Welcome back to the podcast! Cultures create an environment for faith or disbelief, so today we'll be looking at the question: is your culture keeping you from God?
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Q. Is Your Culture Keeping You from God?
- Last week (ch 16) we looked at households of faith
- parents create an environment for faith or disbelief
- Generational blessings and curses
- The greatest generational blessing: salvation
- Today: we zoom out from the household to the culture at large
- Here’s the thing: Cultures also create an environment for faith or disbelief
- Countries, regions, cities
- Also religions, churches, faith traditions
- Today we’ll look at 3 different cultures
- As Paul continues his second missionary journey
- And shares the Good News in 3 different towns
- Two of these cultures kept people from God
- First: Religious culture in Thessalonica
- Shocking to think that a religious culture can keep you from God!
- But that can definitely happen
- Legalism
- False religion
- Second: Popular (secular) culture in Athens
- Remember, the gospel was just now going out to Gentiles
- Today we see it reach Greece for the first time
- Athens was home to some of history's greatest philosophers:
- Socrates (469–399 BC)
- Plato (427–347 BC)
- Plato founds the Academy in Athens (c. 387 BCE), the first institution dedicated to philosophy and scientific study.
- Aristotle (384–322 BC)
- Cicero (106–43 BC): Roman statesman, orator, philosopher, and writer. A pivotal figure in transmission of Greek philosophy to the Roman world.
- The Academy was closed by Emperor Justinian in 529 AD, marking the symbolic end of Athens as a center of ancient philosophy.
- The point: Athens was the center of pop culture by time of Acts
- And would be for a long time
- America is even influenced by this
- Opposite ends of the spectrum
- Pause and think about the culture that most influences YOU
- Is it religious culture?
- Or is it popular culture
- And is this culture building your faith or destroying it?
- Let’s get to the text
Thessalonians: Religious Culture
Acts 17:1-4 (NLT) 1 Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4 Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.
- Trying to reach Jews first
- Notice: women mentioned...
