G1 Conference Session 3: Perseus Poku "Relational Apologetics in Today's Era"

We want to thank you for joining us for this wonderful conference. My job here is to just spend a few minutes with you talking about relational apologetics.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 8, verses 19 through 20, we find evidence of a commandment that Jesus gave his disciples, which is not only descriptive in nature, but prescriptive.

And by prescriptive, we mean that it's binding, not just for one Christian, but it's binding for every

Christian, every born -again believer, things that we are obligated to do. And really, that's what relational apologetics is all about, is the ability to take the gospel and let it bleed into the lives of those that surround you, not just hoarding it, not just keeping it to yourself, but to go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he's commanded us, and lo, he's with us all the way.

So the question is, how do we relate? I'm saved.

I love the Lord. I like Christian apologetics. I like studying about classical apologetics.

I like studying about historical apologetics, maybe evidentiary apologetics, or perhaps you're into presuppositional apologetics.

But I'm here today to talk about relational apologetics.

And this is practical theology, the type of apologetics that causes us to share our faith with our neighbor, who perhaps maybe is a

Muslim, the type of apologetics that causes us to share with our mechanic, who may be a

Sikh. The type of apologetics that I'm talking about is the apologetics that inspires us to share with those outside of our orbit.

And all of us have an orbit. You have your family members. You have your church family.

You have your racquetball club. You have your soccer club. All of us have an orbit.

And the question is, as a Christian in the 21st century, how are you depositing the

Word of God? How are you relating to those that may not believe in what you believe?

So in order to affect our personal orbit for Jesus, we must be practical in our theology as well as practice our theology.

So practical theology involves not just orthodoxy, which deals with standard belief, long -held belief that the church has held, major doctrines.

And I encourage every believer to first know why you believe and know what you believe.

All of this study about biblical archaeology, all of this study about evolution, all of this study about philosophy and how

Christians can tear down the strongholds through reasoning, all of this has a purpose, not just for us to be intellectual, not for us to have a title in front of our names.

It's not designed just for us to be mentally superior than other people.

Everything we're learning from the G1 Conference is intended to win other people to Christ, primarily.

Then secondly, within the body of Christ, we all hold firm to the major essentials, but when it comes to the secondary essentials, that's where we have to practice the love of Jesus.

We may disagree on the secondary essentials, but we don't have to fall out. And that's what relational apologetics is all about.

It is how do I relate to those who may not know Jesus? How is my lifestyle going to win others to Jesus?

It's what I call being spiritually attractive. And are you spiritually attractive?

Are you the type of Christian that repel people because of how standoffish you may be, because of how exclusive that you may be, you only hang around church people?

Christ doesn't want that. Christ wants us to share even with people that don't think like us.

We are intentional about our relationships. Why? Because everybody deserves to hear the gospel.

Now, practical theology is the way we conduct ourselves as believers, which is essential to the gospel message.

It's been said many times, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Let me say it again. People do not care how much you and I know until they know how much you care.

And Jesus is a perfect example of relationships and how he dealt differently with every person that he came in contact with.

Being able to know who you are, being able to know that you're a child of God, but not being intimidated.

At the same time, we realize that not everybody in our orbit believes the same things that we believe.

So then we pray, Lord, how can I relate to this Muslim woman? How can

I relate to this Muslim man? Lord, how can I relate to those atheists in my life?

How do I relate to the skeptics? How do I relate to the agnostic? How do I relate to the humanist?

And if we ask God for answers, he promises to give us the answers so we can relate better to those in our orbit.

Now let's look at practical theology. Jesus, as I said, was the perfect example and embodiment of what it means to display

Christian behavior. If you want to know how to witness to people, look at the life of Jesus the

Christ. When we look at Jesus, especially in John, we find him sharing at the wedding of Cana.

He didn't have to accept the invitation, but Jesus was there to relate. He was there to show the people at the wedding, even his mother, that the kingdom of God had arrived.

Jesus believed in relationships, and what we don't want is for all of you to receive this wonderful message of the

Christian response to evolution. The wonderful message of the Christian response to how old the earth is.

The Christian response to dinosaurs, and we're learning these things, and I'm being filled just by hearing the presenters share about the

Christian response to some of these scientific evidence, and we do have a response. But once you're finished gathering all of this information, what are you going to do with it?

Are you just going to be aloof? Are you just going to take it and beat people upside the head with it?

Are you going to sit in your ivory towers where nobody can reach you? I suggest we follow the example of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus needed to relate, which was all times because he's dealing with people, he related to the apostles.

All of them were different, but yet he was able to relate and to connect with each apostle.

Jesus was able to relate in John 4 to the woman at the well, and I love that discourse.

