Urban Evangelism and Paganism in Lystra

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Good morning, Christ Church.

My name is Anita Scribner, and I attend the El Cerrito Community Group.

Will you read with me from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 14?

In Lystra, there sat a man who was lame.

He had been that way from birth and had never walked.

He listened to Paul as he was speaking.

Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed, and called out,

Stand up on your feet.

At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Laconian language,

The gods have come down to us in human form.

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates,

because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd,

shouting,

Friends, why are you doing this?

We too are only human like you.

We are bringing the good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God,

who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

In the past, he let all nations go their own way, yet he has not left himself without testimony.

He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.

He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over.

They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.

The next day, he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples.

Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples

and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said.

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and with prayer and fasting,

committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you for that, Anita.

Good morning, Christ Church.

My name is Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here.

Will you join me in prayer as we come to hear what God has to say to us?

Father, we love you, and we are amazed at your deep love for us,

your incomprehensible, immeasurable love for us.

And Lord, we want to be people who bear witness to that love,

so show us how to do that in a place like this, the East Bay Area.

And would we do it for the glory of your name and for the good of our neighbors.

Be honored in the preaching of your word this morning, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Christ Church, we are now at the point in the story of the Christian Scriptures,

in this book of Acts, where the first multi-ethnic, predominantly Gentile-led church has boomed, right?

And this unlikely church of Antioch in Syria, just north of Israel,

has actually become a resource church, a sending church,

sharing their wealth of resources with the mother church in Jerusalem,

and then also sending out Paul and Barnabas to extend Christ's witness across the Mediterranean.

And as much as we might think it's so cool, right?

It's so cool how this Jesus movement was crossing cultural boundaries and uniting once divided peoples,

we can't ignore the real challenges, though, that this must have presented.

I want you to think about this.

Think about this.

What was the apostles' initial strategy of mission in the early church?

Their initial strategy was to go into what?

Jewish synagogues in every city.

In every city they entered, they would go first into the Jewish synagogue,

and they'd preach that Israel's longed-for Messiah was the crucified and resurrected Jesus of Nazareth,

and that he was actually the Lord Yahweh himself.

Now, surely this was a radical message for a Jewish audience to receive,

but at least they had a framework for it, right?

They had a framework to receive this kind of message.

They already had an implicit trust in the Hebrew Scriptures.

They already shared a monotheistic conception of Yahweh.

They shared a moral, ethical framework, and they had an expectation already of a Messiah.

But where do you even start with people like these?

In Acts chapter 14, in Lystra, even further north above the Mediterranean in modern-day Turkey.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

People who had never read the Jewish Scriptures,

people who believed in a whole pantheon of Greek gods,

people who believed that their own sexual activities far outside the boundaries of marriage

were actually acts of worship.

Where do you even start with people like these?

And I bring this conundrum up to us today, Christ Church,

because our situation here in the Bay Area, it's not so different.

While Paul was bringing the message of Christ to non-Jewish, pre-Christian cultures,

here in the Bay Area, we are called in the Bay to bring the message of Christ

to both Jewish and non-Jewish peoples, to both pre- and post-Christian cultures.

Gone are the days when we could safely assume some kind of, at least cultural,

Judeo-Christian background to work with when we're sharing about Jesus with a stranger.

At least here in the West, right?

We are now living in a pluralistic, international, cosmopolitan region of the world.

You know, in just my second month here serving at Christ Church back in 2018,

I remember meeting a visiting scholar from China.

I was tabling on Sproul Plaza at Cal, and I remember him saying to me,

he just came to our table, and he said,

you know, I don't know anything about Christianity,

but I'd like to learn more.

What kind of church are you?

And I kind of froze for a second,

because it took me a while to think, you know,

where do I even start?

Right before me, standing before me, was this guy,

this completely blank slate,

and I needed to take a second to think about where to even start.

And you know, it's not just my job to know where to start.

If you are a follower of Jesus, it's your job too,

and my job is to equip you to understand how to share the gospel in such a context as ours.

