Got a few miles in today with the wifey in the hills. Hit the falls, talked with some nice folks from around the globe, heard and felt the cold water, and trod upon terrain of which I never tire. (And the pickup truck ascending the mountain was better still.)
Intro: If we are myopic in our understanding, we can tend to think things have never been as difficult when trying to bear witness to the truth, as stacked against Christian witness, as biased against any biblical witness towards culture as what we are seeing nowadays.
Things are, one must admit, devolving rapidly. I read yesterday Massachusetts may activate the National Guard to go to high schools in order to establish some measure of law, order, and safety. The students, far from learning English, math, and history, are instead making a mockery of what government schools were ostensibly created for, namely, a very basic education in civics, self-discipline, and some grasp that the world has in fact before Taylor Swift and Instagram. But the students are having sex, running amok, ordering DoorDash to the school, are often truant, and the teachers have long lost control and hope. Things are continuing to spiral out of control, of course, but what invariably happens is order will be established but it will involve violence and/or the threat of it. When you have a culture that cannot control itself, a means of control will step in and assume control. When God’s common grace is thwarted, jettisoned, mocked, and rejected, in other words, chaos ensues because everyone does what is right in his/her own eyes. There is no transcendent unifying anchor to which all are subject, in other words, so pandemonium is the result. This is what we see unfolding on a daily basis. At its root is the abandonment of God.
Connection to Scripture: In Acts 17 Paul, too, understood this. He tries to reason with the people in Athens:
Paul Addresses the Areopagus
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:-22-34)
Encouragement & Application: Paul’s nonnegotiable remained the historical bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And the responses to Paul’s trying to reason with the people are exactly the same ones we see today. Some mocked (Acts 17:32). Others said, “We will hear you again about this” (Acts 17:32). And some believed and were saved (Acts 17:34).
Pagan chaos brought civilizations to their knees before; empires thinking the sun would never set upon them due to their expansiveness have come and gone, Rome is now a footnote in most people’s history textbooks; Athens, Greece’s money comes from tourism of their once great culture, the Third Reich is just a historical shame which gets brought up in arguments when the other side cannot think of a greater insult than to call someone a Nazi; and on and on it goes.
But if we truly care about people, we will try to tell them the truth. And when we do that, some will mock; others may give us a second hearing; and, to God be the glory, some will believe and be saved. Our job is to be faithful.
Have you ever watched a movie or read a book or seen a play and come away with this thought: O my goodness! That is exactly the way I feel. It’s like the person knows me!
I certainly have. I’ve seen The Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, Death of a Salesman, and a few other films so often that I can just about quote every line. (Most of today’s movies just don’t have the caliber of storyline and character development that older ones do, in my view. I mean, after you’ve seen 666 explosions and car chases, you grow bored rather easily. At least I do.)
What does this have to do with Acts 17 and nonnegotiables and expectations for Christians who are trying to bear faithful witness to the truth in a culture that is drunk on lies and stupidity?
Notice was Paul did. In Acts 17 as Paul was in Athens, Greece, he knew the stories the culture had imbibed. That is, he knew what they were filling their time with. My all-time favorite quote from folksy wisdom is this: What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.
Yes and amen. What does that mean? It means that a person will show you what he/she is made of by way of his/her behavior and speech.
When Paul began to argue for the Christian faith, he let his hearers know that he understood them: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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 worshp as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23).
Here’s the nonnegotiable: It is not hard to discern people’s “god of the system.” Look what they fill their time with. Look what stirs their emotions. Look how they spend their money. Do they read books or do they only watch videos on their gadgets? Do they take their worldview from social media? Do they think or only emote? The questions could go on.
Encouragement: Paul studied and knew his audience. He knew their assumptions. He saw their religiosity. Oh, they were very religious, be assured of that. They simply worshiped false gods, which is to say, they worshiped idols. But Paul “got them,” to use saccharine Super Bowl-laden sentimentality to dupe the vulnerable.
Paul got them, to be sure, but he let them know that he got them in order that he might love them enough to tell them the truth. We don’t need more entertainment, folks; we need wisdom and the courage to herald it.
In Acts 17 as Paul entered Athens he was burdened by the formidable pagan idolatry assaulting his eyes. There were temples and statuary to gods and goddesses everywhere throughout the city. His spirit was “provoked.” That is, because he knew the damning results of lies and false worship, and because he loved the truth, his spirit was both tender towards those he longed to reach with the truth, but he was likewise saddened by the overwhelming nature of false religion.
