(I AM PREACHING THIS SERMON TO A CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL)
Everyone, turn with me in your Koran to the book called “The Dinner Table,” we will start in chapter 5, verse 17:
(17) Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely, Allah-- He is the Messiah, son of Marium. Say: Who then could control anything as against Allah when He wished to destroy the Messiah son of Marium and his mother and all those on the earth? And Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them; He creates what He pleases; and Allah has power over all things,
(18) And the Jews and the Christians say: We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones. Say: Why does He then chastise you for your faults? Nay, you are mortals from among those whom He has created, He forgives whom He pleases and chastises whom He pleases; and Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him is the eventual coming.
Hopefully, you have realized that I am not reading from the Bible, but from the Koran, the Muslim’s Bible and hopefully, this bothers you (joking)! Every time I have a speaking engagement, part of my preparation is to put myself in my audience’s shoes. For you guys, I try to think of what would I want to hear, if I was in this school. Without a question, I am going to use the Bible, but what passage am I going to use. Am I going to come here and preach a sermon geared towards 1st - 6th graders? NO! What I am going to preach is a sermon that is on your level with this setting in mind.
Also, if I were to witness to somebody from the inner city, the ghetto, where there is poverty, etc. where people do not have as much education as you who does not know Jesus in a personal way. Am I going to use big words when I approach this person and say things like you need to get saved, receive salvation, be baptized, and repent for the kingdom of God is near. I do not think so. They will probably think that I am on drugs and need more help, then they do.
The words you choose to use when witnessing to un-believers have to be hand picked. It all boils down to your audience. When we talk to unbelievers, we have to tone down our vocabulary to meet people where they are at in life. How are you going to do that? How are you going to speak into somebody’s life that does not necessarily live in the same culture as you and like the same things as you? How are you going to cross cultural boundaries and effectively bring the gospel to people who are in desperate need to hear about Jesus?
How to connect to the unconnected?
Let me assure you that this task is not impossible. I want you to see how the apostle, Paul, crossed cultural boundaries with the gospel in Acts 17: 16-34. Since there are 18 verses and since I understand you will be bored and probably fall asleep (joking), if I read them all in one shot, so I decided that I am going to break them up into smaller portions through out the message.
The main idea, I want you to take from our time together is that “we can connect unbelievers to God by understanding their context, by communicating in their language, and by presenting a relevant gospel message that challenges them to make a decision to follow Christ.”
Background Information: Paul is on his second missionary journey where he comes to Thessalonica. When he arrives there, he goes to the synagogue to speak to the Jews about Jesus from the scriptures. There were Jews who were jealous and agitated, so they rounded up people of bad character, who were to go look for Paul and Silas to drag them out to the crowd. That same night, Paul and Silas snuck to Berea. Paul began to preach the gospel in Berea, but as soon as the Jews in Thessalonica heard about this, they sent Paul to Athens by himself. Now Paul is in Athens, a place that he was not supposed to be. What do you do, when you are not where you are supposed to be? What do you do when you do not know what to do?
16 “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So 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.)”
1. We are to be aware of our context! (v. 16-21)
Our context is our setting. Right now, I am in the context of 7th-12th graders in a Christian School. This is a different context, then a public school, if I were to speak to a public school about Jesus I would have to take a totally different approach.
The text says that Paul was in the synagogue and the market place. These are two totally different contexts or settings. Going from the synagogue to the market place calls for a shift in the way Paul delivered his message. When Paul was in the synagogue he would reason from the scriptures to show that Jesus was the Messiah. When Paul spoke outside the synagogue, in the market place (agora), he would start with what they knew. In this particular passage, because Paul was familiar with their culture, he was able use their idols to launch him into the sermon Paul preached with quoting scripture. Do you realize that people’s souls will depend on our efforts to learn their culture? Paul made a significant connection with the men of Athens. He was able to use his knowledge about their culture as an introduction for his sermon. He started with what they knew, which attracted the men of Athens to him.
You guys are going to face the same kinds of situations. When you walk out of this school, there are countless people who have never heard about Jesus. A lot of you play sports against public schools. The language you use to tell them how Jesus died for them is going to be different then what you are learning in Bible class. I am not telling you to changes the message. The message never changes, but the words you use will make the difference. For instance, the word, saved, is weird to people who are not familiar with the Lord. You can say God wants to make a connection with you on a personal level. This will give you a passport into heaven where you will live in eternity with God.
