Advancing The Gospel (Part 2)

It's been a wonderful time of worship with you this morning.

I appreciate hearing you being up here.

Sound like we're all in heaven already.

This time, uh, any children who would like to go down and be part of our children's church can leave at this time.

You can just go out, and uh we'll have a teacher ready out there in the foyer to lead you down.

You can just go out right now.

We are studying the Acts of the Apostles on Sunday mornings if you're just joining us.

And if you didn't get a sermon outline would like one, our ushers can hand you one of those right now, just let them know.

And if you brought a Bible and you want to follow along in today's lesson, you can make your way to the book of Acts, chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

Some of you know that I I really I really like chocolate, and um I'm always alert to articles I read about the health benefits of chocolate.

And uh, you know what?

I'm I'm happy to share some with you this morning.

Um you know you realize when you eat chocolate, you're actually eating vegetables.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, and you all know beans are vegetables.

And when you eat chocolate-covered raisins, cherries, or strawberries, you are eating fruits with your vegetables, which is even healthier.

Praise God.

And eating equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate count as a balanced diet.

In addition, a nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place.

Now, isn't that handy?

I think so.

Now, sadly, um, I don't know if you want to think about chocolate, but um it was the South American indigenous peoples that figured it out.

So sadly, Paul and Barnabas had no access to chocolate on their first missionary journey, which we began to look at last time in the book of Acts.

Um, just to remind you, the um the beginning in Acts chapter 13, um Paul and Barnabas are sent on their first missionary journey from Syria and Antioch.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

The church there sent them out, and they sail to Cyprus, the island of Cyprus, they preach through the cities there, and then when they're done, I think this was also Barnabas's hometown on Cyprus somewhere, Paphos maybe.

And so they leave Cyprus and they sail up to Perga, and then they make their way inland all the way up to Poseidian Antioch, where they start preaching the gospel, people who haven't heard it, and a number of people come to faith in Jesus, and as a result, they start to get um some threatening responses as well.

So they end up going to Iconium.

Iconium, they see uh the people respond to the gospel and people coming to faith in Jesus, but that caused even more of a ruckus.

Uh some of the Jews and Gentiles there uh threatened to stone them, so they fled Iconium and went to Lystra.

And this, we believe, is where Paul uh first met Timothy.

He was probably led to Christ.

Timothy was led to Christ by Paul in Lystra.

Um, and that's we're gonna pick up today on a second look at this passage that's very interesting and helps us understand some things we need to know about sharing the gospel.

So let me read it again in Acts chapter 14, beginning in verse 8.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

At Lystra, a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, he was lame from his mother's womb, he had never walked.

This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his eyes on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, Paul said with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet, and he leaped up and began to walk.

Now, when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they they raised their voice, saying in the Lyconian language, the gods have come like become like men and come down to us.

And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

But when the apostles Paul and Barnabas heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things?

We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

And in the generations gone by, he permitted all nations to go their own ways, and yet he did not leave himself without a witness in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven, fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Even saying these things with difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

Up until now, as we've said, uh Jewish Christians, Jews who came to faith in Jesus and were converted to spread the gospel were going to synagogues in the cities around the area and in the region.

But in Lystra, this is the first time Jewish believers are sharing the gospel with pagan polytheists.

They don't believe the Bible at all.

They almost know nothing about the Bible.

And this in the book of Acts is a major contextual shift in trying to reach people with the gospel.

Never before have they gone this route.

Um, how do you reach people who are so different who don't believe what you do, have no background in what you believe?

How do you communicate the gospel in a pluralistic society like ours, uh, where there are many faiths, many different philosophies to explain ultimate meaning, and there are many different religions.

How do you reach people with the gospel to people who don't believe the Bible, who don't believe they are sinners accountable to God?

This is the challenge in a pluralistic society like ours.

We can learn some important things.

I'm dealing with this uh a few times because I think we can learn so much from what Paul and Barnabas do uh that I'm I'm I I just want to focus on it.

Um we learned some things here.

