Lets open our Bibles up to Hebrews 5:11 (page 1187 of pew Bibles). Today, well be talking The Truth Project, Part 3: philosophy. I want to give a word of encouragement to you as we begin today. I have heard it said on more than one occasion, for those of you who are coming to class, listening to Del, and those of you who are coming to the talks on the weekend and dialoging on these things, Hey, this is hard, youll say. So, if youve come up to me and said that, youre not the only one who has. A lot of folks have said that, but I want to encourage you with these words today. In the Book of Hebrews, it says, We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. Now, hes being very frank, isnt he? And Im not at all equating them with you, but he is going to tell them like it is. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of Gods word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. How about if you came over to somebodys house to eat, and they were serving Gerbers [baby food]? What would you do? Would you nicely eat the strained peas and say, They were delicious? Or would you say, Why do you have Gerbers here? They would say, Well, we have Gerbers to eat and ba-bas to drink from. I dont think youre ready for solid food. Youd be offended. You would say, Why would you think that of me? I wonder if they were offended at what was written here. Part of them might have said, What do you mean were not ready for solid food? What he is saying here is youre not ready for the deeper truth of Gods word. Were going back to the elementary things all over again. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hes saying if youre in the Word, and youre growing in the Word-youre growing and understanding- and youre grappling with deeper truths, the end result is youre going to mature. When you mature, your discernment is going to increase. As your discernment decreases, you will be able to distinguish right from wrong. Youre going to just know those things. He says you who have trained themselves to distinguish… The Truth Project, the reason were raising the bar intellectually, is not so that you can spit out and say, Well, as a Christian, this is what I believe about that. Were not here to say, Heres how you think. Were here to give you a framework, principles that you can use to know what you believe, to be able to discern right from wrong, to discern truth from error. When I say this, theres nothing wrong with going to a pastor or another Christian and asking them, but you will be able to discern for yourselves theological questions. Thats what this is about. This is about maturity. What he says there in that last verse is practice makes perfect. This word maturity is the word perfect, the word teleos. The second word trained there means to exercise vigorously; gymnasium comes from that word. Hes saying as you practice and exercise in the Word, you will come to perfect your faith, not that you will be perfect, but that you will be mature. Thats our goal. In the Book of Second Timothy 2:15 (pg 1179), Paul says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. The word workman was the word most commonly used of a farmer, somebody who worked with their hands and worked hard. Hes saying you need to labor in the field. You need to work hard. I am doing some landscaping, a project I told my wife is such a big project. Im tearing up an area and rebuilding a whole large area, and it has taken me from the beginning of summer, and Ill be lucky if I get this done by the time frost comes. Its a big job. For a long time, it looked like I did absolutely nothing because so much of whats involved is digging. I know why they named this Rock County because it is a rock almost every shovelful. It has just been a chore to trench, dig, and uproot. Im now getting to the point where Im actually starting to plant stuff, and thats fun. One thing is that its one of the only excuses you have to get dirty and play in the dirt like you did when you were a kid. I come in the house, and shes like, Yuck! Im just covered with mud from head to toe. With all the rain weve been having, youre down there on your hands and knees digging in this stuff. Where else can you do that, if youre an adult, except to do landscaping? So, thats fun. But, youre toiling and what keeps you going is you vision of what it will look like when its done. When this area is cleaned up… When this area is planted… When the rocks go down here… When the bolts go down here, heres what its going to look like. So this toil and effort is worth it as I see that finished product. Were going to watch a quick clip from a show I believe it is called Lost. Ive never seen it. Some of you have seen it and think its good. Lets watch that. Were trying to make you struggle a little bit. Were trying to make you think, grapple with these truths-these ultimate reality questions. We dont just want menial Sunday school answers, but we really want to make you think, Why do I believe? Do I believe what I believe is really real? Now, you struggle with this stuff. You begin to mature. You begin to get understanding. You begin to grow in your faith. If you want to change the heart, you have to first change the mind. Remember that? Romans 12:2: To be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation happens first here [in your mind] before it happens here [in your heart]. So, I want to encourage you, keep going! Keep coming; keep reading; keep learning; keep challenging yourself. You may not take it all in and understand it all, but when its all said and done, youll be stronger than when you started. Youll know more. Youll love God more. So, I hope thats a word of encouragement to you…I hope. Lets talk about philosophy. Lets turn to the Book of Acts 17. Were going to watch Paul go head to head and toe to toe with some of the great minds of his day. When you think of Athens, you think of philosophy. When