Text: Acts 17:22-31
IS CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE RELIGION?
Is Christianity the true religion? This is the last in a series of questions that we have examined together during these summer months. It is a good question because we live in a country and in an age where there are numerous religions to choose from. Each offers their own version of peace and fulfillment and each claim to be equally valid. So how can we know if Christianity is the true religion? I could say because the Bible says so - the Word of God makes it clear that there is only one way to God and that is through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the person who wrote this question anticipated that answer and not only asked, "How can we know that our faith is the true faith and not the others?" but added, "Do we have any proof other than the Bible?" That kind of constricts things, doesn't it? But it does not make an answer impossible. The apostle Paul had a similar challenge as he met with a group who wanted to know about his faith in Christ. This group lived in Athens, they were all very smart and apparently did nothing all day but discuss the latest and newest ideas. They did not know their Bible though, so as Paul tells them about the truth of the living God - not by quoting scripture but by appealing to what is known to his listeners. He does not quote scripture but he does tell them about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and they want to hear more. We read about it in Acts 17 starting in verse 22. Let's go through this and to discover an answer to our question today: “Is Christianity the true religion?" Paul stands before this group and says,
And that is true - historians confirm that as Paul walked around the city he would have seen idol after idol - images of Apollo, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Neptune, all the gods of Olympus. He would have seen innumerable temples, shrines, statues and altars throughout the city. One ancient historian with an obvious sense of humor said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than a man. "I even found an altar dedicated to an unknown god," says Paul. And he goes on in the last part of verse 23, "What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." So Paul says, “That which you are ignorant about I am going to proclaim to you. I'm going to tell you about the living God, the true God.” And Paul says there are two witnesses to the reality of God, three witnesses that testify that our faith is the true faith. One is creation itself. We read:
Paul proclaims the God who made the world and everything in it. I believe that creation testifies to the reality of the living God. Indeed Scripture says,
Abraham Lincoln once said, "I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."1 As we listen carefully to nature it shouts out to us, "There is a God; there is a God." We cannot, I cannot look up and around at nature and say that there is no God. No, an important part of my testimony is that I found God in the garden, in the beauty of the rose petal, in the grandeur of a sunset, and the goodness of a beefsteak tomato. During our holidays there was a meteor shower on August 11 and 12 - did you watch it? We did, and as we watched it I could not help but think of our great God who carefully calls each star out by name. I could never believe that this world happened by chance. There is a designer behind it all - just as I cannot believe that this watch with all its complex gears and mechanisms came into being without an intelligent designer so I cannot believe that this world came into being without an intelligent designer. Nature, says Paul, testifies to the reality of a living, powerful, God. While this does not prove that our faith is the true faith it does lay an important foundation. And that is that we worship the living God who is different from the gods of other religions in that He created all things, sustains all things and rules all things. He is the God above all gods. He does not live in shrines and is dependent on our service as if He needed anything from us. He is the great lifegiver, the great first cause. He is the one from whom all things come and in whom all things subsist. Creation testifies to this. We worship the true and living God. Paul continues,
How do we know that our faith is the true faith - without using the testimony of God's Word? Creation tells me of the existence of God, and my own heart tells me of my need for God. God created us, giving us live from one man and one woman, setting all in motion so that we would, in verse 27, “search for Him, perhaps grope for Him and find Him.” My own heart tells me my need for God, for my heart has needs that only God can meet. I need God to thank. When something wonderful happens in my life, or when looking up at the night’s sky, or when I think of my wife and my children I need God to thank. I need God to guide me when I am confused about what I am to do and where I am to go. I need God to comfort me and understand me when sorrow and loss comes into my life. I need God to forgive me when sin overwhelms me and leaves me desolate. My heart longs for God and if you were honest, you would have to admit that yours does too. You see, God has placed in each one of us, what one theologian calls, "An incurable God sickness". There is a hunger and a thirst for God in our hearts that can only be satisfied by God Himself. Why? Because, says Paul, quoting one of the poets of the day, we are his offspring - that is, God has created us, all of creation finds its root in Him, and we have been created in His image, so that there is a longing for our hearts to find its true home. There is a legend that comes from the Hebrides, the beautiful Scottish Islands. A legend that tells of a god who lived in the depths of the sea, and who could only live in water and if he came to the surface, it could only be for a short time. This god greatly desired to have a human baby as a companion and therefore every little baby in the Hebrides was in danger and when the boats went one island to another, they guarded the children because the god, they said, would pursue the boat and snatch the child if he could. One day a little baby was carried in a boat to another island and this god pursued and got near to