to pray together. Have any Father we want to thank you that you are the one who's committed yourself to care for us and the whole creation. The earth is full of your unfailing love, as the Psalmist says, and we praise you Father for that. Thank you for those examples of your love that each of us have experienced in our lives today of safety and health and food and comfort and friendship and family and so many gifts that you give us to fill our hearts with joy. Father, teach us we pray in this time we thank you that you have promised that you will so Father we ask that you'll be with us as we think together in Jesus' name. Amen. I sent out last night a set of the new outline that we're just turning to today, your friendly computer expert, pasted around to all of you at five o'clock this morning. Some of you may not yet have accessed your email today so we'll be unaware of that but if you requested it then you will have got it. It will be there waiting for you. Our section I've entitled it Paul among the pagans all things to all people and you remember before the break I spoke about the way that Luke has recorded for us in this middle section of the book of Acts three evangelistic messages delivered by Paul in very different circumstances three apologetic three evangelistic messages delivered by Paul in different circumstances and I asked you to read these in preparation for our studies. The first from Acts chapter 13 Paul is on his first missionary journey and after he has been at Paphos on the island of Cyprus they go by sea across to Perga in Pamphilia Acts 13 verse 13 John Mark leaves them at that point to return to Jerusalem and then they go from Perga in land to Pasidian Antioch. Pasidian Antioch is in the center towards the south but in the sort of center south of modern day Turkey and that's where Paul gives the first of his messages in the synagogue and it's a message as I said that is given to Jews and to God-fearing Gentiles because most of the synagogues at that time had many many Gentiles attending them and worshipping at them just like Cornelius who we read about a few weeks back as we were looking at Peter's visiting his home he was a God-fear worshipping at the local synagogue. Luke tells us that Paul's custom whenever he arrived in any city was to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and to begin his evangelistic ministry there if there was synagogue in the city in the city of Philippi there was no synagogue so he went to a place of worship where a group of Jews and God-fearing Gentiles were gathered down by the river to worship but no formal synagogue but his custom wherever he could was to go first to the synagogue to begin his ministry there and that's what we read about here in Acts chapter 13 verses 14 onwards on the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down after the reading from the law and the prophets the synagogue rulers sent word to them saying brothers if you have a message to encouragement for the people please speak what's being described here is the custom in that day was when visitors came to a synagogue the elders of the synagogue would invite them to speak the teaching wasn't done simply by the chief ruler of the synagogue or even by the elders the teaching could be done by any of the men in the synagogue who was qualified and competent to do so and so when visitors came they would be curiously asked as on this occasion if they would like to have something to say and of course it gave Paul a wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel which is of course what he does often after that first Sabbath or sometimes after several Sabbaths he would be no longer welcome at the synagogue and we read of several examples like that in the book of Acts but when he has the opportunity that's where he begins to his work in any city to which he comes that's the first message the second is recorded for us in Acts chapter 14 in the city of Listera and this is just a very brief message and we read about it from verse 14 onwards and in this case Paul and Barnabas are responding to attempts by the pagans in the city of Listera to offer sacrifices to them as if they were gods and what's interesting about this historically is there is a legend from this particular part of contemporary turkey there was a legend at that time that the gods Zeus and Hermes had visited that part of the country and that's why they pick on the names of those two particular gods when they see this miracle and they decide that Paul is Hermes because Hermes was known for his wise speech he's one of the gods of wisdom and of wise speech so they think that Paul is Hermes and Barnabas is Zeus after this person is healed this layman is healed and they want to offer sacrifices to them and the priest of Zeus comes to help them in this and brings balls and wreaths and then we hear Paul's words as he seeks to prevent them from offering sacrifice so this is the second message the third we find in Acts chapter 17 later on in Paul's ministry and this is set in the city of Athens Athens was one of the most prominent cities in Greece and in that time was part of the Roman province of Akia and that's where Paul is and this time he's speaking in a setting which is would be similar to a context the day if you were invited to speech let's suppose you're past it somewhere or you're working for the Lord in a particular city and a big city like Los Angeles or New York or Washington or Chicago and it's as if all the professors at the local universities got together and asked you to come and address them that's really the kind of equivalent situation that pulls