you think of Greece, you think about soccer teams and Aristotle, these great minds-these great theologians; really, thats what they were. Their philosophy was their religion. It was not just a school of thought that theyd adhere to. It was a way of life for them. This was serious stuff. So, Paul comes in and questions their philosophy. Hes really questioning their belief system, their way of life. Thats what hes going to do. He is by himself for a little bit. We have separated the team, STP-Silas, Timothy, and Paul. Theres been a bit of a commotion in Thessalonica and Burea. Theres a group thats going around stirring up trouble. Everywhere Paul went in a Jewish area, they would say, Hes teaching against Moses. But when they are in a Greco-Roman area, theyd say, Hes teaching against the emperor. Hes teaching false gods. They tried to get Paul in trouble everywhere he went, and usually it worked. So, they stay behind, and Paul goes ahead to Athens. Hes walking around the city. It says in Verse 16, While he was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. The word distressed means provoked. He was upset. Have you ever been in an environment that just upset your spirit? You look around you and you say, Things are not right here. This is not good. This is disturbing. I remember we were driving through Salem, Massachusetts. We were going to stay there; we were on vacation. We planned to stay the night in Salem, even though thats where all the witch trials were. It was a really dark time in the history of the church. Once you get there, you understand what was going on. These people werent possessed by demons and werent really witches. It was just a racket, an extortion racket to get money from people. Innocent people were going to prison and were losing their lives. It was an ugly, dark period in the church. So, we went there to learn about this. As we drove into town, the children didnt have an understanding of what Salem was all about, but we didnt have to say anything. We just drove through the town, and they were like, Ick! This is a creepy place. Dad, how long do we have to stay here? Are we going to stay here long? Well, we were going to stay here all night, but were not going to anymore. And that was just driving in. We saw this big black gothic-looking building. It looked like it was a church, but it was painted completely black. There was not one square inch on the building that was not jet black. The roof, the walls, the windows, they were all painted black. There were big black gargoyles painted on the outside of it. It said on the side of the building, This is not a church-get over it! I dont know what it was, but whatever it was, it wasnt good. We began to circulate downtown to find out where we wanted to go to learn a little about the history. We wanted to make sure we found something that dealt with the history and not something that was promoting witchcraft. We had to look very hard. Almost every exhibit was promoting witchcraft. You can go and talk to this witch or this warlock, and it was a dark place. It was really disturbed and distressed. This place needed the Gospel. We prayed for the churches that were there, that are preaching the Gospel. We saw it, learned about it, and left. Paul is not going to do that. He is distressed, but he is going to stay and do something about that uneasiness he feels. This is an intellectual hotbed. This is a place where philosophers go to philosophize. This is a think tank. Its a place where it would be very intimidating for the average Joe to come in and debate these guys because this is all they do. Its their lives. This is what they know. It says, A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. They began to argue with Paul. Were going to find out pretty soon how different these two philosophies were and how they would be at each others throats most of the time. Most of the time, theyd be knocking heads, but they united forces to debate the Apostle Paul because hes coming in as the stranger, the newbie, and hes refuting their belief system. They come together to attack him even though theyre very opposed to one another usually. It reminds me of what happened this week in the U.N. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, came to the UN. He comes in and addresses the United Nations there in New York, and he says, You can still smell the sulfur in this building because the President of the United States was here, and hes a devil. Your President is a devil. He began to say very demeaning things as one head of state about another head of state. It was interesting to watch the democratic response. Normally, they are political enemies, but I listened to Charles Rangel from the congressional district there in New York. He said to the president of Venezuela, You dont come in to my country, to my city, to my district and talk about my President. We can talk about him. We can disagree, but you cant. In essence, shut your mouth and go home. Nancy Pelosi, not a big friend of the president politically, said, You are a thug, and you have abused your freedom. You have disgraced yourself, and you have disgraced your country by coming in and using this opportunity as a chance to trash our President. I thought, Whoa, this is pretty cool. We are sending a message that weve got our differences of opinions, but the bottom line is we are America. When you come into our country, youll respect our government. So, heres these political foes joining together to dispute the common enemy. Thats whats going on here. Lets read with the Epicureans say, Some of them asked, What is this babbler trying to say? The word babbler means bird-seed picker, literally. What theyre trying to say is Paul picks up a little of this; he picks up a little of that; he picks up a little of this, and then he spits it out. He really doesnt know anything. He is just a guy who grabs some truth over here and there, and he tries to tell you like he knows something, but he really doesnt. Hes not smart like we are. Hes just a babbler. Others remarked, He seems to be advocating foreign gods. Notice the plural: gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. They believed the resurrection was a separate god, another god. There is the God, Jesus, and there is the god, resurrection. So, lets listen to Paul as he talks about these two gods, Jesus and the resurrection. Thats how confused and lost they were from what he was talking about. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him… This is where we debate; this is where we learn. …may we know this new idea that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. Now, theres a little commentary here by Luke in the parentheses. He says, (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) So, this is a think tank. These are professional debaters. These are the theologians of that region. Before we talk about what Paul says, we want to know a little bit more about them because thats important. Youll see why Paul says what he says once you know about them. You may say, Why do we need to know about Epicureans and Stoics? Theyre still here. They dont know theyre Epicureans and Stoics, but their philosophy of life is still here. In fact, you know some of them. Lets talk about the Epicureans first. Lets put a little picture up here that is an understanding of what the Epicureans are. The Epicureans philosophy of life can be described in three words: here, now, wow. I borrowed that from Gestalt, psychology. Here, now, wow. This is it, man. We are an assembly of atoms, and when we die, the atoms disintegrate, and then there is nothing. Are there gods? Yeah, theres gods. Were not atheists, but the gods dont care about human existence. Theyre off making other planets and solar systems. Theyre out having a good time. They dont care about us. Everything here is just random chance. You might as well live life to the fullest. The highest goal of the Epicurean was to live life pain free, to pursue pleasure. That can get a following, right? To pursue pleasure, it means you wont have pain. Live the way you want to live because your time here is very short, so pack as much into it as you can, experience as little pain as you can, and thats good living. How many of you know some Epicureans? Its Friday night, going to Joes. Going to get drunk-going to party! Go for all the gusto you can. Those are our Epicurean friends. On the other side, we have our Stoic friends. Youre heard the word Stoic before. It usually means somebody who lacks emotion, or they are sober, somber. Stoics believe that there was a cosmic force or a cosmic energy, a kind of god who pervaded everything. I dont know if its as much polytheists as pantheists. There were gods everywhere and in everything. There was this energy called logos. When we say logos, we mean something entirely different than they did. They meant reason. Reason reigned supreme. So, youve got to tap into this universal reason which goes through all of nature. If you do that, you get rid of passion. So you dont have a lot of highs, and you dont have a lot of lows. You are kind of even-keel. You make every decision based on logic and reason, and you control that by the choices that you make. So the world around us functions by these universal rules, so you want to go with the flow. There is order and design. There is reason for the universe. In fact, not only is there-as the Epicureans think-everything is by chance, but the Stoic says everything is on purpose. Everything happens because this is the way its supposed to happen. If its not right with you, its because youre out of touch with the reason that pervades this whole universe, this logic. You might think of the Stoics as Star Wars meets Star Trek, as Yoda meets Spock. That was their point of view. Is that different from the Epicurean, the bar scene guys? Its night and day. So, when these two get together, sparks fly. So, Paul is going to come in and go toe to toe with them. Hes going to discuss their point of view. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. That was meant to be a compliment. He was trying to build a bridge, not erect a wall. Remember, Pauls goal is transformation. He wants to transform them, so he is going to appeal to, what? Their minds-because their minds are the key to their hearts-especially these guys. Im going to engage your intellect so I can win your heart. So his goal was transformation. Its going to happen through the mind, so Paul comes in to seek to build a bridge, not erect a wall. Hes not interested just in conformity; hes interested in transformation. Hes not coming in there with a sledge hammer and trashing them saying, Now, Im going to break down your idols! Bam! Bam! Bam! How many of you have ever seen the Christians try to win transformation by forcing conformity without changing the mind or heart? They just come in with their sledge hammer and start trashing, banging, and breaking. They say, Im going to show you that youre wrong, and Im right. Heres what I think about your thinking and your way of life! Bam! Bam! Trash! Pow! Have you seen that? Does it work? What does it do? It makes them mad. Youre not going to come down here and break our idols. Well show you! Were not going to listen to you. Paul doesnt do that. Paul is much smarter than that. He is going to engage their minds to win their hearts. So he seeks to build a bridge. Hes going to compliment them. Hes going to compliment their culture. Hes going to quote from their poets, their philosophers. He says, For I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship. I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. There is a commercial out right now with two little animated figures who come up with an idea, usually a bad idea, and the one looks at the other and