the boat but the oarsman managed to ground the boat on a nearby island before the god could reach it. But just as the baby was being lifted out of the boat the god took a wavelet and flung it into the baby's heart and then sank down to his place beneath the sea. And as he did so, the god said to himself, "one day that baby will come back to me because the sea is in his heart." Years later they say the villagers saw a young man in a rowboat, rowing out into a part of the sea where there was no land nearby. The villagers watched as the young man rowed out into the middle of the lonely sea. And suddenly they could see the young man fling down his oars stand up and raise his arms and dive into the sea. He could no longer resist the lure of the sea which the god had placed in his heart. A legend. What that legend is saying is what one Christian (Augustine) said to God a long time ago, "Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." My heart does not want the god of the Muslims who demands that I pray a proscribed prayer five times a day, that I must make the trip to Mecca in my lifetime - that I must do good works to win his favour. No my heart wants a God of grace, a God who loves me has given himself for me so that I can live for Him. My heart does not want the god of the Hindus - made of wood, stone and clay. Impersonal, and distant. No my heart longs for a God who will walk with me through the mountains and valley's of life, a God who is not hidden but who can be known and wants to be with me even as I want to be with Him. And we have such a God, don't we? He is revealed to us through the person of Jesus Christ. That's why our hearts jump when we hear the good news of Jesus proclaimed. That's why our pulse quickens when we see the life of Christ lived in the lives of others - and we say in our spirit - that is what we need. It is the forgiveness and grace that is found in Christ that I need, not more laws and regulations. It is a relationship with the living God that I need, not an awareness of some distant force. It is a certain hope in life after death that I need, and not some vague possibility of reincarnation. My heart needs God, and my heart’s needs are met in the person of Jesus Christ.
And so Paul concludes his message pointing to the person of Jesus Christ: "Since we are His offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:29-30) (NRSV)
Some believe they can continue worshipping their gods of silver and stone and do the best they can. That's not what the text says is it? No. Yet that's what many believe. They believe that there are many ways to God. When they hear Jesus Christ say, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me," they say, that's not what he really means. They believe that there are multiple ways to God. And one of the arguments they use is that God would be cruel and unjust if He did not accept the devout, holy Buddhist, or the devoted Muslim. If you ever hear a Christian say that, you must point out that such thinking makes the cross of Christ the greatest (and only) crime God ever committed. For if there are multiple ways to heaven, then God let His Son die for nothing. You see it's the other way round. God isn't cruel and unjust by saying that it is only through faith in Christ that we may be saved - it is rather - God is cruel and unjust if there are multiple ways to heaven and He still allowed His Son to die. For there is His Son kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane praying with such intensity that He sweat great drops of blood, saying, "Father if it be Your will, remove this cup of suffering from Me." And God doesn't remove the cup. His Son obediently goes to the cross. If there are multiple ways to heaven then God is the cruelest and unjust god there is. For why didn't God simply say, "It's okay Son, you don't need to go to the cross, just tell people that as long as they are good and follow the truth that they have, worshipping those idols, following the sevenfold path of the Hindu, traveling to Mecca - that's all that's needed.” But He didn't say that because there is only one way that we may be saved from sin and that is through the offering of the perfect sacrifice for our sin - so God in the flesh died and so Paul continues and says,
How do we know that Christianity is the true religion? Creation speaks of a powerful Creator, our hearts long for the God of grace and forgiveness and our heart's needs are met in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks of Jesus as God's one and only Son. He says He is the only way to God. The apostles preach of the forgiveness of sin through faith in Him and how one day He will come back to judge the world in righteousness - and all those claims are proven by the fact of the resurrection. If He was not God's Son, if He was not the perfect sacrifice - but only a man with sin in his life, he would still be dead, just like you and me, just like Mohammed, and Buddha and all the other leaders of today's religions. But the truth is He is God's Hon, He offered the perfect sacrifice on the cross and the rising from the dead proves that all we read about Him is true. Now some of you may say that I have failed to convince you that Christianity is the true and only way to God. When some heard Paul preach, our text says that some scoffed. So there is only this left to say - if you really want to know if Jesus Christ is the way to God - then test the faith out for yourself. Don't allow yourself to only speculate, but test it. Be honest with God tell Him you are searching for a living relationship with Him, and that you will follow His word and repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ as the one who died for you, and that you will make Him Lord of your life. And God will reveal Himself to you in ways that you never imagined were possible. How do I know? Creation speaks of the living God, my heart longs for God, Jesus Christ meets the needs of my heart and all that Scripture says about Him is verified by his resurrection. But I know finally because I've tested His Word, placed my faith in Him and found that indeed Jesus Christ is the way to God, the truth about God and the giver of the life of God. Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - September 2002
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