You can download a pdf file here
Acts chapters 2 and 17
When the first Christians hit the streets their methods looked deceptively simple: they just found a street corner and started shouting. But don’t be fooled, they had more sense than that. Today we are going to look at two totally different men preach the good news in two totally different cities: Peter in Jerusalem using the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ, Paul in Athens using Greek poetry to show that there may be something in this new religion.
Pentecost – the backlash!
Not everyone was impressed with the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem (13)
This is a fascinating response, these people think they are being reasonable but what they say is glib, untrue and flew in the teeth of the evidence. Nothing has changed - in thirty years of preaching the gospel in universities I can tell you that the mose intelligent people in the country do the same thing when they want to dismiss Jesus.
Something happens to intellectuals when they argue against God, they are so sure their case is self-evident that they forget to state it carefully. The result is thekind of sloppy tosh you read in Dawkins “God Delusion”or Hitchins “God is not great”. You see the same here on the day of Pentecost. This was the best the Devil could do and he has not improved in twenty centuries.
Make no mistake, reason is important, it is the faculty God has given us to work things out for ourselves and make sure no-one takes us for a ride. Rationalism, on the other hand, is a disease, a mindset that insists that reason is all we have and God must never be allowed into the picture. To a Rationalist any explanation is preferable to a spiritual one.
Jerusalem - Responding to Rationalism
Peter was not phased, instead he jumped up to explain what had happened (14-16)
His talk was not just a random sermon based on a few Old Testament passages he happened to be reading that morning. It was a considered response to the questions raised by the Rationalists in the crowd. They were saying, “It’s easy to brush this asside, they are drunk!” Peter said in reply, “Hey not so fast, let me give you some facts...” the rest of the chapter is a tour de force, so let’s pick out the key elements:
First, Peter found a point of contact: he directly addressed the skepticism of the crowd and the questions they were raising (14-16). The crowd listened because he was addressing their questions.
I became a Christian in Wales, a hotbed of traditional Christian attitudes. When I first heard people preaching the gospel I just couldn’t work out how anyone was meant to understand the relevance of the messages I heard. When I asked about it, people would read Acts 2 to me and tell me that this is what Biblical evengelism was all about.
Then a guy called Roger Forster came to our university to speak for a week. From the start he was different. He began with questions people were asking and didn’t get to the Bible until half way through his talk. The traditionalists were miffed, but he was really getting through to everyone else because he was dealing with issues they were facing.
Secondly, Peter presented evidence. I have friends who regard the Bible as a little – passé – not the sort of thing that Spirit filled people use to reach their friends. But I think it is amazing that Peter was so fuli of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that he quoted not one, but three passages of the Bible and took time to explain what they meant! He was trying to answer their questions by showing them that Jesus was really the Christ.
That is not all, he talks about Jesus miracles (22) and the resurrection (32). An essential method in evengelism is rubbing people’s noses in the facts! What Peter is doing is called apologetics, giving good reasons for what he believes (See 1 Peter 3:15-16). Apoligetics is not saying “I am awfully sorry but I am a Christian”, it is saying, “I am a Christian because A, because B, and because C: now, why aren’t you one?” Peter tells us to give an apologia (reason) and to give it gently: but be ruthless about the facts, rub people’s noses in them!
Thirdly, Peter confronts his hearers with their responsibility and their need to turn to God (36-40). Sooner or later this call has got to come, and the people of Jerusalem were ready to respond in large numbers (41).
Finally, Peter and his friends had to follow through their proclamation of the gospel: these young disciples needed looking after and that is what happened (42). Evangelism is not the end, but the start of a process.-
Athens – capital of the Pagan world
Jerusalem was a city where only one God was in town, the one who had revealed himself in the Old Testament. The mind of one of Peter’s converts was saturated with the Old Testament. Athens, on the other hand, was overcrowded with gods from all over the pagan world (Acts 17:16). The word Paganism is usually a derogatory term: it refers to all kinds of dodgy, non-Christian religions (Latin. Paganus – a country dweller). But today the word is increasingly used by adherents of the original religions of Europe before the arrival of Christianity. The influence of Hinduism has been important here – eastern religious ideas have helped to make westerners very relaxed about excercising a pick-and-mix attitude to religions. Today the essence of Paganism is a pick-and-mix approach to religion.
Athens was the capital of pick-and-mix paganism and reaching this city would be a tough job, because these people were not aware of the truth in the way the Jews of Jerusalem were. It was a city of philosophers where the ‘truth’ was open to constant debate. Quote the Old Testament here and people would say, “Eh?”
How do you reach a pagan city?
Responding to Paganism
Peter was soaked in the religion of Jerusalem, so was Paul. But Paul had taken time to absorb the culture of Athens. He didn’t just roll up, get out his megaphone and start preaching. By the time Paul started to speak he had found a way into the minds of the Athenians (22-34). But the principles behind his approach were very similar to Peter’s.
First, paul found a point of contact, he found the stuff they were really interested in (22-23). This may surprise us in our culture. A few years ago I did a talk with the title, “What would Jesus say to James Bond?” Now, that talk really upset a few people here, someone said afterwards, “What was all that about?” Christians did not ‘get it’ at all! But ever since then, month in, month out, that talk is the most visited and listened to talk on my website – easily outstripping all the others every month.
I’ve noticed over the years that the talks I do that really hit home to pagans leave Christians cold. We are just not interested in the same things!
Second, Paul presented the evidence for Jesus. He talked about the creation (24) – not that we need to be fundamentalists, but 80% of people are unconvinced by the notion that evolution explains everything – don’t get bogged down in 7-day creationism. He talked about fate (26 - something that fascinated the Greeks). Finally, he talked about the reason for our existence (27 – that is why you are on this planet, by the way!).
Then he appeals to scripture – no, not the Bible! He quotes their own poetry (28).
Paul’s apologetics is different to Peter’s. Where peter was saying, “Let me give you three reasons for believing that Jesus is the Christ”, Paul was saying, “You know this stuff... it is in you hearts and minds already... let me just uncover it for you”. It is apologetics all the same, paul is rubbing their noses in his reasons for believing; creation, destiny, purpose and finally, resurrection (30-31).
Paul’s third point is to confront the Athenians with a decision to believe, and he brings in the resurrection to demonstrate God’s serious intention to judge the world. But Paul’s message gets a lukewarm response (32-34).
Paul had to follow through his preaching but in Athens he was helping those who were interested to continue on their journey of discovery until they found faith in Jesus (34).
Evangelism is a process: pagans need time to re-ajust to a new way of thinking. Paul needed patience and so do we!
The streets of Sunderland?
How do we reach Sunderland? By using the same approach as Peter in Jerusalem and Paul in Athens. We are thinking about this ins discussion groups this week:
What are the points of contact?
What evidence do people need to hear?
How do we confront and then make disciples of the people we mix with day by day?