With the rise of secular progressivism and its antipathy towards religion we may be tempted to think that the opportunity to bring God into our conversations is a lost cause. It’s important that we remain calm and remember that God’s truth has touched the hearts of millions through the ages – including the hearts and minds of some of the ablest scientists and philosophers.

For example, the computational, quantum chemistry professor, Dr. HF (Fritz) Schaefer, speaks of Blaise Pascal as ‘the father of the mathematical theory of probability and combinatorial analysis; he provided the essential link between the mechanics of fluids and the mechanics of rigid bodies’ (HF Schaefer, ‘Scientists and Their Gods).

Pascal also spoke of his personal faith this way: ‘At the center of every human being is a God–shaped vacuum which can only be filled by Jesus Christ’ (quoted by HF Schaefer).

With that thought in mind let’s continue to explore the gospel presentation of Paul the Apostle to the Athenian intelligentsia at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22ff).

From the starting point that behind the universe God exists (see last week’s ‘Word’), Paul develops the idea that God is also the ruler and sustainer of the nations. “From one ancestor he (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’…” (Acts 17:26ff).

Paul is saying that history and the rise and fall of nations are ultimately in God’s hands. His words echo those of Isaiah who, having prophesied God’s judgment of Israel, also spoke of the deliverance of his people from captivity (Isaiah 40 – 45). Isaiah said that God would raise up Cyrus, an insignificant prince to crush the great Babylonian empire. In turn Cyrus would free God’s people from captivity and allow them to return to Jerusalem.

Isaiah was saying (as we find throughout the Scriptures) that God continues his work in the world, constantly using human decisions to work out his own greater purposes for men and women. It is because of this that Paul could write in Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,…

There is always a purpose to God’s plan. He wants us to come to our senses and turn back to him – as did the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable. Tough times can be God’s wake-up call for us. It’s easy to blame him when things go wrong, but that is absurd for we are the problem. It’s easy to say that God is distant or uncaring. ‘Not so,’ says Paul to the Athenians: ‘God is near you – nearer than you think. And, quoting from a 6th century BC Greek poet, he points out, In him we live and move and have our being. He continues by quoting either Aratus or another poet, Cleanthus: For we too are his offspring.

In quoting from non-biblical writers Paul lays out an important principle for us: to reach a cynical audience with the things of God. Look for ideas or words in the culture that illustrate a gospel truth – not all human utterance is wrong (after all, we are still image-bearers of God, albeit distorted ones).

To return to Paul’s point: he is saying that all men and women are God’s creatures. All of us not only receive our life from him, but our very existence is dependent on him. ‘Your poets agree that we are God’s offspring,’ he continued. ‘How ridiculous it is, therefore, to reduce God to something less than we are – gold or silver or stone.’

‘What’s more, when you create an idol, you are in fact trying to reverse the roles of yourself and God. You want to make yourself God’s creator, not God your creator.’

We have this assurance: despite the suffering and evil in the world around us, God is still in control, working out his greater purpose. We have every reason therefore, to ask him to restrain wickedness and vice and direct our leaders to exercise their responsibilities wisely and justly for the benefit of all.

And, like Paul, let’s constantly look for points of connection with the culture so that we can more effectively reach the minds and hearts of people around us with God’s good news.

GK Chesterton is reputed to have said, ‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing anything’.

In today’s changing world Christianity is often dismissed as being anti-intellectual: ‘No-one with half a brain could be a Christian’. Many reject it, not because they think it is false, but because they think it is trivial. If they think at all about the meaning of life, they want something that hangs together and makes sense of the complex cluster of their ideas, their longings and their experiences. Many simply want a world-view that makes them feel good.

And if we raise the subject of God, people tell us they don’t like the idea of ‘God’ because he would want to interfere with their life and be a kill-joy. ‘God is all right,’ they say, ‘as long as he doesn’t intrude into my space. I’ll call you, God. Don’t you call me!’

We live in a society where there is a complex set of ideas – longing for freedom, belief that this world is all there is, and a relativism of ‘your truth and my truth’. Yet in the cities of the West there is a lingering memory of the God of the Bible. Most people still agree that, if there is a God, there is only one God and that he exists as a spirit – without a body. People also agree that, if God exists, he is love – not someone filled with hate.

Response? How then do we respond to such a cluster of ideas? In Acts 17:22-31, Luke records Paul’s address to the Areopagus in ancient Athens. In Acts 17:16 we read that when Paul first came to the city he was deeply distressed to see that it was full of idols. John Stott commented, ‘Paul saw that the city was smothered with idols. He felt deeply distressed and provoked by the idolatry because it dishonored the name of God.’

Luke records what Paul did: he spoke in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons, and also in the marketplace with those who happened to be there. We can’t help but admire Paul – not content only to be an intelligent tourist, taking in the sights and culture of one of the most remarkable cities of the ancient world.

