Sermon Transcript (Transcript starts at 10:02)
Why do you believe in God? Anybody ever ask you that question? What reason would you give if someone asked you if you believed in God? Of course, I’m assuming that most of you believe in God since you’re here right now, or at least seeking God, right? Trying to figure out, well, do I really believe in God?
At the very least, it’s probably a safe assumption that most people in this room believe and that you’re at least trying to find evidence that God is real. But why do most people believe in God? You probably heard that there’s been studies done even recently that over the years have shown about a mass exodus from faith, right? A mass turn from the church in the west. And I bring this up because as people leave their faith, or rather, really, what is probably more realistic is that fewer people are finding faith overall.
They aren’t just walking away from belief in things, they’re believing in other things. And so people still find what I would call frameworks, or what some people would call worldviews, or some people call it, like, plausibility structures. I know it’s a fancy term, right? But it just means the lenses through which we look at the world. People still have a lens that they look at the world and they interpret everything through.
I heard a good illustration between two Christian, an author and a philosopher that were speaking on a podcast recently, and I heard a good illustration that they used to kind of exemplify this. Would you believe me if I told you that there was an elephant in your backyard? Probably not, right? I mean, some of you might be like, well, Paul. Paul’s never lied to me before, right?
I don’t know why there’s an elephant in my backyard. But most people, if I was like, hey, there’s an elephant in your backyard, most people would be like, no, there’s not. I’m pretty sure there’s not. I don’t even have to look. And I’m pretty sure there’s not an elephant in my backyard.
You might say, that’s impossible. Why? Because your lens, your worldview, your plausibility structure says that’s not how elephants work, right? That’s not how backyards work. The two rarely mix.
But what if I could show you a picture of an elephant in your backyard? You might say, well, you might have photoshopped it, right? AI is the thing that exists. So maybe I just created a picture of a photo of your backyard where I put an elephant, and I could do that. I’m not that bad at Photoshop.
Right.
But the reality is I could also show you a news broadcast of an elephant in your backyard and tell you that, no, the circus was in town and the elephant got loose, and they were chasing this elephant all throughout town, and it’s in your backyard right now. And that’s exactly what happened earlier this year in April in Butte, Montana. Like, that’s literally a thing that happened. There was an elephant in some people’s backyards. Right?
So is it possible that there could be an elephant in your backyard? The probability seems to be rising. Right. It’s more likely now that maybe there’s, you know, and things can be unbelievable until they’re not, until right before your eyes, you see them happening. It can be the same way with believing in Jesus.
It might not make sense until it does. Right. For many of us here today, we are operating with a framework, with a lens, with a plausibility structure that says God is real, goddess exists. I believe in him. What about those who don’t?
How can we reach others with the gospel, with the real story of how God, who is the creator of the world, how he sent his son Jesus, to die on the cross, to take away our sins and to be raised from the dead so that we could have a victory over death that lasts throughout all eternity with him? Today, our goal is to provide answers for those seeking Jesus and those who seek to reach others for Jesus, because we were made to reach others with the gospel, in order to start out, we have to realize that Jesus sent his disciples to reach out into the world. He sent his disciples out to reach the world. Twice in the Gospels, we read that Jesus sent his disciples on a mission that was exactly the same as what he was seeking to accomplish in Israel, we read that he sent the twelve out to preach and teach and to heal the sick, to cast out evil spirits and to proclaim the kingdom. He did the same later on with 70 or 72, depending on which translation you go, with other disciples, sent them out into Israel as well.
They were sent on a mission to spread a healing and good news in the name of Jesus, in the same ways that he ministered. Just as Jesus sent out the disciples in the gospels, we as disciples today. Anytime we read in the Gospels that Jesus says something or does something for or commissions all of the disciples, we should probably today as disciples of Jesus, look at that and recognize it as a call for all of us as disciples of Jesus today. And so, just as Jesus sent his disciples out to proclaim the kingdom of God, he sends us out to do the same, to proclaim the kingdom of God just like he did, without fear, without compromise, but always with love for those who are lost. We have a commission from Jesus to all of his disciples to go and make more disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that he has commanded us.
In the book of acts, we read that just after, just before Pentecost, Jesus met with his disciples. Pentecost was the time when they received the Holy spirit, and Jesus commissioned them to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. To the ends of the earth means that God has a plan to reach everyone for his kingdom. Now, in the disciples minds at the time, the ends of the earth, they were probably thinking like the Roman Empire, right?
The places that they knew existed. And so it’s not just a geographical location that we’re talking about here. Ends of the earth means everyone. That’s because God wants a personal relationship with everyone. And so throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, we read about how the early christians were on a mission from goddess to spread the gospel.