But here was his nonnegotiable: Christ had been bodily raised from the dead. He had been seen for days and days post-resurrection by disciples, by skeptics, by women, etc. 1 Corinthians 15 and John 21 are historical accounts, among many others, of Jesus’ resurrection and post-resurrection appearances to both individuals and to crowds.
Because Christ had been bodily raised from the dead, it was proof of his divinity, of his power over the grave, of all his promises that he was who he said he was. All of the promises of God, in other words, found their Yes in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).
And here’s a second expectation that you and I can count on if we’re laboring to be faithful: Expect your bearing witness to the truth to be perverted and/or twisted in ways that distort its truth and your character.
In short, audiences will slander you as the messenger (they called Paul a ‘babbler’ in Acts 17:18, e.g.) and they scoffed at the message of the gospel as “some strange thing[s]” (Acts 17:20), as if it were something to be cavalierly tossed aside, something all but irrelevant. That is the nature of the scornful, of mockers, of fools professing that they’re wise (Romans 1:22).
Encouragement: Be of good courage, Christian soldier. Paul endured it. Peter endured it. John endured it. Esther endured it. Joseph endured it. David endured it. Elijah endured it. But most of all, the Lord Jesus endured it infinitely and fully.
Why? Not just to serve as the perfect example of faithfulness, but to encourage all who will hear and attend–to teach us that we might have hope, that we might press on, that we might not grow weary in doing good, that we might be made like him through the things we suffer for his glory.
For fellow bibliophiles out there, have you read Dune? If so, is it worth my time? Why/why not?
Thanks for your feedback.
Was doing some reading tonight and came across an arrestingly true sentence:
There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories (Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essay on Fantasy and Science Fiction (London: Women’s Press, 1989), 25.
I was reading J. Chatraw’s Telling a Better Story (highly recommended) and am indebted to him for the reference.
In the following installments I explore some nonnegotiables of faithful Christian witness and some of the results one should anticipate. The nonnegotiables and expectations are both rooted in the historical account of Paul’s reasoned defense of the Christian faith in Acts 17 when he welcomed any and all skeptics, naysayers, intellectually honest, and others to deal with the facts.
It should go without saying but I will write it nevertheless. We are living in a largely post-truth era. The ultimate reason is simple. We have jettisoned God, the author of truth, and God’s revelation. We have done exactly what David in Psalms poetically reveals is the folly of the foolish:
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).
Paul teaches the exact same principle in the New Testament:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things . . . . because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:21-23, 25)
Three principles leap out at all with ears to hear and eyes to see:
The very nature of the fool is his folly. He refuses to acknowledge truth, even to his own destruction. It’s not that he does not see; it’s that he refuses to see. It’s a spiritual hardness, not a physical hardness. He suppresses what is clear and obvious. But not only does he persist in his folly by way of suppressing what he knows to be true, but he boasts in his arrogance, deeming himself wise.
I remember watching countless boxing matches with my stepfather as a boy. And every once in a while we would witness a boxer who was over-the-top brash, full of himself, hubris in boxing shorts, etc. He’d preen for the cameras, flex his muscles for the crowds, and appear to be invincible. And I’ve lost count of how many times that young man was flat on his face on the canvas a few minutes or even seconds later, unconscious, because his opponent had the power of reality and truth. That’s the way truth works. You can deny it but it hits you in the face nonetheless.
Nonnegotiable # 1:
In Acts 17 when Paul was in Athens, Greece, he was bearing witness to the Christian faith in a culture replete with pagan idolatry. I have walked and stood in the same places Paul walked on trips to Athens. It is still moving when you feel the weight of history and precedent wash over you.
But here’s all I want to leave you with today (this is just installment one of perhaps five, after all): Expect resistance.
That sounds simple but I, for one, have underestimated it in my ministry. There is no paucity of resistance to truth. So, be patient. Expect tribulation. Expect folks to scoff, to mock. But just give it time. Time has a way of revealing things.
Here’s the way Luke describes Paul in Acts 17:
Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols (Acts 17:16).
Paul, the super-credentialed Pharisee of Pharisees, a man of staggering intellect and personal testimony, was nonetheless provoked. Why? Because he cared? Yes. Because he saw the folly of the Greek culture? Yes. But most of all, I think, it was because he knew what he was up against. He was up against lies and the father of lies. He expected the resistance.
Encouragement: I am certainly no apostle Paul. But I do try to reach those who will listen. But if we underestimate the vitriol of the enemies of truth, we can grow weary in doing good (Galatians 6:9). Be encouraged, pilgrim. Expect resistance. But remember who sustains you and that even the grave could not suppress the truth that triumphs.