That whole narrative is wonderful. Looking at our Savior sitting at the well intentionally, why?

Because he knew that his disciples would be away taking care of food, and while the disciples were away, my personal opinion in looking at this whole narrative is for him to reach the woman at the well the disciples had to go.

They had to be outside of the classroom because Jesus set up a classroom right by the well.

He was relating to this woman at the well. Think about it. When she talked about race,

Samaritans and Jews don't have fellowship. Jesus wasn't thrown off. Jesus focused on grace.

When she talked about discrimination, Jesus wasn't thrown off because he knew he was sent there to tell this woman about salvation.

So in our discourse, as we try to relate to those in our orbit, let's not forget the example of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus can deal with people like Zacchaeus. If Jesus could relate to Zacchaeus, who was a tax collector, and many people in that first century

Judeo culture were offended by tax collectors because many of them didn't like tax collectors, just like today.

Not much has changed. A lot of people don't like those that deal with their taxes, like the IRS. But Jesus related to Zacchaeus and his whole point was, if I could develop a relationship with Zacchaeus and save him, then he could be a blessing for the kingdom.

So number one, we can't count anybody out. Just like Jesus reached low and dealt with us.

We are obligated, since we're saved, to reach out to other people.

There's nobody too low that the Holy Spirit can't touch our heart for us to reach down and share the gospel with them.

And then there are some people in our orbit we think they're unsavable. We won't say it, but we act like it.

Oh, that person would never accept Christ. That's not true. We just have to keep sharing and we have to keep telling them about the gospel.

We have to keep living it. It's not always about talking, but we have to live out the credos of the

Bible. And that's what Jesus did. Jesus came and he developed relationships with people that were loving and even some people that were considered unlovable.

Jesus reached them. Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Jesus and Zacchaeus. And we talked about Jesus and the disciples.

Wherever Jesus went, he was filled with love. And that love was to bring them to the knowledge of the

Father. Jesus had the kingdom agenda message and he would not be distracted.

I love you all so much that I have to first build a relationship. And once we build a relationship, then people are more open to hear what you have to say.

But we have to first build relationships. Now, I do realize it's easy to just cast people away.

Oh, you're atheist and since you're atheist, I'm just going to check you out of the box.

I'm going to just keep you in your atheist corner. It's easy to just put people in boxes. Oh, you're agnostic.

And since you're agnostic, I'm just going to put you in your agnostic box and I won't have any dealings with you.

It's easy for us to just put people in boxes. But Jesus says, whosoever will, let them come.

So we can share the truth of God's message with them. How are you building relationships with Jesus?

Are we just continuing this whole concept of being maintainers of the aquarium?

And that means that the only people we fellowship with are Christians. The only people that we hang out with are those that go to our churches.

Only those that have already accepted Jesus Christ. Well, we already know

Christ for ourselves. What about the other people who don't believe the same things we believe?

Could be a professor in your life, could be a doctor in your life, could be a pediatrician in your life, whoever it is.

They deserve to know the truth of the gospel. And then

I always encourage Christians, you should always have a tool belt.

Meaning that you should always attend conferences such as these, attend other

Christian conferences, then you put all the stuff into your tool belt. And once they're in your tool belt, the

Holy Spirit is able to then use what you've already put inside of you so you can bless other people.

Doesn't matter if you're talking to the child or you're talking to the grandparent. Doesn't matter if they come from a scientific background or they've never been to school.

If you avail yourself to studying of God's word and groaning God's word into learning the signs around us, the

Holy Spirit can use that information, pull it out of you when it's necessary. So you can bless other people.

So relational apologetics is important to God. It's not enough just to know Jesus and go to heaven.

He's left us here to be witnesses. He's left us here to build lasting relationships with humanity.

Will they always say yes, Lord? Of course not. But that's not our job. One person plants the seed, the other person waters, and Jesus gives the increase.

This is the why we need to build relationships. Now, I wanna transition to the what.

The what of relational apologetics, meaning

Christians, all Christians, ought to study.

So I wanna propose to you the acronym studies, S -T -U -D -I -E -S, and then

I'm done. The S stands for Christians, all

Christians have to be studious. When we look at 2 Timothy 2 .15,

you'll see that it says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and who correctly divides the word of truth.

If we're going to correctly divide the word of truth, that infers, or there's an insinuation there that you can also wrongly divide the word of truth.

There's nothing more dangerous than a Christian who doesn't know how to handle

God's word the way that it needs to be handled. I've seen Christians take

God's word to win arguments. I've seen Christians take God's words to condemn other people.

I've seen Christians mishandle God's word by what they say and by what they do. But if we're gonna handle

God's words correctly, number one, we have to know what it says. Number two, we have to be hermeneutically appropriate.

