The Seven Wonders Of The World

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD

Psalm 40:5

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: It's Free, This is Heaven

1. An 85 year old couple Christian couple, married 60 years, died in a car crash. They lived so long because the wife was strict on nutrition.

2. When they got to heaven, St. Peter took them to their mansion which was spectacular. As they "oohed and aahed," the old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "It's free," Peter replied, "this is Heaven!"

3. Next they went to survey the championship golf course & prime fishing lake behind their mansion. The old man asked, "what are the green fees?" "This is heaven, you play for free and no cost for fishing!"

4. Next they went to the club house and saw the lavish buffet lunch with 5-star cuisines laid out. "How much to eat?" asked the old man. "Don't you understand yet? This is heaven, it is free!"

5. "Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol tables?" the old man asked timidly. Peter said, "That's the best part...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven."

6. With that the old man went into a fit of exasperation, throwing down his hat and stomping on it, and yelling.

7. When his wife tried to calm him down, he said, "This is all your fault. If it weren't for your blasted bran muffins, I could have been here ten years ago!"

B. TEXT & THESIS

1. “Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare” Ps. 40:5.

2. If you’ve ever gotten to travel, you know there are certain places tourists like to go: great wonders of nature and great architectural or monumental works of mankind.

3. Tourists before the time of Christ were no different; in fact, they had their “A-List” of attractions to see, which they called the “Seven Wonders of the World.”

4. We’re going to take a quick look at those and then see the Seven Wonders of God’s World.

I. THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE NATURAL WORLD

1. The earliest known version of the list of the Seven Wonders of the World was compiled in the 2nd century BC by Antipater of Sidon.

2. “I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labor of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on anything so grand." (Antipater, Greek Anthology [IX.58]).

3. The Seven Wonders were the most popular tourist destinations and were the seven most impressive man-made monuments. Even as early as 1600 BC, tourist graffiti was scrawled on monuments in Egypt.

A. THE PYRAMID OF KHUFU(EGYPT)

1. It covers thirteen acres and had an original height of 481 feet. The apex of the pyramid was probably covered with gold. It is 756 feet long, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 ½ tons of weight.

2. Amazingly, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another. Until the nineteenth century it was the tallest building in the world and it is 4,500 years old.

B. THE WALLS OF BABYLON AND THE HANGING GARDENS

1. It was built by Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century B.C. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world."

2. It’s outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough to allow 8 horse-drawn chariots to run abreast. Babylon had a similar inner wall. Inside the walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold.

3. The hanging gardens of Babylon were a ziggurat-shaped building with each level planted with flowers, scrubs, and trees from all over the world. Water machines pumped large amounts of water to the top, from which it descended to all the lower levels.

C. THE STATUE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS

1. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was carved by the famed Classical sculptor Phidias (5th century BC) circa 435 BC in Olympia, Greece. The seated statue was 40 feet tall, but if standing would be 80 ft. tall.

2. Zeus was seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones.