Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Acts 17:22-34
Big Idea: We need to shock the culture not be shocked by the culture.
How do you share it?
- Observe the culture around you (Acts 17:22-23a)
- Connect the culture to faith (Acts 17:23b)
What do you share?
- The gospel contextualized (Acts 17:24-34)
-
“Contextualization is the taking of the unchanging gospel truth into into an oft-changing culture by re-stating the gospel in a way that is comprehensible to those who are hearing the gospel… Contextualization is speaking to the people with their terms, not on their terms.” – Darrin Patrick
- In v. 28 Paul quotes Epimenides, a Greek poet, who hundreds of years early was called to Athens to help save the city from a plague. It is supposed that it was his knowledge of the “unknown god” that helped save the city.
-
“Culture is actually formed by the belief system of the people, by the cult, which is us, the church, [it] has been historically. So if things are bad, don’t think it’s going to be solved by an election, it is going to be solved by us. When you have a healthy cult you have a healthy culture. When you have a healthy culture you have healthy politics. So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror. That’s where the problem is. And if we can through the church renew the church to really bring a healthy cultural influence, then there is some hope that we can bring change.”
“..This is a moment when the time is right for a movement of God’s people under the power of the Holy Spirit to begin to impact the culture we live in. Desperately needed. This is why I’ve been spending so much time in recent years teaching biblical worldview. Because I think that’s at the root of our problems, and once we can get that understood by the church that [Christianity] is a worldview and we have to live it and express it and contend for it, otherwise it’s not going to be there.We’re the ones who are the custodians of that. [Otherwise] you’ll see the continued deterioration of the culture and all that goes with it. So I think the responsibility has to be taken by the church for a movement that will bring back the authority and the strength and the winsomeness of the cult, which then in turn affects the culture.”
– Chuck Colson