“The Unknown God” (Acts 17:16-31)
1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this morning comes to us from Acts 17:16-31 and it’s entitled, “The Unknown God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Scientist Carl Sagan hosted the first TV program dedicated to the great unknowns of space. The show was a hit, viewed by half a billion people. Of the show's success, Sagan remarked: "I was positive from my own experience that an enormous global interest exists in space and in many kindred scientific topics—the origin of life, the Earth, and the Cosmos, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, our connection with the universe." (Footnote 1: Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Ballantine, 1985), pp. xvii.)
3. Sagan names things that are globally sought after. We find throughout each generation this hunger for the unknown. The mysteries of our universe can fascinate us, compel us, and give us hope. But, they can also become a stumbling block on the road to truth. In the mind of a skeptic, no matter how many of his or her questions are answered, the elementary ones still escape them. The great unknown becomes the obsession. The great unknown, no matter how great, can’t fill the holes in our heads and hearts until it’s known.
4. The Apostle Paul spoke to the Athenian thinkers many years ago words quite fitting for present times. As his eyes observed that culture, he saw their fascination with knowing—so strong they even sought to know what was unknown to them, placing a sign over one of their altars for the "Unknown God." And this is what Paul says to them in Acts 17:23: "What you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you as known."
5. The Apostle Paul knew the audience that he was speaking to. There were the Epicureans, who believed that the gods didn't care about them; who believed that right now, right here was all that life has to offer. These people denied God, and dedicated themselves to the task of grabbing all the gusto they could. But, there were also the Stoics who were convinced that the gods resided in everything, and occupied themselves with managing the universe. Although the Stoics also rejected the idea of an afterlife, they thought that since the here and now is all we're going to get, we ought to be totally responsible. Responsible is a good word for the stoics. And the Stoics are still with us today. They are the people who take a stand against cruelty to animals and protecting the environment.
6. Right now there are people who are wondering how a good God could allow such suffering to take place in the town of Joplin, MO. How could an all-powerful God allow something like that to happen? Over 140 people dead and so many people still missing. A great number of people have lost their homes. A God that would allow something like this to happen seems unknowable to me. Rabbi Kushner wrote a book, which you’ve probably heard of, “Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People,” well that title is wrong according to the Bible. A better title would be, “Why do Good things Happen to Bad People.” See, according to God’s Word none of us are good. The Bible tells us that, “there is no one is righteous, no one who does good. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” As Christians we can rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that when we suffer we’re reminded of the consequences of our sins and our need for a Savior. We remember that it was our Savior who suffered on our behalf to set us free from sin, death and the power of the devil.
7. The ideas of the Stoics and Epicureans that were in Athens 2000 years ago are still with us today, even when it comes to our understanding of suffering. Our culture has embraced the epicurean view of suffering. This way of thinking seeks to reduce pain and acquire pleasure. To dull physical and emotional pain, men and women turn to sexual infidelity, illegal drugs, gluttony, and other sinful behaviors believing that “if it feels nice, don’t think twice.” The stoic view of suffering says that we have no control over what happens to us. All we can do is choose how we will respond to it; the goal here is to let nothing bother us. We should do our best “to keep a stiff upper lip” and to “let nothing get us down.”
8. Christians have probably been most affected by the stoic view. Unfortunately, we’re often prone to minimize the reality of our grief. But this isn’t the approach of Jesus. The Apostle John recorded that He wept at the death of his friend Lazarus in John 11. It’s not sinful to mourn the death of a loved one or to admit our pain.
9. God isn’t obligated to give us the reason for our suffering. Still, whether He is disciplining us or not, we know He is always with us in our pain (Ps. 23:4) to use our suffering for good, redemptive ends and to bring glory to Himself (Rom. 8:28).
10. As Paul preached to the Athenians he basically tells them, “We blew it.” We don’t know who God is, since we have all these ridiculous idols. Paul is preaching the law here, to convict sinners of their sins, before he reveals to them the answer to their sin, namely, Jesus Christ, their Savior. He goes on to tell them, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
11. Paul’s basic point is this. What you people did by worshiping everything but the one true God–that was ignorance. But now I’m making known to you the God you missed, the one true God of all mankind. He’s calling you to repent, before it’s too late. Judgment Day is coming. You will be judged. Your only hope is in the one I’m about to tell you about. The one who will be your Judge, this one is also your Savior. It’s this man Jesus Christ I’ve been telling you about, the one who rose from the dead.
12. Do you know that Judgment Day is coming? On that day you will stand before your Creator, and you will be judged. How will you fare? I can tell you that if you rely on yourself, it won’t go well. But, if you rely on Jesus as your Savior, you will be saved. This man Jesus, whom God raised from the dead–the reason he died was to save you from your sins, to save you from the judgment and eternal condemnation. That’s why he died, in your place, as the sacrifice for your sins. He did this for all men. Your sins are forgiven, covered, paid for, by the blood of Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. God raised this man Jesus from the dead, on Easter, to show that life is the result of what Christ has done. Baptized and believing in Christ, we share in His mighty victory over death. This is the good news that God has for all people everywhere.
13. It’s true. What we worship in this world as unknown, Christ gives us the chance to know. It is His life, death, and resurrection that proclaims to you that "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth…" (Footnote 3: Acts 17:24) He’s worth knowing, and through Jesus we understand everything. That is the answer we desperately need. Amen.
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