His Spirit Was Provoked

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
Acts 17:16-17

The burden of the apostle in our text today should reflect the heart of all who love the Lord. How can we love Him with all our hearts and be unaffected by those things which He hates? How can we idly sit by while souls perish in their sin? We live in a time and place very much like the Athens of Paul’s day. His example is one worthy of following.

The first thing we note about his experience is how his heart was troubled by the idolatry all around him. We ought to never become so desensitized to sin that it does not grieve us. When Ezekiel had a vision of God’s judgment against Judah in Eze 8-9, he saw a few who would be spared from the coming destruction. A mark was placed on all who would be saved, but notice how they were distinguished from the rest in Eze 9:4: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” Like Paul, they were deeply disturbed by the sinful practices that had become common place around them. So ought we to be. Guard your hearts, dear souls! Lot had become so accustomed to the wickedness of Sodom that even after being warned of the coming destruction, he didn’t flee. We read, “And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.” (Gen 19:16) If not for God’s mercy, he would have still been there when the fireballs began to rain down!

What Paul saw and felt in v. 16 prompted the action in v.17. The word “provoked” in v. 16 is a strong one which carries with it the idea of being aroused to anger. I’ve talked to many people today who are angry over the sinful things going on around us, but not many follow the pattern of the apostle in response to that anger. He was greatly concerned for these lost souls! Remember what Jesus said would be a common pitfall in an evil day? “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Mat 24:12) Sin ought to upset us because we know how offensive it is to God, but we should also be grieved because we know the inevitable judgment waiting for those whose normal way of life is to practice such things. This awareness should fuel our evangelism! Paul writes in 2Co 5:10 that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” The next verse conveys the apostle’s burden as a result of that knowledge: “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” Don’t let your love grow cold!

Many today are just like the men of Athens in Acts 17:21. “For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” People today run from one “new thing” to the next and have no care at all for the things that really matter. The reality is, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc 1:9) Satan’s feeding men the same lies that he always has, and the masses are swallowing it down. Are we okay with that, church? I pray not! May our spirits also be provoked to share, not some new thing, but as the hymn writer says, “the old, old story of Jesus and His love.”

Jamie