WEBVTT 00:00:00.380 --> 00:00:08.120 So, last week we began to look at the difference between the God that we think we want and 00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:10.019 the God we truly need. 00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:14.859 This week we're going to pick up where we left off, and we're focusing specifically 00:00:14.859 --> 00:00:19.039 on Acts chapter 17, verse 26 through 31. 00:00:19.539 --> 00:00:26.339 If you remember, the Apostle Paul is in Athens, and Athens is a highly intellectual place. 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:28.980 It's a highly pluralistic place. 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:39.600 It's a place where the latest ideas and religious schools of thought and philosophies are debated. 00:00:40.259 --> 00:00:43.500 And so, Paul has been invited into that conversation. 00:00:43.700 --> 00:00:50.719 He's been invited to share about his faith, about his God in the Areopagus, which is the 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:53.359 center of religious and philosophical discourse. 00:00:53.359 --> 00:01:02.280 And it's here that Paul makes a very audacious claim, audacious for any culture, every bit 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.980 as audacious in this culture as it would have been in Athens. 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:07.539 He makes this claim. 00:01:07.659 --> 00:01:12.620 He says that God, and he's talking about his God, is the God of all people. 00:01:13.219 --> 00:01:15.519 So, he's saying that in the middle of a pluralistic society. 00:01:15.739 --> 00:01:19.060 He's saying his God is actually everybody's God. 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:23.799 And then he goes on to say that there's a day in the future, that God has fixed a day 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:31.579 when he will come to judge and to restore all that is broken in this world. 00:01:31.579 --> 00:01:34.060 And then Paul goes one step further. 00:01:34.219 --> 00:01:37.319 He says, now is the time, therefore. 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:46.140 Now everybody has an opportunity to repent and to come to this God and to be reconciled 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.180 to him while there is time. 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:52.659 Now, again, this is audacious in any culture. 00:01:52.659 --> 00:01:57.899 And it raises, I think, one of the most common objections that you hear to the Christian faith. 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:02.659 When people hear that Christians believe that their faith is for all people, one of the most 00:02:02.659 --> 00:02:05.560 common objections is for people to say, well, wait a second. 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:09.639 Religion is cultural, right? 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:15.099 So much of it is determined by where you're born, by your family, by your upbringing. 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:20.280 And so, because of that, people just tend to adopt the religion that they're born into. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:21.439 Isn't that the way it works? 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:27.900 So they would say, well, you're only a Christian because you were born into a Christian family. 00:02:28.359 --> 00:02:35.020 But they were to say that if, for instance, you have somebody who's born in Saudi Arabia 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:40.000 or Burma, they would probably be Muslim or Hindu. 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:44.079 And then the real objection is voiced like this. 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:48.800 If religion is cultural and if we're simply born into a religion, then how dare you? 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:54.500 How could you possibly say that your religion is the only religion, that Jesus is the only 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:55.420 way to salvation? 00:02:55.960 --> 00:03:00.439 And so, Paul's sermon here, the part that we're going to look at, actually begins to give us 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.040 a way of answering that objection. 00:03:03.219 --> 00:03:09.780 Because what we see here is this, that the God we truly need, the God that we truly need, 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:15.580 is the kind of God who is able to reach people and to save people regardless of their culture, 00:03:16.039 --> 00:03:21.199 regardless of their family, regardless of the nation, regardless of the religion that 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:21.879 they're born into. 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:25.699 The God we need is not hindered by those things. 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:29.539 And we're going to see four reasons in Paul's sermon why this is the case. 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:32.099 So let's pray, and then we'll open God's Word together. 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:39.439 Lord, we do ask that you would be with us, that as we open your Word, we would not do 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:44.539 it alone, unaided, but rather we pray that your Holy Spirit would illuminate your Word, 00:03:44.699 --> 00:03:50.219 that it would cease to simply be ink and paper, that your Word would come alive. 00:03:50.359 --> 00:03:51.459 It is a living Word. 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:57.400 And that it would reveal to us the Word, Jesus Christ, Lord. 00:03:57.479 --> 00:03:59.919 He's the one we have come to see this morning. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:02.000 And we pray this in your Son's holy name. 00:04:02.539 --> 00:04:02.879 Amen. 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:12.239 So four reasons why God is not hindered by culture, language, religion in His desire to 00:04:12.239 --> 00:04:13.579 reach all people. 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:21.139 Reason number one, God is the kind of God who is able to determine the boundaries of our lives. 