Apologetics & Understanding

Well, let's pray together. Lord, we worship you together today for the glory of today, for the beauty of creation, of spring, of new life. We worship you as the Lord of life and of new life, the one who has raised your Son from the dead who will raise us up to with him and make everything new. Father, we look forward to that regeneration of all things. We pray now that you will renew our hearts and minds as we understand your word together. Teach us, we pray so that we may go out into the world as your people who demonstrate what it means to be renewed by you and to have our minds renewed, to think your thoughts after you, to have our hearts renewed so that we may be imitators of Christ in this world. And it's very great need. Father, teach us today, we pray, open our hearts to yourself, to your work of your spirit in us. We pray for this coming weekend that we may experience the joy of knowing again as we recollect through the services this weekend of what it means that your Son has died for us and has been raised again from the dead. Teach us, we pray, and fill our hearts with gladness. For Jesus' sake, we ask our men. Okay, in class on Tuesday, we were talking about building bridges and I had used this illustration of everyone is living between two worlds that on the one hand there is what God has made known about the world which in his word which I've called here a Christian worldview. On the other hand, there is the world of unbelief which people are also living in. And the point that I was making is that as we seek to talk to people and to build bridges, the bridges are going to be those points where the person's still in contact with God's world, still living constrained by the reality of the way God has created the universe and the way God has created them in his image. And we're always going to find those points of contact, those bridges to build as we get to know people. So as we mentioned there on the last point, D, this is our task to begin by asking what is right about this person's thinking. Where are these elements of God's truth still present? We looked first at church people and secondly at people who are attracted by new age spirituality and we finished talking about the environment and concern for it which you'll find among many new age people. And a third group of people I want to look at just briefly here is secular people. What if my friend or family member or workmate, whoever it is that you're writing your paper for, you're writing your letter to, is someone who thinks of themselves as a thoroughly secular person who sees no need for any kind of spirituality who declares that they have no religious interest. I often have people say to me I'm not a religious person as if they belong to some kind of different category and my response is always one in the sense that you mean that I'm not religious either. I'm interested in what is true because by a religious person they mean something rather different, somebody who has this has who can't cope with life or who isn't concerned with what is rationally true. And while I'm perfectly prepared to acknowledge that I can't cope with life that I need God desperately in every area of my life, I'm certainly not prepared to acknowledge that I'm not interested in truth. So what if the person is a secular person who feels or says they feel no need for God or for spirituality in their lives. Now even most secular people actually have some acknowledgment that there is a God. The figures are like 90 to 92% of Americans believe there is God in some sense but most of them or many of them, a good half of them let's say would say they don't really see much need for God in any kind of personal sense. He's just there to kind of get things going and then he's just off in the distance. But the truth is whether somebody thinks they're religious or not or spiritual or not, every human being we're ever going to meet is religious in the sense that they are committed to something. They put their trust in something. Whether that trust is in the future of the human race or the improvement of American society, whether that trust is in science and technology, whether it's in their own ability to think reasonably or the goodness of themselves and their fellow human beings or whether their trust is in family

for many women, their trust, the thing in which they put their hope on which they build their lives as family. To put it another way their idol is family. For many men and an increasing number of women, whether they put their trust as their work, their identities absolutely bound up in their job. That's what gives them a sense of meaning and purpose and which shapes their life. And if we have time we'll come back to look carefully at this issue of idolatry for some it's sex, sexual fulfillment, for others it's money. Simply the satisfaction of oneself, the pursuit of one's own happiness is the idol of many of our contemporaries. They put their trust in something. The challenge for us is to find out where that trust lies and almost all of these things in which people put their trust are actually part of God's good creation. The work is actually good. God has created us to labour and to enjoy the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that that work brings. God has created us to be in families and to find fulfillment in marriage and family. Most idols that people have are actually parts of God's good creation so their point is self-contact. Even if the people's trust in them is idolatrous and inappropriate, the thing itself is something good and creates a bridge which we can build. The French writer

