Paul At the Pentagon || Pastor Brian Zahnd

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Acts chap 17 verse 22.

[00:00:05]And Paul stood in the midst of the Aropagus.

[00:00:12]How many of you have gone all week and not used the word Aropagus?

[00:00:16]That's what I thought.

[00:00:18]The Aropagus uh in Athens.

[00:00:25]It means the hill of Aries.

[00:00:28]Aries is the Greek god of war. It was the ancient site for Athenian court and Ayidian city council.

[00:00:42]When the King James translators got to that verse, instead of translating it Aropagus, the hill of Aries, they said, "Well, people don't know what Aries is, but people will know what Mars is." And so they went with the Latin and Roman version of the war god. So instead of calling it the the hill of Aries, Greek god of war, they called it Mars Hill.

[00:01:10]Mars being the Latin and Roman god of war. And so even though it's only King James that does that, it has really kind of come into the English vernacular as Paul at Mars Hill.

[00:01:23]So I'm thinking, you know, I was working on this few weeks ago because I knew I'd be back for this and I thought, what to what to call this sermon? I mean, I could call it Paul at the Aropagus because that's what the sermon is going to be about, but I could call it Paul at Mars Hill because that's how we more often hear it and think about it.

[00:01:44]Then I thought, well, I could call it I could maybe be more literal in one sense and call it Paul at Warhill.

[00:01:52]And then it dawned on me. Then it dawned on me, the sermon must be called Paul at the Pentagon.

[00:02:01]Oh, that's a good title. That's a good title. Paul at the Pentagon.

[00:02:07]First, let's get the story.

[00:02:09]It was about the year AD50, maybe even exactly that year. I mean, we we got we have Paul's travels down pretty well. It was 50 or 51.

[00:02:22]So if the crucifixion and resurrection was in 30, which is what kind of most scholars believe, this is 20 years or so following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[00:02:35]Paul and Silas have been preaching in Asia Minor. We call that Turkey today. Along the way in a town called Derby, they've picked up a young assistant by the name of Timothy.

[00:02:49]And then at Trrowaz there on the western coast of Turkey, Paul has a vision, a man from Macedonia, this is northern Greece, saying, "Come over and help us."

[00:03:00]So Paul and Silas and now with their assistant, young Timothy, they cross over into Greece into Macedonia and they're preaching the gospel.

[00:03:15]I mean, this this this is the gospel moving westward. It starts in Jerusalem, then goes up into Asia Mia, and now it's crossed over into Europe.

[00:03:23]And they're preaching in Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea. But there there is mounting opposition and persecution directed primarily at Paul because he's clearly the leader. And so Paul's entourage says, "You need to get out of here. We're going to send you on ahead to Athens. We'll catch up with you later on." And so Paul arrives in Athens by himself ahead of his entourage. Athens, I mean, what a I mean, one of the most important cities in the history of Western civilization.

[00:04:00]Athens, the birthplace of democracy.

[00:04:04]Athens, the center of Greek philosophy that has so influenced Western thinking.

[00:04:09]This is the home of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

[00:04:14]So Paul has arrived in Athens. He's in the agora, the the marketplace. And there he engages in a series of debates with the Epicuran and Stoic philosophers because this is the city of philosophy.

[00:04:28]The Epicurans, they uh their philosophy of life is that you should pursue pleasure. They were hedonists in the philosophical sense, not in a debauched way, but their idea was that whatever brings the most pleasure to the most people, that should be the proper course of action. You could pretty accurately describe u the Epicurans as those that prioritize the pursuit of happiness.

[00:04:58]And so that that's their philosophy and it tended to be the philosophy of the elite.

[00:05:04]And then there's the Stoics. The Stoics rather than prioritizing the pursuit of pleasure or happiness, they emphasized the pursuit of virtue to become a virtuous person. And so the early Christians and the Stoics had a little more in common than the early Christians with the Epicurans.

[00:05:25]So Paul is there and he's having these discussions with the Epicuran and Stoic philosophers, but he's not advocating uh prioritizing the pursuit of happiness.

[00:05:36]And even though there is going to be the development of Christian ethics and virtue, that isn't Paul's emphasis. Paul is preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

[00:05:46]That's what he's preaching. He's preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

[00:05:51]And then Paul is brought to the Aropagus.

[00:05:54]This is kind of a place for formal presentations. And he's brought to the Aropagus to Mars Hill to give a formal presentation on this new message that he is bringing to Athens.

