Acts 17:16-21 "Idols"
On Thursday I got up at 4am to beat rush-hour traffic to catch my flight at Intercontinental Airport. I parked my car at The Parking Spot 2 on William Clayton, shuttled over to Terminal A (which took about an hour!), walked up to the TSA agent. She asked for my ID, looked at it a little too long, asked for my boarding pass—looked up at me, down at the ID—then she said, “You’re at the wrong airport.”
Ever felt like an idiot? Ugh.
I was about an hour from my car, and at least an hour from Hobby. I wasn’t going to make my flight. My relaxing retreat was not starting off very relaxing.
They put me on the standby list for a flight out of Intercontinental to my connecting flight out of Dallas. I didn’t make the cut, so they booked me on the next flight. I got to DFW ten minutes before my connecting flight was going to leave. I ran from Terminal D to Terminal B—yes, ran, me. I got there just in time to watch them pull the jet bridge away from the door. They wouldn’t let me on, they said the door was closed. I guess it’s like Noah’s Ark, once the door is closed, you ain’t getting on.
The next flight to Montana wasn’t for eight hours. But it was delayed. Then delayed again. And again. Then canceled. I changed flights eleven hours later to Fayetteville, Arkansas—slept in the lobby for three hours, then flew to Chicago, had a two hour layover, and finally got to Billings a day late at noon on Friday.
Had a great time once I got there but I spent a lot of time waiting at airports last week.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m waiting, I’m not exactly productive. Put me in a waiting room and I will zombie-scroll my phone like the sitting dead.
It doesn’t take long to notice that all the distractions while people are waiting are things that leave your mind numb and your soul aching.
We’re walking through the Book of Acts and today Paul rolls into the cultural hotbed of Athens. He’s waiting there for his crew to catch up with him.
While he’s waiting—no phone, no Wi-Fi, no People magazine or cable news. You’d think maybe he’d take a little break—grab a gyro, tour the Parthenon, maybe buy an “I ♥ Athens” toga. But Paul doesn’t have an off switch. Even in waiting, he’s always on.
Acts 17 [VERSE 16] “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.”
While he’s waiting, he didn’t just admire the history and art, it says he was “deeply distressed”—like sick to his stomach—because everywhere he looked he saw idols.
It was a forest of beautifully carved marble statues of their favorite idols. The Marvel/DC cinematic universe of their day: Zeus was their Superman and Thor. Athena, their Wonder Woman. Poseidon, obviously Aquaman. Dionysus, (the god of wine and partying) was their Tony Stark. All these gods represented power, beauty, war, sex, pleasure, speed, wisdom, and strength. All the same things we’re still tempted to worship, all the same things that can take our lives down if we let them.
We live in a city a lot like Athens. Everywhere you look: idols. Ours might not be carved in marble but they’re glowing on our phones, promoted on billboards, loaded into our shopping carts, streamed into our living rooms, we fill up all our waking hours with these things. We even teach our children at the earliest age possible to fill up their time with them, too.
And here’s the problem: instead of being distressed by them, like Paul was, we’re comfortable with them. If someone says something bad about them, we’re ready to defend them.
That’s not good. Because if idols don’t bother you, they’ll consume you.
Athens was the center of Greek culture. It was like Harvard, the Louvre, and TED Talks all rolled into one. Marble statues, golden temples, philosophers dropping wisdom bombs like TikTok influencers and podcast hosts. Tourists everywhere, everyone admiring the beauty. Paul wasn’t impressed, he was disgusted.
He wasn’t there to admire the craftsmanship and take selfies with the statues. He saw all this idolatry for what it really was—a deadly trap. So, how did he spend his time while waiting for his guys to show up?
[VERSE 17] “So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.”
Paul does what he always does. On the weekend, he goes to the synagogue and tells the Jews and Greeks who were there on the Sabbath to pray and have a Bible study that Jesus is the Messiah. Tell them about His life, His teachings, His death—that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and His resurrection proves it. Can you imagine? Just walking into a random synagogue and taking over like that? Usually he’d have a backup posse but this time he was alone.
But he didn’t only talk about Jesus in church, during the week, he went to the Agora—the marketplace. Athens was already a tourist trap—home of Plato, Aristotle—the city was over 3,000 years old. So, Paul went to where the action was—where all the people toured the sites, bought food, debated politics, and talked about big ideas. Imagine the Smithsonian, Facebook, CNN, Rudy’s BBQ, and Katy Mills Mall all crammed into one place. This is what the people of Athens and all the tourists did for entertainment. This was the movie theatre, a football game, a sports bar, museums and a political rally all rolled into one. Paul gets in the middle of it all and starts talking about Jesus.
[VERSE 18] “Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, ‘What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?’ Others replied, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities’—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”
The philosophers were the rock star celebrity talk show hosts of the day. Athens is in Greece, not Rome, it wasn’t a political hotspot, so instead of Democrats and Republicans they were Stoics and Epicureans.
Stoics were basically the CrossFit, health obsessed, moral do-gooders crowd—simplicity, self-denial, “no pain, no gain.” “Pleasure is for the foolish and weak.” They’ll be sure to let you know they’re either on a vegan or full carnivore ketosis diet.
