Good News Breaks Forth to All Cultures
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Greg Waybright
- Acts 17:16-36
- Break Forth
- 41 mins 48 secs
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Pastor's Letter
Good News Breaks Forth to All Cultures- Week 5
One of the most memorable experiences of my first visit to Japan was a train trip I took with my hosts on my first day in Tokyo. I was not aware of the fact that I, like most Americans, was comfortable with social interaction only when there were at least 12 inches between my face and the other person's. I remember being swept into the train car along with uncountable other people. Then, when I thought that the car already had far more people in it than it should have held, professional people came and shoved dozens more in. What I remember most vividly, however, was how naturally my friends carried on a conversation with me with our faces only a few inches from one another. Throughout the entire trip, I could only think, "I need more space!"
One of the most memorable experiences of my first visit to Japan was a train trip I took with my hosts on my first day in Tokyo. I was not aware of the fact that I, like most Americans, was comfortable with social interaction only when there were at least 12 inches between my face and the other person's. I remember being swept into the train car along with uncountable other people. Then, when I thought that the car already had far more people in it than it should have held, professional people came and shoved dozens more in. What I remember most vividly, however, was how naturally my friends carried on a conversation with me with our faces only a few inches from one another. Throughout the entire trip, I could only think, "I need more space!"
I remembered this last week when I was in a hotel with a mixture of American and Japanese guests. Chris and I were on a packed elevator that stopped at several floors. As we stopped, the Americans all said, "It's too full. We'll wait for the next one." The Japanese guests all walked in without hesitation. I realized that this was simply a cultural difference. I began to think about how many other differences there are between these two cultures. And, I thought of how many different ethnic and national groups there are in our world. And, I went on to think about how many different cultures there are within each national and ethnic group. There are youth cultures, rural cultures, southern cultures, gang cultures... (Such a list could go on ad infinitum.)
I went from the elevator into my room and began to prepare for this week's sermon. I read again from the Book of Acts and how God began his work to bring people from all cultures into one family that will together bring glory to him. All of God's people—made up of individuals from every people group—will someday bow the knee before our one God and Father. The church is to be a place in this world in which people distinguished culturally from one another in countless ways become one in Christ. I began to pray, "How, Father? How can our local church become more and more the kind of people in which those divided from you and from one another invite all people to know you and enter into your eternal family?"
What I saw in Acts 17:16–34 was how a Jewish rabbi named Paul walked into a very different culture in Greece to tell people of the God who is sovereign over all cultures. I want us to learn this weekend from how Paul approached the task. My only hint to you is this: The key is to know that one Person has come into this divided and dying world and turned things around through a resurrection. What he did addresses the most basic need that people from all cultures have ever had.
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Study Notes
The Good News Breaks Forth to All Cultures - Week 5 - Study Notes
The Good News breaks forth into All cultures
Acts 17:16-34
I want us to think today about the many different cultures that are a part of our world. Culture can be defined in a number of ways, but I want us to think about it as the behaviors, perspectives, values and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, particular words, gestures, and countless behaviors in the same ways. Cultural traits distinguish people in one culture from others and usually are passed on from generation to generation.
For example: I grew up in a small town, Appalachian mountain culture. When my Dad taught me to drive a car, he passed on to me that when someone in a lane next to me puts on a blinker, I should slow down and let that person pull in front of me. Everyone in my town did that. Then, I went to Chicago. The first time I was driving on the Eisenhower Freeway, I put on my blinker and expected the taxicab in the lane next to me to slow down and let me in. But he sped up and began blowing his horn when I tried to pull in. My Chicago passenger told me, "This is a different driving culture. When you want to change lanes, first you begin to pull into the lane and only then do you put on the blinker!" Then, when I went to Tokyo and tried to drive on the opposite side of the road, I knew that I was in a completely different cultural world.
Driving culture is just one tiny aspect of almost countless cultural difference we have to learn as we engage with people different from ourselves. We have youth cultures, Baby Boomer cultures, southern cultures, urban cultures... And note this: It is not easy or comfortable to understand and get along with people when our cultural ways and values are so different. In fact, cross-cultural misunderstanding is at the root of much of the conflict we see all around the globe – in the Middle East, in Ukraine and Russia, etc.