Last time I I uh used the acronym SHARE, SH ARE, to kind of simplify things and cover these points that we see from this passage.

Uh we looked at the first three last time, S, H, and A.

Speak, help, and answer.

Speak the same message of the gospel.

Don't change the message.

Continue to preach the gospel, but do more than that, help them.

H.

Share more than words, as Paul does in Healing This Lame Man, serve them with good deeds.

And then last time we we ended with answer their deepest longings for wholeness, pointing them to the true God.

So we begin today looking at the letter R in the word, in the acronym share, which stands for reveal and challenge the idols of the culture.

In order to open their eyes to the good news of the gospel, we've got to reveal and challenge the idols of our culture.

After healing the man who could never walk, the crowd in Lystra think that Paul and Barnabas are Greek gods, Zeus and Hermes, who've come down from heaven.

And obviously, you see you heard Paul respond by saying, No, no, no, don't do that.

We're we're men, we're just here to with the we're the messengers, preach the gospel to you.

We're bringing you good news.

What was the good news?

You can turn from these worthless things to the living God, the creator.

Notice, first of all, how dramatically, this is something you pick up as you move through the book of Acts, how dramatically different this gospel presentation is from all that came before it.

Very different.

And Paul's gonna do that, and the apostles are gonna do that.

Depending on the context they're in, they're gonna start with that context and move people to understand what the gospel is right in that context.

So, uh in chapter 13 of Acts, Paul preaches to people who believe the Bible in the synagogues in Poseidon Antioch, and there he tells them that through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin.

Poseidon Antioch.

In the synagogue.

But Paul doesn't talk to pagans that way here.

He doesn't talk about the Bible, he doesn't quote it at all.

In the synagogues, uh, to people who believe the Bible, Paul proclaims you need forgiveness.

That's why Jesus came.

But to the pagans in Lystra, he doesn't say your sinners in need of forgiveness.

So how do you show people they need Christ when they don't feel guilty?

See, that's the challenge of the gospel in a pluralistic society.

And what he does, he has to back up and tell them that their problem is slavery and futility and the way they're living.

He's saying you're enslaved to idols and you need a new master.

In Acts 14, verse 15, when Paul uses the term vain things or worthless things, it's the same word as idols.

Acts 14:15

He's saying to them, the gods you're worshiping, your idols are worthless.

Because of that, your efforts to serve them are futile.

It means nothing.

They can't give you what you want.

The word worthless or empty means, has in its sense being deceptive.

Um it goes right along with idols.

Idols promise you fulfillment, but leave you empty.

Vain, empty, worthless.

So remember that in a polytheistic culture, uh what that was like, um, it's not hard to remember because we're living in one right now.

Um in a polytheistic culture, there is not one supreme God.

Um there are many gods, depending on you know who you are.

Um so how do you how do you decide in a context like that which god to worship or sacrifice to?

Well, as these people in Lystra, we see, you do it, you sacrifice to the god you believe has helped you or can help you.

That's their whole thinking.

Uh, in ancient times, if you were a soldier, you sacrificed to the god Ares, the god of war, for victory.

If you were a farmer, you sacrificed to Dementor, the god of fertility and crops for a good harvest.

You made sure that god was pleased.

You wanted to have a good life, a happy life.

So you did what you thought they required.

If you wanted love, you sacrificed to Eros, the god of love, passion, fertility, to find a mate.

All these gods.

Which one did you choose?

The one you thought could help you the most to get what you want.

There was gods for everything.

There were gods for music and art.

There were as many gods in this ancient culture as there were human ambitions, human desires to have a happy, successful life.

You uh would worship the specific god you believe has the power to help you get what you want.

It might be the god of commerce.

I mean, I can't even begin to go through the list of these ancient gods of commerce, God of love, God of music and art, God of victory, Nike uh in battle or sport, uh, God of success and endeavors, God of politics and power.

Here's the deal.

Whatever you want in life deep down, see, this is I'm telling you, this is how people think in a polytheistic culture.

Uh whatever you want in life deep down, what you are really hoping for, what gives you meaning in life, for that, we will sacrifice whatever is necessary.

