How to Persuade Others Toward Jesus | Dr. Andy Brown

In Acts 17, Paul stands in Athens and proclaims the risen Jesus with conviction, compassion, and clarity. True Christian persuasion is not manipulation or compromise. It is a life fully convinced by the gospel, inviting others to come and follow Jesus.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that changes everything.

#Acts17 #JesusChrist #Gospel #ChristianSermon #FirstBaptistStarkville #LiveSent #IrresistiblePersuasion #BibleTeaching #Faith #christianity 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

If I were to say the word persuasion, what would you think of? Maybe your mind thinks of someone trying to manipulate me or coerce me into doing something that I really don't want to do. But when I use the word persuasion, I'm talking about being compelled with conviction towards truth. Being compelled with conviction towards truth. And as Christians, as those of us who follow Jesus Christ, we really take persuasion seriously. As a matter of fact, this is one of the characteristics of any Christian community. We are people who put our lives on display to persuade others. And we're motivated to persuade others because Jesus Christ persuades us. He put his life on display literally for us. And I want to continue talking about these characteristics that make us better followers of Jesus Christ, that help us follow Jesus Christ and invite others to come along. And instead of looking, remember, at some programmatic experience, we're looking at these characteristics that are common to Christians through the ages that help us as we invite others to come along. Last week we looked at bold praying. This week, would you mind taking your Bibles and joining me in Acts 17 to talk about irresistible persuasion? A Christian community that's growing will be a community of irresistible persuasion. And let me say this. Well, that's easy type of persuasion. But now, especially as my teenage daughter, as she gets older, it's it's uh very early on she introduced this word why into the concept. So now it wasn't just simply A or B. Now that she can reason and think, and she's been doing this for at least about seven or eight years now, uh, now it's well, here's why, not just A or B, C D E F G, H-I-J-K-L-M-O-P, and all the rest. And the reason that parenting is more challenging, especially as our children age, is because persuasion takes different forms. And here's one of the things that I am recognizing the greatest tool of persuasion that I have, and it's the same that you have, is our own lives. People want to see the truth within us. And this is just something that they teach us in communication class, and hopefully you will learn this. If not, let me teach it to you. There are three things that determine whether or not people will listen to you. The first is not what you say, but it's who you are. And the second determining factor to determine if people will listen to you is not only who you are, but it's how you say what you say. Before even what you say. So those three levels. We oftentimes think, well, I have to have this message that everyone's going to listen to. But the first level of communication is who you are, how you say it, and then what it is that you say. And God is calling every one of us who's a follower of Jesus Christ to be purposeful in inviting others to come alongside. And the way that we do that is through persuasion. Listen, not just proclamation, that's important, but who we are, how we say it, not just what we say. And oftentimes I'm convinced that we focus too much on the third part and don't miss, and we neglect the first two. Now, in Acts 17, hopefully you found it there. It's one of my favorite passages in all the Bible because here is Paul in Athens. And in Paul at Athens, he's going to go to the Areopagus. If you were to come to my office after this service, you'd come to my office and you would see a gift that my mother-in-law gave me hanging front and center in my office. It is a commissioned uh repainting of Raphael, no, not the ninja turtle, but Raphael's Paul in Athens. And here is this passage where he proclaims Christ with persuasion. Now I'm going to read verses 16 through 34, and I want you to listen and see if you can pick out these principles of persuasion. Let's read the Bible. While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopacus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting, for you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. All the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Now, things haven't changed, have they? Anyway, let's get back. Verse 22. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopacus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. As I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst. Some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named named Demaris, and others with them. We'll see. But I want you to write these down so that you won't forget them. If we're going to live our Christian life, then we have to take persuasion seriously. And a life that takes persuasion seriously, number one, irresistible persuasion is going to move beyond our preferences to purposeful proclamation. Irresistible persuasion, firstly, moves beyond your preferences to purposeful proclamation. So I want you to get in your mind who this one named Paul is. And I love the balance that we have in the text. Now we didn't read this, but I want you to just pay attention here. In Acts chapter 17 and verse 10 through 15, Paul encounters these individuals that are called Bereans. And these Bereans are those who wanted to study the scriptures themselves to prove whether or not what Paul was saying was true. And so they are those who are taking the word seriously. They have a knowledge of the word. And then we get into Acts chapter 17 and verse 16, and we see that that word that is confined in a church house, listen carefully, that word that's confined in a church house eventually makes its way into the marketplace to deal with people right