And that brings us to the eternal plan of God not only to bring people from every culture into a place of better understanding but also into one eternal family. It was sin that separated people from one another. It is God's plan to bring about reconciliation among people, both to Himself and to one another. In the book of Ephesians, Paul declared it was God's eternal plan to do this. The only mystery was this: How would God do it?" The Bible's answer is, "In Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ brings us together." But, how is that message of God's good news coming to all cultures to be communicated across so many cultural divisions?
Acts 17:16-34 and God's Gospel Coming to Athens
That brings us to Acts 17 and the Apostle Paul's seemingly coincidental visit to the city of Athens, Greece. Athens was the educational, cultural and entertainment center of the ancient world. It was the native city of Plato and Socrates and the adopted city of Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno. It was a place of ongoing philosophical discussion and of enormously divergent religious opinion. There were temples and idols everywhere in the city. In other words, this was a very different culture from the Apostle Paul's.
Religion was at the heart of the cultural differences there: Up until this point, Paul had dealt exclusively with people who believed that there is only one God in the world. Paul always first looked for a synagogue in a city when he went in. The worldview of his fellow Jewish people was that there is one God, the Maker of everything that exists. We have already seen that Gentiles had started coming to faith in Jesus before we get to Acts 17. But, for the most part, the Gentile converts had been "God-fearers", i.e., people who had rejected the idea of "many gods" and were searching for the one God who is over all.
So in Acts 17:1-10, Paul went into a synagogue and pointed the people there to the prophecies in the Bible about a Messiah. Then Paul said that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. And a large number of Jews and God-fearing Gentiles believed (v.4). The same thing happened in Berea in 17:10-12. Paul's approach began with the Bible. Day after day, the Jewish people and God-fearers studied the Scriptures with Paul until we read in v.12, "As a result, many of them believed."
Of course, these conversions to believe in Jesus didn't happen without controversy. People upset with this message abut Jesus being the Savior of the world tried to end Paul's ministry – so Paul was run out of Berea and unexpectedly ended up one day in Athens, Greece waiting for his ministry partners, Timothy and Silas. But Paul did not see this development as being a waste of time or even a time for being a tourist. No, he saw his being there as a divine appointment. What did he do?
First, Paul went to a synagogue and reasoned with the Jewish people and the God-fearers there. I'm sure he did this as he always did, i.e., by going through Scripture with them carefully. But, these people, i.e., those who believed in one God over all gods, comprised a tiny minority in Athens. So...
Second, Paul went into the Marketplace, the "Agora". This wasn't just a shopping place but the center of community life. It was energetic and alive with people heralding the news of the day, discussing their philosophies, dialoging about politics, and promoting their religions. Athens' Agora: http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/bd/5a/59/caption.jpg.
Some of our UC Berkeley students have told me this is a lot like walking through Sathergate into the main gathering place on campus called Sproul Plaza: http://berzerkeley.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/03-04sathergatefront.jpg. Student groups try to recruit people there. Political issues are bantered about there. It's the center of community life.
When Paul went to the marketplace, he encountered people who had very different views about God and the world. (Just like a student who had graduated from Maranatha High School would experience when he or she goes to a state university.) Most of the people in the Agora were polytheists. In one section of the Agora, there was a huge section of idols – statues big and small. And on the hillside towering over the Agora, there was the Parthenon: http://www.democratic-republicans.us/images/athens-parthenon-night-big.jpg. The Parthenon was a temple of ongoing religious activity including magic and prostitution. Enormous statues of various gods surrounded it: http://taylorseast.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dsc07518.jpg.
While Paul was dialoguing with the polytheists, two other groups came to talk with him, the Epicureans and Stoics. The Epicureans did not deny that there were deities in this world but they scoffed at the idea that gods care about how people conduct their lives. So, they were "Deists", people who believe in spiritual reality but that God doesn't concern himself with human affairs. In fact, they believed that we are free from the fear of gods holding us accountable for our conduct. They said we are free to pursue lives of happiness and pleasure without reference to gods. (Sounds a lot like our culture, doesn't it?)
And the Stoics, in their religious viewpoints, were basically pantheists. They saw each human being as being a part of a whole connected reality. They said we find contentment through accepting that we should not struggle against the forces in our universe because we're a part of it. Religiously, the Stoics would be closest to philosophical Buddhists. They called people to be at peace with things being the way they are.
