Packing for a Missions Trip
Across the Street or Around the World
Part 2
Acts 17:16-34
Part 2
Know the Culture
Know How to Communicate
Be Respectful
Be Positive
Be Wise
Be Loving
Thank you Jeanie.
This month we have been focusing on missions.
When we think of missions, often we think of overseas or foreign missions.
But for most of us, we will never be called to foreign missions.
Though each one of us is called to be missionaries where God has placed us in our neighborhoods and workplaces.
But even there we can encounter foreign cultures.
Have you ever experienced someone from a different culture with a different primary language trying to communicate with you?
I have.
Many of you know that before I was in pastoral ministry I was a broker at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, but you may not know that my employer was a large Japanese bank.
We were a smaller subsidiary of the bank with about 20 employees.
The leadership was made up of Japanese expatriates. They would come over from Japan for 3 or 4 years and work here before going back.
They would often learn English before coming over here.
Well anyway, I had begun working at DKB when I was about 26 years old and I worked there for almost 10 years.
Well being a small office, whenever it was someone’s birthday, the company would buy lunch.
They would take pictures and we would have lunch. No big deal.
Well one time we had a newer President who came over from Japan.
We were having a birthday lunch for someone in the office. I was usually one of the first ones up there since the staff who worked on the trading floor could not all be gone at the same time.
Well, I was up in our conference room and one of the Japanese American ladies was unpacking the lunch and our president came in and he had seen a picture of me from when I first started at the company.
Slide
If we have any Asian or Japanese visitors this morning, please forgive my bad accent and I mean no disrespect, but he said
“Ah Scott, I saw pictures of you from before. You different now. You fat.”
Slide
The Japanese American woman unpacking all the food, her draw drops to the table and she starts speaking Japanese to our president at a speed that I have rarely heard.
At this point, I can barely contain the laughter because thankfully, I am not all that sensitive and I do understand that he is just trying to relate how I have gone from someone who was kind of scrawny to someone who has added a little meat to his bones, at least that is what I choose to think.
Well, after the Japanese American lady spoke with him, he apologized for how his words came out.
Transition
But it just goes to show you that understanding and trying to relate different words in context can sometimes cause problems in our communication within different cultures.
And, believe it or not, you don’t need to be from another country to be of a different culture. In fact, it is possible that those different cultures can live right across the street.
As we finish up today talking about what to pack for a missions trip across the street or around the world, I want you to turn again with me to Acts 17 as we continue to look at Paul’s time in Athens (p. 785).
Slide
As we began last week talking about what we need to have packed with us on a missions trip across the street of around the world so that we are always ready to give a reason for the hope we have within us, we saw that the first think we needed to have with us was a knowledge of Christianity, and we talked about the essentials of the gospel.
We need to know what the gospel is and be ready to unpack that for people as the opportunity presents itself, so they might be able to receive Jesus as their Savior.
Essentials
I just want to quickly review the essentials that we see that Paul was preaching in Athens…the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
First, people must believe they are sinners separated from God or they won’t think they need a Savior.
Second that must believe that Jesus is the Christ, God in the flesh.
Jesus is not just some good person, or a man who actually lived but is not God. He is God in the flesh.
Third, you must believe that Jesus died for your sins.
Fourth, You must believe that He resurrected from the dead.
Without the resurrection, there is no hope.
Jesus resurrection proved
that He is God and has the power to forgive sins and
that there is a judgment coming, so we had better be prepared.
So that is the good news Paul was preaching. We have hope for this life and the next and it is based upon what Jesus, God in the flesh, accomplished by living, dying and resurrecting.
It is good news because it is not based on how good we are, praise the Lord.
That would be bad news, because none of us are good enough, because we aren’t perfect.
Salvation is an entirely free gift and it not only provides eternal life, but transforms our life here as well.
So that is the gospel, the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. We have neatly packed that in our bag for our mission trip.
The rest of our luggage
What else do we need to pack on the mission trip across the street or around the world.
Let’s read this again this account of Paul in Athens in Acts 17:16-34
Acts 17:16-34
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "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. 19 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? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 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. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24 "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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ’For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ’We are his offspring.’
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 man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 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 all men by raising him from the dead."
32 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." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Pray
Besides knowing Christianity and packing that in our bag, we also want to
Know the Culture
Slide
And pack that in our bag on this trip across the street.
Look what Paul did when he got to Athens.
He went around the city learning about the people and their beliefs.
Acts 17:16 – “…saw that the city was given over to idols.”
Acts 17:17 – he was in the “marketplace daily”
Acts 17:23 - …considered “the objects of your worship.”
Paul was learning about the people God had placed in front of him
Application
We need to know about the people that God has placed in front of us.
Take an interest in the people.
Care about them.
Find out what their problems are.
Be aware in your conversations with them of the things that are important to them, the things they live for.
Seize opportunities to talk with them
Understanding the culture of the people we are dealing with and that God has placed us in is important.
Some of you may say, “Well, we live in this culture. We already know the culture.”
To an extent perhaps, but it is easy for those who have been Christians for a while to insulate ourselves in the Christian community where we become a culture in ourselves.
We will speak our own language.
We will hang around with only other Christians.
We need to be part of the world we live in without being worldly.
This is not always easy.
That is why sometimes Christians will choose the easy way and isolate themselves from non-Christians and the culture.
But that is what the Pharisees did as opposed to Jesus.
Listen to Mark 2:16-17
When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?"
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
We can’t expect people who don’t know Jesus to just always walk through our front doors.
We need to be interacting with them outside of the church and seeking to know them, just like Jesus did, just like Paul was doing in Athens.
Paul was in the marketplace day after day meeting with those who were there, learning about the city and the culture, listening to discover what they believed.
Now there may be some here thinking, people need to study the word more and spend less time knowing the culture.
