Implication Guide: Week 1
The first step in rebuilding a city is to get at the foundations. Every city has a cultural foundation. We might call these the Cultural Idols. The Cultural Idols tell the story that the people in the city are living in. Think of it this way. If you want to understand the person, you need to understand the water they are swimming in.
Teaching Review
On Sunday we learned about the culture of Ephesus. The city was built around the cult of Artemis. Worship of this ancient deity had effects on every area of the city’s life. Obviously, the religious life of the city was based around the temple of Artemis. People would come from all over the world to visit Ephesus in order to pay tribute to Artemis, thus the city’s economic well-being was tied to Artemis. However it wasn’t just the religious life that was centered on this idolatry, but also the social, economic, and civic dimensions of the city revolved around the worship of Artemis as well. Idolatry always has implications on the whole of life.
Paul and his coworkers bring the gospel into Ephesus. When Jesus collides with the idols of a city, there is a confrontation that occurs. Before long, this confrontation takes place within the city of Ephesus. Tension builds between the gospel and the Artemis cult.
It doesn’t take long for the obvious reality to set in: If Jesus is God, then Artemis is not. If Jesus is the true Lord, then the cultural idol is a fake impostor. Demetrius represents the idol worshipers of the city. He realizes that the gospel is going to crush their cultural idol, which will crush his personal idol.
This week take some time with someone else in your community to work through this study guide.
Identifying Far Idols
Work through the following questions for our culture.
Here is a list of potential cultural idols. Circle the three that you think are most often made into an idol in the East Valley.
Individual Community Family Money
Safety Humans Consumer Technology
Education Nature Experience Material Goods
Work Ethnicity Neighborhood Accomplishment
Explain why you chose each of the three you did?
What is the history behind these Cultural Idols? How dio you think this came to be? Tell the story.
How do you see the affects of these good things being made into idols? (Give some real, tangible illustrations of the idolatry working itself out in your culture.)
Use your imagination for this one. If the gospel moves into this city like it did in Ephesus, there will be a confrontation with the idols. What would you imagine the confrontation looking like? How does the gospel confront the false idolization of these things?
Pray. Take some time to pray that people in your city would have their eyes opened to the fact that these things will not satisfy them like Jesus will. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see how these false gods will fail.
Identifying Near Idols
It is fun to look out at our culture and identify the Cultural Idols. It almost feels like a puzzle. But, eventually we have to point the finger back at ourselves. We swim in the cultural water of our city. If we are honest, we have to admit that our hearts are profoundly shaped by the idolatry of our culture.
How do you see yourself influenced by the Idols of your culture? Which of the three you identified do you also worship?
If you are doing this with a group, how do you see these idolatries coming out in your group? In each other? (Is your community transparent and vulnerable enough to where you can answer that question open and honestly about each other? If not, what is the idol that keeps you from being able to have that conversation?)
The following chart by Tim Keller has been really helpful for people in our community to identify idols. Talk through this in your community.
|
What We Seek |
Price Willing to Pay |
Greatest Nightmare |
Others Often Feel |
I Often Feel |
|
Comfort (Privacy, lack of stress, freedom) |
Reduced Productivity |
Stress, Demands |
Hurt |
Boredom
|
|
Approval (Affirmation, love, relationship) |
Less Independence |
Rejection |
Smothered |
Cowardice
|
|
Control (Self-discipline, certainty, standards) |
Loneliness, Spontaneity |
Uncertainty |
Condemned |
Worry |
|
Power (Success, winning, influence) |
Burdened, Responsibility |
Humiliation |
Used |
Anger |
Discuss how your answers to this chart interact with the Cultural Idols discussed above. For example: “I have a control idol. I can see how I will use education to gain control over my circumstances.”
“The salvation that this God offers is salvation that first diagnoses where the real roots of our problems lie, and then goes right to those roots and deals with them - not merely with their unwelcome fruit. Other claimed salvations of other posturing gods are tinkering cosmetics that leave the real problem untouched.” - Chris Wright
How does the salvation that God offers differ from the salvation your idol offers?