in at the Ariopagus he gets asked to speak to many of the intellectual leaders of the city of Athens and we read his message there in Acts chapter 17 from verse 22 onwards so as I pointed out to you it's not an accident it's not a matter of chance that Luke has given us these three messages rather than giving us three synagogues sermons or three talks to cultured pagans Luke carefully has given us examples of Paul speaking in three different contexts context which in fact Paul was in repeatedly in the city of Ephesus for example we read that Paul had discussions every day for three years and during those three years he would have many times spoken to Jews and Godfairers many times to uncultured pagans to polytheists many times to more cultured and intellectual pagans so Luke's showing us how Paul speaks in these different contexts now as you look at this outline up here if we look at the message in the synagogue and we're going to look at these very carefully as we go along but here I just want to summarize some things that are immediately obvious if we look at the message of the synagogue in Acts chapter 13 if you turn to that standing up verse 16 says Paul motion with his hand and said men of Israel and Eugenia tells who worshiped God listen to me the God of the people of Israel chose our fathers he made the people prosper during their stand Egypt with mighty power he led them out of that country he endured their conduct for about 40 years in the desert now clearly Luke summarizing what Paul said you can read this through in a couple of minutes or we can be sure spoke for considerably longer than that as preachers usually do but if we think about this message just as we start reading the first words there we notice some things immediately about the language and the content this message is filled with Old Testament language and it's also full of illusions too Old Testament texts in this few words I've just read to you we're reading about the period of the Exodus and then the one rings in the desert and the behavior of the people there and God's mercy to them and the challenge of God having to endure their unbelief and disobedience during those years in the desert but this message is filled with illusions to events recorded for us in the Old Testament if you look down through it you'll see the next section speaks about Samuel and Saul and then David and it gives a quote verse 22 he testified concerning him I found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart he'll do everything I want him to do and then he goes on to speak about Christ's coming as a descendant of David and then he in the latter section he has several quotes from the Psalms and from the prophets from various Messianic Psalms like Psalm 2 and Psalm 16 and from various sections of Isaiah Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 49 and also Habakkuk so quotations of the Psalms and the prophets so the language and the content of this message is very clearly drawn from the Old Testament now as you think about this message we might reflect on it by asking what can Paul take for granted as he speaks in synagogue what can he assume about his heroes and I've made a list of it's not an exhaustive list but it's a list of some of the primary understandings that these people have the knowledge that they have that Paul can take for granted as he speaks to these people in the synagogue a belief in the personal creator guard who has revealed himself who has spoken to his people secondly he can take the grant and acceptance of the authority of the Old Testament that's the background of everything here Paul doesn't have to have to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the Old Testament or its acceptance by these people who are listening to him they are there in the synagogue because they believe that it is the word of God so he can take that for granted thirdly he can take for granted that they are familiar with the content of the Old Testament this message requires that that the people know what Paul is talking about when he talks about the Exodus from Egypt when he talks about the walled wanderings in the wilderness and the unbelief of the people there and the whole nation having to perish not being allowed to enter the promised land only their children because of their unbelief their familiarity with the with Saul and Saul becoming the first king and then being replaced by David son of Jesse so these people he knows are going to be thoroughly familiar with this they are all reading from the Old Testament from the law and the prophets every Sabbath in the synagogue as well as any other reading they might do themselves if they have access the text they didn't all have bibles like you and I have but they would be regularly hearing God's word read so they're familiar with the content fourthly Paul can take for granted that they expect the coming of the Messiah the Old Testament is constantly speaking about the promise of the Messiah and Judaism the synagogues in the time of Paul were filled with messianic expectation and sometimes rumors and hearing the claims of various people to be the Messiah there are several examples from the first century so Paul knows that these people can are expecting the coming of the Messiah that God has promised to send a deliverer to his people Israel. Fifthly Paul can assume that these people know that they are obliged to be obedient to the laws of Moses that's at the very heart of course of the teaching of the synagogue and of Judaism at that time it's one of the things that attracted the Gentiles the synagogue was the high moral standards of Judaism