Pascal, some of you will be familiar with his work, he was a Catholic, actually a Janssonist which means he was a Calvinistic Catholic in terms of aspects of his theology, fascinating writer but he put it this way and this is a very loose translation of his words in French. He said everyone is already committed. Everyone is already committed. There is already a commitment of the heart and the mind to something. Everyone is already committed. The French and my accent in French is atrocious which is very challenging for my daughter-in-law who is French but she puts up with it. But his French expression is newsom on Gaget that is we are already committed. We are already engaged and the English translation really of that is everyone is already committed. That's what he means. Everyone already has something in which they put their trust. Most of those things of course are part of God's good creation, but they do create bridges for us for some of you as you commend the person to whom you're writing, as you commend their way of life and see things about them you can respect as you find what they put their hope in and build your bridge for some of them it is going to be their work or their sense of commitment to family or whatever it is. For many of the people for whom you're writing who are secular it's going to be their sense of the need for some kind of moral values. We were talking about that in class the other day as I used the example of my friend from England the industrial psychologist talking about the recovery of values in business practice so that books on servant leadership and even forgiveness as well as delegation and treating people with dignity have become very popular in the business community simply because of those values work but that gives you a bridging point of course to talk to people. We've many times used the example of people coming to church because they feel the need to have their children get some kind of moral training and that sense of responsibility as parents has been placed in their hearts by God that's part of God's reality and it but also that moral sense has been placed in them by God no human being you ever meet is amoral even someone like Timothy McVey you listen to him as he talks about why he did what he did in Oklahoma City he's not an amoral man that is someone without morality he explains what he did he excuses what he did as a moral judgment actually on the federal government for Ruby Ridge and Waco he's not amoral he's deeply immoral what he did was absolutely wicked but he's not amoral he's still in touch with the moral order of the universe though his judgments are warped and wicked and you'll always find that there's always a point there of contact if you think about the openness of the former Soviet Union to the gospel in the last 10 years one of the primary open doors has been the longing for some kind of moral foundation after two generations of of atheistic Marxism teaching that there is no God and that there is no moral order lennon taught that morality is a bourgeois obsession and after two generations of teaching that the culture of the former Soviet Union of Russia and its satellite countries has been so deprived of moral teaching of moral training that there is a desperate sense of moral bankrupt see in the culture and it's one of the reasons why hundreds of thousands probably millions of people have become Christians over the past 10 years God has used this deep sense of moral need as a bridge for the gospel I have many friends who have been going over to the former Soviet Union three or four times every year to teach with the commission an organization put together with the leadership of campus crusade but many many other Christian ministries involved with it that's why it's called the commission and a couple of my friends have been every year four or five times a year for the last 10 years to Russia and to satellite countries invited by the ministry of education it's remarkable to teach morality from an explicitly Christian perspective for the public school teachers so they'll go to a city let's say in the middle of Siberia and 400 public school teachers will be there to be trained in the 10 commandments and how to teach them to children that's something we would have a difficulty doing in this nation right now teaching the 10 commandments so explicitly but because there's such a desperate sense of the moral bankruptcy of the culture after two generations of atheistic Marxism the government itself has invited Christians evangelical Christians into Russia and into the former Soviet countries to train their school teachers in a Christian morality to be taught to their children of course God has used that to bring enormous numbers of those teachers into the kingdom of God many of them have never heard the gospel before have never been exposed to any kind of explicitly Christian teaching and it's created a wonderful opportunity a wonderful evangelistic opportunity for people who have some understanding of atheistic Marxism and a materialistic worldview to go to communicate biblical Christianity and declare it not as simply as a pragmatic answer to their moral problems but as the truth as God's truth is the way God has created the universe the way he's created us and how he's called us to live in obedience to his commandments to reflect his image and of course at the same time they're presenting the gospel of Christ than our desperate moral need and it's been an extraordinary open door but the bridge is fundamentally the bridge of a desperate sense of moral need that atheistic Marxism was lacking in any kind of moral foundation and people need that wonderful example of a bridge

