How Paul Teaches us How to Relate to a Post Christian Culture - Acts 17

Acts 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” 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 Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

In chapter 17 we see Paul's methodology to preach to Jews and Gentiles alike.  In Thessalonica and Berea his strategy was to go to the local synagogue and preach to the Jews and God fearing Gentiles proving to them through the scriptures Jesus was the Christ.  Usually a few believed, a few wanted to hear more, and the others grew angry at him and formed mobs.  So Paul doesn't stay in one place very long. After his time in Berea, he goes to Athens, which was the intellectual capital of the world.  There were philosophers and poets, some of which Paul knew and had read.  

On the Sabbath day he would reason with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, but during the week he would go into the marketplace where he debated with the philosphers.  Some people were interested in Paul's ideas and wanted to hear more, some sneered ath them, and some people became believers.  We can learn several things from Paul's strategy as we seek to reach a post-Christian culture. 

1. Paul sees that they are religious and uses it to connect with them.  They are seeking God but instead of the true God they are searching or God in the form of images and statues.  Paul notices this and points it out them.  

2. Paul tells them about a God they can know. Since one statue is dedicated to an "unknown god", Paul capitalizes on this by asking them if they want to worship a God they can "know".  Having a personal relationship with God was very foreign to them. 

3. Paul teaches them that they came from God and are born of God. Paul quotes one of their poets who says, "We are his offspring."

4. Paul reasons that God is not made by human hands. If God made us that we should not try to make him with our own human hands in the form of idols.

5. Paul teaches that they are accountable to God. Since God has made us one day we will be accountable to him and will be judged by him.  

6. Paul preaches the ultimate proof of God is the resurrection of the dead. This means there is eternal life either with God or apart from him at the judgment of the living and the dead. 

Wow!  Pretty smart strategy to reach those who don't really have any clue who Jesus is.  If it worked so well in Paul's pre-Christian society, it will work well in a post-Christian society.