Paige is going to do my favorite letter beginning in September: 1 John! 

So in two weeks we will take a break from Acts and do 1 John. I’m going to try to stay with our usual schedule of beginning on Sundays by looking at the text before she begins teaching on Wednesdays. Then you’ll have four days to listen to her and simply make comments and give your best daily take-a-way or God shot. She doesn’t want me to give a transcript, so concentrate and pray you will hear what God wants you to hear. I advise against multi-tasking with Paige, but just take notes.

But, until then we will do Acts 17. You’ve probably noticed my change of course from Tara-Leigh-Cobble to additional sources. I think Tara is excellent, and recommend her for a solo read through, but not for a group. Here we will slow down and chew. Keller takes just Acts 17:16-21 and preaches about A World of Idols. This is a perfect set up for 1 John for John closes with what Keller says is the point of the whole letter: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Keller says that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. A person in love is never indifferent, but consumed with a desire to please the object of his love. God’s love is a consuming love, a jealous love, for He wants us in His arms, not in the arms of idols.

I’ve been reading a book by a journalist called Nothing to Envy about North Korea and how their absolute worship of Kim Jung II. He died in 2011 and was so mourned by the people, for they thought their god had died. He was as cruel as the demon gods to whom the Israelites were enslaved. Now his son is even crueler.

People were starving while he lived in excess. Yet they worshipped him. When he died, that came to statues of him and wept.  Below is one example of the thousands of statues of his father and him. These are 72 feet high. The people were so deceived, but so can we be by thinking our ways our our idols can be saviors.

This book helped me to imagine what Paul saw and felt when he came to Athens. And while we may not worship statues, we too are deceived by our idols that block our passion, stealing us from the arms of God, and bringing us misery. Below is a picture of North Korea at night. They do not have electricity, food, or privacy, yet still, they worship.

OUR IDOLS, WHETHER IT’S THE PRAISE OF MAN, THE LOVE OF MONEY, OR TURNING A GOOD THING INTO AN ULTIMATE THING, ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS BUT WILL CUT US TO PIECES.

Here is a link to the sermon for this week & next: https://gospelinlife.com/sermon/a-world-of-idols/

I recommend listening to the sermon and reading the text (which will be below) simultaneously for biggest impact.

Sunday:

1. How have you experienced the goodness of God this week?
2. What stands out to you from the above and why?

Monday: The Text

3.  Read Acts 17:16-21 and make at least one observation about each verse.

4. What particularly stands out and why?

Tuesday: Contrasting Spirituality with Christianity

Listen/Read to the Following

In our series here that we’ve been doing in the morning on the church, last week we came to talk about how the gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, changes us on the inside, how it revolutionizes us on the inside. If we end there, I think modern people can really get into that. They say, “That’s great.” Surely you notice that the newspaper articles are telling you that the supposedly secular city is filled with people who want to be spiritual.

Spirituality is a big thing, and people want now, in a way that is surprising a lot of folks … People are reaching out and saying, “I need spirituality.” But when I listen (and this is an over-simplification, of course) to people talk about it, from what I can tell it goes like this. By spirituality they mean, “I want an inward center. I want an inward peace. I want to be suffused with a sense of meaning and the sacred. I need that inward strength so that I can reach my goals, so that I can follow my agenda.”

Now the problem is that Christianity doesn’t actually fit into that model. We mustn’t listen to the Christian message in a way that tries to work it in. It doesn’t fit in that model, because though Christianity on the one hand is definitely inward transformation, it’s a whole new agenda. It’s not a way of helping you get to your agenda; it’s a whole new agenda. Put it this way. I think most people think of religion like this illustration.

Imagine you’re in a room; it’s a party. There are 20 people at the party, and you’re supposed to get out there and mix, and you just don’t have it. You don’t have the energy. You don’t have the desire. You don’t have the love. You don’t have the confidence. So you say, “How am I going to do that?” And God comes up, and he touches you, and now you go out into the party. Now you can meet people. Now you have joy. Now you have energy. Now you’re ready to mix and do the things you want to do.

That’s not how Christianity understands what the touch of God means. Christianity would say you’re at a party, and you look out there and there are 20 people. You’re sitting here, and you’re real upset because you just don’t have what it takes. And God comes up and touches you, and you feel inwardly renewed, but when you look out there, now you see 80 people. Sixty people who were invisible now are visible.

