Paul's Sermon

 

Today we visited the Acropolis of Athens.  We parked at the bottom of Mars Hill.  The very hill where the Apostle Paul gave his Areopagus Sermon.

Knowing this, we gathered the kids for scripture study last night and George read from Acts 17.

The structures and ruins that make up the Acropolis tell an amazing story of construction, of civilization, of intellect and of the worship of idols and pagan gods.

This continued even until after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and as Paul was ministering and teaching.

Elder Levi Edgar Young preached, "Paul, the Apostle, had become one of the disciples of the Lord. He went about preaching the gospel "with inspired eloquence and logic." He went to Athens. They took him to the Areopagus, saying: ". . . thou bringest certain strange things to our ears"  You read Paul's discourse for yourselves. "It is the shortest important speech ever made, excepting only Lincoln's undying Gettysburg speech address. In less than one hundred and fifty words he put the argument for and assertion of the living God of salvation and the resurrection of the dead. In doing this he even included a quotation from the Greek poets." He had planted the seed.

In verse 21 Paul says, "(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)"

They were so caught up in learning all the new things and being on the cutting edge of every change, they lost the truth that was embedded and passed down from the Lord. 

When Paul delivered his message he told them that they needed to stop their idol worship and specifically called out one idol he had seen.

22Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

23For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

He then bears his testimony that God is the Creator and that they need to seek to know Him.  

He says that, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth".  We are all his children.  

He said that because we are created by Him in his image we should know that He is not made of gold or stone. He testifies of the resurrection.

He calls them to repent of their ignorance.  

Many mock and disregard him.  But a few listen and learn.  

Our idols may not be immense stone structures, but rest assured that we have them. Anything that we put before our worship of the Lord is an idol.  

President David O McKay warned, "Today, as on Mars' Hill, when we speak of the resurrection of the dead, there are some who mock and others who doubt and turn away. Today, as then, too many men and women have other gods to which they give more thought than to the resurrected Lord—the god of pleasure, the god of wealth, the god of indulgence, the god of political power, the god of popularity, the god of race superiority—as varied and numerous as were the gods in ancient Athens and Rome."

Our society can make it seem wrong and behind the times to not jump at every new thought and offering, leaving behind the counsel of the Lord.  When we fall into this trap, we too can have need to repent of our ignorance.  

Paul's eloquent words of wisdoms echo from Mars Hill around the world through the pages of our Holy Scriptures.  They are there for each of us, but only if we take the time to read and ponder them.  

Today I walked where Paul walked.  Tomorrow I continue to live as Paul taught.