And once you have that knowledge, the last part is application. And application deals with how we relate to other people.

Even though I know Jesus, even though I have a desire for Christ, can people stand to be around me?

Or are we hindering them from knowing Jesus just by the way we treat other people?

It's not enough to say, I know Jesus on Sunday, but when I get home, my family can't stand me.

We're talking about relational apologetics. How are we relating to other people? You have the knowledge, but are we applying the knowledge?

And being studious is the first part, knowing what God's word says versus what it does not say.

Then the second part is truthful. We have to be truthful when we approach people.

And it reminds me of 1 John 3 verses 18 through 19. And it says, whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe stands condemned already. One of the questions that I get a lot from various people is, well, a loving

God wouldn't send anybody to hell. And that's true. Loving God is not going to send anybody to hell.

But we choose to go to hell when we reject the overture that Jesus gives us.

We willfully say, Lord, I don't want you to be head of my life.

I don't want you to be savior. And once an individual decides to reject the invitation that Jesus has given them, then it's on them.

So we have to be truthful. We share the gospel in love. If I'm dealing with my barber and he doesn't know

Jesus, then I have an obligation to be sensitive to the power of the Holy Spirit.

If he wants me to share my testimony with him, then I need to share with him. Again, we're building relationships.

And oftentimes, when I'm in the barbershop, you hear all of this rhetoric.

You hear all of these types of talking. And every now and then, somebody approaches me, or I may say something, but my relationship with them is intentional, because I want them to know

Jesus just like I do. But they're not going to throw me off track because I want to be focused, just like Jesus was focused.

The third point, as we're being studious, as we're being truthful, we have to be uncompromising, uncompromising.

And all of this talk about tolerance, all this talk about Christians being intolerant, but we need to tolerate other people.

It's interesting that the culture now, they say one thing in terms of Christians being intolerant, but yet, in many cases, this culture is more intolerant than Christians.

They violate their own oath. Let's tolerate everyone except those that agree with us.

That's the world. But we, as Christians, we have to be uncompromising in the sense that the methods can change, but the gospel cannot.

So how do we deal with individuals, those that may not look like us, those that may not talk like us, those that may not have the same economic status as us?

How do we deal with those people? The Holy Spirit, as we acquiesce our will to his, if we lean on him, if we read, if we study, if we desire to apply the word of God, God the

Spirit will guide our tongue. We need to have the desire. We need to pray for the desire, because we come in contact with people every day that are not like us, people that are different than us.

And God wants to use us to be liked. He wants to use us to be exemplars, not because of us, but because of who we know.

So we can't compromise. We can't compromise what God is saying about humanity.

We can't compromise about what he's saying in terms of gender. We can't compromise what he's saying in terms of historicity.

There are things we can't compromise on. Now, the way we approach different people, that is different.

God uses your own uniqueness, your own idiosyncrasies. God knows how to use each one of us to give us a level of influence among those people that we hang around with.

And in using your gifts and using your position, we're able to be relatable.

And people will come to the Christian who they believe knows something about life.

I've been in many situations, even in my previous jobs, where people that didn't know

Jesus, people that weren't Christians, people that weren't thinking about being

Christians, when situations in their life came about and they were having difficulties, struggling with how to handle these different situations, who do you think they came to?

They came to the man of God who claims he knows the

God of the universe. They wanted to get my perspective on this situation.

And it's not just me. I'm not special. God wants to use all of us to be spiritually attractive, so others may want to know what's going on in this life.

So be studious, be truthful, and be uncompromising, then be deliberate. When I look at the

John 4 narrative of the Samaritan woman, it's the same thing. Jesus was deliberate. It wasn't by chance that he went to Jacob's well and sat there.

That time was designed for that Samaritan woman. Deliberate. So in being relatable, we have to be deliberate.

There are people right now that you can think about in your life. Could be family members.

It could be coworkers. It could be our neighbors. You know them, but you are not certain that they know

Jesus. All of this that we're doing at this conference, it's about us getting closer to the creator through his son

Jesus Christ. Again, you can get all of the knowledge. You can know all of the statistics.

You can get all the information about the earth and the origin and how we got here, which is important.

But it's not more important than us being liked, than us being exemplars, than us being examples of God's trophy cases, so other people can see what

God is doing in our life. Can people come to you when there's issues going on with them?

Or are we the cause of them not coming to ask us questions?

Are we the cause of other people being pushed away from knowing Christ because of what we're not doing?

But I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to live for Jesus. I want to encourage you to reach out to those people around you.

You don't have to know everything. No one man knows everything, but we know this much. We know that Jesus came.

We know that Jesus rose on the third day physically. We know that Jesus is the answer to the problem that ails you.

