Acts 17:24-31
What comes to mind when you think about God? NOT asking do you believe in God…but what do you think about God…most of us have a range of different ideas that come to mind when we think about God.
Unfortunately people think of God like they do other people…Bible even says so… ‘You thought I was just like you’ [Ps. 50:21]. We basically know God through His attributes…an attribute is a characteristic ascribed to someone.
For those familiar with the name A.W. Tozer, his quote about how we think about God is probably the most often stated fact about people. ‘What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’
For some, what they think about God is nothing more than a reflection of themselves…collectively we are shaped by our view of God in more ways than we know.
What comes to mind when you think about God says a lot about your knowledge of God…your relationship with Him…your obedience to Him…how you deal with other people…it shapes our worship…our identity…and our ethics.
That is why in Paul’s speech on Mars Hill he tells the people of Athens that the gods you worship…you worship in ignorance…ignorance meaning you don’t know any better…let me share something about the eternal God…Acts 17:
24 “The God (ὁ Θεὸς) who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by hands
25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything. He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.
26 He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.
27 that they would seek God…though he is not far from any one of us
28 ‘For in him we live and move and exist…for ‘We are his children.
29 “Therefore 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.
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31 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.”
To know God is to know that God is…that is the basic fundamental requirement in establishing a relationship with God …“he who comes to God must believe that He is” (Heb. 11:6).
BUT…Since God is infinite then there is no way we can fully comprehend Him… so what we think about God must come from what He has said about himself.
We need to have our thoughts about God shaped by what God has revealed in His Word.
We need our minds redirected to the true and living God…in just the seven short verses I read we learn 12 things about God.
He is the maker of all creation [24]
He is the ruler of all creation [24]
He sustains all creation [25]
He is self-sufficient [25]
He is purposeful when He creates [26]
He is omnipresent [27]
He is the source of human life [28]
He is self-sustaining [29]
He is patient [30]
He is jealous [30]
He is the judge over all things [31]
He is righteous [31]
In the final chapter of the book of Micah he asks the question… ‘Who is a God like you?’ …is there anything that God can be compared to?
Paul gives the answer…‘there is no God but One’ …essentially what Zophar told Job. Can you discover the depth of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens…(Job 11:7‐8)
That was the problem with the people in Greece…their worship was to an unknown God…Paul’s argument was there was no other god worthy of worship.
What are your thoughts about God at this time in your life? …is your mind clouded by the many failures in your life that at times you find yourself concerned that God might suddenly rain down punishment on you?
Are you dwelling in the darkness…shame…and isolation because if others knew about your sin they would reject you and send you into some kind of spiritual exile?
What are your thoughts about God as 2022 draws to a close?
I don’t historically give a New Year’s Resolution sermon…I don’t believe in them…it’s like with Lent, if God wants me to stop doing something it won’t be for just 40 days.
As far as resolutions go…if God wants me to change something in my life, it won’t be just until I get tired of doing it…that’s usually what New Year’s resolutions come down to…doing something different until I get tired of it.
With regards to making resolutions people base them on what they think they should do rather than what they actually want to do…the common problem with that is in keeping them…a study ((conducted at the University of Scranton)) found that 23% of people quit their resolutions after just one week…so why bother.
So…let me ask again…as 2022 draws to a close, what are your thoughts about God?
Hopefully the reason you come to Sunday School and Church is so you can know God better through a deeper study of His revelation about Himself…so we can think rightly about Him.
Here’s the problem…when we have wrong ideas about God which can result from a number of things…some are a mixture of misconceptions from cultures and sources far removed from God’s Word…some are from those who pollute God’s Word for financial or personal gain…some as a result of ignorance…not knowing.
When that occurs in any form, that is the starting point from where things are believed about God as if they were true.
When there is even the simplest corrupting of basic theology it results in perverted notions about God that soon pollute the very concept of who God is.
When the Church surrenders its opinions of God concerning any Biblical matters, the Church and its worship declines as well.
Any compromise…any contamination of even the simplest of church creeds will result in the Church believing and imagining things about God that are different from who He actually is…that is a heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.
It’s imperative that we pass on to the next generation of Christians the undiminished concept of God which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past…this will prove to be of greater value to them than anything that art or science can devise.
Here’s where the confusion about God ends…people say with so many views of what God is like, how can anyone say there is a right view of God?
First of all…if something is true about God…then it must be true in all places at all times…it can’t be different in different cultures…can’t have contradictory views about God and still be accurate…NOW…what is known about God can increase… progressive revelation…BUT…God as a perfect being does not change.
