AN OLD STORY FOR A NEW WORLD
© Mark Beaird
Text: Acts 17:24-33
In the early days of the Tennessee Valley project a dilapidated homestead was going to be torn down. They were damming the river and the valley would be flooded out. A new split-level ranch was built for the Appalachian family on the hillside to relocate to.
The day of the flooding arrived and the bulldozers were there to tear down the old house. The family refused to move out of the old homestead. Finally out of desperation, a social worker was called in to find out what the problem was. “We ain’t goin’ anywhere” was the reply. The social worker pleaded with them to tell her what the problem was and why they would not move into their beautiful new home.
“See that fire over there?” the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the primitive hearth of the log cabin. “My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago,” the man explained. “He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to the neighbor’s. Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I’ve tended it. None of us ever let it die, and I ain’t a-goin’ to move away and let grandpa’s fire go out!”
The social worker got an idea. She arranged for a large apple butter kettle to be delivered to the home. The hot coals would be scooped up and transported to the new home, kindling would be added and the grandfather’s fire would never go out.
The Appalachian family accepted and moved up to the split-level ranch on the hillside after they knew that they would have the fire of their ancestors. (Cooper 1)
It is odd how we continue to stand at the crossroads of change trying to hold onto the familiar and assuring ideas of the past, all the while finding ourselves pushed forward into a new world that challenges everything we hold dear. I suppose there are some ideas that we need to let go of, but our faith in Jesus Christ is not one of them.
In this passage it is not Paul who is being pushed but rather it is he who is doing the pushing. But in this case he was not preaching a new doctrine but rather at the complete fulfillment of an old story. To bring his message home he literally starts at the beginning—of humanity.
I. THE TRUE GOD WAS NOT GIVEN LIFE BY MAN, BUT RATHER GAVE LIFE TO MAN (v. 24-25).
A. God is not an impersonal being.
For the philosophers of Athens, as with many today, God was more of an idea than a personal being. For the Christian, God is more of a person than an idea.
B. Paul preached accountability to a living God.
Paul was not interested in trying to intrigue them with knowledge. He gets right to the point and tells them that if God created us then we are accountable to Him. If He is the source of all life then there can be no divided devotion—which is a trademark of postmodern thinking.
II. THE TRUE GOD IS THE ETERNAL ARCHITECH AND FATHER OF ALL THINGS (v. 26-27a).
A. There is a “community” to God’s creation (v. 26).
“From one man he made every nation of men…” We began as God’s new family. He ordained how we should live. His desire was for us to know Him and to serve Him. We were to be His people and He was to be our God. That remains His goal for humanity.
B. It is God’s desire that humanity as a whole would find Him.
Most postmodern seekers, particularly young people, believe in an impersonal God and human superficiality. Although many modernist thinkers who have not become atheists or deists don’t follow a personal God, they still believe in one who exists, but simply cannot be proven. Alcoholics Anonymous capitalized on this years ago in naming Him a “higher power”—less exclusive than “God,” but just as personal.
Postmodern people tend to believe more in the Eastern concept of God as an impersonal life force in all people and things. Right? Sound familiar? Part of the resurgent success of Star Wars is a generation of young people who easily accept and long to experience the Eastern concept of The Force in these movies.
This impersonal God concept has also led many Postmoderns to give up the modern thinking of people evolving to a better or higher state. The cynicism of Postmodernism has led many to believe that humans are actually no more inherently valuable than, say, animals or trees.
Perhaps you can see already the immense challenge for the church here…and why quoting Bible verses as authoritative proof texts to a postmodern young person means nothing and that modern, deductive, or logical arguments against things like abortion or mercy-killing fall on deaf ears. (Zafren 5)
Never the less, no matter how society changes its belief system we must never abandon our faith. The present mindset of America has shown up in various cultures throughout history, but the Gospel or the Good News, has remained the same.
III. THE TRUE GOD SEEKS TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO HUMANITY (vv. 27b-29).
A. Jesus Christ was God’s perfect revelation of Himself to humanity.
Someone wrote, “If we can live one day with Jesus, we can live every day with Him, each one as it comes. Immanuel, a name for Christ, means "God with us." Human life was meant to be dramatic. We are meant to be God-inhabited. Our religion is not organized around keeping God at a distance. It allows us to go see him when we want. If I really want God to be with me, then my life will be extremely different from ordinary human life. The outcome will be far greater than the efforts.” (Trobisch, Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom)
B. We must find common ground on which we can reveal God
(vv. 28-29).
