Christ is Life Podcast

How do you personally try to make sense of this world and the things that are going on in your particular life? What do you turn to? Who, who do you turn to to cope with life? What is it that you put your, your hope in to make you happy or to give you purpose or to give you meaning or satisfaction or fulfillment in this life, when when we think about the answer to that question, to those kinds of questions, there's there's two sides of that, honestly, there's the side of that that we first think, and that will respond that we think we're supposed to, especially if we're Christians. We've been a part of the church, and we know the churchy answer to those kind of things. We, we will say a response to what we believe to be true about that, but then the other side of that is the evidence of the things that we actually go to in our lives, and the way that that plays out whenever we're trying to make sense of this world, when we're trying to cope with the things that are going on in our life, and we're trying to find meaning and happiness and joy and fulfillment and satisfaction. What are the things that we're actually going to and doing over and above the things that we say that we are, sometimes we try to find that meaning and purpose just through ourselves, and we're carving out our own past and just determined to find our own way, and other times we're listening for what other people say it is, we're trying to find it through what they're doing or what they're saying, and we go to social media, or we're reading books, or we're listening to the news, and we're trying to figure out how they say we should be coping with the world, and how we should be finding purpose and meaning, and they seem to be happy. So, if I want to be happy like them, what is it that they're doing, and what's the secret in their life? Sometimes we try to find those coping mechanisms through through pleasure or through things like experiences, beauty, through the pursuit of fitness, or or sports and achievement, or maybe it's adventure, or or travel, or or partying, or substance abuse, or alcohol, or or vaping, or drug. drugs or whatever it is in this world that we have access to that can help us cope or find some kind of satisfaction for a little while, so I don't know what those things are for you. I don't know where you're at with that, but we all, on some level, are trying to make sense of these things, the things we see in the world, the things that that go on in our lives that we feel deeply, and we don't always have answers to, and so we're trying to cope, we're trying to get by, or we're trying to somehow, I mean, ultimately figure out how to flourish and be happy, live with purpose and meaning today as we continue this message series in Acts, and we're in Acts 17, and in Paul's on this missionary journey where he's he's going and he's sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with people, he's coming to Athens, Greece, he's been in a place called Berea, and he moved on from there, and he's coming to Athens, and you know Athens, it's a famous city, and it was the place where people like Socrates and and Plato and an Aristotle lived in and taught, it was a place of ideas and philosophy and education, all of these people who were trying to figure out the world, how to, how to make sense of the world, how to live our best life, and so Paul's going to encounter the people who lived in this kind of culture, where there were always come up with new ideas, philosophizing about all kinds of things and the meaning of life, and let's see how Paul reacts as he walks into this city. Dr. Luke, who's the author of this book, says that while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, those he was traveling with on this missionary journey, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. When Luke tells us that this place was full of idols, that is no understatement. I mean, full means full, like, as a matter of fact, there are some historians that tell us that there were as many as 30,000 statues, 30,000 statues, idols that were in the city of Athens around this particular time, and that didn't even include the ones that people had personally and privately in their own homes. These are just the public ones that are all out there, and so you can imagine Paul walking onto the scene and seeing. All of these, I mean, 30,000 idols in these, these so-called gods for everything, I mean, that's what they were, they were gods for everything, and many of them were thought to kind of provide them with protection, and then they needed them to be protected from things, others were were so-called gods over experiences and things that we can, we can experience in life, and so there was the God of beauty, and a God of pleasure, and a God of sex, and a God of wealth, and a God of power, and a God of status, and a God of anything and everything that you could think of, and so you could sacrifice something to the God of beauty, and you would hope that you would become beautiful. They would provide that beauty for you. You could sacrifice something to the god of wealth, in hopes that the god of wealth would make you wealthy, and that you would be rich. Whatever it was that you thought you needed in life, whatever you thought you were missing, whatever you needed to make sense of this world to cope, to be happy, to have purpose, to survive. You worship and you sacrifice to the idol, so that you can get what it is that you're missing, and you think that you need in that moment for fulfillment, satisfaction. What's a good thing that doesn't happen today? Do We may not have statues, some do not be filled with them everywhere, but let's be honest, I mean it's really no different than what we see today. There may not be a statue for all the little gods, but there are idols that we chase after. We chase after the idols of pleasure, we chase after the idols of beauty, and and wealth, and the idol of politics, and and comfort, and and religion, and anything and everything to try to make sense of our lives, to find purpose and happiness. And listen, you know this from experience, it will consume you. It will consume you, because, because idols, that's all they do. You sacrifice to