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:27.060 It says here in verse 26, and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all 00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:31.939 the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling 00:04:31.939 --> 00:04:32.379 place. 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:36.439 So in other words, even though human beings have rebelled against God, even though they 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:41.139 do all kinds of things that are destructive and harmful to themselves and to the world 00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:47.860 that God has made, even though all of that is true, God is still sovereign over all human 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:48.279 affairs. 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:54.319 And so God is the one who determines when and where each of us will be born. 00:04:54.779 --> 00:04:58.099 God is the one who determines who our family will be. 00:04:58.299 --> 00:05:02.339 God is the one who determines our culture and our language. 00:05:02.799 --> 00:05:07.319 And what this means for our question this morning is that all of that is not left up to chance. 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:08.500 Right? 00:05:08.659 --> 00:05:18.599 Proverbs 16.33 says, the lot is cast in the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. 00:05:19.159 --> 00:05:26.639 So what may actually seem like a random dice roll to us is actually part of God's sovereign 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:27.079 plan. 00:05:27.819 --> 00:05:33.199 And what this means is that God is not sitting there biting His nails when someone is born 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:34.620 in the Amazon rainforest. 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:39.620 He's not looking at that person and thinking, man, I really wish I could reach that person, 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:41.160 but they live in the middle of nowhere. 00:05:41.300 --> 00:05:42.920 They're not near any major cities. 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:45.220 They're not near any churches. 00:05:45.540 --> 00:05:47.579 And so I guess there's no hope for that person. 00:05:48.579 --> 00:05:51.800 That's not how God responds because God is sovereign. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.160 So God is not limited by those factors. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:00.920 And so what we see is that God has a purpose in mind when He puts people where He puts them. 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:07.600 And this says that God determines when and where people will live, and then there's a purpose 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:07.939 for that. 00:06:08.020 --> 00:06:11.920 God doesn't just sort of say, well, I think I want this person here, and that person looks 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:12.439 good there. 00:06:12.580 --> 00:06:16.900 There's a reason why God puts us in the context where He puts us, and it says that in verse 00:06:16.900 --> 00:06:17.860 27. 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:23.840 That they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:29.519 And this brings us to the second reason why God is the kind of God who's not hindered by 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:30.599 all of these factors. 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:31.560 The reason is this. 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:35.859 God imbues us with an inconsolable longing. 00:06:36.679 --> 00:06:40.139 God imbues us with an inconsolable longing. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:44.659 The philosopher Charles Taylor writes about Western culture, and here's what he says. 00:06:44.979 --> 00:06:48.719 He says that we live our lives suspended between two poles. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:56.740 A purely materialistic atheism on the one hand, where there are no God, no miracles, nothing 00:06:56.740 --> 00:06:57.360 like that. 00:06:57.780 --> 00:07:03.780 And then he says the other pole is this sort of deep inconsolable longing for the transcendent. 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:09.660 And he says that we live between these two forces, a materialism on the one hand, and 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:12.900 then this kind of longing for the transcendent on the other. 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:15.380 And so what this means is a couple of things. 00:07:15.379 --> 00:07:22.480 It means, first of all, all believers, including me, all believers are haunted by doubt. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:24.240 Right? 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:26.240 Doubt is just a part of belief. 00:07:27.819 --> 00:07:27.980 Right? 00:07:28.019 --> 00:07:31.139 So if anyone tells you they're a religious person, they're a believer, and they say, 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:32.100 oh, I've never felt doubt. 00:07:32.459 --> 00:07:33.959 I think that's simply not true. 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:37.639 All believers are haunted by doubt. 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:41.420 They're haunted by the possibility that there really is nothing out there. 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:46.420 And that's because partly we live in a culture where belief is constantly undermined. 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:48.240 It's constantly undermined. 00:07:49.140 --> 00:07:56.800 But on the other hand, we also live in a culture where unbelief is constantly undermined, where 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:02.460 you have many atheists and agnostics who are also haunted, but they're haunted in the opposite 00:08:02.460 --> 00:08:02.800 way. 00:08:02.960 --> 00:08:04.780 They're haunted by belief. 00:08:05.020 --> 00:08:08.240 They're haunted by the possibility that it might all actually be true. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.280 Thomas Nagel is an atheist philosopher, and he writes this. 00:08:13.379 --> 00:08:20.540 He says, I want atheism to be true, and I'm made uneasy by the fact that some of the most 00:08:20.540 --> 00:08:24.759 intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:27.720 So he's haunted by belief. 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:30.639 His doubt is that it might actually be true. 00:08:32.500 --> 00:08:37.500 Georgi Kurtag is one of the most revered contemporary European composers there is. 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:42.139 And people often talk about the transcendent quality of his music. 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:47.460 And in 2015, an interviewer actually asked Kurtag about his religious beliefs. 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:48.639 And here's what he says. 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:49.759 He says something pretty remarkable. 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:55.139 He says, consciously, I'm certainly an atheist, but I do not say it aloud. 00:08:56.220 --> 00:08:59.879 Because if I look at Bach, I cannot be an atheist. 00:08:59.879 --> 00:09:06.279 And then he goes on to say about Bach's music, he says, his music never stops praying. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:11.899 All right, so here's a man who doesn't believe in God, and yet he hears this music that makes 00:09:11.899 --> 00:09:15.100 it impossible for him to claim atheism. 00:09:15.539 --> 00:09:16.799 He says he's praying. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:18.200 He's interacting. 00:09:18.439 --> 00:09:20.539 He's in relationship with a being. 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:24.919 And though I don't want to believe in this being, I'm haunted by the possibility that there 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:25.679 is such a being. 00:09:26.740 --> 00:09:32.299 All right, so Bob Dylan, as one of our own poets once said, art can lead you to God. 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:35.559 And then he goes on to say, I think that's the purpose of everything. 00:09:36.199 --> 00:09:37.219 And I would say, you know what? 00:09:37.259 --> 00:09:39.819 On this point, Dylan is 100% correct. 00:09:40.939 --> 00:09:41.139 Right? 00:09:41.199 --> 00:09:43.179 This is what Scripture is telling us. 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:46.699 The purpose of everything is to lead us to God. 00:09:46.779 --> 00:09:51.539 The purpose of everything is that we would feel our way toward God and find Him. 00:09:51.539 --> 00:09:51.939 Right? 00:09:52.039 --> 00:09:56.980 So when you listen to an exquisite piece of music, or when you read a really satisfying 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:02.519 book, right, I've gotten to the point where I won't start a series, a series of fiction 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:07.059 unless I know there's at least 10 books in the series, because I hate the feeling of being 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:09.319 done with a series that I love. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:13.419 But when you're reading a really satisfying book, when you take a beautiful hike like I 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:20.299 did with my family this past Saturday, when you enjoy a celebratory meal with close friends 00:10:20.299 --> 00:10:26.699 and family that you really love, when you make love, all of these experiences can bring 00:10:26.699 --> 00:10:27.679 immense pleasure. 00:10:28.859 --> 00:10:32.799 But always, and I want you to sort of think about these experiences in your own life. 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:38.019 In my experience, always when we do these pleasurable things, there's this immense pleasure, 00:10:38.359 --> 00:10:41.919 but at the very center of these experiences, there's still an ache. 00:10:43.459 --> 00:10:44.439 There's an ache. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:46.780 There's an emptiness. 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:53.100 There's a kind of incompleteness just at the very center of the experience. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:11:03.340 And it's almost as though we almost attained, we almost attained some higher form of pleasure 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:05.420 or beauty, but we just missed it. 00:11:06.100 --> 00:11:06.240 Right? 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.299 And the mistake I think that we often make as human beings is we think, well, I almost 00:11:10.299 --> 00:11:10.580 got there. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.220 If I just indulge a little more, if I just do this thing a little more, then I'll get 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:14.460 there. 00:11:14.659 --> 00:11:15.799 But the opposite happens. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:17.899 What we find is, you know, we almost get there. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:20.360 We have this great experience, but it's not quite perfect. 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:21.899 There's something kind of missing. 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:23.960 And we say, well, maybe it just takes a little more. 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:25.379 Maybe I just need to eat a little more. 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:26.360 Right? 00:11:27.419 --> 00:11:29.159 And then the pleasure starts to go down. 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:36.439 And we realize that the more we indulge, the less pleasure we take in the indulgence. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:39.139 And so we have to ask, why the ache? 00:11:39.259 --> 00:11:43.679 Why even in the midst of the greatest pleasures of our lives, is there an ache as though we 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:44.620 didn't quite make it? 00:11:45.199 --> 00:11:49.939 And the reason, as C.S. Lewis would say, is that the thing we thought was in the book 00:11:49.939 --> 00:11:57.079 or the music or the poetry or the intimacy, that thing was never actually there. 