or something to rebuild their personal lives and their society and God using it to bring enormous numbers of people into his kingdom so there are all sorts of bridges for the secular person too what if the person is a complete cynic or at least says they are what if the person describes themselves as a total cynic that is that they say that they believe that life is utterly observed that there is no meaning in the end that there is just what is here between birth and death and that is it and Christians are people who believe in pie in the sky by and by who don't have the courage to face up to the emptiness of existence and just get on with it whether or course people like that out there and some of you may be writing your paper for a person like that who declares themselves to be a cynic just totally skeptical so when many many young people are you listen to the music whether it's alternative music or punk rock or whether it's rap or whatever much of it is like this totally cynical group I my boys used to listen to and I really enjoy is a group called the beautiful south some of you may be familiar with and everything they ever write is just totally cynical about every aspect of a human condition well what if the person is a cynic let me give an illustration of finding a bridge I have a friend I play tennis with sometimes he's a guy in his 70s who's still very fit and he describes himself as a cynic just as a complete cynic and he loves the writings of HL Minkin who was writing a generation and a half ago and used the love to attack Christianity and ridicule it and he's involved in an HL Minkin society and he collects first editions of HL Minkin's books and he boasts about his personal cynicism and skepticism and loves to attack some of the Christians with whom he plays tennis some time to time for just being unrealistic and stupid and not having the courage to face up to the absurdity of life and so on he likes to poke fun and some of the guys I know he played tennis with for years occasionally they'll invite him to church and been very friendly to him or to some Christian meeting and he just rubbishes them when they do of course I'm not coming to that stuff and so you know just in meeting him just praying about how to communicate him you know just observing his life oh here's a man he's been married for 55 years and happily sir mostly who adores his children and doves on his grandchildren and when it comes to his family he's not a cynic at all the things that really matter to him at that point he's thoroughly in touch with the world that God made with the way that he is made in God's image he's not a cynic where it really matters to him the way we might express it as this and you remember me using this adding these things to this picture at the beginning of the semester he's raising his hands giving his praise bowing his knee to this world of cynicism the absurdity of human existence there are no rational answers to human questions at all that make sense of life but all the time he's got his hand back here in God's world and whether things really matter to him he clings to those and he's not a cynic everyone's always got that point of inconsistency you remember Shay for talking about this in his book that you had to read earlier in the semester where are they still where are they living in a way which is totally inconsistent with their own understanding and own professed beliefs that's your bridging point and so I said to him well and I won't use his name but I said well let's call him Tom well Tom you know your cynicism sounds really brave and courageous the way you express it but you know what I've observed as I've got to know you over this past few months is you know for the things that really matter to you you're not a cynic at all just look at your marriage at the way you talk about your children the way you tell us about your grandchildren and the things they're doing yeah you're not cynical at in the slightest where things are important to you he's not cynical about business either he's in a very successful and prosperous businessman but well where where where there are things that you treasure you don't allow your cynicism to intrude for a moment that's not what you really think and it absolutely blew him away now I was doing two things at the same time one was to establish a bridge the other was to challenge him and which we'll talk about probably get there next week sometime but you know he was absolutely blown away and he said I really want to talk about these things some more and from that point on he stopped rubbishing his friend's Christianity completely of the first time he started thinking seriously about the possibility of God's existence because what I went on to then say of course these things that you really treasure are indeed beautiful they're wonderful thanks but they exist because we live in a world that God has made he is the father from whom every family and heaven on earth is named and oh he really listened and we began to talk and now he's very respectful to Christians about Christianity he's begun to open his life up and to start to share and now I pray that God is calling him step-by-step into his kingdom but the beginning of real conversation was identifying this bridge where is the person still in touch with God's world that and it's always going to be there human beings are not demons there's going to be something which you can touch where the person's heart and mind is engaged by the truth by the reality of the way God has made them and the way he's made the world now that brings us to principle three understanding what other belief others believe then we have any questions by the way so we end up section two there okay understanding what others believe now again in the synagogue it's very evident that Paul understands his hearers we don't really need to look at that in any kind of detail as you read through the message in x 13 it's simply a masterpiece of Old Testament exposition and it's fulfillment in Christ and you find Paul deeply committed to getting alongside his fellow Jews as he says in first Corinthians 9 when I'm with the Jews I am as a Jew he's prepared to have Timothy circumcised he's prepared to take vows he thoroughly understands and is prepared to engage with the culture of his fellow Jews and of the godfairers who have joined himself to the synagogue but in Athens also we discover that Paul has made the effort to have a deep understanding of his hearers and in your notes you've got some notes in your syllabus on x 17 on Paul's areyopica's address and you'll see some of the details in there but let me just go quickly through these as we think about how Paul has made the effort to understand them as you look at x 17 one of the things you observe right away is that there are no quotations from the Old Testament it's one of the ways in which the message is so radically different from the message in x 13 but there are a couple of quotes if you look in verse 28 you'll see in your Bibles two brief passages there in quotes in verse 28 the first words are it for in him we live and move and have our being now these words and not a quotation from the Old Testament though you could certainly find biblical passages which make a very similar point but they are taken from a poem which is addressed to Zeus

