How Should We Be "All Things to All People?" (Principles for Contextualization)

Contextualization is incredibly important because it’s about people having meaningful access to the Gospel. As we think about contextualization, we need biblical guidelines for what can be adjusted for different cultures, and what is unchanging. Listen in as Jesse shares biblical, practical principles for good contextualization.

Keller: Contextualization is “giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.” Center Church, 89.

Newbigin: “Hence the horrendous word “contextualization” was born. The word is unattractive, but the thing sought for is essential.”

The Gospel message is the unchanging CORE of all contextualization efforts.

CORE—Crucified, Ordained, Risen, Evidenced

1. Acts 2:31-36: Crucified—v. 36; Ordained—v. 31; Resurrected—v. 32; Evidenced—v. 32—(“of that we are all witnesses”); Response: Repentance/belief—v. 38.
2. Acts 3:13-21: Crucified—v. 13-15; Ordained—v. 1; Resurrected—v. 15; Evidenced—v. 15—“To this we are witnesses”; Response: Repent/belief —v. 19.
3. Acts 4:8-20: Crucified—v. 10; Resurrected—v. 10; Evidenced—v. 20.
4. Acts 5:29-32: Crucified—v. 30; Ordained—v. 30—God of our Fathers; Resurrected—v. 30; Evidenced—v. 32; Response: Repent/Belief 31
5. Acts 10:34-43: Crucified—v. 39; Ordained—v. 43; Resurrected—v. 40; Evidenced—v. 39,41; Repentance/Belief—v. 43. Also 11:18: Then to the Gentiles also God has granted the repentance that leads to life.
6. Acts 13:16-41: Crucified—v. 28-29; Ordained—v. 23; Resurrected—v. 30; Evidenced—v. 31; Repentance/Belief—v. 38-39
7. Acts 17—famous, often-cited about contextualization. But before the Areopagus, he was already preaching in the marketplace: “he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection”—v. 18; Repentance—v. 30.
8. Acts 20:21—Repentance: "testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
9. Acts 26:19-23: Crucified—v. 23; Ordained—v. 22; Resurrected—v. 23; Evidenced—v. 16, 22; Repentance/Belief—v. 20.