Well, for this evening's message from God's Word, I'm asking you to turn to Acts chapter 17, and we'll start reading at verse 16 to the end of the chapter. Acts is this wonderful book that is in the New Testament that provides for us much insight for the beginning, the fledgling beginnings of the New Testament church, of which we are a continuation. and it is in this many different kinds of cultural context that we find different stories recorded for us in the book of Acts, and it's in a particular context, cultural context, that this portion of Scripture is provided for us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And as we read through this, we need to keep in that in mind, that there is a particular cultural context that is behind what we find here in our text. So join with me as we read in Acts 17, beginning in verse 16, to the end of the chapter. Well, actually, let's begin reading in verse 13. When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicureans and Stoic philosophers began the dispute with him. Some of them asked him, what is this babbler trying to say? And that word babbler there has the idea, they were saying, What does this incoherent little chattering bird have to say? What is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, he seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus where they said to him, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. Now, what you worship as something unknown, I'm going to proclaim to you. 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 hands. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth. And he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, So he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. 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 man's design and skill. In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man that he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. But others said, we want to hear you again on this subject. At that, Paul left the council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Demarius, and a number of others. The cultural context that Paul is addressing here can be the equivalent to the day that we live in. It was their version of a post-modern world. We had a group of intellectuals here who had moved beyond what was commonly accepted as wisdom, as the paradigms of what was accepted and what was not accepted, and they had moved beyond the norms of that day. They were thinkers far into the future. And we live in much the same day. We live in a post-modern culture. And I think that can be shown by looking at a number of things. Back in the 50s, it was popular to say that God was dead. Well, today, it's not so much that God is dead. They're willing to admit that he's there. But today, he just doesn't matter. We all refer to a God, some God. The inscription found on one of the idols that Paul found says, to the unknown God. That could very well be the equivalent to what's found on our money. In God we trust. So it's not so much that God is dead anymore. He's there, but he just doesn't matter. He's not involved in our world anymore. I think another indicator that we live in a postmodern world is the type of television shows that are being produced. There's an interest in the spiritual, but a decreasing interest in God. I mean, there are shows with titles of angels, Touched by an Angel, Seventh Heaven, Buffy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, And the list goes on. Those are the kinds of shows that have the prime ratings today. So there's an interest in spirituality, but there's a lessening interest in the true God. From time to time, I try to catch episodes of Seventh Heaven, not because I'm particularly fond of it, but it's a story in our modern culture of a pastor raising his family in today's world. And it's interesting to see how they're presented as a pastor raising his family. And other than the times where they show the man behind the pulpit preaching, I have yet in his home to find any reference to God. That's our culture's way of presenting how a pastor raises his family. God is relegated to a building at a certain time, but he has nothing to do with real life. I think another thing we can look at as far as looking at the culture we live in is the language. Today, language has no meaning except the meaning that you want to give it. An author can write a book, you open it and you read it, and it can mean anything that you decide it can mean. The author really had no intent of meaning. He was just writing. And it's up to the reader to decide what is being said. And again, I think we can also say that God is whatever you define him to be. And I don't know about you, but that's why I found it so encouraging for the two ministers that were with Bush yesterday. They didn't just speak in terms of the Almighty. But they invoked the name of Jesus Christ, the King. The second person of the Godhead. But our culture increasingly has no definition of God, except what you want God to be. Along with that, there is no absolute truth anymore. My opinion is just as valid as yours. Mine is just as true as yours is true. And there's no outside objective standard to tell either one of us we're right or wrong. We're all right. Nobody's wrong anymore. And if you tell me I'm wrong, then you're right. There's no truth. We also live in an age of tolerance. Everything is to be tolerated. Except Christians. We will tolerate homosexuality. We will tolerate abortion. We will tolerate the denying of God in our culture. And that's tolerated. And you can say whatever you want to say, and that's tolerated. Unless you want to say that God demands that he alone is to be worshipped. That's not tolerated. But that's an indicator of the culture we live in. And I think also the technology that we live with. Most of us have a beeper or a cell phone attached to our sides. I think it reflects our culture. Some of us, sure, we have legitimate needs for them. But a lot of us don't. We want to be isolated individuals in our culture, but yet we want to be in touch with our culture. And I can do that without talking face-to-face. I can get on a phone, or I can send a fax, or I can send an email. I think the internet is also an indicator that we live in a post-modern world. I saw a news story the other day on the television about a boy, 28, well he's not a boy, he's 28, who has changed his official name to .comboy. That's his official name. And they were interviewing his folks, what they thought about that. They thought it was great. And what he does, he provides cameras to mount on the top of your monitor. And you can get another camera on somebody else's monitor, and you can look at any part of the person's life that you wish to expose to them. And that's what he does as a job. Well, I think all these indicators are clear enough evidence to say that we live in a post-modern culture. Well, how do we as God's church, as Christ's people, engage a post-modern culture that lives like this? Where everything's in flux, there's no reality, there's no foundations anymore. Well, I think there are two things we need to do. We need to take a fresh look at the biblical mandate to be evangelizing the culture. then I think the second thing we can do is look at Paul's example of evangelizing such a culture. How did Paul do it? What did he say? What did he do? Well, to begin, let's take a fresh look at the biblical mandate to be evangelizing, to be engaging the culture that we live in. Hold your finger in Acts and turn to Matthew 28. And I know you know this as the Great Commission, But we need to look at it. In verse 16, Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age. That's the biblical mandate for us as Christ's church to be out evangelizing, taking the gospel of Christ into our culture in which we live. And this is not a mandate that begins with the New Testament, is it? It's a mandate that we find in the Old Testament. There are examples in the Old Testament where the Old Testament people, The Old Testament church were not only a segregated people that people realized were different, but they were telling other nations about their God. The Psalms are full of Psalms that are calling the nations to come and bow down and worship the true God, Israel's God. So this is not a new phenomenon, this biblical mandate to take God to other cultures and societies. It's a mandate that's based on Christ's authority. Christ says, all authority has been given to me. I'm the one sending you. Christ says the same thing to us. Whose authority do we go in? We go in the authority of Christ to evangelize and preach the gospel. The mandate is also to go to all nations. It was once national, but now it's national, multinational. And this is part of the biblical mandate, to go to all nations. Part of the mandate is also to teach Christ. What do you say when you evangelize somebody? What do you say when you're presenting the gospel? You present Christ. That's what the mandate says in Matthew 28. And part of that mandate is not just to tell them about Christ, but to teach them, disciple them. Because it says to teach them to obey all the things that I have commanded you as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And unless we think that we're off the hook somehow and this mandate was given only to the disciples, but it doesn't bind us today as the New Testament church in our age, we need to remind ourselves of how Christ ended his mandate. He says, I will be with you to the very end of the age. What that means is that all of Christ's church in the New Testament, no matter what age we live in, is to be fulfilling and carrying out this biblical mandate to be engaging the culture in which we live. It's not just for the disciples. It's for Christ's church in all ages. We also find another aspect of this commissioning, this mandate to go be evangelizing the nations in Acts chapter 1. And if you'll turn there, we will look at that. This is where Christ is getting ready to ascend into the heavens. And he commissions his church again in verse 7. Well, let's look at verse 4. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times and the dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This is another aspect of the mandate, the biblical mandate. And a lot of evangelistic effort is done based on the last days, the last times. We live in the last times and we've got to get as many people saved as we can. That's the motive for a lot of evangelistic activity today. But you notice Christ strikes at the very heart of that approach. He says, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons that my Father has set. That's not the motive. The motive is because Christ is sending us. The mandate is also, as you see here, based on Holy Spirit power. You need to ask ourselves a question. Why am I afraid to talk to somebody about Christ? Why do I find that such a fearful thing? Why do I feel that I'm so inadequate to do that? Well, I think for a lot of us, we forget, it's not my authority, it's not my power, it's not my message. It is the Holy Spirit's power that we go in. He takes the words of life. He converts souls. He changes hearts. So let me just encourage you, as we look at this biblical mandate, when we talk to somebody about Christ, be not fearful, but go in the authority of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Jesus Christ. And again, the message of the mandate is Christ's gospel. That's what we say. That's what we talk about. That's what we present. And again, in verse 11, the mandate continues until His return. We'll see, look at that when you can read that on your own in verse 11. So that's a look at the biblical mandate for Christ's church to be evangelizing, to be telling other people about Christ. Well, let's look at the second part here of Paul's example of how you evangelize a postmodern culture. How did Paul do it? Well, there are certain things that Paul was aware of and that Paul understood about the culture that he was getting ready to engage. And we need to understand the culture that we're going to engage as well. And it's amazing how some of these things are so similar between the group that he was addressing and the culture that we address. First of all, to use computer language, Paul realized that their hard drives were not empty. They had not pushed delete, and they were just empty disks waiting to be filled. But their minds, these people that he was getting ready to present the gospel to, their minds were already filled with fundamental beliefs that had to be challenged and abandoned. Paul knew that. When we go talk to somebody about Christ in our postmodern culture, we must realize