The Great Mystery

How can we best start a faith conversation with someone who doesn't know Jesus?

What would you say if you wanted to share the gospel with someone who does not believe?

There are actually many answers because it depends on the situation and the person. This is why my advise always is to pray and build a relationship or have a relationship with the person. If you are to share Jesus with someone, know that the Holy Spirit will be their with you.

There are many different faith traditions in the world. There are just as many Christian theologies and ideologies as well. How would you handle a debate or even just a question on what you believe? Would you be able to defend what you believe in an open and friendly manner? Would you want to?

Pray and Read Acts 17:16-34

Acts 17:16–34 NRSV

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. 22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Paul goes into the big city, not Rome, he has already been there, Athens. I remember studying about Greek and Roman gods in elementary school. It absolutely fascinated me. Each one held their own power and control of something.

My father and step-mom took me around that time to the Parthenon in Nashville and I got to see the 40 ft tall statue of Athena, daughter of Zeus. The statue took my breathe away.

Then when I got to college, I took Philosophy 101 with Dr. Hefner and found my passion, even changing my major. I loved the open discussions and the questions that we were free to ask in the class and how our ideals could be challenged. I still believe that it is okay to have an honest debate and to challenge what you believe to be true.

So here is Paul in Athens. First he goes to a safer place, not completely safe of course, but one that would at least let him get his bearings. He preached Jesus to those in the Jewish synagogues and then went into the marketplace.

This marketplace was not just a public arena where people would be shopping and meeting together. No, this was a place for free open discussion regarding the multitude of ideas and philosophical thoughts. Anyone with a little outspoken intelligence would challenge the beliefs of another for fun and for prestige.

Paul had the rare experience of no one being offended by what he believed. Yet this made his witness even harder. Instead of proclaiming the fulfilled prophecies and saving grace of Jesus Christ with those who had at least heard of Him before, Paul was up against peoples’ pagan beliefs that left them commenting to him, “Yeah, so what?” Their gods had done miraculous things in stories that have been told multiple times and in different ways.

One thing did trouble them though, that was the Resurrection. Not only was the Christian God a human which was not normal, but one that was killed by the Romans and by His own people. Then, He rose up from the dead. Death was final to the Athenians. Yet, Paul is telling them that there is more to life after death.

He better be able to back up his beliefs with facts. So how does he do this?

He related to them by finding a common ground in our beliefs. Paul notes that they believe in an “unknown god.” Paul says that he knows God. Paul knows the God who, as they have written on the stone statue, “Acts 17:28

Acts 17:28 NRSV

28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

Paul did not preach against their beliefs but challenged them by appealing to what they thought and how they live. Paul offered his own understanding and had a dialogue with them about his beliefs, and they listened.

When you look at the community around you, and you see people who believe differently then you do, do you judge them and think they are not good people therefore you can not share with them? Do you wish you had the courage and the opportunity to share Jesus with them? Do you think that it is okay if they don’t belief and you don’t have a place to challenge their beliefs?

Do you know enough about your own beliefs that you would be able to have an honest discussion with someone of another faith tradition? If you don’t think so, then I want to challenge you to practice the means of grace more consistently. Pray without ceasing, read the whole Bible and yes this will take time but you have to start somewhere. Study with other believers and most importantly through prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Know what you believe and way. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions or to question things that one another says for the Bible says that iron sharpens iron!

If we truly believe that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and that He is coming back soon, then we must work now to build one another up and proclaim truth in love now before it is too late.

In the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.