many Gentiles were disgusted by the immorality of paganism the the gods of the Greeks and Romans and of the other nations were gods who were guilty of rape and murder and theft and every other kind of wickedness and there are many many pagans at this time who were sick of the immorality of the of the pagan gods and of the pagan religions and who joined themselves the synagogue because of that because they were attracted to the moral teaching of the law of Moses it's one of the reasons why as I've said today many people come to church when they feel pressured on behalf of their children and they want their children to have some kind of moral instruction in this culture you've got lots of unbelievers coming to live churches today for that reason well it was like that in in Paul's day many Gentiles are there excited about the moral teaching coming from the Old Testament books and committed to seeking to be obedient to that so obligation to obey the law of Moses Paul could have taken for granted as well that these people knew they were going to face God's judgment it's a constant teaching of Scripture they're going to have to give an account to God one day these are people who are living with a recognition of their moral accountability to God and number seven and this is interesting and you see later in the message here Paul talks about John the Baptist down in verses 24 and 25 John the Baptist work is very widely known that's very clear as you read the gospels you remember how it says in the gospels that people came out from Jerusalem and from the whole of Judea to listen to John the Baptist and of course knowledge of John the Baptist ministry would have spread right across the Jewish dispersion people in every synagogue would have known about the work of John the Baptist and Paul can take that for granted later on for example in the book of Acts we read about a group of disciples of John the Baptist in the city of Ephesus also in modern day turkey up in the western part of turkey so all across the dispersion people in the synagogues would have known of John the Baptist ministry and they would also have of course have heard something about the ministry of Jesus because that wasn't done in a corner either Jesus several times goes up to the temple to preach there when he went to the temple to preach at the feasts and to teach people from all over the dispersion would have heard him people right across the Roman Empire in all the synagogues would have had some familiarity with the ministry of Jesus and so Paul is able to refer to this he talks about the ministry of Christ and verse 27 the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that you are reading every Sabbath though they found no proper grant for death sentence they asked Paulate to have him executed so he knows that they know something about the life and the death of Jesus now as you read this message in the synagogue you can see quite clearly Paul can assume all this as he speaks to these people and as he proclaims the good news of Christ's death and resurrection and of salvation through faith in him now we need to ask ourselves just a practical question today can we assume that people coming to our churches today have the same kind of knowledge or Paul's message is very similar to ones that we hear every Sunday in our churches
but I want to ask you can you take it for granted that people who come to your churches really understand all these things now of course those who are Christians already will indeed understand these things but there are many people who come to our churches today who do not have the same kind of grasp of these eight points that Paul could take for granted in a synagogue in his day you always need to ask yourself as you prepare to preach and teach in any context what do people know what can I assume now if you take these points for example
at least 50% of the people out there probably more like 60% don't attend and have never really attended in any regular fashion a church a Christian church at least half the population they will not be familiar with these things as a pastor in England for many years I could not assume that anybody coming to church who wasn't already involved in our church I could not assume that any visitor would know these things in fact I had to assume that the overwhelming majority of English people more than 90% are totally ignorant of them now in this country about 50% or more have absolutely no familiarity with these things they might know the name of Jesus but I would say it's actually more than that there are also enormous numbers of people of the other half who do have some kind of church background who also don't know these things very well or if somebody has been going to a church which is liberal theologically which lost the gospel 20 30 40 50 or even 100 years ago they're not going to have these things taught clearly that's not what they will have been hearing weak by weak now there are many people out there including those who are who are church to some degree who are not familiar with these things my guess would be I think a good estimate would be that you can assume that about 70% of the people around you are unfamiliar with these things in terms of really understanding them the great majority of Americans over 90% say they believe in God very little biblical content to that knowledge of God there's certainly not a sense of moral accountability to God that they're going to have to give an answer to him one day among the great majority of people there's certainly no commitment to obey the laws of God and there are other things here as well which they