Epicureans were the opposite: Always looking for the better things in life. Pleasure. Eat, drink, and never pass up an invitation to Fogo de Chão—flip that card green until the meat sweats come!
Different as night and day—but both of them had elaborate systems of how to live the best life, they thought they had it all figured out—in both cases the goal was to distract themselves from the same thing: suffering and death. Life is hard and they thought they had the best solution!
So when Paul preaches Jesus and the resurrection, they think he’s some kind of flim-flam man, selling religious snake oil. Some mock him as a religious kook. But some of them were like, “Hey, at least he’s not just talking about the same old thing—let’s see what he has to say.”
[VERSE 19] “They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, ‘May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.’ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.”
The Areopagus (Hill of Ares/Mars Hill) was the main TED Talk stage. They drag Paul there to be heard by the big shots—see what they’d think of this crazy street preacher. This is where the really popular philosophers were doing their thing—the Joe Rogans and Jordan Petersons and Malcolm Gladwells of their day. Everyone showed up to hear the latest hot takes on life, the new big ideas. Like people who watch the news all day. Luke says they spent all their time doing nothing but chasing the headlines.
So weird right? We’d never binge-watch the news cycle, obsessively check our news feed, email, Facebook, X, Newsmax, Instagram, CNN, Fox News, or scroll TikTok all day—looking for something new. Something interesting. Something amusing.
How’s this for a hot take: Don’t settle for what’s new when what you need is what’s true.
Law — What God Requires of Us
I know this cuts me to the heart…
Walking through our culture’s marketplace of idols without being distressed at all—we’re entertained. We’re all about it. There’s not an area of our life not affected.
We make idols out of everything and anything. Even good things—especially good things. We don’t make idols out of bad things.
Martin Luther defined an idol as “whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your God.” We’ve got more gods than Athens did. And they’re all trying to kill you and eat you for supper. If idols don’t bother us, they’ll consume us.
So what are we supposed to do about it?
Ask God to show you what your idols are. Pray for a heart that’s provoked instead of numb. What are the things in your life that your heart clings to? What do you rely on? Rely on to make you happy, to make you feel secure. What is more important to you than Jesus—what He told you? What are your idols?
Name your idols. Here are some of our most powerful idols in Katy, Texas:
The Suburban dream: the bigger house, the newer car, the “perfect family” image—at least perfectly curated selfies and vacation photos.
The Sports obsession: Not just the ones we watch on TV but the way we let our kids’ activities get more devotion than Sunday worship.
The Success addiction: career, reputation, money, climbing the ladder. How much of our self-worth is defined by our resume and portfolio’s worth?
The Technology trap: phones, streaming, we’re more than Scripture and the Holy Spirit combined. Our phones are like little glowing glass temples to our idols—how much time do we spend bowing our heads to our pocket god?
The Political mud-pit: defining ourselves by red or blue instead of the cross of Jesus. Do we really think following some politician and putting our trust in their promises is going to lead anywhere good?
Even Religion itself: treating church as entertainment, chasing novelty instead of faithfulness. Do we confuse talking about Jesus with telling people about our church? They are not the same.
Those are just some examples. Which ones hit home for you? Which ones did you find yourself getting defensive about? Which ones did you think, “Come on, Pastor Frank, there’s nothing wrong with…” Whatever idols you want to defend or justify probably already got you.
Ask God to reveal your idols to you. You’re either going to recognize them or they’re going to eat you. The scariest idol of all is the one that doesn’t bother us anymore. If we can walk through Athens—or Katy—and feel nothing, the idols already have us.Confess them. Tear them down. If you have trouble figuring out what your idols are, maybe ask yourself, “What’s the first thing I turn to when I’m stressed or bored?” If it’s not Jesus, that might be your idol. Ask Him to help you. Ask Him to replace all of those empty things with Himself and His true promises.
Gospel — What God Does For us Through Jesus
He’ll do it. Because even when we get comfortable with idols, Jesus doesn’t. He was bothered enough by our sin and all the stupid things we try to replace Him with to come all the way into our world. He stepped into our city of idols—and didn’t just point them out and say, “Shame on you!” He tore them down by dying and resurrecting from the grave.
We were going to be consumed by all the idols we have filled up our hearts with, but he let himself be consumed in our place. He took the weight and guilt of all that sin on Himself, and when he rose from the dead—He gave all His freedom and salvation to you. All your obsessions, addictions, and worthless idols. He saved you from their traps—their lies. He proved that everything He said was true by rising from the dead: idols don’t win, sin doesn’t win, death doesn’t win.
Rest in this truth: Christ was crucified and is risen for you. Today is the day of salvation, you don’t have to wait.
We started with me in the airport, running through terminals like I was purposely trying to give myself shin splints, only to stand there like a unicorn watching God shut the door to Noah’s Ark.
I was going to have a lot of idle time on my hands. Idle time—see what I did there? Ha
But here’s the good news: Jesus says He is the door, and the door isn’t closed. Today it’s wide open. So don’t waste your time chasing idols, don’t numb your soul constantly looking for something “new.” What are the things you’re holding onto? What are you tempted to trust in? To make your identity? Be bothered by those things. Ask Jesus to point them out to you. All they have is false promises—turn away from anything else. Turn away from anything else that gets in the way and turn toward Him. Because if idols don’t bother you, they’ll consume you. AMEN