Iliff and Saltillo United Methodist
June 30, 2002
“Unfolding Deck Chairs”
Acts 17:22-34
INTRODUCTION: In a “Peanuts” strip, Charlie Brown and Lucy were discussing theology. Lucy said, “On the great cruise ship of life, some people take their deck chairs to the bow. And some people take their deck chairs to the stern. Where do you put your deck chair, Charlie Brown?”
Charlie replied, “Lucy, I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded.”
What she is saying describes the human condition. We are all passengers on “the great cruise ship of life” moving from the stern where we strain our eyes over the trackless ocean for some sign of where we’ve already been in our life and to the bow where we try to peer into the empty distance ahead in hope of discovering where we are going in the future. Whether or not we realize it, we are looking for something we can count on to save us. We are really looking for God; but like Charlie Brown, we don’t know where to place our faith--we don’t even know how to get our “deck chairs open.”
Paul addressed these same circumstances in Athens in A. D. 50. at the Areopagus. He looked around the area which was overflowing with people who were very religious, but never finding what they were looking for. They were actually soul-starved people “dragging their unopened deck chairs behind them.” Paul noticed that there was even a huge temple in the city dedicated to “an unknown god.”
He was greatly distressed by all of the idols he saw in the city of Athens and the heaviness and emptiness that it brought these people in spite of all their attempts to be “religious.” The people of Athens were considered to be more “religious” than people in any other area. They would spend all their time sitting around discussing any new ideas or trends that came down the road. Yet it didn’t get them anywhere. They were just “dragging their unopened deck chairs from one place to another.”
Paul took advantage of this opportunity to present Jesus to them. You might wonder what all this has to do with us today. According to recent research by church consultant Thomas Bandy, our North American culture today--especially since the 1990’s--compares more closely with that of Paul’s time than at any other time in history. Paul’s timeless message to speaks to all of us as well. He opened by saying, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious...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.” Paul started where they were. He used Greek poetry and idols as points of contact with these people.
1. A Shallow, Superficial Religion: Although these people were constantly seeking after new ideas and new truths from all directions, it was very shallow and superficial with no real fixed beliefs. All they wanted to do was discuss the various philosophies of the day. The Stoics were very rigid in their keeping of rules and the Epicureans were very much at the other end of the scale living for pleasure--eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die anyway. We know from this scripture that their religion was not really workable in their lives because they were always wondering if they had done enough. They set up the altar to the UNKNOWN GOD just in case they had missed one.
STORY: The story is told about an Army sergeant who was caught on the beach by German artillery and managed to save himself by jumping into the water. While improving his position with a trench shovel, he came upon an ornate crucifix--the kind that prosperous Italians often hung on their bedroom walls. Two hours later in the midst of still another German artillery barrage, A United States Chaplain rolled into the water beside him. A moment after that a German 88 landed just ten yards up the beach. The Master Sergeant held up the muddy crucifix that he had been clutching for dear life since discovering it and turned to the startled chaplain and said, “My God, Sir, am I glad to see you! How do you MAKE THIS THING WORK?”(source unknown)
The problem with mere religion is that we don’t know how to make it work. This is very evident everywhere we turn in our culture as well as in Paul’s day. People would rather not consider where they actually stand before God. Maybe you are like this also. It is easier to discuss ideas and brush it off it if it hits too close to home. We may excuse ourselves by saying, “I just don’t know. I don’t understand the Bible, I don’t have time to go to church, or it’s not that I think the gospel is not true but it just doesn’t do anything for me.” If our religion is superficial it probably won’t do anything for us. It won’t work in our day to day life. Therefore, people want to brush it off or find some kind of a loophole to make them acceptable before God. Maybe you are like this too.
STORY: W. C. Fields was sitting in bed one morning with a drink in one hand and a Bible in the other. His friend Douglas Fairbanks stopped by to see him. He said, “Bill, I didn’t know you were such a religious man.”
W.C. replied, “I’m not. I’m not. I’m just looking for a loophole.”(source unknown)
People whose religion is shallow often think that they will get by through finding some loophole. My religion doesn’t really work for me, but God will make an accommodation for me.
We don’t know how many of the people in Athens were really serious in their search for the truth that day because if they found the truth, they would have to begin to live up to it. They would have to change their lifestyles. Most would rather live on a superficial basis.