This is where it is hard.
Learning the culture is not a license to Sin
There will be some who use learning about the culture, not to share the good news about Jesus and the resurrection, but as an excuse to satisfy their own selfish desires.
Men
“I am going up to the bar tonight so I can interact with my neighbors and get to know the things that are important to them so I can tell them about Jesus.”
But instead of learning about them and being able to tell them about Jesus, you end up getting drunk.
Ladies
“I am going out with the ladies for dinner and to shop,” but the whole time is spent gossiping about others who aren’t with you.
We need to interact with the culture, but we need to make sure we are strong and getting stronger in the Lord so we don’t get sucked into becoming worldly instead of helping others become Christians.
That is why it is important
to have some strong Christian friends that can help keep us be grounded,
to be involved in a Bible study that keeps us focused,
to be praying to help keep us connected to the Lord.
When we are being strengthened by the Lord, that will build a desire and interest in sharing the truth of God’s word with a world that is in desperate need of good news and salvation.
We need to be testing our own heart in this matter.
If we don’t really have a desire to share the good news, we need to be spending more time studying the word.
If we do have a desire to share the good news, you still need to study the word, but you also need to be out studying the world.
Find out about what your neighbors are watching
See what your coworkers are listening too.
Discuss with other parents from your kids soccer team what they believe and why they believe it.
Then seize opportunities to share with them how the good news of Jesus has transformed your life.
Maybe as you hear this, you are thinking to yourself, I want to do that but I don’t know how to do that in a way that people will listen.
That is why we also need to pack with us, not only a knowledge of Christianity and the culture, but we need to
Know how to Communicate
Slide
Now, by communication, I don’t so much mean the words that we use, although our words will be very important, but also important are the ways in which we speak and act to communicate the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
Street corner preacher
We have all seen the stereotypical street corner evangelist crying out that we need to repent and trust Jesus or burn in hell.
Now while there is truth in the words he may be speaking, he is not communicating in a way that people are receiving.
We don’t see Paul using this approach to share the good news.
So how do we effectively communicate the good news in such a way that people will listen?
Well, we see Paul set some examples for us.
First, we should
Be Respectful
Slide
Look at Acts 17:17 – “he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.”
He reasoned with them. He did not try to ram it down their throats.
He is not screaming and yelling and acting all crazy.
He respected them as human beings with a brain.
1 Peter 3:15
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
We need to respect people, if for no other reason than they are created in the image of God and people matter to God.
And when we communicate with others in a way that respects them, they are more likely to listen to what you have to say.
Secondly, we should
Be Positive
Slide
Praise whatever positives you can find about what a person believes or is doing.
Paul began speaking in the Aeropogus by saying in
Acts 17:22 – “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.”
While their faith was in the wrong place, they desired to have faith. This is good. Find something to praise.
I can see that you really care about your family and you are working hard to make sure they have a good life.
That is what I desired to but I discovered I was not finding that for myself in pursuing my career and I really wasn’t providing that for my kids.
But as I started going back to Church, I found that what I really needed was to be worshiping the God who made the entire world and me too, and as I put my trust in Jesus for my salvation, He transformed my life.
At this point we can go into what it really means to believe in Jesus by presenting the gospel to them.
You have respected them and recognized that there is something positive about their desires.
Third, we need to
Be Wise
Slide
We need to be wise in what we don’t say.
Proverbs 10:19 - he who holds his tongue is wise.
Proverbs 17:28 - 28 Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
and discerning if he holds his tongue.
Notice what Paul did not say in his recorded discourse.
Think about this a minute.
Paul is in a land with so many altars and temples to false gods that it has been said it is easier to find a ‘god’ than a man in Athens.
He could have easily confronted them and said
tear down temples
destroy your altars to false gods
But he doesn’t.
He is wise about not starting off condemning their false and even destructive beliefs.
Instead, he was respectful, he praised the positive things about the people of Athens and told them the truth about the one true and living God who was and is and will come again.
Without a saving faith, a true belief in Jesus Christ as Savior, there is no power in a person’s life to change our false beliefs.
We are not going to alter people’s views of abortion, or superstitions, or the rightness or wrongness of various actions or beliefs by our won persuasive abilities.
Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit through the word of God is going to bring about the transformation in thinking.
Be wise about what we do and don’t say.
Finally, We need to
Be Loving
Slide
In the opening verse of this section, it says
Acts 17:16
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
He was distressed because he knew these people were being deceived and drawn away from God.
He was grieved and distressed because he loved and cared about the people of Athens..
If he did not love them, it would not bother him.
We find the same emotion being expressed in 2 Corinthians 2:4.
Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.”
Paul communicates in love.
Our communication with people must be fueled by love or it is going to be hard to be received.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1 – that even if he speaks “in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,” he is “only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
If you are trying to communicate the love of God that has been expressed through Jesus Christ in the gospel without being loving yourself, you are nothing more than a noisy set of drums being played by someone who doesn’t know how to play the drums.
Be loving. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The motto of Hickory Creek Community Church is
Love God…Love People…Live it Out!
Our love for God should propel us to love others which will cause us to live in such a way so that love is manifested by sharing the gospel with other people.
Conclusion
It is Jesus Christ who brings salvation.
The good news, the gospel, tells about who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
We have been given responsibility to share that good news with others.
We don’t soave others. Jesus is the one who saves people.
He is the one who is mighty to save.
If you are here today and can’t remember a time that have consciously received Jesus as your Savior by truly believing and confessing who He really is,
God in the flesh,
and what He has done,
died for your sins and resurrected from the dead, proving He is God and con forgive you, won’t you do that this morning.
Romans 10:9-10
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
I am going to pray and then the worship team is going to come and close us in worship.
Confess with your mouth this morning that Jesus is Lord.
Pray.
