Acts 17:13-32. THE UNKNOWN GOD.
One hundred years ago, the German philosopher and self-styled anti-Christ Friedrich Nietzsche famously quoted "God is dead." Sadly it’s Friedrich Nietzsche who is dead because GOD is still very much alive, He’s risen! But how can we find God that is the deep penertrating question today?
As we look into the 21st century there is a growing search for the transcendent with the huge paradigm shift from modernity to post modernity with it has come a growing quest for spirituality a connectedness to the transcendent.
All the major religions of the world testify to humanities need for God: with the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam but also in the thousands of other subsidiary religions like Hinduism - Buddisim - Zoroastrianism - Sikhism. Even the modern day cults from Kaballa to Scientology to the Mormons to the JWS and the rise of New age belief systems and re invented - paganism: Rather than these belief systems being in decline they are growing in the 21st century, they are on the increase.
This means I believe at the epicentre of every human being is an insatiable spiritual appetite for the transcendent.
The historian Fisher said “There is a cry in the soul, to which no response comes from the world.” Thomas Aquinas exclaimed, “The soul’s restless thirst (is) for happiness but will only find rest in God alone.”
We see in our own country UK/AMERICA an emerging spirituality a blurring of spiritual truth even amongst professing Christians within the emergent church, they will will hold to a whole sway of contradicting beliefs and morals - No longer sharing doctrine especially once held dogma like penal substitution and moral beliefs everything becomes subjective and lose, people become driven by their experience and emotions – they have adopted the post modern mindset of the world around them with a syncretised view to spirituality with no absoulutes.It has become very fashionable in the quest for a god which will accept all, its simply liberalism in another guise.
• Pick and mix mentality. Reincarnation – astrology – mother earth - Gurus – Jesus - meditation - crystals and so on even some so called Christians even mix and match.
Setting : Paul finds himself in Athens this of course was the seat of learning - 4 centuries earlier but still had its vestiges of greatness are seen in its architecture, the centre of Greek culture a melting pot of spirituality, philosophy and education with a plethora of Greek gods like Zeus and Hermes with a school of philosophical thought, with the epicureans who believed that seeking happiness or pleasure was the goal to life (world view today in the west). And the Stoics who placed thinking above feeling and tried to live in harmony with nature and reason, these were there directives.
Two millennia on it is very much a similar setting in our world we havent advanced at all, we still find ourselves with a diversity of religions,cults,pagan practices and personal philosophies.Just go down into our major city centres you will find a host of books on alternative spirituality, spiritual experiences on offer. Just listen to a few celebrity quotes on religious spirituality:
D. Becham said “I want to baptize my son Brooklyn but I don’t know which religion as yet!”
Kylie Minogue said ‘The soul is the endlessness of our beings. The soul is infinite and were just passing through . I have lived before but I’m not very advanced in my series of lives. I’m not even in double figures.’
Drew Barrymore said ‘Either I am the reincarnation of my grandfather or he is in spiritual limbo and won’t pass on till he knows I’m okay.’
Angelina Jolie, said “There doesn’t need to be a God for me. There’s something in people that’s spiritual, that’s god like. I don’t feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don’t really know if it’s better to just not believe in anything, either."
Madonna “The thought of eternal life appeals to me." “I hope by the time it’s my moment to leave this world physically, I’ll have gotten my head around the idea that life is an endless cycle.”
Britney Spears who grew up a Baptist said, "I read the Kabbalah books and I meditate on them ... They are all in Hebrew. I don’t understand everything. But it’s kind of OK that you don’t. ... Kevin isn’t into it as intensely as I am. For some reason I’m thirsting for it."
William Hague wrote about the Prime minister. “ Here is a professing Anglican who attends Roman Catholic services, but carries a copy of the Koran. The Prime Minister may be clear about himself, but he has managed to confuse the rest of us about the countries Identity. Daily Telegraph Article p 22 May 8th.
We see from the above there is a definite spiritual search for the transcendent. But It appears to me with this plethora of belief systems in our post modern pluralistic world that people are confused, it makes finding the one true God like finding a needle in a haystack for the individual, and that’s why we need divine intervention. Thankfully God is at work as well as man.
The question we need to ask ourselves are “Can God really be found in all belief systems?” “Can we just pluck ourselves a designer god of the shelf?” If not “How can we truly come to know the one true God?”
The spring board for our message today is found in Acts 16:23 TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Here they are covering all their bases with even an alter to the unknown god. I believe this is exactly what people are manufacturing in our current climate a god that is totally unknown to them, and yet they worship it and demand all others to worship it along with them and if not branding you as totally intollerant it’s a global ecumenicalism gone mad. They have created a unknown god from the diversity of religions, cults and philosophies on offer.
