Luke may be giving us sample sermons of Paul’s to suggest how the gospel was shaped for pagan audiences. Notice how this sermon differs from other sermons that we’ve read in Acts.

What’s out: Hebrew quotations, Old Testament prophecies believed to be fulfilled by Jesus; Hebrew titles for Jesus (Messiah, God’s Son, etc.);

What’s in: quotations from the Greek poets, felt need ("I see how extremely religious you are in every way"); connecting point between felt need and Paul’s gospel of Jesus ("I found . . . unknown god . . . what you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you").

Paul’s two poets

Epimenides:

They fashioned a tomb for you, O holy and high one-
The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!
But you are not dead; you live and abide for ever;
For in you we live and move and have our being. [1]

Aratus:
Never, O men let us leave him unmentioned,
All ways are full of Zeus and all meeting-places of men .
. . . we all have to do with Zeus; for we are his offspring.

 

What are some symbols, icons, or activities in our own culture that reflect our quest for ultimate reality? How good are we at both valuing and critiquing contemporary culture?

According to George Hunter, our two cultural challenges today are secularism and modernity, neither of which we’ve done a very good job at engaging:

The vast majority of churches have not, within memory, reached and discipled any really secular persons. Many churches would be astonished if it ever happened, because many churches do not even intend to reach lost people outside their church’s present circle of influence. Their main business is caring for their members.

. . . . In considering all of this, I have become obsessed with two questions: What kind of church can reach and disciple the growing number of secular people across our land? What can churches do to produce a witnessing, inviting people? [2]

 

In this meeting between Jerusalem and Athens, note how Paul engages the culture: he recognizes worthwhile qualities; he names a felt need, appeals to the created order, human experience, the search for God. But he also names the culture’s limitations-he suggests further realities / truths about God (immanence and participation) and about humans.

Raise the question that many in our congregations are in denial about: how effective are we at engaging our own cultures with the gospel? How willing are we to actually think about studying our culture so that we can be better communicators? How can we be equally excellent as gospel-presenters both inside and outside the Sunday morning worship service?

What would we have to do to be move toward being more effective in engaging our non-church culture?

Leave the results up to God-some will welcome it and some will reject our Christian perspective.

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1 Cited in F.F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 359.
2 George G. Hunter III, Church for the Unchurched (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 25.