As Paul talked with all these groups, there were times of misunderstanding. Some of them called him a babbler, i.e., a man who was stringing together a lot of random ideas. They may have misunderstood what he meant by the word "resurrection" in v.18 because that word was sometimes associated with a goddess.
But, according to v.17, Paul kept at it. He went back to the Agora "day after day" and reasoned with the people. I'm sure it was a learning experience for him. Paul was learning how other cultures viewed the world, how they thought, and what they valued. And it gave him an opportunity that was huge:
Third, Paul went to the Areopagus (Mars Hill). This word, "areopagus", was used both for a body of influential people in Athens and for the hilly area where they met in the Agora to hear disputes and receive input. After all these days of dialogue, Paul had earned the privilege of going before this body of leaders. When they met, crowds gathered to listen in too – so this was an enormous evangelistic opportunity. The speech Paul made is one of Paul's three major speeches Luke recorded in Acts. But this one is very different from the other two. Remember that the other two were given to people who already believed that there is one God who is sovereign over everything in the universe. Here, Paul's approach has to be different.
What do we learn from him? (Of the many things I think we should learn, I've picked out just a few.)
#1: We must know God personally ourselves.
We cannot grasp what happened in Athens without remembering that Paul had met the one true God personally – through faith in Jesus. It was so life-changing for him that the story is told twice in Acts, both in Acts 9 and 26. For Paul, God was not a philosophy or intellectual concept. No, God was real. That means that Paul knew that he was not a part of the deity as the Stoics believed. He knew that God was not distant from the world as the Epicureans believed. He knew that God is here, that God knows us, that God cares about us and that God has a way he has created us to live. And Paul knew that these statues of "gods" he saw all around him were not God.
When you grasp that Paul had a real and personal relationship with God, then his response to what he saw makes sense. It gave him the confidence to say boldly, "These things you believe about God need to be expanded in an infinite way. God is bigger than anything you have every even imagined." For Paul, this was not a philosophical discussion. It was clarifying the identity of the Person who had changed his life.
Have you met God? If you have, you will listen to how people talk about God in a different way. And, when you have met God, you will also deal with people differently too.
#2: We must deal with people personally and respectfully.
A part of our own culture is that we have become increasingly polarized. We don't have many places like the Agora in our society where people can sit down and talk to one another and listen to one another. Instead, so often we talk at one another. If we disagree about matters of politics or faith, we call people names and refuse to associate with them.
Paul shows us a better way. As he began, the Bible says in v.17 that he "reasoned with" people day after day. Lawyers among us will probably recognize the term for what Paul did, i.e., dielegomai. You may hear the word "dialogue" in that Greek word. This was a very special word to the people in Athens because it spoke of the way Socrates engaged in teaching. We still call it the "Socratic method." It's not one way communication but a method by which questions are posed and answers are sought together. Only people who respected one another and listened to one another could do this well. And that's what Paul did. He didn't just yell at the people or call them names. He sat down and listened. And he did it over and over again until he gained understanding and he began to impart understanding. At first, they called him a "babbler" but eventually he won a hearing. They said in v.19, "We want to know about this new teaching you're presenting. Your teaching is still strange to our ears and we would like to know what you mean."
This sort of relationship building takes more time. But it is consistent with the life of Jesus. Jesus did not simply give us a message. He came personally. And he sends us as he was sent. He experienced what we experience. He knows us and understands us. He speaks to our real needs. That's what we need to do too.
Jason Emmanuel Petty is better known by his stage name Propaganda. He is a spoken word artist and poet from Los Angeles, California. In one of his spoken word poems, he calls us to do what the Apostle Paul did in Athens: to move into the lives of people, become a part of the culture and of the community, and be Christ's ambassador of reconciliation wherever we are. Here's a part of his poem, Justice & the Gospel:
You can have a heart that breaks for a dying city, yet have nothing to offer them.
Wait! There's the problem: "Them!" There is no them. Them is us!
Culture is you. It's me. We. We're our city.
We're the culture. So we too are the problem.
And our Savior: He, he wasn't a commuter.
He moved in. He spoke the language of the broken.
He spoke our language...
The culture is us. It's you. We're participants.
How could we possibly be the solution?
We need someone to move in! And, the Savior moved in.
This is your city. He came and walked the streets of your soul.
And you, in the same vein, must move in.
