Acts 17:22-31                     The Unknown God???                                   21/5/17

{22) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. {23} For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. {24} "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. {25} 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. {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. {27} God 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. {28} 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' {29} "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. {30} In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. {31} 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."

Today we have many people acknowledging AN UNKNOWN GOD. Most people will say they believe in God; but they do not really know him; who he is or what he is like; or take him all that seriously. This god is someone out there who has set the world in motion and then left it to run by itself; and is a god who will receive them all into heaven when their time is up here on earth.

Sadly, we also have many today who claim that there is no God. They have hardened their hearts to such an extent, that their egotism will not allow even their conscience to remind them of the reality of the God who is there. They seek their meaning for existence in the goodness of humanity, but are all left in wonderment and despair.

However, just as in Athens of Paul’s day, so also we today have many objects of worship, but to the people who worship them, they have little connection to the true God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On Anzac Day there was great reverence and crowds of people, all remembering the heroics of great men; and seeking to gain strength and courage for our nation from this. This is good, up to a point. We need to be thankful for those who lived and died for their nation.

Then we have perhaps the greatest religion of our time, football. Crowds of people will reverently attend and sing the praises of their team. Here is their great escape from the day to day life. Then of course, there is the great Australian dollar and materialism that is seen as that which will give us what we need so that we can be truly happy.

 All Australians look up to and see many things as being that which will give us what we need for this life and beyond. However, all these form of reverence and idealism that do not have their basis in the One True God, are a problem and will leave us short of what we really need.

On top of that we have people religiously following Allah, Budda and many other similar gods and new age thinking. The thinking is that here is the one who should be worshipped. However, they are not the true and only God: The one who is the Lord of heaven and earth. So we cannot accept them as being on the same path to heaven, or tolerate them as a real expression of Christianity. They are religious, but not worshippers of God Almighty himself.

Sadly, too often, even within Christian circles there are many people who are religious; but who do not know God. They know all kinds of facts about him, but they do not know him. Others believe and speak of a god and worship him, without understanding and accepting Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came and died on the cross for our salvation. Others acknowledge God; but they make no attempt to listen to or heed what he has to say. Others think that the only way they will be acceptable to him, is to live up to a certain standard of “Christian life” or have certain spiritual experiences.

Here in the face of all of this religious thinking, the true God, through Paul, is proclaiming very clearly who he is. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. In other words, he is the one and only true God that can be found anywhere. He is the Almighty God who is supreme over all. There are no other Gods besides him. He alone then is the one who is to be worshipped and glorified. He alone is the one who is to be looked up to and followed. Every other object of worship is a worthless idol and a distraction from what is right and true; and in the end will prove disastrous.

This Lord of heaven and earth we are reminded here is not a God who is limited to churches, statues, books or anything else at all. As much as he is there in all of those things, he is much more and beyond anything that we could possibly make him to be. He is not a God who conforms to our limitations and thinking. He does not even need us to serve him. He is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:6)  He is as we learnt in our confirmation lessons; omni almost everything; unlimited by time, space, and in power, knowledge and understanding. His greatness is way beyond human understanding.

Yet as we heard in our Gospel reading today; he chooses to live with you and will be in you. (John 14:17) That is all who believe, trust and desire to live in him. Jesus goes on to say; I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:18-20) This great God has chosen to dwell with and in us human beings; his creation. Isn’t that something amazing!

Particularly when we remember that we are not the centre of the world. The world does not revolve around us; but the Almighty God is the centre of it all. He himself gives all men [all people] life and breath and everything else. And not just gives us life, but he determined the times set for us and the exact places where we should live. God did this so that all people would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Even though he the Supreme Being he is at work in our lives and is close to us.

Even though we have sinned and chosen to go our own way, he allows troubles and hardships to be a part of our lives so that we would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him. He does not erase us from the face of the earth because of our selfish egotism, but works through all the mistakes we make and difficulties that are imposed on us by a sinful world. He is constantly seeking to draw us to himself; trying to make us aware that we need him and the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won for us through his life, death and resurrection. 

