You Aren't An Accident –
A Christian counselor once encouraged a woman who felt lonely and abandoned. As she explained how she felt he couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying, because a Scripture (Psalm 100:3) kept running through his mind: “It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves”. This verse had no obvious connection with her problem, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
After she finished talking, she sat in silence waiting for a response. The counselor didn’t know what to say other than quote the verse, although he realized it might sound foolish since it seemed totally unrelated to her dilemma.
“I think God wants you to know something,” he said. “‘It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
The woman immediately broke down and cried. After composing herself, she explained what it meant. “I didn’t tell you this, but my mother got pregnant with me before she was married. All my life I believed that I was a mistake—an unplanned accident—and that God didn’t love me.”
“When you quoted that verse, I pictured in my mind God forming me in my mother’s womb. Now I know that God created me and loves me and that I’m not a mistake. I’ll never be the same again! Thank you. I’ll never forget this day as long as I live!”
God knew this woman needed to know she was “fearfully and wonderfully” made by Him and not an accident. Her perspective changed dramatically once she understood that it was God who crafted her in the womb.
As we go through Acts chapter 17 we will discover that the Bible not only teaches us that God crafts us in our mother’s womb, but in His sovereignty, He predetermines the period of history in which we are born and the exact location on this planet where we will live. This lets us know that we are here for a reason and not an accident.
Athens was home to the most renowned philosophers in history, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Athens was also the religious center of Greece—virtually every deity or “god” known to man could be worshiped there.
Acts 17:16 tells us that Paul’s spirit was troubled because of what he saw in the city of Athens. He saw a city that was full of lost people because they were all doomed to a Christ-less eternity because of their widespread pagan idolatry.
Let me stop here to ask you a few questions. Is your spirit provoked…is it troubled within as you when you drive through the streets of Baltimore?
Verse 16 tells us that while Paul waited at Athens, his spirit was troubled within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Verse 17 tells us he went into the synagogue—to reason with the religious community and he went into the marketplace—to reason with the unbelievers.
The word “reasoned” in verse 17 is the Greek word, which meant, “to preach”, “to dispute”. It is used when speaking to someone in order to convince them (by reasoning).
* This is not the preaching performed in many churches today, designed to make people feel good about themselves. It’s actually the kind of preaching and teaching we find in the Bible designed to make us feel bad about ourselves…so that we might cling to Christ and find our esteem in Him!
* It’s the kind of preaching and teaching designed to make us be at awe with God and to move us to reverence Him and praise and worship Him for who He is and what He has done!
Notice the response to Paul’s preaching in Acts 17:18: “Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”
In verse 18 we find Paul encountering two groups of philosophers that were prominent in the culture of that day: Epicurean philosophers and Stoic philosophers.
The Epicureans were those who followed Epicurus (341-270 B.C.). Epicurus believed that happiness or the avoidance of pain was the chief end of life. If Epicurus was alive today, he would be saying, “You only go around once in life” “You deserve a break today” “Don’t worry, be happy!”. I recently saw a Verizon tagline that said, “Instant gratification is a beautiful thing!” Epicurus would have coined slogans like that.
But the Bible teaches us that true happiness, blessedness and joy is not based on conditions being right with yourself, but yourself being right with the Lord. “Joy” is not the result of fulfilled pleasure but a constant abiding with the Lord that produces that fruit of the Spirit called “joy”.
The other group Paul reasoned with in Athens were the Stoics, who were followers of the Greek philosopher Zeno (340-265 B.C.) Zeno would teach from a stoa or porch which is how the Stoics got their name. The philosopher Zeno emphasized thinking over the emotions and taught that self-mastery was achieved when you became indifferent to pleasure or pain.
Both the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered Paul and Acts 17:19 says, “…they took him and brought him to the Areopagus (like the “supreme court of Athens), saying, "Tell us about these new ideas that you're teaching.”