Paul knew the men of Athens were intellectual guru’s. They loved knowledge. They loved to learn. The text says in verse 21, “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.”
Paul used this to his advantage; he was able to use, what they thought to be their strength as a way to present the gospel. You could not ask for a better audience. They wanted to hear, the latest sermon, or the newest book, so Paul said, I will do just that. Paul took advantage of their culture because he knew and understood the audience he was going to speak to, as we are to the same in the places God called us to live in.
I recently heard a story about a man who felt like God called him to the mission field. He did not take the time to study the culture that he was going to minister in. He packed as much stuff as he could and went to this foreign county. He brought a number of electronic devices, like his laptop, disc-man, TV, palm pilot, all these Americanized things that this new culture was unfamiliar with.
As a matter of fact, when people from this culture thought about people who owned these things, they pictured people who were greedy and selfish. People in this culture did not waste their money like this man. To them it was a sin to splurge on useless things. Mind you, this man had no idea these people felt like this. His motives were right, he wanted to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth, but he did not prepare to do so. He ended up getting run out of that culture by the natives there because of his lifestyle. He came to find out that the person who was respected the most was a man who did not have anything; he did not have any electronic possessions whatsoever. This person who had nothing was held with greater respect then the man who came to this country with everything. Had he took the time to learn about the culture that he was going to minister in. He would have had a made an impact. This man probably did more harm, then he did good. From now on, when people in this culture, would think about Christians, they are going to identify with the man who had all the electronics, the man who lived contrary to how they lived.
Understanding the culture that we are in will make all the difference in the world. Had this man, picked up a book or used the very thing, he was rejected for, his laptop and did a Google search, he would have learned what the culture was like.
Paul was no fool. He knew the culture he was about to enter. In Acts 16, Paul picks up Timothy to come along on his second missionary trip and the Bible says that Paul circumcised him. Why would Paul do that, if Paul was the one who taught that you did not have to submit to the Law in order to become a Christian? One of my professors said, “Paul is acting on the law of love here. He is not concerned about Timothy’s salvation. Timothy did not need to be circumcised to be saved. He needed to be circumcised so that he could minister unhindered amongst the Jews.”
Paul had Timothy circumcised, as painful as that must have been for Timothy, Paul knew the culture that they were about to step into was full of Jews. Jewish people would not have received Timothy since they knew his dad was a Greek unless he was circumcised. In order for Jewish people to receive the gospel message from the mouths of Paul and Timothy, Paul knew Timothy needed to contextualize himself by getting circumcised.
Are you willing to contextualize yourself to bring the gospel into places you would not otherwise be received? For instance, would you go to church with somebody of another religion? Would you step out of your comfort zone to be-friend a homosexual? Would you give up video games, to make time for you to learn about your culture and then go and witness to people?
We need to be willing to do whatever it takes to contextualize our lives so that we can effectively share the good news of Jesus in the context of which God has called us to. Maybe that might mean for you to go and hang out with some un-believers.
We can get so caught up in our Christian circles at times we forget about the unsaved people. Maybe instead of going to the movies or to the basketball court, you can go to a secular environment, like the mall and talk to people who want to hear the latest ideas and fads, like the men of Athens did which will give you an open door to tell them about Jesus. There are more people then you think who want to hear about Jesus. It is up to use to study the culture and to contextualize ourselves, so that we will be received and ready to give an answer for the hope we have, as Peter says.
22 “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 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. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. “
2. We are to make a connection!
Paul was able to connect with the men of Athens by commenting on their objects of worship. He started with what they knew. Paul did not go in the council of Areopagus (Mars Hill) and say, you are going to hell for what you are doing, and you need to get saved. Paul noticed their idols and said, "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.”
Paul used one word to connect with this their culture. He called them very religious. I believe the whole message hinges on this word and its positive connotation that they heard when he blurted it out of his mouth.
I would translate it as, Men of Athens, I can see that you are extremely devout to your foreign gods, which in a sense is recommendable, but if you want to know about the real One True God, listen up for a few minutes. Paul pointed out that these men where dedicated to their gods. The word refers to them as doing the following acts in the name of their gods: to be careful so that you would avoid defilement, to be very attentive to omens and dreams, to carry out a variety of purifications, to recite prayers for given circumstances, and to go over board with the worship of images (Ernest 306). The use of this word goes to show how powerful Paul’s cross cultural communicational skills were. He was able to hook them with one word so that he can speak about the Living Word. What do you know about unsaved people that you could use as a hook for them to listen to you about God?