By chapter six in the Book of Acts, we see that there’s a next generation of believers that are raised up, and they are working alongside the apostles and the first generation of Jesus disciples to go and spread the gospel. They’re working side by side. And as the book of acts progresses, we see that first generation start to pass away, some of them because of persecution in the second and the third generation of the church starts taking the gospel to even more new places. In the empire of Rome, people like Paul and Barnabas, Philip, more and more, were working beside the apostles to tell others about Jesus and bring them into the fold. And so Luke, the author of acts, eventually, around chapter 13 or so, starts to follow Paul on his journeys, what we call his missionary journeys, to take the gospel to new places.
We read about Paul’s journeys where he took the gospel to gentile Greeks. On one occasion, Paul was in the city of Athens, or if you’re in southern Illinois, Athens, just like they have San Jose and Cairo and all those. But in Athens, Paul brushed up against these ideas, these pagan ideas of idolatry and polytheism. And so Paul, I just imagine Paul is walking through Athens, and he’s looking at these idols. He’s looking at these temples, these pagan temples.
And I just imagine his heart is breaking for these people because they don’t know the true God of the universe, the creator goddess. And so I just imagine Paul just forming in his mind the arguments against how these gods are not real and how they lead people astray. And so Paul has an opportunity then to share the gospel. And we’re not going to read the whole story in acts 17, but I want to at least share Paul’s words, the big portion of Paul’s words, because I think they should teach us something about how we can reach other people with the gospel. Paul says in acts 1724, 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’s not served by human hands.
As if he needed anything. Paul begins by giving a view of God based in the scriptures that contrast with the beliefs of his audience. Now we might see that today and be like, oh, you can’t do that. What if he offends someone? Right?
Paul may offend them with this belief. And though Paul is not afraid to proclaim the truth about who God is, here, he proclaims that God is the creator and the sustainer of all things. So he doesn’t need humans who are his creatures, give him anything. God doesn’t need human beings to serve him. And this idea of a God who is strong and is strong in his own right, independent of human action, that would have flown the face of these foreign gods, that would have been so foreign to the concept that the Greeks had, because they believed that they could manipulate their gods into giving them what they wanted.
And so Paul knew the destructiveness of that worldview, that lens, to believe that you can control the gods, that you could get what you want simply through rituals. So Paul speaks the truth about God, an idea that flew in the face of their beliefs, that they then turn. Paul then turns them to the fact that rather than humans giving to God, that God actually had given life itself to us, he looks at the kind of life giving relationship that God wants to have with everyone. He says in the second half of verse 25. 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 prophets has said, we are his offspring. Paul’s audience was made up of two, primarily of two common philosophies of that day. They were the Epicureans and the stoics. And I don’t want to get too much in the weeds here, but I think it helps us to understand what exactly it was that they believed that Paul was teaching against and what he was speaking the truth of God into.
D. A. Carson writes that the Epicureans were materialists. They believed that the greatest good in life was pleasure, but that pleasure was reached through modesty by gaining knowledge about the world. It was very much focused on their own knowledge, their own wisdom, their own way of thinking, and limiting their own desires. There’s a touch of asceticism, of what we would call asceticism in it today. And they were essentially agnostic about God.
They believed that there was a creator, an unmoved mover, so to speak, but that God was kind of the guy who wound up the clock and then set it down and left it, and he had nothing to do with them. In fact, he was irrelevant to their lives. And that was their belief about the creator of the universe. And so can you see how that way of thinking leads to destructive patterns of living? If you believe that the God, the creator of the universe, wants nothing to do with you, why would you want anything to do with him?
Why would you live as if he had any sort of control over your life? And they didn’t. The stoics, on the other hand, were nominally what we would call pantheistic. So they believed that basically everything is God, or everything is a part of God, or a part of everything is a part of God, some form of that belief that everything was divine, everything was united, that we are even a part of God. And so they sought harmony with nature.
Probably not in the ways that we think. You know, maybe we think back to, like, the sixties or something like that, but that’s not what they were talking about. They tried to eliminate their emotions. Think about how destructive that would be if we thought that, well, if God gets angry, he might destroy us, right? So we need to do everything we can just to appease him and to not make him Madden.
Can you imagine that being your lens? And maybe some people today, maybe you, maybe somebody, you know, has that view of God. Well, all I have to do is just not make him mad. Do you see the destructiveness of that lens, how that led them to try to manipulate their gods, to try to control them, to try to control their emotions by ridding themselves of them.
What a dry and terrible way to live life. And so Paul, what he does is he addresses the needs of both, masterfully addresses the needs of both. He gives answers to both through the gospel. And that’s because, as we’ll see, God gave all people the way of Jesus as a path to himself. Paul then portrays the real God of the universe as the creator God who is also our father.
We are his children. As a creator and sustainer, then he doesn’t need our rituals and appeasement to function. Instead, we need him to live. So God the creator is worthy of our worship and our reverence. But if we’re God’s offspring, then he must care something for us.