[00:06:07]Of course, Athens was full of temples and these temples housed the many, many gods of the Greek pantheon. The chief god among them being Zeus.

[00:06:21]Paul began his address at the Aropagus by commending the Athenians for their religious devotion. Even if it was even if it was idolatrous and thus mistaking, Paul doesn't begin by chiding them. He begins by commending them for being people that somehow would seek the transcendent and would seek to worship the living God.

[00:06:49]Um but eventually Paul begins to challenge their pagan idolatry and he says today I I was I was wandering around I was running around around your your wonderful city and I saw the many temples that you have here and I came upon an altar dedicated to the unknown god just in case we left one out.

[00:07:14]the unknown god, the the agnosttos theos dedicated to the agnosttos theos the the the god that we are agnostic or ignorant about the god that we don't know Paul said I want to talk to you about that god so so Paul finds a way to have a blank a blank slate I'm not talking about Zeus I'm talking about this god that up to now has been unknown to you and he begins by telling telling them that the creator God, and that's what he's saying, this God that you really don't know is the creator of all things, the creator God does not live in temples.

[00:07:56]Instead, we live in him. That's kind of a different move there. He says that God the the God that I'm proclaiming which is the true God the one and only true God the creator God does not live in temples that we build for him rather we live in that God and then to make his case Paul quotes the pagan Greek philosopher and poet Epimenities.

[00:08:27]Epimenities came from Cree. He lived in the sixth, maybe the seventh, we're not quite sure, seventh, sixth or seventh century BC. He was a philosopher, poet, and at that time on the island of Cree, which is where really Greek culture began. They didn't spread onto the mainland, but it began on the island of Cree.

[00:08:47]There were philosophers who claimed that Zeus, the chief god of the Greek pantheon, was mortal, that is, would be subject to death. And so there was this theological dispute on the island of Cree in the sixth or 7th century BC and some philosophers say you know the Zeus he's he's mortal and that means he will die and Epimemenities was was appalled by this and he wrote a hymn it's come down to us known as the hymn to Zeus part of the hymn to Zeus says this they fashioned a tomb for you high and holy one okay this is address he's talking about Zeus They fashioned a tomb for you. That's these philosophers on Cree that said that Zeus has mortal. We might as well make a tomb for him because he's going to die. They fashioned a tomb for you high and holy one. Cretins always liars, evil beasts, lazy glutton and understanding amenities is a himself. So he's critiquing his own people. By the way, that verse that line shows up in Titus, first chapter of Titus. cretins, always liars, evil beasts, lazy glutton, but you are not dead. You live and abide forever. For in you we live and move and have our being.

[00:10:04]For in you we live. This is the hymn to Zeus 6 cent BC philosopher poet epimemenities. So yes, the famous scripture in him we live and move and have our being.

[00:10:16]the famous scripture that that comes into the New Testament through Paul's sermon at Mars Hill. That verse, that line has its origin in pagan poetry.

[00:10:30]This is Paul's version of finding God in the music. People, I go out and I find I find some pagan songs I can work with on Sunday morning.

[00:10:41]That's what Paul's doing here.

[00:10:44]He knows some of his Greek poetry and he finds a verse that can help promote what he's trying to tell the Athenians. So Paul is perfectly comfortable with working with what pagans got right about God. He doesn't approach them with antagonism. He's looking for where there is common ground. And he's saying, "Well, you know, you your poet, philosopher, Eime, he got it right when he said in him we live and move and have our being."

[00:11:18]Paul's point is that we don't build a temple for God to dwell in. Rather, we dwell in the temple that God is.

[00:11:26]In other words, God is the foundation for the phenomenon of being.

[00:11:36]By the way, I just love that verse.

[00:11:40]In him, in God, we live and move and have our being. But it first enters human thought through a pagan poet, philosopher.

[00:11:50]Paul also tells the Athenians that we search for God because we are his offspring.

[00:11:59]All right? He says, and first of all, we we God doesn't live in temples. I know you got you got lots of temples. I I I commend your religious curiosity, your quest trying to find God in some way, groping for God. I commend that. But I'm here to tell you about the agnostto theos, the unknown god. He does not live, this is the true God. He does not live in temples. Rather, he is the temple that we inhabit.

[00:12:25]And then he goes on to say, and you know what? The reason we yearn for this God, the reason we want to find this God, the reason we search for this God is because we are his offspring.

[00:12:38]We are his genos. That's the Greek word.

