"Reference The Culture"
Sermon Transcript for July 7, 2002
Scripture Reading: Acts 17:16-34
By Rev. Mike Beck
How are you doing in terms of learning to be "more than a survivor" in terms of your walk with the Lord? I hope you are putting into practice the things we’ve been learning about how to thrive spiritually? For they’re such practical lessons—looking at Moses who taught us when we make choices to make soul-conscious choices; Joseph taught us there is only one way to deal with temptation and that is to flee from it; Esther taught us we are not alone, we need to rally support to shine for God; Nehemiah last week reminded us that the sacred walls of Sabbath rest around our life may be in disrepair and need to be rebuilt. And today we are going to look at the New Testament character of Paul to discover we need to "reference the culture" in order to share God’s love with a world in need.
One of the reasons some Christians don’t thrive spiritually is they never witness about their faith to others around them. For what happens is when you share your faith with another your own faith gets stronger. But witnessing is a scary thing to a lot of people. And we are often prone to make it more difficult than it really is. When I speak of witnessing, I’m not talking about knocking on a stranger’s door. I’m just talking about in an actual conversation you’re putting in a good word for Jesus and you’re telling a friend the difference that your being a Christian makes in your life. We have a new ministry here at Grace called, "The Contagious Christian". It’s a wonderful class and it will be offered again this fall. And I urge you to consider being a part of that and learning how to do that in a very natural way.
This morning we’re looking about a New Testament character, Paul, the great early Christian missionary dramatically converted by God. This man who’d been persecuting the early church now becomes its greatest evangelist, writes almost half of our New Testament, to learn the principle of thriving spiritually by "referencing the culture"—try to speak in a way in which others will truly hear you.
I want to kind of walk around this issue. We’re going to do it quickly this morning. And I want to begin with a little "fill in the blank" quiz with a couple of clichés you probably learned early in life. I put the first one up there.
If you can’t say anything good, don’t say ____________ (anything). Have you ever thought how much better this world would be if we put that in to practice? Transfer it over now to our culture. Second quote—fill in the blanks. You attract more flies with ___________ than you do with ______________ (honey/vinegar).
And let me add now to our thinking a principle and a verse of Scripture. The principle is this: If you are a follower of Jesus Christ today you are to be "in" the world but not "of" the world. You are to be in the world, but you are not to be of the world. And then Paul, in I Corinthians 9:22, said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."
Let’s move now to our Scripture lesson. Paul in his travels is in the great cultural city of Athens. And in Verse 16 it says, "He was GREATLY DISTRESSED…" In other words, he’s not happy with what He sees. "…to see that the city was full of idols." Hear me carefully, referencing the culture does not mean we approve of it. And there will be a time and a place for Christians to speak out on the evils around us. But having said that isn’t it true that our negativity toward the world often prevents the world from hearing the good news of God’s love?
Then in Verse 17 it says, "So he reasoned in the synagogues with the JEWS and the GOD-FEARING GREEKS, as well as IN THE MARKETPLACE day by day with those who happened to be there." Now I want you to note his communication style. It says, "He reasoned". Why is it that some preachers think people won’t get it unless you shout at them? Those of you who have been here at Grace for a while you know you don’t have to worry about your preacher doing that. He reasoned with them. Now it wouldn’t number more than both hands but there are a few folks in the five years that I have been here who have checked us out for a while and then left and went elsewhere because they didn’t like my style. And here’s what they didn’t like. They thought real preaching was yelling at people on Sunday morning, making them feel guilty, and then dragging them down to the alter for some kind of emotional response. Someone once said, "People feel guilty enough when they walk through the church doors without the pastor making them feel more guilty." The last I checked it was good news we help them find.
I want you also to note the diversity and the make-up of his audience. He’s not preaching to church people. He reasoned with Greeks, Jews, and day-to-day he was found in the marketplace where the people worked. Ian Thomas has this quote that I want you to listen to carefully. Ian Thomas says,
"I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified between two candles but on a cross between two thieves… that this central event in human history took place on the town garbage heap; at a crossroads so metropolitan they had to write his title in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek… that our salvation was purchased at the kind of place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. And that is where church people ought to be and what church people ought to be about."
When I was out in Phoenix for a conference in April at the Community Church of Joy, a large Lutheran Church of all things, Walt Callistad is the Senior Pastor and he gave the opening address. And he said, "I’ll see you on the last day of the conference. I’m going now to get on my Harley. I’m taking a benefit drive with 3,000 bikers for the next two days." That was his way of making sure he was with people who didn’t yet know God.