simply are ignorant of and you need to think about this when you're teaching people what can you really take the granted what do they really understand because if you don't ask that question you're going to be speaking past people they simply won't hear and especially if you want a church which is growing that is a church which is attracting unbelievers whether they have a church background of some kind of whether they don't if you are in a church where unbelievers are coming you cannot assume all of these things now what about the message to pagans or the two messages to the pagans one in Acts 14 and the other in Acts 17 if you just turn over to them we just look as to break brief words that we have here though we can be sure Paul said more than this says men why are you doing this verse 15 we two are only men human like you are bringing you good news telling you to turn from these worthless things for the living God who made heaven and earth the sea and everything in them in the past he led all nations go their own way yet he's not left himself with that testimony he has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy or Acts 17 verse 22 men of Athens I see that in every way you are very religious for as I walked around and looked careful at your objects of worship I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God now what you worship is something unknown I'm going to proclaim to you 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 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 from one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the time set for them in the exact places where they should live God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out to him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as some of your own poets have said we are his offspring 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 in the past God overlooked such ignorance but now he commands all people everywhere to repent 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 that's a very different message from the message that is given in the synagogue and first just thinking about the language and I want to come back to this and talk about it later but just as we look about it now at it now you see that the language and the content are very different from the message in the synagogue there are no references to the Old Testament now it's not that this message is in biblical it's completely biblical in some ways you can read this message and it's like an exposition of the first chapters of Genesis oh it's a completely biblical message about who God is and who we are as human persons made in his likeness and about idolatry and and other things like that God's rule over the nations his sovereignty it's a completely biblical message but the language is very different from the synagogue message there are no references to the Old Testament Paul doesn't quote the Old Testament though as I said it's in one sense it's a thoroughly Old Testament message in terms of its content but he doesn't quote it he's not quoting the prophets and Psalms and and the law it would have served no purpose of course because they were completely unfamiliar with it they wouldn't have known what he was quoting and they didn't regard it as having authority so he makes no reference to the Old Testament he makes no reference to the promises in the Old Testament of the Messiah now that language would have been particularly difficult for the them to understand he would have had to explain all about that the term Messiah means anointed of God anointed his kings he anointed his prophets he anointed his priests and he promised that he would send an anointed one a prophet priest and king to come and deliver his people he doesn't refer to those promises in the way that he did in the synagogue the heart of his message in the synagogue is how Christ fulfills the promises of the Messiah in the Old Testament there are also no references except for the resurrection at the end to the details of recent events in Palestine in terms of the life and ministry of John the Baptist or the life and ministry of Jesus because again these people were unfamiliar with that now it wasn't that Paul wasn't prepared to talk about those things that's not the point I'm making at all but here he has this opportunity he's called before the Ariopagus he's got to think about where these people are what their understanding is what he can take for granted and he cannot take for granted what he could assume when he's spoken a synagogue what what can Paul take for granted so what shapes his message and one and one could add other things here but these are some of the basic ones that he and the people to whom he's speaking are living in a created universe that's the context in which we live he can take for granted the experience of providence that is of God's rule over history over the nations and his care for the human race in Acts 14 you remember he talks about how God has not left himself without a testimony his testimony his providential care he provides you crops in their seasons he fills your hearts with joy he's talking about the way God cares for the human race which all people experience he can take the granted that they have some knowledge of the nature of human persons that there is something divine about humanity with God's offspring there's something different about us we're not like birds and trees and animals there is something unique and glorious about human life and Paul can take that for granted that these people have thought about that and we'll come back to the quotes he gives later because he does