The Unknown God

Unknown God:

Hello, and Good morning. Today we are going to be discussing God. do we truly know the being that created the Heavens and the Earth. the being the created Life itself. Exodus 3:14 anymore today most people barely scratch the surface of getting to know God. sometimes we get into habits of motions when comes to worship, or sometimes life just gets out of hand. The main passage for today will be in Acts 17:23-31, a little bit of history about this. this was during Paul’s Missionary Journey, from going to the Jews then teaching the Gentiles about God. today we all struggle getting to know God, because we all try to put God in a box, we try to limit a being who knows our hearts, and desires. we cannot put a being in a box, who understands us better then we understand ourselves. let go ahead turn in our Bible to Acts 17: 23-31.

Exodus 3:14 NKJV

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

Acts 17:23–31 NKJV

for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope 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 also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Just from this passage in Acts we see that:

Paul notices that they have altar towards an Unknown God.

let me tell you about this unknown God

This God is the creator who made the world and everything in it

He is Lord of Heaven and earth

Paul tells them that God is not made with hands of men, and that God does not need anything since he is the giver of life, breath, and all things. and He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the Earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

Paul also explains that we need to repent and turn back towards God, because there will come a time when God will Judge the world.

We are his offspring/Children

Lord of Heaven and Earth, and the Creator:

one of the first things that Paul explains is that God is the creator of Life itself. we can even see that for ourselves if we look at everything has unique designed. lets go ahead turn in our Bibles to Gen 1-2:2

Ge 1:1–2:7 (NKJV)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Just from Genesis 1 into the beginning of Genesis 2 we see a God who build something beautiful, and amazing, we have a corrupt world that says that all of this happen by Chance, but we have a history saying that is no so, because if you look at everything there is something different about it from the next.

Not created by mans hands:

we all know in history there were gods that were made by the hands of men. men that would worship idols and other things that were not from God. you can see this in Acts 17:25

Acts 17:25 NKJV

Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

During this time frame Paul was not only dealing with the Jews, and Gentles, he was dealing with the culture of the time. that was early Rome, and Greek, these guys believe in multiple gods. the very place, Paul was speaking at was temple in Athens, a very well known city, for its idols and trade. even today we struggle with Idols. we all put things that we think are more important then the God who created us.l.;//!