Friends, John 3:16 doesn’t say that God so loved the CHURCH. It says, "God so loved the WORLD!" And in light of that truth, we’ve got to stop gathering in our holy huddles and "preaching to the choir" and we’ve got to learn how to be "in the world, but not of the world" so that the world might be won for Christ.
In Verse 18 it says, "Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection". Paul’s message was like a broken record; he only had one sermon. He preached Jesus and the resurrection. He preached Jesus and the resurrection.
And then in Verse 22 is where we see him start to reference the culture. He says, "Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked at your objects of worship…" And then he goes on to talk more about what he’s seen. I want you to note that he’s a keen observer. He says, "As I walked around…" I don’t want you spending all of your time in church. I want you here some, but out in the world is where you’ve got to be. That’s why you’ve got to go see some of the popular movies of the day. You need to know what’s going on in the world. That’s why you need to be reading "US News and World Report" and some other secular magazine along with your Christian periodicals. You’ve got to know what’s going on with the world.
And I want you to note that Paul was positive. He starts out, even though he’s greatly distressed at what he’s seeing, he pats them on the back and says, "I see that you are very religious". He starts their day off and then moves them to the gospel. Friends, the variety that we’re implementing in to our worship, and especially in our Contemporary Worship, are not for the purpose of being an entertainment. It’s so the persons can hear the message in a way that they will get it. It takes us every week a half a dozen additional hours to do church the way we do it now as opposed to five or six years ago. But Karen Mains in the book that goes along with our 50-Day Adventure, Soul Alert, shares this important truth. She said, "Our post-Christian culture has no working literacy of the Bible…nor does it comprehend such theological terms like "redeemed", "saved", "washed in the blood", or "sanctified"." Now I love that old hymn, "Are you Washed in the Blood", and if I’m at a prayer meeting with all Christians we’ll sing it; they know what it means. But on any given Sunday when we worship hearing my voice now are seekers, are people with no church background what so ever, and if I start talking about "are you washed in the blood", what in the world are they going to think about? She says, "No wonder we often feel we are speaking a foreign language when we try to share our faith. For most of our culture, our religious terminology is unintelligible."
I urge you to try this exercise, it can be done--share the gospel without any religious jargon. It’s a good exercise. Now, hear me carefully, I’m not talking about "watering down" the gospel. No. Some of the most far-out, contemporary, heavy metal worshiping congregations are also some of the most theologically conservative. I’m not talking about watering down the gospel. But I’m talking about the critically important matter of sharing our faith in a way that the person with no religious background can understand it. And that’s exactly the way Jesus preached. You read in the gospel where people say, "He doesn’t preach like people down in the synagogue. He tells stories that we can understand. He talks about a farmer sowing seed or a merchant finding a pearl." So in our day referencing the culture to share God’s love is when we talk about our faith in reference to movies, television, sports, economics, and current events. In fact when we talk about sharing your faith in terms of economics it’s going on right now in the world, WorldCom, a company down in Texas before—sheer greed. The Bible, Jesus, talked a lot about what happens when you are only focus is on…money is a wonderful lead in to the Gospel.
And then Verse 32 it says, "When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said – we want to hear you again on this subject." In this matter of witnessing, you don’t have to save anybody. That’s God’s business. You’ve got to tell a story. "But others said – we want to hear you again…"
And then in Verse 34 it says, "A 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." And I find it interesting that specific names are mentioned. Dionysius—and it says he was a member of a significant group. So they got an in to that group. Note that a woman is mentioned. Oh, friends, it is true—Jesus came and the Bible was written in a sexist society. The church was way out ahead to mention a woman, pretty significant in that day.
Who is going to be in Heaven someday because you cared enough to share your faith? To thrive spiritually, we must witness to our faith. And to witness to your faith effectively, you’ve got to reference the culture. You’ve got to be "in" the world but not "of". Let’s pray, "Father, would you give us one opportunity to do that this week and would you help us to observe carefully the culture so that we might talk a language that people who don’t know you yet will understand. And for most of us Lord that may stretch us a little bit because we grew up in the church all of our lives. We know the religious jargon backwards and forwards and we’re inclined to think everybody does. And they don’t. And the roughneck person that we run in to at the convenience store this afternoon or this week who we may have a tendency to judge, would you remind us that you love that person as well as you love us. That you love that person so much you died on the cross as if they were the only person. Hear our prayer, Amen."
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