have some quotations here though they're not from the Bible he can take for granted that they there are religious longings in the human heart that these people are religious that's in fact where he starts his message the whole message is about their religious understanding and what's right about it and what's wrong about it but he knows that they are people who have a longing for worship and a practice of worship this is true of human beings everywhere that we are religious by nature the book of Ecclesiastes says God has said eternity in our hearts that's who we are we have this longing for eternity this longing to know God and to worship he can take for granted that they have some understanding of the inadequacy and an appropriateness of idolatry there are these temples all around them with their statues and their sacrifices and he knows that these people there in Athens are ready are people who have reflected on the problems of pagan religion and the inadequacy of idolatry in terms of who God truly can be who God truly is and also he knows that they have been thinking about the nature of God and we'll talk more about some of what they thought about God later we're told specifically there were Stoics and Epicureans here and there's that they are people who reflected about the nature of God what is God like
and they came to a very different conclusion from what one would be led to by the by the by the temples and altars and pagan worship that's taking place there in on Mars Hill so they've reflected on the nature of God and also that this is a moral universe and that there's going to be some kind of accountability that human beings are going to be called to a camp one day on the basis of the way we live that's something that almost all people everywhere have believed throughout history it's one where our culture is rather different today it's we live in a culture which is very different which has lost that sense moral accountability it's very unusual in history and there are particular reasons for that when some of which we've already spoken about now Paul can take those things for granted as he speaks to pagans whether they are the pagan polytheists of the city of Listera or the more thoughtful pagans in Athens and of course these things shape his message because this is where the people are at so Paul is speaking to them where they are now not all of these but many of these are going to be a constant in most situations where a Christian goes not all of them we have a problem with this last one here in our particular culture people certainly have a sense of the distinction between good and evil still and they have some sense of their obligation to do good many of them have lost a sense of accountability to God that they're going to have to give an answer to him one day it's one of the challenges we face in the culture in which we live but many of these things in some form or another are going to be part of what we're going to run across almost anywhere we go that there are particular challenges in a postmodern contemporary secular setting but some of these even there are going to be present they're going to be at the heart of what we're going to have to be speaking about to people uniqueness as human persons are understanding of a distinction between good and evil the clearly designed nature of the universe that's why the vast majority of the Americans believe in God no matter how long they've been told not to no matter how much they've been taught that the universe came about by chance hard anybody believes that because it's so obviously doesn't make sense of the universe which is so clearly designed and patent and structured but many of these things are going to be there in some form or another but you won't be able to use Christian terminology like providence to speak about them with many of the people around us that's just a sort of introduction to these three messages and how different they are from each other that brings us to our next heading and I should have got rid of that f there we'll do that right now now what I want to do in this next section I've entitled this all things to all people principles of communication and I've written add for you here just an introductory point in full when Paul preached to those with the scriptures when he spoke in the synagogue he emphasized Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy and the one who justifies those who have failed to fully keep the law that's where he finishes his message in Pesidian Antioch through Christ you can be justified from all those things which you fail to justify yourself as you have sought to obey God's law Christ has kept the law where you have not Christ has died to bear your judgment and has been raised again through justification when Paul preached to those with the scriptures that's the heart of his message Jesus is the Messiah Jesus died to bear your judgment rose for your justification repent and have faith in him when Paul preached to those without the scriptures to the pagans he is speaking really from the early chapters of Genesis he's speaking about the nature of the universe the nature of God the nature of human persons and our failure to worship God speaks in particular about idolatry idolatry is going to be a constant wherever you go people worship something they don't worship God they're going to be worshiping something else and that's at the very heart of Paul's message and the end he comes to have Christ delivers us from the judgment we face because of our idolatry now this is something interesting to notice here people all need to hear the law before they hear the gospel of Christ