[00:12:41]We are his genos.

[00:12:43]Like genome, genetics, genealogy, generations.

[00:12:49]The word can also mean kind. We are God's kind or God's kin or kindred.

[00:12:56]We search for God because deep down we know that's who we come from. We are God's offspring, God's genos, God's kind, God's kin, God's kindred.

[00:13:11]And Paul says this by quoting yet another pagan poet, this time Eatus, who lived from 315 to 240 BC. another Greek poet and in his famous poem phenomena here's part of that poem full of Zeus are all the streets and marketplaces of men remember you know Paul's not preaching Zeus but it's it's kind of where he can start with them this is the chief god of the Greek pantheon and he quotes not all of it just one little line for all Zeus full of full of Zeus are all the streets and marketplaces of men. Full is the sea and the havens thereof. Always we have need of Zeus, for we too are his offspring.

[00:14:03]Well, he just lifts that one little line because he doesn't really want to talk about Zeus, but but he he's just talking about God and he takes that out for we too are and they would recognize that es especially the people that would be hanging out at the Aropagus. This is mostly the elite. They know their Greek poetry. It would be like, not all of you will know this, but we'll see how many know this. If I say, "We are stardust. We are golden."

[00:14:30]If you get that, if you re you recognize that, wave at me. Not enough. We're going to have to have more school of rock in this church because not enough of you know this great song written by Joanie Mitchell, made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. We are stardust. We are golden.

[00:14:48]We are billionaire old carbon. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

[00:14:54]It's a great song. It's called Woodstock. Listen to it today. All right. So, so they would hear we are his offspring like we would hear. We are startless. We are golden.

[00:15:04]And so he's finding common ground, but he's he's moving steadfastly toward Jesus.

[00:15:11]Paul then says, and he's going to be he's becoming a little more direct, but he's been patient about it. He's been respectful. Paul then says that their idolatry, that is their wrong thinking about God, the wrong images of God, the wrong ideas about God, are rooted in ignorance. Therefore, in times past, God overlooked it. I mean, you can hardly blame them, right?

[00:15:36]They they they don't know the true God.

[00:15:39]And so in their ignorance of the true God, they are trying to know God. But what God becomes is mostly a projection of their own fears and aspirations.

[00:15:53]A deification of their own fears and aspirations. This becomes the Greek pantheon.

[00:15:58]They simply don't know what God is like.

[00:16:00]And so they relied on human art and imagination that was grounded in their own fears and aspirations to create all of these gods and goddesses.

[00:16:14]But Paul tells them that all of that has changed now. And now it's time to repent of that, to rethink everything, to change your mind, to change your heart.

[00:16:22]That will ultimately result in a change of how you live. Paul says, "Oh, that's got to change now because God has at last made himself known.

[00:16:32]We're not we're not agnostic our idolatry. That is our wrong ideas and wrong images about God, our wrong thinking about God because we're ignorant." And God says, "I just overlooked that." But now God has acted definitively into history.

[00:16:54]The Apostle John at the end of his poetic prologue of his gospel says this, "No one has ever seen God. The only begotten son who is near the father's heart, he has made him known."

[00:17:10]So God is not like Zeus.

[00:17:16]Zeus was Zeus was really the personification of power. That's what Zeus ultimately is like. He's got he's got quite a story. You can read all of the Greek myths if you're interested in that sort of thing. But he's really the personification of power. And he was most often depicted holding a thunderbolt in his right hand in the act of hurling it to some unfortunate.

[00:17:40]And so so their their their engagement with the supreme god of the Greek pantheon would be with Zeus who they would mostly fear.

[00:17:51]They would worship purely out of fear, not out of love.

[00:17:56]In the Greek pantheon, Zeus is not a particularly lovable guy. He can be petty, vengeful, involved in power struggles with the other gods and goddesses. But Paul is there and saying, "I'm going to tell you about the God you don't know about." And people, this is good news because God is not like that. He's not like Zeus.

[00:18:19]We would say it. God is like Jesus.

[00:18:22]>> Might as well say it all. God has always been like Jesus. There's never been a God didn't God didn't change because of Jesus. We just we our ignorance changed.

[00:18:30]That's what changed our ignorance.

[00:18:35]Most of us here are Gentiles. So, we all come from that world. We all come from the pagans. And if we just trace our genealogy back far enough, we're still the offspring of God. But we had all kinds of mistaken, founded in ignorance ideas about what God is like. But now God has made himself. He's not like Zeus. God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus, but we didn't know it.

