Up to this point in the narrative every sermon preached in the book of Acts had been proclaimed to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. Everyone in the audience knew the Hebrew Scriptures. Given this, each sermon in the first thirteen chapters of Acts make references to the history of Israel, connecting Israel's story to the story of Jesus. Consider, as an example, the sermon Paul preaches to a Jewish audience, just a chapter earlier, in Acts 13:
“Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; for about forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. All this took about 450 years.As you can see, the sermon assumes knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures and intimacy with Israel's story.
After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’"
But in the very next chapter Paul faces an unprecedented challenge. For the first time, at least in recorded Biblical history, the gospel is proclaimed to a wholly pagan audience. This audience knows nothing about the history of Israel, so Paul has to preach the gospel from a very different starting place.
As I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, Paul knows his audience has experience with God. As Paul will declare in Acts 17, in another sermon before a pagan audience, God is not far from any one of us, for in God we live, move, and have our being. So, God is close, but unseen. Given this, how does Paul bring God into view? Especially when he cannot assume prior knowledge of the Bible?
Let's closely examine Paul's evangelistic approach. Below is the first sermon preached to the pagans. Compare it with the sermon above, from just a chapter earlier. Especially notice what Paul points to to bring God into view:
“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without a witness: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14.15-17)Notice how there is no mention of Abraham, Moses, or David. Instead, Paul starts with God as Creator and the evidences of the natural world: "He has not left himself without a witness." And that witness isn't the Torah, but the blessings of creation: "He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food." And lastly, Paul points to joy.
Let me use this sermon to make an observation about evangelism in our post-Christian culture. As we move deeper into a post-Christian world we increasingly face questions like "Where is God?" and "How do I know God exists?" In prior generations, and similar to Paul in Acts 13, we could assume some familiarity with the Bible. We could appeal to residual Christian beliefs. But this assumption no longer describes our world. Just like Paul crossed over into a new world from Acts 13 to Acts 14, we have to start talking about God from a different location.
That location is transcendence. Just as Paul did, we need to point toward awe and joy, along with many of the other experiences of transcendence I describe in The Shape of Joy. God is speaking to our post-Christian culture. For God is always speaking. He has not left himself without a witness. But we need to become better skilled, following the example of Paul, in pointing people toward God. Where is God? Paul pointed toward joy. Joy was the sermon Paul preached to the pagan world. Joy is what brought God into view. And as I describe in The Shape of Joy, this is a sermon our post-Christian world badly needs to hear.
