Knowing God through Jesus
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 4 June 2017
As we continue to study Acts 17 we see that Paul was very busy preaching around Athens, but only one sermon is recorded for us. We understand that the reason we are created is to know God. And that is Paul's message in Athens. And people at that time were very similar to the people here in the Rocky mountain area in that their learning was loaded with idolatry and devil worship. So with all their religion, they still didn't know God.
And so Paul reacted to this idolatry by disputing this in the synagogue with the Jews and with those Gentiles attached to Judaism and also preached in the market place daily with people who happened to be there. And verse 18 indicates there were also certain philosophers. Well, his preaching and disputing had such tremendous effect that he was taken before the ruling court, the Areopagus, and he was asked to give an account of what he believed.
Now there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who know God and those who do not know God. Now, of those who know God, they know God through Jesus Christ alone for there is no other way to God except Jesus Christ. And of the people who don't know God, there are two groups. There are those who know they don't know God and there are those who don't know they don't know God.
In John 8, Jesus had a blistering dialogue with the Pharisees, and informed them that they didn't know truth and that their father was not Abraham but their father was the devil. And Jesus answered in verse 54, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me of whom you say that He is your God." In other words, you claim that God is your God but Jesus says in verse 55. "Yet you have not known Him."
In their minds they thought they knew God. But Jesus said you don't know God, but I know Him. Now, here are religious people. Yes. But do they know God? No. You can have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. You can get very emotional about God and not know Him at all. Today there many people involved in biblical studies on a scholarly level who have no actual love for the Scriptures and do not know God.
These are men and women who have advanced degrees and teach classes on the Bible at secular universities and yet do not know Christ. Entire scholarly societies exist for the purpose on critically analyzing the Bible, not for edifying God’s people but for tearing down the text and encouraging unbelief. Jude 1:4 says, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In Romans 2, the Jews boasted that they knew God. In Romans 2:17-18, Paul says, “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, 18 and know His will.” They claimed to approve of excellent things, to be students of the law, to be guides of the blind, lights to those in darkness, instructors of the foolish. Paul says alright if that's true, verse 21, “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself?”
You sure don't act like it. Verse 21-24, “Giving out information that a man should not steal, do you steal? You say that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhors idols, do you rob temples. 23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
But that's the way it is with many people. They don't know that they don't know God. And it is very important that they realize that. In Titus 1:16 Paul is describing the Cretan Jews to Titus, the first pastor in the island of Crete, as he was having a lot of trouble with the Jews there, “They profess that that they know God, but in works they deny Him being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work.”
They have the trappings of religion but they don't know God. And this is the pattern today predominantly, even in Christians. What is it that would make somebody think they knew God if they didn't? Many people know a few things about God and they know a little bit of the Bible and they have some knowledge about the church. And so they equate that with knowing God. It's one thing to know about God; it's something else to really know Him.
There is another reason that people think they know God; they have religious feelings. Have you heard it said: well, I'm very religious. So they sort of sprinkle their regular worldly activity with a little bit of religious salt. They get spiritual goose-pimples just thinking about God. They emotionally react to religion. And they assume that is the knowledge of God.
Now, the third thing that confuses people is they go to church. And they think that going to church automatically is knowing God. In fact, they may put something in the offering. And then they might even close their eyes when somebody prays or reads from the Bible. And they may sing a song. People think they know God because they do things that Christians are supposed to do. They help people and they give to charity.
Some people think they know God somewhat because they at times read the Bible. And they feel that if they know a little bit about the Bible and that's equal to knowing God. You know, whenever Satan could use it for his advantage, he quoted Scripture. That doesn't prove anything. And you know, this is true today of Israel, of Jehovah witnesses and every other cult that comes along. And it is true of all kinds of liberal factions within Christianity.
And as we witness we have to realize that everybody falls into one of these groups. The religious people who think they know God and don't. And the non-religious people who don't know God and know they don't. And so Paul says you don't know God and you have admitted it, so let me introduce Him to you. Now, we have used this three point outline. Getting to know God involves recognizing that God exists, recognizing who God is, and recognizing what God is saying.
First of all, they were not atheists. They believed in gods. But they needed to recognize that there is a God up there that they didn't know. So, first they must recognize that that God exists. In Mark 12:34 Jesus says, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." Why? Because the man said in verse 32, "There is one God and there is none other but He." That man believed that God exists and that there is no other God.