You go. You pray that the gospel prospers.
'Cause if it prospers, you will too.
So, like Jesus and Paul, we are to develop relationships of respect with people around us and understand how people think, what they enjoy, and how they hurt. As we gain understanding, out of our love for people we will know what to say to them -- for we will long for others to know the life we have in Jesus.
#3: We sometimes must begin with a simple message about who God is.
Standing there before the intellectual leaders of Mars Hill, Paul could see the many gods all over the marketplace. And he could look up and see the Parthenon too with its temple and gigantic statues in gold. http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-12/areopagus-at-dusk.jpg. I imagine him saying, "Look at all this. I have learned from being here that you know there is something bigger in this world than just the normal mundane things that happen. You even sense that there is a God you do not know for you have kept here an altar dedicated to 'an unknown God.' You don't know the very One you have been made to worship. I am here to tell you about him now.
The God you were made to worship made everything. And he doesn't live in the Parthenon for he made everything that is. He made all people. Yes, he made you. So, God doesn't need you to bring him things so that he might be manipulated into giving you what you want. No, you need him! You were made for him. You are God's offspring. It's not possible for the offspring to make the one who made us! God has always been and he has been patient with people but now he has made himself known. The eternal God now calls all people to repent of their sins and of worshipping other gods and to believe in him"
More and more, I am convinced that we need to start in our witness where Paul started, i.e., with careful discussions of who God is and what God is like. People have such strange ideas of what God must be like. As a hint: Genesis 1-2 will be a great help to you in talking about God -- just as it was to Paul.
#4: We must find the courage to call people to know God through faith in the resurrected Jesus.
There is an obvious question begging to be asked in all this: "Paul, how can you know that your God is the only real God in the face of all these 'gods'?" Just as v.18 tells us Paul was constantly "proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection", Paul returned to Jesus and the resurrection at the culmination of his sermon. Paul said, "God has given us proof of my message by raising him from the dead."
Remember all the cultures converging here in Athens. Why is it that in Athens – as every city in Acts – the issue of resurrection is central? I suggest at least two reasons for this. One is that our faith is not like other religions. It's not about rituals and activities we have to do in order to please the deity. As Tim Keller says, "The Christian faith is not advice to be followed but good news to be believed." So Paul announces that, "God came and defeated death by a resurrection. We saw him die and we saw him alive. The greatest enemy in this world has been defeated."
I think the other reason the message of resurrection from the dead is relevant to all cultures is that death affects people no matter what culture we are a part of. We live in a dying world. The natural course of our world is that things deteriorate. All cultures know this. The Maple Street Building was well built but it is deteriorating. Grass withers. People grow old and die. But when Jesus came into this world, his resurrection from the dead announced a new beginning. The unrelenting enemy called death met a greater Master. Its sting has been taken away. The necessity of dying in this world has been turned around. Death has been swallowed up and eternal life is offered to all who follow the one resurrected Lord Jesus. This is our great hope in this world. Death and disease and old age – these are not terminal things. When we encounter people from any culture, we can know that they need to know that there is a certain hope in this dying world. Jesus is risen. That's why we must always talk about Jesus to any culture.
So Paul called people to join him and the community of faith in this new life with the one true God. Some sneered (v.32a). Don't be discouraged when that happens. Some knew they needed to hear more (v.32b). I find that frequently is the case when people hear about a message about the one true God for the first time. Be ready for the long haul. And, praise be to God, some believed (v.34). And, there are still people following Jesus in Greece today. Why – we even have Greek believers at LAC!
I call you today to repent of your sin and to believe in Jesus today. And, I send you today to look for chances to sit down with people, to find out how people think about important things, to be patient as you engage in dialogue, and always to tell them about Jesus. Some will believe. God will be pleased.
