WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.660 The late Senator Ted Kennedy once said that the ballot box is the place where change begins in America. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:16.039 And I think there are many people in our society who would fully agree with him, especially when it comes to the November election. 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:20.240 Many people feel like it all comes down to the vote in November. 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.760 And I want to be clear, voting does matter. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:30.600 And as we look to the presidential election this November, there are vast differences between the candidates. 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.100 They are different personalities. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:35.260 They represent very different parties. 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:39.520 And they have very different policies in some very key issues. 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.280 And so the election does matter. 00:00:42.540 --> 00:00:46.359 And elections like this impact many, many, many lives. 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:54.119 But this will not bring the kind of sweeping change that I think many people are hoping for. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:01:01.500 And that's because with all due respect to Ted Kennedy, change does not begin in the ballot box. 00:01:02.659 --> 00:01:06.640 Politics, as it is often said, is downstream from culture. 00:01:07.299 --> 00:01:14.659 And yet even when we look at culture, culture itself is influenced by an even more fundamental force. 00:01:14.659 --> 00:01:18.439 And that is the influence of idolatry. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:26.439 So as part of our series on the gospel and culture, we're going to be looking at cultural idolatry this week. 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:33.179 The role that idols play in culture, which then in turn shapes everything else, including our politics. 00:01:33.459 --> 00:01:37.560 And we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 17 in order to do this. 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:50.799 And the main idea is essentially this, that we cannot hope to change culture in any meaningful way unless we are able to confront the idols that sit at the heart of that culture. 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:58.400 Any hope of changing culture begins by confronting the idols at the heart of that culture. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:04.160 And so we're going to look at Paul in Athens that we begin hearing about in Acts chapter 17. 00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:10.840 And we're going to try to understand cultural idols and then to identify some of our cultural idols. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.759 And then lastly, we're going to talk about what it looks like to confront cultural idols. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:16.719 Let's pray. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.840 Lord, we thank you for your word. 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:23.580 We all need it more than we know. 00:02:24.219 --> 00:02:28.620 We pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would open your word to us. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.819 And that through it, we would see the living word, Jesus Christ, face to face. 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:35.680 And it's in his name that we pray. 00:02:36.219 --> 00:02:36.520 Amen. 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:40.719 So first of all, understanding cultural idols. 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:45.900 Paul arrives in Athens sometime around A.D. 51. 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:48.640 And it says this in verse 16. 00:02:49.160 --> 00:02:57.360 While Paul was waiting for his friends at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:03.719 Now, I want to make it clear, this is not just talking about statues of idols that decorated the city. 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:07.780 There were many of those, some 30,000 or more. 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:11.960 But what these statues represent is what we want to talk about. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:20.520 Because these statues represented the core ideals and values that were most revered in the Athenian culture. 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:29.460 So when the Bible talks about idols, what it's really talking about is the fact that almost anything in creation, 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:34.260 and often they are good things, can become ultimate things. 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:39.100 When we make something into an idol, we take something that is often a good thing, 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:44.379 and we elevate it so that it becomes the most important thing, 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:47.620 something that we love and revere more than God himself. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:49.040 So that's what an idol is. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:57.959 And so if you're in Athens, as Paul was, and you see statues of Athena or Aphrodite or Demeter, 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.319 you're not just seeing statues. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:08.379 What you're actually seeing is that the Athenian culture is one that worships and reveres things like human reason, 00:04:08.959 --> 00:04:17.399 or wisdom, or sex, or beauty, or fertility and agriculture. 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.199 This is an insight into the Athenian culture. 00:04:21.659 --> 00:04:23.859 And these are all good things, right? 00:04:24.179 --> 00:04:25.439 Reason is a good thing. 00:04:25.579 --> 00:04:26.599 Wisdom is a good thing. 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:27.779 Sex is a good thing. 00:04:28.039 --> 00:04:31.859 But when they become ultimate things, they become idols. 00:04:32.219 --> 00:04:34.599 And that's what we see here in the Athenian culture. 00:04:34.799 --> 00:04:38.620 And this gives us a little bit of insight into how culture works. 00:04:38.979 --> 00:04:43.819 The actual word culture is derived from two root words. 