Through Jesus and his death on the cross and our connection to him and his death and resurrection, through our baptism, we are assured that we are now God’s children. His Spirit now lives in us and goes with us as we live out our lives day by day. We are God’s offspring.

Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. Since he has done all of this for us and continues to live with us and in us, now we surely will treat him with much respect. We will trust him and take him seriously. He will mean much more to us than our money, material things and technology. We will not treat him as a possession or as one who should do what we want him to do.

Surely we will look up to him; wanting to live in a close personal relationship with him; wanting to be where he wants us to be and to do what he wants us to do. What is important to him will be important to us. We take what he has to say in the Bible as his Word, instead of twisting, changing and ignoring what it says. He will be our Lord and our God.

Here let us not forget those other words that he spoke also. 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.

So we are reminded that he does look closely at who we are and what we think, say and do. His Son Jesus, who came into our world and died on the cross for us, will also come and judge us all on that last day. He knows if we have taken him seriously or not. He knows what we believe and whether we trust him and all that he has done for us. Take note; he knows and he judges.

So take heart; here we are reminded again that our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for real. He is the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth. He is the only true God and he seeks to be not far from each one of us. He loves us, forgives us and made us his very own. Believe him. Trust in him; and take him seriously. For to him alone belongs all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish

John 14:1-14                       Show us God???                                                               14/5/17

¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

We all have our own ideas of what God is like. All of us. Even those who try to convince themselves that there is no God. Deep down we all know that there is a God ‘out there’ somewhere. We also know that in the end we are answerable to him.

However, the question for us all is; who is he and what is he really like? If only we could see him and know what he is all about, then we could be sure. Particularly now as we reflect on the news of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. Is this for real? And can we be sure that it is not just a story, or at least a twisting of something that may have happened? “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Then we can be sure.

But of course that raises the real problem for us. Do we really want to know? You see, we know that there is a God and we also know that we have not taken him seriously and that we will be answerable for that. We have disobeyed him and we expect that he will punish us for it. Why else do we so often say, ‘I hope I will be in heaven’. We know that we are far from being the people that God would have us be. We know what we deserve, but we don’t want to think about it or acknowledge it.

Along with this, our sinful human nature wants ‘to be like God.’ Or perhaps more to the point, make God into the image that we want him to be. So God becomes in our thinking, the kind of god that we would like him to be. So we ignore those aspects of God in the Bible that we don’t like and highlight that which we like. So God becomes a god of our own making.

In this way we then can in some way appease our consciences and allow ourselves to live and do what we want. For instance, today many believe and teach that God is an all-loving and accepting God, but ignore his holiness, righteousness and wrath. So we ignore his Law and simply focus on the Gospel. Without the Law then, the Gospel – that is Jesus death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, becomes a nonsense. Christianity becomes nothing but a feel good religion, with no real substance or meaning.

But again deep down we know that this is not the case. We know that there is much more to God than that. We are just trying to convince ourselves that we can ignore the hard stuff and in the end God will accept us no matter what. As long as I am “sincere,” and as long as I live a reasonably good life, then ‘she’ll be right mate.’ But we are merely hoping that this is the case and that our deep conscience is wrong.

Now, here in this reading we have Phillip struggling to come to terms with who this Jesus is and who God is, and how much to take seriously Jesus and what his Word says. He, like us, seemed to be struggling with who Jesus was and what God was about, in and through Jesus. How can we be sure about all this stuff that Jesus is talking about and more?

In response to Jesus saying that he is going to heaven to prepare a place for us, Phillip asks: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” To which, Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

So here we have Jesus laying it on the line for Phillip and for us. For starters, again the clear point is that Jesus alone is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. He is our only access to God and eternal life.

He is not one way amongst many. Muslim, Hindu, Good works ‘christianity’, Pentecostalism and many others are not other ways for us to gain access into heaven. Nor is living a good ethical life [whatever that might mean], or I am a reasonably good bloke so I will be okay. Jesus Christ and his death on the cross is our only way through the mess of this life and into heaven.