Because as the world is constantly changing around us,

as our culture is constantly changing around us,

it's incumbent upon us, the church,

to constantly evaluate how God's eternal word interfaces with God's ever-changing world.

And so the question that I want us to consider today is,

how does the church bear witness in a pluralistic city as diverse as ours?

Okay, how does the church bear witness to Christ in pluralistic cities as diverse as ours?

And from this early church example in Acts chapter 14,

Acts 14 · chapter mention

I want to suggest that we bear witness in at least two ways.

I had a third point.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get to the last five or six verses of this text.

So here are my two, from verses 8 to like 18.

First, we must bear witness in word and deed.

Okay?

First, we must bear witness in word and deed.

And second, we must bear witness of what is worthless and what is worthy.

All right?

So first, the church, we the church, particularly in this pluralistic context,

we must bear witness in word and deed.

Now, I honestly struggled here with how to say this, how much to say,

because the principle is extremely simple, but at the same time, super complicated.

So I'm going to do my best.

Let's look at verse 8.

Now, the very first thing we should notice is that Paul came here preaching.

He came here bearing witness to Christ in word.

This is the context in which this miraculous healing happens.

He's preaching the word of Christ.

And yet, when he sees an opportunity and looks into the eyes of a suffering human being,

lame from birth, he doesn't just see someone to convert with informational words,

but it says he looks directly at this man.

And he sees a person to love, a person to love with deeds of service.

He sees a whole person who needs a whole salvation.

You know, when it says that he saw that he had faith to be healed,

the word for healed is actually the same word as saved.

And so even as he is preaching, he does not hesitate to pause mid-sermon to bear witness,

not just to Jesus' saving words of truth, but also to Jesus' saving deeds of power.

And his witness in word is accompanied by a witness in deed.

And what does he do?

He miraculously heals this listener.

Now, to those of us who are acquainted with the New Testament scriptures,

this pattern should sound kind of familiar to us, right?

This model.

In Luke chapter 5, we have Jesus in the middle of teaching in a full house, right?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

And then, boom, a paralytic just busts through the roof, right?

And Jesus says, rise, take up your mat, and walk.

And what?

He's saved.

Then in Acts chapter 3, Jesus has now descended,

Acts 3 · chapter mention

and his followers are trying to figure out how to do church and be the people of God

while they wait for him to return, and Peter's on his way to the temple.

And on his way, he commands a lame beggar to stand up and walk,

and boom, he's saved as well.

And then what does Peter do?

He launches into a sermon to explain what happened.

See, this was the pattern of Jesus.

This was the pattern of his apostles in Jerusalem and beyond.

And this has got to be our pattern, Christ Church, as well.

This has got to be our pattern as well, bearing witness of Christ in word and deed.

But, of course, I'm aware that, you know, depending on our personalities and our dispositions,

this probably irks most of us because each of us has our own individual bents, right?

Our own individual bents toward either words or deeds.

For example, on the one hand, you know, you have right-leaning Christians,

or for you, it's right-leaning Christians,

who have tended to emphasize witnessing in word while neglecting to witness in deed.

After all, they say, how will others hear and know the good news of Christ

if we do not preach the truths and the doctrines of the faith with clear words?

Why show when we can tell?

We aren't a social services agency.

We aren't an orphanage.

We aren't a homeless shelter.

We're not a hospital.

Those are all fine and good.

But the church's distinct role is to preach Christ.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, you have your left-leaning Christians,

who have tended to emphasize witnessing in deed and to neglect witnessing in word.

After all, they say, how will others see and experience the good news of Christ

if we do not display the good fruits and the implications of the faith

with demonstrative deeds of service?

Why tell when we can show?

We're not all pastors.

We're not all preachers and theologians.

We're not all called to be teachers and evangelists.

Yes, that's good for some people in the church,

but the church, as the diversely gifted people of God,

is called to do so much more, right, than just preach.

So let me ask, who's right?

Who's right?

