Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: How do you know that your way is the only way?

Text:

Series: My friends are asking

Introductory thoughts:

The gospel has come crashing into the Graeco-Roman world.

With its’ force comes the call to repent from pagan idols.

The call of the gospel presumes exclusivity.

Note one example in , .

During his second missionary journey, Paul is stirred to speak when he sees the tremendous idolatry in Athens at the time ().

At the time, historians note that it was possible to find more idols than men in Athens.

SLIDE: The biblical book of Acts in the New Testament contains vivid descriptions of the cultures of the ancient Greco-Roman world.

Each city worshipped its favorite deities and built shrines around their images for worship.

When Paul went to Athens he saw that it was literally filled with images of these divinities ().

The Parthenon of Athena overshadowed everything, but other deities were represented in every public space.

There was Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty; Ares, the god of war; Artemis, the goddess of fertility and wealth; Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship.

- TK

None of these gods fully satisfied.

The people would find temporary release or false approval before a god that did not truly exist and the cycle would begin again.

So, what right does any person or institution have to claim exclusivity?

Who has the right to say that they are the only way to have a life that is acceptable before the One God? Who deserves the right to say that they are the only WAY to have eternal life?

It cannot be denied that if, indeed, we can know with certainty that there is a God and that He has spoken, it follows ineluctably that He alone would be the perpetual novelty.

It would then logically follow that to know Him-to live with Him-would be the supreme purpose and pleasure of life.

But that is a big "if."

How do we know if Christ really is the way and the truth and the life, as He claimed He was?

In our consideration of that all-important issue, let us first examine one of the most controversial and castigated assertions of the Christian faith-its exclusive claim to truth.

- Ravi Zacharias

Proposition:

If Christ is indeed the one, true God [among other gods], then He demands a verdict from you: Will you submit yourself to Him as Lord and Savior or not?

(1) Why do men look for a way to God?

(a) There is the evidence of an immaterial world: Man has a nature to worship ()

“superstitious” - devout, religious

“devotions” - objects of worship

There is something within man that pursues to no end an object of worship that will bring ultimate enjoyment and pleasure.

Note man’s incessant pursuit of knowledge.

()

(**) Man’s nature of worship crashes into the physical realm (it is visible) ()

This is an undeniable fact because of how this worship is evidenced.

There are visible manifestations.

There are experiential evidences.

Man’s very nature shows their natural belief that there is an immaterial world.

There is something beyond the seeable.

Something else not explicitly stated in the text is that this worship implies a innate belief in blessing and cursing - an innate belief in justice.

It is a code within mankind that seeks the blessing of some higher deity, though they do not know who this deity is.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

The Holy Bible: King James Version.

(2009).

(Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., ).

Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Illustration:

SLIDE: Seven people were killed and more than 40 others were hospitalized after a series of terror attacks struck on and around London Bridge late Saturday night....The London Ambulance Service said 48 people were treated in five hospitals across the city.

London The service said that 80 medics responded to the scene.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Sunday that some of the injured were in “critical” condition.....Gerard Vowls told The Guardian newspaper that he saw a woman being stabbed by three men at the south end of London Bridge.

He said he threw chairs, glasses and bottles at the attackers in a bid to stop them.

"They kept coming to try to stab me.

They were stabbing everyone.

Evil, evil people," he told the newspaper.

[http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/06/04/london-attacks-at-least-7-dead-more-than-40-injured-after-van-ramming-stabbings.html,

Accessed June 04, 2017]

"They kept coming to try to stab me.

They were stabbing everyone.

Evil, evil people," he told the newspaper.

(b) There is the evidence of the material world () - God that made the world...

1  The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The Holy Bible: King James Version.

(2009).

(Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., ).

Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

(c) There is the evidence of the life-dependency of man ()

Man is brought to a stark reality that he is absolutely NOT independent.

Man’s dependency gives rise to the incessant search for ultimate survival.

Hollywood has made millions on movies promoting the survival of a species or the survival of mankind.

There is a search for this because man presupposes dependency.

But, why?

The reason is: death.

Death is the one elusive enemy that forces man to look at his own finitude.

Illustration:

I was at Macy’s in line behind a man who had a shirt on that said, “Death smiles at all of us, but only a few of us smile back.”

(backdrop graphic of the Grim Reaper).

(d) There is the evidence of man’s impotence [lack of power to determine] ()

Who determined where you would be born?

Who determined where your parents would be born?

And their parents?

And there parents?

Paul ascribes to God something that man cannot control.

This is reminiscent of Daniel’s prophecy in - Gold head, silver arms, brass loins, iron legs…etc

(e) There is the evidence of man’s very existence ()

SLIDE:

Paul is describing a potential that was not fulfilled in the Athenian situation.

There was plenty of reaching out for God in the form of popular religion and philosophical reflection, but the result was a proliferation of idolatry and self-confessed ignorance of the true God (vv.

16, 22–23).

Nevertheless, God’s purpose for humanity remains, despite the blinding and corrupting effects of sin.

The possibility of seeking after God and finding him is based on the fact that God ‘is not far from any one of us’.

Peterson, D. G. (2009).

The Acts of the Apostles (p.

498).

Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Man’s very existence and the nature of his existence show that there is a God to be searched for.

In this appeal, he points out the obvious.

It is obvious that man is complex and unique and should not create his own objects of worship.

If man is such a creature, we should not think that his Creator is anything less than man.

It is only in accordance to man’s created nature that he seeks a higher being to worship.

Quote:

In other words, there is a biblical truth echoed in the pagan poet’s reflection on the relationship between Creator and human beings.

It is natural for people to seek after God, since he made us to have a relationship with himself.