God’s Acts…
How do you explain God and what He has done for us to those who have done seemingly well at putting Him on a shelf with other gods they worship? How do you say to the church at large who looks, acts and talks just like the world around them that Jesus should be LORD of their lives. We have come to a state of mind in God’s church where His people no longer affect society…society has infected the church. So, the few who still lean heavily on God’s Word as Truth, with no watering down of the integrity of what God says to us about Him, are heartbroken. God teaches us to be saddened by this heart condition.
This isn’t new. Paul is heartbroken over what he sees in Athens. Paul is angry. I’m angry. People have a little knowledge about gods in general. So, they sit around an analyze, gossip even, about all that is going on around them without addressing the real problem. They don’t know GOD!
They even have a god named “THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS”. That might sound silly to us. But the world is falling prey to this same silliness. Anything goes. All sin is accepted without repentance. The meaning of repentance is to turn around, go the opposite direction! We sin, we get a “bless your heart” then go on our merry way doing the same things that made us sin-sick in the first place. We are sick and don’t do anything to change our ways, to try to be healthier. Doctors tell us we must change our lifestyles to have a “better quality of life”. If we want to live longer, we do it…physically. But what about spiritually, which is at the center of our being?
Unforgiven, unresolved sin is just like a cancer that we allow to run free, bring us down and eventually kill us. Our quality of life is diminished daily. Our relationships with others are affected and sometimes our sickness is “caught” by others we infect who live close to us.
How do we explain that GOD is God and all others, especially ourselves, are not? Paul does it well. We can learn a lot from his “talk” to the Greeks…
Acts 17, The Message
Athens
16 The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got—all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.
17-18 He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: “What an airhead!” But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: “That’s a new slant on the gods. Tell us more.”
19-21 These people got together and asked him to make a public presentation over at the Areopagus, where things were a little quieter. They said, “This is a new one on us. We’ve never heard anything quite like it. Where did you come up with this anyway? Explain it so we can understand.” Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, natives and tourists alike, waiting for the latest tidbit on most anything.
22-23 So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.
24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
30-31 “God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32-34 At the phrase “raising him from the dead,” the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, “Let’s do this again. We want to hear more.” But that was it for the day, and Paul left. There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.
What do we learn?
–Repent, be saved by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, receive the power of the Holy Spirit immediately to turn around and go a different way with different ways of thinking and behaving. Be free to be all the God intended for us to be from the beginning of time. That’s radical life-change.
–Paul’s message will help us to explain what we know about God, too!
–God will not let go of us. He loves us that much!
Dear Heavenly Father, Your Word breathes new, focused life into our hearts, minds and souls. We love You with all that is in us. We are heartbroken by the sin that destroys. I repent of all that has broken Your heart in my life. By the power of Your Holy Spirit living in and through me, help me to turn around and go Your way, leaving my old way behind for good. In Jesus Name and by His power, Amen I believe.
