Observe Three Things in this Passage.
I. What St. Paul saw at Athens. He saw a city wholly given to idolatry. Idols met his eye in every street. The temples of idol gods and goddesses occupied every prominent position. And yet this city, be it remembered, was probably the most favourable specimen of a heathen city which St. Paul could have seen. In proportion to its size it very likely contained the most learned, civilised, philosophical, highly educated, artistic, intellectual population on the face of the globe. But what was it in a religious point of view? The city of Socrates and Plato, the city of Solon and Pericles and Demosthenes, the city of mind and intellect, was wholly given to idolatry. If the true God was unknown at Athens, what must He have been in the darker places of the earth! We learn from the idolatry of Athens (1) the absolute need of a Divine revelation and of teaching from heaven; (2) that the highest intellectual training is no security against utter darkness in religion; (3) that the highest excellence in the material arts is no preservative against the grossest superstition. The men who conceived the sculptured friezes, which we know as the Elgin marbles, were trained and intellectual to the highest degree. And yet in religion these men were darkness itself. The sight which St. Paul saw at Athens is an unanswerable proof that man knows nothing which can do his soul good without a Divine revelation.
II. What St. Paul felt at Athens. (1) He was stirred with holy compassion. It moved his heart to see so many myriads perishing for lack of knowledge, without God, without Christ, having no hope, travelling in the broad road which leadeth to destruction. (2) He was stirred with holy sorrow. (3) He was stirred with holy indignation against sin and the devil. (4) He was stirred with holy zeal for his Master's glory. These feelings which stirred the Apostle are a leading characteristic of men born of the Spirit. Where there is true grace there will always be tender concern for the souls of others. Where there is true sonship to God there will always be zeal for the Father's glory.
III. What St. Paul did at Athens. He was not the man to stand still and confer with flesh and blood in the face of a city full of idols. He might have reasoned with himself that he stood alone, that he was a Jew by birth, that he was a stranger in a strange land, that he had to oppose the rooted prejudices and associations of learned men, that to attack the old religion of a whole city was to beard the lion in his den, that the doctrines of the gospel were little likely to be effective on minds steeped in Greek philosophy. But none of these thoughts seems to have crossed the mind of St. Paul. He saw souls perishing, he felt that life was short and time passing away, he had confidence in the power of his Master's message to meet every man's soul, he had received mercy himself, and knew not how to hold his peace. He acted at once, and what his hand found to do he did with his might. From St. Paul's behaviour at Athens we learn (1) that the grand subject of our teaching in every place ought to be Jesus Christ; (2) that we must never be afraid to stand alone and be solitary witnesses for Christ; (3) that we must boldly assert the supernatural element as an essential part of the Christian religion; (4) if we preach the gospel we may preach with perfect confidence that it will do good.
Bishop Ryle, Oxford and Cambridge Journal,Nov. 18th, 1880.
References: Acts 17:18. J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 173; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 145; G. B. Johnson, Ibid.,vol. ix., p. 264; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 341.