Help them Know the One True God
Acts 17:22-31
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Aug. 29, 2007
BACKGROUND
*Paul is on his 2nd mission trip, and now is in Athens alone, sent there to keep him safe from a Christ-rejecting mob at Berea. While Paul was at Athens, he did what he always did -- Everything he possibly could do to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ. So vs. 17 tells us that Paul “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” Then in vs. 18, we see that “he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” For this reason, the philosophers brought Paul to the Areopagus or Hill of Mars to explain himself.
*In vs. 22&23, Paul began in an interesting way, when he said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious or too superstitious or as superstitious as possible” (either translation is possible). “For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to the unknown God. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.”
*William Barclay tells us that “There were many altars to unknown gods in Athens. Six hundred years before this, a terrible pestilence had fallen on the city which nothing could halt. A Cretan poet, Epimenides, had come forward with a plan: A flock of black and white sheep were let loose throughout the city from the Areopagus. Wherever each sheep lay down it was sacrificed to the god of the nearest shrine. And if a sheep lay down nowhere near the shrine of a known god it was sacrificed to "The Unknown God." (1)
*I know that sounds ridiculous, and it was, but that just reminds us how desperately these people needed Jesus. Let’s think about that as we read vs. 22-31.
22. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
23. for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to the unknown God. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24. God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
27. so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28. for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, `For we are also His offspring.’
29. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
30. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31. because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.’’
INTRODUCTION
*The other day I was thinking back to the time when I was in high school. I was just as lost as these people in Athens. I thought Jesus was just a myth like Zeus and Hercules. I thought about this guy in my fraternity: Robbie -- great guy, good athlete -- straight arrow. But my friends and I always called him “Crazy Robbie,” because he had this crazy idea that he knew God in a personal way. He even thought that God was living in his heart.
*Then I found out that Crazy Robbie wasn’t crazy after all. He really did know God. Do you know God? If Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord, the answer is “yes!” We know Him! And God wants us to help other people know Him.
1. So help other people know that He is glorious.
*Our God is glorious! In vs. 24, we see that He is the Supreme Creator, as Paul said; “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” God Himself put it this way in Isaiah 66 and Acts 7:49-50, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?”
*The Lord is the Supreme Creator over and above all of His creation. And how glorious He must be to have created this universe!
*Raymond McHenry gave the example of the wonder of the human brain, and said, “To simply count the synapses in your brain, at a rate of one per second would take thirty-two million years.” (2)
*Just a few months before he died in 2003, evangelist Bill Bright said, “Even though I’ve always believed in heaven and hell, after I became a believer, I gave little thought to it. But in recent months I’ve been writing on heaven and hell. My logic is this: The God whom we worship created at least 100 billion galaxies—some astronomers would say 200 billion. Do we give God credit? They say it was the Big Bang. But it was this great Creator God who made all this majesty and glory. You can imagine, then, what he’s done to create a heaven. . .” (3)
*Our glorious God is the Supreme Creator, and in vs. 25, He is supremely complete. Speaking of God, Paul said, “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”
*Now this has nothing to do with lifting your hands in worship or anything like that. In fact this word translated “worship” in the KJV and NKJV is not the word we usually see for worship. That word is “proskuneo,” which has that wonderful word picture of an affectionate dog licking his master’s hand.
*This word “worship” in vs. 25 is “therapeuo,” where we get our words “therapy” and “therapeutic.” “Therapeuo” is used 44 times in the New Testament, but 43 of those times it is translated as words like “heal” or “cure.” This is the only place where it is translated as “worship.” And the underlying thought is serving someone, usually to heal their pain or disease -- meeting their needs so to speak.
*And what Paul is really saying here is that God doesn’t have any needs! I really like what the New Living Translation says in vs. 25: “Human hands can’t serve his needs-for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is.” Our God is gloriously complete in Himself.
2. Help people know that He is glorious and mysterious.
*God is mysterious. There is much about Him that we don’t understand. As Paul proclaimed in Rom 11:33-36,
33. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?’’
35. Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’’
36. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
*Think about the mystery of God’s ways as He unfolds His plan for people in vs. 26, “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”
*Do you ever think about why God allowed us to be born with so much, when most of the world has so little? I know it doesn’t seem like it, with all the news out of Washington, but we are blessed politically. We’re free!
*And we are blessed financially. World Vision tells us that more than 1/3 of the world’s population (2.6 billion people) doesn’t have access to a decent bathroom. (4)
World Vision also made this suggestion: The next time you hit rough waters and get overly frustrated, count to 15 -- Because every 15 seconds a child dies as a result of diseases linked to contaminated water. It puts things in perspective, and will hopefully motivate us to focus more on combating this preventable tragedy. (5)
*By the way: You can still get a ticket for the Youth Catfish Dinner on Sunday, Sept. 9th. They are trying to raise $3,300 for a water well in Kenya. But we are blessed financially. And most of all, we are blessed spiritually!