Paul’s response was to defend and promote the God of good news. It is evidence of his impact that the Athenian philosophers wanted to ask him questions: ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’

Two groups took him to task. The Epicureans, ‘philosophers of the garden’, reckoned the gods were so remote that they had no interest in or influence on human affairs. Life was a matter of chance. Men and women should pursue pleasure for there would be no judgment, and no life after death. The Stoics, ‘philosophers of the porch’, said there was a supreme god that they confused with a pantheistic ‘world soul’. They emphasized fatalism, submission, and coping with pain (‘stoicism’).

Into this bazaar of ideas and beliefs Paul came. When asked what he taught, he stood up at the Areopagus and said: “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22ff).

It was an ingenious opening to what became both a defense and a presentation of God’s gospel before the Athenian intelligentsia. Without quoting from the Bible yet drawing from what it reveals about God, he engaged with contemporary ideas within Greek thought. He pointed to five features about this ‘unknown God’ – features that I will identify next Wednesday.

In the meantime, you might like to consider the world-views and beliefs held by people you know. You might also consider questions you could ask them, to get them thinking about the larger issues of life and their place within it all.

Last week I touched on Jesus’ words in his Sermon on the Mount as part of the Christian response to William Barr’s statement that secular society is ‘forcing their values on people of faith’. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16).

The second part of my response is found in 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 where we read: For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul identifies two essentials in outreach – our ministry of the gospel and the Holy Spirit’s work.

The Focus of God’s Gospel: Paul tells us that he is committed to introducing people to Jesus Christ as Lord (v.5). ‘I tell people who he is, what he has done and why he has done it. I explain the negative news that we men and women are fatally flawed, but that through Jesus’ death and resurrection God has offered us an amnesty – an act of grace far greater than we ever dreamed. And so,’ he continues, ‘I explain that Jesus is not just a great teacher, miracle worker, or a prophet. Rather he is God in the flesh whose death perfectly satisfied God’s righteous requirements once and for all. Anyone who turns to him in heartfelt repentance and faith will be forgiven and restored to life with God forever.’

‘And as I do this,’ says Paul, ‘again and again God chooses to accompany this ministry with something that we can’t provide – his miracle of illumination. God makes his light shine in the hearts of men and women’.

Necessary Light: Paul’s imagery here applies God’s work in creation when he said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), to the new creation. For in 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul tells us that turning from unbelief to belief involves an act of divine initiative as powerful as the act of creation. ‘God says to our hearts, “Let there be light” and there is light, and from that moment a new life begins.

In other words, God by his Spirit takes the veil from our stubborn hearts and enables us to see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

God’s involvement in rescuing us not only involved the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, but also the divine illumination of the Holy Spirit. Significantly in crafting the Prayer Book, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer introduces the Communion Service with a prayer that includes these words: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name…

The keys to changing hearts are the ministry of God’s Word (his gospel) and the illumination of God’s Holy Spirit.

Gospels – to hand on: It’s worth having a slim readable copy of one of the Gospels in a pocket or a bag to hand on to others to read – perhaps as a gift at Christmas. How many of your friends or family have actually read one of these ‘primary sources’ from cover to cover? As Paul asks in Romans 10:14: But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in the one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?

Prayer: Perhaps most of all we are to have a ministry of prayer. We pray for our own walk with the Lord, our preparation for talking to others about the God of good news. And so, if our desire and delight is to see the God who says, “Let light shine out of darkness…” at work, surely part of our joy is to pray with confidence that in his mercy, the Lord will open the eyes of the blind, drawing their hearts to their true home in Christ.

Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher observed: God instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.

Significantly, we have this unexpected but profound assurance from Jesus when he spoke on the subject of prayer (Luke 11:1-13), where he concluded: “If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

How much more boldly can we pray: ‘Lord, in your mercy let your light shine … give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’.

An article on Monday reported a speech given by the US Attorney General, William Barr at Notre Dame Law School last Friday. Caleb Parke reported (FoxNews, 10.14.19), that the Attorney General ‘blasted “militant secularists” and their attacks on Judaeo-Christian values…’

According to the report Barr observed that “the problem is not that religion is being forced on others, the problem is that irreligion is being forced – secular values are being forced on people of faith”.

According to the report, Barr said that “Among the militant secularists are many so-called progressives.” “But”, Barr asked, “ Where is the progress? We are told we are living in a post-Christian era, but what has replaced the Judaeo-Christian moral system? What is it that can fill the spiritual void in the heart of the individual person? And what is the system of values that can sustain human social life?”

In this age of change, how should the Christian community respond? Two thoughts come to mind – the first I will take up today; the second, next Wednesday.

First, we have Jesus’ words in his Sermon on the Mount that his followers are to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ in the world (Matthew 5:13-15). Significantly, Jesus continued: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”(5:16).

‘Everything you are, everything you do,’ Jesus says to everyone who claims to follow him, ‘must reflect all that I have taught you. Your lifestyle, as well as honoring God, will also draw others to the truth.’ This is an awesome thought. All of us are called upon to reflect the light of God in our lives to the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remarked: ‘Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.’ 

