Text: Acts 17:24-34 Title: The God We All Want to Know SERMON BUMPER As you might well imagine, like most pastors I feel a lot of pressure about preaching on Easter. It s a big day. Last Monday morning I saw a blog with the title, Easter sermon not done? We can help. Some preachers in a panic have even been known to steal other preachers sermons. Can you imagine that? Well that s exactly what I m going to do today. I m going to preach a sermon that someone else has already preached. It s one of the most effective messages that s ever been delivered. And it wasn t given at a church and as far as I know the only Christian in the crowd that day was the speaker himself. But it had a huge impact. If you have a Bible or a Bible app please open up to Acts 17. I ll start with v.22, but I need to give you a little background before that. This is part of a sermon that was originally preached 2000 years ago by a famous missionary named Paul in the ancient city of Athens, Greece. Paul was in this amazing city all by himself and as he walks around he notices that the city was full of idols statues and shrines honoring all kinds of man-made gods and goddesses tens of thousands of them. You see, the people of Athens were very religious and the statues and shrines reflected their need to keep all these gods and goddesses happy because they believed they controlled their destiny. And Paul is upset because he knows that those gods and goddesses have no power or control over anything because they are not real. He knows that there is only One True Living God, the God of the Bible. He s so distressed to see people worshipping what is false that he goes into the busy streets of Athens to reason with anyone who would listen to Him. He winds up being invited to the gathering of some of the most important people in the city known as the Areopagus. And that s where I will pick up today. Acts 17:22 - Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. Human beings are incurably religious. It s not that some people worship and others don t. Human beings will always worship something or someone. When the One True God isn t real to us, when we don t understand who He is or when we choose to ignore Him, we will still worship. Our gods become pleasures or possessions or people to fill the emptiness of our hearts and give us security, satisfaction and meaning in the absence of God.
Acts 17:23 - 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. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Remember they wanted to make sure they kept the gods happy because they thought those gods controlled their destiny. But for all of their religion they were still very unsure. Are they worshipping the right god? Maybe there s a god they had missed? So just in case, there s this altar to the unknown god. And Paul is savvy enough to know that what they call THE UNKNOWN GOD is really the One True God they need to know and want to know. ILLUSTRATION For my birthday last year one of our daughters subscribed to a service that did research into my dad s military record. He was career Air Force and served in the Korean War and in the Vietnam War. He told me a little about his record, but there was still a lot I didn t know about those years of his life. One day I got an email with more than 300 pages of records of my dad s military service. I pored over every page and it filled in the gaps of what I wanted to know about him. Perhaps there are things you wish you knew about God. Maybe you ve heard things about Him that aren t true or accurate. Well I want to show you from Paul s ancient sermon what you ve always longed to know about God. For some of you, this will simply reinforce what you already believe. I want you to leave here today with your faith encouraged. For others of you this might catch you off guard. It will challenge you to think differently about God and what it means to know Him and have a relationship with Him. You see, this unknown God has made Himself known when 2000 years ago He came to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead to make it possible for us to have a relationship with the God we ve always wanted to know. The first part is really basic. The God we all long to know is 1. THE CREATOR OF ALL In v.24 it says that God made the world and everything in it. The streets of Athens were lined with statues of gods and goddesses that the people had created. But we don t create God; He created us and everything around us. Everything that science, biology, physics and astronomy reveal about this universe points to an incredibly intricate design which could not have happened without a great, personal Designer.
Again, that s so basic, but so important. Next, the God we all long to know is 2. THE LORD OF ALL Verse 24 says that the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth So God is the personal Lord over everything and everyone He has made. He exercises His supernatural authority over mankind and the whole universe. He is Lord of it all the one, true Master of the Universe. Let s keep going. Next, the God we all want to know is 3. GREATER THAN ALL Acts 17:24 - 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. Because God is the Creator of all and the Lord of all, what makes anyone think He can be captured or contained in a man-made statue or a temple? He s greater than that. God won t fit in your box. He s bigger than your religion. Sometimes we like to confine God in the church. That s where He lives and that s where we meet Him, but then after that hour or so a week, we go on about our life as if He doesn t exist. No! He s greater than that. He s greater than any of the people or things of this life that we turn to for our security, satisfaction and meaning. But there s more. The God we all want to know is 4. THE SUSTAINER OF ALL Acts 17:25 - 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. ILLUSTRATION Down the street from our church there is a convenience store owned by my friend Paul. Paul is from the same part of India where we go on mission trips, so from time to time I stop in to visit with him. Paul is a Hindu and in the corner behind the counter there is a little shrine for three of the Hindu gods that he worships. Sometimes there s incense burning, and maybe some flowers on the shrine. He takes care of his gods.