Notice what Paul says v23 Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. By God’s grace let’s do the same......
1. God is not known through all religious experience v22
In Athens we see a diverse religious group of people who sincerely desired to worship god - but the only problem was that they did not know Him. Paul is very tactful and so must we be in our response. Being religious or having a spirituality is to be commended it shows that there is that capacity within yourself to be on a quest a search for the divine.
This was the case in Athens... Is it the case in your life? ..... Although some were religious and spiritual they hadn’t arrived at their destination “The unknown God” points to that very fact, they hadn’t found God He was unknown.
Here we see these people engaging in religious syncretism. Religious syncretism exhibits the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. The 21st century has seen a rise in syncretism, people have become disillusioned with formal religion they seek to blend different forms, mixing and matching their spirituality to meet their particular needs, creating a God and a faith that they are personally comfortable with, and will except them no matter what. It might look the part (religious) with smells bells and candles and icons and so on and so forth, everyone expressing their own personal thoughts.
Often if you ask people they say “ I like Jesus but I don’t like the Church - so I will follow the teaching of Jesus – he was a good man and he’s my personal guru. I believe in yin and yan and so the balance of my life needs to be filled with good Karma I don’t want any bad Karma - I dont want to come back as a slug, I need to get to the next level - and I what to be higher up in my order of reincarnation - when asked are we unique to having a soul? Of course not, everything has a soul, humans, rivers, animals, rocks, trees, land are all filled with their own unique spirits. Can we really pick our own spirituality in this manner?
I would definatly say No! It’s just not logically it breaks the law of self contradiction which is the foundation of logic, it is the most basic, fundamental premise upon which everything else must stand.
Two antithetical propositions cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. There are those who believe all we need is to come together – never mind our differences into some sort of spiritual mix and create one world religion.
• Mountain top different paths - God is at the top – and we can all take different routes – reach the summit together in the end. Utter nonsense......
Imagine: A Christian who desires the major monotheistic religions of Judaism - Christianity - Islam come together under one religion, And there are evangelical christians calling for that today,sounds good, but it breaks the law of self contradiction. Remmber ‘Two antithetical propositions cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense.
Notice:Islam teaches Jesus is a prophet who never died on the cross, He never Rose again dead, he never atoned for our sins. Judaism who deny Jesus as the Messiah the Son of God (God incarnate) these are fundamental tenants of Christian faith. Can you not see that embracing all three monotheistic faiths together is just not logical?
C.S Lewis wrote, An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut. C. S. Lewis quoted in Credenda Agenda, Volume 4/Number 5, p. 16
Put it another way You buy a ticket at the train station booth for Skegness (place in UK for my American friends) and being told it leaves from platform 2, yet on the way you meet an old friend and he asks you where you going? I am off to skegness. Come with me, he says I’m off there too, He says we need to get to platform 3. Hold on a minute I thought it was platform 2? No trust me, I really do believe its platform 3, look whether its Platform 2 or platform 3 , what does it matter as long as we enjoy ourselves – we will get there in the end, so you go to platform 3 and jump on the train will you get to skegness? Your friend might be sincere and genuinely believe he will get to his true destination – but he is genuinely wrong , it’s a contradiction. To the truth given at the ticket booth in the first place, both are not true.
Where would we be if we didn’t have this law of self contradiction? We would be in a mess, we wouldn’t know whether we were coming or going? Friends in regard to knowing God. He is logical not illogical God is not the author of confusion but order and truth. Many people are confused groping around in a spiritual darkness confused:
2. God is knowable through engaging the mind v16 -17.
Paul is distressed V16 by what he sees, a city full of idols images and shrines to the Greek deities - yet he’s not mad about it, even sympathetic and understanding he actually cares about their misconceptions and with what he sees. This causes Paul to engage,tactfully with the culture of his day, he doesn’t begin to have 2nd thoughts about what he believes and joins everybody else, but he engages the culture - he reasons objectively with others: He does’nt simulate his thoughts with theirs. v17: 1st Synagogue. 2nd market place. 3rd Areopagus.
Friends we must do the same - we must engage with this post-modern world in relavent ways- but please don’t compromise or distort the gospel 2 Cor 4:1-4. You must read this!
What do they think of him? v18 the philosophers full of their own wisdom call him a babbler v20 yet they want to hear more they couldn’t understand they took him to the AREOPAGUS (speakers corner of Athens v21 ) They couldn’t quite understand where he was coming from - but as yet they don’t dismiss him they engage their minds.
Paul reasons with them and points to: 1. God of creation v24. 2. Who sustains and is soverign v25. 3. Creator of humanity v26.
