Colossians 2:8.
Defining Worldview and Philosophy: Weaver defines philosophy as 'love of wisdom' and worldview as 'man's scientific total view of all created reality.' He explains that Colossians 2:8 forbids only humanistic philosophy, not biblical philosophy.
Paul's Determination (Acts 17:15-17): Paul's determination to preach was human (voluntary), heavenly (stirred by God), and holy (motivated by God's glory being given to idols). Weaver references Philippians 2:12-13 and Psalm 96 to show that God's honor moved Paul.
The Opposition: Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18-21): Weaver explains the beliefs of the Epicureans (materialism, evolutionism, denial of immortality, fatalism, pleasure without pain) and Stoics (pantheism, naturalism, unemotionalism, indifferentism). He clarifies terms like 'babbler' (spermologos) and 'Areopagus' (council, not just a hill).
Paul's Declaration on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31): Paul courteously uses the altar to the unknown God to declare the true God. His sermon refutes Epicurean and Stoic errors by teaching creationism, God's sovereignty, spirituality, providence, and the coming judgment through the resurrected Christ.
Responses to the Gospel (Acts 17:32-34): The sermon produces three responses: some mocked, some postponed, and some believed (including Dionysius and Damaris). Weaver notes this is the typical response to biblical truth.
Applications: Developing a Theocentric Worldview: Weaver applies the message by urging believers to adopt a God-centered philosophy, interpret events through Scripture, trust God's sovereignty in evangelism, and expect conflict when living biblically.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Colossians 2:8 forbids only humanistic philosophy, not all philosophy.

The verse condemns philosophy based on human traditions and worldly principles, not a philosophy centered on Christ.

Weaver says, 'if the philosophy is biblical, if it is after Christ, it is not forbidden. The only philosophy that is forbidden is that which is against Christ and against the Word of God' (500.7-519.6s).

Paul's determination to preach was a result of divine stirring, not mere human decision.

The Greek passive verb indicates God acted upon Paul, illustrating the principle of Philippians 2:12-13 that God works in believers to will and to do.

Weaver explains, 'when the word stirred is used here, it is a passive in the Greek, which means Paul was not active. He was acted upon' (661.7-725.8s).

The Epicureans and Stoics represent enduring humanistic philosophies that still influence modern thought.

Epicurean materialism, evolutionism, and hedonism, and Stoic pantheism, unemotionalism, and indifferentism are present in contemporary culture and even in the church.

Weaver says, 'the same heresies that the Apostle Paul is confronting in Acts chapter 17 are with us today under a little different name' (1291.4-1325.8s) and gives examples like 'Mother Nature' and 'keep a stiff upper lip' (1502.7-1522.5s; 1909.9-1957.4s).

Paul's sermon on Mars Hill is a model for engaging non-Christian worldviews with courtesy and truth.

Paul began by acknowledging their religiosity, used their own altar to the unknown God as a bridge, and systematically presented biblical truth without initial insult.

Weaver notes, 'he was courteous. And he took care not to initially upset them' (2810.9-2883.2s) and 'he's not just standing up and saying you're wrong, he's saying here is the truth of the matter' (3290.1-3329.7s).

The resurrection of Christ guarantees a future judgment, refuting both Epicurean annihilation and Stoic disinterest.

Because God raised Jesus from the dead, He has given assurance that He will judge the world in righteousness, making repentance urgent.

Weaver says, 'just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just as surely as there is a bodily resurrection, there will be a judgment' (3498.5-3552.1s).

A biblical worldview must be theocentric, starting with God and His revelation, not with man.

If you start with man, you end with man; only by beginning with God can you rightly understand reality and live accordingly.

Weaver states, 'if you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God' (3650.8-3751.2s).