You see, in the former approach, the difference between a person who has been touched by God and a person who is not touched by God is a person who is touched by God is out there meeting people and the person who is not touched by God is sort of sitting there and needs inward strength. But Christianity would say when God touches you, you don’t just get a kind of inward strength; you get a whole new way of seeing everything.

You can’t listen to music the way you did before. You can’t relate to other cultures the way you did before. You can’t look at yourself the way you did before. You can’t relate to other people the way you did before. You relate to your government differently. You relate to your neighborhood differently. You relate to your job differently. Everything changes. Actually, the difference between a person who has been touched by God and a person who is not touched by God is not a matter of just inner energy; it’s a matter of worldview.

I’ll go further: It’s a matter of sanity, because if you haven’t been touched by God, you look at the people who have, and they’re walking around and they’re getting joy out of parts of the room that look to you like thin air. They’re filled with joy because they’re hearing and they’re seeing something, and you don’t see it at all. They’re avoiding areas that you walk right through, and then you fall down and you say, “What happened?”

Christianity does not just inwardly change you, but it transforms the way in which you relate to every part of the world. Now to understand that is important for everybody here. If you’re a Christian, you say, “Yeah, I’ve heard you say that. How do I do that?” I’ll try to give you some principles today.

What does it mean that Christianity transforms absolutely everything about my life? Modern people think religion is for the private world. Christianity will never do such a thing. Christianity says, “When you’re touched by God, it’s deeply personal, but it’s not at all private. It changes everything.” So if you’re a Christian, you need to know that.

Now if you’re not sure you’re a Christian, or you’re sure you’re not a Christian … if you’re not sure what you believe, or you’re sure you don’t believe, here’s my suggestion to you. Please listen, it’s very important, and here’s why. I can say this without fear of contradiction; I can definitely make this case, but I don’t have the time to.

The vast majority of people who don’t believe in Christianity have radically inaccurate ideas of what Christianity is. The vast majority of people who say, “I’ve had it with Christianity,” or “I’m not interested” or “I’m just indifferent to Christianity” don’t know what they’re indifferent to. That’s very dangerous. What that means is is you don’t know what you’re rejecting.

I would think there’s nobody here who wouldn’t want to know what it is they’re indifferent to. You have no intellectual integrity; it’s very dangerous. Therefore if you’re here, you need to listen to understand what Christianity is. This is a very important way of understanding it, because almost always we take our modern categories, and we take our modern views, and we hear Christian lingo, or we hear Christian talk, and we work it into our categories. We say, “Oh, it’s just like that.” But it’s not.

Now the best way to understand how Christianity doesn’t just change you on the inside but changes your relationship with everything in the world is by looking how Paul reacts in this very famous place in time. Let’s just take a look under these headings: Where he went, how he felt, what he saw, and what he did.

5. Summarize the difference between spirituality and Christianity.

6. Give an example of how God has given you a new world view.

Paul’s Marketplace and Ours

This is a harder but important section. We are to go into the marketplace. For me that has been getting to know my neighbors, or other medical wives, or pickleball players. Then we are to be not soiled by their gods and their ways, but to be the love and light of Christ. For me, the main way that has been is by being a very good listener, and not thinking about a story their story reminds me of, but drawing them out, getting to know their hearts, inviting them for coffee, truly being a friend, and finally inviting them into my marketplace, people who meet to learn more and love Jesus. This summer has been so exciting because I have a Bible study of mostly “summer women” (I live in a vacation area) many of whom did not really know the Lord in the beginning.

Wednesday: Paul’s Marketplace

We’re just going to look at these first few verses. In verse 17, he went not just to the place where people were worshiping, the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, not just the place where the God of the Bible was worshiped, but he went into the marketplace day by day. That’s where he went with his faith, into the marketplace. What do we mean? One of the problems we have here is this word marketplace is just not going to evoke the reality, because we don’t have such a thing anymore, not really. It’s the agora, the marketplace, in Athens.

What do we know about that? First of all, you have to remember this: Athens was the cultural capital of the world at that time. Yes, it wasn’t the power capital anymore, because Rome had taken over Greece, but it was still the intellectual capital; it was still the cultural capital. In the midst of Athens, there was the marketplace, the agora. One commentator puts it this way: “On, or just off, the marketplace, were temples, law courts, state offices, public archives, libraries, shops, concert halls, dance halls, gymnasiums, theaters, and galleries.”

Who was there? Everybody. It’s because there was no technology, really. Everybody was there. You had the town officials and judges deliberating. You had artists creating. You had the stock market right there; businessmen were making all their deals. You had the media, because you didn’t have newspapers, and therefore, you had to go face to face and listen to the heralds. You had the philosophers debating.

