Trinity Baptist Church

Getting to Know the Unknown God

Part 2

Acts 17:25-29

 

We began  last week a study of the sermon of Paul at Mar’s Hill.  He is addressing the Aeropagus Court.  It was their responsibility to examine all the religions of the day, which was quite a job because in Athens, they worshipped many false gods, as you hear Paul mention in verse 22.  In fact, just so they didn’t miss any of them, they had even set up altars to unknown gods.

 

Paul uses that as a launching pad to introduce the One and Only God to them.  He is, in essence saying to them. “I know the unknown God”.

 

By the way, there is an important thought to insert here: 

 

Nan was created to know the true God and until he knows the true God, he knows no peace. He knows no satisfaction in the truest sense. And you go back into the Garden and Adam and Eve were there and God was there and they were having a great time. And they knew God and all was bliss and beauty. And then they fell and bang, God cut off Himself from them. They lost the knowledge of God. And since that time men have been born into the world apart from the knowledge of God.

 

But God wants man to know Him and fellowship with Him.  And in order for that to happen, three things are involved:

 

 

 

Now in Athens, they didn’t have any trouble believing there was a God.  In fact, as I’ve already mentioned they believed in multiple gods.  So Paul finds a ready audience as he begins to share with them about God so they can understand and know this previously unknown God. And that is really the focus of verses 24-29.  He lists five characteristics of God; five distinguishing marks of the Only True God, this unknown God that He is introducing to them.  We looked at two of them last week, and will do our best to cover the other three today. 

 

We discovered last week, this God is Creator.  That’s verse verse 24

 

Paul also says, “He is Ruler”.  Paul continues in verse 24 to say He is Lord of heaven and earth.

 

Here’s the third thing:

 

God is Giver.

 

verse 25

 

What a great verse!  Lest you get to thinking you’re indispensable and the church can’t get along without you or you’ll get mad and pull your tithe, God says, “I don’t need anything!”

 

He's the one who gives to all life and breath and all things. We talk a lot about how much God needs us. I'm not sure that's Biblical. In a sense it is.

It's alright to say that God needs us to be faithful to the call He has called us to. But in terms of Him being dependent on us for something He doesn't have—He needs nothing!

 

We get to thinking God's going to benefit by us or He is made better by our just hanging around with Him.   God can't benefit. He has no capacity. He's as good as He could possibly be. He can't get any better.

 

Pagans don’t regonize that.  That’s why people were always bringing food and putting it down and were thinking that gods would consume it. The Hindus still do that today. They think that gods consume the food.

 

God says I don't need you piddling around with little shrines. I don't need your fancied up stuff. I don't need your routines. I'm the one who gives you everything. I don't need anything out of you.

 

Listen to Psalm 50: 9-12

 

He's shooting down their idolatry. He's just knocking the props out of their whole system. He's saying God does not need you to do all this little routine. You need God, because it is God, watch it in verse 25, who gives to all life and breath and all things.

 

Those three things are extremely important: Life, that's being born. God is the one Who brought you into the world. Breath, that's the sustaining of your life. And all things, that's everything that comes to you while you live. Everything is of God.

 

 

In the 104^th Psalm, the psalmist says if you get food, you got it from God. If you don't get food, that's cause God didn't give it to you. Everything. Everything is from God. God is the giver. He doesn't need us to give to Him. He is the giver of everything. James said "every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above."

 

Whatever you have, it came from God. You need to recognize that it did. So God is Creator, ruler, giver.

 

Then Paul says,

 

He is Controller

 

Verse 26

 

"He hath made of one blood all nations."

 

What an astounding thought for an Athenian to comprehend, because they believed the world was made up of two kinds of people, Greeks and barbarians.

 

They prided themselves on being above everyone else.  They were the super race. 

 

And so Paul says, "This unknown God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth."

 

Every nation is God's ordaining. And God even predetermined the times and boundaries of their existence.  That means that God is controlling history and destiny of men and nation.

 

God is controlling history.  In fact, history is His story. He is in control.

 

In fact, when it says the appointed time, it refers to the seasonal times as well as historical times. God has appointed the times of winter and summer and all of that as well as the historical times when certain nations exist. God set a certain kingdom in a certain location. And how far they reach in conquering others and the victories of their military campaigns is all in God’s hands. God is controller.

 

Listen:  History is on schedule and God is running it. And it's going to culminate in the coming of Jesus Christ.

 

So God is creator, ruler, giver, controller. The fifth thing,

 

God is revealer.

 

Verse 27

 

Now, think about this. Do you know why God created, upholds, gives life, breath and everything? Do you know why He controls history and destiny through what we call providence? Why? In order that He might reveal Himself so that we can know Him.

 

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 and that men may see God. That's what he's saying.

 

Look at the first phrase of verse 27, “so that they should seek the Lord”.

Everything Paul’s been talking about, everything that God’s been doing on the earth and before the earth, God's total involvement in the earth is in order that men might seek Him, and ulitamately know Him. This is the climax.

 

And in fact, if you don’t seek and know Hi, it’s your own fault.  God has provided creation on the outside and conscience on the inside so that man would have an awareness of God.  And the natural revelation of conscience and the natural revelation of creation,  inside-outside revelation, are there that men may seek after God.

 

 And there is no excuse for those don't because the revelation is so absolutely overwhelming.  It's beyond my imagination how an individual can see a world like ours and not conclude there is a God. God arranged everything in order that men might seek Him. Everything. And if men will only see that God is and if they will only see who He is in terms of His creative power, sustaining power, in terms of His providence, in terms of His control of history, they can then follow on.

 

Look at verse 27. They can grope for Him and find Him. In other words, God is so obvious, you don’t even have to know what you’re looking for; you can grope around in the dark and He’ll be found.  How can that happen?  He is not far from each and every one of us. He’s closer than you realize!

