No Other Gods

Connection and Tension

‌Christ is risen!

I have some friends who did some missionary work in India several years ago. Part of their plan was to walk the city they were in and strike up conversations with the people they came across. They were actually invited into several homes. They noticed when in the homes that there were idols to various gods scattered throughout the house. The would share the gospel and household after household responded and prayed to receive Christ. They were overjoyed. But after about the sixth time - still having a 100% success rate - they began to get suspicious. Then it dawned on them - the people they were talking to were not turning from their idols to serve the living God, they were just adding Jesus as one more god in their growing list.

This situation is similar to our passage today in Acts 17. The apostle Paul is in the city of Athens and Acts 17:16 “was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” What is being expressed here is a city that is literally swamped with idols. Xenophon, the 5th century BC historian observed there were more gods in Athens than in all the rest of the country, and that it was easier to find a god than a man there.

At first glance, this may not seem very relevant to us. We don’t have an idolatry problem here do we? But I wonder if Paul was wondering around our city if he would become distressed again. I think he would. John Calvin wrote that “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” We are often tempted to turn the things of the world - things that are not necessarily bad - into ultimate things, to make “good” things into “god” things.  And each time we do we forge another idol, a false god that promises us something that only the true God can give us.

Idolatry, at its essence, is an attempt to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.  To worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, as Paul would write to the Romans.  Our idols promise peace, happiness, comfort, escape from loneliness - yet they never deliver.  The Resurrection proclaims our liberation from bondage to idols! The good news this morning is that Jesus liberates us from our perpetual idol making so that we may find our fullest satisfaction in God. 

‌Text and Participation

Acts 17:22-31

Let me draw a few things from this passage...

First, The Resurrection confronts our idolatry.

Paul is distressed at the abundance of idols. There would have been temples to Zeus, the most powerful god. To Aphrodite, the god of sex. Mars, the god of war. Demeter, the goddess of abundance. Dionysus, the god of pleasure. As a good Jewish man they would have been repugnant to him. But I think there is more to his distress. I think he is grieved that this whole city is being held in captivity to things that have no power to help them.

But is this really a problem here? It’s very unlikely that there are many people in the US that actually bow down and worship little carved effigies of the gods. Story of Indian pastor who was bothered by the overt idols in America… We may not have their statues, but we most certainly have their gods.

We worship Zeus, the god of power. It’s easy to think of megalomaniacs seeking power, but all of us seek power to one degree or another. If nothing else, we want enough power to not fall victim to someone else’s use of power.

We worship Aphrodite, the goddess of sex. Casual hookups, porn, you name it and we pursue it.

We worship Demeter, the goddess of abundance. We work like maniacs so that we can buy more things that we probably don’t need.

We worship Dionysus, the god of pleasure. Americans spend billions every year pursuing hobbies, sports, fashion, entertainment.

We worship Mars, the god of war. America has come to glorify war. The country that was hesitant to enter into WW2 until we were openly attacked now seems to think violence is the answer to every problem. We glorify violence in video games, movies, music, social media. For many - not all - the second amendment has become their biggest idol.

And the church isn’t immune from the effects of this idolatry. We also get drawn into pursuing idols to meet our needs. We’re lonely, we’re bored, we’re angry or fearful, and we often turn to these gods for relief and satisfaction. My own struggle against Dionysus. The first thing the Resurrection does is confront the idolatry that may be lurking in our own life.

Second, The Resurrection speaks to the longing of every human heart.

Even though Paul is distressed by what he sees, when he speaks to them about their idolatry he actually commends them. Acts 17:22 “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” He doesn’t blast them for their idolatry or threaten them with Hell. Instead Paul recognizes that this distressing pursuit of idols is really a desperate search for the true God.

The 1944 novel The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith by Bruce Marshall tells the story of a Scottish priest. Walking home one day he encounters a beautiful, provocative young woman. She asks the priest if there is really anyone who believes in all this stuff about baptism, purity, and the virgin birth. She is a modernist and thinks that science has now firmly debunked the need for faith. She explains that she’s been dying to meet a minister because she has lots of questions. He invites her to walk along with him and to ask whatever she like. Most of her questions are based upon her low view of the faith, but she does end up asking what she really wants to know: how do people like him live without sex.