John 8:32 Jesus told the Jews, “then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
2. The Gospel Will Work In Our Individual Lives If We Want it to Work: Paul stood up to speak and he said, “You are very religious that is true but it is not the kind that draws men to God” (v. 22). You are always learning but are never able to come to the truth. He said I want to tell you about this Unknown God.
The God who made this world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by hands.
He is saying, “He is not in the emptiness of man-made religion with myriads of rules or temples and idols made of wood, silver and gold.
God does not want to fit into a frame we have created. We might say “if I do this and this and this I will be OK. Just follow the formula--ABC ---i12---and God will hop right to attention. God doesn’t want us to dictate to Him. He doesn’t want us to be “snotty nose brats.”
Verse 25 says “he is not served by human hands we if he needed anything because he himself gives all people life and breath and everything else.” We can’t appease him with our own works of righteousness.
It is not by “works of righteousness that we have done but by His grace--the unmerited favor toward us.” (See Ephesians 2:9). He is telling them, “You try so hard to be religious through your own efforts but it is not working for you.” How do we make it work?
God is unreachable by human effort. If people could save themselves they could have lived up to the 10 Commandments but they couldn’t.
3. Who Then Can Be Saved?: God reached down. He has become known to us in the person of Jesus Christ through the drawing of the Holy Spirit. And there is something within us by which we receive we receive God’s Transmission to us. He has put within us His spirit that gives us the capacity to respond to Him. The resurrection was convincing proof to the early Christians and Paul that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ (See II Corinthians 5:19). To the majority of Athenians it was the height of folly. What do people say about the resurrection today? For many it is the same thing. People say, “We don’t believe that stuff anymore.”
How Can we know we are saved? Romans 8:16 says, “His spirit witnesses with our spirit”--it is like a magnet. It just clicks.
Paul said, “God is not far from each one of us for in Him we live and move and have are being. We are His offspring.” (v. 28). This pointed out to them and to us that it is a relationship we come into when we are saved. EVERYONE can be saved--not just a select few. “He is not willing that ANY SHOULD PERISH but that EVERYONE come to repentance” (II PETER 3:9). Paul goes on to tell his listeners, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance and [superficiality] but now he commands all people everywhere to repent--to turn around and change their ways” (Acts 17:30).
CONCLUSION: Today you may have lived your life on a superficial level for so long and say, “I’ve already invested so much in this way of life and can’t change now.” You might say, “I really don’t WANT to change my lifestyle.” Many people say, “I’m enough of a Christian that I can fit in at church on Sunday mornings and fit in with the crowd the rest of the week.
Too many Christians are “LADY CLAIROL CHRISTIANS”--No one knows for sure.
If you come to Christ how is it going to change your lifestyle? Are there things that are going to have to go? Are you ready to make the break with a lifestyle that doesn’t work anyway? Are you ready to get your “deck chairs” unfolded? To figure out how this all works? Do you too often look like a Chameleon Christian? Are you like whoever you are around during the week and then come to church and say, “Oh, Praise God!”
Paul comes to the end of his sermon on Mars Hill and calls them to repentance--to a wholehearted commitment to Christ and he waited for their response. He is saying, “Now you have heard the gospel. You are without excuse. If you reject it you have heard.”
They reacted to his message in one of three ways:
1. some of them sneered and made fun of the message and walked away becoming very upset with his explanation of the resurrection of Jesus. “This is ridiculous,” they said.
2. Others said, “We would like to hear more about this at a later date. They put it off--maybe sincerely and maybe they had no intention of dealing with it--at least not now.”
3. some responded to the message and believed. Dionysius and Damaris and a number of others.
Those that followed said, “I want to EXPERIENCE what you are talking about. They opened their hearts and said, “God I want You to give me the GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE.”
For our “religion” to WORK in our daily life we need to realize that following Jesus is ALL OR NOTHING. We must be convinced in our hearts that He is who He says He is and that He can meet us at our point of need. At times I don’t think we have been fully convinced of this or our lives would not be lived in such a state of worry and turmoil as they often are. If that describes you, then get honest with God today. Bow your heart before Him and say, “Forgive me Lord for living such a superficial, shallow life. Put in my heart the thing that says there are no other options. I come to you right now and I won’t put it off any longer. I come to you for the first time or I come to you right now to make a rededication of my life to you.
Let us Pray:
