This is My Father's World
This story starts in 1995, I was working in a mall bookstore, and I was about 21. So there's a couple things I need you to picture one more hair more of a mullet. Too, probably a smaller profile, no, definitely a smaller profile. And then the third one not so obvious, is I was not a Christian at this time. And so my whole belief system was geared towards what I could get human needs and desires was the goal of my life satisfying those things. And that fueled everything else that I was about for that life. So the sanctity of life was affected by my belief system. What makes things? What, what does it mean to be fulfilled or happy? What constitutes beauty? And worth? Where's the source of truth? And how do you Who do you who is it that governs truth, right and wrong, all of those things were affected by my belief system, which was, whatever, I need to be happy, do it, whatever I need to fulfill my desires, do it, that change that changes everything on how you think I was. I was resistant to religion. But I was realist, resistant to Jesus, specifically, Jesus, I never once thought that my life would, could or would radically change because I didn't believe in a creator, God, who loved me on purpose, with purpose. So this sermon, is actually for that young man. And I think that as I was describing who that young man was, God might have been putting some people in your hearts and minds that match the same description. This sermon is for your friend, the sermon is for your family member, believer, the sermon is not for you. But it's for you to be able to share with that person that comes to mind, whoever God puts into your path. So the first thing I want you to see here is where we're going to start off. And this is in this as in Acts chapter 17. So right there is a picture of the Areopagus or Maurice Hill in Athens. Athens is a very, very important city at the time. At this time, when Paul's in there, it's lost a little bit of traction. But I want to tell you a little bit about Athens, because Athens was a significant city then, and it's actually a significant City. Today, the things that has happened in Athens affect our life. Right now, the QR code is to another video that talks more about Athens more about the culture of ancient Athens, and what it is. And so I encourage you to to snap that it goes right to a video and watch it at home. It's a really, really great video. But I do want to highlight some things for us this morning, that this city, in its antiquity, in its ancient is, was the birthplace of what we would call Western culture. Our culture today of defining truth through education, our educational system, started in ancient Athens. That's the birthplace of our education system. The culture of art and beauty, and what defines art and beauty was started in ancient Athens. There was art everywhere in Athens, there were statues, there was pottery painted, there was altars decorated, there were temples that were all decorated with, with these elements of, of beautiful figures that were gods and goddesses and even demons were also illustrated in Athens. It was the beginning of what we would say, art, imitating life started in Athens. But the biggest thing that you'll want to know is that the way we govern today, was birthed in ancient Athens, the Democratic governmental systems started in ancient Athens. The western culture mindset started here. Good and bad. We are all affected. And some of us might be what I would call Athens thinkers. You're thinking with an Athenian mindset and Athenian worldview, Athenian thinkers didn't have a place for a personal Creator God. And that's why when you share Jesus with an Athenian thinker, they usually will look at you like you are just a babbling idiot. Because they have no room, they have no place for a god, that's personal, a God that creates, there is nothing about that. And Paul, when he goes and is invited to this Maurice Hill, place, this little area where scholars and philosophers would gather together and just talk about ideas. They heard Paul preaching that heard Paul preaching about Jesus, the resurrection, like, this guy's weird, what he's teaching is weird, hey, let's talk about it. So they invited him to this place. And we're gonna look at the sermon that Paul preaches to these scholars, and to these Athenian philosophers, because I think we're here to get some information, some ways to be able to talk to our own Athenian thinking friends and family members that we have. So Paul knew that he couldn't go into this area and continue talking and preaching Jesus, the resurrected Christ, he had to do something different. He had to be able to arrange some ideas, so they could begin to understand. And the first thing that he goes to, is that he begins to say, this world that we are in, is not your world. He says, This is my Father's world. And in order to understand that, it begins with God of creation, and I want you to listen up, Paul start. So this is in verse 22. He says, For as I was passing through, and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed to an unknown god, therefore, what you worship in ignorance. This is what I'm going to proclaim to you, the God, who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, and does not live in shrines made by hands. So that day, philosophers and scholars are gathered around Paul, and they are still thinking him to be some kind of fool because for them, God's had little interest in the world of people. In effect, they were just like humans. But Paul was telling them something different. The difference story, one, living God, creating everything in heaven, and on earth, a living God, with the power to create a world and change the world. That's the key part, to change the world and make things new. And because of the way Luke tells the story, we can picture Paul telling these Athenian audiences look around and see the world that God's created.
So I'm going to say to you look around and see the world that God created. let's ponder for a second the way Paul asks us to ponder. And let's think about Planet Earth. So, planet Earth is a unique planet. Scientists are looking for planets like ours in the seeable universe, and so far, they have not been able to find a planet that's like ours. There's about 20 qualities 20 characteristics that that define and and illustrate earth that scientists are looking for a put some of those things up there. 20 things that say this is the earth now, this is a big deal. Because the next thing I want you to know is that these qualities are adjustable. So let's imagine that each of these qualities can be moved. So there's a dial, let's say you walk up to one of these qualities, let's let's pick one, I want to pick distance from the sun. If you were to walk up to the dial that controls how close the earth is to the Sun, and turn it one way and move the earth just a little bit closer to the sun. You know what would happen? catastrophic things would happen. No longer could. complex life exists because it's too close to Sun is getting too much heat, too much radiation. Whoa, too close. turned the other way back up a bit. Too far, the earth becomes too cold, not enough heat and not enough radiation. Now there, there is a balance about where the earth is in its order. went around the sun. And there are 19 other features that are as delicately balanced as this this one is what the distance from the sun. They each interrelate with each other. Move one affects the other move another affects the other. Here's the thing that Paul's saying, Look at this earth, look at the world. And notice that it is, it seems to be perfectly balanced for life, and not just life, but a unique kind of life. The next thing I want you to notice is that the chances of this happening just randomly. So whoever's controlling the dial is not a not not a intelligent thinker, but just random. You want the chances of this happening randomly. It's a scientific impossibility. That's how big the numbers do you want a number? Here's a number. It's one in 1 billion times a trillion times a trillion. It's a huge number. When we look at the the Earth, we say we see one thing and Paul's asking us to see one thing, the Earth seems to be built to be a home, not just a spinnable for life, not just to make the but it seems to be a home, a Creator God that can do this can also make changes in in the lives. And this is what I want us to really focus on is what does this mean? So believer, what does this mean to you? How does this translate to what you can say to your friends or your family members? It's this. If we're going to talk about a resurrected Jesus, we have to talk about a God that can create universes that can breathe stars into existence. Because through that, only through that kind of God to say God is creating a world just for you means that he can also take your life and make it new, not refurbished, not rehabilitated. But new. May maybe even from nothing, change you completely, were prone to think opposite, though. Think about this, if we forget that God is a creator god, what happens? Our tendency is to change the world to proclaim our glory, not God's, our, our we are tempted to remake this world to glorify us to meet our needs. When Paul is saying it's not about this. This is my Father's world. And we can rest in that it's my Father's world, he made it a home for a specific kind of life. What kind of life are we talking about? Look at the next verse, verse 25. Paul says, Neither is he served by human hands, as though He needed anything since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. Now let's go back to the way Luke is telling the story. Here's Paul standing before all of these philosophers and thinkers, and some of them are shocked by what he's saying. Some of them are skeptical by what he's saying. But some, in quite quite a few seem to be intrigued by what Paul is saying. Paul takes the Athenian scholars to the next level of understanding by saying, not only did God create life, and or create the earth and the cosmos, but also God said, I want a certain kind of life to be on this world. Life to an Athenian was different. It was mostly meaningless. the worldview of the Athenian life was drudgery. Life was burdensome, life was cruel. Life had no point. The gods didn't care. The people didn't care. Nobody cared. And it was showed because if you look at the history of Athens, you see a society that is filled with abuse, filled with power struggles and filled with frivolousness. And I wish I was describing just the Athenian culture, because it sounds like ours, too, doesn't it? But Paul says, No, we're talking about a different kind of life. So let's talk about this life for a second. There are three Greek words that that is at Luke's disposal about life. Luke was a doctor. He was a physician, he knows about life. So there's three words I want us to look at right now about what life the three words of life first one, Luke could have used by us life. That is the life of, of hearts, beating, blood, flowing, muscles, moving skin and senses and, and all of the physical features. That's by us life you might see by us in the Word, biology. This is what this is all life has, by us life. Which means believer you have by us life. nonbeliever by us life. Luke knows about by us life being a doctor. There's another word that is meaning life. And that's Suquet which is soul life. So life has to do with what we would say the