Spirits Provoked, Bodies Raised: A Sermon in Athens

Preface

Pastor Michael from Hungary, introducing the recorded sermon in Athens.

In Hungary, we’re staying in a house whose owner is apparently Buddhist. There’s a Buddhist statue in the backyard, in the front yard, and I think in every room in the house. But these are just a mild annoyance compared to what we saw in Athens, Greece, where we visited prior to coming to Hungary to adopt our new twins.

It was Athens that the Scripture tells us Paul was visiting when he had his spirit provoked by the number of idols that he saw (Acts 17:16).

The sermon in this video is a sermon from the very site on which the apostle Paul once stood: the Areopagus, or Mars Hill. Areopagus means, literally, “the hill of Ares.” Ares is one of the 12 gods of Olympus, and his Roman equivalent is Mars, so the site is sometimes called Mars Hill.

Mars Hill is situated directly in front of the Acropolis of Athens—the high point upon which stood the massive temple to Athena, called the Parthenon.

Just below the Areopagus is the Greek marketplace, and that’s where, Acts 17:17 tells us, Paul was reasoning with the philosophers and religious leaders of the day.

The Areopagus is a place where people used to be taken to be put on trial—murder trials, for example, happened there. The council that judged these matters later took on that same name, Areopagus. So we could say that Paul, in some sense, is on trial for his thoughts, specifically the idea of the resurrection from the dead, which was considered a new idea at that time.

So here was Paul, on trial, arguing both with those who believed in a number of gods and with those who believed in only one God—but both rejecting the God Jesus Christ and the idea that He was raised from the dead.

This sermon may not yield any new revelation regarding the theology of the resurrection—it’s very much in line with the content in our recent series on the topic.¹ But what is new is the context.

It’s quite unique to talk about the resurrection from the dead from the very spot that the apostle Paul preached on resurrection from the dead, and to realize what it must’ve been like to talk about the God who created the entire world—while Paul was looking out from the top of Athens, at what seemed to be the entire world; to talk about the God who doesn’t dwell in temples made by human hands, with this massive Roman temple in the background.

I move through this sermon quickly, and I encourage you to first download the study guide below to follow along—or to review and revisit what I speak about.²

I hope and pray that both the study guide and this sermon help the Scriptures come alive to you in a new way. And I hope that, as you consider resurrection from the dead and the next life, you’re able to imagine a little bit better what it will be like one day to be in a land you’ve never visited but always dreamed and longed to visit.

That’s what visiting Athens was like for me: a dream come true. For someone who’s spent his life studying history, archaeology, philosophy, theology, and government—Athens was and is the epicenter of those fields. Visiting Athens was something I’d imagined doing all my life. And now I’ve actually done it.

Likewise, as followers of Jesus, one day, we’ll stand in the presence of God and in the presence of loved ones we haven’t seen in some time. For the Christian, our life of faith is awaiting that day, imagining it and knowing it’s true—even though we haven’t seen it. One day, we’ll actually place our feet in the heavenly ground, and according to the doctrine we have studied, it will be a physical place, because the resurrection of the dead is about raising bodies.

Spirits Provoked, Bodies Raised: A Sermon in Athens—A Look at the Resurrection from the Dead

Pastor Michael, from Athens. Recorded in January 2025.

Good Morning from Mars Hill

While I’m normally not a fan of the recorded sermon for Sunday worship services, there are some reasons to make an exception. The opportunity to be in this location is one of those exceptions.

This rock outcrop I’m sitting on (pictured below) is Mars Hill, the Areopagus. On these very rocks, the apostle Paul preached to the Athenians.

What better way to begin to close our series on the resurrection from the dead than to preach a sermon on the very site that Paul preached—and to take up that same subject matter.

How Paul Got to Athens

Paul was coming from the Greek city of Thessalonica, traveling south to Berea, and then finally (further south) to Athens, where he was waiting for the rest of his traveling companions.

Here’s what the Scripture says about his travels:

But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there. Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. (Acts 17:13–15)

The story of Paul in Athens culminates on Mars Hill. Acts 17:19–22 says:

And they took him [Paul] and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.” (vv. 19–22)

Why was Paul brought to this hill, or to the council named after this place? The preceding verses tell us:

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:16–18)

Wonder and (Spiritual) Warfare

While in Athens, the Bible says the apostle Paul’s spirit was provoked because of all the idols he observed in the city. I have to admit, there is a strangeness in visiting a place like Athens. It’s a cause of both wonder and sobriety, realizing what this place originally stood for.

Behind me (in the video) is the Acropolis, on top of which sits the Parthenon, the temple to the goddess Athena (see photo below). The structure was built as a temple to a false god, a false idol. And if you were to visit the Acropolis, you’d see all sorts of idols and religious artifacts dedicated to the worship of pagan gods. (There’s also a bunch of scaffolding due to current preservation efforts.)

