Another Look at Mars Hill
August 17, 2009 – 8:09 amKevin Bauder, in a recent sermon preached at Inter-City Baptist Church, provided another look at Paul’s ministry on Mars Hill.
Bauder explained that there are two mainstream positions held by evangelicals concerning Paul’s apologetic before the philosophers.
- The one says that it was a rationalistic appeal made on neutral, common ground and should be followed today as the church engages our culture with the gospel. In essence, a rational apologetic is a good thing.
- The other side agrees that is is a rationalistic approach on common ground, but sees it as a harmful approach (e.g. “a defeated Paul moves on to Corinth where he ‘decided to know nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ - 1 Cor. 2:1-2″). In essence, a rational apologetic is a bad thing.
Bauder admitted that there are plenty of legitimate arguments given by both views. However, he shared an alternative view that Paul was not giving a rationalistic apologetic based on neutral, common ground, but that he was actually confronting the philosophers’ view of God, creation, worship, and salvation head-on. Bauder presented four reasons why Paul shared the gospel in this manner and, by extension, why the church ought tofollow his pattern.
Toward the conclusion, Bauder reminded us that, upon hearing the idea of the resurrection, several of the philosophers were fed up with this crazy Jew and started mocking him. This seems to run contrary to the perspective that Paul was merely discussing philosophical ideas and not engaging in confrontational evangelism (see view 1 above).
He also pointed out that, contrary to view 2 that Paul was an utter failure in his presentation, “some men joined him and believed…and a woman named Damaris and others with them” (v.34). The Spirit converted at least four souls due to his evangelistic address. [Bauder also noted that it is probable that Paul actually spoke more words than Dr. Luke recorded.]
My favorite quote of the message, in regards to the success of Paul’s evangelistic address:
“If I had the opportunity to address the faculty of Yale University and I saw four people come to Christ as the result, I’d feel pretty good about that. In fact I’d be absolutely thrilled. I wouldn’t care what department they taught in. I’d take them if they were in home ec as far as that goes…
Paul proclaimed the gospel. He gave them the answer, and some believed. The reason that they believed is not becuase Paul was brilliant, though he was. The reason they believed is not because Paul argued well, because Paul’s argument is not all that elaborate. All that Paul did was to point out their ignorance, point out their despair, and give them the solution. That’s something that anyone of us in this room could do.”
Download: Kevin Bauder: Another Look at Mars Hill
