DO NOT WORSHIP AN UNKNOWN GOD

#1 · March 17, 2006, 8:39 am

Quote from Forum Archives on March 17, 2006, 8:39 am
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
DO NOT WORSHIP AN UNKNOWN GOD

March 12, 2006

TEXT: Acts 17:16-23

I attended an Equipping Disciples conference at the end of last month hosted by our Region, American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky. I gained some new insights and ideas in the workshops I attended and had an overall good experience. However, I ended up not being too thrilled with the main speaker, Steve Gerali. Steve is a professor at Azusa Pacific University; he has been a professor on staff at Northern Theological Seminary; and he has served for more than twenty years as pastor in charge of student ministries at various churches. There is no doubt that he has tons of experience in ministry with teenagers and young adults. There is no doubt that he has tons of experience with the cultures of teens and young adults. And, there is no doubt that he has tons of experience with relating those ministries and cultures with academic studies. What caught my attention in our main sessions was the manner in which he attempted to challenge the church in the way it ministers with teenagers and young adults.

In order to make his point, Steve used many encounters from his own experience. One encounter he used as an illustration involved himself, a youth minister colleague, and a teenager. While having coffee with his friend, a teenager approached their table and told the youth minister how much she appreciated the special services he held. The youth minister did not recognize her and tried to place her. He asked which youth group or study group she attended. She replied that she did not attend any of those, but she came to the special youth worship services when he held them. It was there that she felt God. She felt a sense of community with others and with God. Steve used this story to make his point that churches are failing to connect with the young adult, teen, and pre-teen generations because the churches are entrenched in their historical program methods that are no longer seen as relevant.

Usually, I do not have a big problem with the church being challenged. All too often we need to be challenged. Jesus challenged the religious leaders in his day, and so did the apostles who followed him in ministry. Just like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law, we can become too institutionalized for effective ministry. Another way of putting this is set in our ways. We can forget how new and how different and how radical the words of Jesus sounded to the listeners in his day. We can become so used to doing things our way that we fail to keep on being the source of salt and light in our world. We can become too insulated from the issues that hamper our teens and young adults that we fail to share the Gospel in meaningful ways. For Christ-pleasing ministry, the church does need to be an organism not an organization.

But none of this should negate or hamper the Christians responsibility to know God. And knowing God, or experiencing God as Henry Blackaby emphasizes in his popular series, is a responsibility for every Christian. It is fine for that teenage girl to feel in community with God in the services she attended, but if she has no interest in getting to know God further, then she is worshiping an unknown god. She may very well be no different than the Athenians who Paul addressed in his day, and that concerns me.

When Paul observed Athens, he noted that the citizens there were in every way very religious. We may not think so from a moral perspective, but the generations alive now are also very religious. If you dont believe me, just pay attention to most automobile ads. Almost always, you will not hear any significant description of the vehicle being advertised. Instead, you will be told that driving that vehicle will be a transformational experience. You will be a connected part of a driving experience in that vehicle. The advertisers of Madison Avenue know that we are very religious, and they are tapping into it by recognizing that people today want very much to make a spiritual connection. Of course, the spiritual connections they are suggesting we make are at the altars of the gods and goddesses of mythology. But make no mistake about it, the generations alive today are very religious; they have a longing to make a spiritual connection.

As Pauls presence became known in Athens, he caught the attention of some of these religious people by preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. At this point, Paul did not do what some scholars suggest we do today in order to reach teens and young adults. Paul did not hold a worship service in the attempt to make a mystical connection between these very religious people and some higher power. Instead, he explained clearly the revelation of God. He testified how these very religious people could know and experience the revealed, living God.

Now do not take me the wrong way here. I will never underrate the importance and primacy of worship; neither will I falsely separate worship from witness or witness from worship. What I learn from Paul is that it is important to reveal to spiritual seekers who the unknown god is. Until the revealed, living God becomes known, our worship will be to an unknown god. As far as I know from what I have been told, that teenage girls spiritual connection in worship is with an unknown god. Now I hope thats not the case; I hope that she has heard about the revealed, living God who is the recipient of worship in their services; but, it sounds like to me that she had resisted the efforts to that point to get to know the living God and, consequently, was failing to experience God even in worship. Pauls response to his discovery of an altar with an inscription to an unknown god is this: Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Paul did not worship an unknown god.

Paul then testifies to those at the Areopagus, a type of council that inquired into the ideas of philosophy and theology, exactly who God is. The important point to keep in mind about Pauls descriptions in verses 24-31, as well as in all the other places in Scripture where a human is describing God, is that they are not being made up. They are part of Gods self-revelation, and they match Gods revealed nature throughout Scripture. This is why it is important to know God. Feeling a spiritual connection in a worship service is a fine thing, but worshipers can feel a spiritual connection in a Buddhist worship service, a Taoist worship service, a pagan worship service, an Islamic worship service. You name the religion, and we can find someone who has experienced a spiritual connection in that service. The problem is, of course, that the worship is not to the revealed, living God. It is to a false god, in those instances, or to an unknown god in general.

