Engaging the Culture with the Gospel

“Engaging the culture with the Gospel”
First Draft, Bumble
Sunday 03/04/06
vacMidway


Acts 17:16-34, NIV
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” 32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

{The Plot winds up: What You Must Do:} WE MUST ENGAGE THE CULTURE
"This is what you have to do! Here is what the text tells us that we must do or what we must be."

WE MUST WITNESS TO NON-CHRISTIANS
“16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.”

John Stott observes that the equivalent {of The Athenian Agora [marketplace]} today is “a park, city square or street corner, a shopping mall or marketplace, a ‘pub,’ neighborhood bar, café, discothèque or student cafeteria, wherever people meet when they are at leisure” (1990:281).[i]

The liberal/pragmatist approach is to deny the legitimacy of evangelism altogether: “there you go again, trying to shove your religion to people’s throat.” This relativism philosophy is actually coming from the Western Enlightenment period, a very Caucasian ideal, which is also being shoved down to everyone’s throat also. So, everybody actually operates on his/her own presupposition. True relativism is actually unrealistic.

The conservative/moralist person does believe in proselytizing, because "we are right and they are wrong". Such proselytizing is almost always offensive. This type of evangelism is insensitive and actually self-serving, not the way the Bible shows us here.

Without evangelism, non believers will just list Jesus as just another one among the gods in the Agora.

WE MUST KNOW THE “gods” OF OUR CULTURE.
“22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god.”[ii]

(Here’s the spirits in Paul’s day)
“18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”

The prevailing philosophies of the West’s post-Christian era—secular humanism’s scientific empiricism and the New Age pantheistic type of postmodernism—are remarkably similar to the Epicureanism and Stoicism Paul encountered at Athens.[iii] Epicureans, atomic materialists, viewed reality as an endless chance combining and dispersion of atoms. They would find the concept of bodily resurrection laughable (Epicurus Epistle to Menoeceus 123–32). The Stoics, materialist pantheists, identified the divine as the principle of reason pervading all and, in the form of fate, governing all.[iv] The Epicureans said “Enjoy life!” and the Stoics said “Endure life!” but it remained for Paul to explain how they could enter into life through faith in God’s risen Son.[v]

(What’s the spirits” of our days, and our Vietnamese American culture? How about the English Speaking Vietnamese American subculture?)

We need to become acquainted with the idols of our city. We will not be able to share the gospel effectively unless we know the false “gods” of the people we are trying to reach. For example, there is an old saying about three cities of the US. “Boston: ‘what does he know?’ NY: ‘How much does he make?’ Philly: ‘what family is he from?’…” / Jewish greeting: “Have you peace?”; Chinese greeting: “Have you eaten yet?”; Vietnamese greeting: “Are you healthy?”

We should not be surprised that this intellectual center is filled with idols (v36) and religiosity (v22). The people who seems on the surface to be the most unbelieving are always very religious. Idolatry is promoting created things, goals, relationships, pursuits into absolute and ultimate values and then replacing God with them, or worshipping God in accordance with them[vi]

WE MUST ADAPT TO THE CULTURE

Paul started from what they know to lead them to what they don’t know:
“23b I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

Paul quoted not the Scripture but even their own poems:
28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

• “If we over-adapt to a culture we are trying to reach, it means we have bought in to that culture's idols.” For example, Americans believe in “the freedom of the individual” – which fits with the “priesthood of all believers” and allow it to be an idol (“individualism” in the church, to the point that there’s no pastoral authority or Christian’s discipline) [vii].
• “If, on the other hand we under-adapt to a culture, it means we have accepted our own culture's idols.”[viii] For example, Asians believe in “the strength of the community” – which also certainly fits with the “love one another” of scripture too. But then it could be an idol too when we become so inward focus (“tribalism” running rampant in Asian churches)[ix].

BUT WE MUST KEEP THE ESSENTIALS

Here are some of the essentials Paul talked about:

• He is our Creator: “24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.”
• He cares about us: “25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
• He saves us through Jesus: “31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

Even with these essentials, Paul message was rejected. The Gospel itself was offensive enough! Therefore: Missionary strategy then consists of two parts: a) On the one hand, be sure not to remove any of the offensive essentials of the gospel message, such as the teaching on sin, the need for repentance, the lostness of those outside of Christ, and so on. b) On the other hand, be sure to remove any non-essential language or practice that will confuse or offend the sensibilities of the people you are trying to reach. The key to effective mission is to know the difference between essential and un-essential.[x]


{The Plot thickens: WHY YOU CAN'T DO IT} WE MUST ENGAGE THE CULTURE WITH THE GOSPEL

"But you can't do it! Here are all the reasons that you will never become like this just by trying very hard religiously."