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2014, Lake Avenue Church
Chinese Translation
The Good News Breaks Forth to All Cultures - Week 5 - Study Notes - Chinese Translation
福音衝破文化的藩籬
使徒行傳17:16-34
不知大家想過沒有：在我們這個世界中會有如此眾多的文化。文化能夠以不同方式加以定義，但我想讓大家從某一特定社會、種族、年齡群體的行為、思想、價值觀和信仰來思考。某一文化內的群體會使用相同的符號、特殊的詞語、手勢和無數的行為來表達一個意思。文化特徵使不同文化的群體區別開來，並且代代相傳。
舉例來說：我是在一個小鎮中長大的，屬於Appalachian山脈文化。當我父親教我開車的時候，他告訴我，如果我邊上有個車在閃燈，我應該減慢速度讓他到我前面去。我們鎮上的每個人都這樣做。後來，我去了芝加哥。當我第一次在Eisenhower高速公路上駕車時，我閃燈希望邊上車道的計程車減速讓我過去。但當我想要進去的時候，他加速並且按喇叭。坐在我邊上的芝加哥本地朋友告訴我，“這是不同的駕駛文化，當你要變換車道時，只有當你開始切入車道時才能閃燈！”而當我去東京時，我是在左邊的車道上駕駛，我知道我是在完全不同的文化世界中。
駕駛文化只是我們要瞭解的無數文化差異中的很小的一方面。我們有青年文化、嬰兒潮文化、南方文化、城市文化……請注意：當我們的文化方式和價值觀很不同時，彼此理解和相處並不是件容易和舒服的事。事實上，文化間的誤解是造成我們看到的很多全球衝突的根源——在中東，在烏克蘭和俄羅斯，等等。
這讓我們想到神的永恆計畫，它不僅使不同文化的人們相互理解，也把人們帶到一個永恆的家。本來罪人們彼此隔絕，神的計畫帶來人與人、神與人之間的和解。在以弗所書中，保羅稱只有神的永恆的計畫能夠做到這一點。而神秘之處在於：神如何能做到？聖經的答案是：“在基督裡。在耶穌基督裡的信心把我們連在一起。”但是，神的福音信息如何能夠跨越如此多的文化差異讓所有文化聯合？
使徒行傳17:16-34：神的福音進入雅典
這把我們帶到使徒行傳17章，使徒保羅似乎恰巧造訪希臘的雅典城。雅典是古代世界的教育、文化和娛樂中心。它是柏拉圖和蘇格拉底的出生地，也是亞里斯多德、伊壁鳩魯和齊諾成長的地方。這個地方充斥著持續不斷的哲學論辯和各種不同的宗教觀點。這個城市裡到處都是神廟和偶像。換句話說，這與使徒保羅的文化很不相同。
在那裡，宗教是各種文化分歧的核心：在此之前，保羅只需要應對相信世界上只有一位神的人。保羅首先找了一座猶太會堂，就走進去。他的猶太夥伴認為世界上只有一位神，是世上萬物的創造者。在我們進到使徒行傳17章以前，我們已經看到了外邦人開始信耶穌。但是，在多數情況下，外邦人人信徒都是敬畏神的人，也就是說，他們是拒絕多神思想的人，在尋找一位超越一切的神。
因此，在使徒行傳17:1-10，保羅進到猶太會堂，告訴人人們聖經中關於彌賽亞的預言。然後保羅說，耶穌實現了這些預言。很多猶太人和敬畏神的外邦人就信了（v.4）。同樣的事情還發生在庇哩亞（17:10-12）。保羅的方式是從聖經開始。在12節中我們看到，猶太人和敬畏神的人天天和保羅學習經文，結果很多人信了。
當然，這些人的轉變並非是毫無阻礙的。當有些人聽到耶穌是世界救世主的信息，他們想要結束保羅的宣教——因此保羅逃出了庇哩亞，結束了在希臘雅典的一天，等候他的宣教夥伴提摩太和西拉。但是保羅沒有把這看做是浪費時間或者只是旅遊觀光。他把這看做是神的安排。他做了什麼呢？
第一，保羅去了會堂，給那些猶太人和敬畏神的人宣講道理。我相信這是他一直做的事——和這些人查考聖經。但是，這些人，就是相信有一位在諸神之上的神的人，只是雅典人中很少的一部分。因此，保羅接下來有做了另一件事。
第二，保羅去集市。這不僅是買賣東西的地方，也是社區生活中心。在那個時候，是人們宣告信息、探討哲學、進行政治對話和推動宗教的地方。
加州大學伯克利分校的一些學生告訴我，這很像是今天校園的Sproul Plaza。學生們團體在那裡招收新人。在那裡可以隨意談論政治話題。那是社區生活中心。