heart of mankind, the heart, the emotions, the center of our will, and our thought processes and our emotions. That's Suquet life. We all have suitcase life, believer, nonbeliever. Luke. And Paul knows about this word, because they're ministers. They deal with people that deal with people's emotions. The deal people's happiness isn't sadness is their thoughts. Luke and Paul know about su que life. There's a third word, that's life. And that's Zoe life. Zoe life is a whole different kind of life. It's a life that Paul knows, because he's a theologian. Zoe life is spirit life. It's the mortal life, not eternal, a mortal life. It's the life that is a divine life. It's God's life. And it's a life that has to be given. And this is what this is what Paul's sermon is all about. He compares and contrasts human life with God life, and it's striking right away. He says, God doesn't need anything to be self existent. He doesn't need anything to be sustaining him to lift him up. Nothing different for the Athenian gods. The Athenian Gods needed
worship, to be God, God, Gods,
they needed people to support them. Here, Paul says, No, my father doesn't need anything to support himself. He doesn't need anything. But instead, he gives life. He gives his own life, his Zoe life, the kind of life that can hear and respond to what God is doing and saying, Zoey life is what God is saying is taught is what God it is. And Paul is talking about, and I can picture Paul, talking to these scholars and philosophers with their big gray philosopher beards, right? I can picture that philosopher going, huh? Paul, are you saying that God gave me a world to live a life that flows through my heart and mind and you're saying that this, God wants to give me his kind of life? That's like his. Can you picture what Paul's doing right now? Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying. This caused. This was a striking difference to the way an Athenian worldview. What does this mean? Imagine saying these things to your own Athenian thinking, friends, if we're going to talk to people about a resurrected Jesus, then we have to tell them about a God that gives this kind of life to live by. We need to tell them that God wants to provide them you us with his Zowie life, so that you can be truly fully made alive, able to see his activity, understand and respond to what he's doing in action and in worship with Zoho, a life given to you. Here's what you can say with confidence. This is my Father's world. It is my home. And I have his life that I can live my life by. So Paul says not only is a God, a God of creation, a God of a career At home, but now he's talking about a God that gives life. But he goes further than that. Paul says, I want to talk about a love giving God. Look at the next verse, Paul says, Luke records, Paul saying weird things, say, from one man, he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth. And as determined that our appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, here, Paul is taking another swing at the Athenian worldview by saying, this life that he's going to live, he's going to put it into a context, a context that has to do with geography, geography, a context has to do with people groups, a context of how this life is going to be lived. Paul says, There is a place that you are going to be living a nation you're gonna be living in, that's going to have its boundaries, and its times. And this was a big thing for the Athenians, because the Athenians had this belief that they were better than everybody else, simply because they were born in Athens. They would say that the soil of Athens transforms a person and they are instantly better than everybody else, everyone else they've called barbarians. And Paul says, No, you Athenian was born in this place in this time, for a reason. And the same reason another person was born in a place and a time when they didn't like that, and if you think a little bit further with this, it's a hard truth. Because now we're talking about timelines. Because there are people in Athens. And I'll even say there are probably people in this room, who are really happy about their life, they're happy about the way it's going, the timeline is great. They're putting to a place they like it, it's everything is being fulfilled, nothing is wrong. If that's true, then there's the opposite. That is also true. And this is where I have to stop. This is where I want to be very, very careful. Because in this room, in your families, in your workplaces, there are people that hate their life.
Because where they're from, and the time that they're in.
They're saying right now, this isn't fun. This isn't good. And what do we have the answer to that most of you have heard our family testimony of losing a daughter.
And I think it's going to be safe to say, I'll just be open and say, I hated that time. I couldn't understand one thing going on. And I know as I express my own pain, I'm connecting with yours as well. Because you might have a similar pain, or a pain that is just as profound. When we can look at our timelines and go this. This is hard, and I don't like it. God, I don't know why you put me in this place. And I don't know why you put me in this time. The only thing that we can have to say is, is there a point of this? What's the reason? And I think we can be safe in this room to join the course and say, yeah, there are times in our life where it's just not good. It's doesn't make sense at all. We asked together. God, what was that horrible moment about?
Why?