00:04:43.819 --> 00:04:48.699 First, the Latin cultus, which means to worship or revere. 00:04:48.819 --> 00:04:50.319 It has religious connotations. 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:54.860 And then there's the French coller, which means to plow or till. 00:04:54.980 --> 00:04:59.680 It's an agricultural term that essentially means what we make out of the world. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:05.620 So if you put these two things together, you really have an idea of what culture actually is. 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:12.620 You start out with something at the center, something that human beings worship or revere or idealize, 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:16.639 a kind of central thing that we love and give our allegiance to. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:22.079 And then everything that we create reflects that thing at the center. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:29.220 So culture is built up around whatever sits at the center that human beings most worship and revere. 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:43.420 And so you have our values, our beliefs, our behaviors, our customs and mores, our arts, our politics, our entire way of life emerges and reflects that which is at the center. 00:05:44.760 --> 00:05:49.880 So in the words of Henry Van Til, culture is religion externalized. 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:52.540 It's religion externalized. 00:05:52.540 --> 00:06:04.180 So this is a fundamental starting place for how Christians think about culture, both our culture and other cultures as we look around the world. 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:10.720 Scripture says that every single human being, whether they know it or not, is made in the image of God. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.500 And so there are ways that we reflect God as our creator. 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:22.779 And yet it also says that every single human being has rejected God and has replaced the worship of God with the worship of idols. 00:06:22.899 --> 00:06:25.220 That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 1. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:26.600 That's what's wrong with the world. 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:33.420 But what we want to focus on is the fact that this is not only true of individuals, it is also true of cultures. 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:38.259 And that makes sense when you recognize that all culture is created by human beings. 00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:45.139 So every culture has within it things that reflect the goodness and the truth and the beauty of God. 00:06:46.259 --> 00:06:50.259 Every culture also has within it things that reflect our idolatry. 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:54.939 And this changes from one city to the next, from one culture to the next. 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:59.300 But every culture has at the center of it things that have become idols. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:06.740 And so the only difference between Athens and our city that we live in right now, our society that we live in and our country, 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:13.340 the only difference is that we don't have the statues that identify the idols the way Athens did. 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:17.740 And so we have to ask, how do we identify the idols of our culture? 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:20.160 What are the idols in our culture? 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:27.280 Well, it's usually easier to spot the idols in other cultures than it is our own, 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:30.819 because it's hard to see the water that we're swimming in very clearly. 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:35.540 I read an article a few years ago in the New York Times called The Pretenders, 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:39.459 and it talked about a social phenomenon in Japanese culture. 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:44.740 In Japan, the shame of getting fired is so extreme. 00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:51.000 It's so overwhelming that there are many businessmen, and this mainly applies to men, 00:07:51.339 --> 00:07:56.759 who even after they lose their job, they will pretend that they're still going to work. 00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:59.319 They won't tell their families or their friends. 00:07:59.459 --> 00:08:03.159 And so they wake up every morning, they get dressed in their suit, 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.560 they leave as though they're going to work, 00:08:05.699 --> 00:08:11.740 and then they simply wander around the business district until it's time to come home in the evening. 00:08:12.159 --> 00:08:17.779 And that's because in this culture, honor has become an ultimate thing. 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:20.539 Honor for many people has become an idol. 00:08:20.659 --> 00:08:21.860 It is the ultimate thing. 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:27.080 And so shame, by contrast, is the worst thing imaginable. 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:30.360 And so people will do anything to avoid such a thing. 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:34.419 And so we see something like this as Americans, 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:37.899 and we have a hard time understanding why people might do this, 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:39.519 but that's because it's a different culture. 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:47.300 In the same way, when you look at other cultures and you see practices like stoning or like female circumcision, 00:08:47.299 --> 00:09:00.079 these exist in cultures where things like family or female purity have been elevated to the status of idolatry. 00:09:00.479 --> 00:09:02.479 And so, again, as Americans, we look at something like that, 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.439 and we get outraged and horrified that anybody would do that. 00:09:05.479 --> 00:09:08.500 But that's because we have different idols. 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:12.279 We have different things that we have put at the center of our culture. 