The Church Is Not in Kansas Anymore.

Acts 17:22–34 NIV

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am 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 human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any 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 human 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 everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Introduction: How many get the reference of my sermon Title this morning?

15-We Can Find Ourselves in a Foreign Culture.

16-Trace the Story of Acts 15:36 - 18:22

Point out that Paul & Silas went to his home area, and Barnabas and Timothy to Cyprus his home area.

When Paul received the Call to go to Macedonia, It must of been like travelling to a different world. Asia Minor is where he lived, now he is going to Macedonia.

17-He encounters different Philosophies.

Stoicism – An Ethical Approach of aligning to nature, subduing emotions under logic and reason, Deterministic, so no matter what be happy which is about not desiring, but letting fate happen, monistic in that Nature is God, when we die we get swallowed up into the divine knowledge/reason that is God. Nature is passive, reason is the active forces.

Epicureanism – The goal of life is pleasure (meaning absence of fear and pain), Atomist materialism everything including gods are tied to the material, forces holding human material and soul together do not last forever, God does not intervene in the world, there is nothing but human free will, God, or gods are indifferent towards humans.

Different Religions - Idolatry

- We are not going to a different country, but some times it might feel like a different country is coming to us.

The Spirit of the Age - Different cultures and sub-cultures - Generational. It’s like we are swimming in it and don’t always know it.

If things don’t always make sense to us, what is going on in our world, is its because of the Spirit of the Age, and to share the Gospel well, we need to know something about it.

18-Cross-Cultural Evangelism Learns the Other World View.

1. Eventually, Paul made it from Syria into Thessalonica and then Athens. Athens was a polytheistic spiritual center for the Greeks. There were so many idols everywhere in the city (17:16) that Paul did not limit himself to the synagogue but also went to the marketplace to engage with philosophers (v. 17). Paul caught their attention, and they took him to speak at Mars Hill (the Areopagus) (v. 22). This was a place name which was also the name of a governing council. The New Bible Commentary compares it to “Washington,” because we may reference Washington in different ways too (Gordon Wenham, Alec Motyer, D. A. Carson, eds., New Bible Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1994] Acts 17:16–17).

And he changes the way he presents the Gospel. It is not the same as his presentation of the Gospel in Synagogue like in Psidion Antioch where he summarized the Promises of the O.T. up to David that pointed to Jesus.

Paul is alluding to the O.T. the whole time without quoting it, but quotes their authors to illustrate the already Biblical story he is sharing. - He adapts the message to their sensitivity.

1. Before a missionary goes to a new place, they study the culture. Why? To learn everything they can about the place in order to love the people there better and share the gospel with them. This involves learning about the food, the customs, and the language. An effective missionary should be a cultural expert in the people they are going to serve.

In order to be missionaries in our Community we are also called to be students of the changing culture around us.

Post-Modern - The Rejection of Narratives that explain the world as a critique to Modernism

The Modern Narrative

Post-Modernism then believes that the only story there is, is the one you create. There is no objective truth per-se. If you have heard. Be True to Yourself, Live “your” Truth. I need to find who I am. This is the Spirit of the Age.

“In addition, many people today suffer from what could be called “the Zelig syndrome.” Faced with the daunting challenge of creating oneself ever anew—of constructing a self in a world largely devoid of familiar rules or normative guideposts—they stumble to achieve some

semblance of a self. Like the main character in Woody Allen’s “Zelig”—who literally changed

shape and identity depending on his personal circumstances—postmodern nomads metamorphosize, chameleon-like, into a nearly endless string of identities to conform to the

latest fashion or to cope with the unceasing flux. The postmodern self, in short, is an “infinitely

malleable self” who takes on the constructed identities proffered by the carnival of contemporary culture.” (Theology, 2021)

Incidently, I personally see a connection to Post-Modernism and the phenomenon of “non-binary” prounouns. If you wonder why that is happening, is because we live in a ever-increasing post-modern world.

19-Cross-Cultural Evangelism Connects the Gospel to the Other World View.

Maybe some agree

Others of you are anxious

And it possibly has to do with our age. - The older the generation, the more modern you likely are, the younger, the more likely post-modern you are.

Paul would have been more on the anxious side based on his reaction in verse 16. - Despite this, it does not appear that he let his anger show, rather he calmly laid out the Gospel by...

20-Building Bridges

Finding Common Ground

Paul connects with the Athen’s need to have their basis covered - Unknown god.

Paul quotes their poets

With Post-Moderns we can connect on two levels

All humans have dignity and worth. - While the Post-Modern is creating that themselves, for Christians it is because humans are created by God as his representatives on Earth - Image Bearers. Life is a gift.

We agree that the Modern Story creates problems.

21-Challenging Assumptions

Paul - That there stories miss the account to the one true God who made everything.

That our bodies matter - Resurrection.

With Post-Moderns - There is a Grand Story - Your leadership of your own life and self-identification will not save you. It is freeing to allow God to define you, to live grateful of his gift of life, and to take the pressure of leading your own life to God. Finally, God is the Truth.

22-Encouraging Cross-Cultural Evangelism.

Two experiences this past week.

Jogging in the Neighborhood - Middle Schooler - Hey Mr. White - Breaking Bad.

Kid who wore Pete the Cat hat. - talked to parents about what that is.

Stay Curious My friends, -

Learn the longings of this age

Share the Gospel in a way that builds bridges, but also challenges.