where they are. And here's what I know, and this is something that we constantly have to take seriously here as followers of Jesus Christ. We have to live a life of persuasion that invites others to join us along the way as we are following Jesus. It's not just enough for us to sit in our holy huddles and to say us four and no more. We have to take the challenging route of persuading men, women, boys, and girls of the truth claims of Jesus. And the truth that we have in here, listen, is good enough for anybody anywhere. The truth that we have here is good enough for everybody out there. And this is the challenge. So, for example, we looked at these characteristics, and the first characteristic was bold praying. This is what happened in Acts chapter 4, if you remember. These people were praying as a church, and the place that they were was shaken. And then the next thing so that's an internal metric. Yes, we should pray. And that's our silent witness as we are praying with one another, asking God to do what only he can do. But we just can't simply stop at praying. We begin with praying, but we move past prayer to persuasion. And that's exactly what we see Paul doing. Now notice this. The Bible says he's waiting for them. Who's he waiting for? Well, verse 15, he's waiting for Silas and Timothy to come to him. And then it says this: don't miss this. He's waiting in Athens, which is a center of cultural influence, a center of cultural influence, which is, by the way, right in some ways, right where we are in Mississippi's college town in Starkville, Mississippi. It's a place of cultural influence. And then notice this, it says his spirit was provoked within him. Now, if you have an NIV or maybe a Christian Standard Bible, that word provoked doesn't mean that he became angry. It means that he was moved with empathy. It means that he was emotionally disturbed. He looked around and his perspective has shifted because he has encountered the risen Jesus. And let me say this: if you're here this morning and if you believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and he is Lord, then that colors the way that you see everything. Every movie, every show, every book, every event, the way you spend your money, how you receive money, how you give money, everything now is colored by a reality that you have been confronted with, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that changes everything. And I just want to ask you this morning: do you have this same sense that Paul had? So where he goes into a city and he is moved with compassion for the people that are there. I'll never forget the time that Kate and I, we went to our first mission trip out of the country. We went to Istanbul, Turkey. And I'll never forget, you're talking about a cultural exchange, a wake-up call. We go from uh the mountains of North Georgia and in the city of Atlanta all the way over to Istanbul, Turkey, where we have the call to prayer, and we are just confronted when this city is full of beauty, but full of lostness. In a way that we were confronted with like never before. And I'll never forget, you know, uh being invited for the first time into a call to prayer and seeing all the men go forward and all the ladies stay back. And a lady greeted me with such uh such cordial and compassion, she said, This is God's house, and everyone is welcome. And the whole time I'm thinking with what I know because I've encountered the risen Christ through faith, this is not the house of God. And my spirit is provoked within me. And Katie goes and she tells a story of a child who falls and and uh skins its knee and and goes and tries to find its mother, but doesn't even know who its mother is because it the child's mother is dressed in a full burqa and can't be recognized, and just the compassion that Katie has for that dear child that lives in a system to where if they get lost in a crowd, then they can't find their mother. And I can remember standing one time uh and I was looking around, just being provoked and not angry, but full of compassion. And I remember saying to the group that I was with, if Paul was here, he would go stand on these steps right here, and he would proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. And as soon as I said that, my group said, Andy Paul is not here. Please don't get us thrown in Turkish prison. But our spirits are provoked because we look around and our whole way of life has been reoriented. We have truth, and it's not just a truth. Listen carefully, it's not just one truth amongst many truths, there's only one truth, and his name is Jesus. And Paul, he is provoked, he sees that the city is full of idols, and he really has, if we're to be technical here this morning, he really has the the epistemological higher ground. He has higher ground because every other philosophy that we're going to encounter through this text is a philosophy that's based upon observation. A philosophy that looks at the world and tries to make sense of the world by deductive reasoning. But you and I, as Christians, we don't have deductive reasoning. Listen, we have revelation. We have a word that has come to us. We have a word that we encounter. We have a word that has confronted our senses and reoriented all that we thought was true and based all of our reasoning on the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. It would have been easier for Paul to look at this moment and for him to just simply say, Well, hey, let's pack up the tent, boys. Let's go take this revival somewhere else. But instead, he's moving beyond his preferences. He's provoked within him. He looks at this city and he sees it in great need. And the need that they have, as he's going to say, is repentance. Not a social program, but a heart that's made right with God. A city that experiences true and living revival. And I was just reading the other day about the Welsh revivals and how God used a young man in his young 20, in his ear in his late 20s, to lead revival where tens of thousands of people from the early parts