Scripture References

Acts 17:15-34: The primary text of the sermon, read and expounded throughout. Paul in Athens, his sermon on Mars Hill, and the responses.
Colossians 2:8: Read to show that only humanistic philosophy is forbidden, not biblical philosophy.
Philippians 2:12-13: Cited to illustrate that God works in believers to will and to do, as seen in Paul's stirring.
Isaiah 26:12: Quoted to support that God works all our works in us.
Isaiah 42:8: Referenced to show God will not share His glory with idols, motivating Paul's holy determination.
Psalm 96:1-8: Read to emphasize declaring God's glory among the heathen and giving Him the glory due His name.
Isaiah 6:1-8: Referenced as another example of human, heavenly, and holy determination in Isaiah's call.
Exodus 33-34: Mentioned as an example of the same pattern in Moses' life.
Acts 17:4: Cited to explain who the 'devout persons' were (Grecian proselytes).
Acts 17:28: Paul quotes the Stoic poet Cleanthes/Aratus: 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being...'
1 Corinthians 1:18: Alluded to: 'the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are unsaved.'
John 4:24: Referenced to support that God is Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth.

Historical References

Epicurus (342-270 BC): Founder of Epicureanism; taught from a garden in Athens; his philosophy included materialism, evolutionism, denial of immortality, and pursuit of pleasure without pain.
Lucretius: Roman poet, best-known Epicurean philosopher.
Zeno (335-265 BC): Founder of Stoicism; taught from a porch (stoa) in Citium, Cyprus; his followers became known as Stoics.
Seneca: Roman senator and Stoic philosopher.
Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher.
Cleanthes (or Aratus): Stoic poet quoted by Paul in Acts 17:28: 'For we are also his offspring.'
Areopagus: Both the hill of Ares (Mars Hill) and the council that met there; a court that judged matters of religion and public teaching.
Dionysius the Areopagite: A member of the Areopagus council who believed after Paul's sermon.
Martin Luther King Jr.: Mentioned as an example of a modern plagiarist, in connection with the term 'spermologos' (seed picker).

Important Quotes

In reality, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Your nerves do not break down. They still continue to function. Well, what is it that is broken down? It's your philosophy. It's your worldview.

Illustrates the practical importance of a worldview; a breakdown is a collapse of one's interpretive framework, not a physical nerve failure.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Key verse (Colossians 2:8) used to distinguish between forbidden humanistic philosophy and permissible biblical philosophy.

It was not pity that moved the Apostle Paul. And pity will not move us, or at least not for long. It was not the fact that these people that were lost that moved the Apostle Paul. They were lost. Well, what moved Paul was he saw the glory that belonged to the one true and living God being given to idols.

Highlights that Paul's primary motivation was zeal for God's glory, not mere compassion, shaping a God-centered approach to ministry.

You cannot interpret what is going on unless you look through the special glasses of divine revelation.

Emphasizes the necessity of Scripture as the lens for understanding all events and reality.

If you start with man, you're going to end with man. If you start with God, you can end with God.

Succinctly states the foundational principle of a theocentric worldview versus a humanistic one.

What they do with the truth is between them and God. How God applies the truth is up to Him.

Encourages believers to faithfully teach truth without bearing the burden of results, trusting God's sovereignty in conversion.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does your worldview affect the way you interpret daily events, such as economic changes or personal trials?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts humanistic and biblical interpretations of events like a stock market crash.

[Question]

In what ways might modern Christians unknowingly adopt Epicurean or Stoic philosophies?

[Context]

Weaver gives examples like materialism, 'keep a stiff upper lip,' and disinterest in involvement.

[Question]

What does it mean to have a 'theocentric' philosophy, and how can we cultivate it?

[Context]

Weaver stresses starting with God and His Word rather than human opinion.

[Question]

How can we balance courtesy and truth when engaging with those who hold opposing worldviews, as Paul did on Mars Hill?

[Context]

Weaver notes Paul's courteous approach and use of the altar to the unknown God.

[Question]

Why is God's glory a stronger motivation for evangelism than pity for the lost?

[Context]

Weaver argues that Paul was moved by seeing God's glory given to idols, not primarily by pity.

[Question]

How does the doctrine of God's sovereignty help us handle rejection or mockery when we share the gospel?

[Context]

Weaver explains that understanding God's sovereignty allows us to teach truth and leave results to Him.

[Question]

What are some practical steps to ensure our philosophy is 'after Christ' and not 'after the rudiments of the world'?

[Context]

Based on Colossians 2:8, Weaver distinguishes between biblical and humanistic philosophy.

Applications

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