Acts 17:16-28 – Not Far From Each One of Us
Today I would like to share with you a fairly simple thought. It’s been debated and dissected over the years. A person may not know what to do with it, but one thing is for sure: you can’t escape it. That truth... is that God is near. Today I’d like to show you what I mean by that, and what it means for us, Centreville United Baptist Church, as a group of believers.
I’d like to read to you from Acts 17:16-28. You can turn in your Bibles or follow along on the screen. The passage starts in the middle of one of Paul’s journeys as a missionary, spreading the Good News wherever he went. On this particular journey, his co-workers were in the middle of something, and Paul was planning just to wait for them. He ended up in Athens, a huge Greek city. That’s the context for the passage today. Read Acts 17:16-28.
I found this little story that asks the question, “What if God used voice mail? “You know, we’ve all learned to live with voice mail as a necessary part of modern life. But what if God decided to install voice mail? Imagine praying and hearing this...
Thank you for calling The Lord's House. Please select from the following options: Press 1 for GENERAL REQUESTS. Press 2 for THANKSGIVING. Press 3 for COMPLAINTS. Press 4 for HEALING. Press 5 for HELP WITH REVENUE CANADA. Press 6 for SNOW or NO SNOW. Press 7 for MIRACLES. Press 8 for LOTTERY WINNING NUMBERS. Press 9 to hear this menu again. Press 0 to hear more options.
You press 0 and hear these: If you would like to speak to Gabriel, press 11. For Michael, press 22. For a directory of the other Archangels, press 33. If you would like to hear King David sing a Psalm while you are holding, please press 55. Then wait for the beep and enter the number of the Psalm you wish to hear. To find out if a loved one has been assigned to heaven, press 62. Enter his or her social insurance number, the press the pound (#) key, enter their date of birth, then press the pound (#) key twice.
This office is closed for the weekend. Please call again from Monday to Friday between 9:30 and 4:30 Eastern time. For all emergencies, refer to your BIBLE.
Let me ask you... aren’t you glad God doesn’t work that way? But the audience listening to Paul that day in Athens thought of religion that way. For example, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was the ruler over Athens. But a person wanting victory in war would pray and sacrifice to Ares. An Athenian wanting to fall in love would pray to Aphrodite, but would sacrifice to Hermes before going on a journey. A couple wanting to have a baby would pray to Hera, but would worship Hera’s husband Zeus as supreme ruler of all. The polytheism – the worship of many gods – was a confusing spiritual mish-mash in Athens. I found an article online that describes the scene this way: The ancient Greeks considered sacrifice as the appropriate method to worship God. Public worships were held to obtain public blessings, rain, good harvest, military victories, etc. Private sacrifices were offered for fulfillment of personal goals, wishes and victories. Blood sacrifices of animals such as oxen, sheep, horses, swine, dogs, birds, fish, fowl etc were common in the temple of Gods. The Greek temples were part slaughterhouse and part barbecue. During sacrifices, the people offered the blood, bones and hides of the slaughter animal to the God, the remaining portions were used up as food for themselves.”
So in walks Paul. Having grown up Jewish, which teaches that there is only one God, and now Christian, which teaches the same, Paul sees all the temples and all the statues to all the gods, and is deflated. He knows there is a better way. And he starts to elaborate on it.
Notice that he doesn’t come right out and tells them all the things they’re doing wrong. He’s tactful. He’s patient. He’s loving with them. He knows that if you want people to care how much you know, they want to know how much you care.
So he sees their devotion to their gods, and commends them for it. He notices that since they don’t want to leave any god out of the picture, they have set up an altar to AN UNKNOWN GOD. And he goes from there to explain the truth of the real God from this starting point. He says that the real God made the world. He’s Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn’t live in temples, and He does not need to be served by human hands. He gives life to everything all that lives, and created all humans and nations from one blood. He desires that all people should seek Him, because we are his offspring. Thus, true and living God is not like any idol made by human hands.
And Paul throws this verse in there, in case anyone misses it – v27. He’s not hard to find. No matter which translation a person uses, the truth is still pretty obvious. God is not far from each one of us. You don’t have to worry about having all the right words when you pray. You don’t have to worry if you’re asking the right things to the right guy. God is real, God is love, and God can be found. God is not far away and distant.
So, the next question is: if God is really not far away and distant, how can I find Him? That’s a good question. If God is really so close, why does He sometimes feel far away? I don’t have any easy answers, but there are some things I know about finding God.
#1 - He’s close to us when we praise Him. Psalm 100:2 tells us to “worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.” The reality is, worship is meant to draw us closer to Him. Worship is about forgetting about ourselves and concentrating on Him.
Worship is like eating a pineapple. The best kind of pineapple is the kind you have to work at yourself – the peeling, the cutting, the slicing. Sure, you can get the canned variety, but the fresh stuff is best. Worship is like that. If you put little into it, you get little out of it. The best kind comes when you make the effort.
You see, we sense His presence through worship. We find Him in our praising. It’s more than singing, but that’s part of it. It means meaning what you say and sing. It means paying attention to the words and the message. It means not rushing into the next part of the service but drinking in every part. It means not waiting for the pastor to say his next thing, but taking the quiet moments to pray before God. Worship is much more an inner attitude than an outer action. He’s close to us when we praise Him.
#2 - He’s close to us when we reach out to others. Let me tell you what I mean by that. I think of the story in Mark where a teacher of the law approached Jesus and asked Him what the most important commandments were. Jesus answered him with what is called the Shema: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. Oh, and love your neighbour as yourself.”
The teacher in the law agreed with Jesus, and said they were more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Then Jesus told him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” The man knew the right answers, not just the textbook answers but actually understood what the Bible was trying to say. And he was still not quite there. He was close... but no cigar.
You know, there are a lot of people on this island who are almost there. They are “not far” from God. It’s up to us to help them the rest of the way. God is not far from them. God is working on those around you. We need to pray for our loved ones, and be willing to help them when they have questions. We need to be willing to devote ourselves to God, so that those around us can see it. You see, we share His passion through outreach. We find Him in the lost.
And #3 - He’s close to us when we are serving others. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story called The Sheep and the Goats. It’s about people doing, or not doing, good things for other people. And in the story, Jesus says that when you serve someone, and help them, and meet their needs, and make their lives better, you’re really doing it to Jesus. You can find Jesus when you serve someone. When you minister, when you help, when you lend a hand, when you make people’s lives easier, when you support someone, when you do a good thing for someone else, you’re doing it to Jesus. If you want to be where Jesus is, if you want to find Jesus, serve someone.
You see, we serve His people through ministry. We find Him in the hurting. Psalm 34:18 says that “the Lord is close to the broken hearted.” If you want to find Jesus, you don’t have to go far: go where there are people who are broken-hearted.
I want the world to know that God is accessible to each person. I want people on this island to know: God is near to each of us. He’s available and He’s willing to help. He loves us so much that He died for us. You and I need to know that, and so do those around us. How did we find Him?
We find Him when we worship, we find Him when we witness, and we find Him when we work for Him.