and Zeus was by the Greeks and Romans Zeus is the greatest of the Greek gods or Jupiter who is considered to be the father and the greatest of all the gods and these words are taken from a poem addressed to Zeus by one of his sons Minos the poem is by a writer named Epimenides and you have this Epimenides you have this in your notes and the poem goes like this and you've got it there they fashioned a tomb for you oh holy and high the Cretans always liars evil beasts slowbellies but thou art not dead thou art of risen and alive forever for in thee we live and move and have our being that's what Paul is quoting from now you may recognize another part of the that verse that people of Crete are liars evil beasts and slowbellies Paul quotes that line in his letter to Titus in Titus chapter 1 verse 12 and there he speaks in Titus about the person who wrote it and he calls him a prophet this is one of your own a prophet said this about you about the people of Crete and he quotes this same passage from Epimenides that's the first quotation taken from a poem addressed as use the greatest of the Greek gods the second is later in verse 28 we are his offspring as some of your own poets have said we are his offspring a back quotation is from a writer named Aratus and Aratus is from Celicia and his words and Paul says here as some of your own poets have said this kind of language we are gods offspring we have been begotten by God are very common and I've given you an example of another poem in your notes addressed as use which has a similar kind of language this is from a him to Zeus and you can see it there the words are most glorious of immortal's use the many named Almighty evermore natures great sovereign ruling all by law hail to thee on thee to his meet and write that mortals everywhere should call from thee was our begotten where you're offspring hours alone of all that live and move upon the earth the lot to bear gods likeness thee will I ever chant thy power praise now those words are quite remarkable and they're very typical of the kind of poetry of Epimenade's neuratus which Paul is quoting already among the Greeks by this time there is a move towards monotheism that is to worshiping only one god and Zeus is becoming bigger and bigger in the thinking of people and the other gods less and less important Zeus thought of as the great father the Almighty one the many named one the sovereign of nature the immortal one the one who gave life to humanity we are his children his offspring we have begotten by him we bear his likeness language which Christians can readily look at and say well this isn't you know there are things here which have elements of truth about God in them and of course that's why Paul is quoting such writers not because they were Christians not because he agrees with everything they say later on in his message or through his message he's challenging other aspects of their thinking but he quotes them with approval that's what he's doing here in act 17 God did this so that man would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though he's 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 gods offspring of Paul's quoting these guys in approval oh he understands this movement in Greek thought towards this higher view of Zeus saying things about him which have elements of truth in them to their view of human persons that we are like God in some sense we have a kind of divinity about us the way where they would have expressed it that we are God's children now those again Paul's showing his understanding that's the first example here the second example is the alter to the unknown God to which Paul refers at the beginning of the message and again you've got something about this in your notes as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship verse 23 I even found an alter with this inscription to an unknown God now there's a fascinating legend about that altar or in fact they were several altars about the altars to the unknown God that were on Mars Hill and as you read this and as you think about the legend it's appropriate to assume that Paul is probably familiar with that legend and if he was it helps us see the power of his message now that legend which we find from several writers and I mentioned a couple of them they're pausanius biogenes laertes tell us this legend that at a point in the past the people of Athens had experienced the terrible pestilence and they offered sacrifices to their gods to the goddess Athenii and other gods and the pestilence continued and so they sent for epimenadays that's how the legend goes and it's interesting because Paul quotes him they sent for epimenadays and asked him for his advice because he was considered a prophet a wise person asked him for his advice as to what they should do and he said why you've offered sacrifices to the gods you know and worship I advise you to build an altar to the unknown God the God you don't know and pray to him that he will stop this pestilence and that's how the legend goes they built the altars and they prayed and made sacrifices and the pestilence stopped and so these altars are left there on Mars Hill as a memorial commemorating their deliverance now the fact that Paul refers