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:14.839 And so we need to ask, what are those idols? 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:18.420 Well, I just want to give a few examples. 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:23.379 If you look at our culture, one of the things that makes the culture in our society unique 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:27.360 is that it's rooted in the political philosophy known as liberalism. 00:09:27.540 --> 00:09:30.960 And I want to make it clear that this is liberalism, 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:34.600 which isn't the same thing as people who say that they are liberal. 00:09:36.139 --> 00:09:39.120 Liberalism is something that Democrats and Republicans share. 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:43.840 Even though they differ in their approach and in their strategy and in the means, 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:49.540 they are siblings, you might say, in the same philosophical family tree. 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:59.460 And liberalism is defined by core values such as individualism or freedom or a free economy. 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:06.399 And so these values, as we look at them, these values are by themselves good things, 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:09.220 just like in other cultures, honor is a good thing. 00:10:09.540 --> 00:10:10.940 Family is a good thing, right? 00:10:10.940 --> 00:10:13.640 These core values are good things. 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:20.080 The idea that human individuals have inherent rights and that the role of a limited government 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:21.900 should be to secure those rights. 00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:28.340 Or a relatively free market that allows for innovation and competition, 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:34.340 which means you're theoretically able to get better goods and services at lower prices. 00:10:34.340 --> 00:10:38.460 These are good ideas that have done enormous good for our society. 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:50.660 But the problem is, some of the biggest problems in our society today come from the fact that these core ideals have become idols. 00:10:50.940 --> 00:11:00.259 They have become inflated and twisted and distorted into idols that we worship at the very center of our culture. 00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:05.700 So just to give a couple of examples of this, our core value of individualism. 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:08.159 On its own, it's a good idea. 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:11.819 But we've pushed it way too far in our society. 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:16.860 It's become inflated and distorted into this idolatry of the self. 00:11:16.860 --> 00:11:25.500 And so in our culture, the absolute sovereignty of the self overrules everything else. 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:32.800 And our feelings have become the only source of absolute truth. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:41.680 When it comes to our beliefs and our morality, we are highly encouraged by our culture to create our own beliefs and morality 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:45.579 and that our feelings override every other form of authority. 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:50.719 And the only thing that matters is whether or not something feels right to me. 00:11:51.839 --> 00:11:59.779 Anything that impinges on personal freedom, whether it be society or wisdom from previous generations 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:11.860 or parents or church or even science, anything that impinges on my personal freedom is something that needs to be challenged and deconstructed. 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:18.279 And this is why we have people on one side redefining their entire identity based on how they feel. 00:12:18.419 --> 00:12:23.819 And we have people on the other side who are refusing to wear masks during a pandemic 00:12:23.820 --> 00:12:28.900 because they see it as something that impinges on their personal freedom. 00:12:29.460 --> 00:12:33.260 All of this is connected to the idolatry of the self. 00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:37.680 And it's frankly tearing the social fabric of our society apart. 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:43.460 This is the difference between a good thing and an ultimate thing and the harm that it can do. 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:47.379 One more example that I'll give is the example of wealth. 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:54.559 Likewise, just as we talked about individualism, a free market is a good idea. 00:12:54.679 --> 00:13:02.139 But in our society, it has become hijacked by the idols of wealth and consumerism and materialism. 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:07.919 And so even though we have a system that theoretically affirms the equality of all people, 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:13.960 it is rife with injustice and is rife with economic inequality. 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:22.280 The American dream has become a brutal meritocracy where the wealthiest families are getting wealthier 00:13:22.280 --> 00:13:27.780 while many other people are being left further and further behind. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:32.080 And especially this is true when you look at the racial wealth gap, 00:13:32.139 --> 00:13:35.700 which has actually gotten worse since COVID started. 00:13:36.180 --> 00:13:41.920 You have people who are burying themselves under college student loan debt 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:46.179 that they may never come out from under the weight of that debt, 00:13:46.339 --> 00:13:51.279 but they do it because they're pursuing this Americanized definition of success 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:53.899 that includes a college degree. 00:13:54.819 --> 00:14:01.159 And through technology, everything is becoming commodified, including human beings. 00:14:01.819 --> 00:14:08.860 Your personal information is now arguably the most valuable commodity there is. 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:13.360 And so the reason that services like Google or Facebook are free, 00:14:13.740 --> 00:14:19.740 the reason those things are offered freely to you is because you are not actually the customer. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:22.379 You're the product. 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:30.560 You're the product, or more accurately, your information is the product that is being bought and sold. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:38.479 And so we spend hours of our day posting and tweeting under the illusion that any of that actually matters 00:14:38.479 --> 00:14:39.939 or makes a difference. 00:14:40.119 --> 00:14:45.199 But what's actually happening is that we are exchanging our personal information, 00:14:45.199 --> 00:14:48.819 which is now a commodity, for little hits of dopamine, 00:14:50.219 --> 00:14:52.859 for little hits of social affirmation. 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:58.960 And we're like rats in a lab just clicking away at that button. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:05.180 And all of our information is being bought and sold in the new economy of big data. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:11.320 Now, this all may sound like a kind of anti-Western, anti-capitalist rant, 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:17.320 and I think that there are many people out there who actually do believe that the problem is the system 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:20.060 and that what we need to do is to scrap the old system. 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:24.699 It's not working anymore and that we need to replace it with a new and better system. 00:15:24.819 --> 00:15:28.579 And I think that that is especially true among my own generation 00:15:28.579 --> 00:15:32.759 and even some of the younger generations than my generation, 00:15:32.959 --> 00:15:38.239 people who think that it would be so much better if we switch to something like socialism, right? 00:15:39.099 --> 00:15:41.599 But this is the whole point I'm trying to make. 00:15:41.939 --> 00:15:44.539 The issue is not the system itself. 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:47.879 The problem is not the system itself. 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:51.299 The problem, the core problem, is idolatry. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:53.139 It's idolatry. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:16:00.439 And history shows us that when idols, such as the idol of wealth or the idol of power, 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:02.919 when those sit at the center of a culture, 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:09.220 there is no political system that is immune from the corrosive influence of those idols. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:15.559 They can tear any system down and distort any system to do massive harm to the populace. 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:21.519 Al Walters, in his classic Creation Regained, says this. 00:16:22.819 --> 00:16:23.139 He says, 00:16:23.139 --> 00:16:29.939 The great danger is to always single out some aspect of God's good creation and identify it, 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.220 rather than the alien intrusion of sin, as the villain. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:40.080 Something in the good creation is identified as the source of evil. 00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:42.779 He says this is where all other worldviews go wrong. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:43.439 So he says, 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:47.139 Plato and the Greek philosophers said it was the body and its passions. 00:16:47.259 --> 00:16:48.679 That's the true source of evil. 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:53.239 Rousseau and the Romantics said that it was culture in distinction from nature. 00:16:53.719 --> 00:16:59.759 Freud and the psychoanalysts said that it was authority figures in society or in our families. 00:17:00.319 --> 00:17:02.719 Marx said that it was economic forces. 00:17:03.199 --> 00:17:07.379 Heidegger and the existentialists said that it was technology and management. 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:10.740 They all had something in creation that they pointed out and said, 00:17:10.740 --> 00:17:13.859 that's the true source of evil in our society. 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:15.259 And here's what Walter says. 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:20.740 As far as I can tell, the Bible is unique in its rejection of all attempts 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:24.440 to either demonize some part of creation as the root of our problems 00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:28.859 or to idolize some part of creation as the solution. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:34.180 In other words, the core problems in our society are not social. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:35.839 They are not political. 00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:37.500 They are spiritual. 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:43.339 And so what we need as a starting place for cultural renewal, 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:45.980 we need spiritual solutions. 00:17:46.539 --> 00:17:48.400 We need spiritual solutions. 00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:54.000 You cannot hope to change a culture unless you confront the idols at the heart of that culture. 00:17:55.019 --> 00:18:00.779 So how does Paul go about confronting the idols in the culture at Athens? 00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:04.400 Now we're going to talk about this more next week in part two, 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:07.600 but I just want to look at two things in closing. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.160 The first thing I want to look at is where Paul goes. 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:12.420 He sees these idols. 00:18:12.620 --> 00:18:14.800 His heart is deeply moved. 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:18.000 He's deeply troubled by these idols. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:19.019 And so where does he go? 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:21.980 Well, he goes first to the religious centers. 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:23.720 He goes to the synagogues. 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:32.960 And this is how we might think about going about the work of evangelism around 1950 in the U.S. 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.500 You go to the religious people, people who already assume that the Bible is important, 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:39.740 people who are already somewhat familiar with the Bible, 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:43.279 people who are primarily concerned about being a good person. 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:50.720 And so all you need to do is to proof text why Jesus is someone worth knowing and believing in, right? 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:52.319 So that's the religious centers. 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:53.980 But that's not all Paul does. 00:18:54.759 --> 00:19:00.680 Paul then goes to the marketplace, the Agora, which is a very different scene entirely. 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:05.879 The marketplace in Athens was the very center of cultural activity. 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:13.240 This was the center for the arts and for philosophy and for all different kinds of media and for everything cultural. 00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:18.800 So if you imagine in our society gathering together all of the peer-reviewed journals, 00:19:18.980 --> 00:19:23.600 all of the bloggers, all of the TED talkers, all of the pundits, all the intellectuals, 00:19:23.840 --> 00:19:27.660 all of the op-ed columnists and filmmakers and artists and musicians, 00:19:28.060 --> 00:19:31.540 all of those people concentrated together in one place, 00:19:31.539 --> 00:19:36.039 you get a sense of what the marketplace was in Athens. 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:39.980 And so this is a place where no one cares what the Bible says. 00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:43.619 This is a place where no one wants to listen to your proof texts. 00:19:44.779 --> 00:19:46.339 But the point is this. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:54.019 In order to reach a culture, you have to go to all of the places where culture is created, 00:19:54.180 --> 00:19:59.079 not just the religious centers, but the secular institutions as well. 00:19:59.079 --> 00:20:07.299 And as we look at Christians in our culture over the last, oh, I don't know, 100 years, 00:20:07.699 --> 00:20:14.079 we see that evangelicals in particular have done a really good job of building an entire subculture. 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:20.199 There's a kind of evangelical Christian subculture in our country right now 00:20:20.199 --> 00:20:26.079 that includes Christian schools and Christian books and Christian music and Christian movies 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:32.299 and Christian magazines and we even have a whole array of Christian celebrities, right? 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:39.399 Now this isn't all bad, but what's bad is that it has become increasingly ghettoized. 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:43.500 It's completely irrelevant to the broader culture. 00:20:44.419 --> 00:20:50.699 And what we actually need, we need Christians who are in every sector of society. 00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:54.120 We don't just need Christian filmmakers making Christian films. 00:20:54.259 --> 00:20:58.460 We need Christians who make really good films that everybody's going to watch, right? 00:20:58.539 --> 00:21:00.140 We don't just need Christian books. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.799 We need books written by Christians that everybody's going to read. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:06.100 We need Christians in politics. 00:21:06.299 --> 00:21:07.900 We need Christians in the media. 00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:13.400 We need Christians who are living faithfully as salt and light in all of the institutions 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:18.880 where culture is created and shaped and preserved in our society. 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.920 Paul, I think, understands this on an intuitive level. 00:21:23.060 --> 00:21:24.720 So that's the first thing, where Paul goes. 00:21:24.780 --> 00:21:25.500 Extremely important. 00:21:25.580 --> 00:21:26.700 We'll come back to that next week. 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:30.280 The second thing, the last thing is, look at Paul's message. 00:21:31.280 --> 00:21:33.320 Look at Paul's message to this culture. 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:35.860 Verse 18 summarizes Paul's message. 00:21:36.540 --> 00:21:39.580 He was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:44.840 Man, I hope one day somebody summarizes my preaching that way. 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:46.840 Yeah, I don't remember his jokes. 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:47.780 I don't remember his stories. 00:21:47.779 --> 00:21:48.740 But I do remember this. 00:21:49.059 --> 00:21:50.799 He always talked about Jesus and the resurrection. 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:53.759 I think that's the heart of all effective preaching. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:55.000 And there's a reason for this. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:57.180 He's not offering a new political system. 00:21:57.259 --> 00:21:59.599 He's not offering a new social theory. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.579 The core of his message is Jesus Christ and his resurrection. 00:22:04.059 --> 00:22:05.139 Now, why does that matter? 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:09.019 Because idols cannot be removed. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:11.899 You can't just pull an idol down. 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:17.280 The only thing that you can do is to replace them with something else. 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:18.820 They can't be removed. 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.560 They can only be replaced. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:30.480 And most of the time, our idols are simply replaced or displaced by other idols that we find even more compelling. 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:31.940 And this is true for individuals. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:34.660 It's also true for entire cultures. 00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:36.240 This is how cultures change. 00:22:36.339 --> 00:22:40.740 Because the idols at the core of the culture get displaced with other idols. 00:22:40.940 --> 00:22:44.380 And that's essentially what happens when we practice cultural imperialism. 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:44.599 Right? 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:48.039 We go to a culture that holds certain things to be sacred. 00:22:48.139 --> 00:22:52.539 And we say, we want to displace those things with the things that we hold sacred. 00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:52.879 Right? 00:22:53.500 --> 00:22:55.639 Well, Thomas Chalmers talks about this. 00:22:55.699 --> 00:22:56.559 He's a Scottish preacher. 00:22:56.659 --> 00:23:00.439 He talks about this as the expulsive power of a new affection. 00:23:00.619 --> 00:23:02.319 And he gives this example. 00:23:02.439 --> 00:23:08.659 He says, imagine that you have an idolatrous love for pleasure and for instant gratification. 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:10.379 So that's your idol, instant gratification. 00:23:10.380 --> 00:23:16.080 But then one day, you begin to realize that it's possible to gain and to make lots of money. 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:17.440 But it's going to require discipline. 00:23:17.860 --> 00:23:21.820 And so what you do is you allow that idol of instant gratification to be displaced. 00:23:21.820 --> 00:23:25.960 And you begin to build and amass more and more and more wealth. 00:23:26.080 --> 00:23:27.500 So wealth becomes your new center. 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:33.020 But then the wealthier you get, the more involved in politics you get. 00:23:33.080 --> 00:23:38.900 And you begin to realize that wealth can actually be a ticket to gaining enormous amounts of power. 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:46.000 And so then you're willing to spend all kinds of money on your campaign and all kinds of things in order to gain political power. 00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:49.320 And so your wealth is then displaced by power. 00:23:49.560 --> 00:23:56.820 And if you look at this, what has actually happened is that you've swapped the idol of pleasure for the idol of wealth. 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.140 And then you swapped the idol of wealth for the idol of power. 00:24:00.340 --> 00:24:02.920 But spiritually, nothing has changed. 00:24:03.040 --> 00:24:04.500 Maybe your priorities have changed. 00:24:04.500 --> 00:24:08.319 Maybe the way you spend your time and your money and your energy, who you hang out with. 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:09.359 All those things have changed. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:11.000 Maybe lots of behavioral changes. 00:24:11.779 --> 00:24:13.299 But your heart has not changed. 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:17.980 You're still only a slave to idols like you always were. 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:25.140 And so there's only one thing that can truly set human beings free from idolatry. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:27.059 And this is the gospel. 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:29.400 This is the core of Paul's preaching. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:31.640 The good news of Jesus and the resurrection. 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:33.740 Because the truth about idols is this. 00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:35.259 They don't love you. 00:24:37.060 --> 00:24:38.960 They don't even know you exist. 00:24:40.080 --> 00:24:42.680 They're oblivious to your existence. 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:48.560 All they will do is make empty promises to you and then take what they can from you. 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:56.500 Jesus Christ is the only one who loves you so much that he was willing to suffer for you. 00:24:56.599 --> 00:25:04.399 He was willing to give his life for you so that he could set you free from idols by showing you what true love means. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:12.800 By, in his victory over sin and death, overcoming the spiritual powers and principalities that hold sway in this world. 00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:22.080 Setting you free to be adopted by the God who made you and to become his son or daughter and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:29.939 And Jesus' resurrection is a preview of God's plan for all of creation. 00:25:30.399 --> 00:25:36.759 God actually intends to heal and to restore every aspect of his creation. 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:43.419 Setting us free from idols and bringing everything under the lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:25:43.420 --> 00:25:53.320 And so the invitation to give yourself to Jesus Christ and to worship him and to allow him to be the lord of your life rather than whatever idols hold sway now. 00:25:53.580 --> 00:26:00.779 That invitation is nothing short of the invitation to become part of the renewal of all creation. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.880 So the Christian church is meant to be a preview of all of this. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:21.800 A new society where the world has an opportunity to see what family life, politics, business, race relationships, and all aspects of life. 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:29.240 What all of this looks like when it's brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ, our rightful king. 00:26:30.380 --> 00:26:31.160 Let's pray. 00:26:32.600 --> 00:26:38.300 Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your gospel. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:46.560 And we thank you, Lord, that even though we know we are constantly battling the temptation of idols, things that promise us the world. 00:26:47.220 --> 00:26:51.220 Lord, you're the only one who gave everything up for us. 00:26:51.320 --> 00:26:54.260 And I pray that that truth would break our hearts, Lord. 00:26:54.320 --> 00:26:58.980 I pray that it would expose to us the emptiness of the things that we give our loyalty to. 00:26:59.340 --> 00:27:05.720 And I pray that you would begin to kindle in us an affection and a desire and a longing to see your kingdom come, Lord. 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:08.140 And it's in the name of your son, Jesus, that we pray. 00:27:08.380 --> 00:27:08.620 Amen.