當保羅到了集市，他遇到一些對神和世界持不同觀點的人。（就像從曼哈頓高中畢業的學生進入州立大學時所經歷的。）在集市的大多數人是多神論者。在集市的一個地方，有很多偶像——就是大大小小的雕像。集市上面的山坡上有帕台農神殿。神殿是進行包括巫術和淫亂在內的宗教活動的廟。環繞神殿有很多各種神的雕像。
當保羅和這些無神論者對話的時候，另外兩個群體開始和他講話，就是伊壁鳩魯派和斯多亞派。伊壁鳩魯派不否認世界上有神，但他們嘲笑人們認為神會關心他們生活的觀點。因此，他們是自然神論者，他們相信有靈界，但神並不關心人的事情。實際上，他們認為我們我們無須敬畏神，人對自己的生活負責。他們說我們要追求享樂，不必去考慮神。（這聽起來有點像我們的文化，是不是？）
而斯多亞派，他們宗教觀點是基於泛神論。他們看到每個人是整個相互關聯的存在的一部分。他們說我們不必與我們這個宇宙裡的力量抗爭，因為我們是其中的一部分。從宗教上講，斯多亞派是哲學上的佛教。他們號召人們安於現狀。
當保羅與這些不同的人群交談的時候，發生了很多的誤解。其中有些人稱保羅為“胡言亂語的人”，也就是說，一個將很多隨機的想法編織在一起的人。他們也許誤會了在18節中保羅提到的“復活”這個單詞的意思，因為這個詞有時候與女神相關聯。
但是，根據17節的內容，保羅一直堅持這麼做。他“日復一日”地回到希臘的集市與人們講道理。我敢肯定這對他來說是一次學習的經歷。保羅正在學習其他文化是如何看待這個世界的，他們如何思考，他們的價值觀如何。這就給他提供了一個很好的機會。
第三，保羅來到阿勒奧珀格斯山（亞略巴穀，希臘神山）。“阿勒奧珀格斯山”這個單詞有兩層意思，一是指在雅典有影響力的一群人，二是指這片山地，人們在集市上聚集來聽取辯論並接受信息。在這麼多天的對話後，保羅贏得了能夠來到這群領導人之前的特權。當他們聚會的時候，人們也聚攏過來傾聽——所以這是一個很棒的傳福音的機會。保羅所做的演講是路加在使徒行傳中記錄的保羅三大演講之一。但是這場演講和其他兩場完全不同。請記住另外兩場演講的聽眾是已經相信僅有一位真神掌管宇宙中的一切事物。而在這場演講中，保羅的切入點必須是不一樣的。
我們從他這裡學到了什麼？（我想從我們應該學習的很多內容中，我僅僅選擇了幾點。）
#1:當我們個人遇見神的時候，認識祂就會改變我們所說所做的一切。
如果我們不記住保羅個人遇見唯一真神的經歷——借著對耶穌的信仰，我們就無法理解雅典發生的事情。這個經歷是如此的改變生命，以至於使徒行傳中提到了兩次這個故事，分別在9章和26章中。對於保羅而言，神並不是一個哲學或知識概念。神是真實的。這意味著保羅知道祂並不是禁欲主義者們相信的神性的一部分。他知道神離享樂主義者相信的世界並不遙遠。他知道神就在這裡，神瞭解我們，神也關心我們，神有祂創造我們去生活的方式。並且保羅知道他在周圍看到的很多“神”的雕像並不是真神。
當你理解了保羅和神有一個真實的個人關係，那麼他對所看到事物的反應就講得通了。這給了他信心勇敢地說，“這些你們所相信的關於神的事情需要以一個無限的方式去拓展。神比你想像的任何事物都要大的多。”對保羅而言，這並不是一場哲學討論。這是在澄清一位改變他生命的“人”的身份。
你遇見過神嗎？如果你有，你就會以不同的方式傾聽人們如何談論神，並且當你遇到神的時候，你也會以不同的方式來待人接物。
#2當我們接受人是按神的形象被創造的時候，我們就願意花時間去與人相處，和他們談話，並努力去理解他們。
我們的部分文化是人與人之間的距離越來越遙遠。在我們的社會中並沒有很多像希臘集市這樣的地方，人們可以坐下來，互相談論並傾聽對方。相反，我們經常不停地對對方說話。如果我們不同意關於政治或信仰的觀點，我們就會罵人並拒絕與他們聯絡。
保羅向我們展示了更好的方法。當他開始的時候，聖經在17節中說他日復一日地與人們“講道理”。我們中的律師可能會認識可以描述保羅行為的單詞，也就是，“dielegomai”。你也許聽到過希臘單詞中“對話”這個詞。這對雅典的人們來說是一個非常特殊的單詞，因為它提到了蘇格拉底在教學中使用的方法。我們仍然稱它為“蘇格拉底方式”。它不是單一的溝通方式而是一種提問並且一起尋找答案的方法。只有當人們彼此尊重，彼此傾聽，才能很好地做到，這就是保羅所做的。他並沒有僅僅朝著人們吼叫或者罵人。他坐下來傾聽，他反反復複地這麼做直到他開始理解人們並且開始給予理解。剛開始，他們稱他為一個“胡言亂語的人”但是最終他贏得了傾聽。他們在19節中說，“我們想要知道您所展示的這種新的教學，你的教導對我們來說仍然陌生，但我們想要知道你的意思。”