Step two is recognizing who God is. Paul explains that in Acts 17: 24, “God made the world and all things in it." He is the God who creates. And we have discussed an abundance of passages in the previous sermons from Isaiah 45 that indicate that God is the creator God. The second thing that Paul says about God is that He is the ruler. Verse 24. "Seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth." God rules the universe. He not only made it, He continues to uphold it and to rule it.
The third thing Paul says about this God is that He is the giver. Acts 17:25 says, “He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” God is the ruler of the universe, who occupies the heaven and the earth. So you don't worship God as a statue. In realty He indwells us if we believe. And don't ever think that something you do will really help God. No, we are the ones who need help.
And God is the controller. Verse 26, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” God controls men’s destiny and history. This God made everything and keeps it all hanging together. Psalm 31:15 says, "My times are in Your hands." God is operating in history.
And God is also the revealer. Acts 17:27, “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” Do you know why God created, upholds and controls history and destiny through what we call providence? In order that He might reveal Himself. God sustains the universe through providence for one reason only, so that men may see God.
God's objective is that men might see that revelation and follow it and finally know Him fully. God disclosed Himself in all these ways so that men might see who He is that they might follow what He is saying. The natural revelation of conscience and the natural revelation of creation are there that men may seek after God. And there is no excuse for those don't, because the revelation is so dominant.
And remember, He is not far from every one of us. And every man has enough of the revelation of God to be responsible. You see, what the earth is, is God on exhibit. It is idiotic to wander through the world and think, "I wonder if anybody created this." So what happened? Well, man sees the light but he loves his sin more than he loves righteousness. He loves darkness more than he loves light. And he does it because God says, "Their deeds are evil.”
All nations, all men on the face of the earth have the same opportunity to see God. For God is in and around every man. God is the revealer but men have not accepted His revelation. For a long time I wondered if people in parts of the world who had never heard of the gospel, would be held responsible. But then I learned that God does not hold men responsible for what they do not know. But the truth is that God reveals it to every person. And God is not far from any.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You shall seek Me and find when you shall search for Me with all your heart.” Psalm 145:18-19 says, “The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him in truth. 18 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He will hear their cry and will save them.” Oh, that is so important. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Acts 17: 28 says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.” Paul is quoting here two Greek poets who were talking about Zeus. Paul is saying: your own poets in the ignorance of the true God have given us living proof that God is knowable. Even though they attach it to the wrong god, it is obvious to them that there is a God.
Your own poets recognize there must be a God. Paul says you've got to know who God is and know what God is saying. And they never did. There are a lot of people like that. They believe God is the Creator, and the Sustainer. But they don't know God; they just have the wrong god. Verse 29, “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.”
If God made us and we are His offspring, that would mean we are created beings, then God must be more than something we made. God cannot be stone or silver or gold in some kind of artistic representation. If you really want to know God, don't look at some idol and don't go to some shrine. If you want to know God, have a personal relationship with God. And that will bring you to step three: Learn and know what God is saying.
There are the people who know God exists, and who know who God is but they don't know what God is saying. Verses 30-31, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Notice the word ignorance. God is not going to overlook it any more, He commands all men everywhere to repent. The word ‘overlook’ means that God does not actively interfere with special judgment. God dealt with them as in the Old Testament times according to the light they had. There were of course consequences. The wages of sin is death. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
So Paul is saying God was allowing them to live up to the light they had and accepting Him on that basis. In Romans 1:18 Paul says, "The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and all ungodliness of men." It doesn't matter if they are pagans. Of course, wrath operates, of course there are consequences. But God will not actively interfere in the life of the nations with special judgment.
Romans 2:13-15 says, “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience.” The principle is to whom much is given much shall be required.
Notice a powerful transition. “But now God commands all men everywhere to repent.” There is a difference between now and the past. Verse 31, “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Nobody can ever be saved since the cross except by believing in Jesus Christ.
God guaranteed Jesus would be judge in that He raised Him from the dead. And that resurrection was God's approval of Christ. Those were the credentials of Jesus Christ as judge. Acts 17:32-34, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter. 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”
Paul separated the group right out. See, to believe God exists, to believe who God is, causes you to hear and do what God is saying. Remember Matthew 11:27, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” The only people who know God are the ones that know Christ. Do you? Let us pray.