It’s important to remember the world in which Christianity was born. In his First Letter, Peter writes to people who were experiencing intolerable oppression. Yet he says: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  

Although Peter speaks of his readers, as ‘resident aliens’ in this world, he says that their lifestyle can draw others to God’s truth. Abstain from the sinful desires which wage war against your soul, he writes.

He is speaking of the desires of our hearts that are out of step with the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – lies, false-witness, anger, greed, theft, the lustful look, the adulterous relationship – anything that stands against the mind of God.

Blaise Pascal, the 17^th century French philosopher wrote: ‘Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show them that it is.’

In our changing world, let’s resolve, by God’s grace, to play our part in his unfinished task of searching for and rescuing the lost. So, we need to help one another identify the flaws of today’s morality. We need to help others see the logical inconsistency of making tolerance the value that determines all values – that tolerance and moral objectivity can coincide.

What is more, we need to expose the lie that the centre of truth is the self – Me! We need to show our family and friends that we do not live in a world without a moral compass, a world in which all opinions are as valid as each other. Whether we like it or not, when people come to know that we are Christian they will look at us. They want to know whether we are genuine, whether what we profess is true, for underneath all the cries for tolerance, the cries to do what it takes to get what I want, there is a cry for help.

Too often our own lives reflect the narcissism of our culture. Like lost sheep we go astray, following the devices and desires of our own hearts rather than heeding the voice of God. We fail to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’.

Let’s plan to confess our sins to God daily, with truly repentant hearts and, knowing the Lord’s forgiveness, resolve by his grace to press on in the new life he has given us. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

I have a question: What do you really think of prayer? When you pray, do you pray with confidence? I ask this because prayer is integral to our partnership with the Lord in outreach.

In Luke 9 and Luke 10 we read of two mission groups that Jesus out. In Luke 9:1, Jesus sent the twelve on a mission to Jewish people. In Luke 10:1, he sent out seventy to both the Jewish and non-Jewish peoples. These missions foreshadowed Jesus’ commission to his disciples, “You will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the world” (Acts 1:8).

Furthermore, in Colossians 4:2-3 we find that the Apostle Paul writes: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ,…

I am sufficiently chronologically enriched to have been a young teenager at the time of the 1959 Sydney Billy Graham Crusade. I well remember that many thousands attended the 3-week mission.

But I also remember this: the significant numbers of God’s people from churches in Sydney who were praying for two years before the Crusade. I also recall Billy Graham’s comment that the success of his ministry was dependent on the thousands of people who prayed for his work.

Prayer is one of the essential keys to lives being transformed. So, I come back to my question: What do you really think of prayer?

In Luke 11:2-13 we read significant words from Jesus on the subject of prayer. In Luke 11:9-10 we read his specific promises: “Ask, and it will be given you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and it will be opened to you.”

And, on either side of these wonderful promises he answers two questions: First, ‘Can God be trusted to hear our prayers?’ (Luke 11:5-8); and second, ‘Do God’s answers have my best interests at heart?’ (Luke 11:11-13).

Let me pick up today Jesus’ answer to the first of these questions.

In Luke 11:5-8 we read his parable – often known as ‘The Friend at Midnight’. The parable falls into the category of sayings that have an underlying, unspoken question: ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus is asking.

The key to understanding the parable is found in the words usually translated, ‘the man’s impudence’ or ‘boldness’ in verse 8. Let me suggest that this is one place where most of our English translations are unhelpful for they have followed a translation that probably goes back to the 12th century.

The late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought some new and helpful insights to the parables from his work on Middle-Eastern culture.

We need to look carefully at the text of vv.7 and 8. The flow of the pronouns ‘me’ and ‘my’ in verse 7 refer to the householder who is in bed. Further, the flow of the sentence into verse 8 and the pronouns he and his, also refer to the householder.

What is more, as Bailey pointed out, the word translated, impudence in v.8 is better translated sense of shame. The flow of the syntax, the narrative impact of the story, has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man who is knocking on the door. In Jesus’ story God is represented as the one who is in bed.

The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help his neighbour in need. If he didn’t he would be shamed, and bring dishonor to the whole community. ‘Can you imagine,’ Jesus is asking, ‘anyone saying to a neighbour in need, even at midnight – ‘Get lost’.  ‘Don’t disturb me’?

So it is with God. Jesus is saying that because of God’s very nature he will respond and act. If he didn’t he would bring shame to his name.

This understanding of the parable is consistent with what Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the model prayer he gave them.

Pray: ‘Father in heaven, may your name be honored, in earth as it is in heaven’. Because of God’s honor, God’s integrity, God’s name is at the heart of the way he will not only hear but he will also act.

When we go back to the prayers of Moses and Daniel, we find that central to their prayers is the humble but bold request that God will act for the sake of his name or honor.

Prayer: Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen. (A prayer for the Gospel, An Australian Prayer Book: 1978)