READ: Luke 23

THINK: This is a powerful passage to read during Lent as Easter approaches. I love the way the great preacher D.L. Moody describes it:

“The cross of Christ divides all mankind. There are only two sides, those for Christ, and those against Him. Think of the two thieves; from the side of Christ one went down to death cursing God, and the other went to glory.

What a contrast! In the morning he is led out, a condemned criminal; in the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morning he is cursing; in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a choir of angels. In the morning he is condemned by men as not fit to live on earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven. In the morning nailed to the cross; in the evening in the Paradise of God, crowned with a crown he should wear through all the ages. In the morning not an eye to pity; in the evening washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb. In the morning in the society of thieves and outcasts; in the evening Christ is not ashamed to walk arm-in-arm with him down the golden pavements of the eternal city.

The thief was the first man to enter paradise after the veil of the Temple was rent. If we could look up yonder, and catch a glimpse of the throne, we would see the Father there, and Jesus Christ at His right hand; and hard by we would see that thief. He is there to-day. Nineteen hundred years he has been there, just because he cried in faith: ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.’

You know Christ died a little while before the thief. I can imagine that He wanted to hurry home to get a place ready for His new friend, the first soul brought from the world He was dying to redeem. The Lord loved him because he confessed Him in that dark hour. It was a dark hour for many who reviled the Savior. You have heard of the child who did not want to die and go to heaven because he didn’t know anybody there. But the thief would have one acquaintance. I can imagine how his soul leaped within him when he saw the spear thrust into our Savior’s side, and heard the cry:

‘It is finished!’

He wanted to follow Christ. He was in a hurry to be gone, when they came to break his legs. I can hear the Lord calling: ‘Gabriel, prepare a chariot. Make haste. There is a friend of mine hanging on that cross. They are breaking his legs. He will soon be ready to come. Make haste, and bring him to me?’

The angel in the chariot swept down from heaven, took the soul of that penitent thief, and hastened back to glory. The gates of the city swung wide open, and the angels shouted welcome to this poor sinner who had been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. And that, my friends, is just what Christ wants to do for you. That is the business on which He came down from heaven. That is why He died. And if He gave such a swift salvation to this poor thief on the cross, surely He will give you the same if, like the penitent thief, you repent, and confess, and trust in the Savior.

Somebody says that this man “was saved at the eleventh hour.” I don’t know about that. It might have been the first hour with him. Perhaps he never knew of Christ until he was led out to die beside Him. This may have been the very first time he ever had a chance to know the Son of God.

How many of you gave your hearts to Christ the very first time He asked them of you? Are you not farther along in the day than even that poor thief?

Some years ago, in one of the mining districts of England, a young man attended one of our meetings and refused to go from the place till he had found peace in the Savior. The next day he went down into the pit, and the coal fell in upon him. When they took him out he was broken and mangled, and had only two or three minutes of life left in him. His friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving, and, bending down to catch his words, heard him say: ‘It was a good thing I settled it last night.’

Settle it now, my friends, once for all. Begin now to confess your sins, and pray the Lord to remember you. He will make you an heir of His kingdom, if you will accept the gift of salvation. He is just the same Savior the thief had. Will you not cry to Him for mercy?”

PRAY: Pray that you would take the cross seriously. Settle it now if you haven’t already done so. If, like the repentant thief, you have settled it then pray that God would let the cross so break your heart and change your life that you passionately share it with all those around you who are perishing. Ask God to bring the courage and conviction necessary to live a life shaped by the cross instead of a life shaped by the world that takes casually and lightly the death of Jesus Christ.

READ:  Acts 17

THINK:  Paul’s message to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at the Areopagus is one of the most concisely phenomenal theological statements and presentations of the gospel you’ll find anywhere. And it’s worth reading and rereading to equip yourself to share your faith with an unbelieving world. But the most phenomenal thing about it is the way that Paul contextualized his message, the way that he spoke in the language of the people who were there so that they could clearly understand his message whether they chose to accept it or not.

There’s something to be learned from Paul, here, about starting where people are at. At this point in time Athens was a once-proud city, now conquered by Rome and truly a shell of it’s former self with a fraction of its former glory. But its rich history meant that it was still respected, by Rome which allowed it to exist as a free state and by people and cultures all around, as a center of thought and philosophy. And it was highly religious, believing in a pantheon of gods and having active temples and altars to many of them.

So Paul walked in and used what was there. He used their openness to the idea of the existence of an “unknown god” – an ancient Athenian superstition – to introduce them to the existing God that they did not know. And then, to help them understand just who that God is, and how humanity relates to him, Paul quoted a few pagan philosophers. In verse 28, he quotes both Epimenides and Aratus. And by doing so he builds a cultural bridge in people’s minds. He uses words and images that are familiar to help them understand the truth about the God they desperately needed.

He put the gospel in a context that the culture surrounding him could grasp. And he set a phenomenal example for us. There are some in the church who are afraid of the word “contextualization.” They see it as watering down the message or altering it to fit the culture. They fear that it’s an attempt to make is simple and make it appealing while sacrificing truth. And they bang the drum that we should only use Scripture and words from the Bible to communicate the gospel, and never the words, images, songs, movies, or phrases of pop culture. A close friend of mine, whom I think is a pretty excellent preacher, was recently hammered by a colleague for preaching a sermon that included “only 5 minutes of directly reading from the Bible.” I’m glad that colleague wasn’t at the Areopagus cause he woulda really hated Paul’s speech. 2 quotes from pagan philosophers and 0 from Moses. :0 The truth is, if contextualization is a dirty word and we can only use direct quotes from Scripture to communicate then, well, we all better start hitting the Greek and Hebrew lessons hard because using the English language is…gasp…contextualizing the Bible. And history tells us that a lot of people died and got excommunicated for fighting to contextualize it by translating it into common languages.

Here’s the thing though, the big idea is NOT that we should forget about the Bible or fail to memorize and use Scripture passages in our conversations and our presentation of the gospel. That would be a horrible choice. The big idea is that we need to understand the culture we’re communicating to so that we can use imagery and language that make the message clear. Contextualizing the gospel is not at all about watering down the message to make it more palatable – “you are a sinner who is bound for hell unless you repent and find Jesus” is always gonna be offensive to our human pride. If we water it down we’re doing something else. Contextualizing the gospel is about making it explicitly and unapologetically clear.

So we need to be students of our culture. Paul couldn’t have quoted those philosophers if he hadn’t read them. He didn’t have Google on his iPhone back then. And he wouldn’t have been able to use the altar to the unknown god as a conversational entry point if he hadn’t walked around Athens and seen it. We need to understand our culture – it’s language, it’s sacred imagery, and it’s thought patterns – so that we can communicate well to the people who are a part of it. Whether they accept the message or not isn’t our burden – which is why we’re not about dumbing it down or making it easier. Most of the people at the Areopagus didn’t accept Paul’s that day. But everybody at the Areopagus understood what Paul was saying. And we ought to follow his example and speak Jesus to our world in ways that make sense.

PRAY: Pray that God would give you opportunities to share the message of the gospel with the people around you in your culture. And pray that he’d give you the courage to take advantage of those opportunities when they come. Also pray that he’d protect your heart and mind, that he would help you be a student of culture without being sucked in or drawn away from him by it.