to this altar to the unknown God and perhaps to this legend some Christians find that disturbing idea you know he says what you worship as something unknown I'm going to tell you about and some people find that idea disturbing they find it disturbing because they think this means that Paul is somehow approving of pagan worship and sacrifice and practice and of course he's not Paul is not approving of pagan ignorance and pagan sacrifice and pagan worship Paul knows and believes that there is only one true God but he also knows and this is very important Paul also knows and we need to recognize this too as you talk to people that every blessing that any human being enjoys comes from God whether they worship him or not whether they know him or not if he is thoroughly unknown to them every blessing that every human being enjoys comes from God there is no other giver of good gifts we would call this God's common grace the Psalms speak about this in many places that God cares for everything that he has made he is the one who makes the water throw flow down the hills and give life to the earth he is the one who brings the seasons and of course this is precisely what Paul says if you turn back to Acts 14 verse 17 in his words to the pagans in the city of Listera who are wanting him to make a sacrifice to him he says this in verse 15 we are bringing you good news telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God the one who made heaven and earth the sea and everything in them in the past he's led all nations go their own way yet he has not left himself with that testimony that is a word exactly the same a legal term testimony witness evidence he has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons or he's shown kindness he's saying to Athenians by stopping this pestilence for you all good gifts come from God he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy in other words you may worship your idols you may worship your gods Athena or whoever else it is Zeus Hermes here in Acts 14 you may worship them and regard them as the giver of good gifts but every good gift you actually have comes from the one true God the creator of heaven and earth that's what Paul is saying the God you worship is unknown I am going to make known to you every gift that anyone ever enjoys in this life actually comes from God of course it does you know whatever false belief whatever idolatry fills a person's heart the gifts they have come from God anything good which they enjoy is God's gift to them and is intended by him to be a testimony witness to his existence and to his goodness to his gracious care for the human race that's exactly what Paul's saying in Acts 14 and it's his point in Acts 17 as well now that's a second thing the altar to the unknown God a third is that there are other possible illusions here as well and again you've got the senior notes in verse 24 where Paul says the God who made the world and everything in it that expression in Greek is almost exactly the same as some words in Plato's dialogue the Timaeus and later on in verse 27 where he says that God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him those words are also very similar to some words of Plato's and certainly those ideas are present in Plato all over the place that's a third example fourth example of Paul's understanding is in verse 25 God is not served by human hands as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else now earlier on in this account in verse 18 Luke tells us that there are epicureans and stoic philosophers disputing with Paul who are listening to him as he speaks epicureans and stoics now in verse 25 where Paul says God is not served by human hands as if he needed anything those are precisely the views of the epicureans they believe that God needs nothing from humanity he's not dependent on us he doesn't need the sacrifices and offerings that we give him oh he is totally lack does not need what we have to offer and so Paul is referring here of course this is true about epicureans would have happily expressed their views and the second half of that verse he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else it's exactly what the stoics would have said the second group that I mentioned here and now this is true all the way through this message Paul if you like is constantly showing his understanding of the thinking of the people to whom he's speaking just exactly as he does in the synagogue where the message is a thorough exposition of Old Testament texts with which here is a thoroughly familiar in the same way here Paul is demonstrating his thorough familiarity with the thinking of these people to whom he's speaking he's constantly ringing bells in their heads if you like to put it that way that's what he's doing oh he's simply demonstrating what he says I become all things to all people oh he's showing himself thoroughly familiar with their ideas now let's think about those for ourselves today come back to the gospels in a moment sometimes evangelism is taught as if it were not necessary to make the effort to understand the person or the group of people to whom he was speaking you know I've heard people teaching evangelism who have said this now all we need to do is simply proclaim the abc of the gospel Christ died for you you were a sinner repentant believe in him that's all we need to do whoever the audience is whoever the person is I've again I've heard someone express it this way you don't need to bother with what people believe just preach the gospel you don't have to be concerned with what they think conversion is only a matter of the will or the way one evangelist this is back in Britain put it he was leading a crusade an evangelistic crusade at one of our universities and meeting with the people who were going to talk to the unbelievers afterwards and he said this them ignore the mind and strike for the heart ignore the mind and strike for the heart in other words you don't need to spend