We don't have to know every answer in this world, but God does. And so when we don't know something, we should go back and investigate and try to get the answer and bring it back to the people that are asking us.

We have to be relatable. And regardless of what this world is saying, it's

OK. To go back to the people you trust and ask them. Do you have an answer to this?

Those Christian pioneers, those Christian mentors that we all have, grandmother and grandfather, even

Sunday school teacher. I'm having a hard time with this with this question. Can you explain it to me? Because somebody else wants to know.

It's OK. And we have to be deliberate in our approach. Then last, the next one is intellectual.

When I was in seminary, the question that was asked as part of our test was, is there a conflict between Christian apologetics and faith?

And the answer is no. There's no conflict between logic and faith.

There's no conflict between science and faith. There's there's no conflict between us using our mind for Jesus and faith.

When we use our minds. For Jesus, there's nothing more powerful than that.

Then when a Christian. Studies to show them self -approve.

A workman who need not be ashamed, but rightly divide in the word of truth or first Peter 315, but sanctify the

Lord God in your heart and be ready to to give an answer to each man, a woman, a reason for the hope that lies within you and do it with gentleness and respect.

It's nothing wrong with Christians using their intellect for Jesus Christ. Our history is littered with Christian thinkers.

I enjoy reading the doctrines of Augustine. I enjoy reading the treaties of Irenaeus.

I enjoy reading the stories about Polycarp. I enjoy reading

Tertullian's work. I enjoy reading Thomas Aquinas's work.

I enjoy using my mind for Jesus. There's nothing wrong with it. It's OK to be emotive.

It's OK to get caught up in the music of the church. It's OK. But after that, how are we using all of this emotion?

How are we using all of this logic to bless other people? Really, that's what it's about.

It's about you and I. A veiling ourself to God for him to use our minds that other people may know him.

Then we have to be ecumenical. There's one body and one spirit, just as you recall to one hope.

Ephesians four, one through six. We have to be ecumenical. As we go forth, we can't witness in a vacuum.

Let me explain. There are settled church doctrines. And when we are looking at doctrine, we can't just come up with our own doctrine and not look at what the early church fathers and the early

Christians believed. We can't just say, I believe this and not look at what the church has been saying for hundreds of years.

That's called theological malpractice. When you think you're so eloquent and you're so intellectual that you've come up with a new doctrine that nobody has heard before.

If we're going to win other people to Christ. We must learn what the essential settled doctrines are so that we can be part of the

Christian community and we can all stand in unity when we talk about, thus said the

Lord, what the scriptures are saying. We do the world harm when

Sister Mary is saying one thing and Brother Joe is saying another thing and Uncle Tom is saying another thing.

No, there are settled doctrines that all of us need to learn so we can all speak with the same language.

We have to be ecumenical. Then lastly. We have to be sound.

Second Timothy 113, what you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

What you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound doctrine. That's one of my favorite words of sound.

That adjective that goes in front of doctrine. You see numerous times the New Testament sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine.

And that word sound comes from that root word who gates and who gaze means healthy.

A healthy doctrine, the type of doctrine that reconciles the prodigal with the parent, that that's a healthy doctrine, a doctrine that has love as its foundation.

That's a healthy doctrine, a doctrine that gives purpose to why we're here because we know the authentic God.

That's a healthy doctrine. It goes against unhealthy doctrine. Unhealthy doctrine causes harm to humanity.

Things such as if if if you don't have enough money, that's an indication that you're not as righteous.

That's an unhealthy doctrine. Things such as you have to have special spiritual charismatic gifts in order to be saved.

That's an unhealthy doctrine. So we must stick to healthy doctrine. That's why the

New Testament writers always emphasize healthy doctrine. The doctrine that says that Jesus did not raise up physically.

That's an unhealthy doctrine, according to Paul. So we must do like the new agents for the federal government in the counterfeit department.

This study. The real currency back and forth.

Daily, they are studying the real currency. The false counterfeit money is never introduced to the new agents.

They always they are always studying the real currency. They study it to the point where if a counterfeit is introduced, they already know it's a counterfeit because they've been trained and all they've studied is the real thing.

So we as Christians need to study the real thing, which is the word of God. And if you study it long enough, you keep studying, you keep praying, you keep meditating.

Then eventually, when the counterfeit doctrine pops up, you already know it. So if we're going to be relatable, if we're going to reach the people in our orbit, if we're going to use all of this information there that we're getting from the conference accurately, then we.

Must learn how the Christian studies we're studious, we are truthful, we are uncompromising, we are deliberate, we are intellectual, ecumenical, then lastly, we are sound.

Thank you for listening to this presentation. May the Lord be with you as you go out in your own orbit to share the gospel.