Video Transcript: Familiar With The Culture

Okay, we're talking today about a very important matter. Of course, all the matters that we talked about are important. We talked about trying to reach into the culture with the illustrations. We talked about reaching into the culture with listening, so important. And now we want to talk about being familiar with the culture so that we really are able to relate.

I was a missionary in Africa for seven years. And we lived in a little village way out in the bush about 300 people. And because they cooked outside over fire, my wife cooked outside over fire. Because they read with a lantern, we used the lantern at night and if there was no kerosene in the country, we did what they did, we used candles. And we dressed the way they did, and really tried to understand the people we were with because we didn't want anything to stand between us and the people we were reaching so that the gospel could come through clearly. Your goal right is to reach people with the gospel. 

The reason it's so important that you do it is that even after seven years of living there working hard to learn the language going out into the bush to work with the guys on their farms, having people in in our homes the way they did, living the way they did, I was still an outsider. They loved me. I loved them. We had to leave because of a civil war. We would have stayed there longer. But I was still an outsider. My skin was a different color. They knew I came from a richer country, all sorts of things like. They would have to go out and cut wood for their fires and I can pay somebody 25 cents for a bundle of wood for our fire. They knew that I was rich.

What we want to do is reach the culture and no one can reach your culture better than you can. You know, what is one of the pictures that we have of Jesus? He wore that long robe and he wore sandals. You know what? If he came today, in this year, he wouldn't be wearing that in our culture. He might in yours in a culture where I was they weren't. They're wearing some short pants that they had made. They were wearing a loose fitting shirt. Jesus would have dressed that way. He would have he would have gone barefoot the way most of them went barefoot. He would put on some sandals when he went into the city, whatever it might have been, he related because he was from that time in that culture. 

When I finished college I worked for a while in New York City starting a new church there, in a very poor area of New York City. I knew someone who lived out in the suburbs in a beautiful home. And once in a while I would bring some of the boys and girls just the boys actually out there to visit to see what that was like. And I got a little Spanish boy named Sunil. And we slept overnight and the next morning he went out to look around he came screaming back into the house, calling me and calling me. He was just a small boy. He jumped up on my lap, he was so afraid. So we went out to look and there was a big fat rabbit sitting there. But because he grew up in the city, he thought it was a rat. And rats always but the kids there at nighttime and he thought the rat was gonna get him. We're talking about culture here. 

Read the Bible. It's written in the culture of that day. There were so many who were shepherds that it always talks about sheep. Maybe if Jesus came in our time he would use or thinking in the New Testament. Paul doesn't talk about sheep. He talks about sports, because he lived at a different time. The Old Testament was written in a Jewish language because that's what people spoke. The New Testament was written in the Greek language because that's what people spoke then. When you read through the Bible, it is a story. It is a life, it is a book that takes place always within a culture. And think then about Jesus when he came. He didn't come as this important person nobody could talk to, the Word of God became human. 

In the Old Testament, it was only written down they could only read the words of God or hear the Word of God when the prophets spoke. In the New Testament, the Bible says that Jesus was the Word of God in a human body, and he came in the human body, lived among the people of his time. That's what we must do to be vocal witnesses. Let's pray and then study.

Oh, Jesus, you are the actual word of God in a human body. And you lived in your time. You talked about the things of your time. You grew up in farming communities. So you talked about sheep, and you talked about seed and you talked about rain, and when the tower fell down, you talked about a tower. You were part of the culture, and that's who we are, I in my culture, the ones who are studying this material in their culture. But each of us you have placed in a special place so that we can be vocal witnesses for you. We're going to be that. We love you. Amen.

I was thinking about the Garden of Eden. That's when you go back in the first three chapters of the Bible. It talks there about God making everything and in all he created, he made a garden and he put two people in Adam and Eve. And he just wanted Adam and Eve to love Him and to live His way. But they turned against him. And when they heard God wanting to talk to them again, they hid. They ran away from God. You know why? They knew that God was powerful. They knew that God was giving, but they didn't know that God was forgiving. God had told him, if you disobeyed me, you will be punished. And so they ran away from him. And when they talked with God then they learned that God is forgiving, as well as giving. 

And I start with that, because that's a picture of the culture around you. That there are people who know about the power of God. In fact, a lot of people who don't know about Christianity worship those powers, they worship the sun, they worship the moon, they worship the storms, they worship and they think that the lightning and the thunder in the rain or the drought is a god so they worship it that way. And they don't know about the true God of the Bible. And so they only know God from a distance. And then when God met them, then they learned God not only gives and God not only punishes but God forgives and God restores. And that's a picture of the people around us. 

So we wanted to look at a verse from Romans. Paul says in Romans eight verse three, For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did it by sending His own Son Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus became one of us. We picture Jesus today, you know, in that white robe, the long hair and the sandals. But in his day, he didn't look any different from any other teacher. He didn't look any different from anybody when he was growing up. And when he was living out his life, if Jesus came today, he'd be wearing what you wear if he came to your area of the world. If he came to ours, he would wear what we're wearing today. He became one, look around you. And just identify that maybe one of those persons around you could have been Jesus. He was so totally identified with his culture, that you couldn't tell the difference. 