I want to tell you a story that one of my professors told our Acts class. He said, after he graduated from college, he moved to the Boston, MA area and took a job as a substitute teacher in a secular school. He told us that, the combination of not having lesson plans and no authority as a substitute teacher made for a bad recipe for kids to act out in class. He wanted to connect with these kids so he thought that if he can learn about their culture, he would be able to connect. He found out that they were very religious with music. So he would find out what the top 40 secular songs are in the country. After he got this list he would begin to listen and analyze these songs. He wanted to learn what the song writers were really saying. What did they really mean when the song was taken as a whole, not just in parts? He would remember the words to the songs. He would then go to class and say if we get done with all our work early, we will take a survey. So with the remaining 10 minutes or so he would ask, what are your favorite songs? People would raise their hands and give him names of those same songs he had been studying. He would say, OK, sing them out loud. They couldn’t do it, so he would start singing the songs and they would follow. He would say, do you even know what you are singing? He would then write the very words on the board and ask them to explain to him what the song writer meant by these words. He said as a result of this, they students would realized that what the song writer was writing about, is not really as cool as they thought and, he said, almost every time he did this exercise, somebody brought up God. Think about it, he is in a public school setting, talking about God, because he learned their language and made a connection with their culture.
Paul did the same thing when he pointed out, their altar to the unknown god. Notice Paul did not begin with scripture, but an altar to foreign god. He said what you know as unknown, I will make known, to you.
Paul has taught us a foundational principle when communicating with un-believers that we must put into practice. He moved people from where they were, to what they knew, by saying God is like that. Paul said you know that altar to the unknown god; well my God is like that. You can say to people, when they are healed, my God does that or you can say to people who are delivered from drugs, my God does that.
Paul’s connection with his audience attracted them to him and what he had to say. If you can connect to your culture, they will listen. Did you ever hear the saying; people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. That is true, across the board. Find ways to connect with un-believers. You want to hear one of the best ways to connect with people your age, is to have a hobby. Hobbies like sports, basketball, baseball, football, or weight lifting, or just collecting things. Having a hobby is a cross cultural activity that requires you to come in contact with people who are not saved. A hobby is like the men of Athens altar to the unknown god. It is a connection point into somebody else’s life. Sharing a hobby with somebody will give you opportunities to share your lives together. For instance, I love Volkswagens. You might think this is weird, but no matter where I go and there is a VW Corrado on the road, we will honk at each other. Or if I am somewhere with my care parked, VW lovers will come over and we will just start talking like we knew each other forever. The car acts as a connecting point. I have not led somebody to the Lord yet, but maybe someday I will.
To connect with unbelievers we must be aware of our context, make a connection, and thirdly we must be aware of our content. The words we choose to use, when communicating the gospel have the power to draw them to a decision or the words we use has the power to push them away. This is what Paul said to the men of Athens:
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. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From 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. 27 God 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. 31 For 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."
3. We are to be aware of our content! (v 24-31)
Notice that in this passage, when Paul approached the men of Athens, he did not break out his scripture machine gun and hit them with a verse from every book in the Bible. As a matter of fact, Paul did not use one scripture from the Bible in his sermon that day.
Paul spoke their language because he knew their context and how to connect to them. I want to tell you about a man who moved his family to Africa. This man never took the time to listen to the culture. He ignored the fact that the natives of Africa were terribly fearful of the rivers and it was the same river this man wanted to baptize new believers in. Nor did it ever occur to him that in the native language of Africa, words take different meanings by the tone of the person’s voice. So, certain terms like glorious, precious, and dear, when spoken with his America ascent meant “Poisonwood tree.” At the end of each sermon, he would shout, Jesus is glorious, but the natives heard, Jesus is poisonwood. This man thought he was speaking the truth about Christ but in reality he was actually telling them lies. Had he took the time to learn their different dialect (ascent, inflection of words) he would not have made such a big mistake in his communication.
Because Paul knew their culture, he understood that quoting scripture would probably hinder him more than help him so he talked about God in language they could relate to and understand. Can you do that, can you talk about God without quoting scripture? Can you lead somebody to the Lord without using the Bible? That is exactly what Paul did in this passage. He spoke about God without ever referencing the Bible. His content was Biblical but he did not use the Bible. He said God is like this and God is like that.
Paul also, apart from describing God in language that they would understand, quoted two well-known poets that they respected dearly. Paul said ’For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ’We are his offspring.’ Paul knew those people in this culture that had impacted the residence of Athens.
I bet you when Paul quoted their poets, they must have turned their heads in amazement. They must have been like right on Paul, preach it. That must have spoke volumes to them. Because Paul quoted their poets, he was able to share common ground with people who lived a totally contrary life.
Paul knew the poets and authors of that time. I want to ask you, who are your poets and authors? Who are the key spokes persons for your generation? Who is speaking for you? (Dr. McNaughton)
The people who you consider that are speaking for your culture have power to sway world views, beliefs, etc. The ball is in your court, in order for you to speak into the lives of unbelievers, it is going to call you to learn information that is not found in the Bible. It is OK to read other books then the Bible! You are going to have to go into your secular culture like my professor did and learn the poets of today. I hope you guys know how powerful music is today. We see it everyday; people who can sing and play an instrument extremely well are in the spot light constantly. These people have more control on you then you think. I know you are too spiritual and this does not apply to you!
People who are reshaping our culture today can only be countered by learning about what they are actually saying and why. Not a second early will you be able to talk to the typical worldly person who is so indoctrinated by the world that just the name of Christ will scare them away until you learn what makes them tick.
I want to give you some very practical advice I read in a book called the “Emotionally Healthy Church” on how Jesus lived among this world when His real home was heaven. Just the fact, that Jesus came to earth to die for us shows that even God contextualized Himself to minister to the unsaved. The Son of Man, the creator of the universe came to earth to share the His story. Jesus taking the form of a man says a lot about communicating in their language. God knew that the best way for humans to know what He is like would be to send Himself in the form of a man.
The author of this book says, we must enter their world! He said to do this, we must practice reflective listening. Let’s say, you have studied someone’s culture and you are speaking their language and they are attracted to what you have to say, you must show them you understand them by using this technique. Reflective listening is very simple, one person has the floor, speaking a few sentences at a time, giving the other person plenty room to respond. The listener then repeats back to the person exactly what has just been said. The person listening attempts to enter into the world of the person speaking, laying aside questions agendas, defenses, and simply seeks to understand the other person’s experience. Some once said, “Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.”
The second thing you are to do when crossing into the world of another person is that you are to hold on to yourself! This is a great challenge because when you step into somebody else’s world, the question becomes, how far is too far? To go too far is when you lose yourself in the process. Remember my professor who learned all the secular music, he said; he had to be careful because he found himself singing those songs at times. Just because, we might have the right motives in learning different things about other cultures, we have to still be careful, we do not lower our standards and morals in the process. Holding on to yourself is just as important if not more important, then learning about the culture. It can also be just as bad, if you do not take the time to learn about another person’s culture and fail miserably when trying to step into their world.
The last thing he said is that we are to hang between two worlds! Let Jesus be our example here. He was fully God in perfect communion with His Father and still human at the same time. Jesus hung between two worlds, heaven and earth. The same goes for us. We are in the world, but we are not to be of the world. We are to remain faithful to who we are, not losing our essence, while at the same time entering into the world of another. When we choose to step into the world of an unbeliever and learn about their culture, we hang between our own world and the world of the other person. In my opinion, I do not think there is a better place in this world then to be between both worlds, doing what God has designed each person to do and that is to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. After, we learn our context, make a connection, and speak their language, and then we are ready to challenge them to make a commitment to follow Christ.
32 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." 33 At 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.
4. We are to make aware a challenge (v 32-34)! (through the presentation of a relevant gospel message)
Paul gave them a straight forward message about Jesus. He moved them from where they were to what they knew, to what they didn’t know about Jesus and people got saved that day. Paul challenged them to become followers of Christ. He did not leave them dangling over hell, but gave them an invitation. Paul did not step away from the power of the cross, because he wanted to be so seeker sensitive that he did not want to hurt their feelings.
Notice again, he did not use scripture and people still believed in Jesus. Paul did not quote John 3:16, For God so loved the world . . . and people were still able to understand the gospel, can you believe that, without John 3:16, WOW!! Today, that would be a miracle in itself!