00:11:57.080 --> 00:11:58.080 Right? 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:04.940 So Lewis says, the book or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:06.280 us if we trust in them. 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:08.700 It was not in them. 00:12:08.980 --> 00:12:10.560 It only came through them. 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:14.040 And what came through them was longing. 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:20.320 And this particular longing can never really be satisfied. 00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:26.280 It can never really be satisfied by anything in this world. 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:28.900 And here's what Lewis goes on to say. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:34.220 This longing is actually the scent of a flower we've not found, the echo of a tune we've not 00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:37.940 heard, news from a country we've never visited. 00:12:39.300 --> 00:12:39.440 All right? 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:44.480 So Paul's saying in verse 27 that every human being has this inconsolable longing because 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:45.300 God put it there. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.800 He put it in you because God wants you to feel your way toward Him and find Him. 00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:51.660 All right? 00:12:51.659 --> 00:12:55.519 So the reason that you feel thirst is because you were made to need water. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:59.000 The reason that you feel hunger is because you were made to need food. 00:12:59.199 --> 00:13:03.719 The reason that you feel loneliness is because you were made for relationships with other people. 00:13:03.899 --> 00:13:07.679 And the reason that you feel an inconsolable longing is because you were made for God. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:14.439 And apart from Him, you will never, ever, ever find the answer to that ache. 00:13:15.459 --> 00:13:21.479 And so people have a kind of innate God-given longing for God that God has placed in them. 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:27.000 But then that begs the question, how then should we go about trying to find this God? 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:32.519 And that brings us to the third reason why God is not hindered by culture, language, or religion 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:37.199 in His desire to reach people, and that is that God is the kind of God who's able to surround us 00:13:37.199 --> 00:13:38.360 with His truth. 00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:41.579 Paul goes on to say this about God in verse 28. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:42.179 He says, 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:47.519 For in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:49.899 for we are indeed His offspring. 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:55.480 And as it points out here, Paul is actually quoting pagan, Stoic writers here. 00:13:55.659 --> 00:13:58.539 And this is, by the way, not the only time that Paul does this. 00:13:58.579 --> 00:14:00.600 This isn't a kind of glitch, right? 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:05.139 You see this in other places in Scripture, Titus 1, for example, or in 1 Corinthians chapter 00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:05.639 15. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:10.860 Paul is quoting the pagan writers in his teaching. 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:16.720 And this is hugely significant for us as Christians because it tells us something about the nature 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:24.360 of God's truth, and that is that we can find glimmers of God's truth everywhere around us 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:25.420 in the culture. 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:31.559 So imagine panning for gold where you have to sort of sift out all the rocks and the silt 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:36.860 and the gravel, and every so often you spot something shining amid the silt. 00:14:38.259 --> 00:14:41.399 And the Bible says that God's truth is kind of like that, right? 00:14:41.439 --> 00:14:46.179 You could be in a culture that has never had any contact with the Christian truth. 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:47.639 No missionaries have ever come there. 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:49.539 There's never been the preaching of the gospel there. 00:14:49.579 --> 00:14:50.740 They've never heard of these concepts. 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:57.299 And yet, if you look in that culture, you can see glimmers of God's truth shining out 00:14:57.299 --> 00:14:59.340 from the common stone. 00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:08.700 And so the point of this is not to say that all truth can be found in all cultures. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:10.639 It's, in fact, the opposite. 00:15:11.019 --> 00:15:17.159 What Paul's doing here is actually separating the bits of God's truth out from the common 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:17.620 stone. 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:24.460 He's quoting their authoritative sources in order to expose the inconsistencies in their 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:24.960 thinking. 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:30.340 He's saying this is truth, but this needs to be separated out, right? 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:36.659 So he's saying essentially, your own poets have said that we are God's offspring, right? 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:41.360 And then he goes on to say, so how can you then believe that God is something that you can 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:45.759 make out of stone or wood or metal? 