That's the idolatry.

We will sacrifice our more our morality, our integrity to get it.

We'll sacrifice our family, we'll sacrifice our time, we'll sacrifice our relationships, even our reward in heaven to get it.

That's the idol.

Your heart's bound.

And you will sacrifice to that God, and it'll cost you.

You want to make sure you're doing all the things that get you that.

That's the whole the whole framework of what idolatry is about, not just to ancient people, to us too.

Idolatry is a matter of the heart.

Paul is challenging the idols of that culture.

And I'm telling you, that's one thing we need to look at in our culture, in this pluralistic, diverse culture.

Here's what Pagan is trying to say to the pagans at Lystra.

Okay, the things you are worshiping are dead, but the true God is alive.

Uh the gods you worship are worthless.

Um it's futile to do these things to sacrifice them.

They promise you more than they can ever deliver.

The gods you worship are powerless, but the true God made heaven and earth and everything in it.

The gods you worship take more from you than they actually give.

But the true God is just the opposite.

He gives you more than he requires of you.

Just look at the witness, Paul says.

Even though you have never acknowledged him, yet all his gifts you enjoy, the rains, the crops, that's all from the true God.

Grace.

He's given you grace.

All the things you need to live come from him.

And when Paul calls their gods worthless, he is challenging their idols.

He's proclaiming the gospel when he tells them that their gods cannot fulfill what they promise.

Uh, they are dead and empty, but there is a living God who created all things who did not leave himself without a witness.

And he invites them to turn from these vain things to the living God.

You know, we get an idea of how Paul preached this, how he preached the good news in another polytheistic society culture in Thessalonica.

Uh, they were polytheistic idol worshippers, and they heard Paul preached the gospel to them.

And here's what Paul says to them in his first letter to the Thessalonians, verses chapter 1, 9, and 10.

Um, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead.

That is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Now, in the present time, I think we can glean much from what we see and learn here about how to share the gospel to people who do not believe the Bible or in one true God.

Um, and that's what we're going to consider next.

In a pluralistic, polytheistic culture, the good news of the gospel, if you watch Paul and Barnabas, begins by first pointing them to the true God, the creator of all, who gives good gifts of grace that they now enjoy, who ultimately gave his son to free them from the things that they're pursuing that are empty and have enslaved us to give us freedom and hope in him.

We learn from Paul in the book of Romans, chapter one, that every human being worships something.

Every one of us, every single human being.

Everybody lives for something.

Everybody is sacrificing for something.

Whatever that is, if it's not the true God, then it's an idol.

That sink in.

The desire for love does, which you've made into an idol.

If you're living for power, you don't control yourself.

The desire for power does it, and you've made that into an idol.

If you're living for money, you don't control yourself.

The desire for that money does, you've made it an idol.

We are always mastered by what we really desire, what we really live for.

That's our master.

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, just to remind you.

No one can serve two masters.

Nobody can.

Might think you can.

Either he's gonna hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon, or I would expand, or anything else.

You should have no other gods before me.

Let's start with the first and foremost thing.

That's huge.

We don't even realize how we may be being affected by idolatry in our own culture.

The culture, very powerful influence.

Uh telling us you need this to be a real person, to be somebody, uh, to have it made and be happy, you need this.

And man, here's what it's gonna take.

You're gonna have to do this, you're gonna have to sacrifice your family.

Don't come home a lot.

Jesus told us that we only have the capacity to serve and live for one master, ultimately.

One master in life.

So we must turn, we must, from whatever idol has given us hope or meaning, uh, turn and serve the living and true God and his son, Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying uh that only the true God, the living God, the only God, that if you serve him, he will liberate you, he will free you, because all the other gods are worthless.

The idols don't care about you.

Only the true God loves you.

If you serve the true God, he will satisfy you.

And you know what?

If you fail the true God, he will forgive you.

Your idols won't.

You'll feel really bad and try to make it up.

Not the true God.

We have so many modern idols where this same message is relevant.

It's not funny.