 

You say, now wait a minute, what about the people in the darkest part of Africa, what about the people over here that never have a Bible -- He is not far from how many of us? Everyone of us.

Listen:  They have the same revelation you and I have. In fact, it's a little less cluttered. Every man has enough of the revelation of God to be responsible. Everyone. I like that. From everyone of us. God has set man down in close proximity to His greatest demonstation of Himself. 

 

Suppose you are an art fan, and you go to an art gallery to see a display of the great works of Picasso or Van Gogh.  And you spend all day wandering through the display admiring every little brush stroke, and the artist’s use of light. 

 

Could you imagine toward the end of the day finding the curator of the exhibit and saying, “Excuse me sir, was there an artist who did these paintings?” And they reply comes, “Of course not, don’t be ridiculous.  Several years ago, even though no one caused it or originated it, there was just some unexplained paint rolling around, and they just appeared!”

 

Can you imagine going to a car museum and looking at all the models from history and all the precision and beauty and believing there was an earthquake or explosion that caused them to all come together as they are? 

 

Listen:  the earth is God on display. And it is just as idiotic or only more idiotic to wander through the world and say "I wonder if anybody did this."

 

And it doesn’t matter if you are a high-roller in New York city or a native in the jungles of Africa, you’ve got the same revelation through creation and conscience, and it’s God’s way of saying, “I dare you to miss me!”  You can’t avoid Him!

 

All nations, all men on the face of the earth have the same opportunity to see God. For God does not dwell in temples made with hands. God does not dwell in shrines. God does not live in a Church. God is in and around every man in terms being on exhibit. God is revealer.

 

In Jeremiah 29:13, he says, and this is a blanket statement, "You shall seek Me and find when you shall search for Me with all your heart." That's so important. No man ever is deprived of the knowledge of God who desires that knowledge.

 

Listen to Psalm 145:18: "The Lord is near unto all those who call upon Him." Did you hear that? "The Lord is near unto all those who call Him, to all who call upon Him in truth."

 

God is near but He's only near if you approach Him in truth. And Jesus said, "I am the way," what? "The truth."

 

Psalm 145:18-19, "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He will hear their cry and will save them."

 

If anybody ever questions what happens to the pagans, if they really seek to know God, God will hear their cry and save them. And so God has put Himself on display in the world that men might grope after Him and find Him.

 

Then notice verse 28

 

 

 

Paul uses some quotes from Greek poets to make his point. 

 

Now the poets he quotes were not talking about Jehovah God, but Zeus, and in regard to their belief system, they attributed their life and abilities to Zeus. 

 

But to illustrate what he’s saying about God, Paul quotes them.  At first reading, that doesn’t make much sense.  Why is Paul quoting Zeus when he’s trying to convince them that zeus is not a god at all? 

 

Well, I had to think about that a while myself. And then I came up with an interesting idea. And I submit it to you. Whatever you want to do with it feel free. What I think he is saying is this:

 

“Your own poets, in their ignorance of the true God have recognized that there is Someone out there who allows us to live and move and have our being.  They may have believed it to be Zeus or even some unknown God.  But they realized that this God has revealed Himself so much so that even though they attach it to the wrong god, it is obvious to them that there is a God Who made us, Who holds us together, and Who takes care of us. And we came from Him.

 

They even had the sense to say, "We are His offspring", even though the "he" was wrong. What is he saying then? He's simply saying that natural revelation is so obvious that your own poets can see it though they attached it to the wrong god.

 

That's a powerful point. Here is Paul saying "God is revealed in nature. You can see God in nature. You can know He's Creator, Giver, Sustainer, Controller. And look, your own poets recognize there must be a God Who does all of this, even though they don't know who it is.”

 

Now, he takes it a step further. Some, like those poets, just stopped there. They said, "Hey, God is."  And they said, "God is Creator. God is Sustainer or Ruler. God is Giver." They didn't know which god, but they knew there was a god, and they knew that god was like “this”. But that's where they stopped.

 

So Paul says you've got to go further than that. You've got to go past God is and Who God is and you've got to come up with What God is saying. And they never did.

 

And you want to know something?  There are a lot of people like that today. They believe God is. And they believe God is Creator, God is Sustainer. They pray when they are sick or there is a disaster. 

 

They believe their loved ones go to heaven when they die.  But they don't know God.

 

And it's sad to see somebody come that far and then miss God.  So you’ve got to take the third step, and that is to hear and believe what God is saying. 

 

We’ll look at that next week, but before we get there, let me point out one more thing in verse 29. 

 

"If God made us, as your own poets have indicated, if God made us and we are His offspring, we are the created beings, then how did we make God?”

 

 

If God is big enough to be what we’ve described and what your poets recognized, then God must be more than something we made." He can't be stone or silver or gold or some kind of artistic representation. If God made us, then we can't make God.

 

So he just takes one great big theological sledge hammer and smashes idolatry and what is he saying is, “If you really want to know God, don't look at some idol. If you really want to know God, don't go to some temple. If you really want to know God, don't crawl in some shrine. If you want to know God, look in, look out, and feel after God. And that will bring you to where you can hear what God requires of you.”

 

We'll take that next week. You’ve got to know there is a God.  You’ve got to know Who that God is, and you’ve got to know what that God requires. 

 

I'll tell you, when I start to think about God, I can't handle it. But then you know, I always get this second thought. I think about God and I go further and further and further and think about God and then I stop somewhere out in there and I always come back and say to myself, but the thing that amazes me most is that He lives in me.

 

I actually know God. You say, Terry, how do you get to know God? Jesus said "no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." There's no knowledge of God apart from Jesus Christ. He is the one who introduces you to God. You can know God. I trust and pray no one will go from this place not knowing God.

 

Let's pray.