So also, He is not one truth amongst many other truths we might want to make as the truth. He alone knows what is good and right for us. After all he was the creator of all, so he knows how it all works and what is best. Because he is all-knowing he is far superior to our frail human nature that is turned in on itself. So what he has given us in his Word – the Bible – is the truth that we need to know in order to get through this life and into the next.

Then also we are told that: He is not one life here and in eternity, amongst other eternal lives that we might like to think there are out there. If we are to truly live as we are intended to, then we are to be connected to he who is life itself – Jesus Christ. He again knows what life is meant to be for us. Any other life that we might think is appropriate is futile and empty. In the end they all will lead to disaster and death. Christ alone is life and gives life.

Following on from that Jesus again reiterates the point the no one comes to Father except through him. He alone is the only way to God’s presence and eternal life. It has to be, because in the Old Testament God it quite clear that sinful humanity – that is all of us – cannot come into God’s presence. His holiness would burn us up and destroy us.

So how does God uphold his holiness and yet make it possible for us to come into his presence? His Son’s coming into our world was for that very purpose. He takes our sinfulness on himself and allows God to punish him. God upholds his holiness by punishing all sin. His love is fulfilled in his forgiveness being extended to all of believe and are connected to this Jesus.

In this way forgiveness and acceptance is made possible for all who are connected to this Jesus Christ. So now when God looks at those who are in Christ he sees the perfection of his Son. There alone then we have access into God’s presence and eternal life.

But again then the question is raised, how can we know that this is all for real? Are the people out there who say this is a made up story, right? It all sounds a bit far-fetched and odd? Phillip says what is in the back of our minds. “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Then we can be sure. Then we can take all this seriously.

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  

So there is our answer. There is our proof. Jesus and the Father are one – they are in each other. When Jesus speaks, he speaks what his Father would have him speak and have all the authority of God almighty himself. All that Jesus said and did was what God himself wanted said and done.

The works that Jesus did, themselves are clear evidence of this. All the miracles that Jesus did were clearly seen to be only that which God himself can do. Even when he spoke it was commented that he spoke with the authority of God. Then he goes to Jerusalem to die on the cross, just as was prophesied hundreds and hundreds of years before hand. There is absolute proof even today that this is the case.

But then most telling of all; this Jesus rose from the dead after dying on the cross. After three days he arises just as he said would happen. This is the miracle of all miracles. Again this could be proven in a Court of Law today, to have really happened, even though it is humanly impossible.

The works of God are clear. The evidence is there that this Jesus is every bit in the Father and the Father in him. God has shown himself to us so that we can know for sure. Everything that he has said, done and promised is true and can be relied on. So we can go forward with a sure and certain hope into the future. Jesus is who he said he is, and the life and salvation that he has won for us can be relied on. So to him again then, be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish

John 10:1-10.                      Jesus Christ - only gate to life!!                                   7/5/17

1 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Very truly we have here another important message for us that results from Jesus’ death and resurrection. Here we are clearly told that this Jesus is our only access to God and all that he has in mind for us. To have the safety and security of being in God’s presence in heaven, we can only do so through Jesus Christ. And his death and resurrection is what guarantees and makes it a certainty.

There is no other way. Anyone who seeks access through any other way or means is a thief and a robber who is up to no good. This is an important message then, at a time when we are being encouraged to accept all kinds of views and ways as being equally acceptable.

Yet at the same time we have many desperately seeking to have the real sense of peace, hope and security that we know deep down should be there for us. We long for a life of no suffering, pain and death; Eternal life with the very best of everything. We all would like to have this. We long for it.

Here we are reminded that it is there for us, and the ‘gate’ to it is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way, despite all that is said by many around us. Jesus says: Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. He is very emphatic about this point. He only uses those words Very truly when he is making a very serious point; such as we have here.

To add to this, he says I am the gate. Now when he says I am, this is a direct reference to him being Almighty God himself. Remember when Moses asked God who he was at the burning bush, the reply came back; ‘I am who I am’ – Jahweh is the Hebrew word. This was the name that God’s people ever since knew this Almighty God by. This is the one and only true God that there is. He created, rescued and established them as people, and through whom he promised salvation for all people.