Why? You didn’t have journals. You couldn’t work out your particular field of thought through journals debating back and forth. You had to go to the marketplace. You had to have face-to-face debates. You didn’t have a stock market. You didn’t have computers. You didn’t have telephones. You had to go and actually make the deal. Everything happened in the marketplace. We have nothing like it anymore.

Therefore, this was the public space. This was the center of what set all … Because it wasn’t just wares. The marketplace was not just a place you shop for food. This was not a shopping mall. This was a place you shopped for everything. This was the marketplace of ideas. This was the marketplace of philosophy. This was the marketplace of business, the marketplace for art. This was the marketplace for everything. Everything happened here.

Because it was Athens, maybe there were only three marketplaces in the whole Greco-Roman world, probably Rome, Athens, and Alexandria … These were the three marketplaces that most had effect on the culture and society of the whole Greco-Roman world, and Paul goes there with his faith. Paul goes there. Now this doesn’t make sense to modern people, because our idea is religion is something, your faith is something for your private world. It’s something that keeps you happy and gives you inward peace, but you do not bring it to the marketplace.

7. Summarize what the marketplace was.

8. Where do people (and you) shop for ideas or get their worldview today?

9. Paul went there purposely even though it was full of lies. Why?

        10. How are you in the world but not of the world? Be specific.

Thursday: Two Voices

11. Keller contrasts the two voices we see calling out to us in Proverbs. Describe each and who each represents:

A. Find at least 5 things that describe the voice of wisdom from Proverbs 8:1-17

B. What hint do you find that this is Jesus from Proverbs 8:27-31?

C. And from Colossians 2:1-3?

D. Find at least 5 things that describe the voice of folly from Proverbs 9:

 Read/Listen to the following:

Now of course, that’s not at all what the Bible does. That’s not what the Bible says at all. In Proverbs 1, there’s a great place, and Paul must have known this when he did this. Back in Proverbs 1, what do we read? God says, “My truth is just for the insides, it just helps you in your private life, it gives you meaning”? No.

What does the Bible say? “Wisdom cries aloud in the streets; in the market she raises her voice. At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance to the city gates she makes her speech.” Now you see, why? The reason this was a shock (and it’s a shock today) is that we’re pagans again. See, paganism says, “Everybody has their own little territorial god.”

You know, there’s the god of Ephesus. There’s the god of Athens. There’s the god for businesspeople. There’s the god for fishermen. There’s the god for this … Everybody has their own god, and because everybody has their own god, that’s fine. But if you’re worshiping the god of the fishermen, you don’t go tell the businessmen how to live. If you’re worshiping the god of Ephesus, you don’t tell the Athenians how to live. Therefore, everybody has their own god, and that’s how we see it again today.

But if there is a God who is not the emanation of some aspect of creation, if there is a God who is the Creator of everything … Now, think. This is just logic. Let’s not talk about what’s narrow or not. This is just logic. If there is a God who has created everything, then that God would have to be Lord over every area, including the marketplace. You couldn’t keep this God in a private place.

So Paul moves on out with his faith, into the marketplace, into the world of ideas, into the public realm. He raises his voice; he talks every day, day by day. In other words, he says, “Shoppers!” In a place where people shop for everything, he says, “Shoppers! This is the way. Turn away from the empty. Turn away from the ephemeral. Turn away from the superficial. Turn away from the partial. Turn to the substantial. Turn to the permanent. All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.” I guess that was C.S. Lewis, but maybe Paul said it first.

That’s what’s going on here. The Athenians just wanted the latest fad, and Paul says, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date. All that is not substantial, all that is not universal … put it aside. Shoppers, this is the way.” Therefore, he was lifting up Christianity in the public place. That’s the first point. Your faith is for every part of your life. It’s for the way you work. It’s for the way you relate to other cultures. It’s for the way you participate and get enriched through art, the way you watch a movie. It’s part of everything.

12. Summarize what Keller is teaching above.

Friday: How Do I Apply This? (Challenging, but you can do it!)

Read/Listen

You’re going to say, “How do I work that out?” but let’s just, for a second … Let me remind you of this first point, and that is … that’s the way to do it. Put it this way. Somebody’s going to say (and I thought about this), “The trouble is, Paul is a preacher. So when Paul takes the faith into the marketplace, we see what he’s doing here, but how does that help me? I’m not a preacher.” That is a problem. Let me give you another example, though, just to show you that the principle, though it has to be worked out in everybody’s particulars, is the same.

