BELIEVERS KNOW THE “UNKNOWN GOD” (Outline)
May 9, 2010 -
Easter 6 -
ACTS 17:22-31
INTRO: Believers know God’s will. God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Humans with their rebellious, sinful nature reject God’s free salvation. This is an eternal mystery. How can so many still not know God? Joyfully we remember that we are saved solely by the God’s free grace. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy" (TITUS 3:4,5a). Only by God’s grace can we confess Christ. Too many others still choose to sit in the darkness of their rejection of God.
BELIEVERS KNOW THE “UNKNOWN GOD”.
I. Our God created all things. II. Our God is not far from us.
I. OUR GOD CREATED ALL THINGS.
A. Paul is on his second missionary journey. He has been proclaiming the resurrection of the Christ.
1. The learned men of Athens are intrigued. They invite Paul to explain further about this man.
2. Verse 22. Religious also means superstitious. Paul said one thing they heard another.
B. Verse 23. They made many statues for all kinds of gods. The unknown god was to cover all bases.
1. Verse 24. Paul knew the unknown god. God had made all things and did not need a temple.
2. Paul was speaking to the crowd in the shadow of the Parthenon: an enormous Greek temple.
3. Verse 25. Paul’s God did not need a temple of human hands to serve him.
C. Verse 26. Paul’s unknown God had determined the times and place for all men to live.
1. Paul wanted this group to think about God. They knew they were bound by natural laws.
2. They did not determine the time of their birth and death. The unknown God created all things..
D. By grace the Christian discovers an easy answer to the beginning of all things. God made the heavens and the earth. For those who do not know God they look to evolution for the answers. From the Biblical (which is God’s truth for us and the world) viewpoint the world and everything in it was made in six days. God spoke and it was. To this very day God still sustains the world by his powerful world. Such is the simplicity of creation for the believer. The theories of evolution fail to find fulfillment. What has happened to the “survival of the fittest”? The saber-tooth tiger and the mastodon have not survived. They were bigger and better than today’s tigers and elephants. Not only has God made all things in this world he has also created faith in the hearts of believers. "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 CORINTHIANS 4:6). By grace we know the unknown God.
E. God’s truth is simple. It is so simple that it becomes foolishness to those who are perishing. Man likes to think he has all the answers. In the end it is really only God who has all the answers. This does not stop humanity from turning away from God. "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (ROMANS 1:22,23). Who worships birds and animals? Our country does. Building projects have been stalled or stopped because of endangered species. The oil spill in the gulf has captured the headlines. It is an ecological disaster. Little mention is made of the loss of human lives.
F. It is only by grace that believers look at the world with eyes of faith. Our Christian faith causes us to see the world around us in a very different light compared to those who do not know God. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end" (ECCLESIASTES 3:11). Truly, spring is the time of year when God makes everything beautiful! Did you know you have eternity in your heart? The gift of eternal life is God’s present gift to every believer. We will live forever in heaven -- God’s eternal gospel lives in us.
BELIEVERS KNOW THE “UNKNOWN GOD”.
Our God, unknown to some, has created all things.
II. OUR GOD IS NOT FAR FROM US.
A. Paul was speaking to the “wise and learned” men of Athens. Paul shows them his knowledge
1. Verse 28. Paul quotes their poets in their writings. Their writers knew of God’s greatness.
2. Verse 29. Their gods were only objects with no life, breath, or mercy made from man’s ideas.
3. The unknown God was more than man’s idea. God was / is full of life, breath, and mercy.
B. Verse 30. Paul explained God and the gospel. They were no longer without excuse. They now knew.
1. Verse 31. The unknown God had set a time for the judgment of humanity.
2. The Christ would return just as certain as he had been raised from the dead. Count on it.
C. Verse 27. To seek and reach out describes the action of someone blind. Now is the time of grace.
D. Paul gave these pagans a lot to think about. Paul described God as being near. They believed their gods were unapproachable and lived far away (Mt. Olympus or the clouds). At times we might think of our heavenly Father as being far away in the heavens on his throne. It is true that God rules from his throne of grace. Thankfully, our Savior is right there at God’s throne of grace pleading our case. We do not deserve eternal salvation. We cannot earn eternal salvation. Only in Christ and only through Christ are we saved. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time" (1 TIMOTHY 2:5,6).
E. Consider the fact that Paul preached repentance to this pagan crowd in Athens. Paul did this after proclaiming the gospel to them (verses 16-21). Some believed. Others chose to ignore the gospel (verses 32,33). Repentance is vital to our Christian faith. We come before God’s throne of grace with nothing to offer but our sinfulness. We look at our burden of sin and realize how wicked, evil, and lost we truly have become. With heartfelt sorrow we admit our unworthiness. Our God!?! Our God does not turn us away. Our God forgives. "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (PSALM 34:17,18). This is the unknown God that we know. Our loving Father forgives our sin – freely, forever.
F. Our God is not a god far off. Our God is near to each of us. Christ is alive and well in each of us. Such is God’s undeserved grace. This is our God who is still unknown to too many millions today. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (GALATIANS 2:20). Christ lives in us!! There is no other god in this world who makes this claim: not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Con-fucius, not Zeus, not Thor, not etc. Today our lives are changed forever by the power of God alive in us.
CONC: God is unknown to too many in our world today. It is almost beyond belief that so many would deny or reject the simple, saving gospel message of Christ. But such is the rebellion of man’s evil heart. This truth reminds us of how thankful we ought to always be that God has called us out of darkness to be his very own. It is truly a mystery that even though God wants all men to be saved many among mankind still chooses eternal destruction instead. "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law" (DEUTERONOMY 29:29). By grace alone, by Scripture alone, by faith alone the Lord God Almighty has made himself known to every believer. Be thankful and rejoice that we are among BELIEVERS WHO KNOW THE “UNKNOWN GOD”! Look around and see how our God has created all things. Be thankful that our God has also created faith in our hearts. Rejoice that our God is not far from us – in fact, God lives in us. This is the “unknown GOD” we want to share with others. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
EASTER 6 rdgs:
ACTS 14:8-18;
REVELATION 21:10-14,22,23;
JOHN 14:23-29;
(PSALM 65)
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