OPEN: In one of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strips, Linus and Charlie Brown are engaged in serious conversation.
“I have a theological question,” says Linus, “When you die, and go to Heaven, are you graded on a percentage or on a curve?”
“On a curve, naturally,” Charlie responds.
Linus asks puzzledly, “How can you be so sure?”
Charlie brightly answers, “I’m always sure about things that are a matter of opinion.”
APPLY: This morning we’re going to be talking about one of the most prominent theological “matters of opinion” in the nation. That theological matter of opinion: "Does it matter what believe? Do all roads lead to heaven?"
ILLUS: An ancient Hindu story tells about six blind men who were brought to see an elephant:
"It’s very like a wall," said the first man as he touched the side of the elephant.
It’s very like a spear," said the second man as he stroked the elephant’s tusk.
And the third man taking the elephant’s squirming trunk in hand said) "It’s very like a snake."
"Nonsense!" the fourth man shouted. Stretching his arms about one of the legs, he concluded "this wondrous beast is very like a tree."
The fifth man, touching the elephant’s ear, cried, "even the blindest man can see that this animal is very like a fan."
And the sixth, grabbing the tail, assured his friends that "the elephant is really very like a rope."
There are those who hear different people from different religions saying that they have touched God. But the gods they describe are as different as the blind men and the elephant. This has led many to conclude that - just like the blind men of the parable - everybody’s right, they just have hold of different parts of the same God. And, since everybody is "right" then their different faiths must all lead to the same place - Heaven. Thus the phrase: All Roads Lead To Heaven.
I. Centuries ago, in a city called Athens, that was the predominant belief
The city of Athens was a very religious city. Within the city there were over 30,000 idols. One scholar noted it was easier to find an idol in Athens than to find a man.
And yet (while highly religious) these people were confused about which god to worship… and so they worshipped them all. AND in fact, just in case they missed a god – they erected an altar to an “Unknown God.”
Now, before you dismiss these people as uneducated hayseeds you need to know that Athens was a center of learning in its day. It was here that the idea of Democracy took root. Many of the world’s great early philosophers and thinkers lived here: Sophocles, Euripides, Plato and Socrates.
Here in Athens they had one of the greatest universities of the ancient world. It was a center of philosophy, literature, science and art. (Eerdmans’ Handbook to the Bible)
This was a city dedicated to truth… dedicated to wisdom. And yet in the midst of all this pursuit of “truth” and “wisdom” - there was confusion. Because (when it came to God) they did not know WHAT TRUTH to embrace
They didn’t know which god to hang onto and so they believed all were somehow equal.
II. “Intellectual types” have been like that ever since
They seem to be unable (or unwilling) to discover the truth about God and so… religion gets relegated to a matter of personal taste rather than objective reality. Kind of like our tastes in clothes or the color of our houses. There’s no right and no wrong to it. It’s just a matter of your personal tastes. If you like Hinduism as opposed to Buddhism it’s no big deal! It’s like preferring Big Macs to Chicken McNuggets.
And if there is a God… well He’ll understand. Everybody was just trying to reach Him in different ways. It shouldn’t make any difference – as long you’re sincere.
III. The one thing that has gotten Christianity into trouble with people down thru the ages has been that we have to say: “Well, yes it does make a difference what you believe.”
Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Peter declared: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
And here in Acts 17 Paul is telling the Athenians the very same thing: (reread vs. 22-31)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Now… what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
"The God who made the world and everything in it - is the Lord of heaven and earth - and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands (as if he needed anything) because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ "Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone— an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Do you catch what all this is saying? Jesus, Peter and now Paul are all telling us that God has no intention of being tolerant any more. In the past God overlooked such ignorance – but not anymore. Now, God calls for repentance - not open-mindedness.