The One True God, the God we all want to know, doesn t need us to take care of Him; but we need Him to take care of us. God doesn t depend on us; we depend on Him. We don t sustain God; He sustains us. The Bible says that God gives us life and breath and everything else. So we ought to worship Him by surrendering our lives to Him. Let s keep moving. The God we all want to know is also 5. THE CONTROLLER OF ALL The Athenians thought that with their sacrifices they could manipulate their gods and goddesses to get what they wanted. If we can bring God down to our size then we can control Him. We don t have to answer to Him; He answers to us. But that s not the God revealed in the Bible. Acts 17:26 - From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. This tells me that this God we all long to know is personally involved in every detail of our lives where you were born, who your parents are and the things that happen around you. God didn t just build this world like a child s toy, wind it up and let it run down. God is working in even the smallest detail of your life. And if that is true then it gives meaning to everything that happens to me, good or bad, success or failure. God is working through it all to bring about His good purposes for us. ILLUSTRATION Have you seen the new movie I Can Only Imagine? If not, go see it. It s the story of Bart Millard who wrote the song I Can Only Imagine, one of the most popular Christian songs in history. Bart grew up in a home with a violent father who physically and verbally abused him. Bart lived with that pain and became very bitter about it. Maybe you understand all too well the pain of growing up in an abusive home like that. So if God is the controller of all why would He allow something like that to happen? Well, when you learn the whole story of Bart Millard s life you see how God redeemed that abusive home life. God saved Bart and saved his dad, and from that pain came the beauty and the Good News of the song I Can Only Imagine that has impacted millions of people. So why has God revealed Himself in this way and displayed His power and authority in this way? The answer comes in
Acts 17:27 - 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. God has so structured things in way to draw your attention to Himself because He wants you to find meaning and purpose in Him. You were created by God and He wants a relationship with you. This God you really want to know is closer than you think and He already knows you and loves you and wants you to know Him. So here s the challenge: We have to change the way we think about God. Acts 17:29 - Therefore 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. We shouldn t think that God is like these fake gods. No, we are God s offspring meaning He created us. We have to change the way we think about God. Though God created us and is Lord over all, we ultimately rebel against Him. This is what the Bible calls sin. And we cannot know the God we long to know until we own up to our sin problem. Acts 17:30 - In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Now when we hear the word repent today we think, Quit doing that. Don t do that bad stuff anymore. Change what you do. Actually it goes much deeper than that. Repent means to change what you think. Now is the time to change your thinking about God and how you approach Him. Now is the time to put away the things that you have leaned on for your security and satisfaction your little gods. The God we all want to know has made Himself known to us in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. When we enter into a relationship with Christ we get to know God. Then He becomes our security and meaning and satisfaction in life as we trust in Him. There s one more truth about God we need to know and it adds a sense of urgency. The God we all want to know is 6. THE JUDGE OF ALL
Acts 17:31a - For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. This is all about what we do with Jesus. Human history is moving toward a date with destiny when we all stand face to face with God and give an account of what we ve done with Christ received Him or rejected Him. You see there is life after death for everyone everyone. Many of the people of Athens didn t believe this. They were like the great scientist Stephen Hawking who died recently who believed when you die you die and there s nothing after that. No, the Bible teaches us and the resurrection of Jesus shows us that there is life after death. We will either spend eternity in heaven with God or separated from God in a horrible place of punishment depending on what we do with Christ. Acts 17:31b - He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. The proof that all of this is true is found in the historical fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is where Easter comes in. The God you ve always wanted to know knows you and wants you to know Him. He proved this by sending His Son Jesus Christ to live on this earth. He took on a human body, not a like the statues of the Greeks with no feelings or thoughts, but a human body just like ours. He experienced all the temptations and frustrations that we experience in life. He understands. He lived life perfectly consistent with God s moral law so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. 1 Peter 3:18a - Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. The resurrection of Jesus proved He was the Son of God. The resurrection proved that His death delivered people from their sin and that there is new life for everyone who trusts in Christ. Just as Jesus walked out of the grave, we can walk out of our old life into a new life with Him. How did people respond to Paul s message? It says in v.32 that when they heard about the resurrection of the dead some sneered. It was like an April Fool s joke. You ve got to be kidding? Resurrection? Life after death? You must be crazy. Others were skeptical: We want to hear you again on this subject. But they don t intend to change; they just want to talk about some more. Is that where you are? You ve talked about it and thought about it but never made a commitment to Christ? But Jesus has the power to change lives
Acts 17:34 - A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Some people were changed forever that day. Notice they first became followers of Paul. They really wanted to know more and then they came to the point where they repented of their sin and believed. They stepped across the line. Remember, God is closer than you think. They stepped across the line from death to life from darkness into the light from hell into heaven from fear to peace all because the God we all want to know loves us and knows us and wants us to know Him. And He has made it possible through Christ who died for us and rose again. Church that s worth applauding! Amen!