Verses 20 tells us that these philosophers were amazed at Paul’s “new” doctrine. They said, “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
Then there is the commentary in verse 21 that says, “For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”
This mirrors our culture. Today, biblical Christianity has become a “new doctrine” or a “strange thing” to the ears of many. In fact, when you talk about the biblical Jesus (God in the flesh, born in Bethlehem, miraculous ministry, died on the Cross, buried in a borrowed tomb and risen from the dead) many will say that these Christian teachings are like fairy tales.
The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers weren’t familiar with this new teaching of Jesus’ disciples, especially concerning the resurrection and wanted to know more.
It was like when a new line dance comes out. You want somebody to show it to you. The Epicureans and Stoics wanted to hear this teaching about a man who was raised from the dead. The people in Athens were concerned about something new for the mind. They wanted to hear about some new philosophy.
They heard the teaching about a Jesus who died and was raised from the dead.
They heard of a teaching that this man was alive and changing the lives of His followers.
They heard that this man Jesus had a certain code of ethics—the BE-Attitudes!!
So they gave Paul the (dance) floor so he could tell them more about Jesus and the resurrection.
(Acts 17:22 NKJV) Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
(Acts 17:23 NKJV) "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:
If Paul had come through Baltimore, could he stand up and say, “Men (and women) of Baltimore, I perceive that you are very religious in many things; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I found:”
* TVs in every home and business
* People’s heads bowed down to cell phones and tablets
* Fast food in every community
* Shopping centers and malls dotting the landscape
* Sport arenas and stadiums lighting up the skies?
* Casinos where people spend their rent money in homage to a god who promises a lot but delivers little.
Could Paul say, “I even found churches on every corner with pulpits that preach messages about God but their god is certainly not the God of the Scriptures. Therefore, the One whom you worship in your ignorance, Him I proclaim to you?”
As we continue in Acts 17 we will find Paul being very strategic in introducing the God of the Bible to the people who lived in Athens. In Acts 17, he’s not in the synagogue speaking to Jews; he’s on Mars Hill addressing Greek Gentiles who know little to nothing of the God of Israel, who is the God of creation.
So Paul starts at the beginning…literally (from the book of Genesis). And it’s amazing that even in our time, Paul’s strategy is still effective. There are those today who grew up in homes where they were never introduced to the God of creation. All they know is the religion of Evolution which says, “In the beginning chance created the heavens and the earth. They believe that the worlds were framed by the effects of the Big Bang and natural selection, not the Word of God.” (Hebrews 11:3).
The Bible teaches us that we serve a “BIG God” not the Big Bang. God is He who made the world and everything in it. And since He is the Lord of heaven and earth, He does not dwell in temples made with hands (vs. 24).
Paul says this because if you were Greece at this time, all you would see were the temples that were built to house the statues of the Greek gods like Zeus, Artemis, Aphrodite and Athena, so Paul tells his audience that the God who made the world and everything in it does not dwell in man-made temples.
Acts 17:25 continues the thought: “Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”
Today under the New Covenant the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells in the midst of His people who gather together to worship Him in spirit and in truth (1 Corinthians 6:19; 14:25; John 4:24). He is not worshiped with the work of our hands.
* So the size of your church building doesn’t add anything to the Spirit of God.
* Putting a statue or picture or smoke machine in your church will not draw the presence of the Lord.
* God doesn’t need a church musician to be playing a Korg Triton, Roland Fantom, or a Yamaha Motif, He can be worshipped with a handclap, a tambourine or a foot stomp.
* A “lucky” cross on your neck or coin in your pocket or purse doesn’t secure the blessing or the protection of God.
* Your money blessing handkerchief, air freshener, incense, necklace or bracelet…all are the products of con artists who prey on your ignorance of the Bible.
The Bible says, “God is not worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”
In other words, God doesn’t require anything from us. There is nothing that we have that will add any value to who God is. He doesn’t need our little trinkets. He doesn’t work through those "special effects". He's not behind those Facebook chain letters…the ones that say, “If you don’t share” or “Say “Amen!” you won’t be blessed."
He is the One that gives life, breath and all things; not you and not me.