In contrast, Paul is very specific about the revealed God. And why not? After all, God has revealed Himself. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. Paul makes a careful distinction between the false or unknown gods and the living, revealed God. The gods of myth and idol are created by humans! Paul later tells them, Therefore since we are Gods offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by mans hand and skill. The revealed God was not created by men or women; instead, He created us! He created everything about us! And He created everything we need! That is a truthful reality we need to believe; otherwise, we will be worshiping an unknown god.

Paul continues in verse 26, From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. He did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Paul reconfirms what he told the Athenians and what he tells us: that we are very religious. We long for contact with the divine. Even when we do not know who the divine is, or reject Him if we do, we are still very religious. We still seek Him. It is built into us. Only the hardest of hearts rejects the idea that each individual is completely self-sufficient. We are always reaching out to try to connect with that other who is out there. The good news is that God is not far away from each of us. As Paul teaches, the unknown god is proclaimed.

If you recall from last week, I referred to the Share Jesus Without Fear model of evangelism. The fifth question to determine whether the Spirit is providing the moment of conviction is, If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it? If the answer is no, end of witness. If it is yes, then the witness proceeds to share from the Bible. Paul sort of applies the same method here as he completes his proclamation in verses 30 and 31, In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

What happens immediately afterward? When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered They did not care to know whether what they believed was true or not. Others had a different reaction, we want to hear you again on this subject. With these men, Paul had the opportunity to testify about the salvation offered to men through Jesus. The result? A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Here the New International Version could be better worded. The King James reads, certain men clave unto him That is, some men joined Paul and believed. They did not become believers of Paul; they were not Paulians. In context, the implied subject of belief, of course, is God revealed in Christ Jesus. They were Christians.

Now they could worship! Now they could make that spiritual connection and feel connected to God and community in and through worship. Now they knew that their worship was not to an unknown god. They worshipped the revealed, living God.

That is Who we are supposed to worship as well. Child, pre-teen, teenager, young adult, middle-aged adult, second-childhood adult (isnt that they say happens in older adult years - we enter our second childhood?). It doesnt matter what our chronological age is; we are to seek to know the self-revealed God and worship Him. Members of Christs Church - born-again Christians - are to proclaim the known God. Do not worship an unknown god. That is the challenge that the Church needs to hear and the challenge the Church needs to meet. We dont celebrate because someone feels a spiritual connection in a worship service; we celebrate because a fellow pilgrim created by God believes and accepts the risen Jesus as Lord and Savior by confessing their sins, repenting, and being born-again. Worshipping God who has made Himself known - now thats a worship we can celebrate! Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you He has given proof of all this by raising him from the dead.

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana
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Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

March 12, 2006

TEXT: Acts 17:16-23

I attended an Equipping Disciples conference at the end of last month hosted by our Region, American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky. I gained some new insights and ideas in the workshops I attended and had an overall good experience. However, I ended up not being too thrilled with the main speaker, Steve Gerali. Steve is a professor at Azusa Pacific University; he has been a professor on staff at Northern Theological Seminary; and he has served for more than twenty years as pastor in charge of student ministries at various churches. There is no doubt that he has tons of experience in ministry with teenagers and young adults. There is no doubt that he has tons of experience with the cultures of teens and young adults. And, there is no doubt that he has tons of experience with relating those ministries and cultures with academic studies. What caught my attention in our main sessions was the manner in which he attempted to challenge the church in the way it ministers with teenagers and young adults.

In order to make his point, Steve used many encounters from his own experience. One encounter he used as an illustration involved himself, a youth minister colleague, and a teenager. While having coffee with his friend, a teenager approached their table and told the youth minister how much she appreciated the special services he held. The youth minister did not recognize her and tried to place her. He asked which youth group or study group she attended. She replied that she did not attend any of those, but she came to the special youth worship services when he held them. It was there that she felt God. She felt a sense of community with others and with God. Steve used this story to make his point that churches are failing to connect with the young adult, teen, and pre-teen generations because the churches are entrenched in their historical program methods that are no longer seen as relevant.

Usually, I do not have a big problem with the church being challenged. All too often we need to be challenged. Jesus challenged the religious leaders in his day, and so did the apostles who followed him in ministry. Just like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law, we can become too institutionalized for effective ministry. Another way of putting this is set in our ways. We can forget how new and how different and how radical the words of Jesus sounded to the listeners in his day. We can become so used to doing things our way that we fail to keep on being the source of salt and light in our world. We can become too insulated from the issues that hamper our teens and young adults that we fail to share the Gospel in meaningful ways. For Christ-pleasing ministry, the church does need to be an organism not an organization.

But none of this should negate or hamper the Christians responsibility to know God. And knowing God, or experiencing God as Henry Blackaby emphasizes in his popular series, is a responsibility for every Christian. It is fine for that teenage girl to feel in community with God in the services she attended, but if she has no interest in getting to know God further, then she is worshiping an unknown god. She may very well be no different than the Athenians who Paul addressed in his day, and that concerns me.

