I. Christendom Ends
How do we interact with a world around us that doesn’t believe the same things we do? Unfortunately, this is a question that we are going to have to ask ourselves more and more often in the coming years. The world is becoming less and less Christian and moving into a post-Christian time. Don’t get me wrong. Jesus and his message still matter, our faith still has something powerful to say to the world around it, but Christians may not be the ones in charge in the world as much anymore.
This isn’t all bad. Christianity is at its best when it is persecuted. Christians who have to fight for their very lives, Christians who have to daily pick up their cross to follow Christ and face the possibility of prison or death, often have a much deeper faith than Christians who are born into a faith that doesn’t mean terribly much to them. And when you look through the New Testament, through the teachings of Jesus particularly and even the teachings of Paul and the apostles, you will discover that there is very little about how to rule and much more about how to survive in a world that is turned against you.
And unfortunately, this is the direction that we are facing as a society. This is where Europe is already and if things don’t change, it is where America is headed as well. And yet there is hope for us as well. First, we will see that people who are involved in church, who are alive in their faith, are there because of what Jesus has done for them and not because it is expected of them. And second, now, as Christians, we have something that is different to offer those around us. We can stand up and show how living as a Christian is different than not living as a Christian. We can show how there is something special about following Christ. We stand out in our faith and our actions, and we can make a difference in the world around us. And, in truth, we can interact with the world around us in much the same way that the first Christians interacted with the world around them.
II. Preaching to the Greeks
When you look at the book of Acts, you see that Paul and the early apostles used different techniques to reach different groups of people with the good news of the Gospel. Paul tells us that he tried to be all things to all people. This means that he would reach out to people where they were instead of expecting them to become more like him before he talked with them. The first Christians shared their message with the Jews. They were preaching the good news of new life in Christ to people who had grown up believing in God, who were religious. They were preaching to the churchgoers who didn’t yet have a personal relationship with Christ. This in some ways is easy, and in some ways it is difficult. It is easy in that you are speaking the same language as the person you are sharing the Gospel with. The terminology makes sense to them, the message is there.
But then we see other instances where the Gospel needs to be explained from scratch. This is the situation that Paul finds himself in in Athens in today’s scripture. He is sharing the Gospel with people who do not have the same starting point as he does. They don’t believe in Yahweh. Instead, they surround themselves with idols and false gods. And Paul finds himself uncomfortable with this.
The story of Paul in Athens begins by sharing some of Paul’s frustrations. He has come to Athens and he looks around and he sees the idols around him. He is frustrated because he realizes that these idols will pull people away from Christ. He is frustrated because he knows that idol worship is wrong, a sin, and it cannot be tolerated. He is frustrated because he realizes that as he speaks the Word of God, he is going to be drowned out by all the voices speaking up for other religions and other gods.
So, Paul is frustrated, but he doesn’t let this stop him. He sees the idols around him, but he doesn’t allow them to silence him. Instead he begins to reason with Jews and God fearing gentiles in Athens. And he catches the ears of the Greek philosophers. I love the way they are described in this passage, I hope you catch the disdain here, “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.”
These are academics of the worst kind. They are people who like to hear new ideas for the sake of hearing them. These are people who are more interested in hearing that something is new than hearing that it is true. When I was in college, more so than when I was in seminary, when we had to write papers for Bible classes, we were told that we had to use journal articles in our research that were less than two years old. The idea was that we had to see what the most recent thoughts were on the topic we were studying. And the underlying conceit was that the more recent scholarship, being more fresh, being newer, somehow had something more to offer than writings that were older.
I remember complaining about this to a couple professors, and being told that despite my complaints, I still had to use new research for my papers. Oh well.
I have often admired N.T. Wright, a Bishop in England and a very wise Bible scholar, whose new books usually find themselves on my to-read list. He spoke at a convention at North Park Seminary while I was there, and I found much wisdom in what he said. But I also discovered something else about him. He could talk the language of the Biblical skeptics. He could use the lingo that the Jesus Seminar people, who try to disprove Jesus’ divinity, would use. And he would use it to support a Biblical understanding of Jesus and his work in this world. I remember watching a special on TV around Easter one year and there were people speaking up against the resurrection and then N.T. Wright spoke up, and happened to receive the last word. He argued that when you look at the disciples, the way their lives were changed, the way they went from timid fishermen to evangelists, you have to realize that something miraculous happened in their lives, and in his mind, the only explanation for this is the resurrection. It is an argument that has stayed with me ever since, because it talked in the language of the skeptics, but it brought Biblical truth.
III. Speaking their Own Language
Paul finds himself in a similar situation in today’s scripture. Paul cannot share the Gospel in his own words, in his own language, because the people would not hear it. He couldn’t just come out and tell them that idol worship was evil and they should stop it because they had no reason to listen to what he had to say. Instead, Paul found a creative and unusual way to speak the truth to the people of Athens while at the same time honoring them and their quest for knowledge, their quest for truth.
Paul knew that he had to lead the people of Athens from their idol worship and their relativity in what they believed to a Biblical understanding of Jesus and his Gospel. Paul knew that he had to begin where they were and move them towards the truth. He ends up with a call for them to repent of their idol worship. But this isn’t where he began. He began by acknowledging their idols and even using one of them as an illustration point to point them towards God. Basically, he began by speaking their own language and speaking to them where they were.
I think we can learn much from Paul’s approach here. I think we can learn to be observant like Paul was, and even when we see sins around us, we don’t need to come out first and foremost in speaking against those sins, but rather use them as a place of contact with the lost. Of course, just as Paul does, we do need to point people towards God and his love as well as his commands for our lives, but this isn’t necessarily the place to start. Instead we can reach out and figure out where people think their needs are.
We know that those around us need Jesus. But they don’t often realize this themselves. But instead of shouting at them and telling them how much they need Jesus, we can reach out with the things they think they need, and use that as an opportunity to share Jesus with them.
A few weeks ago our church board had a retreat where we talked about how to reach out to our community. And we talked about needs in the community around us and how we can reach them. And we realized that there are many needs of those around us that just aren’t getting met. And we decided that we want to start meeting some of those needs. So we decided to find ways to be a resource to those around us. Sharing with them areas where they need help, offering resources to people who don’t have them. We decided that we want to meet people where they are instead of where we want them to be. And we believe that God can use us through this to bring them to where he wants them to be. You see, if we speak their language, the language of their needs, then soon they will begin to speak our language and the Holy Spirit will begin to work in them and through them and they will become new creations. This is what we are about as God’s church. Let us enter into this with excitement and joy as we reach out to those around us who need Jesus. Amen.
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