這種關係的建立很花時間，但是它與耶穌的生命是一致的。耶穌並沒有簡單地給我們一個信息。祂以個人的方式來到我們中間，並且祂差派我們，正如祂被差派一樣。祂經歷了我們經歷的事情，祂知道我們並理解我們。祂對我們真正的需求說話。這也正是我們需要做的。
Jason Emmanuel Petty，更為人熟知的是他的藝名Propaganda。他是位來自加州洛杉磯的口語藝術家和詩人。在他的一首口語體詩歌中，他呼籲我們要按照使徒保羅在雅典所做的那樣去行：進入人們的生活中，成為他們文化和集體的一部分，無論我們走到哪裡都能成為基督調和的使者。這是這首詩的節選：公義和福音（Justice & the Gospel）：
你可以為一座垂死的城市心碎，卻沒有什麼可為他們做的。
等等！問題在這裡：「他們！」這裡沒有他們，他們就是我們！
這文化是你，是我，我們。我們就是我們的城市。
我們就是那文化，所以我們自己也就是那問題。
然而我們的救主：祂，祂不是一位過客。
祂來到我們當中，祂說著我們不完全人的語言，
祂說著我們的語言......
這文化是我們，是你。我們身在其中。
我們怎麼可能成為自己的答案？
我們需要有人來到我們當中！那位救主便來到我們當中。
這是你的城市。祂來到這裡，行走在你靈魂的街道上。
而你，同樣，要進入人群中去。
去吧！為著福音的興盛而祈禱。
因為當福音興盛之時，你的生命也將如此。
因此，正如耶穌和保羅，我們要尊重身邊的人並和他們建立聯繫，去瞭解他們是如何思考的，喜歡什麼，受過什麼樣的傷害。當我們瞭解了他們，出於對人的愛，我們就知道該對他們說些什麼——因為我們渴望別人瞭解我們在主裡的生活。
#3:有時我們必須從經文中神開始的地方開始：用一種別人聽得懂的語言來傳講關於神是誰的信息。
站在Mars Hill博學的眾領袖面前，保羅看見那市集上有許多神。而且他一抬起頭就能看見帕台農神廟的殿宇和它那巨大的金像。我想像他在說，“看看這些吧。來到你們這裡我就明白了你們是知道這世上有些東西是大過凡塵俗事的。你們甚至已經意識到了這裡有一位元你們不認識的神，因為你們已經在這裡建了一座祭壇來供奉那位‘未識之神’。你尚未認識那位元造你們來敬拜祂的神。現在我來這裡就是要告訴你們這位神。
那一位造你來敬拜祂的神創造了天地萬物。祂並不住在帕台農神廟裡，因宇宙萬物都是祂造的。祂造了所有的人。是的，祂也造了你。所以，神並不需要你給祂物品，好使你來操縱祂賜給你你想要的。不，是你需要祂！你就是為祂而造的。你是神的產物。受造物去創造那位創造我們的，這絕不可能！神一直存在，且對人存有耐心，但現在，祂已向我們彰顯了。這位永生神如今召喚所有人來悔改，認他們的罪，認那些拜別神的罪，來單單信靠祂。”
我越來越深信，我們要從保羅開始的地方開始我們的見證。謹慎地去討論神是誰，神是什麼樣的。關於神是什麼樣子的，人們會有一些奇怪的看法。作為提示：創世紀1-2章會在你談論神時對你大有幫助——正如它如何幫助保羅一樣。
#4: 我們必須找到勇氣來呼召人們通過死裡復活的耶穌來認識神。
還有一個顯而易見的問題：“保羅，面對這麼多的‘神’，你怎麼知道你的神是唯一真神呢？”就像V.18 告訴我們保羅不斷地“傳講耶穌和復活的道”，在佈道進行到高潮時，保羅就回到耶穌和復活。保羅說，“神祂從死裡復活，已為我們提供了憑據，證明了我傳講的信息。”
要記得雅典彙聚了所有的文化，為什麼在雅典——正如使徒行傳裡所有的城市一樣——復活問題是個中心問題？我認為這至少有兩個原因。其中一個原因是我們的信仰不同於其他的宗教，它不是為了取悅神明而必須進行的一些宗教儀式和活動。正如Tim Keller所說，“基督的信仰不是應遵循的建議，而是應相信的好消息。”所以保羅宣稱，“神來了，且復活了，勝過了死亡。我們見到了祂死，也見到了祂復活。這世界上最大的敵人已經被勝過了。”
我認為另一個原因是，死裡復活的信息與所有的文化都相關，因為死亡影響所有的人，不管我們屬於哪種文化。我們活在一個垂死的世界中。我們這個世界的自然過程就是，所有的東西都在衰敗消亡。所有的文化都認識到了這一點。楓樹街的大樓建造得很好，但卻正在衰敗變舊。草會枯萎，人會變老死去。但是耶穌來到這個世界，祂從死裡復活，宣告了一個新的開始。這位叫做死亡的無情的敵人遇見了更大的主人。它帶來的刺痛被拿走。在這個世界上，死亡的必要性已被翻轉。死亡被吞沒，永生被賜予所有跟隨那位死裡復活的主耶穌的人。這是我們在這個世上最大的盼望。死亡、疾病、衰老——這些不再是終極的事物。當我們遇到來自任何文化背景的人，我們都應明白他們需要知道在這個垂死的世界上有這樣一種盼望。耶穌已復活。這就是為什麼向任何一種文化我們都總是必須傳講耶穌。