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:48.679 He's saying there's an inconsistency there. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:53.279 You have a bit of the truth, but your thinking is inconsistent, right? 00:15:53.480 --> 00:15:57.519 So we might do the same thing in a number of ways these days. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:59.159 We might say, you know, it's interesting. 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:04.340 Scientists have determined that the universe, the entire universe, everything that exists, 00:16:04.779 --> 00:16:11.340 sprang into existence in the fraction of a second around 13.7 billion years ago. 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:17.560 It went from nothing to all of a sudden everything, flinging out from an infinitesimally small 00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:19.399 point, right? 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:21.440 So scientists have determined this. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:28.100 And so then we say, so how then can you reject even the possibility of a creator or a creation 00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:28.519 event? 00:16:29.060 --> 00:16:30.000 Wouldn't that make sense? 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:31.300 Right? 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:36.359 Or we might say, hey, you obviously care a lot about justice, and you care about justice 00:16:36.359 --> 00:16:40.799 for people everywhere, not just for yourself or your own family or your tribe, but you really 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:44.199 care about justice everywhere in the world, and you've given your life to that. 00:16:44.479 --> 00:16:48.399 And you have a really strong sense of what that means, a strong sense of right and wrong. 00:16:49.359 --> 00:16:54.819 So how then can you go ahead and say that all morality is relative, that there is no objective 00:16:54.819 --> 00:16:57.219 standard of right and wrong for anyone? 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:01.519 So as Paul's doing, you might say, isn't there an inconsistency here? 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:05.059 And what we're really doing when we do that is we're saying, you know, there's a glimmer 00:17:05.059 --> 00:17:05.860 of truth here. 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:09.100 There's a glimmer of truth, and it's embedded in the culture. 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:10.500 It's embedded in the way you think. 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:15.660 It just needs to be illuminated and separated out from the things that are inconsistent with 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:15.819 it. 00:17:17.019 --> 00:17:19.539 And then you say, well, how can we tell the difference? 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:23.880 You know, I mean, who's to say that this is truth and not this over here? 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:29.100 And who are you to say that you know what glimmers and we don't? 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:34.980 And the answer is, well, you're right, and we actually need a standard against which to 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:38.340 measure all truth claims, right? 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:45.840 And the answer is that there are glimmerings of God's truth in the culture, but they all 00:17:45.840 --> 00:17:50.080 point to the one who embodies God's truth in its fullness. 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:55.319 And this really shows us the difference between the Christian faith and all other religions, 00:17:56.139 --> 00:17:56.339 right? 00:17:56.379 --> 00:18:01.980 Because all other religions were founded by a religious leader who said, I have discovered 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:02.460 truth. 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:04.059 I have stumbled upon truth. 00:18:04.419 --> 00:18:06.279 I figured truth out. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:12.399 Truth has been revealed to me, and now I'm going to point you all to the truth, right? 00:18:12.419 --> 00:18:18.139 But there's only one religious founder who ever said, I am the truth, and that's Jesus Christ. 00:18:18.140 --> 00:18:20.300 Truth in the flesh. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:27.560 And what he's saying there is that I'm the one, I'm the standard against whom all truth 00:18:27.560 --> 00:18:30.480 claims are measured, right? 00:18:30.560 --> 00:18:40.120 And so, truth glimmering in the culture is known as truth to the extent to which it resonates 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:43.580 with the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ, right? 00:18:43.620 --> 00:18:44.480 He's the standard. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:50.420 So, you say, okay, well, if Jesus is the standard of truth, then how are people everywhere supposed 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:52.440 to learn about Jesus? 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:54.799 How are they supposed to come to know Jesus? 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.460 And this brings us to the fourth and final point. 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:05.000 Reason number four why God is uniquely able to reach people everywhere is because God is 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:08.319 the kind of God who accomplishes salvation on our behalf. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:14.839 Verse 30 says, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:15.200 repent. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:21.720 So, up to this point, this is saying that God has overlooked people who were ignorant of 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:21.899 Him. 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:25.039 He's overlooked the fact that they were ignorant. 00:19:25.379 --> 00:19:29.460 And Paul says something similar earlier in Acts chapter 14, verse 16. 