Here we have Jesus using a reference to this name for himself. Here God himself is speaking, so we had better ‘shut up and listen’ and take seriously what he is saying. The great ‘I am’ who created this world, and when it rebelled against him, he promised a way out for us all so that we can again be restored to the paradise that we long for.

Even more than that, he himself came into this world to be its saviour. He dies on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserve on himself so that we might be forgiven and once more be acceptable to God Almighty himself. Then he was raised again from the dead so that we can be absolutely sure that all of this is for real and important for us and our future.

Now here he tells us that this “I am”, himself, is the gate through whom alone we can enter this paradise. There alone is our hope for the future, in the midst of the troubles, disasters and death that we have created for ourselves, and yet long for a way out of. We are to look to and trust him alone to get us safely into paradise with himself.

He alone is the Lord of life and the only avenue through which to find the safety and life that is truly good. In him alone is salvation and eternal life possible. Freedom from everything harmful and bad is possible only through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. They are seeking access through means that are not good or valid. Ultimately they will still not be a part of God’s family in heaven. No matter how much they might quote the bible and use nice words. If Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins is not central, there is a real problem.

That same implication is there for those who are trying to tell us that there are any number of other ways for us to get to heaven. Jesus is addressing the Pharisees who telling the people they would be acceptable to God if they lived up to certain standard. So if they were good enough and did what ‘good Jews’ do they could enter God’s kingdom. But the focus was on themselves and what they were doing, in order to be acceptable. There was no acknowledgement of their sinfulness and inability to do so without God’s help.

Today if you are a sincere ‘Christian’, Muslim, Hindu or whatever you are acceptable. ‘We are all on the same path to God’ we are told again and again. So if you are good ‘moral people’, whatever that is, then you are okay. Even when it comes to non-religious people, as long as they are reasonably ‘good’ people then they will be up there too. Jesus is not necessary, other than as a good example.

Yet that is not what Jesus tells us here. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Those who listen to any other voice other than Jesus Christ are in trouble. Anyone who tries to tell us things other than what we have in God’s Word and which points to the centrality of Jesus and his death on the cross are not speaking on behalf of God. In fact, they are speaking on behalf of the great thief and robber, Satan himself.

He, and our sinful human nature, wants to put the focus on ourselves and what we are doing. It wants us to think that our thinking and reasoning is what is important. It wants to shift the focus from Christ and the cross to something else, for our confidence and hope. We can decide or not how we want to get through life and be able to access heaven. We are not to listen to and follow these voices.

Here Jesus says of us: But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. So we are to be wary of what voices we are listening to. We are to run away from those who are avoiding speaking about the centrality of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

It is interesting in my time in the ministry that when people are grounded in and surrounded by this Good News of Jesus Christ, they righty become very wary of those who speak a nice, soft and easy message. They do not recognize a stranger’s voice. They know the importance of what Jesus came into this world to do by dying on the cross. They avoid that which seeks to lead them subtly away from Jesus.

I believe it comes down to the fact that they know and take seriously what Jesus has done for them through his death and resurrection. They as a result hold him alone up as the Lord of life. So they then accept what he says about him being the only access into his kingdom. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

And he goes on to say: When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. So they know what is important because they take him and his word seriously. They accept that what is in the Bible as his Word in its entirety. They do not seek to twist and change it to their own whims and wishes. Nor do they downplay and lessen the importance of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

So they go forward boldly and confidently, know that as they follow their Lord through the gate they will find all that they need. The future will all work out for good. They will be led through the rough and tumble of this life and then into eternal glory where they will have all that they need – the very best of everything, with nothing more to worry about.  

This all being the case, let us here seek to ever listen to our Lord Jesus and all that he has to say to us. Let us also recognise that Jesus Christ and his death on the cross is our only access into God’s presence for eternity.

Jesus says: I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

 To him then be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish