Bible Verse: Colossians 3:1-4, 12-14, 4:2-6
What do you do when you disagree with someone on an issue?
In this important first sermon from our series Christian Witness in a Complicated World, Pastor Chris Paavola talks about a forgotten conversation we need to have with someone BEFORE we talk with them about any issue.
Full Sermon Transcript
WELCOME
Pastor Chris Paavola:
Well, hey everybody. Good morning. My name is Chris Paavola. I’m the senior pastor here at St. Mark and it’s great to be with you guys today. We need to jump right into it. We got a lot to talk about today, so we’re going to get right into it. But rather than tell you why today’s topic matters, I thought I would give you a few scenarios to illustrate why today’s topic is important. Three different real conversations I’ve had, but I’ve changed the names to kind of protect the people and yeah, you guys can follow along.
ANDREA
So, Andrea, we’ll start here. Andrea is the barista at the local coffee shop. You frequent and after years of spending too much money on their coffee, you’ve built a friendship with her. She likes rap music. She donates to Planned Parenthood. She was kicked out of church as a teenager because I’m gay or I’m a Democrat, it’s hard to tell, which after you tell her you’re sorry to hear that and hope someday she’ll come to your church and give it another chance. She says, I wouldn’t hold your breath. Why is that? You ask and she says, well, why would I go to a place that tells me I have to change everything about myself? How do you respond?
There’s a lot you could say in that scenario. You could talk to her about the value of life. You could talk to her about God’s view of sexuality or something like that. You could talk to her about how Jesus welcomes all people, and there’s a lot you could say.
NANCY
Next one, Nancy, as your next-door neighbor, she has a Trump flag in front of her house and an NRA bumper sticker on her car. During a conversation on the sidewalk outside of your house, you invite her and her kids to your Easter egg extravaganza. For instance, she pauses and asks you, I looked at your church’s website during the election, but I didn’t see any endorsement of a politician. Do you think I’d be happy there? How do you respond?
There’s a lot of things you could say, but what should you say? You could talk to her about we’re working to become a church as diverse as the city we serve. You could talk to her about how Jesus welcomes the immigrants and there’s a lot you could say, but should you say, let’s see if I haven’t offended everyone yet. Lemme go ahead and read one more.
JEROME
Your son’s basketball coach is a man named Jerome. He has tattoos, dreadlocks, and often wears a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. Anytime the topic of restitutions or borders or police reform comes up, he’s very vocal both on Facebook and in conversations. After you build a relationship with him, you invite him to watch your son sing in the kids’ program this weekend at church and he says, I don’t know. You tell me. When someone who looks like me and talks like me and thinks like me, sits to someone, sits next to someone at your church, what will your church think?
There’s a lot you could say. You could talk to him about Jesus’ views on immigration and how we’re working to be a church as diverse as the city we serve. You could talk to him about how we have conversations where we give grace to one another and there’s a lot you could say, what should you say?
SERIES
And that’s why we need to have this series called a Christian Witness in a Complicated World, because I’ll be honest, y’all, one month ago after the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, there has been a conversation happening in the world about sharing our ideas, having discourse of differing ideas and talking about our positions and when is it hateful and when is it worth the risk of a relationship and when should you stand up for the truth? And just trying to find the balance in that. And as I flip through the newspaper and as I flip through the news stations and as I flip through my newsfeed, I see this conversation happening. But there are a few things missing in the cacophony of opinions out there. There are things that are just missing, and I want to equip you the fine people of St. Mark to be both a godly and effective Christian witness in a complicated world.
And it’s not what you could say. What’s missing is the one thing you must say first. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. Okay? So, everyone relax their shoulders. Unclench your jaw. Breathe deep. Okay, we’re going to look at a biblical principle and actually it’s hiding in plain sight. It’s surprising to me that this is missing and bereft from all of our conversations, all of them. And we’re going to look at the principle in scripture and then make some application. And there’s a lot of places we could venture into and talk about, but I want you to join me and travel back with me to the first century in the Book of Acts, it’s this book that outlines the acts of the early church and the acts of the apostles and Christianity starts in Jerusalem and it’s largely contained to Israel.
