This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Good morning! You know, it's interesting this is the first Sunday we've been here that we've had any issues with the AC, at least like this. It's the first time we've ever had the bells go off. It's the first weekend it's rained. It's almost as if somebody doesn't want us to be here this morning. You might think. There may be more truth in that than we care to realize or acknowledge. But I'm glad you're here with us this morning and celebrating with us a new location. It is an exciting time. We started a new sermon series too, about today called Godshapes. And I'll explain a little bit more about what that means and tell you more about what's coming up in the weeks ahead with that at the end of the sermon. But as we come here this morning, I wanted to ask you a few, probably a question you didn't expect here or off the top of the bat here, is what are some of the famous holes that you've seen around the world? H-O-L-E-S, some famous holes. You might see this one before. This is called the Glory Hole and lots of other things. But this is at the Monticello Dam, which is an overflow spillway here that has here. And it's pretty amazing. People come not to see the dam, this is sometimes just to see this. It's an amazing hole. Or what about this one here? Anybody seen this one? This is Guatemala City. We adopted Gracie from Guatemala. Unfortunately, that was not there when we came there. But talk about holes. That's one even bigger and deeper. Here's another one. This one is the great blue hole off the coast of Belize. Here's another one. This one's actually the biggest of all the ones I've shown you so far. This is mere diamond mine in Russia. These are some pretty amazing holes, none of which I had seen firsthand. Myself here. But let me show you an even bigger and even more amazing scary, really, in some ways, hole. The hole in every human heart. Deeper than a diamond mine. More complex than a single scarier than a black hole. But one that each of us shares here this morning. Some try to deny its existence. Some try to find just the right thing to fill it. Or a bunch of things to fill it. And keep thinking about throwing up stuff in there. Eventually, it's going to fill up. The only problem is as soon as you drop something in and wait to hear the drop. You never hear it hit bottom. Because it's too big. It's too deep. Some sadly give up and just try to learn to live with it. It's been a lot of money reading the right book or watching the right TV show. Or talking to the right counselor or psychologist. To learn how to cope and deal with it. And some spend all their time just trying to pretend it's not even there. There is a human hole that the scriptures say every single one of us has and experiences. Some have called it a God-shaped hole, a God vacuum. Something that screams, something that yearns to be filled, that can only be filled by God himself. And that is exactly what the scriptures teach. It's that God is the one. It's his shape that that hole is longing for, that that hole was designed for. It's him. He's the missing puzzle piece, so to speak. With that. You know, people have been talking about this hole throughout time. He can go back as far as 3,000 years ago almost. It's a guy named Solomon in Clisiacis. He says this. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Go a little later or earlier. Possible. Romans 120. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. I'll go a little more current. Saint Augustine 4th Century. You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. How about the famous French mathematician, philosopher Blaise Pascal? This is 17th Century. What else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim, but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace. This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him seeking in things that are not there, that help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words by God himself. 20th Century. CS Lewis, professor Oxford, Cambridge University, theologian. If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Now perhaps you haven't been as sophisticated to put your thoughts in print or write them down like some have throughout history, but I guarantee you, if you are honest enough this morning to think and to pause and to look deeply within, something inside you will go, yeah there is something that makes me question. There's something that makes me wonder about the eternal realities around me or if there are eternal realities. There's something there that resonates with each of us. You know we've all sensed it, maybe it's on a sleepless night, maybe it's standing on top of a mountain top, maybe it's holding the hand of a loved one near death, maybe it's gazing in a star-filled sky, maybe it's after receiving bad news from the doctor, maybe it's looking at the detail of a newborn baby's fingernail that you've asked questions about eternity, and what is out there, and what's before you, and what's after you, and what your destiny is, and just how eternal is your soul. One thing we all share in common, and we'll look at several things this morning, three things, but the first thing that we all share in common, this is in your insert in the back, you want to follow along, is we share questions about eternity. All people have in common similar questions about eternity, questions like this, and ask yourself, have you ever asked or thought about these things? Who was there in the beginning? What was there in the beginning? Was there a Creator God? If so, who is he? What's he like? Can he be known? Does he know me? Does he care? Is he good? Is there an end? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Who will be there at the end? Will I be there at the end? Will I see loved ones? Will I see God? What will I do for all eternity? Is physical death the end or just the beginning? If you haven't asked every single one of those, I bet you've asked a bunch of them, or thought about it, because these are questions that we share with humanity about eternity. Even in the first century, they were asking these same questions, and the Apostle Paul knew that, and when he's here in this other town of mostly Gentiles and Athens, he comes in and uses as common ground to begin conversations with people that he desperately wants them to find and discover Jesus Christ, just like he did. He had been lost, he had been astray, he had been very, very religious until the day that Jesus came to visit him on the road to Damascus. He encountered the living God, the very person Jesus that he was persecuting, that he wanted to wipe the name off the face of the planet. That one came and met him personally, and it changed everything for him. And it sent Paul on a mission to go and give answers to the questions that people have been asking since the beginning. They're asking today, and you're a great, great grandchildren, who you haven't met yet, will still be asking if the Lord carries on his return. There are questions about eternity. And every one of us answers these questions one way or another. We may have different answers, even in this room we might have different answers. Certainly, if we pulled people around the world, we'd have different answers. We may have foggy answers, lack of clarity, which all of us do to a large degree, right? Because these are eternal questions, and we may even say we don't know. But the reality is to simply affect that there is a God-shaped hole that we all share that leads to commonly shared questions about eternity. And where religion comes from and philosophy is asking these questions, because there's something in us that will ask them. And the orangutan is not, or any other created being. Because we're the only ones made in the image of God. I like Dr. Sus, and he says, sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple. This is a complicated question. But the Apostle Paul and Athens is saying, you know the answer is really quite simple. And I believe the Holy Spirit this morning wants to tell you the answer is more simple than you could ever imagine. As common as the questions are that we share, so are the hopes for eternity. We have questions about eternity, and we have hopes about eternity. We all have shared hopes. Now it doesn't matter if you're an atheist, it doesn't matter if you're a Muslim, it doesn't matter if you're a secular humanist, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Mormon, an agnostic, a Hindu, an Orthodox Jew, a Unitarian, a Jehovah Witness, or a Sikh, or any other you can fill in the blank with. We all share similar hopes about those same questions that we have about eternity. Like what journalist Ryder Robert Brought writes, he says this, he says, man is the only animal who enjoys the consolation of believing in the next life. All other animals enjoy the consolation of not worrying about it. It's true, isn't it, though? We're different. We think about the next life because eternity is in your heart. We all share similar hopes, hopes that we will endure beyond the grave. I'm not personally that anybody, although I'm sure over the seven billion people there's some, I'm not personally that anybody, or been at anybody's deathbed or bedside that has never had a hope about eternity, and what was to happen next. We all share hopes that we will see lost loved ones, ones who have gone on before us. We all share hopes that our lives do have a lasting significance. Just last week, I'm sure Steve Jobs hoped that his life would have a lasting significance. This week, it sounds like it. Ten years from now, I'm not sure how much people will even be talking about him, but it's there, isn't it? There's a shared hope that each of us have significance like that. We have a shared hope that there is really such a thing as love that transcends space and time. Lion King's coming back on in the movie theaters in 3D, right? The youth group just watched it this last week, right? Simba's not alone, right? Even though Mufasa's gone, why? Because he lives deeper than you, Simba, right? Not a Christian movie, but a movie that picks up on the idea that we believe love transcends physical life and death. And I bet you believe in it too, that your lost loved ones still know and care, and you definitely still know and care about them. Shared common hopes. We share the common hope that we won't be left alone with whatever comes next after death. We share the common hope that there is purpose in the pain and the suffering, because most of us will experience pain and suffering as we approach death. Most of us will experience the common hope that life after death will get better. Again, I have not met anybody or even read about anybody that really believes that life will get worse. Even if they believe there's nothing after death, they still choose that as a good thing, as a better thing. But I don't know if anybody that their hope is in that it's going to get worse. Those about to die will often say things like this. I'm ready to go. Why are you ready to go? Because you're thinking there is something hopeful about going. Or when a loved one dies, people usually say something like, I'm glad their suffering is over. Where does that come from? Hope. There is a prevailing optimistic hopeful perspective when looking at eternity that we all share. And why? Because God has placed eternity in our hearts. Paul found himself around people who were finding eternal hope. They had eternal questions and they were finding eternal hope in religion and philosophy. Back 2000 years ago, just like we continue to do today, let me pick up and read section 16-22. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks as well as in the marketplace, day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurian and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, what is this babbling trying to say? Others remarked, he seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Aeropagus where they said to him, we may know, 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. All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Aeropagus and said, many of Athens, I see that in every way, you are very religious. Here is Paul in 1st century Athens. It is the intellectual and cultural center of the world at the time. They are in a time of relative peace and prosperity. That is why they have nothing to do but sit around and talk about new ideas. It was a rare thing in those days to be in that kind of a place. Paul comes and he counters, first off with says he counters religious Jews. There are already in the synagogues. The farther away you got away from Jerusalem, the less likely you were to find a synagogue. So the fact that there are synagogues here is saying that there are people that are religiously devout people. Not only that but there are God-fearing Greeks who are there as well too. There are Gentiles who have come to faith and who are embracing the God of the Old Testament. So these are not just people who don't care. These aren't people that are not passionate about what they believe. These are people that are still seeking to live. Passionately and faithfully that they believe the commands of Moses to the Old Testament. Religious Jews in the synagogues and God-fearing Greeks were there worshiping. Far away from Jerusalem. They were embracing hope for eternity. The problem is they did not know or did not believe in the reality of the Messiah. The Messiah had come in Jesus Christ. What Abraham and Moses had pointed to had come in the flesh and walked and lived and died on a cross for their sins and rose again on the third day. So Paul comes and he embraces them. He comes to teach. He also goes on and says that the city was full of idols. What does that tell us? That means that those that were non-Jewish. Those that were not the Greeks that had converted to Judaism. But those that were just the Gentiles that were still in their own way. They had idols everywhere. Why? Because they were concerned about deity. They were concerned about eternity. They were concerned to get answers to their questions about eternity. So find the right God. They had a plethora of them around. They had the Parthenon. They had the idol statues of the Acropolis. They had idols in the marketplace, Paul says. They all represented a bridge connection with the deity. They all represented a hope for eternity. That's why they had idols. This place is popping. This place is happening. And these people are taking eternity seriously. They have philosophical systems of belief. It mentions Epicurianism. Those that have studied philosophy know much about it. Know that it taught the finding of pleasure and life without pain was the main thing. It also mentions stoic philosophy. They taught that reasoning and living in harmony with nature was the main thing. These were people that were thinking deeply, asking deep questions about life, grasping for truth, bridging eternity with hope. They were tending to find meaning, significance of life. If this wasn't enough though, Paul found this altar. Here's a picture of it. He says this in verse 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. As if the synagogue and the devout religious Jews that were there, and those that had converted to Judaism that were there, and all those who were asking philosophical questions, the Epicurians, the stoics, as if that wasn't enough. Just in case they might have missed a deity. Just in case they might have potentially a thin one that wasn't given the right amount of do and honor they had it covered. They had insurance. This is what this is, right? Here is the altar to the unknown God, the one we might have overlooked or missed. What they didn't realize at the time, and why Paul points it out, is that what they don't know and who they have neglected and who they have completely missed in their own self-effort, was now knowable. His son had visited Earth. His son had walked among them, not too many hundred miles away from where he was standing there. And he arose again, and there was good news to share. Ironically, the one that they overlooked was the one true God. Let me point out this is a very important principle. Left to yourself without the divine grace of God through his Holy Spirit. Every single person on this planet will always overlook, left to themselves, the one true God. Why? Because there is something in us that was in Adam and Eve when they sinned in the Garden of Eden. There was something in us that wanted to rebel against the true Holy Creator God. It's as true in us as it is that were made in