If God is our father, there’s emotion to that. There’s love to that. He wants a relationship with us, and he shows and gives us his love through every good gift that he gives. And that is true for all people because all people were created by the one true God and loved by him. The ultimate expression of that relationship between God and humanity comes in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the fact that Jesus is fully God, but he came fully man as well, that he is both God and human.
And so Paul then begins to move his audience and us toward a knowledge of who Jesus is. He says in verse 29, 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, to turn away from their false views of goddess, to believe in the one true God. 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.
No gold or silver or stone can contain the image of God. The image of God is found in Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. Paul says the image of God which is revealed fully in Jesus is the same image that we were created in. And this man that God has appointed, that’s Jesus. Paul’s pointing them to Jesus.
Because Jesus died for our sins, he rose from the grave. The power of the resurrection of Jesus is the power of the gospel message. And it was what we placed our hope in when we came to Christ, because God sent Jesus to be the messiah, to be the chosen one, to be the anointed one who would bring us back to a relationship with him. What we learned from Paul’s teaching to the philosophers on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, the Aries hill, this place that these philosophers of his day, the smartest people in Athens, would sit in judgment over every thought that the people would have on whether it was true or not. And so what we see Paul doing, what we learn from his preaching, is that the gospel is the hope of a restored relationship with God found in Jesus Christ alone.
And it’s for everyone in the end. Luke writes that when the crowds heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered at Paul. They mocked him for his belief. But others wanted to hear more. Others wanted to hear more about Jesus.
And some of them, Luke says in verse 34, some of the people became followers, and they believed. So what can we learn from Paul’s opportunity to reach others with the gospel? The apostle Paul took the gospel, and he made it relevant to his audience, to these gentiles, who at first wanted little to do with the real creator, God. And just like back then, people today, they strive to make their own way to God. We make our own gods out of our own will and our own way.
We are often materialistic in modern society. Like the Epicureans, some people today are simply unwilling to proclaim any truth about God because they don’t want to be wrong or they don’t want to be told that they’re wrong or criticized for it. And so we just avoid making any truth claims. Stoicism is very much alive and well today in many forms. Whenever we seek to serve ourselves and seek the pleasure of this world over pleasing God, we create an idol for ourselves out of our own desires.
Trying to make our own way doesn’t work. We can’t philosophize our way out of sin. God has to take care of that for us. Da Carson writes, in a real sense, all people, because they are created in God’s image, are his children. Through this relationship, though, this relationship is fractured and needs to be restored through the salvation available in Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, that restoration is exactly what God is reaching out to us for. Paul says in Ephesians, chapter two, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even while we were dead in transgression. It’s by grace you’ve been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus, Paul repeats, for it is by grace you’ve been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves.
It is a gift. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, literally, the word there is. We are God’s poem. Poem created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do the creator.
God created us to do good works in his name for his glory. And so we too were once far from God. We were dead in our sins. But God is a God who saves by grace from the wealth of his mercy because of his love for his children.
And we’re all God’s children, but we have to have that relationship with God restored. So God revealed this restoration, the salvation, this rescue to us, and provided it through his son, Jesus Christ. And we can’t earn it because it’s a free gift that God gives us, gives to his children through Jesus. And when we accept that gift, we receive the mercy of God. We receive a reward in eternity, but we also receive a new purpose in life in this world.
We receive work to do in the name of Jesus, to go and to do the good works we were created to do in the image of Christ. Apostle Paul experienced that transformation for himself. Earlier in the book of acts, we read about Paul’s conversion, that he was on his way, on the road to Damascus to persecute the church. And he met the risen Jesus, the glorified Christ. And it changed his worldview, it changed his lens, the way that he looked at the world.
He could no longer go on without, without changing his way of life, because he’d been confronted with the reality of who Jesus is.
And so Paul was transformed.
But he then went on a mission to rescue others so that they could be transformed in Christ as well. And so Paul lived his life to reach others with the gospel. He engaged the church equipped theme, encourage them to do the same. In fact, in Colossians, in Colossians chapter four, Paul writes to the church. He says, pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains, those good works that we talked about earlier.
Paul then describes what that looks like for us as Christians. And these are things that we can learn from Paul’s letter to the Colossians that we can apply. How can we apply this call to reach others to our lives? And so Paul teaches us. He says, pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.
Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. Let’s break this down more so that we can apply it to our lives. First of all, Paul asked for prayer for doors to be opened for the word of God to enter the hearts and minds of those outside the church. God is working to rescue people and his people who were themselves rescued or a part of that plan.
They’re called. We’re called to get involved by hitting our knees in prayer for the open door, the word of God, to take root in the lives of others. God’s working in people’s lives right now. Before you ever get there, God is working. Think about that.
God is working there before you even know that there is a there. Before you ever become aware of others needs, God is already working in their lives. So where do you see people becoming receptive to the word of God? Go there. Go where God is working.