any time answering their questions making an effort to understand what they think all you've got to do is preach the gospel and the Holy Spirit will do the rest now that sounds very spiritual now it's just the message of the gospel and the power of the spirit you don't need to engage yourself with the person to spend time thinking or trying to discover what they believe what they think etc but that is not what we are taught in the New Testament of the New Testament does not encourage us to be lazy about the people whom we meet lazy about what they think even if we think we've got spiritual reasons for it it's more you know it shows more trust in the Holy Spirit not to make an effort to understand what people think but that's not what God tells us to do it's clearly not what Paul is doing here in Acts 17 and again let me give you an illustration as I think about my friends who have worked in the former Soviet Union for the past 10 or 11 years going over there over and over again with the commission now that ministry discovered something at first they thought they could simply go and proclaim the gospel the sort of ABC they very rapidly discovered that they weren't connecting with Russians and Ukrainians and others because they were simply now so completely unfamiliar with the biblical message that it simply didn't make sense to them so they started getting people to go over there to speak who understood something about Marxism who understood something about materialistic philosophy who were able to speak in a way that showed they understood the thinking of their heroes and God started blessing that ministry extraordinarily

let me use another example when Schaeffer moved to Switzerland in 1948 he was a pastor here in St. Louis some of you will know where his church was he was the pastor of Covenant Church which is out here on ballast road that church was at that time and the church building is still there down on the corner of Union and Enright in the city that's where he was a pastor and that's where he lived in that area and where he ministered when he was here in 1948 God called him to go to Europe and he lived in Europe in Switzerland from 1948 really up until his death though in the last few years he was spending half the year in Rochdemannisota because he was getting cancer treatment there at the Mayo clinic but basically he spent the rest of his life in Europe apart from more his traveling when he got to Europe in 1948 he discovered that much evangelism was missing the mark and failing to communicate with people already by that time the vast majority of people in Western Europe had absolutely no knowledge of the Bible and the culture everywhere in Western Europe by that time was totally post-Christian it was not possible to begin with the message you are a sinner Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament I can prove it to you repent and believe in him now that was a sermon Paul could preach in any synagogue there's nothing wrong with the message it's true it's true Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament I can demonstrate this look at how his life and his death and resurrection fulfill these promises that's what Paul says in the synagogue oh you were a sinner you haven't kept the law of Moses repent and put your trust in him he will save you his substitutionary death is sufficient he rose from the dead for your justification now of course that is the good news of the gospel but in a context where people have no familiarity with the Bible it's not the only good news of the gospel and where you have to begin is somewhere else that's what the people who went on the commission to Russia discovered you couldn't begin at that point you had to begin with the existence of God with who God is and the moral nature of the universe as it's created by God I would you you had to challenge the most foundational ideas of atheistic Marxism now in the same way in Western Europe when Shaefer went there in 1948 the good news begins just as it does for the Athenians and Athens with the proclamation of the existence of God of who God truly is and of who we truly are as human persons that's where the good news begins it doesn't begin with the person of Christ it's certainly climaxes with the person of Christ but the good news begins with who God is and that this is a meaningful universe for me and I told you my own story earlier for me as an unbeliever and this was true for many of the people Shaefer encountered in Western Europe from 1948 onwards the good news began with the fact that the universe is meaningful instead of absurd that's why as I said to you the book of Ecclesiastes is still my favorite book in the Bible because it addresses that question of the absurdity of the human condition which is shaped two generations now of people in Western Europe and is shaping the whole of the younger generation almost here in the United States at the moment but the good news of the gospel begins with the fact that there are answers that this is a meaningful universe that life does make sense because God exists and God has made himself known that's why Shaefer calls his book he is there and he is not silent now God is there and he's spoken that is where the good news of the gospel begins of course the message of Christ's death and resurrection and the challenge to repentance and faith needs to be proclaimed it is the good news of the gospel but the fact that God exists and he has made us in his image and this is a moral universe and that there's an answer to the problem of evil and a resolution to the problem of suffering those also are fundamental elements of the good news of the gospel which need to be proclaimed the history is going somewhere this is not just an absurdity that's happening just a kind of play that's going on which is going to die out with the death of the solar system of that Christ is coming back and he is going to reign and make everything new your history is actually going somewhere you know all these things are the good news of the gospel

