This morning we’re in Acts 17. We will be comparing and contrasting the occasion when the gospel came to the Bereans, and then also the Athenians. Before we jump into Acts 17, I want to share a challenge that has perplexed me all the years I've pastored. There are always a few brave exceptions.
Here is the challenge: I have no doubt, most of us believe “The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Most of us believe “There is no other name under heaven, given to man, by which we must be saved, except the name of Jesus Christ.” One of the greatest challenges facing the church isn’t getting people to value evangelism. It's actually getting the church mobilized in evangelism. It's getting that ordinary believer to share The Faith.
Essentially, the Church is a sleeping giant! How do we awaken the church not just to “value” evangelism, but to obediently go, and actually evangelize? In regard to personal evangelism, the church overwhelmingly lacks boldness, and obedience! In fact, we hope someone else will take care of it!
When I was in college, the Holy Spirit set my soul on fire with a passion for evangelism. I went from being completely indifferent about the mission of Jesus to being all consumed with evangelism. God gave had given me a burden for the lost, but it was a burden for which I didn't feel equipped, or able, to carry. In response, I consumed every sermon, and every book I could find on evangelism. After a while, I started to notice that there are basically five basic components to evangelism. Grab a pen and paper. I want to share them. They're easy to remember.
First, there is the Action of “Contending." The first and most important part of evangelism is contending, competing, fighting for the soul of another! A survey of Scripture reveals that evangelism is first and foremost God's work. None of us can change a person’s heart or mind. None of us can change a person's will. None of us can force open doors only God can open. Evangelism begins on our knees, in prayer and fasting, as we wait for the Holy Spirit to move. Every major advance of the gospel in Acts begins in prayer, fasting, waiting. To contend is to lift the name of person, a household, or even a people group to God. The good news is that the most important part of evangelism is the easiest part—anyone can pray, fast, wait—but we have to do it!
Second, there is the Action of “Caring." By this all men will know you are my disciples “if" you love one another. Incarnational love, incarnational caring is indispensable. It's not enough for us to be sentimental about love; love must be sacrificial. Nor can love be transactional or superficial. If evangelism was only a matter of being transactional, our churches would already be bursting at the seams. Modern Churches have programmatically innovated about every way we can “appear caring” without actually having to “pay the daily costs” of loving neighbor. Love is sacrificial when it costs us time, energy, effort, resource, convenience. Tangible, salt and light, loving action causes people to praise God. Author Steve Sjorgern suggests we, the church, “conspire” to do acts of kindness.
Third, there is the Action of “Connecting.” So, people aren't a project where we “love and let go.” People must be assimilated, connected, incorporated, relationally integrated into our lives like family! Jesus didn't just make disciples he made friends. He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, he sat down at their table, welcomed them to his own table, ate with them, laughed with them, went to their workplace. Author Larry Osborn calls this being a “Sticky Church.” The title says it all—we ought to be stickiest, most connective, hospitable of all people.
Something I think about is how Churches are trying to offer 1st rate customer experiences to attract new members. Like car dealerships, or other industries, churches use all sorts of gimmicks to generate foot traffic. The most attractional experience is LOVE. Love isn't a gimmick—its either there or not. Authentic connection is something any church, of any size, or budget, can deliver.
Fourth, there is the Action of “Cultivating.” It's when we’re together that our differences begin to leak out. As we get to know each other, how do we respond redemptively? How do we build bridges? How do we ask questions, how do we gently challenge one another's beliefs, or behaviors, or values, or worldview, or presuppositions? How do we have productive salty spiritual conversations? How do we give answers without alienating?
My favorite passage on cultivating is Colossians 4:2-6, “Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving (That's Contending!). 3 At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, 4 so that I may make it known as I should (We'll come back to verses 3-4 in a minute). 5 Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time (That’s Caring, Connecting). 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person (That’s Cultivating).”
Now hear me out: Cultivating Spiritual Conversations is harder than hospitality and connection. What do I say! Connection though is harder than Caring and Kindness. Caring is harder than contending. It is easier to pray about a person than go out and pray with a person right? I wish evangelism were as simple as God dropping people on our lap. In Acts, we see bold, deep, sincere, authentic, face-to-face cultivation happening.
Now let's come full circle. Fifth, there is the Evangelistic Action of “Clarifying." By far, this is the most daunting of all evangelistic tasks. How do we clarify the gospel message? Clarify the story of God? Clarify God's mighty acts of salvation past-present-future? How do we compare and contrast right and wrong doctrine? How do we get people to Jesus? How do we share in Jesus the forgiveness of sin, the justification of the sinner, the hope of resurrection from the dead, the gift of eternal life, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit? When it comes to actually clarifying (sharing) word of God, we choke! Come on now, we all choke at times. Sometimes I choke. I hold back. It’s so hard to spew the gospel! We don't want to alienate, we don't want to appear overly zealous, religious. Stay liked!
Romans 10:8-13, “The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame… the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
BUT!!! Romans 10:14-17 asks, “14 How, then, can they call on they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.”
