Engaging Our Culture

Now, the chances are this morning you're not aware of this, but Paul's mission to Athens
has been the subject of a great deal of discussion and debate among theologians, scholars and
commentators for many years.
The reason for that is that there is a difference of opinion as to whether Paul's ministry
approach in Athens was good and useful or whether his ministry approach was simply wrong.
And I'll explain it this way.
There are those who believe that Acts chapter 17, Paul's ministry in Athens represents
the epitome of brilliance in engaging a secular culture, being all things to all men that
Paul by all means might gain some.
There are others noting the fact that the product of that ministry was only a few converts.
And the fact that there's no mention in his gospel presentation of the cross of Jesus,
there are those who say he made a bad mistake, he leaned upon human wisdom and he should
have just preached Christ, crucified and risen and leave the results to go on.
In fact, such people will go on to say that when he came to Corinth, one of the reasons
he writes what he does in his letter to the Corinthians is because he learned from his
mistake in Athens, he says in one Corinthians chapter 1 that he did not come with eloquence
or superior wisdom, but rather resolved to know nothing among them while he was with
them except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
There's been a great deal of discussion, disagreement about Paul's ministry approach in the
city of Athens.
I don't profess to know the one versus the other nor do I really care a lot.
What I do know is that his ministry approach in Athens was very different from any ministry
approach that he had engaged in up until this moment.
And the reason for that, I believe, is for full.
Let me just walk you through there very quickly.
Number one, Paul never intended that slide, can we move that forward please?
He never planned to stay in Athens for any length of time.
As I explained earlier, he had been chased out of Berea.
He ended up in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy for some reason they had stayed behind.
And that's why he found himself in Athens' real purpose as the gospel goes on to explain.
The story goes on to explain is he wanted to go to Corinth because Corinth was the commercial
center of that whole region.
He didn't plan to stay in Athens for very long.
And number two, again, I can't move it, Athens was still a major cultural center.
It's heyday was long past, but it was still a significant place of religiosity.
And it was still a significant seat of philosophical thought.
The fact that there were this many altars, including an altar to the unknown God, is an
indication of its religiosity.
Sturd Paul deeply as we'll see in a moment.
And the fact that this was home to the Epicurians and the Stoics, later on Lord Willing, will
talk about their school of thought.
But these people were a significant presence, and as we noted earlier, a lot of people had
nothing to do but hang around and have conversations about virtually everything that they could
think of.
Number three, Paul engages in a market place ministry.
Remember, most of the time he goes to a synagogue, preaches to the Jews, and he preaches to the
God-fearing Gentiles, and that becomes the nucleus of the new community.
While here in Athens, he is walking around the city because he is waiting around for
Silas and for Timothy.
And so we read in, let's put up verse 16, the next slide here.
He reasoned, Paul was waiting for them, other verse first.
He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the
market place, day by day, with those who happened to be there.
So he went to the synagogue, but he wasn't content just to be in the synagogue.
He started to mix with the people in the Gora, the marketplace.
He began street evangelism.
And the reason for that, as the next verse shows us, is because he was greatly distressed
to see that the city was full of idols.
That word distressed is the Greek word, parochism, paroxysm, I don't know, it's a big word,
but it's also English word.
I had to look it up.
It means having a big fit.
And Paul had a big fit.
When he looked all around and he saw how idolatrous these Athetians were.
So he's in the marketplace.
He's accosting people on the street, doing street evangelism.
And then number four, he tries to build on their existing belief system.
He tries to build on their existing belief system.
Remember, these people are pagans that don't believe in the God of the Hebrews, that don't
believe in the authority of Scripture.
They have their own world and life view.
How do you engage people in that situation?
How do you even begin to speak the same language?
Well what Paul does is he builds on their belief system and he starts with a realization
that they worship an unknown God.
Let me read you those verses from Acts chapter 17, if we can put them up.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Ariophagus and said, "Men of Athens, I see that in
every way you are very religious."
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an
altar with this inscription to an unknown God.
Later on, not today, but Lord willing, some other Sunday, I want to tell you the story
that Richardson describes in his book Eternity in their Hearts.
This has an historical occasion that caused the Athetian people to build this altar.
It's a fascinating story.
I'll just hang that out there as a teaser to bring you back someday.
The next verse, if we can put that back up, now what you worship is something unknown.
"I am going to proclaim to you."
