MAKING THE LORD KNOWN (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

Acts 17:25

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The God unknown to the Athenians was the One who made the world they lived in and created every single person. He was the only God (capital “G”) which meant the gods the Athenians worshiped were non-existent.

The God the Athenians needed to worship was the God over all things in heaven and on earth. He and He alone reigns supreme over all created things and all people are accountable to Him and Him alone.

Finally, God is never reliant on anybody or anything. He is in control and possesses the power and ability to do all things. All creation is dependent on Him for what is needed in life, the present life and the life to come.

These were the main points we saw Paul make in the first devotion of this series titled "Making the Lord Known". You’ll remember he was invited to address the powerful think tank and board of elders called the Areopagus in Athens.

As we move to our second of six messages from Paul’s discourse, we continue to see the apostle reveal more truth about God with the intent of making the Lord fully known to his Athenian audience. Look again at today’s verse from his speech:

“And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” Acts 17:25

On the surface, part of this statement might seem confusing and even questionable to us today. For the scriptures tell that we are to be the Lord’s hands and feet, called to serve Him according to His purposes for us. We are commissioned by the Lord to carry out His word and will. There is no questioning this.

So how do we interpret what Paul said and make sense of it?

It all comes down to who benefits from the service the Lord calls us to. That’s the point of this verse.

For the Lord God Almighty needs nothing from any person. He is the Maker and Source of all things, the great Provider for His creation. He “gives everyone life and breath and everything else”. When one turns to the Lord, He will always give them what they need to live and carry out His tasking. From cradle to the grave and beyond, He perfectly meets our needs and note that I said needs here. There’s a big difference between what a person needs and what they want. One is anchored in the Lord’s desires, the others in a person’s and frankly, we don’t always need what we want. Only the Lord has the perfect wisdom to discern between the two.

So if we aren’t serving the Lord for His advantage or profit, then what is the intent of the service God calls us to?

It’s to make a difference in the lives of other people, to selflessly move outside of yourself with God guiding and equipping you to help someone in need. If God perfectly meets the needs of His people in accordance with His will, then He often uses His earthly servants to assist. He grants us the time, talent, and treasure first before showing us how He wants us to use it to make a kingdom difference in the lives of others. The end aim is for people to come to know their Lord, find salvation through Him, and then become a servant of Him themselves.

In other words, serving the Lord and interceding to meet the needs of others using His provisions will beget new servants who will get to do the same. It’s an ongoing, never-ending cycle of God’ centered servant production and it keeps going because people know their Lord and commit to obediently carry out the work He assigns.

The people of Athens were serving gods that weren’t even real. Their gods were mental fabrications shared commonly, one person to the next, and their actions were based on what they perceived their imaginary god wanted from them. They sacrificed and gave things to their fantasy gods to try and appease them because they believe their gods needed things from them.

Paul sought to reveal the absolute nonsense of this way of believing and behaving, seeking to get the Athenians to see the wrongs of their ways and turn their attention toward the one true God, the Lord who was once unknown to them but now was being made known.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at message number three in this series.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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