their minds are not empty. They're not empty slates. But they have fundamental belief systems that must be challenged and that they must be seen to be abandoned. And you notice that Paul also realized that when he was talking to this intellectual group, this post-modern group, he realized he could not start simply by talking about Christ. That's not where he started. And I think in many cases that when we engage somebody in the culture we live in, that's not where we can begin either. Paul backs up and starts with natural theology. He starts with God as the Creator and moves from there to Christ. Paul realized that he was going to have to do that. He also realized that he was not going to be able to stand up and present propositional truths. He knew it was going to be more than that, that he was going to have to be involved in their lives, that there was more than just a truth to present, but there was a life and a love to present. And I think as people of Christ who are called to be engaged in this, we too must present that. When Pete goes from door to door, I've been with him. He doesn't present just the truths that people need to hear, but he presents a life and a love to those people. And they must be presented together. And Paul knew this, and that's what he does. Paul also realized that he was going to have to find some way to bridge his world, his worldview, to their worldview. And we have to find the same bridges. And how did Paul do it? On one example here, he used their own poets. He quotes one of their own poets to build a bridge to engage them on the level they were at. And he uses their way of thinking, their resources, to challenge and engage them with the gospel. We would do well to do the same thing. To find ways to bridge our Christian worldview with their pagan worldview. And then begin to show them what the truth flows out of their thinking. Well, there are two things we want to look at here finally. Paul's method and Paul's message. You'll notice that Paul adapts his method. He changes his method. But he does not change the message. And I think that's important for us to realize. In the culture we live in, we can adapt the method we use. But we can never adapt the message when we evangelize our culture. He adapts the message, or the method. He begins by taking on what he knew was present in this group that he was addressing. There was religious pluralism. There were many different types of religious thought present in the people he was engaging. You think about our culture. How many different kinds of religious thought are you going to encounter if you're out there talking to people about Christ? So Paul keeps that in mind and he begins to adapt his method to address that. He also realized that he was going to encounter opposing worldviews. The Epicureans and the Stoics and the philosophers all had different views of God. And his involvement, was he transcendent and just out there somewhere? Or was he imminent? Was he here? Was he a pantheist? type of God. So Paul takes this kind of stuff into consideration as well. And on a practical level, Paul was willing to be laughed at. Because you notice in the text we read, when he was talking about the resurrection, they sneered. They mocked. How dare Paul the Apostle, addressing this intellectual group, this post-modern group, say anything about the dead raising from the grave. That was just, was irrational to them. But Paul does it anyway. And they began to see him as a babbler, an incoherent, chirping little bird, wondering what he was saying. Paul's message. Paul begins with theology proper, doesn't he? Notice in verse 24, he says, the God who made the world and everything in it. That's where Paul begins. He doesn't begin with Christ. He backs up to meet these folks where they're at, and he begins by reminding them, you have a creator. I think we could come up with a new bumper sticker out of this. Instead of, smile, God loves you, how about smile, God created you. That puts things in perspective, doesn't it? For people that we are engaging and evangelizing, always take them back to the first step. You have a creator with which you must deal and give an account. That raises the accountability of these people that Paul was talking to. No longer can they just shrug it off and think that they just somehow came up out of the ocean as an ooze. But they have a creator to whom they're accountable that raises their level of accountability. And we do the same when we engage people in our culture. We remind them that they have a creator. And that raises their level of accountability as you engage them. He also reminded them in verse 24 that God is sovereign. He said that He is Lord over all. Folks, we don't need to be afraid of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. It's the very basest fundamental issue of presenting the gospel. You remind them that God is your creator and that God is sovereign, Lord, over your life and all creation. That establishes the doctrine of providence in their lives. These Epicureans and Stoics thought they were just living their lives and God was off there somewhere. But this brings God very near to them and reminds them that God is a providential God working actively in their lives. He also addresses the issue in verse 25 of the aseity of God. That means that God is of himself. And here's all these people worshipping all these hundreds of false gods that they had made from gold and silver. And Paul jerks them back into the reality and says, No, the true God had no beginning. He was not made, but He is just simply of and in Himself. That's the true God that you should be worshipping. So he jerks them out of their dark understanding and pulls them into the light of the reality of a Creator, of a Sovereign Lord, of a God who is in and of Himself, totally self-existent and self-satisfied. And in verse 25, he also reminds them that we are dependent on that God. He gives them life. Even down to the point of saying it's God who determines exactly where you live. And we need to do the same when we engage people in evangelism. Jerk them out of their dark understanding and place them in the light of the truth of God's Word. Of the kind of God that they have to do with. And that they are dependent on the very breath they breathe of this God that they are denying. Well, then he