[00:18:58]There was never a time when God wasn't like Jesus, but we didn't know it. But now we do.

[00:19:05]And this is good news. In fact, we're told he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

[00:19:19]If it's true, and it is, but if it's true that God is like Jesus, how many of you say that's good news?

[00:19:26]>> God is not like Zeus hurling his thunderbolts.

[00:19:31]God is not like Zeus.

[00:19:33]Petty and petulant, mcurial, unpredictable that you just have to constantly be in fear of. God is not like Zeus. God is like Jesus.

[00:19:42]And this is good news. But he's also preaching the resurrection, which means he's also preaching the cross. And this is going to blow some Athenian minds.

[00:19:51]I promise you, Zeus was never going to be crucified.

[00:19:55]He might crucify, but he was never going to be crucified. But he's telling them about this God that is perfectly revealed in his son who is Jesus who was crucified who was put to death by the Roman Empire but on the third day was raised again.

[00:20:12]So that now we know what God is like.

[00:20:16]Paul's final point in his sermon to the Athenians at Mars Hill is this. He says, "God has fixed the day when he will judge the world in justice by the man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

[00:20:39]>> Amen.

[00:20:41]The world will be judged by Jesus Christ. And this is part of the good news.

[00:20:49]Some of you grew up in very legalistic, judgmental church situations and you had to find your way out of that and you found out the good news that God is like Jesus.

[00:21:05]But don't let that mislead you into thinking that there is no judgment.

[00:21:10]The world will be judged by Jesus Christ. And this is part of the good news. It's not bad news. It's good news.

[00:21:18]Don't don't pretend that you don't want that to happen. You do want it to happen.

[00:21:23]In the end, the wicked will be held accountable.

[00:21:27]And when I mean when I say wicked, I that is not a technical term for all non-Christians.

[00:21:33]I'm using the word wicked like anybody else would use it.

[00:21:37]There are wicked people. There aren't many, fortunately.

[00:21:41]Most people aren't, but there are wicked people. And in the end, they don't get away with anything. In the end, they stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

[00:21:50]So the cynical masters of war, the rich exploiters of the poor, those who pillage the planet for their own greed, those who engineer genocides, those who have abused children, and those who have made life a living hell for others. they will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and receive a just judgment.

[00:22:18]And that's how Paul, that's his concluding point in this sermon. And I think we must hear that as good news.

[00:22:27]It's why in the creed we confess he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

[00:22:36]This is what we all experience at the time of our death.

[00:22:40]Personally, I've become convinced I keep trying to explain this. I haven't found yet a good way to explain it, but I'll just keep trying.

[00:22:48]That although we all enter death at radically different periods of time throughout history, we arrive on the other side simultaneously experiencing the perusei, the appearing, the second coming, and the day of judgment. All of that we enter into experientially at the time of our death.

[00:23:10]He will come again to judge the living and the dead. Experienced at our death.

[00:23:17]Christ now fills all things everywhere with himself. This is what Paul says in Ephesians 1:23. So that for a human being, we'll talk about this some more next Sunday, but so for now, I mean, this this right here, this is Christ filling death with himself. That's that's where he is. He has ascended to death. I'll talk about that more next Sunday. Descended into death.

[00:23:41]And now Christ fills there. Christ fills the cosmos with himself. So for a human being to die is not to encounter death but to encounter Christ as both judge and savior.

[00:23:55]So the cynical masters of war, the rich exploiters of the poor, those who pillage the planet for their own greed, those responsible for engineering genocides, those who have abused children and made life a living hell for others among others. They will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and receive a just judgment. This doesn't mean they can't be saved, but there is no salvation apart from judgment from apart from repentance. And that's what judgment is tending is intended to move us toward. Judgment is intended to move us toward repentance.

[00:24:33]God loves his creation far too much to let injustice be unjudged.

[00:24:41]Don't think that God doesn't care about the injustice. I mean, we see it all around us. Maybe it makes us angry.

[00:24:48]Maybe it makes us sad. Maybe it makes us all of these things.

[00:24:51]Don't think that God doesn't also see it in care and that eventually God is going to judge that God loves his creation far too much to let injustice go unjudged. And I find great comfort in this. By the way, knowing full well that I too must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of my life. I I'm not exempt from that. I too will experience that. But ultimately, the judgment of God is a good thing.

[00:25:20]The psalmist sings about it like this.

[00:25:24]Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and all those that live in it.