Pray for those people. Where is God opening doors for you to proclaim the gospel? Who’s he putting in your path, maybe even daily, that you can share the word of God and its truth with them? We believe in the power of the gospel to change the world, not just because of what it is, but because of who the gospel is. The gospel is not just a thing.
It’s a person. It’s Jesus. And so Paul is intent on continuing to spread this good news of Jesus as God intended him to do, without fear, fully and clearly to anyone who would listen. God and his people always work together for the rescue of others. He is the message, and we are the messengers who proclaim the truth of Jesus.
So if you accepted that call to proclaim the truth of Jesus, to proclaim the gospel, proclaiming it clearly, without fear, if so, then we, as Paul says, need to be wise in the way that we act toward outsiders. Literally, Paul is telling us to walk in wisdom before those who stand outside. That’s what Paul is telling us there. Our lives and our speech must reflect God’s wisdom if we’ve accepted him and if we want to meet people where they’re at with open hearts and open minds. And that’s especially important among those who stand outside, whose hearts and minds are not yet open to the word of God.
You remember the saying, we’ve said it before. Your talk talks and your walk talks. But your walk talks louder than your talk talks. Remember that. In case you’ve never heard of, I’ll say it again, your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk.
Talks. How often have we as christians lost the opportunity to reach people with the gospel because our words and our actions didn’t line up with the gospel? How often have we chosen our politics? Have we chosen to be right over other people hearing about Jesus? How often have we chosen to express that we are right over expressing God’s love for others?
How often has our anger or our bad attitude kept our message suppressed? How often have we taken opportunities to make a name for ourselves rather than make a name for Jesus? These are the things, these unwise acts are what keeps us from sharing the gospel with other people. Instead, we need to be ambitious about something else. If the Bible tells you to be ambitious about something, you should probably be ambitious about it, right?
The apostle Paul in one Thessalonians four says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.
You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Paul tells us to make every opportunity to reach others with the gospel. What are the decisive and the critical moments that maybe you’re overlooking that we need to be seeking to make disciples? Where’s Jesus opening the door where we can lovingly guide people in toward him as he leads us all home together? Are you lovingly guiding people toward Jesus with every opportunity?
Finally, Paul tells us to let our conversation be always full of grace and seasoned with salt. It’s the grace of God that purifies us. Jesus said that you are the salt of the earth and that you are the light of the world. Now, the crazy thing about that is Jesus used those same words about himself, and yet those are the words he says to his disciples, that we are called to be salt and light. It’s amazing.
He calls you to let your light shine that light of Christ within you in front of others around your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates, even your enemies. Let that light of Jesus shine not for your glory, but so that they can see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. We get to participate in what Jesus is already doing in the world. As we reach others with the gospel, we’re called upon to give an answer for our faith daily, whether we realize it or not and what we learn. And what you should take away from today’s message.
If you’re going to take anything away from today, it’s that those who know Jesus must make Jesus known to the world. If you know Jesus, then you must make Jesus known to the world. And so be ready to give an answer in season and out of season, not with arrogance, not with complacency, but with grace, which portrays the same grace that you have received from Christ. With a lively example of what it looks like to have Jesus change your life with the vigilance and the persistence of someone who’s on a rescue mission for someone else’s life. Because it’s exactly the mission that we’re on.
No one who follows Jesus is given a pass on that call to reach others. No one. We’re all called to make more followers of Jesus. Doing that will take bravery in the face of fear. It will take wisdom with our actions and our words that backs up the reality of who God is in our lives.
It’s with diligence that we make Christ known because we don’t know the hour, the time when he will return. And we never know if we may get another opportunity to share our, our faith. When every part of the body of Christ proclaims the good news of Jesus effectively. Lives change, communities change, the kingdom grows, and we’re called to be a part of that kingdom growth. We’re called to be a part of the rescue, the mission that we’re sent on to make Jesus known by proclaiming the gospel.
God’s people are called to walk in wisdom as they tirelessly pursue and rescue others. We’re made to make Jesus known to the world. We make Jesus known when we pray, effectively proclaim the gospel clearly walk in wisdom, and tirelessly pursue others in that rescue. Would you believe me if I told you that there is a God who created the world, that he loves you so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross, that three days later his son arose from the grave so that we could have freedom from our sin and eternal life with him? Would you believe that?
Would others believe that if you proclaimed it to them? Jesus wants to have a relationship with you, and he wants to have a relationship with everyone that you know. And so my challenge to you is this. Close your eyes. Think of someone that you know that needs to know the Lord, that needs to know Jesus.
Take just a moment and pray for that person. Ask God for an open door. Share the gospel with them for you to tell them about Jesus, and then ask, where is God calling you to act? Where is he opening that door for you to reach them with the gospel? You can do this because you were made to reach others.