Our culture is changing rapidly. Actions and ideas that were taboo twenty, ten, even five years ago are welcomed and embraced today. Some view these changes as the advancement of society, as the human race is gaining more and more freedom to act as it wishes.
Others, particularly the church and, more particularly, conservative Christians, see these changes as the decline of society. These people are the ones brave enough to take a stand against culture, based on what the Bible teaches as unacceptable.
If you don’t consider yourself a Christian, maybe you have questions about which side is right. The things that culture deems to be acceptable feel right to you, but in the back of your mind you’re asking, “What if there’s a God out there who doesn’t agree with culture?”
All of your questions about who’s right and who’s wrong, what’s moral and what’s immoral, boil down to this single question: Is there a God who’s in control of all this? And if there is a God, does he care about me?
Years ago a Christian teacher named Paul was in the city of Athens, Greece. By Paul’s day, the city was just a shadow of its former greatness, but it was still the world’s center of culture, art, academics, and philosophy.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. (Acts 17:16-17)
The city was not only the center of culture, it was also filled with statues and temples to all kinds of different gods. The people of Athens were very religious, but they were not very certain about which religion was right. Paul saw this and did what Paul always did, he told anyone who would listen that there is a God and only one God. He spoke to the Jews in the synagogue and to others in the Agora, the great marketplace where all kinds of people gathered.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18)
Paul was teaching the people of Athens that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had died on the cross and then was raised from the dead so that our sins could be forgiven and so that we could know the one true God. All this talk about resurrection from the dead caused quite a stir among the professional Greek philosophers.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” (Acts 17:19-20)
So the leaders took Paul to the Areopagus, a council that would determine whether Paul would be allowed to continue to teach in the marketplace. The council for years had met on the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, where the temple to Ares stood, the Greek god of war. This council was made up of brilliant men who were always curious about new ideas and philosophies. They did not know the God of the Bible. They believed there were multiple gods and multiple religions and multiple philosophies of life.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)
Just in case there was a god out there that they didn’t know about, the Athenians had built an altar to him so they didn’t offend him. Whoever he might be, he’s the “just in case” god. Kind of like when we sometimes pray or go to church, or read a Bible verse, “just in case” God is out there. He’s the “what if?” god, as in “what if” there’s a god out there we don’t know about.
Paul says, “There is a God you don’t know, and I’m going to tell you about him.”
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)
In a city filled with idols to all kinds of gods, there is only one God. In a city filled with temples, God doesn’t live in a temple. In a city filled with things that man has built for gods, the God who created the universe doesn’t need anything from mankind, but he gives us everything. Everything we need he has provided.
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… (Acts 17:26-27)
This one God not only created the world, but he’s the one who created nations, and he’s the one who decides how long a nation lasts and what its borders are. This God is all-powerful and self-sufficient. God is completely sovereign over anything that mankind does.
God has done all that he’s done so that people will search for him. The purpose of all of creation is so that people will worship him. Paul says, “Men of Athens, you know that you need God, you just don’t know who he is.” Perhaps Paul is saying the same thing to you.
If you look for God, you will find him. He’s not that far away. He’s never too far away to be found by people who sincerely seek him.
…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.’ (Acts 17:28)
Paul is quoting Greek poets here. He’s saying, “Even your own poets have been searching for God.”
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. (Acts 17:29)
Because we’re all God’s children in the sense that he created us, we shouldn’t picture God in the form of a man and build an idol or a statue of him. God created the stone, the gold, and the silver used to make the idols. He’s so much more than the philosophers realize.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent… (Acts 17:30)
Before these people knew about God, he had allowed them to live in their ignorance. He didn’t rain down fire in judgment, but they didn’t know about salvation either.
…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. (Acts 17:31)
But now the time of ignorance is over. Salvation is here. There is a God, and he proved he’s God by raising Jesus from the dead. If you look to Jesus, you’ll find the one true God.
Maybe, like the Greeks, you’ve been searching for God. You’ve been, like Paul said, seeking him, feeling your way toward him. The good news is that you don’t have to reach out to God. God is reaching out to you.
There is a God, and he knows you. And he not only knows you, he loves you. God loves you so much that he sent his Son so you would no longer have to wonder “what if” he’s out there. You don’t have to pray every once in a while “just in case” someone out there is listening. You no longer have to hope that you’re good enough for him to accept you.
There is a God, and he’s provided a way for you to get to him. Jesus is the way. That’s why he said:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
God the Son came and died, and he rose from the dead. God says to you, “I sent my Son to die to pay the penalty for your sin. If you accept the gift of forgiveness that I offer through him, you’ll find me.”
In all the craziness and division in the world, it all comes down to Jesus. You have lots of questions about what’s right and who’s wrong. People on one side or the other tend to rub you the wrong way. Stop thinking about all of that.
Go to Jesus. Ask him to forgive you. Accept his payment of your penalty on the cross. Believe that he died for you and that he rose and conquered death for you. Then you’ll know that there is a God…and that he loves you more than you can imagine.