Christians Need To Build Credibility & Trust
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Another thing to keep in mind is this, another lesson that we can take from Paul’s speech in Athens is that evangelism and also apologetics is a process rather than an event. Just compare Peter’s speech at Pentecost, where he’s quoting the scriptures, quoting from the Old Testament and 3,000 people respond. Wow, that’s fantastic.
Well, you look at Paul and you see a more modest response again, in comparison to Paul’s speech at Lystra, where he was stoned by a mob, this is actually quite a positive response, but Paul is engaging in what about about a pre-evangelism. These are people who are not where the Jews are in Acts chapter two. And it’s like what Jesus said to the apostles in John chapter four. Paul said, he told his disciples, “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.”
They’re amongst the Samaritans. And people are responding to Jesus as the Messiah. But Jesus is reminding them that there has been work that has gone on ahead of them beginning with the law of Moses that was given to the Samaritans and that they were following. There had been work done, and the apostles were reaping the benefits of that.
And in the same way, the apostle Paul has a longer way to go. There’s a lot more of a process that needs to be taken to get people to understand who this God is and that he has revealed himself in the scriptures of the Old Testament. And so I’ve given you this chart here, that there’s a spectrum that we ought to honor and respect of are people are in their pilgrimage. Some people might be completely hostile to any idea of truth. Truth gives them a physical reaction. When you talk about objective truth, they just get scared.
But then there may be others who say, “You know what? I think there is something out there.” Well, that’s progress on the spectrum. Then other people who say, “Well, maybe the Christian faith is true, but I’m just not there yet.” There can be a gradual unfolding, a gradual opening up. And again, all of this is a process.
And so, if we, by God’s grace, help a person move from being a relativist to believing an objective truth. That is a success. That is something that we can see the Holy Spirit at work in. Remember, that it is a process rather than event. And we see that exemplified as we compare Paul’s speech at Athens with say, Peter’s speech at Pentecost.
Another lesson that we have here from Paul is that we see the lesson of building credibility and trust. Paul himself got his facts straight. Of course, he was well versed in philosophy. In fact, stoicism sprang up in his backyard. But Paul also went around the city. He did a little investigating. And he says, “I was examining the objects of your worship.” He knew his audience. And so we too need to be well versed in understanding the ideas in our culture. We need to be engaging in those ideas.
Knowing your audience. And also, part of that is being a good listener. James 1 says, “let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak.” Unfortunately, Christians reverse that. They’re very quick to speak, very slow to listen. But I find that as you listen to people, you earn their respect. Just have them tell their story. Or sometimes people say, “I don’t know a whole lot about Buddhism. I’m going to…” No, just go and talk to a Buddhist and say, “Tell me about Buddhism.” Just learn from them. And hopefully, that will pave the way for an exchange of worldviews, an exchange of an opportunity to talk about the gospel.
Build credibility and trust. The Christian ought to be a safe place where the skeptic, where the thinker can come. We also see another lesson. Paul challenges the idolatries of his own day. Paul isn’t simply about building bridges, as important as that is. Here comes the dry lecture part. Paul also is firmly committed to the bodily resurrection of Jesus as the indication and as the vindication of the truthfulness of the claims that Jesus made during his public ministry. That they were the verification. They were God’s stamp of approval. That resurrection was God’s stamp of approval on all that Jesus said and did in his ministry.
And so Paul is appealing to this bodily resurrection. He’s not a compromiser. Yes, he will build bridges, but he’ll also stand firm on the fundamental truth that God raised Jesus from the dead. People scoffed. Yes, but Paul wasn’t shrinking from this truth. He was saying, in fact, and he talks about this in first Corinthians 15. He gives a witness list of those who saw the risen Jesus after his death.
Paul is appealing to again, historical truths, but he’s willing to challenge false thinking in his own day. Paul challenges, the false ideas of a God who can be served, who needs to be sustained by human hands. A God who needs a temple in which to live, a God who needs a statue or a shrine named after him. No, this God is above all of that. He can’t be captured by what human artists can do. Paul challenges these false things. He challenges those who are placing their trust in non-ultimate things. And directing them to the ultimate who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and raised him from the dead.
Another lesson that we learned from Paul is this. Jesus is the climax of history. Jesus is the one in whom our, as Paul said, hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Colossians chapter two. A lot of times when we’re engaging with people who are Hindus and Muslims and Buddhist. Or we will sometimes reject in our minds, everything that they’re saying, because they’re not Christians. Rather than saying, “Oh, you know what? You’re actually you’re capturing something that is very important.”
For example, the Buddhist. Read the book of James. The Buddhist believes that everything is transitory. Of course, doesn’t believe that there’s a God. That everything is impermanent. Well, the book of James reminds us that our lives are but a vapor. Now, I don’t want to say this is a Buddhist, it’s a Christian verse. But the Buddhist captures something quite true about the nature of our own finite lives.
Of course, wrong in dismissing the possibility of there being a God, but correct in reminding us that our lives are about a vapor. Well, there’s something to build on my friends. Not saying, “Oh, that’s all wrong.” Remembering that all truth is God’s truth. And that, get this, in Jesus, we see the embodiment, the historical fulfillment of the noblest philosophical ideals, of the greatest redemptive stories that exist.
I mean think Lord of the Rings and the redemption, the rescue, the battle against good and evil. We see this portrayed in who Jesus is and what he has come to accomplish. The world’s great, just even fairy tales J. R. R. Tolkien said that the gospel essentially, is an encapsulation of all the great fairy tales that exist. But the gospel, as CS Lewis said, is myth become fact. All these great ideals, lofty, ethical ideals great stories that win our hearts.
Jesus is the historical embodiment of these things. And we can use these as bridges to point people to Jesus. By saying, to the Hindu. Yes, these ideals in the sermon on the Mount are marvelous, but the Hindu doesn’t embrace the historical Jesus. And in fact, the historical Jesus is really irrelevant to the Hindu. But I would say, wouldn’t it be wonderful if these ethical ideals that you so prize are actually embodied in a historical person? That this Jesus comes to portray this, that Jesus is the one who reveals who the one true God is?
Jesus said, “The one who has seen me has seen the father.” And truly, we see that as we look at Jesus as the very highest and loftiest embodied in Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, there will be people who reject you, just like people scoffed at Paul in his message of the resurrection. But there will be some people, like Dionysius The Areopagite, or Damaris, who stepped in and embraced the gospel.
And this is exactly what Jesus predicted. There are different soils. People will have different responses to the gospel. But may it be our own task that we take upon our shoulders to be wise and winsome and well-informed witnesses. And that our lives actually embody the reality of the gospel that we are proclaiming. And so I pray that you will, as you go out from here, take up this challenge and learn some of these valuable lessons From Paul at Mars Hill. That you will see him as a model bridge builder for the gospel as you go and engage in cross worldview communication with others. Let’s pray together.
Father, we thank you for these lessons that we can receive from Paul’s speech at Athens. May we be those who are astute observers of our own culture? May we be engaging. May we be wise, careful listeners, as we listen to the hurts of other people, the brokenness of lives. May we realize that there is even a question behind the intellectual questions that people have. That there are often emotional pains and broken relationships that cloud the message of the gospel and keep people from hearing about who Jesus is and all his truth and clarity.
We ask, Lord, that you would give to us wisdom to be discerning, that we would be those who are proclaiming faithfully, the good news of Jesus Christ. And that we do not shrink from holding to the truth, even in a world of compromise. We pray all of these things, in Jesus’s name. Amen. Thanks very much for listening.
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