says, Brilliant! Paul is Brilliant! He is being chased around, and everywhere he goes in this area, they are saying, Youre preaching against the emperor! Youre preaching foreign gods! You could only talk about the gods Rome wanted you to talk about. Those were the only ones that were legal, so they were having a lot of success stirring up trouble for Paul. So what does Paul do? He doesnt want to be locked up! He doesnt want to cause a riot! He wants to communicate with these people and then move to the next town, so what does he do? He finds an altar that says TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. He says, Im going to talk about that god. Your unknown god? Lets talk about him. So it becomes perfectly legal by Rome. Brilliant! Well talk about that unknown god. Theyre being very careful here. Theyre saying, Look, weve got all these altars to all these gods, all these idols, but we might have left one out, so we dont want the gods to look down and see all these other idols and say, Okay, wheres mine? You forgot about me! Ooohhh, TO AN UNKNOWN IDOL, they just dont know my name yet. Yeah, theyre worshipping me, there. Thats mine! Thats the superstition so that well placate all the gods in case we missed one. This unknown god, yeah we have him too. Paul says, Im going to talk to you about that guy. Now, before we talk about what he says, lets take a listen to a little excerpt from week two from the Del Tackett teaching on philosophy, ethics, and morality. Lets hear what he has to say. Everything there is, and everything there will be, is in this box. From our eyes, this box is huge. Maybe from Gods vantage point, this is very small. Its a matter of perspective. So they reasoned everything. The ultimate truths of life and the universe must be contained within the cube, within what I see, within the stuff I observe. Paul is going to address that way of thinking. In Verse 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 hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men… All of us came, no matter our races, no matter what country: all of us came from one. Were all from the same family. …that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Does that sound like, to the Epicureans, that Gods not involved in His creation? They would take issue with what Paul was saying here. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are His offspring. Theyre using their own poets, whom they respect. Ive read that poem by the way. Its a long poem, but he uses it. Use their culture! Win their minds to win their hearts! Therefore since we are Gods offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by mans design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. Does He suggest we repent? Does He invite us to repent? He commands we repent. What does repent mean? Literally to change your mind, to change your way of thinking. Who does He command to repent? All people, everywhere! Who does that leave out? Nobody anywhere. Thats everybody. For He has set a day when He will judge the world by justice. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, Epicureans. Youre not going to turn into dust. Theres coming a day of accountability where He will judge the world by justice by the man He has appointed. Lets read on. He says, He has given us proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead. When he uses the word men there, thats the word anthropos. It means man and woman, mankind; so ladies, dont get offended, Is he being sexist here? What about us? That means you too. Mankind is what he is saying: men and women. Hes given us proof by raising Him from the dead. I bet you Paul is saying that your founder, Stoics, Mr. Zeno, I bet he was a great teacher. But Zeno, not to be confused with Zena-the warrior princess, Zeno is dead and gone for 300 years. Epicureans, Im sure he was a good teacher, but hes been dead and gone for hundreds of years. Paul speaks with authority because his teacher was dead, and now Hes alive. He says, I have proof. These were all good men, but the man who Im sharing about, the philosophy and way of thinking Im sharing about, my teacher died and is alive. Paul spoke not as somebody hemming and hawing, like Aw, gee. Shucks, I know you guys are smart, and youre philosophers, but golly gee, listen to what I have to say too. Youve been around for hundreds of years. Were just getting started. I dont know anything, but here we go. I know Im just a babbler, just a bird-seed picker, and you guys are all smart. Im just a hick… Thats not what Paul does. Paul comes in there, and he speaks with authority and confidence like I know something you dont know, and youre wise to listen to me. What Paul is saying is guys, there has to be something outside the cube. There has to be something outside the box. Youre looking in the wrong place for the ultimate meaning of life. Philosophy points to the existence of a higher power. The Stoics thought everything was cause and effect; everything happens for a reason. Paul says, There has to be a first cause. There has to be a first mover. Thats called the cosmological argument. Paul used it. Great philosophers have used it. Thomas Aquinas, the uncaused cause, the first cause: there has to be somebody who tipped that first domino and caused all the cause and effect that you see in the world around you. Thats the God Im telling you about. There were two different responses. Some sneered, and some said, We want to hear you again on this. Probably the ones who sneered were the Epicureans because their worldview was challenged the most. Probably the Stoics said, Youre using some logic here. Youre using some reason. I want to know more about the God that you profess. If youre listening to this, and youre a Stoic and youre not a believer, but were talking to your mind and youre listening-keep listening. Keep coming and hearing the message that we have to say.