What do you worship? I’ll put it another way. What do you give most of your time, attention, energy, emotions, and money to? What is of the highest importance in your life?
Every one of us has a natural need to worship. Therefore we look for things, people, or ideas to lift up as god in our life. Unfortunately, when we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that none of these things seems to fill our need to worship. The desire to worship something and hold it high remains. So we replace our little god with another little god. And we remain unfilled and unsatisfied. Even worshiping ourselves is disappointing.
Is there a god worthy of our worship?
The people of Athens thought that there must be, they just didn’t know him yet, so they worshipped a god named “The Unknown God.” And one day, the apostle Paul came along and gave that Unknown God a name.
Let’s read Acts 17:22-31 and meet him ourselves.
Who is the Unknown God
As Paul spent time in Athens he observed something. He observed that they were very religious people. The evidence of this was clear. There were objects of worship everywhere. There were altars, shrines, and idols all around him, and the people were devoted to them.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see the altars, shrines, and idols all around us today. They take the shape of our possessions, our family members, our careers and money, and even our beliefs, ideologies, and values. We are very religious people, but still, we are groping about in the darkness looking for God.
The lost state of the Athenians is evidence that it is possible to be “very religious” and still very lost.
We need to meet the Unknown God. Here’s what Paul tells us about him.
First, he is the creator of the universe. He writes,
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 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
All of our gods are made by human hands, either by our own or by others. As a result, they depend upon us in one sense or another. And, we control them to one degree or another. But not the Unknown God. He made us and every other thing that exists. He cannot be possessed or controlled, and he certainly does not need us to take care of him.
Instead, the second thing Paul tells us about him is that he sustains us. He gives us “life and breath and everything.” He tells the Colossians the same thing when he says of Jesus that “all things were created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16)
We live as if our gods exist for us, and we are disappointed by them. We ought to live as if we exist for God, specifically for his glory. In doing so, we will find true fulfillment, joy, and peace.
The third thing Paul says about the Unknown God is that he is the ruler of all the nations. He sets their boundaries. He decides how long they will exist, and he sets their geographic boundaries. The God who created all things does not even depend on a nation to keep him alive or relevant. When we are tempted to make our country our god or lift our political ideologies to a place of the highest importance, we do well to remember even God’s chosen nation, was chosen not because of their greatness, but despite their insignificance.
God is not ruled by nations, he rules them.
Next, he tells them that God is the Father of all human beings. Out of one man, Adam, he created every person. We are all his offspring. There are two implications to this truth. One, there is no chance that God is not your Father. So there is no chance that you are beyond his love and grace. Second, because he is our Father, we are obligated to obey him. His laws apply to every person.
You might want to say, “he isn’t my father, so I don’t have to obey him,” but we all know that we don’t get to pick our fathers. You are his offspring, whether you want to be or not, and as such your disobedience is on record.
That brings us to the fifth and last thing Paul said about God in Athens. God is the judge of the world. He said, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness…” (Acts 17:30).
One of the things that makes God worthy of our worship is the fact that he is holy and in his holiness he rightly judges the world. Most of the things we worship hold little power over us and they certainly cannot judge us with the threat of eternal separation and death. That’s why they never truly capture our hearts. Because if they lack holiness then they are flawed. And if they can’t judge and exact real punishment, then they certainly can’t save. And that’s why worship anything; to find salvation.
Our lives are filled with wants, and fears of losing what we have, or never gaining what we desire most – peace. So we worship things, people, ideas, and a host of others. And we remain lost. We continue to grope about.
But when we meet the Unknown God, we encounter something altogether different. We encounter someone who can deliver us from our fears, our emptiness, and our hopelessness. We find someone who can save us. We find someone worthy of our worship.
How Should We Respond to Him
So, how should we respond to him? Paul tells us.
- First, we should seek him as one who is near, not far off (vs. 27).
- Second, we should stop treating Him like an object that we can possess and control (vs. 29).
- Third, we should repent of all our sins against him (vs. 30).
- Fourth, we should worship him. After all, he raised Jesus from the dead to assure us of his love for us and give us the hope of eternal life. (vs 31)
If there is one thing I want you to know about God today, it is this. He is not far off. There may be times when you feel lost and lonely. The God you need is there. The other things in which you put your hope go away and even when they are close they don’t meet the need. They usually create more needs. They usually leave us feeling more empty and alone than we were when we picked them up and worshiped them.
But God, he’s with you always. Yes, he judges sin, but in Christ, sin finds forgiveness and the darkness in our souls turns to light. So, turn to him, love him, and worship him. He does not disappoint and he is worthy of it all.