So he's building on there, he's meeting them where they are.
They've got all these gods.
They wanted to make sure nobody got forgotten because if you forget a God, he could come
after you so they have this altar to the unknown God.
And Paul comes to them and he says, "This unknown God that you're already worshiping,
I want to tell you about him because his name is Jesus."
So this is why his ministry in Athens was different from any other ministry.
He didn't plan to stay very long.
It was a huge cultural center.
He engages in street ministry and he starts to build on what they believe.
The closest other example of that is back in Acts chapter 14 when he is preaching to
Listera and there he says, "You're worshiping stupid idols that are worthless and he almost
got himself killed."
So here he's a little bit smarter and he says, "This God that you're worshiping that is
unknown to you, I'm coming to present him to you."
So here's the question, what do we learn from this?
And we'll see how far we can get a number of things first of all and you guys have to
move the slides up there because our main media computer, just for the record, things
you can pray about, crash this week, we're making do with an alternate system and it's only
the billions of that team up there that enables us to do what we're doing this morning.
He should give them a hand just for the record.
The gospel is both attracional and missional.
Attracional next slide up means the world comes to us.
Attracional means that the light of Jesus shining in us is appealing to the people around
us who don't know Jesus.
And attracional is a very important aspect of the gospel.
It is what the Bible talks about.
It's what Jesus means in the sermon on the Mount when he says, "In Matthew 5/16, in
the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise
your Father in heaven."
So is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12 when he says, "Lives such
good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see
your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us."
Attracional ministry is when churches like our church throws an event and we invite people
to the event.
Attracional is what we did over the weekend when we had a marriage ministry.
And I have never seen as large a percentage of community people attend as I did this
particular weekend thanks to the fact that many of you invited family and friends to come
to events.
See, there were great event and an example of attracional ministry.
Attracional next slide up is just the opposite of that instead of coming to us we go to them.
Missional is the good shepherd leaving the 99 to go find the one sheep that is lost.
Missional is the Lord Jesus coming from heaven, being born into this world to save you and
me.
Missional is what the Apostle Paul does on his missionary journeys where he leaves the
comfort of his own community and he barges into an alien and a foreign world to try to
proclaim to them the good news of Jesus' missional is when Jesus tells us in the great commission
when he says in Matthew chapter 28, 19 and 20 go therefore and make disciples of all nations
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you and though I will be with you always the
passage goes on even to the end of the age.
So Missional is when Mike and Mary Ann go to Uganda and they proclaim Christ on our behalf
or Kathy Vandergriff or Jeremy and Katrina as they gear up for going to, it's what missionaries
have been doing for years and years and years.
It's going to where the people are to try to present to them the good news of the gospel.
Now here's what I want us to understand.
The more the world develops according to its own character and the more the church develops
according to its own character the more difficult attracutal ministry becomes and the more
necessary missional ministry becomes.
Let's put up the next slide for a moment if we can.
See what happens when we first come to Christ we're all part of this world system where
we share in worldly values.
That's even true of you raising a Christian home it's especially true if you're not raising
a Christian home before you come to faith in Christ it's all about yourself it's all
about the things you want to get it's all about satisfying your own needs that's where
we all live that's where we find our joy that's where we find our life.
