Strange Things

 Strange Things

October 23, 2026

Acts 17:18-21 (NKJV) 

18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine [is] of which you speak? 20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 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.

The passage from Acts 17 where Paul was in Athens has always intrigued me. I have spent a lot of time with intellectuals and philosophers and it has always been a struggle to explain the gospel to them. In fact, the philosophers of Athens accused Paul of bringing some strange things to their ears. But many were willing to listen because they always wanted to hear something new. That is not always the case with intellectuals today. Many of them today don’t want to hear anything new. If you don’t agree with what they are currently teaching they accuse you of being hateful and evil. But then again, that may not be something altogether new. In the end, many of the philosophers of Athens mocked Paul, but some did believe:

Acts 17:32-34 (NKJV) 

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while otherssaid, “We will hear you again on this [matter.]” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

So we need to confront the philosophies of the day, but be willing to be mocked or worse. Charlie Kirk dedicated his life to bringing the gospel to students who were mostly hostile to the truth, and was made a martyr for his faith. So it is not an easy thing to preach the gospel to those who think themselves wise. As Paul said in  Romans 1:22 “Professing to be wise, they became fools,“ But no one wants to acknowledge themselves to be fools, so they accuse you of that or worse.

So how do we present the gospel to a hostile generation? It takes the kind of wisdom displayed in this passage to find a way to engage their curiosity and get them to think. The truth will win over darkness when it is presented. But we cannot hide the truth but we must shine our light in the darkness, even when it means that we will be mocked and ridiculed. It is the few that will believe that are the prize, so study the wisdom of Paul and present the truth even to intellectuals. Those who are truly seeking the truth will find it.