PAUL IN ATHENS
And most of the conversation is between two Jewish people trying to explain to each other how Jesus is the Messiah. This is the bulk of the conversation trying to prove to other Jews how Jesus is the Messiah. That’s what they’re talking about. But then the conversation starts to continue and the church grows, and there’s a man named Paul who’s commissioned by the church and God to go bring the news of Jesus and talk about Jesus with the Gentiles, non-Jews and to travel to other countries not named Israel and talk to them about Jesus. And so, as he travels outside the green zone, it’s really hard to overstate how shocking it was for Paul. He grew up in this conservative Jewish worldview, and what he stepped into was a set of ethics that was antithetical to everything he believed by every measurement. According to the Apostle Paul, it is a morally corrupt landscape that he ventures into.
And around the year ad 50, he travels to the city called Athens, and when he gets there, it’s shocking. Athens, home of the Olympics, home of Aristotle, Socrates and Western philosophy home of the Parthenon that you can still visit today, Athens. But as he goes there, he’s a monotheistic guy. He grew up every day of his life saying the Lord is one. It’s a core belief. And he walks into this polytheistic city. Athens is the city that celebrates the plurality of ideas and they want to consume as much information and knowledge from all around the world because they’re trying to ascend to a higher and higher truth. And so, they’re trying to find this plurality of ideas. They just welcome anything and everything. It’s said that the city of Athens, one of the sayings about it is there are more Gods than men in the city.
We’ve excavated over a dozen different temples to a dozen different Gods temples to Mars and Venus and Zeus, and then as Paul walks into the city, he sees on the side of the road likely he sees infanticide. It was socially acceptable to get rid of unwanted children and just leave babies on the side of the road to let fate have its way. And then as he walks into the city, he passes these temples and he would’ve seen hedonistic drunken debauchery at the temple of Dion, Isis. And at other temples he would’ve seen socially accepted prostitution, homosexuality, and pedophilia.
As he ventured further into the city, he would’ve passed a Coliseum erected to celebrate the murder of gladiators. And then he gets to the Agora, the marketplace, and he sees power and corruption. He sees slavery that is unbiblical.
16 …..Paul was greatly distressed to see the city was full of idols.
Acts 17
It says in Acts 17 that Paul was greatly distressed to see the city. So he ventures into the synagogue and he starts talking to the Jews there, he leaves the synagogue and he goes to the marketplace, the Agora, and he starts just kind of telling anyone and everyone who will listen about Jesus, and there are epicureans and stoics there in the marketplace and they invite him to the Areopagues.
It’s this platform just beneath the city, and you can kind of see it there in the painting. It’s this platform just beneath the temple of the Parthenon, a temple to Athena and a giant statue to Athena. And underneath the shadow of that, figuratively and literally they have this Agapi where they talk and share ideas and they philosophize and debates and they invite Paul who’s saying these interesting ideas in the marketplace to come make a presentation. And so, Paul gives a speech in front of these thought leaders in Athens, and you can read about it in Acts chapter 17, but as he talks, it says, some of them asked, what is this Babbler trying to say and others remarks? He seems to be advocating foreign gods.
18 Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Other remarked “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching about_____________.
Acts 17
And they said this because Paul was preaching about polytheism. Nope, they said this because Paul was preaching about God’s view of sexuality. It’s one man, one woman, one flesh, one lifetime. Nope. They said this because Paul was talking about how we are made in the image of God and every life is valuable and we shouldn’t go to the gladiator games.
Nope, there’s so much he could say, but there’s one thing he must say, and they thought Paul was crazy and they said this because Paul was preaching about the resurrection.
18 They said this because Paul was preaching about the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
Acts 17
He led with this issue that a man rose from the dead and it was more important than anything, but he didn’t just do this in Athens.
SAME MESSAGE, DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS
It’s hiding in plain sight. My friends again and again and again in the Book of Acts, we see it. We see it here in Athens, but it’s the same message in Thessalonica. He preaches about the resurrection. We see it again in Jerusalem to the Pharisees and the city leaders. He preaches about the resurrection. We see it again in Caesarea as he stands in front of a king, he preaches about one thing, the resurrection.
They came to Thessalonica…As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise form the dead.
Acts 17: 1-3
They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection…..
Acts 4:2
I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection…..
Acts 24:21
It’s the issue and the further we get away from the resurrection, the more we run the risk of letting secondary things become primary things. But in the early church, it was the message A man rose from the dead. There’s a theologian named n N.T. Wright, and he writes that “the early Christians did not simply announce that Jesus was a great moral teacher or that they had discovered a new ethical system. Their message was that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead and that this event was the decisive act of God in history, inaugurating a new creation and validating Jesus’s messianic claims.”
The message was the resurrection, and this changes everything because for everything that they could say, there’s one thing they must say, Jesus rose from the dead and here’s why.
THE RESURRECTION DETERMINES EVERYTHING ELSE
The apostle Paul knew that the resurrection didn’t just determine whether you had salvation, the resurrection.
If I’ve lost you, please come back. Please, please, please listen. So very carefully, okay, this is like a linchpin moment in the sermon. Don’t miss this. The resurrection doesn’t just determine your salvation, the resurrection and what you believe about the resurrection determines how you answer every other question to follow the resurrection. And what you believe about the resurrection determines how you address every other issue in your life. It is the determining factor for everything that follows. Lemme give you a few examples. I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead because I believe God’s view of sexuality. I believe God’s views of sexuality because I believe Jesus rose from the dead. I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead because I believe the Lord is the maker of everything. I believe the Lord is the maker of everything because I believe Jesus rose from God dead. I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead because of any issue at all. What I believe about any issue at all is because I believe Jesus rose from the dead. It determines everything. What you believe about the resurrection is the most important thing to you. So why would you let any issue be the most important thing about other people in your life?
(17:48):
Why would you be more concerned about an issue other than what they believe about the resurrection?
ACCIDENTAL PHARISEES
I’m going to push in on this. When we make any other issue, the most important issue in our conversations with people, whether it’s gun rights or gay rights or the border or abortion, we run the risk of becoming accidental Pharisees, where we are more concerned with whether someone follows God’s law than if they follow God’s son. Pharisees care more about your morality than your salvation. Do those things matter? Yep, 100%. We should talk about them after we talk about the most important thing, the resurrection.
This is huge you guys, and I’m going to push in on this even a little more if I haven’t upset you enough already. But if you place any other issue above the resurrection as the most important thing in your life, there’s a word for that in the Bible. Idolatry and the resurrection and your faith in the resurrection is more important than your political views, more important than your sexuality, more important than your gender, more important than your health, more important than your family. This is what Jesus means when he says Love me above all others. This is why we call him king of kings. Lord of lords, the most high God, the most-high one above everything else.
And I think some of us today need to smash some idols and reprioritize ourself again underneath the supremacy of the resurrection. Maybe Athens isn’t the only country with temples built to idols.
AN EXAMPLE
Now the question then becomes, well, how do we talk about the resurrection in just a normal conversive way? How do we bring it up in a way that doesn’t feel coerced or like we’re Jesus juking Every conversation we’re like, this food is delicious, and we’re like, but Jesus is the bread of life. How do you do this in a way that’s not like, oh my gosh, do you not invite them to dinner anymore?
I’m going to give you an example. This is as complicated and as nuanced as your relationships, okay? You’ve got to be creative. But I’m going to give you a demonstration of how I nuanced one conversation with someone I love to the resurrection. I invited them to Easter and they said, I don’t know, it just doesn’t make any sense. God supposedly created us knowing we’d be sinners and knowing he would torture us for all eternity in hell. And then he demands we worship him from saving us from himself. There’s so much I could say. I said, those are good thoughts. Those are difficult things for sure.