with people who already know the God of scriptures or know about him with people who believe that they are called to obey God's commandments much of the time you're going to be preaching on the second table of the law about our failure to love our neighbors ourselves about sexual sin immorality about sinning against other people's property about theft and covetousness about lying the failure to speak truthfully and often we're going to be preaching to those who already if you like are churched from the second table of the law law about human relationships they're not only that sometimes even speaking to those who are churched we will have to speak from the first table of the law about idolatry about the failure to worship God alone that's exactly what Jesus does with the wealthy young ruler the wealthy young ruler is actually a leader of the synagogue he's a thoroughly churched person that's what the word ruler means there he's a he's an elder in the synagogue now with that man he's a man who's committed to serving worshipping the true God to obeying his law he thinks he's kept the law from his childhood but where Jesus challenges him is the issue of idolatry does he love God or does he love money who does he worship does he truly worship God alone so Jesus preaches the law to him and he preaches the law from the first table of the law
but almost always in a pagan context in a secular context in a context where people are unchurched you're going to be preaching from the first table of the law you're going to preach about idolatry that's what Paul does in Listeriff that's what he does in Athens you're going to challenge what people worship instead of God whatever that is and in our culture and I'll come back to this later in any situation with any individual to whom you're speaking in any context in which you're preaching or teaching you need to discern what is the fundamental barrier between people and God what are they worshipping instead of God what is their idol now in our culture the greatest idol for almost everyone is the worship of oneself that the demand for personal freedom the demand to have authority of my own like to do what I want to pursue happiness for myself in the way that I want to our culture regards it as an absolute right the right to pursue happiness in the way that I define it if we don't challenge that idol in this culture we cannot preach the gospel Luther put it this way I can preach the gospel with the clearest voice
and in the loudest way but if I fail to preach it at the point where it is currently under attack I haven't preached it at all that's Luther in his day and if he didn't address the issue of justification through faith alone he wasn't preaching the gospel because that was the fundamental problem with the medieval church now in our day the deepest held belief of our contemporaries is that I control my own life and I have the right to do what I want to do 98% of our contemporaries say they believe that that's most Christians included that I'm sovereign over my own life that I have the right to live my life the way I want to to pursue my happiness in the way I define it that is the fundamental obstacle between people and God in our culture and if we don't challenge that we're not going to challenge people we're not going to preach the gospel faithfully now in Athens Paul had to challenge their idolatry they inadequate notions of God their idolatrous worship in our day we have to challenge people's idolatry they're completely inadequate notions of God the desire to turn God into somebody who serves their purposes get lots of it in the church as well health wealth and happiness that's a gospel defined for the moment in which we live you can have what you say name it and claim it it's not a biblical gospel it's a gospel discipline designed for a culture which says now I can have my life the way I want it and there's a gospel which serves that you can have what you say name it and claim it just have faith you'll be healthy wealthy get everything you want nonsense them luckily it's a heresy serious it's really a heresy because it's a it's a heresy that is shaped by the idolatry of the culture in which we live that's what it is it it's hard we're going to turn God into a means of getting what we want of having our own happiness
it's not mildly wrong it's horribly wrong it's a blasphemy it's a heresy it you need to take it very seriously it isn't the gospel of Christ and that idol that false worship is the issue that you have to challenge if you don't challenge everything anything else people have lots of other idols the idol of work the idol of sexual satisfaction many many other idols the idol of money and materialism and personal comfort but they all revolve around living for my own happiness defining my life for myself doing what I want to do and that has to be challenged we have to speak to that just like Paul spoke to the idolatry of the Athenians so you see Paul giving these very different messages he preaches the law in both situations but to the Athenians he preaches the first table of the law against idolatry but despite the differences of these messages and they're so obviously different when you read them I want to argue for you that the same basic principles govern Paul's presentation in all these different contexts what underlies all of Paul's communication of the gospel in any setting is his commitment to be all things to all people and you remember we already looked at that passage in 1 Corinthians 9 but let me read it to you again because this governs Paul and it governs us in every situation in which