I am not saying for one moment so don't misunderstand me that there is anything adequate about the message you know Christ is the son of God he died for you repent and believe in him of course there's nothing wrong or inadequate with that but it's not the whole gospel the gospel begins where Genesis one begins in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and that's why Paul speaks that way to the people in Lestra where we're calling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them the living God who provides and cares for the whole human race who gives joy to your hearts and crops in their seasons and the same when he's in Athens Paul talks about who God is who we are as persons made in his likeness and the moral nature of the universe the other way to put this simply is it's absolutely essential that we do our homework when we're talking to people it's just bone idol to meet somebody and not make the effort to get to know them and find out what they think but just think well I can just tell them ABC and that's then I fulfilled my obligation as a Christian and if they don't response well they're not ripe fruit so I will just pass by that's not how God has treated you that's not what the incarnation is about of Christ did not yell from heaven ABC he became incarnate among us and that's really what all these things I'm saying are you know a way of beginning to do this in our own lives that we make the effort to get alongside people to be with them to understand them so that when we speak the truth what we say is like an apple of gold in a setting of silver that is it really is appropriate to who this person is and where they are I used earlier for you the example which is an astonishing example to some of William Carey the apostle to India as he's described the founder of the modern missionary movement not simply preaching the gospel and translating the Bible into the language of the people but making a thorough study of Hindu scriptures and even translating them into the everyday language of the people he wanted to understand the people to whom he was going I remember being an India myself and meeting some people there who've been missionaries there for many years and we had a day off from the meetings where I was speaking and I asked if I could go to this city Rishikesh which was nearby which is one of Hinduism's most holy cities filled with temples and now the missionary responded well I've never been there I've been here for 30 years I have no intention of going I don't know no anything about that but how can you communicate God's word faithfully to people unless you're prepared to understand them Paul went around and look carefully at people's objects of worship he made the effort to understand them or to put it simply Paul did his homework Paul did his homework it is not more honoring to the Holy Spirit to think that it's not important to get to know what people think any more than it's more honoring to the Holy Spirit for you to preach a sermon which you haven't prepared if you said that to somebody well I never bothered to prepare my sermons I just pray the Holy Spirit will give me his words you wouldn't last long as a pastor of the church would throw you out pretty fast because they said that's not spiritual at all that's just actually lazy that's an excuse for not presenting yourself to God as a workman approved as Paul challenges Timothy to do rightly understanding and communicating the word of truth and that's why you hear it seminary because you know you need to understand God's word you know you need to you need to communicate it now one of the other beauties coming back to this diagram of this diagram and it's very important to recognize this is you and I are in the same position so that we may alter this diagram a little bit think of the way the apostle John puts it little children keep yourself from idols he's writing to Christians and many other challenges in the New Testament to us not to worship idols Jesus you cannot worship God and mammoth and turn away from covetousness the apostle Paul says because covetousness is idolatry now you and I find ourselves between two worlds as well we have bad on each the Lord we are offering him praise and we have our eyes turned to him but all of us you and I constantly have our hands taking things from the world of unbelief around us all of you struggle with idolatry every one of us does of all sorts you all struggle with the idolatry of money if you told me it's no problem to you at all well I wouldn't I wouldn't believe you I just say you don't know your own heart at all you you can't live in this culture without having materialism be an idol another idol we all struggle with is we believe that we have a right to the pursuit of our own personal happiness that's part of the foundations of this country and the way we think about ourselves but that is an idol to live for my own happiness god promises me happiness but as I submit to him he gives us everything for our enjoyment the scripture says but I am called to worship him to love him to adore him to serve him even though all my happiness gets taken away in this life we we are not promised that everything's going to be smooth in this fallen world some of you struggle with these things you have members of your own family struggles yourself with health with cancer with all kinds of difficulties or I cannot live for the pursuit of my own happiness are we all bow to idols of one kind or another so when we seek to understand people and when we seek to build bridges we need to recognize that we don't speak from a position of superiority but as those who also are wrestling with these same challenges that dwell in the hearts of those to whom we speak so commit yourself to understanding to understanding the mind and understanding the heart we already spoke earlier about Jesus but as you look at Jesus encounters with people