因此保羅呼召人們和他一起加入信仰的集體，和唯一真神一起，活在全新的生命裡。有些人譏誚他（V.32a）。當發生這樣的事時，不要灰心喪氣。有些人知道他們需要再多聽一些（V.32b）。我發現這種情況在人們第一次聽到關於獨一真神的消息時很常見。要為這漫長的旅程做好準備。而且，感謝讚美神的是，一些人真的相信了（V.34）。而且，在今天的希臘，仍然有人跟隨耶穌。為什麼——因為甚至在我們LAC就有來自希臘的信徒！
我今天呼召你認罪悔改來相信耶穌。並且，我差遣你們去尋找機會和人們一起坐下來，去瞭解他們是如何思考一些重要事情的，在和人交談時要耐心，總是要和他們傳講耶穌。總有一些人會相信。神會因此而喜悅。
榮耀歸於神，
葛列格博士
主任牧師
Study Guide
The Good News Breaks Forth to All Cultures - Week 5 - Study Guide
The Good News Breaks forth to all cultures
Acts 17:16-34
- In this week's Bible passage, we find Paul unexpectedly waiting in Athens, Greece for Silas and Timothy to join him. He was therefore in the cultural and philosophical hub of the world. From 17:16–17, describe how you think Paul felt about what he was seeing. What would you have done there?
- Read vv. 18–21. What seems to have been Paul's central message to people who had never heard of Jesus? How did he go about his witnessing? What do you learn from this?
- Read through Paul's public address found in vv. 22–31. List the main points he made in his speech. In what ways does it seem to be different from sermons Peter and Stephen preached to all Jewish audiences?
- We also live in a society in which an increasing number of people have little knowledge of Jesus. What might we learn about communicating the gospel in Southern California from Paul's speech?
- The resurrection seems to have been central to Paul's testimony (vv. 18, 31–32) wherever he went and to whomever he spoke. Why do you think that is the case? Should this be true of our witness today?
- How did people respond to Paul's witnessing according to vv. 32–34? What should we learn from this?
- What is the main thing you hope to apply to your life from this week's study?
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