Paul answers that. And I want you to read his response with what we've already talked about. That's his answer. I just want you to look at it and read it and see if you can find the answer.
Can you guys see it?
Paul's saying something profound to the Athenians He's saying something profound to us. He is saying something profound to your friends, to your family, to your co workers. God wants us to know with certainty
that he is not far from any of us.
That's the answer. The Bible describes this kind of closeness
as a biding life.
Later on just just a little bit after this, Paul says, In Him, we move and have our being. This phrase you see here that says, so that they may seek God and perhaps feel their way. This, this is an awkward phrase, it's an awkward word in Greek, and some of your translations may have different wording. Some of your translations may say groping. Some of your translations may say, to feel to reach out this Greek word to reach out, is I didn't, I didn't know the word when I heard it. Some of you do, especially if you guys are a doctor, like Luke was this word means to palpate. Does anybody here know what palpate means? Let me tell you. It's when a physician or a healer would touch the body to try to find what's going on. Best to palpate. Luke uses this very same word. When he just describing when Jesus is in the upper room after his, his crucifixion is resurrection. He's inep room and he reaches out his hands, he says, touch my wounds, feel them, put your hands on them, and know that I am really here. This is what Paul, this is what Paul's talking about. This is what Luke is describing. God wants us to know with certainty that he is close. He wants to have a relationship with us. And he says, Here I am. God's not playing hide and seek with any of us. Instead, he's saying, I am so close to you. In this time, when I was holding my daughter as she died, I was struck by the one thing is that God is is holding me as tightly as I'm holding her.
This transforms everything, right? Because now we're not talking about just a God who creates the universe, and can breathe stars into existence. He's creating a home for us. He says, I want to have us I want to have this home for a certain kind of life, a life that responds to me, and I'm going to give that life and I'm going to be so close to my people. That I am going to describe it as I'm living with them. I am in them. They are in me, this is XO a life. This is the closeness if we're going to talk about a resurrected Jesus. We need to talk to people about a God that wants to have a relationship with us.
A loving relationship with a believer. We can look at people in the eye and say God knows our life. He is intimately acquainted with struggle, and temptation, and pain
and sorrow.
And God can rejoice with us and throw one of the biggest parties you've ever seen. God wants to live every moment of our life in Him.
He knows about my past. He knows about your present. And he knows about your friend's future. He knows it all.
And he lived it before we ever did and understands that we have a sympathetic God who is the author and perfecter of our faith. You may have noticed there's a running theme here right? This is my Father's world. That's a him I
think most of you know that
there's a there's a last phrase here that says this, this is my Father's world, why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King, but the heavens ring.
God reigns. And Let the earth be glad.
This is the way that Paul describes the resurrected Jesus to the Athenians. And, and I think as we begin to make our closing here and begin to say, what, how, how are we supposed to respond to this? There's three ways. So believer, I want you to know these three things. One, you can say with confidence, and with peace, and understanding that this is your Father's world. You can speak of his marvelous creation, you can speak to the fact that he has the power to create the universe, and he can make purpose out of purposelessness. And he can create meaning in our lives where there is none. You can tell people that God can create, and he can create, and recreate, and he can resurrect and make dead things new. You can tell them about a Jesus that wants to unite his life with ours, so that we can be new creations. believer you can say another thing you can say in proclaiming your hope. This is my Father's world. At every chance, you can say God makes a purpose out of every life, no buddy is out of chance or nobody is an accident. He has set you on a path towards a relationship with him and with others. He wants to give a zone a life He wants to give his life. And He wants to give it to everyone. And he wants to be every step of the way with that person with us in our pain, and our joy stories. He has purposed us to walk this life in him. Third thing I want you to think about this, and share your belief that this is what my Father's world. And because of that I know and I can respond and see what God is doing. And I don't have to struggle anymore. This God because God has made my future he's made my path, there's going to be an end to the struggle, there's going to be sorrow that will be lifted. My joys will only be improved. Everything is going to be made new and I'll have a new understanding. Because of my relationship with God. No longer is our mantra.
This is the best it's gonna get. Now the monitor is the best is yet to come.
We can sing that with peace with hope, with belief. Oh.
And if you are that Athenian thinker in this room you don't know this personal God that we're talking about.
You've heard him you've heard about him. And you can say
this is my Father's world.
And I'm gonna be glad in that
