Culture Part Two

Sermon notes on web and newsletter

- We are in week two of our series and week two of this same passage.

LAst week we looked at the idea of how we engage with our culture when we are provoked, when everything is different and changing? How do we engage?

And at the end we talked about a Christian Vision of Hope.

Paul named the God they were looking for. They had an idol “to the unknown GOd.” And Paul said that He has a name. His name is Christ.

As we enter in this message we see Paul defining who Christ is and we will see him showing hope.

Where do you see the culture searching frantically for God? Where does it show up?

How do you sometimes search for God in lesser things in your lives?

Portland, OR. Vacation on the pacific. Getting close to the ocean on route 1. Yell Ocean! We knew we were close to vacation when we saw the ocean

Hope itself is never far knowing that Christ walks near

English Standard Version Chapter 17

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us

Our Vision of Christian Hope is found in God’s sovereignty

Paul begins to define the unknown God.

He gives Him characteristics and a history.

Paul defines God as sovereign. He tells the Athenians that God does not live in temples made by man and that is is not served by human hands and does not need anything because He is the giver of everything.

Paul is telling the Athenians what kind of God oversees the world.

What Paul understands about this is that there are all sorts of gods that do all sorts of particular things in the ancient world. Not one of them, even Zeus oversaw everything. There is not one creator or one sustainer. Each only takes a part

Zeus- God of the Sky.Poseidon- God of the Sea.Ares- God of War.Aphrodite- Goddess of Love.Hera- Goddess of Women.Demeter- Goddess of Harvest.Athena- Goddess of Strategy.Apollo- God of the Sun, Music and Poetry.

these gods only have a little power over little things. And Paul is contrasting Christ and saying that He does not even need from creation because He is creator.

Augustine picks up on this in the City of God. He is criticizing Rome in the 4th century for trusting in gods that could only provide wine or water. And if that’s all they could do, if that is the length of thier power, how can they be trusted for eternal life?

The City of God Chapter 1

Their aim is to keep people from falling into the disgraceful absurdity, which is a common jest in the mimes, of asking for water from Liber or for wine from the Lymphs. But suppose that a person who prays to the immortal gods does ask the Lymphs for wine, and they reply, “We only have water. Ask Liber for wine.” Will these authorities tell him that he can rightly say, “If you have no wine, at least give me eternal life”? What could be more outlandish than this absurdity?

This is important because Paul is showing the Athenians that God is greater better, bigger than any other god they have served. We have to understand the bigness of God before we begin to understand our relationship with Him.

He is beyond and bigger and greater. He is in creation but also completely responsible for creation. He is life itself but also gives life. He is the ultimate plan but also has a plan

God did not just help humanity He established it.

Paul is creating this contrast between what the gods they were familiar with were doing and Who the God that Paul knew had done

The gods in Greek and Rome were helpers or tormenters. They would either benefit and support the goals of humans or restrict them. They were placed so that humans would have help in achieving their goals.

This may sound ancient and it it may sound simplistic. But we may not believe in small g gods any longer but we do live in the same frame of mind.

We have built lives where our will is at the center and everything around us (small g gods) exists to move us forward into that will or desire or keeps us from it.

We build lives of small g gods all the time. Those things that we hold as secondary to us, jobs and family. sports. Addictions. Whatever it may be. these things often exist to either benefit us or they are obstacles for us.

We are living Greek lives in modern times.

How do we as Christians build lives of small “g” gods? Where we are in the center and God’s job (according to our actions) is just to do what we ask?

How is God leading you out of that so that we are positioned in life to do what He asks?

Paul is trying to move us out of that. He wants the Greeks to see God not as one who is simply helping humanity but is establishing it.

He provides the boundaries

God does not just mend fences He created the boundaries in the first place

He provides the means for life

God doesn’t sustain life, He creates it.

This is the image of God that Paul wants the Athenians and us to see. He wants our heads to move from managing whats in front of us to seeing God in His glory above and larger than us.

Our hope does not come from someone who can simply help us, our hope comes from Someone who Created us.

We would never be satisfied to follow anyone that was not sovereign, that was not outside the cosmos.

My fear in us chasing after these small g gods and culture searching frantically for meaning is that we will just run and run and run until we crash. We will live on adrenaline and anxiety until we can no longer sustain that.

Because in the end we are looking for a place to rest. We are not looking for someone to simply help us along, we need a place we can rest. Where we can stop. Something that can sustain all our longing and our desires.

Think about all the things you have pursued. Have they been enough to satisfy your soul?

Paul is enlarging our image of God so that we would seek Him for who He is.

That humanity would seek God. That we would desire God.

Do you know someone like the Athenians? Someone who is seeking God but is trying to do so through building idols “to the unknown god?” Meaning they are seeking and you know they are seeking God but they are doing it through different means?