I think contradictory is a better word than difficult, Chris. I can see that. I’m not sure how it makes any sense for supposedly loving God to create humans with the express intent of torturing them forever. I said, yeah, that’s hard to fathom and understand. I think when ideas make no sense and have no evidence to support them, they aren’t ideas worth believing, not things to be confused about and still believe anyway. Well, that’s not why I believe. Why do you believe then? You know what I said next, right? What did I say next? Come on. Because I believe Jesus rose from the dead. I believe he has risen. And if you came on Easter, when I say he is risen, you say, and if you weren’t here on Easter, I’m sorry for the insider language there for a moment, sorry about that.
I said, I believe because a man rose from the dead. And he goes, how can you believe that? And what followed was a beautiful conversation where I talked to him about the reliability of the gospel accounts and the painstaking work done by thousands of people to transcribe these biographies and a conversation about the certainty of his death and a conversation about extra biblical accounts of the resurrection and mentions of the resurrection from the first century, and a conversation about how the implausibility that the disciples would willingly be tortured and gain nothing for what they knew to be a lie. And it was this beautiful conversation. And eventually he’s like, man, wow, I’ve never thought about that. And I go, okay. And then I asked him the question that I preached one Easter and asked you. But I realized in writing this sermon that this is a question you should have on your lips when you talk to the people in your life. And I asked him, what do you think happened on Easter morning?
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED ON EASTER MORNING?
BE DIFFERENT
Not do you believe yes or no? No. I invited him into the tension. This is the single most important moment in human history. It is the single most important and influential moment in your life. So, invite them into the question that you have answered. What do you think happened on Easter morning? And then wrestle with it with them. Let them explore. Let them dig my friends, we got to get this right. We have to, when I turn on the tv, when I get on Facebook, I see no conversations about the resurrection. And it’s why you have the stance that you do on every issue that you do. And we have got to stop assuming that people agree with us on this thing.
14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless and so is our faith…..
1 Corinthians 15:14
We are in a post Christian culture. We are. You’ve read the stats. And just because someone says God bless you when you sneeze, or just because someone says praying for you when you’re going through a hard time, that does not mean that they believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead. They could be Muslim, they could be spiritual, not religious. They could think that as long as you’re a good person, it doesn’t matter what you believe. We’ve got to stop and we’ve got to start having this conversation. And I’m pleading with you before you respond on Facebook, before you engage in that cubicle conversation with a coworker, smash the idols, reprioritize yourself under the supremacy of the resurrection.
And when you talk to them, make sure and figure out a way to figure out what they believe about the resurrection, please, please. And it simplifies what we’re talking about it. It’s a Christian witness in a complicated world, but it’s so simple. We’re talking about one thing first, and based upon their answer of that, one thing determines how you proceed with the rest of the conversation. Now, they might laugh at you, they might sneer at you like they did to the Apostle Paul, but I love, love how the book or chapter 17 in the book of Acts ends. It’s like this encouragement for you and the conversations that you are going to have.
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysus, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Act 17
Take a look when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, we want to hear you again on this subject. And if that Paul left the council and take a look, some of the people became followers and believed among them was Dion Isis, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Demas and a number of others? Praise God. May it also be true among us in our conversations. Let me pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, it is not fun when our idols are exposed, but in this moment, God, we break them. We smash them. Forgive us for our idolatry, and forgive us for our pharisaism. Anytime we’ve valued others’, morality over their salvation, let the resurrection unite this church and fill our lips as we are Christian witnesses in a complicated world.
Lord, would you teach us how to talk about this with gentleness, with respect gracefully, but to also take the opportunity when the door is opened, to ask people to talk about the resurrection, to invite them here where they can hear about the resurrection? We love you so much, Lord, and we pray now the prayer your Son taught us to pray, saying together:
Our Father,
Who arts in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