To many in our postmodern world, especially the youth, experiences are as real as any theological argument. Paul uses the Athenians own beliefs to draw them in. Notice his language, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” Paul is relating the experiential dimension to these skeptics as well as to the intellectuals.
This is one reason why the Pentecostal message is seen as more relevant than the message of most orthodox churches.
Jackie David Johns explains, “Pentecostalism is more an impetus for than a consequence of an emerging dominant worldview. Pentecostalism should then be viewed as a part of the mainstream that is forging the postmodern era.
First, Pentecostalism may indeed represent a particular worldview and/or vision, but it clearly is not the product of a scientific paradigm. Pentecostalism emerged simultaneously among a variety of peoples around the world. There were no theorists who constructed Pentecostalism as a plausible response to the failure of other systems. Indeed, Pentecostalism took the world, especially the academic world, by surprise. Indications are that it took its early participants by surprise as well.
Secondly, it has been thoroughly demonstrated that Pentecostalism is rooted in the holiness movement of the late nineteenth century… It seems readily apparent that Pentecostalism emerged out of and as an expression of a counterculture. Persons of the holiness revivals and early Pentecostalism existed outside of the dominant cultural vision.
Pentecostalism and the holiness movement from which it came reflect an alternative worldview, one that springs from the insights of John Wesley… Wesleyans and Pentecostals hold to Scripture, church tradition, reason and experience as authoritative guides to faith while God alone serves as the basis of faith.” (Johns 85-86)
IV. THE TRUE GOD DESIRES THAT ALL SHOULD KNOW HIM (vv. 30-33).
A. God’s ultimate offer to humanity is an encounter with Himself (v.30).
Unfortunately, Lloyd John Ogilvie was right when he said, “The institutional church in America is filled with religious people who desperately need an experience of the living, holy, forgiving, gracious God.” (Ogilvie, Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom)
At the heart of being a Christian is a personal encounter with God in Christ that shapes and mold us. On the basis of this encounter, we seek to bring into an understandable whole the diverse strands of our personal lives by appeal to certain categories. Prominent among these are “sin” and “grace,” “alienation” and “reconciliation,” “helplessness” and “divine power,” “having been lost” but “now being saved.” It is in this context of making sense out of life by means of recounting the story of a transformative religious experience that doctrinal propositions find their importance. (Grenz 170)
Simply put, without a real personal experience with God, doctrine is dead.
B. The resurrection of Jesus Christ leaves us without excuse.
Our lives should reveal the value of knowing God.
CONCLUSION
If we want to understand and minister to this generation, postmodernity is our starting point because from now on, the way this and following generations will look at and process truth will change the way we communicate and reason with people. The old styles of preaching and teaching will need to be modified and replaced by new approaches to telling the “old, old story.” (Zafren 7)
Methods will change but neither the message or the goal must change. To experience God, to fellowship with Him, to serve Him, this is our goal and our message.
Think of it this way, “The air which our body requires envelops us on every hand. The air of itself seeks to enter our bodies and, for this reason, exerts pressure upon us. It is well known that it is more difficult to hold one’s breath than it is to breathe. We need but exercise our organs of respiration, and air will enter forthwith into our lungs and perform its life-giving function to the entire body. The air which our souls need also envelops all of us at all times and on all sides. God is round about us in Christ on every hand, with his many-sided and all-sufficient grace. All we need to do is to open our hearts.” (Hallesby, Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom)
References
Cooper, Jordan. Developing an Ancient/Future Faith. 14 October 2000
Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans Publishing, 1996.
Hallesby, O. “Prayer.” Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom. Parsons Technology,
1998.
Johns, Jackie David. “Pentecostalism and the Postmoder Worldview.”
Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 7 (1995), 73-96.
Ogilvie, Lloyd John. Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom. Parsons Technology,
1998.
Trobisch, Ingrid. “The Confident Woman.” Bible Illustrator 3: CD-Rom.
Parsons Technology, 1998.
Zafren, Keith. Why A Church For A Postmodern Generation of Seekers?
14 October 2000