In the Providence of God when God comes to us by his grace we get tired of this life
we see how selfish we are how much conflict that it represents somewhere along the line
we hear the message of the gospel we hear the good news of Jesus we come to faith in Christ
and we become as you know citizens of the kingdom of God and we begin to embrace heavens values
of faith hope and love now remember the parable of the wheat and the weeds when you first come to
Christ you're like the wheat and the weeds they're very hard to distinguish in fact somebody
will argue that oftentimes pagans live better lives than Christians do you heard that argument
I'm sure many times that's not terribly surprising because it's our brokenness that brings
us to Jesus so don't be surprised if people that you're sitting next to in the pew are
people whose life is a mass we're not a museum of showpieces we are a hospital for sinners
amen we're a hospital for sinners that's what makes the church the church the world often
doesn't understand that and they say well how can you call yourself a Christian when you're
I'm not a Christian because I'm so good I'm a Christian because I know I'm bad and
I need Jesus that's what distinguishes us so at first you see this big overlap right at
first it's hard to distinguish between the wheat and the weeds but remember nobody remains
static if you're in the world and have the world's DNA that seed is going to continue to grow
those values over here will make you more and more selfish will bring you more and more
conflict your life will get darker and darker particularly when you make choices in that
direction but similarly if you're in Christ and he lives in you by his spirit you're you're
getting you're absorbing his word his spirit lives in you drives you changes you transforms
you then your life begins to change and the things that you once had so much joy in you now
have much less joy in and the things that you used to hate you now begin to embrace I mean what
pagan loves prayer what pagan loves getting up in sunny morning good church on a cold sunny
morning and yet here you are why because your heart is drawn to God your heart is drawn to
each other so here's what happens the more people grow is Christians the less contact they
have with the world you can see this in your own life before some of you were Christians you
had all kinds of friends out there that you used to hang around with then you became a Christian
your life began to change and there's two things that happen probably at the same time you
became less and less comfortable with their activities and they became less and less comfortable
with you and your activities so now pretty soon you've lost your old friends hopefully in
that process and this is what church people really need to understand hopefully you've made
some new friends because if you don't make new friends you're gonna go back to your old friends
real fast that's how people wipe out you need to become part of a new community but you see how
that gap develops pretty soon it's all the Christians in a holy huddle over here and all the
pagans in an unholy huddle over here and never the Twain will meet now how do you even begin to
talk to each other I mean picture a friend who is solidly pro-evolutionist solidly pro-choice solidly
pro-gay and here you are growing in biblical pro-life values wanting to deal with biblical
understandings of gender issues how do you even talk to each other because every time you talk
now it just becomes a big fight they write you off you write them off you and you if you're gonna
have a relationship at all you agree simply not to talk about the hot topics of the day isn't that
true so now we just live our own where do you go with that you see that's why we need to
understand that the gospel is both attractional and missional the less relationship we have with
the world the less unchurched friends we have the less evangelism were able to do and that's why
most evangelism that occurs in churches occurs with new converts who still have friends out there
that they can have a connection and a relationship with and try to bring along so the bigger that gap
becomes the more intentional the church has to be in its mission and it takes considerable skill to
be missional how do you break through the bear how do you communicate the gospel to people that
don't believe there is a God who don't believe the authority of the Bible and who don't believe in
your understanding of what is right and wrong you see the you see the issue now my flows out
of this is the second thing that we learned in this and that is this we need to understand our
culture we need to understand our culture now culture as you know is the way a given group of
people do life and includes things like the language we speak the customs we observe the belief
systems we embrace and and so on and it used to be until about the mid 60s at least that most of
the Western world embraced values that were essentially biblical doesn't mean that everybody
was a Christian but it does mean that the influence of the Christian faith permeated all of society
and so people by and large believed in God they had reverence for the Bible they knew the
difference between right and wrong shaped by biblical values they knew that Sid and was breaking
the 10 commandments they might break them all the time but at least they had this March to know
that they were breaking them which is not where we find ourselves today let me tell you you see
so for a long long time that shaped our culture and that was reflected in our laws and so abortion
was wrong gay movement was not countenance uh living together it happened but people knew that it
was in violation of biblical morality and there was a common understanding that
that euthanasia mercy killing was not acceptable because it wasn't part of a pro-life value
which had come out of the gospel so our laws were a reflection of values that had been shaped
by scripture you see where this is going aren't you all of that has changed
profoundly all of that has changed so profoundly that you and I can't even begin to understand
what is driving the changes in today's world now Tim Keller and you've heard me mention him before
he is founding pastor of reading the Presbyterian Church in in Manhattan in New York City
a church that is managed very uniquely to engage the very secular culture of its day
because on and one of his talks to make the observation that there are three things that have changed
in our culture that contribute to this change of values I hesitate to share them with you because
