No. 05. “Some Scholars Were Convinced"
Bothwell & Clachan – April 27, 2008
Series: 50 Days of “Easter” - Why Did They Believe This?
Message: No. 05. “Some Scholars Were Convinced” (Acts 17:16-34)
"God" Not Found
One lady writes: I was listening to my 5-year-old son, Matthew, as he worked on his Speak and Spell (TM) computer. He was concentrating intensely, typing words for the computer to say back to him.
Matthew punched in the word "God." To his surprise, the computer said, "Word not found."
He tried again with the same reply. With great disgust, he stared at the computer and told it in no uncertain terms, "Jesus is not going to like this!"[1]
Whether Jesus likes it or not, it is obvious that there is a lot of confusion about him in our world. And there are quite obviously many versions and variations of belief.
Tiger Woods Practices Two Faiths
Tiger Woods claims to practice two faiths. He was put on the spot by an evangelical guest of Nike on October 9, 2006, during an exclusive golf outing for top business and entertainment executives.
That day, 30 people gathered at the Trump golf course in Los Angeles for the 2006 ''Tee It up with Tiger Woods'' event, which included a private golf session and lunch with the living legend. During the lunch, there was a question-and-answer session with Woods. Most people asked about their swings or golf questions.
However, one guest of Nike stood up and asked two questions: "Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And if not, prayerfully, would you?" A source present at the lunch later said: ''You could have heard a pin drop. People were mortified. But Tiger was as unflappable as he is on the golf course."
Tiger said: "My father was a Christian—of course Christianity was part of my life. But my mother is Asian, and Buddhism was also part of my childhood. So I practice both faiths respectfully.''[2]
Halle Berry Not Sure Which God to Believe In
In contrast to Woods, celebrity Halle Berry, seems to be much more confused than enlightened. She has said: I believe in God. I just don't know if that God is Jehovah, Buddha or Allah.[3]
This raises a problem.
Many Truths
The notion that there are many truths might seem well suited to a diverse society. But when everyone is free to define truth as he or she prefers, as at present, the result is an intellectual and moral shouting match in which the people with the loudest voices are most likely to be heard.[4]
Beyond Feelings
Unfortunately, even in this process, we often stop too soon. “Feeling better has become more important to us than finding God.”[5]
I find it interesting that even non-theologians think it is important to have a belief system.
George Lucas on Belief in God
Back in the very secular 1970’s even Star Wars director George Lucas was trying to nudge us in the right direction. He said in Time Magazine:
"I put the Force in the movie (Star Wars) in order to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people—more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery. Not having enough interest in the mysteries of life to ask the question, 'Is there a God or is there not a God?'—this is for me the worst thing that can happen. I think you should have an opinion about that. Or you should be saying, 'I'm looking. I'm very curious about this and am going to continue to look until I can find an answer, and if I can't find an answer then I'll die trying.' I think it's important to have a belief system and to have a faith."[6]
Partly as a result of Lucas ground breaking movies there has been more of a willingness by other director’s to also consider spiritual themes.
"Wide Awake": Where Do You Search For God?
The movie Wide Awake is about a Catholic school boy's search for God. The boy, Joshua, specifically wants to find out whether or not his deceased grandfather is okay.
Joshua and his friend Dave are sitting in a car in a garage having a discussion. Both are about 10 years old. Joshua says: "You know what, Dave? I'm going on a mission. A real mission."
"What kind of mission?" Dave asks.
"The kind where you're looking for something important," says Joshua.
"What are you gonna look for?"
"God."
"God?" Dave is incredulous. "What for?"
"I just want to talk to him."
"Why?"
"To make sure my grandpa is okay."
Dave thinks for a moment, then says: "Remember when you told me I was stupid for staring at that bug lamp on my porch for six hours hoping the purple light would have gamma rays and turn me into the Incredible Hulk so I could fight crime? Your mission is more stupid than that."
"Why?" Joshua asks.
"'Cause you can't look for God."
"Why not?"
"Where in the world are you gonna look?"[7]
Don't Just Look for Yourself
The Bible does have the answer to that question. It tells us to keep seeking God with our whole heart.[8] It says that if we look for Jesus we will actually find God himself, and with him everything else thrown in.[9]
Life's Turning Point
So, yes, it does make a difference how or for what we are searching. The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.[10]
Speaking to the Secularized
I also believe that we must be sensitive to the religious climate that surrounds us as we go about our every day lives. Bill Hybels leads one of the original so-called “seeker’s” Churches. He writes: If we're going to speak with integrity to secularized men and women, we need to understand the way they think.[11]
Paul Quoting Pagan Poets
In the Bible passage we just read, Paul, the Missionary was trying to do just that. Scholars have looked at these verses and discovered that Paul must have read pagan poets because in Acts 17:28 he quotes Aratus of Cilicia when he says 'We're the God-created' (in Acts 17:28).
He also appears to have quoted two others (Titus 1:12; 1 Corinthians 15:33).[12]
TORMENTED BY TRANSGRESSION
As Paul walked about the city of Athens, he knew he had to nudge that society towards the way of Jesus. He saw a marketplace lined with idols. This fact “deeply troubled” him (Acts 17:16). It was as if he was filled with a “sudden, violent emotion.” Paul was filled with a combination of anger and grief. Seeing people spiritually lost, blinded by Satan, and trapped in a pagan culture caused him to be in a state of emotional upheaval. Though highly educated, the Athenians were ignorant of the one true God.
It’s interesting to note that Paul turned his internal turmoil into positive action. He was paying close attention as he walked around the city of Athens. He then was able to use the monument To the God Nobody Knows (Acts 17:23) as an object lesson. Paul was looking for opportunities to share the truth about Jesus Do we simply shun those who are outside the Church or even talk badly of them? Or do we seek opportunities to speak the gospel? [13]
It might surprise you that the following individual also claims to be doing that very thing.
Pop Star Moby: "We Need God"
Many years ago, Herman Melville made an impact on the world with his novel Moby Dick. Today, his great-great grandnephew has made an impact on the world with music.
Richard Melville Hall, known as Moby, has seen great success in the music world. Nine years ago, his 1999 album, Play, went platinum; his single, Go, was named one of the "200 Essential Rock Recordings" by Rolling Stone magazine.
While successful, Moby has been controversial not only for his music but also for his faith. MTV says Moby is "infamous for his devout, radical Christian beliefs, as well as his environmental and vegan activism."
In an interview with Darren Philip, Moby describes the universal need for God:
One of my…favorite quotes is, "Those who are sick are in need of a doctor." And the sad thing is we're all sick. It's part and parcel of the human condition, and it's especially part and parcel of living in the United States in the 21st century. We're all sick. We're all deeply unhappy, disconnected, unwell people. We need each other, and we need God. And if God made the universe and if God made us and if God made the world, it just makes sense to invite God into our lives and ask him, "You made me—what should I be doing?"[14]
The God Who Is There
Here in Acts 17, Paul’s sermon ends with the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, All of Paul’s sermons end with the resurrection. This is finally how we know God, by knowing Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified and raised for us. This is God’s revelation. Of course we glimpse the power of God in creation, but we know God fully through the cross and empty tomb.
Both of the other Bible readings today connect with this same theme. In 1 Peter 3:13–22 Peter tells his readers to speak the gospel with courage, even though they are maligned and suffer. In this reading from Acts 17, Paul knew very well he would be ridiculed in Athens, because the whole notion of one sovereign creator God sending a “son” to earth to suffer, die, and be raised would strike the Gentile Athenians as total foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18–25). This is still a fitting message for our day, when so many people think the whole idea of religion is foolish![15]
There is also an obvious link to the other Bible reading from John 14:15–21. Just as Paul speaks about an unknown god to the Greeks, so here Jesus speaks to his disciples, who will soon face an unknown and frightening future without him. Both texts are written for assurance in the time of doubt and uncertainty. The assurance of both texts is God’s presence with us and the hope of eternity through Jesus’ resurrection.
CONCLUSIONS
“Some Scholars Were Convinced”
The title of this message was Some Scholars Were Convinced. Due to Paul’s culturally sensitive approach we know that at least a couple of these listeners saw the light. Perhaps they responded because it was obvious that Paul was knowledgeable of and interested in their culture, not was he asking them to renounce Greek culture, but rather to embrace The One True God. And so we read in Acts 17:34 in The Message: “There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.” Dionysius was one of those scholars. He did believe.
The Difference Faith Makes
In summing up today’s theme I would like to leave you with this thought from Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message. He writes: The Christian life is one of actually going to God. Yet in going to God, Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same government, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground.
The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God.[16] And like Paul, we do not assume that every one must start from where we are on the inside in order to believe and understand. Instead we continually try to find bridges across that culture in order that the gospel may be shared.
As to that question that Paul was dealing with so many years ago: some of you recently watched one of Rob Bell’s Nooma tapes which speak of our very breath being a gift from God. “We can never talk about God behind his back. We cannot speak of God in his absence.”[17] Have you discovered that truth for yourself? If not, perhaps Hymn #36 can be your prayer: “Open My Eyes That I May See.”
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[1] Mary Farwell, Green Castle, Missouri. Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."
[2] Mike Herman, Lisle, Illinois; source: Elliot Harris, "Woods Takes Evangelical to Sunday School," Chicago Sun-Times (10-19-06)
[3] Actress Halle Berry, Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church (Zondervan, 2003), p. 54
[4] Mary Lefkowitz, a professor of classical studies at Wellesley College, in N.Y.Times Book Review (1-23-00)
[5] Larry Crabb in Finding God. Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 8.
[6] Time (4-26-99)
[7] Wide Awake (Mirimax Films, 1998), directed by M. Night Shymalan; submitted by Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec, Canada
[8] Paul L. Holmer in The Grammar of Faith. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 10.
[9] C.S. Lewis, Preaching Today.
[10] Patrick Morley in The Seasons of a Man's Life. Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 3.
[11] Bill Hybels, Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 1.
[12] "Persecution in the Early Church," Christian History, no. 27.
[13]Bruce B. Barton and Grant R. Osborne, Acts, Life application Bible commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1999), 298.
[14] Darren Philip, "Moby: Faith, Salvation, and Everything in Between," Relevant, May/June 2005, p. 64, www.mtv.com/bands/az/moby/bio.jhtml (5-31-05)
[15]Michael Rogness in Roger Van Harn, The Lectionary Commentary : Theological Exegesis for Sunday's Texts (Grand Rapids , Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001), 586.
[16] Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Intervarsity Press, 2000), p. 45
[17] A. Skevington Wood in Evangelism: Its Theology and Practice. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 12.