I take Romans 10, especialy 10:17, at face value. Faith comes from hearing. If we’re not clarifying the gospel the whole chain of evangelism collapses. >> You could pray and God could open a door. You could care and love on someone. You could connect and befriend. You could cultivate spiritual conversation all day and night… but at the end of the day we got to get them to Jesus. Do you know how many times I’ve raced through all the C's of evangelism and never get the conversation to Jesus? Belief hinges on content. Christian niceness doesn't save souls. The power of Jesus’ name (spoken, preached, heard, believed, confessed) saves! But if we never declare Jesus’ name; if we never bring his name? You all understand.
Of the Five C's—Contending, Caring, Connecting, Cultivating, and Clarifying—which do need the most help with? For you, is evangelism more than a value? Are you willing to obey Jesus, and brave his mission? How many of you would be interested in being trained to do the 5 C’s, if we offered it?
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul sets about clarifying the gospel to two distinct groups of people. The first group is the Bereans. I don't mean to slight the Bereans, but evangelistically, they are low hanging fruit for Apostle Paul. In Acts 17:10-15 the Bereans consist of Jewish and Greek God-fearers—people already in the habit of attending synagogue, and studying the Scriptures. Luke says they were of “more noble character” than the Thessalonians because “they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve psyched myself out of evangelism. So many times I assumed the worse only for a person to say, “yes, please tell me more, can I invite so-n-so to join us?” If a person’s heart is already open to the Scriptures, a huge workload gets shifted off your shoulders. Not that you or the other person don't have to do your homework… But if you can get a person into Scripture… the Scriptures will do your heavy lifting. To a teachable person, sharing Jesus is as simple as reading one of the gospels together—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Acts. The Bereans’ would have likely studied Isaiah, Psalms, Deuteronomy. This is the same if a person comes from any other denomination. Get into the Bible and the Holy Spirit will bring you to belief and single mindedness. Easy Breezy!
The second group Paul evangelizes in Acts 17 is the Athenians. There were Jews and God-fearing people in Athens too. But in Acts 17:16-21 Paul is distressed; the city is full of idols. When he enters the marketplace, Some of the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers condescendingly debated him. They'd say, “Who is this arrogant show-off Paul? What is he trying to say?” Others formally accused him of preaching foreign deities. Blasphemy is when you disrespect God. Impiety (not being pious) is when you preach other or foreign Gods. {Centuries earlier, in Athens, in the very place Paul is speaking, Socrates was forced to drink Hemlock after being accused of both “impiety" and “corrupting the youth.”} Some were baffled by the strangeness of Paul's preaching—they never heard of this Jesus, much less this superstitious if not ludicrous idea of resurrection. Still others were like modern podcasters, they loved just sitting around hearing newest and most novel ideas—they had no intention to commit to any sort of new belief. But Paul was surely interesting!
In Berea, the starting point for conversation was the Bible itself. The Bereans already subscribed to the authority of Scripture. But in Athens, the God of Israel, of Jesus, and the Bible was as foreign to them as eating sushi. Acts 17:17 says Paul “reasoned with them.” In Berea clarifying began with Revelation and Bible. In Athens, clarifying began with Reason.
Old School Evangelism was you quote a few scriptures and start a Bible Study. New School Evangelism—you begin with Reason. You search the marketplace of that persons' ideas for gospel touch-points. You ask, “Is there room in this person's thinking, in their worldview, a bridge, that can be used to help them see Jesus? Still, there is no faith until they hear Revelation. Just because the starting point is different doesn't mean the destination is different.
I’d love to dissect Paul's sermon—but I opted to help you understand the larger dynamics of evangelism at play. In order to CLARIFY the gospel we have to learn how to recognize and meet people in very different headspaces. If you come at an Athenian as if they’re a Berean you may feel good about yourself, but you may have impeded what was first needed.
In Acts 17 we have the “Areopagus address.” The Areopagus wasn't a debating society, N.T. Wright says this was a courtroom. Here Paul is both mounting a legal defense (against the charge of impiety, corrupting youth) as he is preaching Christ. This is the brilliance and wisdom of the Spirit of Christ on display in Paul.
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. {Touchpoint #1: I'm not introducing a foreign God, I'm telling you about your “Unknown God”!}
24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. {Touchpoint #2: The Unknown God is not anything like your manmade gods or idols. He is Living God, Creator of your very Life!}
26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out 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 even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. {Touchpoint #3: Your Unknown God isn't just a Living God; he's a Personal God “who is to be known" not an “it or a force of nature” to religiously manipulate}.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” {Touchpoint #4: The Living, Personal God is also the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Judge of all the earth—and you will be judged by him. He will judge the earth by the standard of the righteousness of Jesus Christ whom he sent into the world. We know God sent this Jesus because in death God resurrected this Jesus from the dead!}
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” 33 So Paul left their presence. 34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. {The Five Cs are a matter of obedience; the rest is up to God. Preach!}