*Raymond McHenry gave this example: Whereas the average Christian household in America contains 9 Bibles, in Third World countries a typical pastor doesn’t own even one Bible. (6)
*Always recognize that it is only by the mysterious grace of Almighty God that we are here. -- And they are there. We will not always understand what He is doing. We will not always understand why.
3. Help people know that He is mysterious, and that He is generous.
*We see great evidence of God’s generosity in vs. 25, where “He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” Our God is generous. In vs. 27&28, Paul talked about how God designed the world, “So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.” He is a God who wants to be known. He wants us to seek Him. And He wants to be found, so He is always close by.
*Our God is generous. In vs. 29&30, we see His patient restraint. Talking about worshipping idols, Paul said, “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”
*Paul was not saying that it was ever O.K. for them to worship idols or that all of them were saved. But when God could have obliterated them with a word, He restrained Himself to give them time to repent.
*Our God is generous. We see this in vs. 31, where Paul talked to them about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And of course, the unspoken truth in this verse is that the resurrection is available to us all through Jesus Christ. Here is the pinnacle of God’s generosity toward us: That He would want us to have a personal relationship with Him, living forever with Him in Heaven.
*We get a taste of the resurrection in a story I love. It started on a sad note in July of 2002, in Artesia, NM. There, Mary Bratcher ran over her pet dog, Browny. The family tearfully buried Browny in a field near their home.
*But the Bratcher’s youngest son refused to accept that Browny was gone -- so did Browny’s momma! She dug her baby pooch out of the ground. And when the family got back from a trip the next day, there he was on the front porch. --Caked with mud and dried blood -- But breathing!
*Browny was barely breathing, but he was alive! They rushed him to the vet, and he recovered! Now he has a new name: Lazarus! -- Back from the dead! (7)
*That’s us, believers! We are going to live forever in Heaven with Jesus! What joy -- What a celebration! What generosity from our God, because of course, there could be no resurrection without the crucifixion. There could be no eternal life for us without the Lord’s death on the cross. But Jesus did die on the cross and rose again to save all who will trust in Him.
4. Help people know that He is generous, and that He is righteous.
*Paul made this so clear in vs. 31, when he said that God, “Has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
*God is righteous! Author Max Lucado writes:
-All of us occasionally do what is right. A few predominately do what is right. But do any of us always do what is right? According to Paul we don’t. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10, NKJV).
-Some may beg to differ. "I’m not perfect, Max, but I’m better than most folks. I’ve led a good life. I don’t break the rules. I don’t break hearts. I help people. I like people. Compared to others, I think I could say I’m a righteous person."
-I used to try that on my mother. She’d tell me that my room wasn’t clean, and I’d ask her to go with me to my brother’s room. His was always messier than mine. "See, my room is clean; just look at his."
-Never worked. She’d walk me down the hall to her room. When it came to tidy rooms, my mom was righteous. Her closet was just right. Her bed was just right. Her bathroom was just right. Compared to hers, my room was, well, just wrong. She would show me her room and say, "This is what I mean by clean."
-God does the same. He points to himself and says, "This is what I mean by righteousness." (8)
*God is righteous. And so He calls all people to repent: Change our minds about sin; change our minds about Him; turn away from sin, selfishness and self-righteousness. Turn to Him. Receive His righteousness, by receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then help others receive it too.
*Thom Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. In 2007 he made the following statement about his organization’s thorough research of unchurched American adults:
-"Our research shows that more than 60 million unchurched adults are eager for a Christian to share the Gospel with them." Such data reflects the truth of Jesus’ words, "The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask Him to send out more workers for His fields" (9)
*God wants us to help other people know...
-That He is glorious
-That He is mysterious
-That He is generous
-That He is righteous.
*Help other people to know Him.
1. Barclay’s Daily Bible Study Series (NT) by William Barclay, Revised Edition (C) Copyright 1975 William Barclay. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, PA - A SERMON TO THE PHILOSOPHERS - Ac.17:22-31
2. (Psalm 139:14). Leadership, Winter 2007, p.63 (Found in “In Other Words” - August2007_2) (IN OTHER WORDS... began in 1991 and is produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry, Senior Pastor of the Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
3. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Pat Cook
4. World Vision, Summer 2007, p.11 (Found in “In Other Words” - August2007_2)
5. World Vision, Summer 2007, p.25 (Found in “In Other Words” - August2007_2)
6. Outreach, March/April 2007, p.22 (Found in “In Other Words” - August2007_2)
7. SermonCentral sermon “How To Live Really Free” by Russell Brownworth - John 11:1-46
8. Lucado Says God’s Standard Is Perfection, Citation: Max Lucado, Traveling Light (Word, 2001) (SermonCentral illustration contributed by Todd Coget)
9. Outreach, March/April 2007, p.18 (Found in “In Other Words” - August2007_2)