they're so heady that I not even sure that I understand them myself hopefully you're smarter than I
am let me just run them by you and see what you think three values that have changed in today's
society that undergird these changes I mean isn't it true that you and I we sit and we shake
our heads euthanasia you know nine justices of the peace Supreme Court of Canada just ruled
that a physician assisted suicide law as it exists today is unconstitutional they've given
the government one year to come up with a new law they have now decided it's against the charter
rights 20 years ago they had the same discussion they decided it wasn't against the charter of rights
charter rights hasn't changed so what has changed it's society that has changed our values are
constantly changing the same thing with gay marriage and same-sex marriage and and all of the
what lies underneath why are those changes adopted so wholesale across the board around the
world well Tim Keller who's a lot smarter than I am says there are three things that have changed
that you and I need to understand let me try these out on you and if it doesn't click a register
that's fine but let me try it anyway first of all next slide up all truth claims are seen as
constraints and power plays all truth claims are seen as constraints and power plays now what
he means by that is this it used to be that authority was recognized as a good thing there was
a day when God was seen as the ultimate authority he delegated that authority to authority figures
in the world and his intention with authority was that it would create a safe environment under
which life could flourish government had authority to keep order parents have authority over
their children to keep order to make it safe teachers have authority over their children to keep
things safe right I mean it's an old brainer right well no it's not an old brainer today
because you see authority is now viewed as you're trying to tell me what to do you are robbing me
of my freedom and the greatest virtue that we have in today's society is not order and authority
and doing things God's way it's getting rid of authority because real freedom consists of me
doing what I want to do so the result of that is that authority is not seen as a good thing
it is always cast as a bad thing and it feeds on itself because in a broken world authority
gets abused therefore gets a bad rap therefore the only way to be free is to be yourself and the
result of that is chaos on every front I had one of our teachers here tell me the other day
in the public school where she teaches it is such chaos that when kids are soiling themselves
in her classroom or in other people's classrooms nobody can do anything of significance about it
because every student has a right to education he mentioned that she tells me but one
little girl who poops herself six times a day I don't know how she manages it
they assigned a teacher's aid to her she manages to outsmart the teacher's aid so she can still
poop in her pants and that's a public school and it's part of a broader culture that says
everybody's got a right to whatever they want and don't you try to tell me that one thing is
better than another because all truth claims are equal if you've ever been involved in a child
custody case you will know that a good parent doesn't mean over a bad parent because nobody knows
how to distinguish between the two anymore crazy crazy crazy but that's where we find ourselves
so all truth claims are seen as constraints and power plays secondly he says we have redefined
the nature of guilt guilt used to be breaking the law of God guilt was defined by God says these
things are right these things are wrong break the commandments of God and now you are guilty and
again as I said earlier our laws were based on that kind of common understanding truth today
guilt has been redefined so that it has been separated from the vertical dimension and guilt now
is defined primarily in the context of horizontal relationships and so what happens is that guilt
is based on what society decides is right and wrong and you end up with the fascinating situations
where the same people who proclaim the right to kill babies are marching on the street to defend
baby seals you've noticed that have you not at the same time you've got people saying we've all
got to be tolerant of each other except we're not tolerant of these intolerant Christian values
because in the world of tolerance the only people not tolerated are the people to say just a minute
there is right and wrong defined by glond as opposed to defined by society and so it used to be
sleeping around committing adultery any number of things were seen as wrong now remember I said
people have always practiced them but remember how Romans one ends they not only do those things
they approve those to do those things and you've heard me said this before the latter is much
worse than the former because I may do all kinds of things wrong as long as I know that I'm
doing something wrong you can at least challenge me and hold me accountable but when I think wrong
has become right now where do you go because who decides who's right and who's and who decides who's
wrong you say well you know you think that's wrong but I think that's right all depends on what
you bring to the table I don't know what you but I get these spam emails in my inbox occasionally
that invite me to sign up to carry on an illegitimate affair outside of my marriage
without any guilt or without any consequences Ashley Madison some of you will have seen it
and I say what world are these people living in what idiot in his right mind never mind
that people commit adulter of course that happens but most of us have the decency to feel guilty
and if we don't we'll adhere but not today because today it's okay you see we've redefined
the nature of guilt so how do you hold people accountable when their ideas of guilt their ideas
of right and wrong are miles and miles apart from where you find am I making sense here remember it's
one thing to do something wrong it's another to do something wrong and no longer have the decency
to know that what you're doing is wrong and that's where we find ourselves in today's society things
that used to be wrong are no longer viewed as wrong in fact they will often get elevated as being
a good smart thing to do all right one more number three he says we've lost confidence in the meaning
of words now that's a tough one that's a tough one because it's hard to get your head around