his image, is that we walked away. We chose to rebel from him. And that, sadly, is part of our spiritual DNA. And that's why Ephesians 2 says, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Not reaching out, not about to drown in the ocean of sin. No, you were laying on the bottom dead until he breathed life into you. Ironically, the one they overlooked was the one true God. Ironically, they missed. Number three, the visit of eternity. Or they hadn't heard about it yet. The visit of the one who is the Alpha and the Omega. Look at verse 23, the second half, Paul goes on. He says, now what you worship is something unknown. I'm going to proclaim to you 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. From one man, he made every nation of men that they shouldn't have at the whole earth. And he determined the time set for them in the exact places where they should live. 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. For in him, we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his 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. In the past, God overlooks such ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he is set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. Paul affirms several things here. Born he tells them, hey, you're asking the right questions. You're sharing the right hope that there's a way to bridge the gap between where you're at and eternity. But he tells them, you've missed the one who is eternity. Paul makes some starting statements about the one true God here. Verse 24, he says, he does not live in a temple built by hands. In here in Athens, they've got temples all over the place. He goes on and says, they did not need to be served by human hands in verse 25.
They're rigidly devout. Thought that God needed their service. He is not far from each of us, he says in verse 27. He even quotes their own poets in verse 28. One, he quotes from a cretin poet up amenities. He wrote back in 600 BC. He taught that in Zeus, you live and move and have your being. So what is Paul doing? Paul is going back and saying, hey, it's not in Zeus. Some man-like attempt, picture of an all-powerful God who, by the way, has to battle with all the other gods who are causing problems. And by the way, has a soap opera going on with all the other goddesses that are going on. He's saying, you're missing it. It's not in Zeus that you live and move and have your being. He also goes on to say from referring to Cleffanese, who wrote back in the 3rd, 2nd century BC, he says, you've been taught your own poets say that God, that we are the offspring of God. He goes back and sites another one of their poets and says, hey, yes, you are. This guy's got a little closer. You are the offspring of God. And since you are, why would you possibly think that something you make of an image that made out of stone, or made out of metal could possibly represent the God that you've been made after, that you could make something that would be worshipable and honorable? Paul comes right at him. What's Paul's point? Paul's point is this. You've got questions about eternity. You've got hope for eternity, but eternity stepped into time just recently. And he walked in Jerusalem. And he was the very image of God. Look at Hebrews 1-1-3. In the past, God spoke to your forefathers through the prophets at many times in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things. And through him, he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. That's who had stepped into time, or Acts 4-12 says this. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. That's Peter's sermon after he's filled the Holy Spirit. Who is this? Jesus Christ.
Paul could have quoted, if you wanted to, ASAP, a real or fictional writer agree, but one that they were quoting back from the 5th, 6th century BC, ASAP says this. Beware unless you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. Beware that you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. Let me tell you, if people and Athens were grasping at every shadow they could find, but while grasping at the shadow they overlooked looking at the image, looking at the one, looking at the true God, and the true God had come in his son to earth and visited him. Paul goes further to say this. He says he now commands all people everywhere to repent. Not even making an apology on behalf of the church, because we have wrongly overstated the offer of salvation as an invitation that God gives to all people. They don't misunderstand me, is it an invitation in many ways? Well, of course. But if you misunderstand that it is also a command, then you have totally missed who is the one that gives an invitation in the first place. Paul reminds them, and he says here clearly, in the past God overlooks such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Folks, that is the great commission. That's Jesus' last word. Go into all the world and make disciples. Baptizing the name of Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo and with you always in the end of the age. Jesus does not send you an evite, and say, hey, do you want to be part of the team? Love to have you. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he's commanding you to repent. The picture is like this. The picture is like you are traveling overseas, and you are caught in some part of the world where it's a little shaky there, politically what's going on and the system that's going on, and somehow you, some radical whoever they are, grab you and take you captive, and they have you imprisoned somewhere. And when the Navy Seals are sent in to come and rescue you in your party, your family, your friends, your people that are with you, when that helicopter comes in the middle of the night, and when troops come in and break you out of your prison or wherever you're being held, and when you approach the helicopter and a commander from the helicopter says, get in! It might sound like an invitation, but it's a command, isn't it? It's a command of someone who has left their safety and comfort to come and rescue you. And if you understand your condition and understand what is being done to come and meet you, you will embrace that command with love and appreciation, not as someone who's stepping on your toes who's not speaking to you respectfully. You're going to be in that copter before they even have to say it again. That is how God comes and commands, because he is indeed in charge, and he is indeed on a rescue mission. And the helicopter is there in the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, but it is not an invitation. And the scripture's chiefs there is a day that the helicopter takes off with or without you, and that's why there's a burden for sharing this news with others. That's why Paul is in Athens, rather than staying the comforts of home back in Israel, where he was. Paul goes on, he says, the whole proof of all this is in the resurrection. The proof was in the resurrection. There's a reason that none of us today fear retaliation or judgment of any kind from King George III of England, although you directly, at least your ancestors, directly rebelled from him, didn't you? Sure you did. You signed a declaration of independence. You broke free from the tyranny of England. None of us give it a thought. In fact, I had to look it up to which King George it was. King George III doesn't bother you a bit today. Adolf Hitler, a Germany, does not cause any of you here worries. No, they test you thinking about history, but you're not worried about Adolf Hitler. Not a single person here is worried about Saddam Hussein of Iraq anymore, or Osama bin Laden of El Qaeda. Why? Because they're still dead. There's a reason why you shouldn't follow the teachings of Muhammad. There's a reason why you shouldn't follow the teachings of Buddha, or Joseph Smith of Mormonism. Why? Because they're still dead. This is why Paul teaches Christ in the resurrection. Because Jesus is alive. Because the judge is alive. Because the judge is coming back. Romans 14, 9-12, says this. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You then, why do you judge your brother? Why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment see. It is written. As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, every tongue will confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. He's alive. He's a king. And he's a Lord. And he's the Son of God. And I know an author said this. You can't reason someone out of a position. They didn't reason themselves into in the first place. You can't reason someone out of a position that didn't reason themselves into in the first place. And for all those that have thought that you could reason somebody into coming to faith in Jesus Christ, the reason why you can't is because reason never got you lost in the first place. You were born that way. You were born alienated and separated from God. The Scriptures teach. And that's why Paul doesn't spend his time getting philosophical anymore than just letting that be the doorway. He goes right to Jesus in the resurrection. Because that's what they need to hear. That's what we need to hear. See, it's a matter of the heart. It's always a matter of the heart. It's always been a matter of the heart, not of the mind. Their response says in verse 32, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, we want to hear you again on this subject. At that, Paul left the council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius and a member of the Arab Pegas, also a woman named Demaris and a number of others. Today it's the same. Some still sneer when they hear the message in the offer of the good news of Jesus Christ. Some will still ponder when they hear more about it. Some will become followers of Jesus Christ and they are around the world. Thousands a day. But here's my question. What about you today? That's hearing the truth of Jesus Christ called you to sneer. Just to ponder longer? Or does it draw you to come and yield your life before the God who created you and saved you? What will your response be this morning? So you've got all the right questions. They're already built in. You've got all the right hopes for eternity. We all share that. We've already talked about this. But the question is, will you follow the one who is eternity? The one who's the alpha and the mega. The one who came to serve and to save. The one who came and will come again to judge the living and the dead. That's the question. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would come down and search our hearts. In fact, your word tells us. God, that you search our hearts. That you will expose areas of disbelief and sin and areas. God, that we have walked away from you. So, Father, pray and invite your spirit to be working now in our presence here now that you would be speaking to us, that you would be showing us our need for you, that you would be drawing us close. God, that we would embrace your command to be saved. The follow you is Lord and Savior. So, working our hearts now, I pray. Jesus, thank you. Amen.