Thank you to my friend Justin for this picture. Justin gets what I mean by soul food:
Thanks to my buddy Jim for two pictures from his travels to the surf:
And just a few of mine from some of my time walking the hills and/or watching deer through the kitchen window:
Introduction: Like many students of Scripture I never tire of the Joseph story as found in Genesis. Joseph is a textbook case for what is known as typology—a foreshadowing, a forerunner, a hint, a type of the God-man Jesus, who was to come.
In Genesis 42, the climax of the Joseph drama is nearing. Joseph had been abandoned by his brothers earlier and left for dead. Through a series of providential events Joseph not only survived but actually rose to a position of immense power in Egypt, the world power in the ancient Near East at the time. Meanwhile, Joseph’s brothers were going hungry, along with their (and Joseph’s) father, Jacob. The boys return to Egypt to petition for provisions from the hand of Joseph, second in charge under Pharaoh in Egypt. The brothers don’t know it’s their brother Joseph. Why? Because they thought their earlier schemes to rid themselves of their brother had succeeded. They were blind to the fact that the one they’d despised and rejected was actually the one who would be their savior.
Text: In order to test his brothers as they return again to Egypt from Canaan to petition for provisions, listen to how to the story unfolds:
On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them (Gen 42:18-25).
Explanation/Principle: The brothers were finally humbled; they were brought low. They admitted their guilt (v. 21). Reuben asked one of the most profound typological questions in the whole Bible: “And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”
But Joseph, a type of Christ who was to come, upon seeing repentance and faith, did not abandon them; he restored them: “And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey” (Gen 42:25).
Encouragement & Application: If you are like I am, most days I shake my head at what I see being done to my country, to the West, and especially towards any biblical Christian influence upon culture. It is easy to grow discouraged. But when you go through Scripture, again and again we find that God grips some people such that they eventually come to their senses. They repent. They return. They recognize that there is a reckoning for his blood, so to speak.
A remnant of people is sober in their thinking such that they recognize where provision is rooted. It’s not in the wiles of men but in God and in God’s anointed.
This is how Joseph is a type of Christ. He was abandoned and forsaken by his own. Yet he was preserved by God and rose to rule the nations as his inheritance. And he forgave all who came to him in repentance and faith in order to preserve them, in order to bless them, in order that they would be saved.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/parade/2024/02/14/id/1153640
Slice of Life: Again we see violence erupt amidst ostensible celebration. This week, an innocent local woman of Kansas City, a local radio disc jockey, a mom of two, was shot in Kansas City amidst the crowds celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory over the 49ers. But the celebrations are marred now by tragedy and politicization regarding guns, etc. 22 other people were injured, and a funeral is being planned instead of celebrating the hometown team. 22 other families are dealing with injuries. Still others have been exposed to potential moral injury and questions of violence and a seeming lack of self-control. I watched the video of the violence, the trashing of the city, the melee, and then the police and other agencies move in to try and bring order to horror and chaos. Things can change quickly, very quickly, especially when some people’s emotions run high and sound judgment wanes.
Text: In Psalms the sons of Korah penned one of the most oft-quoted and powerful poems in the Old Testament book of poetry: “God is our refuge and strength,/a very present help in trouble./Therefore we will not fear though the/earth gives way,/though the mountains be moved into/the heart of the sea,/though its waters roar and foam,/though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Ps 46:1-3).
In one of his reflections, the American theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards wrote, “The church makes her boast of God, not only as being her help, by defending her from the desolations and calamities in which the rest of the world were involved, but also by supplying her, as a never-failing river, with refreshment, comfort, and joy in the times of public calamities.”
Explication: God can and does use evil to draw people’s attention to the bigger issues of light vs. darkness, order vs. chaos, and righteousness vs. rebellion.
Encouragement & Application: Good and evil are not just theological bromides or intellectual categories. They are spiritual realities that are played out in actual history by actual men and women. And when our headlines are splattered with shell casings, gurneys, ambulances, and crowds staggering with rebellious hearts and hot tempers, we ought not be surprised at the tempests.
Psalm 46 again is precise: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;/he utters his voice, the earth melts./The LORD of hosts is with us;/the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Ps 46:6).
Secularism cannot redeem because it cannot be its own savior. Redemption comes only from without, i.e., from the transcendent God, who uses evil to get all who will listen to the One who overcomes it through the melee, through the madness of crowds, through the horrors of this Kansas City tragedy, through Gethsemane, through Calvary, and even from the guarded tomb.