People will not get into heaven by being Hindus
They won’t please God by being Muslims
They won’t get in the gate by flashing their Buddhist statue
(pause…) As the Imperials once sang
It won’t be old Buddah that’s sitting on the throne
And it won’t be old Mohammed that’s calling us home
And it won’t be Hari Krisna that plays that trumpet tune
Cause we’re goin’ to the Son – not Rev. Moon
IV. Notice, the crux of Paul’s argument –
God’s calling for us to repent, because there WILL BE a day of judgment. Intellectual types are fond of telling people that no one has the right to tell someone else that what they believe is wrong… it’s just not nice.
What Paul is declaring is – it’s not nice NOT to tell people they are wrong. Judgment’s coming.
AND if people don’t recognize that what they believe is wrong, the consequences can be deadly.
You can’t be open-minded & tolerant when it comes to God.
Even smart people ought to realize this has got to be true. In just about every other serious field of knowledge – broad mindedness is not allowed
ILLUS: There is no room for broad-mindedness in a chemical laboratory. Water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. The slightest deviation from the formula – not allowed.
There is nor room for broad-mindedness when it comes to music. The skilled director will not permit his first violin to play even so much as 1/2 note off from what is written in the music.
There is no room for broad-mindedness in the mathematics classroom. Neither geometry, calculus, nor trigonometry allows any variation from exact accuracy, even for old time’s sake. The solution of the problem is either right or it is wrong (there is no tolerance).
There is no room for broad-mindedness in biology. If they are investigating a theory and – if one result out of a thousand is different from the rest – it will invalidate an entire theory.
There is no room for broad-mindedness on the athletic field. The game is to be played according to the rules with no favors shown for "charity’s sake."
There is no room for broad-mindedness in the garage. The mechanic says the piston rings have to fit the cylinder walls within one thousandth’s of an inch – and that’s the way it has to be. Even between friends there cannot be any variation if the "motor is to run smoothly."
Every other serious field of knowledge refuses to allow for tolerance of truth. AND here in Acts 17 Paul says it’s the same with God. There will come a time of judgment.
V. But – how do we know that what we believe is “Right”
Paul tells us in verse 31
“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
ILLUS: I’ve always liked the saying I recently saw on a church sign: “If I’m OK and you’re OK – explain the cross”
Those who would challenge our faith are fond of trying to get us to defend side issues:
i. Do you really believe God created the world in 7 days?
ii. Do you really believe there was a flood that covered the whole earth?
iii. Do you really believe Moses parted the Red Sea = crossed on dry ground?
If the skeptic can get you side tracked into arguing about those things – you’ll have missed the point. The only proof God seems to be concerned with is Jesus.
That’s what Paul meant when he wrote: “…I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
We don’t have to defend the Bible or any doctrine found therein. I mean, it’s important to know the answers to those questions BUT we don’t really need to defend the Bible. What we need to do is proclaim Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote: ”we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength." I Corinthians 1:22-25
CLOSE: Now I want you to notice – Paul didn’t win a debate here. No mad rush of converts came rushing to the stage. In fact, the crowd’s response was mixed.
Acts 17:32 “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject.”
There are many scholars who maintain that Paul’s preaching at Athens was failure because it was so poorly received. But I don’t think Paul would have said that. Why? Because Paul was faithful in proclaiming Jesus to these people:
"A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others." Acts 17:34
In the 1800’s a famed British preacher named Alexander Maclaren once got a skeptic to promise him that he would attend his church for four Sundays and listen as Maclaren presented the basic tenets of Christianity. The skeptic was faithful. He listened intently to Maclaren’s sermons. And after the fourth message he became a believer.
Maclaren was delighted and could not resist the impulse to ask which of the four sermons brought him to this decision.
The skeptic replied, "Your sermons, sir, were helpful, but they were not what finally persuaded me." What changed his mind, he said was an elderly woman he helped on a slippery walk. He said “She looked up into my face and said, ‘I wonder if you know my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is everything in the world to me. I would like you to know Him too.’”
SERMONS IN THE “RIGHT OR WRONG?” SERIES
Once saved, Always saved? – Romans 11:1-11:24
Do All Roads Lead To Heaven? - Acts 17:16-17:34
Do I Have To Get Baptized? - Acts 2:22-2:41
Do I Need To Speak In Tongues - Acts 2:1-2:21
