Acts 17:22-31: ONE QUESTION FOR GOD: WHY AM I HERE?
Today, as you well know, is Mother’s Day. Today is the day that many people give and receive cards that express appreciation to their mothers for all the things that they do for their children. But not all children know who their mothers are. There are lots of children out there who are orphans, for one reason or another, and on this day, lots of questions arise in their minds. Who really is my mother? What is she like? Why did she leave me? Will I ever meet her someday? For some people, Mother’s Day can be a confusing, a difficult day.
Have you ever met a spiritual orphan? What is a spiritual orphan? A spiritual orphan is someone who has questions in his mind like, “Who really is my God? What is he like? Why did God leave me here on this earth? Will I ever meet God someday? What will that day be like?” Have you ever had questions like that?
Today, the Word of God will address a very common question that people have, a question that all of us have from time to time: Why am I here? As we look at this portion of God’s Word, we will find the answer to this question, an answer that God wants you to hear if you’re not a Christian, or if you are. Why am I here? May God bless you as you spend these next few minutes in your life thinking about God’s answer to that question.
The Apostle Paul is speaking here. He was in the city of Athens, speaking to some of the leaders of the city. Look at how he starts his speech: “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: “To An Unknown God.” The people of Athens were very spiritual – they set up statues devoted to all different kinds of gods all over the city. Every street corner had its own god, and it was up to you to decide which god you liked. Deep down inside, though, people in Athens knew that they were probably forgetting a god along the way, and so they “covered all their bases” by having an altar devoted to an unknown god, just to be on the safe side.
Doesn’t this remind you of our world today? In the United States, there are all different kinds of religions, all different versions of god, and it’s up to you to decide which god you like. Whichever version of god makes you the most happy, that’s the god that people pick. But no one really knows which god is the right one, and so to make themselves feel better, people say, “It doesn’t matter which god you believe in, as long as you believe in something.” That Bible tells us that this approach to religion is wrong, and will hurt you, more than help you. Deep down inside, people know that they’re missing something about the true God.
God doesn’t want people to live in ignorance about him – that’s why he sent the Apostle Paul to Athens. Look at how Paul describes the true God, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, and does not live in temples built by hands.” God created everything you see, Paul told them. He doesn’t live in all these temples that you built. “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” God is the one who gave you life, Paul told the people. He doesn’t need your statues and temples. You need him. “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” God is the one who made all people, and God is the one who allows nations and governments to come together. “And he determined the times set for them and the exact places where the should live.” God sets up exactly when and exactly where people live.
This is different from how people picture God today. God didn’t make the world, people say. It developed on its own. God doesn’t give me life – I give myself life by earning a paycheck. And as far as when and where people live, that’s just a combination of accident, luck, and people’s choices. That’s not God.
No, God says. Look outside the window. Everything you see – every plant, every animal, every machine and building, every person – ultimately, I made it all, God says. I made the natural resources. I have made everything. It’s true that you bring home that paycheck, but if it weren’t for me, God says, you wouldn’t be able to work – you wouldn’t even be able to breathe. And it’s not just an accident or your brilliant planning that has brought you to the Midwest, in this particular town, at this particular place, God says. I have set up exactly where you live, and exactly when you should live.
On Mother’s Day, I like to talk use the mother-child relationship to illustrate things about God. Think about how a mother sets up everything for her child – she sets up what the child’s room looks like, when the child will be in the kitchen, when the child will be in the bedroom, what the child will play with – the mother sets up all kinds of things for her child.
That’s what God does for you. He sets up where you live, and when you live. He brings you to life, he puts you here, in this place and at this time. We tend to think that it’s simply by chance, or by choice, that we are here, but God tells us that he is behind much more of what goes on in our lives than we realize.
And that makes us ask why. Why has God given me life? What is the purpose of my life? Why has God placed me here, at this place, and at this time? What is God looking for from me? We find the answer in the next verse: “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” That’s why God has set up your life the way he has – so that you would seek him. You have questions. You want to learn more. You’re looking for answers. And as you look, perhaps, we will find the true God. That’s why God has set up your life the way he has.
Paul told the people in Athens that they shouldn’t be satisfied with their version of religion – “Since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by man’s design and skill.” Don’t be satisfied with that, Paul told the people. “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Remember, the word “repent” contains the picture of someone making a u-turn. Right now, Paul was telling the people, you are ignorant about the true God – you’re trying to make up things, and it’s just not working. Make a u-turn – repent, and turn to the true God who can save you.