goes into talking about anthology. He goes from theology, talking about God, and then he begins to talk about man. And his presentation of the gospel to these people. In verse 26, he reminds them that all men flow from one nation. From one man. And clearly, Paul is talking about the necessity of reminding people that you're not just disconnected individuals living here, but you are part of the human race, which reminds them that they are part of a fallen human race from our first father, Adam. You see what Paul does? He presents the problem to the people. You are a fallen people. And then he provides the solution to the problem, the second Adam. And it's a very effective way of presenting the gospel. And he also denies, in verse 27, he denies deism. But he reminds them that there is an eminent God that does matter. That God is not off there somewhere. That He is here, actively working. He establishes the problem of man's sinfulness and their state before God. And then he provides the solution. He also provides a linear view of history. The people that Paul was talking to and the people that we talk to have a very skewed view of history. The people in our culture see history as a circle. The movie Lion King works on that whole idea that life just keeps going around in a vicious circle. And you get better and better or you get worse and worse, but there's really no end or beginning. You just go around and around. Paul breaks that way of thinking. He says, no, God has put history on a linear line. It has a definite beginning. God is creator. And it has a definite end. God will judge you. And in the middle, he has sent the one that he has appointed to be the judge. So again, he jerks them out of their dark understanding of a circular view of history and provides for them the light of linear history. You have a creator who began creation. You have a judge who will judge you. And you have Christ in the middle, who is the man that God has appointed to judge you. That's how history works. He's a God of history. He works through history. And Paul wants to remind them of that as he presents the gospel. Well, then in verse 31, he presents the gospel proper. He lays the foundation of theology and the relationship to God. He lays the foundation of the relationship to man as fallen, needing a redeemer. And then he presents in verse 31, the Redeemer. God will judge the world by Christ. When we talk to people about Christ, we need to remind them that he is the very one that God has appointed to use to judge every individual in this world. We need to tell people that. That's part of the gospel. And also in verse 31, he was not afraid to talk about the resurrection. When was the last time in talking to somebody about Christ, you used the resurrection to present the gospel? In the midst of the culture that Paul was addressing, he knew that he was not going to have a good hearing of the resurrection. Because think back from your classes of the Greek idea of body and spirit. Anything that was fleshly was bad and evil. And all of life was one big journey to try to get free of the encasement of the human body. Let your spirit really be free into the spirit world. That's good. And then for Paul to come back and say, But Christ's body rose from the dead? That just didn't compute in the Greek way of thinking. Nor does it compute in the modern culture we live in. I've had them laugh at me when I tell them that Christ has risen from the dead with a body. But Paul didn't shrink back from that, did he? He presented the Gospel in all of its fullness. Christ as judge and Christ as the resurrected one. And as we engage the modern culture we live in, we must not trim down the Gospel because we're afraid that who we're talking to will make light of the resurrection. Paul realized that without the resurrection There is no justification. It's the very basis of redemption is the resurrection. Paul did not trim down the gospel to evangelize. Well, to sum up, Paul began with natural theology. He backs them up to the first step. God is creator. he created all that there is and he created you you are part of the human race which means you've got a severe problem with a fallen nature from the first Adam which puts you in great need of the second Adam who is Christ and who is judge and who has been raised from the dead to live forever That's the message that Paul used. He presented the cross of Christ in full and clear, unmistakable terms, using the resurrection. He controlled the conversation. He directed the discussion. We must be as bold as Paul. We go in Christ's mandate to evangelize a post-modern culture we live in. with the gospel of a risen Lord. We have the authority from God's Word to control the discussion. When you're talking with somebody about Christ, do not let them direct the conversation. They have nothing to say of value. They have already denied God. We have the words of life to guide and govern the discussion. We have the truth that will snatch them out of their darkness and establish them in the light of the truth of Christ and His risen majesty. When I thought about what might possibly be my last message to preach here, I thought, what can I leave them with? And I thought, for any group of people, as Christ's church, the best thing that I could leave any group of people with is a reminder and an encouragement that as Christ's church, we are here to be about the business of evangelizing, talking to other people about Jesus Christ, and direct our attentions to a perfect example of how to do that. In the post-modern culture we live in. May God give us courageous hearts. May God give us hearts of love. To see other people. Come out of the dark. And into the light. And remembering. It's okay to adapt the method. But never. Trim down the message. of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given to us, your church, the biblical mandate to take the good news of yourself to all the nations. You have given us authority to do that. You have given us Holy Spirit power to do that. And you have given us examples in your word of how to do that. We pray for courageous hearts to take the full gospel of Christ and snatch people from the dark. That there will be a great church singing praise to your name. So we ask your blessings on the evangelistic efforts of this congregation. In Jesus' name, Amen.