Biblical Apologetics - Application

Introduction

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 KJV 1900

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Body

1 Corinthians 1:23 KJV 1900

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

There are two sermons in the bible that are very different from each other.

The first is found in Acts 2, and here we find Peter preaching right after the Holy Ghost fell in the upper room to a very Jewish population.T

he second in Acts 17, where Paul is preaching to the Greeks at Aeropegus.

Acts 2:14–36 KJV 1900

14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Peter quoted scripture

Joel’s prophesy was used to explain what the people were witnessing.

Quoted Psalms to explain that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah which was to come.

Pointed to experience

Pointed to the miracles and signs that were done by the hand of Jesus to show that God Himself confirmed Him as the Christ.

That God resurrected Jesus according to the scriptures

Made the altar call

Told them plainly they were guilty of slaying their Messiah.

Acts 17:22–31 KJV 1900

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Paul didn’t start with scripture, but with the truth his listeners had.

Using that springboard, he presents the Christian position.

God created everything (v24-26)

They understood that if this was true, then He is in charge, and writes the laws.

If that is true, then they needed to find out what those laws were and adhere to them.

He states that God made all peoples and nations of the earth.

They are all of “one blood”. We all have the same ancestor - Adam.

God is sovereign and sets the boundaries of nations and men, and their allotted time on earth.

He goes on to state that this creator, this all-powerful, sovereign God, can be discovered.

That we can feel after God, and we can find Him. We can know Him!

That God is very close to us, all the time.

He supports the Christian position using references from their own culture (v28)

He concludes that, because of these truths, God’s Word is supreme and must be obeyed. (v30-31)

He concluded and makes the altar call (v30-31)

Why the different formats?

Because the listeners were different.

The cultures were different.

The Jews already believed in God as their creator, and they believed that His Word was supreme. The Greeks did not!

With the Jews, all they needed was a good bible study. The Greeks, however, needed something much more fundamental.

Our culture today is becoming more and more “Greek” and less and less “Jewish”.

These are to large groups of people. What about when we’re talking with our co-worker, or a family member?

Proverbs 26:4–5 KJV 1900

4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.

In a nutshell, we will prove the veracity of scripture by demonstrating the impossibility of the contrary.

There are two steps presented here

Answer not a fool according to his folly.

We cannot adopt the unbeliever’s position or belief system or we will end up in the exact same place as him.

The fallacy of neutrality.

We state that we do not accept the unbeliever’s truth claims.

We cannot accept them because they contradict scripture.

Any statement that contradicts scripture must be rejected out of hand.

Don’t succumb to the “open mind” fallacy.

Answer a fool according to his folly.

We continue by saying “but let’s say for argument’s sake that your position is in fact true. How do you explain ...”

We now ask the unbeliever questions and force them to answer them according to his worldview.

The unbeliever will invariably try to borrow your worldview to argue against your worldview.

Ex. “I know plenty of good people and they’re not Christian!”

Basically, we’re going to look for two things:

Look for Arbitrariness

Ex. Bible probably written by monks; no research done though)

Ex. Humanism (There is nothing in existence except those things we can see, feel, taste, touch, etc. No supernatural element to reality)

Look for Inconsistencies

Ex. Believing in determinism while at the same time wanting to hold someone accountable for his actions).

Ex. Relativism (truth is unknowable, there is no such thing as truth).

Conclusion

Let’s head back to our scripture text

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 KJV 1900

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Today, Christians must live out their new lives as those who have been made a new creature, complete with a new mind, new presuppositions, a new worldview.

The old man id dead, along with his old belief systems and ways of viewing the world.

We are to completely embrace our new lives, and completely forsake our old ones.

We are adopting an entire worldview, NOT simply adding new information to our old ones.

We are called to be Christ-like. God wants us to powerfully and effectively demonstrate Him to this world. He wants us to think like He thinks. To speak like He speaks. To see and to feel as He does.