this one because what he is saying there is that words used to have meanings that were generally
understood and embraced by everybody but now we have altered the meaning of words
one just very superficial example for example is the word gay the word gay used to mean
being happy now gay refers to homosexual lifestyle never mind whether that's a good or bad thing
we've changed the definition of the word gay and what society does at every level
is it finds words to take away the defensiveness of a particular value or a particular behavior
so you know the pro-life people used to say well you're pro-abortion no or pro-choice there is a
difference there is but it's the redefining of terms constantly that changes everything
in terms of how we communicate and what we value and you know I've hesitated to use this
because I don't want to sound like we're beating the same germ all the time but perhaps you've
been aware of information in the news of late about the Hastings Prince Edward district school
boards poster campaign and if you see the stories about that let me put them up for you if we can
put that out you can't read those but this is a sampling of two posters out of I think six maybe
seven that our local school board has produced to to change the way words are used in the school
system and these two particular ones this one deals with inclusive language gender and this
one deals with inclusive language sexual orientation and gender identity and I don't want to make
too much of it but it illustrates the spirit of the age their attempt is to make sure that nobody
feels excluded by the language that is used in school because it is all about making sure
that everybody feels they belong and nobody feels that they're outside and that's that's a very
good thing in some ways why use inclusive language to vote respectful and accepting interactions
language should be accurate fair and respectful language is not static notice this it is constantly
evolving and language has a powerful impact on shaping ideas perceptions and attitudes all
of which is true but where does this end this up it ends us up in a situation where the content
that is expressed in language becomes increasingly confusing and the differences between men
and women boys and girls and everything else rapidly begins to disappear and so the controversy
that has been raging around these posters has been the fact that students are being advised
not to use terms like mother and father husband and wife and then not to call the teachers
Mr. Mrs. instead they are supposed to say parents and guardians and partner or spouse and they
are supposed to call adults including classroom teachers by their first names now those of
us of an older generation who think that the use of force names for adult is next to bless for me
are about turning over in our graves because of all the things that that implies is adorned
so while there is a lot behind it that may be good intentionally the product of this is that values
change meanings change and the end result is that you have an impossible time communicating
biblical truth because there is no truth and everything means what you choose for it to mean
and so the net result of that is you'll be talking to somebody and you will say the Bible says
this don't commit adultery or don't get drunk or don't do this and what's people's reaction these days
who is to say what it really means this is your interpretation of what it means
this is not my interpretation and who are you to say that your interpretation is better than my
interpretation you see where we end up we end up in a situation where communication is virtually
impossible all right one more observation just very quickly to wind this up we need to understand
that mission is attraction and mission we need to understand our culture we need to know the
spirit of our times we need to understand where our thinking lies and and please understand
this always starts at the fringes of society then it gets embraced by the inteligencia at high
levels of learning who develop very profound arguments who now teach this to their students
who now teach this to the rest of the population through the media and before you know it
everybody speaks the same language and the language is no longer biblical and don't ever make
the mistake of thinking that you and I are immune to this because one or two hours in church
in a sunny morning is not going to offset the bombardment of the media that you and I experience
at every level and of the tide is it all to be stopped after the world is it all to be convinced
by the power of the gospel you and I have to at least understand what's going on so very quickly
on this and then we'll wind up in a moment we need to engage our culture that is to say having
understood it we now have to find a way of how do we address them in ways that we can even get
a hearing because understand how difficult this is you're going to want to say to your friends
well don't go sleeping around because the Bible says sleeping around is not a good thing she's
going to say to you well I don't care where the Bible says that's just your interpretation
I think sleeping around is a really good thing because it makes me fulfill my destiny and what are
you going to say now you see the dilemma so engaging our culture talking with your friends
your sons and your daughters who have imbibed this cool aid you got to find a point of connection
where they can hear you and give you a listening and the argument of those who defend Paul's
minister here in chapter 17 is that that's precisely what he does when he says look at this
unknown God that you're serving I want to tell you about this unknown God and he gets a hearing
they drag in before the area opagus this is the council where decisions and judgments are being
made by the full of the philosophical systems of this country and and he gets an opportunity to
proclaim Christ doesn't mean a lot of people come to faith but some do and you and I may or
may not bring a lot of people to faith but at least we will have been heard and we will have found
an opportunity to engage and that's the challenge for the church and that's what Tim Keller and
others have learned in this day and age to find out where the heartbeat lies Tim Keller's church
they've got all these money managers and all these very sophisticated New York folks dropping
in at his church and coming to faith in Christ because he's been able to find those places where
they do their living and he's been able to punch through their arguments and point them to Jesus
you