Day 16: What Do We Need to Know About the Master Story? PT 2
Today, we continue to discuss Paul’ speech in Athens and how it illuminates the answers to some of our fundamental life questions: Who is God? What is the purpose of life? Where are we heading? How will things end?
The Master Story answers the question, “Who is God?”
In Acts 17:24-35, Paul reveals part of the answer to “Who is God?” The first step in getting our bearings in life is discovering who God is and why He created us, which are all questions related to the ORIGIN question. Paul’s view of the world was shaped by the revelation that God, working through Jesus Christ, created everything that now exists. We were created by God for His purposes.
When we ask the question, “who is God/god?” we are really asking, “Who has final power and authority?” There are many people who do not believe that a personal, knowable, all-powerful being (God) exists. Nevertheless, everyone is looking to some source, some authority to give them final and authoritative answers about life. Whoever or whatever that authority is functions as “god” in that worldview.
Notice that in 17:24 and 25 Paul says that God does not live in places made by human hands, nor is He served by humans since He Himself needs nothing. God is not “needy.” The One True God is totally self-sufficient and self-satisfied. God’s love, His justice, His grace, His perfection all flow from His perfectly self-satisfying existence. Ultimately this has significant ramifications for our understanding of God and reality. If God does not need anything, why would He create anything at all? Although Paul does not develop the idea here, we discover that Father-God creates—does all that He does in Christ through the Spirit—because He wants to. He is moved by His desires.
God’s self-sufficiency would have resonated with both The Stoics and the Epicureans because on some level, this is what they both aspired to be.
Acts 17:24
The God who made the world and everything in it—He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. 17:25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.
Notice in 17:25 how all “life and breath” is given to everyone and everything by God. In the Bible, the One True God is referred to as the “Living God” which is to say that He is the only being that possesses life in and of Himself. He is not dependent on anyone or anything else for His life.
God also provides what we need as humans because He is concerned with us; He is the sustainer of our lives. This would have stood opposed to how the philosophers conceived of “god.” However, Paul is making a case for a personal, caring Creator because that is truly who the One True God is. In 17:29, Paul argues that the One True God is not like any other. He is not the product of “human imagination”: He is the One True God who desires to be known by His creation. He cannot be represented in gold or silver or stone (like the Greek idols) because He is spirit and beyond the human mind to fully comprehend or “put in box.”
The Master Story answers the question of the meaning of life.
Acts 17:26
From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 17:27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us…
In 17:26-27, Paul also makes the amazing statement that God placed every person where He desired them to be, “having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him…” In His sovereign ruling and planning Father-God has placed us in the exact time (allotted periods) and exact place (boundaries) which would maximize our desire to search for and feel our way toward God!!! Why would He do that? Because we were designed and created to be in a living, personal relationship with the One True God!
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 17:29 Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
In 17:28-29, Paul also reveals that God is real and present in the World, but He is not “in everything” as the Stoics taught. Because God is omnipresent – He is everywhere at all times – He is always “close” to each of us. In fact, even though we may not be aware of it, in Him we “move about and have our existence” (Paul quotes this line from a Greek philosopher and poet Epimenides). There is nothing that we do which is hidden from God. God is real and He is near. This would have stood against the beliefs of the Epicureans.
17:28 Paul quotes from another Greek poet Aratus who said, “It is with Zeus that every one of us in every way has to do, for we are also his offspring.” Paul quotes from part of this line—“for we are also his offspring…” and relates it to the One True God in order to show the Athenians that their thought does have elements of truth in it, but it is pointing in the wrong direction. Humanity was created by God, not Zeus. As Paul expands in his letters, we all have our origin in the One True God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
Observation vs. Revelation
“Who do we trust?” is the question the core of all our wonderings about the world. The question leads us to ponder two possibilities as we are seeking answers and finding someone to trust. The materialists – like the Stoics and Epicureans, and the Naturalists of our times – believe that all we have is our Observations of the world. In this way of thinking, we are ultimately trusting ourselves to figure things out correctly.
Paul and the other speakers in the Bible come from a very different way of thinking. In Paul’s message in Athens, he is making it clear that the only way to really figure out what is going on is through Revelation – the One True God revealing Himself and speaking to us from the “outside” – above and beyond our physical world. In this way of thinking, we have to trust God our Creator in order to understand reality. Without this revelation, we are all just stumbling around in the dark.
The Master Story answers the question of Destiny and challenges us to make sure we are headed in the right way.
Consider what Paul says in 17:30: “although He (God) has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent.” Paul is calling this group to realize they are wrong and heading in the wrong direction! This would have surely stung the whole audience. In effect, Paul says that they are acting in ignorance in their idolatry and man-made religion. The philosophers were pursuing human reason in order to escape from ignorance and now Paul says that in this pursuit that have actually become ignorant of reality!!!
In effect, Paul is warning his audience that they are on the wrong path which will not ultimately lead them to the truth. They need to change their minds in order to change the course of their lives. Paul is calling this group to let go of their ignorance and cling to THE TRUTH which he is revealing to them.
Finally, Paul reveals that there will be a day of reckoning and accounting for all people—there will be a day of judgment. A day is coming when God will judge the World in righteousness. For now, let me simply define righteousness This way:
Righteousness
is thinking and doing
1) the right thing,
2) in the right way,
3) at the right time,
4) with the right motivation.
This is God’s standard. Who could live up to this? Nobody!!! We all need someone to save us from this impossibly high standard!
Notice also that there is “a man” who will carry out this day of judgment. Paul says that God has appointed A Man to fill this role by raising Him from the dead. Who is this “Man”? Jesus Christ. Remember this is the very reason that the people invited Paul to speak, because he has been teaching about Jesus and the resurrection. Now Paul reveals that Jesus is the judge of all people and therefore everyone will give an account of their lives to Him.
Now think about how the crowd reacts to Paul: Some reject Paul’s Message and think he is crazy; others want to hear more; others believe the Message. This is the way it always is when The Truth is proclaimed. Everyone responds in some way.
What three key ideas did you learn about Master Stories in this reading? List them out and think about the significance of each.
How should the Master Story change the way you think about life and the way you live it?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