I read that Paul’s message to the men of Athens received the worst response from any sermon in the book of Acts. Those who believed added up to be, two specific people and it says others believed. Whatever that means? Paul could have been discouraged and hard on himself by the response and let this affect his ministry because 3000 were not added that day to Christianity, but that was not the case. In the following chapter, Paul is recorded to have moved to Corinth to begin his ministry in the synagogue without hesitation.
How can Paul do that, how can he move so quickly, when people thought, he might have failed? Even though 3000 were not added that day, Paul knew that he planted countless seeds. Even though people did not make spiritual commitments to Christ, Paul still was successful. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul lays out the salvation process. He says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” We have to depend on God to cause any seed to grow. We have to understand that we are called to tell people about Jesus, and realize that we are not the actual reason they accepted the Lord. God is the main agent in this process. God is at work through the whole process and that is where we can find the encouragement, because it does not rely on us as an individual for somebody to receive salvation.
I heard that it takes 7 adequate presentations of the gospel before somebody accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We will never know, what number we are, when we are in a witnessing situation. Everybody thinks witnessing is all about getting people to pray the sinner’s prayer. Yes it is about that, but we will never know when it is that specific person’s time. I like to think of witnessing as moving people closer to that spectacular day when they totally surrender there life to the Lord.
Briefly, I want to introduce you to the John-Engel Scale. It is a number scale, ranging from -8 which means that the person is an unbeliever that has awareness of a Supreme Being, but no effective knowledge of the gospel to a +3 where the person made a commitment to follow Jesus and has entered a life of conceptual and behavioral growth in Christ. When you witness to someone if you can just move them one step closer to accepting the gospel, you have made a positive difference in their lives and they might not know it yet. There are 8 steps people have to take to get to the point where the gospel sounds logical and acceptable. For instance, once people hear and understand the gospel intellectually, they must still receive it with a positive attitude. The reason I told you about this scale was to encourage you in your witnessing. Even though people are not getting saved right after you tell them about Jesus does not mean you failed.
Paul also did something else very tactful in this process of speaking in a culture that was foreign to him. Even though everybody did not get saved, the text says, they wanted to hear Paul again. I believe this was because Paul’s method of communication was not to give them all the answers. Paul did not say, Jesus is the answer without first giving them reasons to ask their own questions. Paul knows that the men of Athens need to come to their own realization that Jesus is the answer. If you tell people Jesus is the answer, without telling them what the question is, it will decrease there chance of owning the gospel for themselves. This is a huge problem in the church.
We go around saying Jesus is the answer when no body ever asked us a single question. Paul preached to these men that he was asked to come back. He left them and they had questions. We should learn a lesson from Paul here that in our witnessing endeavors, do not give them the answer without asking thought provoking questions. This can be done he either by directly asking questions or indirectly by saying things about God that provoke them to ask questions. Answers will only stick if people are asking the right questions. Our job is to ask questions and be ready to answer the questions when they come.
In conclusion, we can connect unbelievers to God by studying their context. We must learn what they like. We must also, make a connection. Hobbies can be a great connection point. You might have to step out of your comfort zone here, but I think if Jesus can step out of heaven, we can step out of our Christian circles and into the secular world. We also have to speak their language. The words we use have the power to draw people to Christ or to push people away. Learn what you can say and what not to say in your context. And finally after, you have leaned the context, made a connection, began to speak in their language, we must challenge them to make a commitment to Christ. Learn how to do lead somebody to the Lord. The four spiritual laws are a great tool. They are free on the internet. I once heard, the worst thing you can ever do to somebody is not tell them about Jesus. Think about it for a second, when we hide the love of Christ from people, we are acting selfishly and actually it almost speaks hatred towards unbelievers because we are neglecting to tell them about eternal life. So, try to point people to Christ as much as you can.
In closing, George Barna says, that the typical church believer does not have somebody on their mind who they are praying for their salvation that does not know the world. To be honest, I am ashamed of that. As we close in prayer I want you to think of a person in your sphere of influence who does not know Jesus. What I mean by sphere of influence is people who are in your family, friends, people who you work with if you have a job, or people you share common interests like sports with. I want you to think of that person and as I pray, I would invite you to pray for that person. Also, in my prayer, I am going to prayer the sinner’s prayer so that you can see how to do it and if you never prayed it before. Let it be from your heart and after we are done, let me know or one of your teachers and we will give you further instructions. PRAY!!!!