You know what? You couldn't tell the difference either, that he had never sinned. You might think he was a nice guy. You might think he wasn't an honest builder. He didn't cheat you. You might think that others could cheat him. He was like us. The Bible says in every respect, he became like his brothers and his sisters. The Bible even says he was tempted in every single way that you and I have been tempted. And maybe you want to hit pause for a minute and think about that. Think of all the temptations that we have in our mind. Day after day after day. Jesus was tempted in every single one of them just like we are. Except it says he who sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He looked like us, but he was not a sinner. He was that closely identified with us. And that's what we're called to be as vocal witnesses of Jesus. 

Don't dream about going to another country. Don't dream about moving in your own country. If God calls you there, that's fine. But we have seen that it's an as you go, way of life for us. That right where we are is where we are to be the vocal witnesses. Not to be so different from the people around us. But to be so much the same they could hardly tell. Look at Jesus even said that he was a sinful person. They even said that he did sinful things, but he wasn't. He was so close. And that's why Jesus said about us, we are to be in, but not of the world around us. We're living in it. We obey the same laws of the government. We dress pretty much the same. We work in the same places. We save our money in the same way. We eat the same foods. Always we are in the world around us. But we're like Jesus we're not of a world. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our view is of God. We live according to His laws first of all. That's how close it gets. 

I want to put a note in here, that as we strive to be salt which has to contact others, light which has to come in contact with darkness we want to be so close that people think we're one of them. Except that we don't sin. Remember Paul said, become all things to all people. I want to say this, if in your desire to be like others so you can be a vocal witness if it's leading you away from obedience, then you have to take a step back. Our vocal witness, our desire to be part of the culture is never something that will lead us into sin. We're in the world, but not of the world. That's where the person you identify, who isn't saved yet, that's where he or she lives. That's what he or she knows and we have to know it. 

So now there are two thoughts that I want to leave with you in that sense. Two pictures of that person that you have dealt with. And then you have written down. One, look at these two verses. Psalm 73. They are free from common human burdens they are not plagued by human ills. Here's another picture in the Psalms. Psalm four verse six. Many are asking who can show us any good? Oh, you know what? When I graduated from seminary, and many times when you leave your church services, you're going out and thinking you know what, people who don't know Jesus are miserable. Their lives are a mess. They're not very nice people. They need Jesus. But after I finished seminary and after I began to get to know people in the world, I found that's not always true. There are those who are asking who can show us any good. There are those who are walking around with hearts full of fear. There are bad people out there. But there are also a ton of really neat people. Like the psalmist said in Psalm 73. They don't have trouble like other people do. They've nice homes, nice families, drive nice cars have good jobs. They do a lot of nice things. They're active in school, or they're active in sports for children, or they're helping the community or they give money to charities. There are a lot of really nice people out there who are going to help. And one of the easy ways to think about the people around us is that oh, they're miserable. But you know what? A lot of them aren't. 

And we have to keep this picture of two, two pictures of the person around you. One, he's living a good life. He doesn't really miss Jesus and the other he's walking around saying who can show me what he's really good. 

Another thought about the people around us comes from about getting to know the culture of the people around us comes from the Old Testament story of First Samuel. I'll just read this version and talk about it. It says so all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plows points, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. You know what happened? The main enemy of God's people in the Old Testament were the Philistines. And when the Philistines had conquered God's people for a time, they took all their sharp things away, they took all their blacksmiths away, they took all their swords away. So now God's people weren't able to fight back against that culture. And every year they had to go to the Philistines who had the blacksmith, who had the ability who had the iron, who could make them their tools and take care of them. They never really defeated the Philistines until they were able to have their own iron. 

I want to make a picture of that. We have to use the iron of our culture. We can't stand on the sidelines and let those who don't follow Jesus Christ control the culture. We have the power through the Holy Spirit through the truth of God's Word and through the new lives that he has given us, that by becoming part of that culture, we can overcome that culture. That's the promise that Jesus has given us. 

Think of sports, for example, how many Christians how many followers of Jesus there are in the whole sports area? We have seen it that area and people are getting testimonies of Jesus. We're not backing off sports and saying that belongs to the world. We're saying, No, we're gonna get in there and we're going to redeem it for Jesus Christ. 

Think of social events and people get involved people you can get involved in your community, become part of committees, become part of the government, become part of public meetings. And as a Christian, you're able to bring that Christian testimony of Jesus Christ. Or your backyard, invite the neighbors over, you're going to do you're gonna do a picnic back there anyway. Or you're going to go on a little trip, or you're gonna go out maybe go swimming, or whatever it is that you do in your culture, you're gonna play some game. Invite people who aren't Christians, make them part of your culture so that you can win them. 

Every area of life, think of electronics, think of the media. Getting the Christian message in movies and on on the internet. Think of education. You know, Paul wrote a letter to the church of the Thessalonians. The church is only about three months old, actually. And he gets a pattern there of what a church is. It just struck me. I've been reading that lately. First Thessalonians chapter one read between verses five and 10. And he gives a model of what the church there what the churches he said, You know what the word came to you. It was received by you, and it rang out from you. That is a model of the church in the culture. The word of God comes to them. It is received by them and then it rings out from them into the whole culture. 

Imagine a medical school that graduated doctors and the doctors only went back and taught in the medical school who would be healed and picture your church, a church made up of new Christians, of longtime Christians. The Gospel comes to you, you receive it and it rings out from you – a model of the church in the culture.