The concern becomes what source do you use to determine what God is like… what is the baseline to determine what God is like…there is only one reliable source… that is the claim of the Bible.
One example…the Christian Bible…the Mormon Bible…or the Jehovah Witness Bible…which one is the correct one?…because they are all different when it comes to thinking rightly about God…the concern then becomes what foundation is used to determine what God is like.
I want to share what these three say about God since the title of the sermon is: Thinking Rightly About God.
The opening words of the Old Testament define who God is…the wording we are all familiar with is …בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים…’ĕ-lō-hîm bā-rā bə-rê-šheet…In the beginning God created…which is translated from the original wording of…In the beginning created God.
In the Hebrew the word God (אֱלֹהִ֑ים) is masculine plural…the word is plural and implies that God is more than one person…suggesting that more than one deity performed it…this is the first indication in Scripture that God is a trinitarian God consisting of the Father…Son…and Holy Spirit.
BUT…there’s more…the word translated ‘created’ (בָּרָ֣א) is a Qual Perfect 3rd person masculine singular verb…very strange wording…a plural noun and a singular verb …it is used exclusively to describe an activity God performs.
But it also indicates that God is singular in nature because the verb ‘created’ (3rd per. mas. sing) implies God is singular…but the word (אֱלֹהִ֑ים) mas. plural states that God is more than one entity…so from the very first verse of the Bible we are told a single creator God exists…but He exists in more than one dimension.
Both the Mormon bible and Jehovah Witness bible depict a very different idea of God…Mormonism teaches that God was once a mortal man on another planet who through obedience to his god eventually attained the position of being a god himself…that is so wacked out I’m not even going to address it.
With respect to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they teach that Christ, before He came to earth and since He returned to heaven, was and has always been… Michael the Archangel …no need to go any further.
What you think about God says a lot about your knowledge of God…your relationship with Him…your obedience to Him…what we think about God shapes our worship…our identity…and our ethics.
BUT…How can we really know God? …How can the finite know the infinite? …How can the mortal enjoy a relationship with the immortal? …How can flesh and blood interact with an Eternal Spirit? …How can limited intellect comprehend the incomprehensible?
Again…the very question Zophar asked Job concerning such an impossibility:
Can you discover the depth of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? (Job 11:7‐8).
SO…what is God like that we must think rightly about Him?
There is no description in the Bible which fully explains what God is like…we cannot see him …we cannot prove He exists…we can see the results of His work …the universe exists because He made it.
The Bible does gives us a glimpse of Him and tells us about some of His characteristics but at the same time…there are elements of God that we cannot grasp because they are beyond our comprehension.
God is self-sufficient…self-sustaining…and self-existent…He is beyond space and time…that is why God has ‘communicable’ attributes…meaning He shares things with His creatures, and ‘incommunicable’ attributes, meaning things that are unique only to Him.
Being created in God’s image…we share many of God’s attributes…to a much lesser extent we all experience…love…mercy…and kindness…however…there are attributes that are unique only to God…will never be shared by any created being.
Omnipresence—there is no place God isn’t…He’s everywhere.
Omniscience—God knows everything
Omnipotence—God is in total control of His creation.
As a result…He doesn’t need us…He doesn’t need our praise…He has thousands of angels gathered around His throne praising Him every minute [Rev. 5:11 / Heb. 12:22]…He is a God who needs no outside help from us.
So…why must we think rightly of God?…Because He is a God who desires to be known by us [Ps. 46:10] …who wants to have a relationship with us and know us personally…even intimately and despite the fact that our initial encounter with God in the Garden was a bad experience…He still provided a way to restore it.
Let me share something from an unknown author
“If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. Every spring He sends you Flowers. Every morning He sends you a sunrise. He can live
anywhere He wants in the universe, but He chose your heart.
We have just concluded another Christmas season filled with stress.. aggravation …too much family…lack of sleep…but…no lack of sweets…during that time, if you were with us the four weeks before Christmas, you heard us talk about the Advent candles that represented hope…faith…joy…and peace.
These four candles have their own special themes during the holiday season…they define the four results of a relationship with Christ.
…hope–the confident expectation that what God has promised will happen.
…faith–the confident assurance that what is unseen will be seen.
…joy–the feeling we’ll experience when we see Jesus.
…peace–the serenity that comes over us when God takes control of our lives.
And now as we prepare for a New Year and look to the future…I would like for us to keep in our thoughts the importance of thinking rightly about God… being ready for His return…and the promised hope of eternal life that all who believe in His Son will have.