The Christians to the right or the Christians to the left?

Well, they're both right, right?

They're both right and yet they're both incomplete.

See, Scripture seems to talk about the church in two distinct ways.

In some instances, it speaks about the church organically,

simply as the whole people of God who are called to do everything God has called us to do,

to love God and to love our neighbor.

And yet in other instances in Scripture,

it speaks about the church as a more distinct institution,

with more distinct functions and the purpose of being a pillar of truth in the world

and organized, worshiping, even location-specific covenant community.

So this means that, yes, right-leaning Christians,

right-leaning Christians are absolutely right.

The church is an institution.

It does have a distinct role and calling to preach Christ.

So a church, you know, it might not have a specific program to serve refugees

and those seeking asylum.

It might not have a food pantry,

but that doesn't necessarily mean it's an unfaithful church.

A church that is not preaching the good news of Jesus, however,

now that is an unfaithful church,

no matter how many social services it offers.

And yet at the same time,

left-leaning Christians are absolutely right

that the church as an organism,

as the wide-ranging people of God,

we have a diverse calling to imitate Christ in a variety of ways

according to our gifts and our callings and our context.

While every single local church as an institution

must at least, at the very least,

be preaching the gospel and baptizing

and gathering around the Lord's table,

if these churches are not producing disciples

who are taught in the words of Jesus

to do everything,

everything that he commanded,

to do justice and to love mercy,

to walk humbly before their God,

to love God and neighbor in every way imaginable,

there's something off about that church.

A church that only produces Sunday worshipers

who don't engage their culture

and love their neighbors and communities

with their diversity of gifts.

A church that just preaches the gospel

in such a way that its people are not filled

with compassion for the unsheltered,

and orphans, and foster families,

and those who are differently abled,

and the many marginalized and oppressed peoples

that will always be amongst us.

Such a church is getting something miserably wrong

when it preaches a gospel that does not bear fruit

and make a movement in the city.

Faithful followers of Jesus,

the church as an institution

and as an organic people of God,

we have to bear witness of Christ in both,

in word and deed.

And this is why every Sunday here at Christ Church,

no matter what has happened in our city,

in this world, we will worship,

and we will pray,

and we will preach the truth of Christ.

And yet the burden of our entire mission of a church

does not simply rest on Sunday worship.

We want to form people,

we want to develop people

to be Monday through Saturday followers of Jesus

who are crushing it in their communities,

who are crushing it in their vocations

and in their spheres of influence,

not necessarily as, you know,

institutional reps of Christ Church East Bay,

but as the church, the church Catholic,

the people of God, followers of Christ.

And this is especially important

in a pluralistic context like ours.

It's imperative for us to witness in Christ,

to witness to Christ both in word and deed.

We can't just major on one or the other,

word or deed.

Yes, there may be a time

where it's better to witness in deed.

Yes, there may be a time

where it's better to witness in word,

but on the whole,

on the whole,

in such a diverse context as ours,

where people literally and figuratively

speak, you know,

countless cultural languages that are different,

we need to be conveying the good news of Christ

in both languages of word and deed,

to both show and tell the good news about Jesus

with the clarity of speech

and the visibility of action,

conveying to, you know,

a multiplicity of observers the truth

and the power of Christ.

So if your relationship with God,

if your relationship with God

and your outward engagement in the world

merely consists of, you know,

showing up at Project Peace

or serving at your local food bank,

then I want to challenge you

to equip yourself

to bear witness in word.

This coming fall,

we will be extending invitations

to a deeper,

more intentional mentoring

in the way of Jesus.

Let me know if you're interested.

Or just jump into Jonathan's Bavink group

or my Bavink systematic theology group.

Or maybe next time you're serving

alongside your neighbor

at your kid's school event,

serving alongside a neighbor

who doesn't know Jesus,

maybe try leading them

into a conversation about your faith

and about why Jesus means so much to you.

Try bearing witness to Christ in word.

