In Acts 17:16-34 Paul was in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy. While he was waiting, he was so troubled by the idol worship that was deeply saturated in the culture of Athens, that he went out to evangelize the city on his own.

He could have just gone and minded his own business but he went with purpose to the where the philosophers and scholars were - the synagogue. He sought them out to change their thinking about idol worship and persuade them to follow Christ; to give them a revelation of the one true God.

These philosophers had knowledge about many things. They were religious. They liked to know what was popular. “(It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)” Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭17‬:‭21‬ ‭

It was said that the Athenians had more idols than all of Greece combined. They would accept any strange god that was presented, even giving them an alter.

When Paul entered the synagogue, he goes back to the beginning. All things were created by God. He doesn’t need anyone to do anything for him, or build Him a place to hang out, but oh how much do we need Him.‭

“For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” Paul even used words from their own poets. Not to validate them, but to come to their level and show them the biblical truth in the words but the deception of believing that this could apply to a man made god. 

““He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.” Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭17‬:‭24‬-‭29‬ ‭

This God who created the world and everything in it wants to satisfy our every need. When God created us, He put in us a desire for eternity; for Himself. We can attempt to fill that void with other things as the Athenians did with their idols, but those idols would never satisfy. Nothing can compare to what God has for us.

“He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