Take some time as a group to pray for those people

Acts 17:28–29 ESV

for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Our Vision of Human Hope is found past our searching

culture, like we said last week, is trying

We are trying.

We are relentless triers

And we will never stop.

Our vision of human hope comes in trying to fashion and find things that look like something more than it really is.

We want to see beyond and trust beyond ourselves

But we have gotten used to just trusting what is in front of us

Our lives consist of a sanctified form of materialism.

We are trusting the things in front of us to do more than they were ever intended to do. The struggle with this is that it balloons into our Christian lives.

Even our faith is linked to how God interacts with us. We are called to more than just how God interacts with us however we often settle for that because everything around us is about what is right in front of us.

Paul is positioning the text and his message to pull us into something larger and greater. He tells them that they have been trying to fashion gods on their own understanding. But God is greater than our understanding.

Look at how Paul connects the church to God in the book of Ephesians.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

God, through the church, is to understand that God while near us is greater than all we can ask or imagine.

A few years ago a friends dad passed away suddenly. The friend was in my youth group and he was an adult by this time and his dad was in his early 60s and passed away suddenly.

After the memorial, this friend, who lives in Indiana was struggling with the idea and reality of heaven. And I will tell you that heaven is never more real than when you are looking at the eternity of our loved ones.

My friends dad was a believer (now he is a knower) but my friend was still struggling with the idea of heaven. HE was trying to resolve the idea of his dad being in heaven. What did it look like? sound like? smell like? He was trying to understand where his dad was.

And we talked and I talked him through some Scriptures about it. And heaven as it’s described has things in it that look like things on earth. Roads and cities and buildings and so one. But it is better. And so after awhile of talking I told my friend that it is much like the earth but it is so much better. God has removed pain and tears and loss.

A few days pass and my friend sends me a picture of his dad on their last trip as a family before he passed. They were in the Rocky mountains and he snapped a pciture of his dad sitting on a rock overlooking a lake.

And the caption under the photo he sent just said, “like the earth but better.”

I will tell you that I think of that photo all the time. I think of it when I think of people I’ve lost. And I think that that picture looks like the best the earth has to offer. But what my friends dad is experiencing is like that but better.

God is always pulling us into His more. Into His fullness. We need to see our searching as a way to see hope in Him.

Paul is always pulling us out of ourselves. CAlling us to see beyond the expression of self.

How is God leading you beyond your own understanding?

According to Ephesians 2:17-21 what is the role of the church body in God leading us beyond our understanding to know Him in His fullness?

Acts 17:30–31 ESV

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God’s Vision of Human Hope is found in the direction we are moving

God desires for us.

Not because God has nothing else to do.

God desires the best for us

God is not a list of do’s and don’ts, He is significantly more and has hope for His children.

So this idea of repentance then, is not about “do it because I said so” though that should be enough. God is saying “that direction doesn’t work. You cannot will something to work when it doesn’t work.” You need a new direction. God is calling us back to Him.

- Repentance is hard news if you think you have things figured out.

- Repentance is great news if you aren’t sure of your current direction.

Josiah lost for 5 minutes. HE was heading in a direction that was not in his best interest. I had to find that direction. All I wanted him to do was repent. In that scenario repentance was the whatever the fastest way he could go to get near to me.

What direction is that? What direction is God calling us back to?

look back at Acts 17:26-27

Acts 17:26–27 ESV

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

That direction is to seek God. Look for God.

And when we do, we find He is not far from any of us.

Any time we turn and move toward God we find He is already there. We cannot beat Him in a race to hope. He is already there and has already offered it.

Repentance is the shortcut between you and God.

Is God leading you in a new direction?

How is He calling you to meet with and find Him?

What is your vision of Christian Hope?

That which you love the most will always be within arms reach

pictures of desk

That can help you define what you love the most.

Because it is what you are searching for the most.

What you will spend the most time to get. That is your hope

The good news is that

God has placed us within His arms reach.

He has looked for us. Positioned Himself near us.

Hope in our lesser gods is passing. Hope In the God who Creates and comes near is lasting.

What is God saying to you about this passage and this week?

Take some time and pray for each other to hear from and respond to God’s leadership this week.

Is your vision of hope big enough to sustain your soul?

If not Jesus is able to.

AS we move into communion our focus is on how Christ is not far from us. He has entered into our lives and our vision of Christian hope is found at the Cross and the resurrection. Jesus died and was raised from the dead so we could find Him.

If you know Christ this morning we are going to celebrate this vision of Christian hope

If you don’t we invite to know Him this morning. If you are still seeking we love that and would invite you to get the elements with us but then refrain from taking them. The table is open to anyone who knows Christ.