As we have already seen, Jesus–the resurrected Jesus–didn’t just give direction to His followers, but commissioned them as He was about to ascend into heaven:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

From Matthew’s perspective, we hear it this way:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Go and make disciples. Baptize. Teach. I will be with you always. And then the book of Acts is the followers of Jesus living out this commissioning.

They live it out in the idealistic–Acts 2-4 is pretty utopian. One heart, one mind, meeting each other's needs, caring for one another, selling their things for the good of all, believing, growing. They also live it out in the not so idealistic–Acts 5 hits like a ton of bricks. Ananias and Sapphira lie about their generosity and commitment to the community and they die! Many other not-great-moments follow and include pain, suffering, people dying, people hurting others, and more. I am sure this was not easy to swallow.

People being imperfect was not new, but so quickly we can hope that a new beginning leads to universal perfection–everything will be different now. It’s like the youth camp high: “I came here 3 days ago. I was stressed and confused, and struggling with anxiety, but now I have four new best friends and I have figured out everything about my faith in Jesus and I will never struggle again.” Then you go home…

Those moments of being high and focused on the utopia are (and were) not bad, but what do we do when life happens? It is easy to hit life and think, if it can’t be perfect, why try?

Well imperfection was just beginning in Acts. Stephen was stoned. The believers were scattered. People were misinterpreting truth, people were being hated and misunderstood. There were persecutions and arrests and beatings. There was external conflict as well as internal conflict.

But in the midst of the challenges, people are being discipled, Jews and Gentiles are both seeing Jesus as the Messiah, more and more are connecting with Jesus, needs are being met, and stability in the body of Christ is forming.

In Acts 5, the Apostles were arrested by the religious authorities. During their interrogation they were sent out of the room.

When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:33-39)

Don’t worry–if it is not from God, it will fade into obscurity; if it is from God, it will continue.

It was happening. While they were facing resistance, the commision was still being lived out. It is summed up in Acts 12:

But the word of God continued to spread and flourish. (Acts 12:24)

And as they walked in that. We are walking in that now. So as we process this book, we can be comforted in the struggle–as I struggle, so did they. We can be challenged in the complexities–as I feel the complexities, so did they. We can learn from the responses–as I feel like I have a lot to learn and am learning, so did they. We can see Jesus’ as the foundation–for me and for them, Jesus is the foundation:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

As we process all of this chaos in Acts, as we process all the chaos in our lives, how do we have a firm foundation? What does that mean? How is that done?

Welcome to the journey of faith. This is the picture we see in Acts.

And now today as we turn the page to Acts 17, Paul goes from Thessalonica to Berea and to Athens. 

Paul was now a 32 hour drive (by car) from Jerusalem. For perspective, driving from Minneapolis to San Diego is 30 hours by car.

When have you experienced culture shock? Maybe far from here, maybe when you were invited into a different family, maybe in a new job, maybe because of language, maybe because of worldview, maybe because of different norms. Share your story. Talk about the feelings, perspective, and processing. Talk about its resolve–or maybe lack of resolve.

When have you experienced culture shock?

In a moment of experiencing culture shock, there are some reactions that are great and some reactions that are not great.

When feeling culture shock, what are some inappropriate responses?

Some of these can make us cringe. Culture shock can walk a person into a moment of being oblivious. I hope there is grace in those moments! But in the midst of culture shock, some can also have the tendency to ignore the value of other cultures, to brush past it all and treat it as “less.” I think the word for this is obstinate: stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so.

What is happening in someone when he or she is willfully being obstinate to a different culture?

I can find myself in the trap of thinking that my worldview is the right worldview, my perspective is the right perspective, my understanding is the correct understanding, my practices are the best practices, my beliefs are the true beliefs. I can find myself thinking obstinate people are the worst, and yet be obstinate myself. 

What is the difference to wanting what's best for someone vs. wanting them to be just more like me? How do we determine this line?

What if we’re wanting everyone to believe just like us but we haven’t done our own internal evaluation and we’re wrong in what we believe? Uh oh.

As Paul walks into three radically different cultures in succession, we see him definitely having processed his own internal beliefs, and we see others searching scriptures to process their internal belief systems as well.

First, Paul went to Thessalonica:

Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.  But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. (Acts 17:4-7)

Many believed, and there was jealousy and persecution.

Then they went to Berea:

As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. (Acts 17:10-12)

There is eager belief, personal examination, and a discipleship process. Many believd, but the calm was short lived:

But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. (Acts 17:13)

There was persecution and a need to escape. This nudged Paul to the coast and to Athens:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

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. 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.

“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. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 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. 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. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

“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. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 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.”

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.” At that, Paul left the Council. 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. (Acts 17:16-34)

Paul observed culture, saw their religiosity, and filled in blanks.

In a relatively short period of time, Paul experienced radically different cultures. The commission call was the same:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

But the living it out was not “same.”

As we live out the commissioning of Jesus, will we walk into Thessalonica? Will we visit Berea? Will we flee to Athens? Probably not! But we will experience Jesus’ commissioning being lived out in different cultures. Let’s process this.

How do you think people should respond to the gospel?

What are some risks in presuming that all people will hear and respond to the gospel in the same way?

Today we are going to end with two questions to process the commission in our cultures.

In Acts we have seen the commission being lived out in teaching, confrontation, affirmation, filling in blanks, challenging, focusing, raising questions, being empathetic, meeting needs, setting aside rights, healing, running, being faithful in spite of persecution, standing firm, walking in humility… I think this list could go on and on. To nudge us to process the living out the commission, here are two questions–but there could be hundreds. I hope these questions open conversations upon conversations. I hope they help us process now. And I hope they help us process beyond the now.

What Christlikeness do you see around you? How can you compliment it?

What poor examples of Christ do you see around you and in yourself? How can you be a part of redefinition and inviting people to see God through a different lens?

Take It Deeper Questions

• Read Acts 17.
• How would you define our greater culture–United States, Minnesota, Minneapolis, your neighborhood?
• How are you typical in culture? How are you atypical in culture?
• What is Christlike about our culture?
• What injustices in our culture do you feel compelled to do something about?
• What areas in our culture are in need of some redefinition as it comes to understanding of Christ?
• How do these questions shape your perspective of living out the great commission in our culture?

Bible Reading Plan

• Joshua 6
• Joshua 7
• Joshua 8
• Acts 18
• Acts 19
• Acts 20