an idol, you work to get the thing, but all idols will never produce what they are promising. They always fall short in delivering fulfillment and satisfaction, and so ultimately we become slaves to whatever it is that our idol is, or we trade it in for another idol, because it never did promise what we thought it was going to deliver. And Paul knows this, he's walking into it, and he sees the idols, and that first and foremost, it's an affront to the one true God of the universe, but then he also knows that they're pursuing meaning, purpose in life outside of their creator, and so he's distressed. I mean, this is no small word, he's like, oh man, this is kind of.. I mean, it's like distressed, this is awful, just making him want to scream, right? So, so what is it that he does? Verse 17, he, he reasoned first and foremost. Luke said in the synagogue, first and foremost, about Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. And then this was Paul's custom. We've learned this all along the way, that he started with with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, because they at least had a common understanding of the God of the universe, the Creator, and and they had a knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, so he could take the scriptures and he could reason with them and explain, and like we learned last week, even prove from those that Jesus was the Messiah, then the Savior of the world, and believe in him and have their lives transformed and changed forever. So he starts there, but he tells us that he doesn't stop there. It says that he, as well, went into the marketplace day by day with those who happen to be there. So these are people who don't have any understanding of the God of the Bible, the Old Testament scriptures. These are just people who are in the community? This is kind of like the social center of the city, the town square, if you will, and and Paul's engaging with them about these idols and their beliefs, and and what they're clinging to. Verse 18 says, while he's in the marketplace having those conversations, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Philosophers, again, basically in general, are just people or groups of people who are trying to make sense of the world, trying to make sense of this life, what it's about, how we should live, what it is that we should do, and in these two specific ones, and this is, listen, I'm gonna say up front, this is a gross oversimplification of what all it is that they believed. We don't have time to go into that, but let me just say, in a nutshell, what the Epicureans believed was this: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. That was their life slogan: Eat. Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. In other words, live for the experience of the moment, because there is nothing else afterwards. Sounds a little bit like today, the way a lot of people live their lives today, the way some of us are living our lives today. The Stoics, their philosophy slogan, if you will, for life was simply "Grin and bear it. Like, like, life is hard, and things are going to hit you, but don't get overly emotional, don't get all upset and worried about all of that stuff. Just, just take it, and just, just deal with it. Okay, you've got enough in your own strength and power, you're sufficient to be able to overcome whatever it is that's coming your way, and we certainly have a lot of that kind of people living their lives, and that's what life is all about in this world. And so both groups just different ways of looking at life, looking at the meaning of life, the purpose, how to how to show up and live it and make the most of it, and Paul's debating with them continues and says some of them, the Epicurean Stoic philosophers, asked, "What is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, "He seemed to be advocating foreign gods, and Luke says that they said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Paul shows up in a city full of idols, people trying to find life and meaning from all of these different so-called gods, these philosophers who are philosophizing about whatever life is about and what they're doing, and Paul's message to them, Jesus, why why, Jesus? Because he's the one that they're missing, he's the, he's the answer that they're looking for, and they just don't know it. I mean, in John chapter 1010 Jesus said the whole reason that he came was to give life and to give it abundantly, Jesus came to give abundant life. And then, in John chapter 11, he shows up and says to Martha, "By the way, I am the resurrection and the life. He turns to Thomas in John 14 and says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, "I've come to give abundant life. And then he says, "I am the life. In other words, he came to give himself the one who is life. So Paul knows that this is the ultimate life that they're looking for, the only one they'll ever find real meaning and satisfaction in. And so he's pointing them to the good news about Jesus and his sacrificial death on the cross for their sins and his resurrection and defeating the power and sin of death forever, and they're going, "What's this babbler trying to say? They have no common understanding of the Old Testament scriptures, no common understanding of the God of the universe to draw upon. They've got 30,000 different gods, or however many different statues and things they're worshiping. What? No worlds is Babbler talking about, but they don't just brush him off. Watch here, they're intrigued, right. Verse 18 or 19 says, then they took him, took Paul, and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus. Now, now that's a famous, you know, place. It's a hill, really, really. It's the hill of Aries, which was the Greek god of war. The Romans knew it as, as, as, as Mars Hill, because the god was called Mars, their so-called god there. But it was also a council, a court of a select few group of people who oversaw education and philosophical lectures and public morality, and all the things in the city, and so they, they bring him to this meeting, where they said to Paul, "May we know more, may we know what this new teaching that you are presenting, you are, you're bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean. And then Luke inserts this parenthetical remark, and just says all the Athenians, where he was, and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about listening to the latest ideas. Anybody ever been around one of those kind of people? Maybe you are those kind of people, you're just always looking for the new thing, right? I gather new information, it gets me excited, and that's what life is really all about. And then all of a sudden the feeling begins to fade, and you go, well, there's got to be new information out there. And so we look for the next book, and the next YouTube video, and the next thing that someone else is saying, we go, that's where the life is, and that's the latest thing. And then, ah, not really feeling it anymore, and I'm getting depressed again, and that same thing is hitting me again. So, you look for the next one, and the next one. This is the story of many of our lives, and the pursuit, and the way that we live on and on and on. And so, this is what is happening, and let's see what happens next, Paul. Stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. Now, this is an interesting way to start kind of this discussion, or this speech. I don't know if you'd call it a sermon, maybe it's a sermon, but his address to the court right here, because what's the very first thing that Luke told us that Paul was feeling whenever he walked into the city, he was distressed, he was angry. These are not the one true God. This is what's going on, and so, so, so, notice that Paul doesn't walk in, and he doesn't start his speech off and just say, you know, guys, I have come to expose your sins, you dirty, wretched, hell-bound, idol-worshiping, heathenistic pagans. He knows that they wouldn't listen to him. How many Christians do you know that that's the way they talk about other people in the world? I is that the way you talk about people who don't agree with you, who don't believe in God, who don't believe in Jesus? Is that the way you talk about people who are on the other side of the political aisle than you? You may be right, but Paul doesn't call them out, because he knows he would never win them over. He would never get their attention. And this is the same God of the universe that allowed Jesus to die on the cross, even for those people who don't believe in him yet, and that disgusted him, and those people that disgust you and me sometimes with the way that they're choosing to live their lives, so I think this is very interesting, and something we, who believe in Jesus, should take note of when it is that the Holy Spirit's leading us to share our faith with unbelievers and reach the lost culture around us. He's looking for a connection. What's a way that I can connect. He shared Jesus in the resurrection. They're like, what does this babbler have to say? I don't even understand. So he's going, well, what? What do we have in common here? Well, you know what? You guys seem pretty religious. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's who we are, you know. And so now he's got something to begin to tell them about. And so he goes on and explains why he says they're religious, verse 23 For as I, I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god. So you guys are ignorant of the very thing you worship, and this is what I'm going to proclaim to you. Do you see it? Do you see how he's making the connection, and he's going, look, you guys have 30,000 statues out here, a god for everything. And then there's like some to this one you don't even know who he is. So let me share who he is, the one you don't know yet. Look, how it is that he starts verse 24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, and does not live in temples built by human hands, and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Paul starts with what creation. He can't start with Jesus. He's the Messiah. He's the Savior of the world. God sent him. God, they've got 30,000 so-called gods and statues that they're worshiping, so he starts with creation, that there is one ultimate creator, this unknown god that you have an idol for is the ultimate lord, the one who gives life and breath and everything else, it all comes from him. In other words, you cannot find meaning, you cannot find purpose, you cannot find fulfillment from all of these so-called gods that they have access to. If there is one true God who's the creator above all things, you got to start there. You got to establish that He's the all-knowledgeable one, the one all wise, the all powerful. He doesn't need anything else. He's self sufficient. He is life itself. And so this is where he starts, is with creation. Then he continues along those lines. Verse 26 from one man, from from Adam, after creating the world and in man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he marked out their appropriate times in history, and the boundaries of their lands, and he shows why God did this. Why? Here's the purpose clause, so that they would seek him, and perhaps reach out to him, out for him, and find him, though he is not. Far from any one of us, so, so Paul, creator of the universe, man, you guys have all these gods, and there's one, I mean, one that reigns supreme over everything, and so your, your mind would immediately go to, oh my gosh, the power that that god must have, the authority that that kind of god must have, how scary is that? And then he turns around and goes, but by the way, he's created you, and he's sovereign over things, and moving things along in a way, in such a way that he's not just sitting up there as some strong, powerful god, just, you know, kicking people around and abusing them, or any of that kind of stuff. He's near, he's involved, and he's involved in all of these things in your lives, and putting you even in the culture that you live in, and where you are, so that people would seek him, and they would perhaps reach out for him, and that they would find him because he is a god that is not far, he's he's near this one powerful god of the universe is is near and his purpose is for you to find him and be involved with him to be in relationship with him, I mean that you talk about trying to philosophize and try and find purpose