• If you are (conservatively) leaning toward the holiness of God: religiosity is being more moralistic, “better than they are”, you will put a high value on evangelism. But in the end, you will get disgusted with the culture and want to be separated and safe from the culture.
• If you are (progressively) leaning toward the love of God: religiosity is being more inclusive, “I am ok, you are ok”, you will put a high value on social action. But in the end you would not confront the culture and want to be a part of the culture.

Either way, without a clear grasp of the Gospel, without being mesmerized by it, we can never have enough motivation to evangelize effectively.

Compares “Religiosity - I do good to be accepted by God” with selling Girl Scout cookies for prizes. The motivation was the prizes and not because how good the cookies were. In this way, evangelism is self-serving at best!

{The Plot resolves: HOW HE DID IT}
"But there's Paul, how did he do it?"

First what Paul saw: Paul walked about Athens, which was full of architectural marvels, but he looked at it with spiritual sensitive eyes. He was struck with how filled the city was with idols. He was, in a sense, seeing the town through God’s eyes, (his reaction “greatly distressed” is the same word used to describe God’s reaction to idolatry in Isa.65:2-3). In other words, Paul tended to look at life through a Biblical filter. He was sensitive to God’s Word and thus his attitudes, ways and heart that he could not help participating in God’s response. We need to look at Bolsa through God’s eyes. It’s too easy to become indifferent to the familiar. We need to imagine how the love and holiness of God would react to the things around us – then our heart will function like his.[xi]

Second, what Paul felt: “greatly distressed” v.16 The Greek word is “paroxymo” describing a mixture of both anger and sorrow. If he was simply infuriated by their rebellion, he would have simply washed his hand in disgust – or preached with such condescension and disdain that they would have given him no hearing. However, that is not what he did. It says he “reasoned” (v.17) which means he did not simply declare, but entered into an engaged (give and take) dialogue with people. He did not simply declare judgment and condemnation. We also his gentleness in the way he gives them credit for their religious activity: “I see that in every way you are very religious” (v.22). On the other hand his feeling was not simply one of compassion and mercy. Idolatry outraged him. In his speech he accuses them of “ignorance” (v.30) – nothing could have more insulting to them! And then he declares the final judgment of God (v.31).[xii] Paul felt the anger because he “gets” the holiness of God. He felt sorrow because he “gets” the love of God too. [Bring back last week’s sermon on the full spectrum about the depth of the Gospel]

{The Plot winds down: HOW, THROUGH GOD, YOU CAN DO IT} WE CAN ENGAGE THE CULTURE W/ THE GOSPEL

"Our failure to do it is due to our functional rejection of what he did. (We didn't really believe the Good News is Good). Remembering Jesus frees our heart so we can change"

The gospel produces a constellation of traits in us:

1. First, we are compelled to share the gospel out of generosity and love, not guilt.
2. Second, we are freed from fear of being ridiculed or hurt by others, since we already have the favor of God by grace.
3. Third, there is a humility in our dealings with others, because we know we are saved only by grace alone, not because of our superior insight or character.
4. Fourth, we are hopeful about anyone, even the "hard cases", because we were saved only because of grace, not because we were likely people to be Christians.
5. Fifth, we are courteous and careful with people. We don't have to push or coerce them, for it is only God's grace that opens hearts, not our eloquence or persistence or even their openness. All these traits not only create a winsome evangelist but an excellent neighbor in a multi-cultural society.[xiii]

PRACTICAL IMPLICATION FOR MIDWAY:

How are we going to engage our culture around us?

- Practice the discipline of learning from God through His Word daily
- Practice seeing our surrounding through God’s eyes – (hands out?)

- Interview, Hai Nguyen (the church new coordinator for the Kid’s choir program)
1) “As the new leader for the Ensemble/Voice-Class, can you tell us about your ministry at its purpose?” (Respond with overall purpose)

2) “How do you envision your ministry can engage our culture with the Good News of Jesus?” (Respond with the details about outreach to the Viet School, etc.)

3) “I think some people might be interested out there, what could they do to help?” (List out things and roles they can play, don’t focus on just the ensemble band members, what about the non-musical people, can they help in some way?)

- What about us? What is our contact points (in Sport Ministry for summer, in our fellowship groups, in VBS, in Philly Mission trip, etc.)

I would like to conclusion with the analysis of John Stott

“We do not [witness] like Paul because we do not feel like Paul because we do not see like Paul. That was the order: he saw, he felt, he spoke. It all began with his eyes. When Paul walked around Athens, he did not just ‘notice’ the idols. The Greek verb used three times (16,22,23) is either theoreo or anatheoreo and means … to ‘consider.’ So he looked and looked and thought and thought until the fires … were kindled within”[xiv]