let's say like the rich young ruler who comes to him whose story is recorded for us in Luke's gospel or the expert in the law who comes to Jesus with his question what must I do to inherit eternal life you remember I spoke about how Jesus asks questions now he asks questions for two reasons two fundamental reasons one he asks questions because he desires to know and to understand what's in a person's heart and in their mind what's shaping their life the knowledge of people did not come automatically to Christ he's truly human he had to grow in wisdom he wasn't born with an instant knowledge of everything in the universe he grew in wisdom he's truly human as well as truly God it's difficult we can't get our minds around that we simply have to affirm both of these things his humanity is genuine he says he doesn't know when the second coming is going to be the sun doesn't know how do you get your mind around that this he's God I can't get my right I don't try to get my mind around that this is oh god is more wonderful than I imagine than any of us can begin to imagine but Jesus asks questions so that he may know and he asks questions to help people understand themselves that's one of the things some of you will have discovered in your contacts with the people you're writing your letter to that the very process of the discussions you've been having with them will help them become much clearer about themselves what matters to them what they believe what's shaping their life and that's what Jesus is doing he's helping people to understand the idols of their own heart remember I quoted Schaeffer on this he said if I've just got an hour with somebody I spend the first 55 minutes asking them questions so that in the last five minutes I can say something which really speaks directly to them I can speak with understanding now for many of you as you write your paper for someone you know I encouraged you earlier in the semester to do this it's appropriate to ask certainly of some people not of all but you know is there a book you know is there somebody's teaching which is important to you which has shaped your life which has shaped your understanding and then go and read it so that's what Paul had done in Athens he knew what these people thought he had really made the effort to do his homework he stayed up at night I'm sure he did making an effort to understand what they thought so that he could speak words which made real sense to them which spoke to where they were now you find Jesus constantly doing this in the gospels of Jesus speaks to the teachers of the law already by the age of 12 he has done his homework so well that he is able to discuss with the teachers of the law in the temple and they are amazed that his understanding he worked hard to do that he's truly human and you find this all the way through the gospels Jesus with a wonderful grasp of just exactly where his hearers are and so he speaks with understanding to them but with these with country people with fishermen and farmers oh Jesus understands them you know he has made the effort and of course you all recognize this oh Christ is your high priest he is the one who knows you intimately he understands you what an encouragement that is to you and he knows your heart he knows the issues you struggle with he knows your sorrows it's exactly what Hebrews says when it talks about the priest that of Christ he has been tempted in every way like you are yet without sin he knows the weaknesses that you wrestle with and it's a very great encouragement to you to know there's somebody who understands you completely because you can take anything to him but you see the same is true at our level with one another when you go to somebody to confide in them you go to them because you know that they're already beginning to understand you you know that you can trust them

to understand you to make the effort that they won't just when you come to them say well this is the answer to your problem now some of you guys have discovered with your wives that's not what you need to do if they pour their heart out to you and you say well I learned in class the day that this is the answer to your problem and you're likely to to get a rude response yeah because that's not what they're asking for yeah with simple answer they're asking for understanding but you may be effort to listen and to sympathize and be genuinely understanding of course we recognize as we relate to one another is believers that God calls us to understand each other to spend the effort to get to know each other so that when we do say something to somebody it isn't like rubbing salt in a wound or saying peace where there is no peace or healing somebody's wounds lightly these are words of real comfort addressed to this individual in the struggles that they are having now in exactly the same way we are called to understand unbelievers to understand what's going on in their minds to understand the devotions of their heart to understand the things that they treasure that matter to them so that when we speak now we speak words of genuine wisdom to them this is pleasing to God of course the Holy Spirit is the one who converts people I can't convert anybody but God calls me to build wisely he calls me to commit myself to understanding to be a Jew to the Jew and a Greek to the Greeks etc so if you're writing a paper for somebody who's a Muslim read the Quran understand them remember I said to you one of the things I want you to do in this paper is to say back to the person what they believe what's shaping their life in a way that they can recognize themselves and be pleased with what you've said so that you're not representing a caricature well I certainly don't believe that and that's a misrepresentation of what I think don't do that to people don't do that to people it's this is the calling of Christ to really incarnate the gospel which means to get alongside people to understand their minds and understand their hearts