and meaning. Your main purpose in life is to know God and to worship Him and glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, to be in relationship with the God of the universe, who created you. So it's the Creator. We got to start there, and He's involved. He's big, powerful, but He's here. And we were created to be in a relationship with Him, and know Him, and depend upon Him, and for Him to be our source. And so He reaches out for another connection along these lines, and he found one through a poet, a poet that they were familiar with, and he quotes the poet, he hadn't gone to scripture yet, but he's teaching truth through things that he can connect to with them, so look what he says, for in him we live and move and have our being that is not something that Paul's quoting from the Old Testament scriptures. This was one of their poets who said this and attributed it to not to the God of the universe, but Paul takes it and says, you guys know how you're familiar with this, this creator that I'm describing, the one true God, the one that we're talking about from created everything and all the nations, and the one who's not far from any of us, it's in him and in him alone that we live and that we move and that we have our being. Again, he came to give abundant life, and then he turns around and says, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the life, and the truth. And so, for in Him we live, we find life, and we move in Him, and we have our very being in Him. We all come from Him. Matter of fact, that's what He gets into next. As some of your own poets, He quotes another one has said, we are His offspring, He's the creator, we all come from Him. And so therefore, since he's the creator, since we live and move and have our being in him, and we're all his offspring, then we should, or since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human design and skill. It's like, listen, if, if, if God's our creator, and we're living beings, and we're moving beings, and we're thinking beings, and rational beings, then we're a reflection of our creator. So, he can't be a statue, he can't be a statue, he's just continuing to go on and on about the effects of there being the one true God, and it's all coming from Him. He's the only one that we can find the life that we're looking for. So he goes on and now says, in the past God has overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, for He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead. So now He's getting into Jesus. Before Jesus, we had outside of Israel, in some ways, there's general revelation, there's things that people can look around and see that maybe there's a God because of the universe and nature and some of the other things, the intelligent design that we see in all that, but now that Jesus has come, now that he's accomplished what he did. On the cross to defeat the power of sin and death and have victory over it forever. The wheels are now in motion through His resurrection and raising Him to a position of authority for Him to come back and officially now judge the world. And so the Bible scripture goes, there is a coming of the Messiah. He came, and he says, "I am coming again. And in the meantime, in between those times, I'm offering you the chance to repent, to turn from what you were philosophizing life was all about, to turn from your idols and you trying to find life in them, to turn to the one true God, the forgiveness that's available to you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and to receive Him by grace alone, through faith alone in Him, in Christ alone. But He says, make no mistake about it, if that doesn't happen, He is the judge. He is the one who is sitting and ruling around and reigning, and he rules with justice. So, he's a judge. He will rule with justice. He is not a god if he's a just god who can just turn a blind eye to sin. You can't show up and just go, 'You know what, I'm just... It was no big deal. Don't worry about it. He wouldn't be just anymore. So, he's coming back to judge, and you will either.. I mean, it.. you will either bow before him now, accept his forgiveness, his free grace as a gift by faith alone in Christ alone, or you will be forced to bow before him again at his second coming, when he comes to judge, we live in an era of grace right now. Now is the opportunity to respond and receive, because there is a day when, if you don't receive his free gift now, you will be forced to bow at his second coming. So he brings this up, he's establishing all this through the creator, just two things: there is a creator, and Jesus rose from the dead. If you can prove those two things, come to believe in those two things. Everything else that you have questions about and can't figure out on your own, you go, "Well, there is a creator, and Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again. I guess I'm going to have to trust him with those things. These are two pretty important principles, the two main things that you've got to establish when you're sharing your faith with someone and witnessing to those who may not know him in that way. And, of course, they're pretty important to our lives as well. Let's see how they react as we finish up verse 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, Well, we want to hear you again on the subject. At that point, Paul left the council, but we're told that some of the people became followers of Paul and believed, believed in Jesus for salvation, had their sins forgiven, their lives were transformed and changed, the Spirit came to dwell in them, they became part of God's family, and among them he gives names was Dionysus, and a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others, and so we're not told about a huge number of people. There are only 30 people around at this meeting, probably right here, but some of the most important people in Athens come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, but others sneer, they reject it right away, and others are like, yeah, we'll hear more about it, and most of the time that means they'll hear more about it again, and then they'll hear more about it again, and they'll take this piece of information about Jesus and this piece of