we go to serve wherever God calls you when you graduate from seminary or wherever he's calling you now for the people you're writing for the person you're writing your paper to you are called to be all things to all people to this person though I am free 1 Corinthians 9 19 and belong to no matter I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible to the Jews I become like a Jew to win the Jews and so on down through that passage to the week I became weak to win the week I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some that's your calling for the person you're writing your letter to to become like them to get alongside them never to disobey God's commandments never to forsake your worship of God alone but to be all things to all people now that's Paul's fundamental commitment the other way me might express this is to say that Paul seeks to follow the example of Christ
fact that's how Paul understood his ministry in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 16 he says I urge you to imitate me and in 1 Corinthians 111 he says follow my example as I follow the example of Christ what Paul seeks to do is to imitate Christ to live by the mind of Christ what he says in Philippians 2 if you turn to that passage in Philippians 2's lovely passage Paul says this he urges us to have the mind of Christ to be like-minded verse 2 to have the same love being one in spirit and purpose do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus and then he speaks beautifully about Christ as a servant now that is your calling as an evangelist or as an apologist it is to live by the mind of Christ to be a servant of those to whom you go that's your calling to be prepared to get alongside them to think more highly of them than you think of yourself to look not just to your own interests but look to theirs that's at the very heart of all evangelism because that's what Christ did to come and redeem us he came from heaven he did not consider his equality with God a thing to be held on to but emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man that's your calling is to go and be with people and to be like them not like them in sin but to really get alongside them to share their life and so communicate to them because you love them because you desire to serve them because you know them to have the mind of Christ so that is the most fundamental thing which is governing all that Paul does among people of whatever race culture or religious background Paul's desire was to serve them so he would shape his message he would shape his presentation of that message to fit the understanding of his hearers and he would fit his own pattern of living to their pattern of life when he was with the Jews yet Jewish food he was kosher when he wasn't with the Jews he didn't he had gentile food happily no Paul adopted their pattern of life not in disobeying God of course he says I'm always under Lord of Christ the message of course at its heart is always the same it's the message that God has given it's going to be a biblical message but it will be presented in all sorts of different ways now we see this in the Gospels themselves of course if you look at the ministry of Christ Christ is our perfect example here he's the one from whom Paul learned his lesson when you read the Gospels you see Jesus talking to a great variety of people to Jews to Samaritans to Gentiles to wealthy people to poor people to healthy people to sick people to men and women to Pharisee and Sadducee to tax collectors to teachers to fishermen soldiers prostitutes farmers Jesus talks to all sorts of people and he goes as a servant to each one of them to address them in a way that is going to communicate to them to get alongside them Jesus is all things to all people among the Pharisees and teachers of the Lord Jesus shows himself to be a master of theological discussion when he is talking to country people to farmers and fishermen and homemakers in rural Palestine and Galilee Jesus uses stories from everyday life to communicate to them now that is our calling is to be all things to all people and what we're going to be doing over these next couple of classes is looking at a series of principles which govern all that Paul has to say in these three messages and everywhere else where he speaks and the first principle is the principle of respect the principle of respect
first of all Paul and the synagogue when we read Paul's address to the Jews and Godfairers in the synagogue we probably don't even notice how respectfully he speaks because we're so familiar with this kind of message but he begins many of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God and again verse 26 brothers children of Abraham and you Godfairing Gentiles Paul addresses these people as his brothers he shows respect for them he loved them very deeply his fellow Jews because he was a Jew himself and he says he would have died for them he would have gone to hell for them so he speaks to them respectfully the same is true when we come to look at Paul in Athens as he speaks to the Athenian philosophers he begins his message men of Athens I see that in every way you are very religious whereas I walked around and looked carefully your objects of worship I even found an altar with this inscription now what's fascinating about this is earlier down in verse 16 of Acts 17 it says while Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was greatly distressed to see that the city was filled with idols and the word there is very strong he's really disturbed in his spirit he is shocked by the idolatry of Athens by these temples and statues and the