But then if your relationship with God

and your outward engagement in the world

merely consists of, you know,

Bible reading

and getting your theology right

and getting into theological

and religious debates in person,

or maybe you're that person

who does it online on those forums,

I want to challenge you

to equip yourself

to bear witness in deed as well.

Put Project Peace Days of Service

on your calendar.

Chat with Sharon Pipkin

and Shea Gilbert

and our guest preacher

in a couple weeks

from Foster the Bay

to learn about how we can care

about foster families.

Join Catherine St. Clair and myself

and Bill Barnes and some others

on our Care Portal team,

which is going to directly

connect us to the needs

of hurting families

in Alameda County.

Get excited about this initiative

that Jonathan and Denise Yon

are launching

to help our professionals

integrate their faith

and their work.

See, Christchurch,

this is the kind of faithful witness

that our city requires.

Word and deed,

show and tell,

truth and power,

knowledge and experience.

Because if we ever only witness

in word but not deed,

no one's ever going to listen

to the truth of Christ on our lips.

And if we ever only witness

in deed but not word,

no one will ever understand

the power of Christ

in our lives.

So now with the remainder

of our time,

let's move on from the mode

of bearing witness

to the content

of bearing witness

in a city as diverse as ours.

We must bear witness

both in word and deed

and we must bear witness

of the worthless

and the worthy.

Look with me at verse 11.

When the crowd saw

what Paul had done,

they shouted in the Lycanian language,

the gods have come down

to us in human form.

Barnabas they called Zeus

and Paul they called Hermes

because he was the chief speaker.

The priest of Zeus,

whose temple was just

outside the city,

brought bulls and wreaths

to the city gates

because he and the crowd

wanted to offer sacrifices

to them.

Okay, so Paul,

he's bearing witness

to Christ in word and deed,

and the crowd goes wild.

In their minds,

this is something

only a god can do

and the only gods

that they knew about

were the Greek gods.

So they assumed

that Barnabas is Zeus

and that Paul is Hermes

and they prepared

to sacrifice bull offerings

to these two men.

But this is the exact opposite

of what Paul and Barnabas want.

They don't want

themselves to be worshipped.

They don't want Zeus

and Hermes to be worshipped.

They want Jesus to be worshipped.

So verse 14 says,

But when the apostles,

Barnabas and Paul,

heard of this,

they tore their clothes

and rushed out into the crowd

shouting,

Friends,

why are you doing this?

We too are only human like you.

We are bringing you good news,

telling you to turn

from these worthless things

to the living God.

Now again,

they aren't in a Jewish synagogue.

They're in a completely

different context here

in Leicester, right?

So I want us to notice

this approach that they take

in this place

where they didn't have

the same framework

that they were operating out of

with the people

they're speaking to.

I want us to notice

this approach.

They don't start with,

you know,

they don't start with

sinners,

fools.

They don't say,

stop sinning.

They don't say,

stop worshipping

your false gods.

You're breaking the Torah.

Did you know that?

You're breaking the Torah.

You're breaking the first

of the Ten Commandments.

Shame on you.

No.

What do they say?

They say,

friends.

Friends.

They approach these

pagan worshippers

as friends.

And they engage them

not by clobbering them

over the head

with their Christian doctrines

and telling them

how wrong they are,

but they simply ask a question.

Why?

Why are you doing this?

I mean,

can you imagine

if the history

of Christian outreach

was filled with this

kind of more gentle

spirit?

Why?

Can you tell me about that?

Like,

what if we treated those

who don't know Jesus,

what if we treated them

as friends,

right?

As rational human beings,

what if we pursued

good and deep conversations

with those who were

religious others

in our lives

simply using the

why question?

Not seeking to clobber

those who worship

differently than us,

but to genuinely

understand.

Understand those

who are different

than us.

Like,

oh,

you worship Zeus.

Huh.

Huh.

Well,

you tell me about that.

Why?

Why do you worship Zeus?

How do you choose

in your great pantheon

of gods

who you worship?

What do you value?