When Paul observed Athens, he noted that the citizens there were in every way very religious. We may not think so from a moral perspective, but the generations alive now are also very religious. If you dont believe me, just pay attention to most automobile ads. Almost always, you will not hear any significant description of the vehicle being advertised. Instead, you will be told that driving that vehicle will be a transformational experience. You will be a connected part of a driving experience in that vehicle. The advertisers of Madison Avenue know that we are very religious, and they are tapping into it by recognizing that people today want very much to make a spiritual connection. Of course, the spiritual connections they are suggesting we make are at the altars of the gods and goddesses of mythology. But make no mistake about it, the generations alive today are very religious; they have a longing to make a spiritual connection.

As Pauls presence became known in Athens, he caught the attention of some of these religious people by preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. At this point, Paul did not do what some scholars suggest we do today in order to reach teens and young adults. Paul did not hold a worship service in the attempt to make a mystical connection between these very religious people and some higher power. Instead, he explained clearly the revelation of God. He testified how these very religious people could know and experience the revealed, living God.

Now do not take me the wrong way here. I will never underrate the importance and primacy of worship; neither will I falsely separate worship from witness or witness from worship. What I learn from Paul is that it is important to reveal to spiritual seekers who the unknown god is. Until the revealed, living God becomes known, our worship will be to an unknown god. As far as I know from what I have been told, that teenage girls spiritual connection in worship is with an unknown god. Now I hope thats not the case; I hope that she has heard about the revealed, living God who is the recipient of worship in their services; but, it sounds like to me that she had resisted the efforts to that point to get to know the living God and, consequently, was failing to experience God even in worship. Pauls response to his discovery of an altar with an inscription to an unknown god is this: Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Paul did not worship an unknown god.

Paul then testifies to those at the Areopagus, a type of council that inquired into the ideas of philosophy and theology, exactly who God is. The important point to keep in mind about Pauls descriptions in verses 24-31, as well as in all the other places in Scripture where a human is describing God, is that they are not being made up. They are part of Gods self-revelation, and they match Gods revealed nature throughout Scripture. This is why it is important to know God. Feeling a spiritual connection in a worship service is a fine thing, but worshipers can feel a spiritual connection in a Buddhist worship service, a Taoist worship service, a pagan worship service, an Islamic worship service. You name the religion, and we can find someone who has experienced a spiritual connection in that service. The problem is, of course, that the worship is not to the revealed, living God. It is to a false god, in those instances, or to an unknown god in general.

In contrast, Paul is very specific about the revealed God. And why not? After all, God has revealed Himself. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. Paul makes a careful distinction between the false or unknown gods and the living, revealed God. The gods of myth and idol are created by humans! Paul later tells them, Therefore since we are Gods offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by mans hand and skill. The revealed God was not created by men or women; instead, He created us! He created everything about us! And He created everything we need! That is a truthful reality we need to believe; otherwise, we will be worshiping an unknown god.

Paul continues in verse 26, From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. He did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Paul reconfirms what he told the Athenians and what he tells us: that we are very religious. We long for contact with the divine. Even when we do not know who the divine is, or reject Him if we do, we are still very religious. We still seek Him. It is built into us. Only the hardest of hearts rejects the idea that each individual is completely self-sufficient. We are always reaching out to try to connect with that other who is out there. The good news is that God is not far away from each of us. As Paul teaches, the unknown god is proclaimed.

If you recall from last week, I referred to the Share Jesus Without Fear model of evangelism. The fifth question to determine whether the Spirit is providing the moment of conviction is, If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it? If the answer is no, end of witness. If it is yes, then the witness proceeds to share from the Bible. Paul sort of applies the same method here as he completes his proclamation in verses 30 and 31, In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

What happens immediately afterward? When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered They did not care to know whether what they believed was true or not. Others had a different reaction, we want to hear you again on this subject. With these men, Paul had the opportunity to testify about the salvation offered to men through Jesus. The result? A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Here the New International Version could be better worded. The King James reads, certain men clave unto him That is, some men joined Paul and believed. They did not become believers of Paul; they were not Paulians. In context, the implied subject of belief, of course, is God revealed in Christ Jesus. They were Christians.

Now they could worship! Now they could make that spiritual connection and feel connected to God and community in and through worship. Now they knew that their worship was not to an unknown god. They worshipped the revealed, living God.

That is Who we are supposed to worship as well. Child, pre-teen, teenager, young adult, middle-aged adult, second-childhood adult (isnt that they say happens in older adult years - we enter our second childhood?). It doesnt matter what our chronological age is; we are to seek to know the self-revealed God and worship Him. Members of Christs Church - born-again Christians - are to proclaim the known God. Do not worship an unknown god. That is the challenge that the Church needs to hear and the challenge the Church needs to meet. We dont celebrate because someone feels a spiritual connection in a worship service; we celebrate because a fellow pilgrim created by God believes and accepts the risen Jesus as Lord and Savior by confessing their sins, repenting, and being born-again. Worshipping God who has made Himself known - now thats a worship we can celebrate! Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you He has given proof of all this by raising him from the dead.

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana

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