If you're living for your career, it is your master, and whatever's your master you see, what if you lose it, you're gonna be devastated.

Inside, torn up.

That's your hope.

That's that's your identity.

That's what gives you meaning.

If you're living for money, it is your master.

If you lose it, it's gonna devastate you.

It's very unforgiving.

Think of it as you can never lose the true God.

Can never lose the true God.

He's faithful.

All of the other gods are shams, promising great things they can't fulfill.

Zeus and Hermes, you see, didn't come down from heaven, but ironically, the true God in the man Jesus Christ did to satisfy our longings.

The true God is the only master who became a servant and died for our sake so we could be forgiven and be joined with God forever in heaven.

So I would I would ask us to consider, you think we think about this, not only just in how to present the gospel, focusing on the true God and the grace he's provided and ultimately provided in Jesus?

I would ask us to consider what what God are we really serving?

The true God or a sham?

Does your God have you tied up in knots or leaving you empty?

What master controls your life, directs your path, promising to get you the thing you want if you give your life to that?

Paul's admonition, turn from these false idols, serve the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your master and Lord.

The scripture says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and whoever calls on him will not be disappointed.

And if you don't have Jesus Christ in your heart, I'll tell you the same thing Paul was telling these people you need a new master.

Turn to the living God, turn to Jesus Christ and receive the promise.

He will give you and fulfill the promise of eternal life.

You know, when it comes to sharing the good news with people who don't believe the Bible or one true God or Jesus, I want us again to notice how Paul and Barnabas begin.

They don't beat them over the head with the Bible that they don't believe in and tell them they should.

They don't do that.

Paul starts with right where they are, preaching the same message of the gospel and then serving them.

By the way, this is how he's gonna do it.

We'll see again and again.

Paul starts with where they are, he talks to them about the gods they're trusting in for the good things they desire in life, and asking them, you know, those gods are empty.

Are you really being fulfilled?

Let me tell you about a God who won't leave you empty, a creator, the creator.

And uh, you know what I what brought was brought to my mind in thinking about this was Jesus' conversation with a woman at the well in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

I think this is what he's doing.

He didn't pull out the scripture, said, ma'am, you you should no can you give me a drink?

Yeah, here you go.

You know what?

Uh I can give you water and you'll never thirst again.

She said, Wow, uh, give me this water.

I want that.

Well, go call your husband.

I don't have a husband, she said.

Jesus said, you know what?

You're right.

You've had five husbands, and the one you're living with now is not your husband.

What's Jesus doing?

He's confronting the idols in that culture.

You're seeking out relationships with men to satisfy your deepest longings.

But that's, you've already seen, that's it's empty.

But I'm the Messiah, and I'm the only one who can give you what you really need and really want.

And you know what?

The woman believed in him and started spreading the word about him.

Come and see this guy.

Yeah.

See it there.

Um, so in terms of sharing with other, I think it's begins with listening to people tell you about their search to satisfy their deepest longings.

And if that search has left them empty, I could tell you about something that can really be filling, fill the emptiness.

Jesus, who gives abundant life on the inside and eternal life forever.

So we've learned four important things so far about how to share the gospel in a pluralistic culture.

Um The acronym SHERE.

Paul and Barnabas speak, they proclaim the gospel.

They do more than that.

They help people that they're sharing with, serving them.

They answer their deepest longings for wholeness by pointing them to the true God.

And they reveal and challenge the idols of their country that they've been relying on, who aren't fulfilling their deepest desires.

So next time we'll look at the last one.

And it'll be just as striking, I think, as the rest.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you.

We praise you, the only true God who has blessed us with life and sustains us in life by your grace with all the good things we enjoy.

We just, if we just think about it, you blessed us.

We didn't deserve that.

Thank you that you did not leave us in bondage to our sins, but you sent your son Jesus to die in our place so we could be forgiven and free indeed.

Please forgive us for our sinful tendencies to serve the culture's idols and pursue meaning and satisfaction and life through them.

And help us to be witnesses of your saving grace in Jesus, who loves us, frees us, and will never forsake us.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.