[00:25:30]Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord.

[00:25:38]At the I I assume in the Septuagent it says at the peruseia of the Lord, the the presence of the Lord, the appearing of the Lord, the peruseia of the Lord.

[00:25:48]For he is coming to do what? To judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

[00:25:57]So this is Paul's sermon at Mars Hill. When Paul finished his Mars Hill sermon, there were three responses. Some scoffed, especially about the resurrection of the dead. That's the part they scoffed at the most. The re But of course, this is the central claim of the Christian faith.

[00:26:18]that God joined us in our humanity, experienced death with us, but was raised on the third day. And in his resurrection, we find the hope of resurrection.

[00:26:28]That's that's why this reading is is is in this what is it? Sixth Sunday of Easter Tide. That's why that's in here.

[00:26:37]We're reading this out of the lectionary because Paul is preaching resurrection.

[00:26:43]But at Mars Hill, some of them scoffed about his sermon. especially about his emphasis on the resurrection.

[00:26:50]Some said they wanted to hear more. So there's a different response. Some said, "Well, this is interesting. H I would like to hear more about this." And some believed and joined Paul. One was a member of the council, Dionis, the Aerial Pagite, meaning Dionis was a member of the actual council, the city council that met there. Another was a woman named Dearus.

[00:27:16]And so these these are among the Athenian elite. And as far as we know, they are the first converts in Athens, Dionis and Dearus.

[00:27:31]I've play playfully called this sermon Paul at the Pentagon, which is my playful adaptation of Arop the Aropagus or or Mars Hill, Warhill, then I turned it into Pentagon.

[00:27:47]But what if what if Paul really did preach at the Pentagon?

[00:27:55]I mean, you know, we hear about church services there, so maybe I can arrange for Paul to be a guest speaker. Probably not, but if I could, I would. And what what that what might that sermon be like?

[00:28:11]Well, I think it would pretty much be the same thing as he preached at Mars Hill. I think it would be along the same lines.

[00:28:18]Paul at the Pentagon preaching a four-point sermon. Point number one, God is not found in temples of war.

[00:28:26]Two, we are all his offspring, so we should probably stop killing God's offspring.

[00:28:35]>> Three, it's time to change our minds and learn to think like Jesus.

[00:28:40]>> Point four, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

[00:28:45]>> What would the response be if Paul preached at the Pentagon?

[00:28:50]I think it would be the same way people responded at Mars Hill 2,000 years ago.

[00:28:56]Some would scoff.

[00:28:58]Some of you watching this online, you're scoffing right now. I see you.

[00:29:04]Not the online members. These are these are people that heard about this sermon and came to check it out. Paul at the the Pentagon and now you're scoffing.

[00:29:11]Stop it.

[00:29:14]Some would be interested and say, I want to hear more about this.

[00:29:21]Some would believe and join Paul in following Jesus.

[00:29:28]>> Let's be like those who believe Paul's sermon and follow Jesus.

[00:29:33]>> Amen.

[00:29:34]>> Amen.

[00:29:35]>> Stand up. Stand up with me.

[00:29:39]I like that sermon. All right. It's always good to get back.

[00:29:47]And now we're going to come to the table of the Lord.

[00:29:53]In Christ, we discover a God that would rather die than kill his enemies.

[00:29:58]And so, his body was broken for us. His blood was shed for us that in his body and blood communicated through the sacrament of communion, we might participate in his own life. That's why we're coming.

[00:30:13]Just a moment. You'll be invited to come. Everybody's invited. Someone will have a basket with bread. They'll say, "The body of Christ broken for you. Take a piece." Someone will have a cup.

[00:30:23]They'll say, "The blood of Christ shed for you." Dip the bread in the cup and participate in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Let's prepare ourselves first of all now by confessing together our Christian faith, some of which I've already referenced today.

[00:30:40]I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.

[00:30:50]He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontious Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

[00:31:27]Now, let's confess our sins so that we can repent and receive forgiveness.

[00:31:34]Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. By what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

[00:31:54]for the sake of your son Jesus Christ.

[00:31:57]Have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name.

[00:32:05]Amen. And this is the table not of the church but of the Lord. It is made ready for those who love him and for those who want to love him more. So come you who have much faith and you who have little.

[00:32:18]You who have been here often and you who have not been here long. You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, calm because it is the Lord who invites you. It is his will that those who want him should meet him here. The body of Christ broken for you. The blood of Christ shed for you. Amen.