Or how might this look

in our present-day context?

Where we've,

you know,

we've traded our

Greco-Roman pantheon

for the unholy trinity

of sex,

money,

and power,

haven't we?

Bowing down

to the altars

of approval

and appetite

and ambition.

What if we had deep

and meaningful

conversations

with our friends

and our families

exploring the gods

that we are all

tempted to worship?

Hey,

you seem really,

really invested.

You seem to have

really invested

a lot of your time

and your talent

and your treasure

in this or that,

right?

Your career,

your partner,

your children,

your hobby,

that life goal

that you have,

this lifestyle

that you want.

Can you tell me

about that?

Do you feel

it's been worth it?

Why do you value

what you value?

And how's that

working out for you?

Simple questions.

Get to know you questions.

See,

Paul and Barnabas,

they didn't need

to convince

their religious others

that the Torah

was God's word

right off the bat.

They didn't need

to do that.

They didn't need

to convince others

that they were sinners

for worshiping other gods

and neither do we.

That's not the first move

that we need to make.

As we go about

bearing witness to Christ

here in the Bay Area,

a powerful first step

is just to genuinely seek

to understand

the why question

amongst the people

we're engaging.

And what I found

is that as we listen

to others answer

that why question,

why do you value

what you value?

It opens doors.

It opens doors

for us to share

our answer

to the why question.

Why do I worship Jesus

above all else?

Look right here.

After Paul and Barnabas

ask why,

they're unafraid

to enter their own beliefs

into the arena, right?

They're unafraid

to enter their own good news

into this pluralistic

sea of ideas.

Hey, I'm curious

why you worship

Zeus and Hermes,

why you worship

what you worship.

And I'd also love

to share with you

why I worship

the one that I worship.

Verse 15,

friends,

why are you doing this?

We too are only human

like you.

They establish

common ground

and then they go ahead

and they speak their truth.

We are bringing you

our good news

telling you

to turn from these

worthless things

to the living God.

That's all they do.

Now, it does sound

a little bit offensive

though, right?

And that's because

it kind of is.

It kind of is.

But at the end of the day,

no one can be

completely neutral.

No one's going to be

completely neutral

at the end of the day.

If you're convinced

that one thing is true,

then you will necessarily

disagree with claims

that refute

what you're convinced of.

And after all,

if Barnabas,

not Barnabas,

sorry,

if Paul and Barnabas'

news to share

was the truth,

then it truly was

good news

to tell the crowd

to turn from

these worthless things

and unto

the living God.

They were just

speaking their truth

here with authenticity

and compassion.

And again, see,

we have to appreciate

that they're not

bringing this news

of condemnation

like, hey,

you're all going to hell

for worshiping

the wrong God.

They truly believe

that they are bringing

good news,

an invitation

to stop wasting

one's time

with what is worthless,

an invitation

to turn to the one

who is truly

worthy of worship.

For them,

it's not about

convincing others

of doctrines to believe,

but they're bearing

witness to what is

worthless

and to what is worthy.

They're doing it

out of compassion.

They're doing it

out of compassion.

The Greek word

for worthless

here could be

translated empty

or fruitless,

useless,

powerless,

futile.

And this is intentional.

This is an intentional

juxtaposition

to the living God.

It's really quite simple

for Paul and Barnabas

in Lystra.

And it can be quite simple

for us here

in the Bay as well.

They simply saw themselves

as bearers

of better news.

That's it.

They simply believed

that they had better news,

a better God.

God,

worship worthless things

or worship the worthy one,

the living God.

See,

bearing witness about Christ,

we don't need to be afraid of

or we don't need to get

hung up upon,

you know,

what if these people

I'm talking to,

what if they question

why they even need Jesus?

What if they don't believe

the Bible?

Or what if they disagree

about the Ten Commandments

or that they need

to be forgiven

or that there is judgment

for what the Bible

calls sin?

We don't need to worry

about those questions

right off the bat.

But simply,

we need to be convinced

that we have better news

of a better God.