Not only is God the Creator who is not worshiped with men's hands…not only has He given to all life, breath, and all things, “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 dwellings…” (vs. 25-26)
The Bible is saying that God has determined the exact times and places in history during which you and I would be born and live. This is saying that you were no accident…this is saying that you and I are “here for a reason”.
* Someone may have told you that you were an accident, but God’s Word says you are “here for a reason”.
* You may have showed up in an orphan or on an adoption agency or foster care list but this was no unexpected event to God. God’s Word says you are “here for a reason”.
* Your skin isn’t the color it is, and your hair isn’t the texture it is, just because of genetics, nor did you end up in the part of the world you were born as a result of chance or fate. God’s Word says you are “here for a reason”.
The Bible says that “God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth”—this means that we all are related and it doesn’t matter what color your skin is or what facial features you have…we all came from one blood and his name is Adam!
Not only has God made us all from the same person, but “He has determined our preappointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings”. This means that God appointed you to this time in history, and He ordained where you would be born, and where you would grow up.
God made all of us from the same person (Adam), and has determined our preappointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings and did so with a purpose in mind. God does nothing in vain! We find our purpose in verse 27:
(Acts 17:27 NKJV) "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;
God has orchestrated history in such a way that men, women, boys and girls might seek His face, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him (ESV) and find Him.
Historically and geographically, you are where you currently are because God appointed you to that place for a purpose. Those of us who have experienced the saving grace of God in Christ know that God brought us to that space and time where we repented of our sins and cried out for mercy as we called upon the Name of Jesus.
Could it be that God has appointed this day, this space and this time for you, that on Resurrection Sunday in 2016, you might give your life to Jesus?
Some of us have been through some difficult times. Some of us have suffered with difficult people and the challenges of life. There are those among us who grew up in poverty or with plenty, there is this void…this emptiness…a lack of purpose.
You’ve tried to fill this void with all kinds of material things and relationships and occupations…but to no avail.
Perhaps you’ve experienced the pain of a broken relationship, a wayward child or a lost job. Maybe you have been under intense financial pressure or a lengthy illness—these have all been appointments allowed by a loving, sovereign God who desires that you might seek Him in hope that you might look for Him and long for Him and find Him, because He is not far from you.
The good news is that we find in this passage of Scripture that God has tailor-made and customized your journey through life so that you might find Him (Acts 17:27a).
Paul continues in verse 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.’”
This is not saying that everyone is a child of God and are His redeemed ones. Here, the Bible is making the point that all people were created and given physical life by God…we are all made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and thus we are His offspring.
Verse 19 says, “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.”
In other words, we shouldn’t think that God is like a man-made idol, or a figment of someone’s imagination. He is not made in our image and after our likeness, we are made in His image and after His likeness.
Paul’s point is that we should know better than to worship an idol (a house, a car, a phone, a job), something made with man’s hands. We should only be worshipping the one true God whose image we are made in.
He is an all-wise, infinite and all powerful and a God who loves; unlike the impersonal deities of Greek and Roman mythology. How do we know this?
* Look around and see His creation and believe that He is the almighty God!
* Take a telescope see that He is an infinitely wise God because “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows forth His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
* Take a microscope and you will want to sing with the heavenly choir, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty…” (Rev. 15:3)
* Ask any neurologist or surgeon…believer or unbeliever, and you will know that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14)
* This God is He who causes the rain to fall upon the earth and the plants to grow to bring nourishment to our tables even when we chose to worship creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
“For in Him we live and move and have our being! We are His offspring”! He doesn’t make a mistake. He loves us and even uses the “bad” in our lives to draw us to Himself so that He might make us His own, and lavish us with a relationship through His Son Jesus that lasts for eternity!
Everything that God has done in the creation and the sustaining of the universe
and all that He is doing in providence is for one reason…it is so that men might see that He exists, and that they might know who He is, and that they might follow on to discover what He is saying.
Through the prophet Jeremiah God says, “You shall seek Me and find when you shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Back in Acts 17 we come to verse 30, which is a difficult verse to understand.
