In Him, We Live Series

Sunrise Service 2014

“In Him We Live”

Acts 17:28

Illustration: “One Dead and One Alive” There was once a Muslim in Africa who converted to Christianity, much to the dismay of his Muslim community. Some of his friends asked him, 'Why have you become a Christian?' He answered, 'Well, its like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn't know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive--which one would you ask which way to go?’

My friends, this morning we celebrate because...

We do not worship at the tomb of a dead prophet.

We do not recite the teachings of a deceased philosopher.

We do not praise the name of a lifeless saint.

No... we celebrate this morning because we serve a Risen Savior.

Christ is Risen... and that is a truth worth celebrating.

For the message of this morning, I want us to go to the history book of the New Testament, the book called “Acts”.

In the 17th chapter, Paul is preaching to the philosophers of his day, challenging them about their faith.

He first challenges them because they are worshipping a god they do not know because they have an Altar which is made for “the unknown god” (v.23).

He then tells them that the god they do not know or understand is the one he is about to proclaim to them.

Not some unknown deity, but the true and Living God.

In the midst of his preaching, he quotes to them a poem.

It is not a poem from Jewish history, because they would not have been familiar with it.

It was actually a poem from Greek mythology, written to Zeus.

And Paul uses the words of that poem to point away from the false Greek god Zeus, and point to the living and true God.

Acts 17:28 “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’.”

This moment is challenging to his hearers because he has taken something from their own custom and used it to point to a greater truth.

You see, it is not in Zeus that we live and move and have our being.

It is in the God of Scripture... the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... that we live and move and have our being.

QUESTION: This is resurrection Sunday, and we are here to celebrate the risen Jesus, why am I quoting an obscure passage in Acts which itself is a quotation of an ancient poem of the Greeks???

ANSWER: Because this statement says something very important about our God and about our Christ.

This text says that in God we live and move and have our being.

In short, that means in God we exist.

Apart from God, there would be no existence.

If God ceased to exist, so would we... because it is in him we live.

The thing that makes this so amazing is when we consider that when we say “IN HIM” we live, we are not just addressing God the Father.

We are also talking about God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Because IN HIM, that is IN CHRIST, we live and move and have our being.

This is probably best summed up for us in Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1-4 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

I want us to consider three things from this passage in Hebrews...

In Christ We Live Because...

1) He is our Creator (v.2b)

v.2b “through whom also he created the world.”

John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 “For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.