Post Script
In the old days of handwritten letters, there were many times when you needed to add something to your letter after your signature, and so you included a P.S. or post script at the end. Every week, our pastors devote hours to studying God’s Word and writing a letter to you, the church, that they will deliver each Sunday in the form of a sermon. But as with any good letter, there are times when our pastors had more to say than the sermon could fit, and that’s exactly what this Post Script channel is for.
On September 1, my sermon “While You’re Waiting – Tourist or Missionary?” addressed the idea of “Gospel Bridges.” Gospel bridges are strategies we can employ when speaking to people that do not know Jesus that get us to sharing gospel. I mentioned four in the message; Here’s more information on the first two bridges.
Gospel Bridge #1 – We must use patient persuasion with people to truly reach them.
[17] So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. [18] Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
-Acts 17:17-18
In verses 17 the Bible states that Paul “reasoned” with the Athens, and in verse 18 Paul “conversed” with them. These words should not just be glossed over. It helps us understand the mindset of Paul as he talks with them. His goal was patient persuasion.
From this, we must see this to be our goal. People around us need to hear about Jesus. Further, they need us to take time with them and love them by being patient with them. It takes time to persuade someone to follow Christ (usually). Let’s be the kind of people that “reason” and “converse” with unbelievers.
We don’t want to gaslight or antagonize with words. We should want to love and persuade. God needs to be made known rightly in order to be worshiped rightly. As John Calvin says, “It is far better first to know God, than to rashly worship Him, whom you do not know. God cannot be worshipped rightly unless he be first made known.”
Gospel Bridge #2 – We must understand their worldview in order to lovingly correct it to a Christian worldview.
[22] So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. [23] For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
-Acts 17:22-23
In verse 22, as Paul stands in the middle of the Areopagus he says, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are religious.” He is disarming them by noticing that they are religious or “spiritual” people. Then he tells them he noticed, among all their gods, an inscription to an “unknown god.” Because he understands their worldview – that they are polytheistic (belief in many gods) – he is able to get to the heart of their wrong belief and begin telling them about Jesus – the One True God.
The “unknown god” was their “just in case god.” Just in case – in their polytheistic worldview – they happened to leave one out, they made this sign for that God. Paul saw in their worldview that within them (and every human heart) is a struggle to know the One True God. Paul does not equate the worship to the unknown god to worshiping the One True God. Instead, he tells them he can tell the are desiring to know and worship the One True God – so let me tell you Who He is.
So his approach became: Let me tell you about THE one you are struggling to worship. Let me correct your flawed worldview.
In 2024, this means that we need to make points of contact for the gospel by knowing the worldview of the people around us. They won’t have signs up like they did in Athens. But this is something we can do. Get to know them. Hear what they say when they talk about their “religious” or “spiritual” life. As you listen, their worldview will become evident.
Someone did this for us. Every one of us have are tremendously self-centered, self-focused, rebels at heart. And yet, even in that mad rebellion, God has wonderfully created numerous points of contact for Jesus’ gospel to woo us to faith. Even greater – we are all so wonderfully complex and different, that it would take multiple points of contact to woo us – and God, all-knowing and all-powerful, has created every one of these in order that we might be saved.
Check back soon for part 2 of Gospel Bridges!