Father Smith answers that, even at its best, sex is secondary to the joy of walking with God in his house as a friend. This seems to confirm for the young lady what she always suspected, that religion is just a substitute for sex. Fr. Smith responds, “I actually believe that sex is a substitute for religion and that the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”

This is what Paul understood as he looked at the idols of Athens. The worship of them were desperate pursuits to find what is truly satisfying. They are searching and groping for God, but in the wrong place. In our own day, the man surfing for porn is really looking for God. The woman addicted to Amazon is really desiring God. At the heart of all our idolatry is a genuine hunger for God. The Resurrection speaks to the longing of every human heart, because what they and we worship in ignorance is now what has been revealed in Jesus.

Finally, The Resurrection exposes the impotence of our idols.

The Athenians wanted their idols to meet their needs, but they were things created by human hands. The true God that has made everything has no need for shrines, or to be served by human hands. Rather, he is the One who gives life to everything.

The author of Psalm 115 writes: Psalm 115:4-8 “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.”

Whether its the gods of Athens or the gods of American culture, the point is that all our idols are impotent. They make promises to us they can’t really fulfill. Yes, you can get some pleasure for a moment pursuing the idols of sex or power or revenge. But it won’t last, and in the end they take far more than they give. They make us like themselves.

King Solomon, reportedly the wisest man who ever lived, had a sad ending. He turned away from his whole-hearted devotion to God and began to pursue the idols of his time. He had a massive standing army, large stables of war horses, vast property holdings. Rich wouldn’t even begin to express his net worth. And for pleasure, he had everything at his fingertips, including 700 wives and 300 concubines. And yet, for all of that, he looked at it in the end and wrote, Eccl 1:14 “all is vanity and a chasing after wind.”

Idols promise the world, but they leave you empty in the end. Our recent history is littered with stories of the rich and famous who, although they had it all, killed themselves because none of what they had actually filled the void inside them. The resurrection of Jesus exposes the impotence of idols. No idol has ever died for a human. And even if they did, they certainly would not have the power to rise again. The Resurrection declares that you can have everything, but if you don’t have Jesus, you really have nothing. At the same time is assures us that if you have Jesus, even if you don’t have anything else, you have all you need.

Gospel and Invitation

At the end of the day, the hope of the Resurrection is that we can live free of the tyranny of idols. But the Resurrection also makes a demand of us - to have no other Gods but God alone. There’s a powerful old Vineyard song, written by Brian Doerksen, called No Other Gods. The lyrics are both a prayer and proclamation:

Lord, break the power of idols Come and rule as King Break the chains that bind us Come and rule as King Chorus: We will have no other gods We will serve no other master but You We will have no other gods For it is written "Worship the Lord your God      And serve Him only"

This is our prayer. Lord, break the power of idols over our life. Break those things that bind us, that keep us from finding ourselves fully in You. Help us to stop looking for satisfaction in all the false gods of this world.

But it is also our proclamation. We WILL have no other gods. With God’s help we will not bow down to anything else. This implies a ruthlessness to examine ourselves to make sure that “good” things have not become “god” things in our life.

When this becomes our prayer and proclamation, it frees us to truly enjoy all the things that God has freely given to us, kept within their proper place and subjected to obedience to God.

Today God calls upon us to cast down our idols. To turn away from the things that we look to for salvation, comfort, peace, or joy instead of God alone. The first idol God calls us to cast down is the idol of self-worship. Placing our self on the throne of life. Our self is a false god that has no power to save us. Instead, Jesus invites you to repent and to turn toward him. If you have never made a faith commitment to Jesus, declaring him as your only Master, I invite you to do this today (next steps slide).

For the rest of us, God calls us to do the difficult work of looking within. To discern if there is anything that we have elevated above God in our life. In the Bible God says multiple times that he a jealous God. But his jealousy is for our good. He wants our exclusive devotion because he knows the gods of this life will never be able to give us what we really need.