of 1900, I think it was 1904 to 1906, just for those one, about a one-year period where revival swept through Wales. And my prayer is that God would let someone here, maybe in their early 20s, that God would anoint them and lead the next great awakening, another revival in our nation, because here's what we know. Even in the Bible Belt, even here in Mississippi's college town, our city is full of idols. Who've considered the claims of the resurrection. These Athenians on this day, the sound of resurrection rang in their ears as something new. But the sound of resurrection in our context rings hollow because they don't believe that it's true. And as Peter would say just a couple of chapters earlier, there is one name under heaven by which men and women, boys and girls must be saved, and that one name is Jesus. And what qualifies him, it's the same message. What qualifies him to be an all-sufficient Savior, he has risen from the dead. And he is Lord. You see, we have a message to proclaim. We can't let our own preferences get in the way. We can't let what we like get in the way. Instead, it's not about so much people responding to us, it's about them receiving Him as Lord and Savior. This is the reason for me. I don't want anything that I do to get in the way of a purposeful proclamation and a persuasive proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord. This is why Paul tells Timothy, watch the way you walk with outsiders. Watch your life. Make sure that there's nothing unclean in you. Stay close, stay clean. The reason why is because eternity is at stake. One of the things that I pray for myself often, and please I invite you to pray this with me. I want to present the gospel. My desire is to not just stand up here and say some things, but my desire is to present the gospel as clearly as possible, as quickly as possible, as compelling or irresistible as possible to as many people as possible. Why? Because we have a proclamation that we've received. We have a word from God that's come to us. Jesus Christ is risen. And as Peter would say to another letter, I didn't make this stuff up. We didn't follow cleverly devised myths. It's not about mythology, it's about reality. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. So you see, we automatically have the high ground. But notice this we can't hold our position against them. Instead, we have to do exactly what Paul does and lean in. Here's the second point for you to write down. The principle of persuasion is this persuasion pursues authenticity through active service, not passive self-interest. Persuasion, irresistible persuasion, pursues authenticity through active service, not passive self-interest. In other words, he was willing to get over himself and really put himself out there. Notice what happens. And I love the distance between verse 16 and verse 17. And this is really where the whole message is. Notice Paul's reaction. Instead of saying, well, it's not going to be, this is going to be challenging. He sees where he is as God's preordained purpose for him. Listen, God has you right where he wants you. Wherever you are, it's right where God wants you. Unless it is you're living in rebellion, unless you're living in disobedience. But if you're following God, then he has you for this season, maybe it's just for a time, but he has you right where he wants you. And so notice Paul's posture. What's he do? His posture is persuasion, and so he leans in to wherever he is. Because he is going to do the intellectual work to understand another person's position, instead of talking around them, he's literally going to talk through them. Listen carefully. Look at this word. Paul, he sees the city is full of idols. Verse 16. So what does he do? Verse 17, so he reasoned. See that word reasoned? That word reason literally means he talks through to them. Not talking around them, but talking through them. And let me say this: we are losing the ability to reason as a society. Because it's easier for us to talk around someone and posts whatever we want on our little devices on some worldwide web that somebody's looking at, it's easier for us to talk around someone than it is for us to actually engage the person in conversation and talk through them. And let me say this Paul's ability to reason comes by a posture that he learned from Jesus Christ. You remember what Jesus said in what we are learning from Jesus, Philippians chapter 2, Paul says to another church, listen to this. He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Now, a person who counts others more significant than themselves, you know what they're setting themselves up for? They're setting themselves up for irresistible. Persuasion. It's a life that's worth following because everyone knows that that life that's worth following is really not about them self-serving, but about giving themselves in sacrificial service for others. Have this mind, Paul says, in you. Instead of taking the high ground, notice what he says here. They are saying to him, he's a babbler. But he doesn't take it personal. In verse 18, he says, let's see what some of this, what does this babbler have to say? But he leans into that. Instead of letting that be a defeater, they're making fun of him, they're mocking him. But notice the way he addresses them in verse 22. He addresses them with respect. And he says, Men of Athens, you call me a babbler? You might not care about me, but I sure care about you. The reason that I sure care about you is because I know something that you need to know. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. And this same Jesus that loves me is the same Jesus that loves you. This same blood that atoned for me is the same blood that will atone for you. I will never forget at Kennesaw State University running into those preachers that come on campus. And I'll never forget having a conversation with some of those preachers that come on campus. And I remember having a conversation with one of them as a young college student. And saying to him, the reason that I came to Jesus Christ was not because I was afraid to go to hell. The reason I came to Jesus Christ was because I was so overwhelmed by his love for me. That he would bleed and die for a sinner like me. That's persuasion. And Jesus Christ, listen, he is the ultimate persuader. And what does he offer as his utmost form of persuasion? Don't miss this. He doesn't offer an idea. And this is what makes Christianity so compelling, by the way. Don't miss this. He doesn't offer just an idea or a set of philosophy. No, he offers himself. Jesus paid it all for you so that you could be made right with God. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5, God demonstrates his own love towards us. And that while we were still sinners, while we were still mockers, while we were still self-conceited and self-absorbed, Jesus Christ did not hold that against us. He didn't hold the difference between us and him against us. Instead, you know what he does? Literally, he leans in towards us. Have this mind amongst you, Paul says. The same attitude, the same disposition that was in Jesus Christ. What's that same attitude? What's that same disposition? It's to count others more significant than yourselves. It's not about some passive self-interest. I can remember going and uh on Marta, we would go and we would do some street evangelism, and that's the uh the train that takes people around Atlanta. But we would go and we would have, I remember watching this and just something just didn't sit right. As we would get on there and the doors would close, and then all of a sudden somebody would pop up and start preaching, and he would say, Well, it's a captive audience. And I remember just thinking to myself, yes, there's gotta be a better way. There's gotta be a better way. And I'm not against street preaching, please hear me. I'm not against proclamation ministries. I'm not, but here's what I hope that we'll put together, we'll put together this form of persuasion and proclamation. Because learn from the Apostle Paul, we have to pursue authenticity. Notice what he did here. He runs in, he starts at verse 17. He's reasoning, he's he's uh he's talking through them, not talking past them, he's actually engaging the person. He's reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews, and we're gonna identify these three groups that he's mentioning. He first starts with those who have the most common ground with him. They're the Jews. But he still is confident in his proclamation. He knows that there's a difference between him and Judaism, and it's the resurrected Christ. And then he goes, and look at this, he puts himself out there. He's he's willing to put himself out there. He talks to them the devotee devout persons who they're uh Jews that are close and go to synagogue. And then he takes the message out. Then he goes, and it's not just enough for him to reason in the synagogues. He goes and he takes the message out to the marketplace every day. This is where people go and buy their groceries or do whatever. This is where the real world lives beyond where we are today. We take this message, it's not just good enough for us. Don't keep it to yourself. Spreads it out. And then look what it look who he encounters here. And these are some of the people that uh when you think about witnessing or sharing your faith, these are some of those people that make you nervous, right? Here are the philosophers. Oh, here they come. Can't you see it? Here he is in the marketplace, and in my mind I can see them there walking, and you know, their tunic or whatever it is is sort of swaying and they have this air about them, and here they are. They are the Epicureans and they're the Stoics. Surely they're going to defeat Christian confession. Surely they're going to take this babbler and make him run. But notice what Paul does: he leans in. Now there is common ground that all three of these philosophies have in common. And instead of me teaching you about Epicureanism and Stoicism and Judaism, if you want to know those things, send me an email and I'll send you all that you want about that. But there's a common ground that Paul hits between all of them. All of them. Judaism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, they all keep God at a distance. They all keep God at a distance. And Paul's message is no, God's not at a distance. You can have a personal relationship with Him. God makes Himself available through the sending of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, who comes for our sake and for our salvation. And by the way, let me say this: don't think that these philosophies are dead. Epicureanism is the spirit of our age. Epicurean philosophy is dominated by materialism. It's dominated by this whole idea of you only live once, so you might as well take the best of it. Stoic philosophy at its heart is not your inner zen, your inner satisfaction that comes from no outside sources. And all of these philosophies that are alive and well today, Christianity comes and crushes. Because all of them offer only a circuitous or circular view of your own reasoning. It's a cul-de-sac based upon deductive reasoning. Instead of receiving revelation, we have a word that's come to us. And here's the word. God's not at some distance. Instead, he's personal. Notice what it says here. He says, I'm going to meet you on common ground. You were very religious. He passed along at verse 23, and you all these objects of worship. And then he finds this one to the unknown God. And then notice what he says at verse 24. And I want you to connect these dots very quickly. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in temples made by man. Now notice that phrase made by man. And then skip down to verse 26. He made from one man again a connection. Every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of the dwelling place. And then he's hitting them right where they are. Verse 27, that they should seek God and perhaps fill their way toward him and find him. And then notice the crux. Here it comes. Yet he is actually not far from each of us. Friends, it's not a we go into the world with those who are made in the image of God. Every man, woman, boy, and girl made in the image of God, and they all have the capacity to have a relationship with him. And our message to them is there is only one way for your heart to truly be satisfied. There's only one man by which you can find all your longings satisfied in his name is Jesus. Jesus Christ. He's the only one. You don't have to keep God at a distance. You see, the Jews, they keep God at a distance by having their religion. They have their traditions and their form of religion, keeping God at a distance. The Epicureans, they come and they keep their self at the center, meaning there's no place for God in their life. And the Stoic philosophers, they think that they can become their best selves, and so they want control instead of surrender. And then notice what Paul says. He says, but now there is a man that you can know. A man who is God Himself. A man who makes God known to us. You can have a personal relationship with God. And that's the message of Christianity. It's a message for you and I to move beyond some kind of casual Christianity and for us to move into this deep and abiding relationship with a God who makes himself completely available to us. He has removed the barrier of separation between me and you. And now what's he say? With a nail-pierced hand, he stretches it out to you and he says, Come unto me and live. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me. Receive me by faith. Let go, surrender, believe, and receive new life. You see, I feel a little bit of this pressure every time I preach. Because my desire is for you to understand that there is a God in heaven who loves you. And I'll do whatever I can to persuade you of this. Not talking about compromise. But I'll do whatever I can to persuade you that God loves you and has a plan for your life. That's one of the reasons why we started 521 on Thursday evenings for our college ministry and young adults, is so that they can know that there's a God in heaven who is for them. 521 is taken from 2 Corinthians 5.21 that says, God is for us. He made him who knew no sin to be sinned so that we could become the righteousness of God. He exchanges his righteousness for my unrighteousness. I give him my unrighteousness. You know why he does that? Because he loves me. And one of the things that we're doing in this service on Thursday evenings is after I present the gospel clearly, compellingly, and as irresistibly as I can, under the inspiration of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, one of the things that I do is then I then open it up for questions. And I can tell you, because some of our college, well, excuse me, all of our college students are very smart. Scientists and mathematicians and this boy who made a 970 on his SAT. I've never told anybody that in public because I've always been ashamed of it. Don't hold it against me, please. I'm trying to be authentic. We'll move on. I'm afraid that they'll ask a question. So my heart pitter-patters, and I say, Oh my goodness. But I'm willing to put myself out there. And if I can't ask a question, I'll just say, ask Stevie. And I'm going to put myself out there. Why? Because I may not know all that I know, but here's what I know. Same blood that forgave me of my sins.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

The same faith that makes me whole again is available for whosoever believes in him.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Third and finally, you see, persuasion if we're really going to be persuasive. We're not talking about compromise. We're talking about demanding unwavering conviction over any form of convenient compromise. We're not talking about convenient compromise. We're talking of unwavering conviction. Notice what Paul says. He never gets over the source and substance of the message. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And since Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, there's an appointed time by which you have to give an account of your deeds to him. There is a coming time, he says, a fixed time by which this man, Jesus Christ, will judge the world. And now is the time where he says, listen, not make your life better, not do the best you can, but repent of your sins and turn to him. You see, let me say this again. You really want to be persuasive? And you yourself have to be persuaded. And it's my prayer for you that if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, that you would realize exactly what Paul said then, which is true to us now. He is actually not far from each one of us. You know, it's not about so much your pursuit of him. The Bible tells a richer story than your pursuit of him. You know what it is? It's his pursuit of you. He will move heaven and earth to show you his will. He has literally moved heaven and earth to save you by giving his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him would never perish, but have everlasting life. You see, we lean in. Persuasion takes action on our part. It's not enough for us to just take the moral high ground. We have to really care about those that we interact with. Yes. Salvation is real. Hell is real. And eternity hangs in the balance. And for those of you today who've never trusted Jesus Christ, listen, listen. As your personal Lord and Savior, would you receive him today? Would you receive him today? You say, How do I do that? You simply ask him to forgive you of your sins and come into your heart and make you wholly his. Persuade them to come to Jesus. Would you stand with me? And as we stand, we come to this section in our service that we call your move. And if you're here today and you need to make a decision for Jesus Christ, you want to know more about our church or how to join or get involved, or maybe for baptism, whatever the case may be, as we leave this service, my prayer for you is that we all would live a life that is fully persuaded so that we can persuade others.