00:19:29.659 --> 00:19:34.980 He's preaching to the unbelievers at Lystra, and he says, in past generations, God allowed 00:19:34.980 --> 00:19:37.740 all the nations to walk in their own ways. 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:42.059 In other words, God allowed them to remain ignorant of Him, right? 00:19:42.059 --> 00:19:46.059 He didn't intervene and bring judgment, nor did He intervene and immediately announce the 00:19:46.059 --> 00:19:46.880 gospel to everybody. 00:19:47.140 --> 00:19:50.019 He allowed things to progress as they were. 00:19:50.099 --> 00:19:51.319 And then you ask, well, what's changed? 00:19:51.420 --> 00:19:54.839 You know, Paul's saying that used to be the way it was, but now something has changed. 00:19:54.900 --> 00:19:55.420 What's different? 00:19:56.059 --> 00:20:00.279 Well, the big event that changes everything is the fact that Jesus Christ has come into the 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:05.579 world, and that He has come to give life by giving life, right? 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:10.839 He's come to give His life to pay the price for human sin, and that He has risen from death 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:12.859 as the rightful King of the world. 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:14.839 And you say, well, what does this have to do with anything? 00:20:15.059 --> 00:20:18.539 And here's the point, right? 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:21.660 The real obstacle to belief is not ignorance. 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:27.059 The real obstacle to belief is not simply that people just don't know what to believe. 00:20:27.059 --> 00:20:31.159 That's an issue that God can solve a hundred different ways. 00:20:31.899 --> 00:20:34.339 The real obstacle to belief is sin. 00:20:35.879 --> 00:20:41.240 It's the fact that people do hear the truth, do know the truth, and they reject it anyway. 00:20:42.819 --> 00:20:43.119 Right? 00:20:43.139 --> 00:20:45.240 And this is what Paul says in Romans chapter 1. 00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:49.799 He says, you know, the world is filled with evidence that points to God. 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:54.019 But the reason that people reject Him is because of spiritual blindness. 00:20:54.019 --> 00:20:58.019 It's because their hearts are dark and futile. 00:20:58.859 --> 00:20:58.920 Right? 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.680 Their thinking never leads them to the truth of God. 00:21:01.779 --> 00:21:06.359 That would have been a major blow to the Athenians, by the way, for whom philosophy was a way of 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:07.119 seeking truth. 00:21:08.139 --> 00:21:12.720 Paul would say, you're never going to get there on your own because sin makes it impossible. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:17.599 And so the good news of the gospel is not just that there's information, and if we say the 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:19.099 formula, then we get saved. 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:22.819 The actual good news of the gospel is that Jesus has broken through. 00:21:23.619 --> 00:21:28.740 Jesus has dealt with sin so that He can begin to spiritually wake people up. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:30.959 He can eradicate blindness. 00:21:31.199 --> 00:21:34.000 This is the reason Jesus goes around healing the blind. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.459 Not just because they're blind and He wants to alleviate suffering. 00:21:36.539 --> 00:21:37.079 That's part of it. 00:21:37.219 --> 00:21:40.759 But He's also giving us a metaphor of the reason that He came to begin with, which is 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:44.639 to enable us to see the truth, to overcome that blindness. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:50.700 So all other religions tell us what we have to do in order to be saved, the path we have 00:21:50.700 --> 00:21:55.860 to walk, the disciplines we have to adopt, the doctrines that we have to check off on 00:21:55.860 --> 00:21:56.220 the list. 00:21:56.360 --> 00:22:03.440 Only Christianity is based on the good news of what God has already done in Jesus Christ. 00:22:04.840 --> 00:22:05.220 Right? 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:11.840 The announcement that, you know, the bad news of the fact that there's no way you could ever 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:14.079 measure up to God's standard for human life. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:16.379 And yet there's this announcement that goes out. 00:22:16.619 --> 00:22:18.159 Jesus lived that life for you. 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:19.919 He lived the life that you should have lived. 00:22:21.899 --> 00:22:22.279 Right? 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:25.119 He went on to die the death that you deserve to die. 00:22:27.199 --> 00:22:30.059 And in this, He's done everything for us. 00:22:31.399 --> 00:22:34.579 And what's left to us is to accept this truth in faith. 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:39.539 To simply receive it and respond with all of our lives to it. 00:22:39.539 --> 00:22:44.279 All right, so this brings us back to our original question. 00:22:45.059 --> 00:22:49.220 If people are born into their religion, if they're born into their culture, if they're 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:52.940 born into their family and their language, and many of those cultures and families and 00:22:52.940 --> 00:23:01.200 languages are not in places where Christianity is strongly represented, how can we then claim 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:02.579 that Jesus is the only way? 00:23:02.579 --> 00:23:08.319 And the answer is that God is not in any way hindered by culture or language or religion 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:11.119 in His desire to reach people. 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:16.339 Just to sort of draw together some of these points that we've made, He's the one who determines 00:23:16.339 --> 00:23:17.619 the boundaries of our lives. 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:23.220 He's the one who imbues us with an inconsolable longing because He wants us to find Him. 00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:24.220 Right? 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:29.799 He's the one who's able to surround us with His truth like glimmers of gold. 00:23:29.799 --> 00:23:30.200 Right? 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:35.519 He's the one who is able to accomplish salvation on our behalf. 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:41.180 And you know, for those of us who are Christians who are listening to this, this gives us a 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:47.259 very beautiful and nuanced view of evangelism that I think avoids two pitfalls that we can 00:23:47.259 --> 00:23:48.240 often fall into. 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:53.819 On the one hand, for those of us who grew up being told that it all depends on you. 00:23:53.819 --> 00:23:57.859 You know, some of you may have grown up in a household where it said, you know, there 00:23:57.859 --> 00:24:00.019 are all these lost people out there and it all hinges on you. 00:24:01.059 --> 00:24:01.179 Right? 00:24:01.179 --> 00:24:05.879 So if you don't preach the gospel to that person or if you do it but you do it badly, you know, 00:24:05.939 --> 00:24:09.279 you screw it up, there's no hope for that person. 00:24:10.179 --> 00:24:15.000 And so you have these youth group kids kind of walking around with just deep terror and 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.379 anxiety that this soul is dangling over the pit of hell. 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:23.260 And if they don't get this right, that person is lost. 00:24:24.540 --> 00:24:24.640 Right? 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:27.440 So this would tell us, no, no, no, no. 00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:29.240 God is sovereign. 00:24:30.420 --> 00:24:30.520 Right? 00:24:30.560 --> 00:24:33.260 God is not limited by our limitations. 00:24:34.420 --> 00:24:37.140 Which is profoundly good news if you're somebody like me. 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:39.280 Somebody with a whole lot of limits. 00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:40.680 Right? 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:46.960 But on the other hand, this does tell us that God gives us, not other people, us, the responsibility 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.039 and the dignity of playing a central role in the redemption of His world. 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:55.220 I mean, we are the messengers of the gospel. 00:24:55.360 --> 00:24:59.660 As it is often said, the church is God's plan A for the world and there is no plan B. 00:24:59.819 --> 00:25:01.180 There's no one else out there. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:02.660 There's no one on deck. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:09.660 If we abdicate, right, the people whom God has called to be His messengers in the world, 00:25:09.860 --> 00:25:10.600 that's us. 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:11.759 Right? 00:25:11.840 --> 00:25:12.799 Every single Christian. 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:18.180 And so this is the thing that we have to realize, and it is a deep responsibility. 00:25:18.779 --> 00:25:22.180 And we do it in the confidence and the hope of God's sovereignty, but nevertheless, we 00:25:22.180 --> 00:25:26.720 do it realizing that's the very reason that God has put His people on this earth. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:33.279 As Paul says in Romans chapter 10, how then will they call on Him in whom they've not believed? 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:36.480 And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:39.339 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 00:25:39.339 --> 00:25:42.339 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:47.779 As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. 00:25:48.959 --> 00:25:49.579 Let's pray. 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:54.259 Lord, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for Your truth. 00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:56.839 And we thank You that it doesn't depend on us. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:26:02.480 And Lord, I pray that this would be a hope that for those listening who don't know You, 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:10.680 that You would open their eyes to see the truth around them, to recognize the object of that 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:13.880 longing within them, that ache, and the reason it's there. 00:26:14.519 --> 00:26:17.339 I pray that You would open their hearts to the truth of the gospel. 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:22.000 And I pray that You would make it possible for them to hear that gospel through a friend 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:27.559 or a family member or maybe through someone here in this church community, Lord. 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:30.700 And I pray that You would give them the courage to respond in faith, Lord. 00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:33.399 For those of us who are hearing this who are believers, Lord, 00:26:33.419 --> 00:26:40.839 I pray that this would not give us license to abdicate in our responsibility, 00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:42.740 but rather I pray that it would embolden us. 00:26:42.819 --> 00:26:47.159 We recognize that we go in Your power, that when we proclaim the gospel, 00:26:47.319 --> 00:26:49.039 we're proclaiming it with a spiritual power. 00:26:49.319 --> 00:26:52.619 And I pray that knowing that, we would do it all the more, Lord, 00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:53.799 all the more for Your glory. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:55.559 In Your Son's name, amen.