Unfortunately, many people then, and today, don’t repent. God hopes that people seek him and find him, but many don’t. Many people are content to stumble through life, clueless about who the true God really is and what he really wants. Many people continue to pray to whatever god they have made up in their heads, hoping for the best, when in reality, they are on a road leading to eternal punishment.
What about you and I? God has been gracious to us, and has brought us to a knowledge of the truth. Christians are people who have found the God and are recovering from their ignorance. Our biggest problem is that we often think that we’re fully recovered. “I believe now, and so I’m done. I’m no longer ignorant, and I have nothing more to learn. I’m done.” Christians often make the mistake of stopping the growth process by cutting back on hearing the Word. We keep God at arm’s length, a casual acquaintance, even though God wants to be our close personal friend.
It’s tragic when a person never comes to faith, never finds the true God, and dies an unbeliever. It’s doubly tragic when a person becomes a Christian, but stops growing, loses his faith, and dies an unbeliever. We all need to fight that tendency to backslide into our ignorance. So often, we give in as Christians.
What is the most important thing that God wants you to know about him? You can sum it up with one very common symbol, the symbol of the cross. This is what God wants you to know. He wants you to know that 2000 years ago, on a cross, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died a horrible death. God wants you to know that this death was a payment for your sins. This death has made you right with God. This death is your ticket to heaven. God wants you to know that this death was followed by Christ’s resurrection, God’s way of saying, “I forgive each and every one of you for your sins.” This true story is what God wants you to know. That is why you are here, born in a certain time, in a certain place, so that you might learn and believe this good news.
Think about what it’s like to be a little child – the little child doesn’t always understand why his mother does the things that she does. Why does mom want me to get up at this time, and eat this food, and play in this room, and go over here, and do this and do that? Why? The little child doesn’t always understand – maybe even disagrees with his mother, throws a tantrum. The child doesn’t understand that his mother is doing these things so that the child will grow up to be healthy and happy.
That’s how it is between you and God. You wonder to yourself, why has God set up my life the way he has? What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here? What am I doing? Sometimes you disagree with God, the way he has set up your life, maybe you even throw a temper tantrum once in awhile. What is God’s ultimate purpose, for designing your life the way he has? So that you would seek him, and find him, and know that he has made everything right between you and him by sending his Son.
A great explorer was once asked which of his discoveries was the greatest. The man had discovered hundreds of rivers, all kinds of mountains and canyons and even tribes of Indians. He had discovered gold, and diamond mines, and had seen things that no one else had ever seen. What was his greatest discovery? When that explorer was asked that question, he took out an old piece of paper that his mother had given to him. After all, it was Mother’s Day. When he held that piece of paper up, you could see that it was a page torn out of the Bible, with John 3:16 circled in red: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
“This is my greatest discovery” the explorer said. “I have seen the world. I have seen it all. But it was not enough. I always had questions I couldn’t get out of my mind. I always wondered, who is this God who made the world, who made all these rivers and mountains, and valleys and hills? What did he want? What will happen someday when I met this God? I couldn’t get these questions out of my mind. One day, on Mother’s Day, I returned home to visit my mother, and I shared with her my questions, and she used this page from the Bible to show me who the true God really is. Now I know. I know that this God who made the heavens and the earth is also the God who loved me and has taken my sins away by sending his Son. He is the God who forgives me, and who has a better life waiting for me in heaven, a world more beautiful than this one I have explored. Compared to all the rivers and mountains and gold and silver that I have discovered – finding the true God – that is my greatest discovery.”
That explorer is you. May you never grow tired of learning more and more about who this true God is. That’s why you are here – that’s why your church is here, to help you, and to help others through you, to make the most important discovery of their lives. Amen.
Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948) first suggested the national observance of an annual day honoring all mothers because she had loved her own mother so dearly. At a memorial service for her mother on May 10, 1908, Miss Jarvis gave a carnation (her mother’s favorite flower) to each person who attended. Within the next few years, the idea of a day to honor mothers gained popularity, and Mother’s Day was observed in a number of large cities in the U.S. On May 9, 1914, by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. He established the day as a time for "public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." By then it had become customary to honor mothers with carnations, a custom that continues
to this day.