information about their other God, and they'll kind of put them all together to make sure they're not missing anyone, and they'll just keep hearing about it, and never really respond to him. And this is the way many people still react today. And so, what we've been doing every time we've walked through a section of scripture, we've asked the Lord to speak to us about what it means, show us what life in the spirit looked like for the early church, and then we asked the question, what does that mean for me today? If they lived life and dependent upon the spirit, and this is the things that was happening in their world, how does that apply in our world today? The very first way it may apply to you is that maybe you're like the people of Athens, the people that he was walking around, and so distressed by. I mean, maybe you've been looking for life through certain type of philosophy, the way that the Epicureans or Stoics were. Maybe you're chasing after the idols of success and performance and pleasure and beauty, money, power, whatever it is for you. But I'm sure that if that's you, you know by now that they never ever satisfy, and you see the evidence of having to go back to that idol over and over and over again, and it never really fulfilling whatever it is that you thought it was going to fulfill you, and the reason for that is because, as Blaise Pascal famously. Said there's a God-shaped vacuum in your heart, the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator made known through Jesus Christ. It's a God-shaped hole. You can try to fill it with success, performance, pleasure, beauty, money, power, drugs, alcohol, anything that you can find, but it's never going to fill it, because it's not - it doesn't fill that shape. It's only meant to be Jesus. And so, what does that mean for you today? Well, it means for you to realize the truth that there is a God, there is one Creator. He loves you so much that He sent His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins, so that you could be forgiven, and you could be reconciled into a relationship with Him, and have eternal life only in and through Him. And so your response is to know that, and then receive the gift that He's offering to you. And you can even do that today. You can pray a simple prayer of faith, and push all your chips in on Jesus, and have that happen to you. Your sins forgiven, the Spirit come dwell in you, and transform and change your life, now and forevermore. Another thing, and we won't spend much time on this, we've highlighted along the way, but for those of us who, who are believers, we put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. We learn how the Spirit worked in and through Paul to share the gospel with people who he didn't have anything in common with, no church background, no scriptures, no understanding of that, and you saw him reaching for connections. Look for the Spirit to use you to make connections, even outside of the Bible, to make those connections, and then draw them to Scripture in the truth of what those things say, but then the last thing is that for many of us who are here today, and we've come to believe in Jesus, here's, here's what our enemy does. Our enemy knows that we're in Christ, he knows that we have eternal life in Him, He knows that we have abundant life, but He doesn't want us to experience that life that we have in Him. He can't take us out of His hands. He can't keep us from having the eternal life that is secure in and through Jesus, but He can keep us for however long it is that we're going to be alive until we go home to be with Him and rob us of the abundant life that Jesus said that He came to give. And how does He do that? Well, I'll put an idol in front of you that he uses in some people's lives to keep them from ever knowing Jesus, but then he turns around and uses them again for those of us once we know Jesus to go, yeah, but the real life is found in this thing, it's found in the money, it's found in the power, the pleasure, the success, the performance, the politics, the comfort, the social media, the alcohol, the vaping, the porn, the drugs, the whatever it is, it's found in those things. You have Jesus, but you need those to really be happy. You get to go to heaven. Well, yeah, He's distracting, He's trying to rob us. And so, so, so, Jesus, if that's where you're at today, the idol didn't keep you from knowing Jesus, but it's keeping you from experiencing the abundant life, and you're going, you're a slave to it, you're going back to it over and over and over again, and it's never satisfying. As a matter of fact, whatever pleasure it is that you get out of those things, it's probably one of those things where you feel even more empty on the inside after you've gone to it, because you're going to experience the guilt of the thing it is that you've done, and then Satan wants you to keep you in the shame. Jesus' response to that is, I love you, and through what I accomplished on the cross, you are completely forgiven. So, don't keep staying in your shame any longer. Don't keep going to that thing to find pleasure in it, because you think I is your God. Am mad at you, I'm disappointed in you, I'm going to get vengeance upon you. I've poured out my wrath on my one and only son, so that you could be completely forgiven from the thing that you're going to and finding life in now, and just turn, if you'll just turn your eyes back to me, you'll begin to experience all that you have, and the freedom that you have in me. So don't let Satan keep you in bondage to that idol and that thing any longer. Turn back to him and experience the abundant life that you have in him, that's your response today. If that's where you're at, because Jesus, and only in Jesus, is He the one whom you live and you move and you have your being. Maybe that's your application, that's the phrase you're taking with you. You're just going to say that over and over again. The idols tempt you, and you go, "No, no, it's in Jesus that I live, it's in Jesus that I move, it's in Jesus that I have my being, my whole life, all that I need in Him, even when I don't feel like it, and these other things are promising me something that I already have in Jesus. Us, let's pray.