In some sense, you can say this is just a building. No one’s coming to the Parthenon to worship Athena today. And it was not always a temple to Athena; later on, it became the home of a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The name “parthenon” comes from the Greek parthénos, meaning “virgin.” After that, the building became a Muslim mosque.

Walking the Acropolis

If you were to walk the Acropolis, you’d encounter more places and objects of pagan worship (see the study guide for multiple photos):

You’d encounter the Asclepieion—the sanctuary of the god Asclepios (the god of medicine or health) and his daughter, Hygieia (where we get the word “hygiene”).
You’d encounter the Temple of Athena Nike, the goddess of victory.
You’d see the Erechtheion, a building that some have proposed was a collecting house of sorts of religious curiosities, something perhaps dedicated to multiple gods (Athena, Zeus, Poseidon).

This is the backdrop to Paul’s encounter in Athens and his speech/sermon before the Areopagus.

But why did they bring the “idle babbler” here? (A better translation of that term would be a “seed picker.” The idea is that of a bird going along the street picking up scraps of nothing and then squawking about it as if he found something. This was their view of Paul.) They brought Paul here because of the things he’d been saying in the marketplace, the agora, about the resurrection from the dead.

To understand this better, and to understand why Paul was provoked within the city, you need to understand exactly where he was. Scripture says Paul was “reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles” but also “in the market place every day with those who happened to be present” (Acts 17:17).

I will speak next from the ancient agora, or marketplace, of Athens.

From the Agora (Marketplace)

In the ancient agora (marketplace) of Athens, Paul waited and had his spirit provoked because of all the idols to pagan deities that he saw.

The agora was in the shadow of the Acropolis and Parthenon, and also in the shadow of the Areopagus or Mars Hill. Here, there would have been a Jewish synagogue, though we don’t know exactly where it was. We do know the sights of several temples that Paul would have seen:

The temple to Ares
A temple to Hephaestus
A temple to Apollo
A metroon—a temple dedicated to a mother goddess, probably dedicated to Cybele
Several altars—including the altar to Zeus and probably the altar to the 12 gods (likely the 12 Olympian gods or gods of Mount Olympus)

Altar of the 12 Gods

We don’t know how long Paul waited in Athens, but his exposure to pagan altars would have been substantial. If I were to show you every altar within the agora, this sermon would take all day. (One can easily see why Paul’s spirit would have been provoked.)

Let’s take a closer look at some of these places—and one altar in particular that was arguably the most important: the altar to the 12 gods (that is, the gods of Mount Olympus).³

This altar illustrates just how many altars there were and are in Athens; in fact, a major road in Greece has been built right over the top of the road I’m standing on in the video; all that’s left is the exposure of its southwest corner. If you were to take measurements in Athens, every milestone within the city was marked from this central location of the altar to the 12 gods.

“Religious in All Respects”

When Paul says, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects,”⁴ there’s almost a twinge of humor to it. You can’t stand in any spot in the agora and not see the dedication to the pagan gods.

In the recording, I’m standing below a large temple to Hephaestus; directly behind me is a temple to Apollo, and next to it is a temple to Zeus; next to that is a temple to Athena. And if you keep walking to the corner, you’d see another altar to Zeus, and even across from me in the video is a temple to the god Ares.

Paul and the Philosophers

And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this scrapmonger [trans: idle babbler] wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18)

Let me introduce you to some items important to the philosophers Acts 17:18 says Paul was debating in Athens.

The Metroon

The building behind me in the video is known as a metroon. The Greek root of this word is mētēr, which is the word for mother. This was a building dedicated to the mother goddess, inside of which would have been another shrine—another altar to a pagan god, probably Cybele in this case.

In addition to being a religious building, this metroon was a place that held documents—public records. Of particular interest to our study, one of the public records found in this metroon was the last will and testament of a man named Epicurus. Epicurus is the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy. He was among the same philosophers whose ideas Paul was arguing with in Athens.

The Stoa

Next, I draw your attention to a colonnade or portico, known as a stoa, in Greek. The one I’m standing in in the video (the stoa of Attalos) was built in about 150 BC. North of this stoa was another stoa, called the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Porch or Painted Stoa, which was important in the context of Acts 17. There was a man named Zeno who taught so often in the Painted Stoa that followers of his philosophy were known as Stoics.

The Epicuran and Stoic philosophers were the ones Paul debated in the Athens agora.

The Temple of Hephaestus

I mentioned that Paul would’ve seen a temple to Hephaestus. The temple behind me in the video (also shown in the photo below) is exactly that, and it’s the most well preserved of its kind in Greece.

The god of Hephaestus was the god of the craftsman. It would have been particularly interesting to the audience of Acts 17, considering what Paul had to say about God, that He didn’t dwell in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24)—i.e., made by craftsmen.

Paul also said something in Acts 17 about the “divine nature” (v. 29), that it couldn’t be captured in things like gold and silver, things made by the hand of the artist (again, the hand of the craftsman).

So it is in this marketplace, this agora, that all of the references in Acts 17 come together. Paul, while waiting in Athens, would have had this temple to Hephaestus on one side and Mars Hill on the other.

Paul’s Sermon on Mars Hill

After his teaching in the agora, Paul is brought before the Areopagus. It’s then, upon ascending the Areopagus, that he delivers this sermon:

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:22–34)

What’s New?

The irony isn’t hidden. As some have pointed out, Paul is accused of being the collector of insignificant scraps. But it’s these men, who have spent their time doing nothing but hearing new things, who rejected the truth of Paul’s testimony about Jesus and the resurrection from the dead. To these men, this resurrection of the dead was new, novel, and silly.

This gives us insight into just how radical this concept of bodily resurrection must have been to the Athenian listener. These pagans had a lot of beliefs about souls and bodies, but—despite their supposed desire to hear new things—a body being raised from the dead was something that most rejected.

Despite their supposed desire to hear new things, a body being raised from the dead was something that most rejected.

For the Christian, the resurrection is a physical rebirth that is necessitated by our spiritual rebirth. It remains the newest thing in all the world, because it has only happened to one Man in history, Jesus Christ; yet, it’s a promise extended to all who trust in Him for eternal life.

The resurrection … remains the newest thing in all the world, because it has only happened to one Man in history.

Early Greek Thought: “Your Own Poets Have Said”

When Paul preached at the Areopagus, he took the opportunity to quote the Greek poets.⁵ I, too, would like to take the opportunity—this time, from the most famous of Greek poet of all, Homer.

The writings of Homer reflect the early beliefs of the Greeks about life after death. For the early ancient Greeks, the post-death experience is characterized by sadness and the doom and gloom of Hades (the place of the dead).

The first Homer quote comes from The Iliad. Consider the words of Achilles as he encounters his dead friend Patroclus:

Achilles held out his arms to clasp the spirit, but in vain. It vanished like a wisp of smoke and went gibbering underground. Achilles leapt up in amazement. He beat his hands together and in his desolation cried: “Ah then, it is true that something of us does survive even in the Halls of Hades, but with no intellect at all, only the ghost and semblance of a man: for all night long the ghost of poor Patroclus (and it looked exactly like him) has been standing at my side, weeping and wailing, and telling me of all the things I ought to do.”⁶

The second passage I want to share comes from Homer’s Odyssey. Again, these are the words of Achilles, but this time he’s the one who is dead, and he’s speaking with the living Odysseus:

Never try to reconcile me to death, glorious Odysseus. I should choose, so I might live on earth, to serve as the hireling of another, some landless man with hardly enough to live on, rather than to be lord over all the dead that have perished.⁷

Later Greek Thought: “Philosophers Were Disputing”

We could summarize early Greek beliefs with this idea: Our truest self is the body; that is, we are bodies who have souls, and thus our best existence is this live existence that we live now.

But in addition to interacting with the Greek poets, let’s also interact with the Greek philosophers, much like Paul did on this same hill where I stand.⁸

Plato, one of the most famous Greek philosophers, had a school called the Academy about 2.5 miles away from where I stand in the video. Plato’s thoughts represent later Greek thought. Plato believed in the immortality of the soul, that we are souls trapped in a human body, desiring to be free. Here’s how he put it in the words of Socrates in the Phaedrus:

At the end of life they will have full-grown wings and cast off the burdens of the flesh: they will stand victorious in the first bout of a truly Olympian victory. (Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus)⁹

Summary: What Are Humans?

Early Greek thought: We are bodies that have souls.
Later Greek thought: We are souls that have bodies.
Christian thought: We are bodies and souls, unified.

The Truth and the Truest Self

We could say that those later Greek thoughts were captured by the idea that the soul is the truest self (i.e., that we are souls who have bodies, and that those bodies need to be set free).

But when it comes to the idea of the truest self, it was Paul, preaching the truth on Mars Hill, who understood it best. We are not souls and we are not bodies; we are human beings—body and soul—and the true self is not the body, as thought the early Greeks, or the soul, as thought later Greeks. The truest self is the living human—body and soul—and the highest truth found in Jesus is that, one day, our souls will be perfectly reunited with our bodies in what Paul preached as the resurrection of the dead.

ἔστησεν ἡμέραν ἐν ᾗ μέλλει κρίνειν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν
δικαιοσύνῃ ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν, πίστιν παρασχὼν πᾶσιν
ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν¹⁰

Translation: “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).