(Acts 17:30 NKJV) "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
In the past, God dealt primarily with His people Israel. When Israel, (who knew what sin was because of the Law of Moses), sinned, God sent prophets to them commanding them to repent. If they repented God would forgive them.
But the Gentiles…who did not have the Mosaic Law and the atoning blood sacrifice…God judged them by another law…what law? Listen to Romans 2:13-15:
Rom 2:13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Rom 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them…
The Jews were given the written law of God through Moses, and the Gentiles had the law of God written on their hearts in the form of their conscience. The Jews had to follow the light that God gave them through His Law and the Gentiles had to follow the light that God gave them in their conscience.
But now, in these last days, the Bible tells us that God “commands all men, everywhere to repent”.
Why the change? Why after thousands of years of dealing with people either through Law or conscience, does He now command all men everywhere to repent? Paul answers this question in verse 31:
(Acts 17:31 NKJV) "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."
The difference is found in “a Man.” I like the NKJV’s translation, “the Man.” This Man’s name is Jesus.
Paul says that just as God has determined our preappointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings, “He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man who He has ordained…”
* It was ordained that Jesus would be born of a virgin—Paul wrote in the “fullness of time god sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law…” (Gal. 4:4)
* It was ordained that He would be born in Bethlehem.
* It was ordained that He would be born in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
* It was ordained that Jesus would grow up in Galilee and that He would find favor with God and man.
* It was ordained that He would begin His public ministry and teach in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
* It was ordained that He would be betrayed into the hands of evil men.
* It was ordained that Jesus be crucified not for His own sin, because He had none, but for the sins of you and me. It was ordained that Jesus die for you and me.
It was ordained that you would be here at this place, on this day, during this hour to hear about “the Man”! And just in case you aren’t sure of who “the Man” is, Paul writes at the end of verse 31 that this Man is the one who was raised from the dead.
This is what we are here to celebrate today—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He lives!
Why is the Bible making a big deal about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?
We find the answer to that question in 1 Corinthians chapter 15:
Verse 14 tells us that if Christ is not risen, there is nothing to preach about. We can all go home—our preaching is empty, and our faith is empty.
Verse 15 tells us that if Christ is not risen, we are all liars. If the dead do not rise, then everything we’ve ever told others about Jesus and Heaven and salvation, and the peace of God, and the power of God and the love of God is a lie.
Verse 17 tells us that if Christ is not raised from the dead then we are still in our sins. If we are still in our sins we are not on our way to heaven, but to a dark and fiery eternity in hell where we will burn forever in the lake of fire. The Resurrection is proof that God accepted the death of Christ as payment-in-full for our sin.
Verse 18 says that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then our loved ones in Christ, those who have died in the Lord, are not in heaven…they are in hell paying for their own sins—Christ certainly didn’t pay for them if He hasn’t risen.
Verse 19 says that if Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead then this life is all we have and we might as well say with everyone else, “Let’s eat, drink and party, for tomorrow we die.”
If Jesus didn’t walk out of that tomb, our preaching is in vain, we have no hope, we are nothing but liars, we are still in our sins and those who’ve gone before us are burning in hell because Jesus’ death for sin was never accepted by a holy God who demanded judgment on it.
This passage in the book of Acts tells us that you are here for a reason and that your life’s journey is not an accident. God has predetermined that you come face-to-face with the message of the Cross and the risen Savior and what you do with it is up to you.
Conclusion:
Well how did the philosophers of Athens respond to this message? Verse 32 gives us the answer.
(Acts 17:32 NKJV) And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter."
(Acts 17:33 NKJV) So Paul departed from among them.
(Acts 17:34 NKJV) However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Verses 32-34 tell us that some mocked, others were interested enough to want to hear more and some joined with Paul and believed.
How would you have responded? Would you have been among those who mocked the message and messenger, or would you have been in the group that put off making a decision about Jesus?
Did you know that any decision other than saying “yes” to Jesus is a rejection of Him? Even “wait” is the same as saying “no” to Jesus because tomorrow isn’t promised.
Which group will you be a part of? The ones who mockingly said “No way!”, the ones who said “another time” or the ones who believed?