That's all it takes

to be a witness of Christ,

to be convinced

that we have better news

of a better God.

But the question is,

are we convinced?

Are we convinced?

Is our God,

is the God of the Scriptures,

the Lord Jesus Christ,

is He truly better?

Is He?

Before I wrap up,

I want to share a story

that was well known

in Lystra,

and that the whole region

of what is now

modern-day Turkey,

they would have been

familiar with this

during the time of Paul.

It's a Greek hospitality myth

of Philemon and Bosis.

See, as legend had it,

Zeus and Hermes

had entered a city

not unlike Lystra,

and not far from Lystra,

but they had done so

disguised as ordinary peasants.

And they go into the city

seeking shelter,

but as these ordinary peasants,

they are rejected by

everyone in the entire city

until they come to this

humble cottage

owned by this old couple

named Philemon and Bosis.

And then after receiving

generous hospitality

from this poor couple,

they revealed to them

who they were.

And they told this couple,

Philemon and Bosis,

you need to go flee

up on the mountain.

So Philemon and Bosis,

they go flee on the mountain,

and from that mountain,

they watch the entire city

just wiped out,

destroyed by a flood,

and then they see

their humble little cottage

transformed into

a marvelous temple.

So I hope that

after hearing this story,

you can imagine

what was likely going on

in the minds

of the Lyconians

in seeking to offer

sacrifices here

to Paul and Barnabas,

whom they presumed

to be Hermes and Zeus.

These Lyconians were

simply seeking

to protect themselves.

They were acting

out of self-interest

and maybe even trying

to merit for themselves

ornate temples

through the sacrifice

of bulls

to their Greek gods.

So let me ask again,

are these Greek gods

whose existence

and history

threatened disaster

upon a lack

of hospitality

and a lack

of bloody sacrifice,

are these gods

better than the God

of the Scriptures?

are they?

Or are there any gods

that we all worship

and offer sacrifices to

now in the 21st century?

Are any of these gods

any better?

Like the God of money

who threatens disaster

upon us,

upon our insatiable appetites

if we do not sacrifice

to Him enough.

Or the God of sex

who threatens disaster

upon our need

for approval

if we do not sacrifice

to her enough.

Or the God of power

who threatens disaster

upon our ambitions

if we do not sacrifice

to Him enough.

See, to quote

the late atheist author

David Foster Wallace,

there is no such thing

as not worshiping.

Everybody worships.

The only choice we get

is what to worship.

And pretty much

anything you worship,

he says,

will eat you alive.

If you worship money

and things,

if they are where you tap

real meaning in life,

then you will never

have enough,

never feel you have enough.

Worship your body

and beauty

and sexual allure

and you will always feel

ugly.

And Wallace's point,

and he's absolutely right,

is that whatever we worship

will always be our master

and we will always be

his, her, or its

suffering slave.

But you know,

there is a God

whom we can worship,

whom we can bow down to

as our master

and yet who will not

eat us alive.

A master who is,

who even when we fail him,

is always wanting

to forgive us.

A master whose yoke is easy

and whose burden

is light

and who declares

that we are not just servants

but liberated children

of a good king.

A master who paid

for our very own liberation,

not through our own

bloody sacrifices,

but through the sacrifice

of his own blood.

And this is the living God

of Paul and Barnabas.

In verse 15,

who made the heavens

and the earth

and the sea

and everything in them,

who in the past

let all nations

go their own way.

Yet he has not left himself

without testimony,

but has shown kindness

by giving us rain from heaven

and crops in their seasons

and provides us

with plenty of food

and fills our hearts

with joy.

In short,

not a God

who always takes from us

far more

than he actually gives,

but quite the opposite.

Quite the opposite

of every other worthless God,

the one true worthy God

who has always given us

far more

than what he requires of us

and even wants us

to have all things

in Christ.

Christ Church,

this is the gospel.

This is the gospel,

the good news

that we get to bear witness to

in both word and deed.

Will you pray with me?