The Christian faith is a reasoned faith - God doesn’t expect you to blindly follow Him, He doesn’t expect you to take a leap in the dark - as it were to take your brain put it on the shelf and blindly follow Him. On the contrary - God expects you to engage your mind.
Have you ever engaged your mind upon God?
Today we tend engage our feeling a lot more - yet not our minds, this is what I feel, these are the vibes I’m getting, but ask yourself have I ever genuinely engaged my mind? Have you ever read –thought - talked - debated – reasoned about Him? Are you just brushing it all off as fanciful without even a thought? V18 Even these philosophers didn’t do that they were very smug individuals who considered Paul a babbler yet even they want to hear more v20 and engage their minds.
God calls us to reason with Him: Come know let us reason together..... Part of the greatest commandment is a call to engage our minds in knowing God. The apostle Peter told the early Christians always to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have..... Friends the Christian faith is not contradictory it’s logical, it’s a reasoned faith which engages the mind. As somebody once said, “Let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind.
3. God is known through encountering Jesus Christ v31 .
Who was the really Jesus? A good man, a prophet, a healer, a teacher? The ultimate way of coming to know the one true God is laid out by Paul he preaches Jesus Christ. The one who said, “ I am the way the truth and the life.. no one comes to the Father except through me...” the one who claimed to be the great “I AM”.
Jesus is on a different plane than Krishna – Buddah – Muhammed – the Pope - Gurus there has ever been -
He is “ The Christ” is not a surname but a title a job description of who He was and of what He came to do. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, a King , who would bring about pardon and set people free , what Jesus accomplished is what ultimately enables people to encounter and know God.
G. Campbell Morgan summed up Jesus he said, “He was the God-man. Not God indwelling a man. Of such there have been many. Not a man deified. Of such there have been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought; but God and man, combining in one personality the two natures, a perpetual enigma and mystery, baffling the possibility of explanation.”
How can this be? Why such confidence, such certainty that Jesus is God incarnate? Because of what Jesus accomplished: Paul presented to the crowd the death, resurrection and judgement to come. His death and resurrection is proof: it demonstrated His deity; it validated his teaching; it attested the completion of his work of atonement for sin; confirms his present cosmic dominion and his coming reappearance as Judge;
What is your response? V32 A few sneered: v32 A Few wanted to know more: V34 Some men believed and followed.
Which of the above three is your response…..?
1. Do you sneer are you wrapped up with the wisdom of this world are you like theses Epicureans and stoic philosophers – do you know what that means? 1Cor1: 18- 23. Foolishness (moronic) it’s a sign that you’re perishing and judgment is coming.
2. Do you want to know more? Well let me offer you this unique Jesus booklet invite you to join our Christianity explored course. Maybe you have questions, is its time to engage your mind?
3. A FEW BELIEVED…
One of the great films of 1999 was The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves. It’s a futuristic sci-fi movie, where the world has been taken over by computers. The computers need the energy that comes from human bodies, so they keep a supply of genetically engineered humans in a permanently anaesthetized state. They then create an imaginary world for these comatose humans, The Matrix, in which people think themselves alive and conscious, going to work, living normal everyday lives. The Matrix is the world that has been literally over everyone’s eyes to blind them from the truth, a world that keeps them in bondage to acceptance of the way things are. But there is a group of rebels who have broken free of the Matrix. Led by Morpheus they lead a shadow life committed to an alternate reality and hunted by cyber cops. Then they discover character, Neo, (Keanu Reeves) the prophesied One who will break people free from the Matrix.
Early in the film we find Neo awakening to the truth. Part of the Matrix, the computer created illusion, he experiences unexplainable doubts about the ways things are, doubts which act like a splinter in his mind, making him feel uncomfortable. Then he is introduced to the rebels, led by Morpheus. Morpheus offers Neo a chance to see the truth. He holds out two pills. The blue pill is a pleasant analgesic which will blur over the pain his honest enquiry is creating. Swallow the blue pill and he’ll be comfortably back in the Matrix. Or he can take the red pill, which will open his eyes to see new possibilities, to carve out a place in the alternate reality.
Friends at the heart of the gospel is the idea that we are all caught in the Matrix, in a false view of reality. We fail to see the world and God as they really are locked into a Matrix the worldview of the matrix: Sin has blinded us: to the truth and we need to be set free to the realities and values of God’s kingdom. Jesus offers us all a new way of seeing the world, ourselves and God, to swallow the red pill the unknown God becomes the known God – you will be set free from sin and to be forever changed. To reject Him is to swallow the blue pill of this ‘consumer pluralistic society’ you will remain anesthetized, by the world and its values.
If you want hear this sermon in the flesh go to www.cbchurch.org.uk click onto the cyberchurch tab, audio section.
