I’ve given this message the title “Carpe Deim,” which is a Latin phrase meaning “Seize the day.”
I ran into it the other day when I was researching the Epicureans for our message last Sunday night.
Although they probably didn’t usually speak Latin, this was the sort of thing to which they would subscribe.
And if they had known the Biblical language they would have also been quick to subscribe to Luke 12:19:
take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
They would say: “We are alive right now; we need to make the most of this moment. Carpe deim.”
This kind of thinking is not totally out of place or sinful.
WE should make the most of every moment of our lives.
But unlike the Epicureans, we need to live this moment to its fullest – in the light of the Lord and eternity.
As Christians we are going to some day stand before our Saviour and give an account for how we spent Wednesday evening, March 2nd 2005, and why.
If “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment,”
If John Bunyan’s “Christian” can be an allegory of the Child of God in the 21st century,
then certainly so can the Apostle Paul.
Let’s re-read these verses and let me show to you what I saw in them about us.
Athens was not Paul’s home; that country was not the place of his citizenship.
And although he could speak its language, enjoy its food, see its sights and perhaps even find pleasurable company, he was ready and anxious to move on.
Paul was planning on spending only a short period of time in Athens; he was only waiting there.
And for what was he waiting?
He was waiting for his friends Silas and Timotheus.
And what about us?
Aren’t we only pilgrims and sojourners?
Isn’t our citizenship somewhere else?
Isn’t it in heaven “from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body?”
Shouldn’t we be more interested in Heaven than enjoying the pleasures of the most prosperous place on earth?
Hebrews 11:13 – “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
I Peter 2:11 – “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
The Lord Jesus is coming; of that there is no doubt, and when He comes we will be leaving with him.
But the city of our waiting is an evil, unchristian place.
It is wholly given to idolatry in 30,000 different varieties.
And like Paul’s, our souls should be stirred in us.
Why have we become so calloused that we don’t feel the pain that sin causes?
Why have we become so blind that we don’t see its wickedness and filthiness?
I don’t believe that it was ever Paul’s goal to start and pastor a church in Athens;
His spiritual bags were packed, and he was ready to move on up the road.
They might not arrive for a couple of weeks to a couple of months, but in the mean time, he needed to seize the day.
The word “disputed” doesn’t mean that he was being cantankerous;
The word is often translated “reasoned.”
Paul, just as he had done in a dozen synagogues before, talked with the members about Christ,
and tried to show them that their understanding of the scriptures had become just a bit warped.
He talked with the religious crowd at the synagogue on each of the sabbaths that he was there.
And he talked with the secular or idolatrous crowd in the agora whenever he got that opportunity.
When there was a man or woman at a booth selling idols and icons, he would approach them saying that he had something far better.
When he bought a loaf of bread from the bakery, and if the baker wasn’t too busy, Paul told him about the Bread of Life.
When he saw some of the Athenians loitering around one of the beautiful fountains, he brought up the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.
And when some folk curiously followed him and met with him later, he would explain more fully about their sin and the coming of the Saviour.
Paul seized every opportunity, and he didn’t care about the consequences, perhaps because he wasn’t going to be in town long anyway.
or was it that he made himself of NO reputation.
Slowly, and without really making a spectacle of himself, people began to take notice of him.
I wonder if he began working miracles? that would certainly have drawn the attention of the city.
But, no, that doesn’t seem to have occurred in Athens.
It was what Paul was SAYING which attracted the attention of the philosophers.
Did it bother Paul that it was negative attention?
The fools of Athens considered Paul to be the fool – a babbler.
In fact we shouldn’t be too surprised if they can’t understand a thing that we might tell them.
Just as I enjoy listening to the increasing chatter of the birds these days as the weather warms up, I don’t really know what they are saying.
The other day the birds in the back yard were making a terrible ruckus.
A few minutes later I saw that there was a cat back there, and then I understood what they were saying.
But generally I don’t know what they are talking about, because their language is different from mine.
Monday as we were waking up a robin was chirping away, but I wasn’t sure if he was talking to us or not.
The philosophers of Athens with their PhD’s didn’t understand what Paul was saying about the Lord Jesus.
And we shouldn’t be surprised when it seems that nobody understands us.
Only those whose hearts the Lord opens will be able to hear and understand the message of Christ.
He was creating some curiosity.
Those people may not have understood as yet, but they couldn’t ignore this stranger.
When he didn’t participate in the entertainments in which most of the other new-comers to town indulged themselves;
this might have surprised a few.
There is enough diversity in our society today that if we don’t open our mouths the world is not going to know that there REALLY is a difference between us and the rest of the weirdos in the world.
In Paul’s case the curiosity of at least a few of the people brought him to Areopagus.
The Latin form of the Greek word is rendered “Mars’ hill.”
It was a rocky bluff to the west of the Acropolis,
and on the south-east summit there was a special out-door amphitheater.
He was just brought to a place where a good number of people could hear what he had to say.
We may never have the privilege of standing in the lecture hall to tell people what we believe about Christ,
And then again, there may be no more important a place than the living-room of a neighbor.
But let’s just say that he seized the day.
“Ye men of Athens.”
But he didn’t call them any derogatory names either.
This was a respectful address.
Beginning at the point where his hearers actually were: ignorance and idolatry.
Pastors often preach to the choir, rather than to the wicked of the world.
so they need to hear this message.
And that is exactly what Paul tried to do.
Unless the Lord opens the hearts and minds of the lost, they will not be able to understand what we are telling them about our Saviour.
That doesn’t mean that we should shut up because the cause is hopeless.
It means that we need to shout the message more loudly and more often,
Some people mocked and some politely said that they’d like to hear more.
The first response we understand; some of the people laughed at what he was saying.
The second response might have been sincere, but it could have been nothing more than polite courtesy.
I have been told probably a thousand times, “Yes, I think that we’ll come and visit your church,” but there was no other purpose than to push me off their porch.
And yet that doesn’t mean we should stop giving people our invitations.
As long as the Name of Jesus is uplifted and magnified, our time and our efforts are not in vain.
It’s not our job to determine what is, or what isn’t, “success” in the sight of the Lord.
If God puts us in Athens, then we need to assume that we have a work to do there.
And we should also assume that there may be a Dionysius or a Damaris there whom the Lord has chosen to save.