kind of worship that was taking place in them he's deeply troubled in spirit by what he sees despite that he addresses the Athenians respectfully he is not flattering them nor is he being sarcastic you're very religious now people can use that term sarcastically today Paul isn't flattery was forbidden for those addressing the areopagus Paul's not flattering anybody he's simply speaking respectfully because he really does honor these people now we find this same pattern all the way through the book of Acts as you look at Paul addressing people Acts 22 for example Paul's on trial brothers and fathers listen now to my defense or on in Acts chapter 26 Paul's address to King Agrippa Acts 26 verse 2 Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense King Agrippa I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently Paul addresses Agrippa respectfully and not just because he's on trial so he wants a good outcome of the trial and not just because the man is a king but because this is his commitment now one other example we should notice here is in Acts chapter 19 and this isn't up on these notes here but if you look in Acts 19 at the account of the riot in Ephesus it's really fascinating Acts 19 the account of the riot in Ephesus and I'm sure you've all read this passage what happens in the city of Ephesus is that so many people have been converted and so many people have been influenced by Christianity and by the message that Paul is preaching there that people have begun to give up on their idolatry
and what happens of course is the Silmasmiths who make shrines of Artemis they like make little models serve the models of the Temple of Diana the Temple of Diana was in the city of Ephesus it's one of the most beautiful buildings of the ancient world it's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world so people came from all over the Greek and Roman Empire far beyond its borders to see the Temple of Diana just like people go to the Eiffel Tower today in Paris and you go there and you come away with a postcard orbit or some of you probably got a little life of tower sitting in in your living room well people would buy little shrines of Artemis many of them of course were pagans who worshipped there at the Temple you didn't worship at the Eiffel Tower presumably or when you go down to the arch you might come away with a little model of the arch or a photograph but a lot of people made their living you've got a wonder a great attraction a lot of people make their living of it a lot of people make their living around the arch down there well people made their living from the Temple of Diana and people buying these little shrines and those who went to worship there but what is it the Paul said first 26 5 25 you know we receive a good income from this business and you see and hear how this fellow Paul is convinced and let us stray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia he says that man made gods and no gods at all there is danger that not only our trade will lose its good name but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and the goddess herself herself was worshipped throughout the Provincivation in the world will be robbed of her divine majesty now this speech by the service myths causes a vast riot which goes on for hours and the people go to a public place and they are shouting for two hours great is Artemis of the Ephesians great is Diana they're really riled up by by this speech that her name and her temple are going to be discredited now what's fascinating about this account and there are many things that are fascinating is how it stopped if you look down for verse 34 they kept shouting in unison for two hours great is Artemis of the Ephesians the city clock for a 35 quiet at the crowd and said this many of Ephesus doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and if her image which fell from heaven what that's referring to was there was a meteorite which had fallen there in the area around Ephesus which had a vaguely female shape and that meteorite was put on a pedestal and worshipped as an image of the goddess Diana that's what he's referring to then he says this therefore since these facts are undeniable you ought to be quiet not do anything rash you've bought these men here this is what I want you to notice though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess Paul could not be accused of blaspheming the goddess Artemis Diana despite the appalling idolatry of her worship and the fact that in the temple of Diana and other temples even human sacrifices were carried out this was a polling worship the Paul did not blaspheme Diana it is not necessary to poor scorn on whatever people believe and what they worship even if it's false and even if it greatly disturbs your spirit which it ought to do wherever you see idolatry in false worship it ought to trouble you deeply to grieve you in spirit but you are still called to speak respectfully about people and to them really important let me give you one example and I must stop because we're over time here but I get regularly because I teach apologetics I get letters from people who are evangelists and apologists and one I get is some a guy who stars himself in evangelist muslims and he goes to campuses around the states and there's always a riot and he has to be escorted off the campus by the police and the reason is because he just violently attacks Muhammad and the worship of Allah he blasphemes Allah that's basically what he does and he thinks that's being a good evangelist having a good testimony but Paul did not blaspheme Diana Paul spoke to people with respect