In 2 Kings 5, there’s this great story of Naaman, who was the military prime minister of Syria. He was a pagan, but he was also a leper. He comes to Israel, and he finds healing through the God of Israel and through the prophet Elisha. Then we get to the place where he says to Elisha, “Now I know there is no God except in Israel.”

Then what happens? What is he going to do? He has discovered the true God. He has received his healing, both on the outside, really, and on the inside. Now what is he going to do? There are two things Naaman does not do. You can go back and read what he does do, and I’m going to tell you, but it’s worth pondering. The reason it’s so shocking is that virtually none of us get this balance down.

The first thing he doesn’t do is say, “Elisha, let me stay here. There is nothing but dirty pagans back there, idolaters. Do you know what my job is? As the military prime minister, every week I have to go with the king, the king is on my arm, and I have to go into the temple of Rimmon, and there the king bows down and I bow down. I can’t do anything like that! I can never set foot in that temple anymore. I know the true God. Therefore, can I stay here with just believers?” He doesn’t do that.

Nor, on the other side, does he say, “You know what? No problem. I now have my healing. God has touched me, and it won’t make any difference. I’ll go back; I’ll do my job, and it won’t make any difference. I can keep it to myself. There’s no reason to rock the boat.” He doesn’t do that either. He neither avoids his culture nor capitulates to his culture. He neither runs away from his culture nor privatizes his faith away from his culture.

Do you know what he says? This is something I think both believers and non-believers are shocked at when they hear it. What does he say? He says to Elisha the prophet, “May the Lord forgive me when my master the king goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow down and is leaning on my arm, and I bow there also. May the Lord forgive me. Here’s what I will do. Give me as much dirt as two mules can carry so that your servant will never make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other God but the Lord.”

I love this, because it’s so absolutely particular that nobody can dare copy it. You’re just going to have to go to the principle. It’s so easy to be wooden when it comes to the Bible and miss the principle. Here’s what he’s saying: “I am going to do my job. I’m the prime minister, and that’s part of my job. But when I go in there, I’m going to have some dirt from Israel, and my servants are going to spread it, and I’m going to kneel down, so that everyone who sees knows that I am sacrificing to the God of Israel.”

Now somebody will say, “Oh, is that superstition?” No, no, no, no, no. The dirt is not superstition; it’s witness. It’s a symbol; it’s a witness. Here’s what he’s saying: “I’m going to do my job, but I’m going to let everyone know, and that’s my way of showing people. People are going to ask me about it, and I’m going to tell them that I don’t serve the way I used to serve. Everything I’m doing, I’m doing out of honor for the true God. I’m still the prime minister.”

That will affect the way he does his work; I’ll get to that in a second, but here’s the point. He neither privatizes his faith, nor does he run away and stay away. He doesn’t run from his culture, and he doesn’t capitulate to his culture. He took his faith into his public life. He took his faith into the marketplace.

Now somebody’s going to say, “Oh. Nobody’s going to do that.” You’re going to have to work it out yourself. That was his way. Paul’s doing it his way. You have to do your way. I don’t know why in the world people say, “Oh yeah, you’re Christians. You believe the Bible; you like pat answers.” Pat answers! The Bible doesn’t give you pat answers! The Bible creates problems for you.

Don’t you feel it? If you take the Bible seriously, are you walking out of here saying, “I have to do … You don’t even …” You say, “Oh my gosh! I now see what I have to do, but I’m going to have to work it out. I’m going to have to be creative; I’m going to have to have wisdom. It’s going to take me all of my life to figure out how to do this.”

Pat answers! I’ll tell you what a pat answer is. A pat answer is to say, “There’s no truth, so basically whatever feels good, you can just sort of go with the flow.” That’s a pat answer. That takes no creativity. That takes no innovation. There’s no calling. There’s no pressure. There’s no intensity. That’s a pat answer.

Another kind of pat answer, of course, is on the other side, saying, “If you want to witness in your public life, here’s exactly what you do. Every one of you, two thousand of you, take these five things …” That’s the other pat answer. The Bible doesn’t do either. Paul goes into the marketplace. That’s where he goes.

13. Keller gave the example of how Naaman went into the marketplace yet was not soiled, but asked God for help, and was actually a witness. Give an example of how you have gone into the world, yet been able to not be soiled and even be a witness.

Saturday:

14. Share  your God shot or take-a-way!