When He Says
Acts 17:31,”Because he hath appointed a day, in the which lhe will judge mthe world in righteousness by that man whom he hath cordained; whereof he ||hath given assurance unto all men, in that nhe hath raised him from the dead.” [1]
I. Appointed
A. Allow
B. Arrange
II. Assured
A. Absolute
B. Always
III. Accepted
A. Agree
B. Ascend
Introduction: Happy Mothers’ Day! Oh what a blessing it would be if all mothers were happy on the very same day. What would it take for that to happen? What could happen on a particular day to make all mothers happy everywhere?
Today we will be considering a very special day. It could be the same day. It should be the same day. For those mothers who decided not to be mothers it might not be a very happy day. It all goes back to this truth. God alone is God and if we decide to align ourselves to His will, we will be more than happy, we will have joy.
As I look around this place on this day I see joyful mothers. Instead of wishing you a happy mothers’ day I praise God for the joyful mothers that are here. God has blessed you and He will continue. When He says; the entire world will see your joy and wonder how they can find it.
It seems that the world has turned from praising the One True God to inventing their own gods to praise. I enjoy watching fishing shows. In particular there is one called Wicked Tuna that comes on Sunday nights. During this time of year they show people in the northeastern Atlantic fishing for giant Bluefin Tunas. Later on they show when they head down to the Outer Banks. By the time we see the shows their fishing has been over for several months.
The fishermen remind me of some charter fishermen that I have known. Really they are not different from any people in other professions but they sure show their competitive nature out on the water. There is a strange thing that they say when they catch a keeper fish. They praise the “tuna gods.” That always sends a chill when I hear them say it; and they all say it.
This morning we will learn that this is nothing new. People have always invented something to give thanks to. When Paul noticed this he took it as an opportunity to witness. Maybe the next time I run into one of those charter captains down at Manteo I should do as Paul and introduce them to the One True God. How do you suppose that would go?
Scripture: Today’s focal text is Acts 17:31. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
Prayer: Let us pray. Amen. Please Be seated.
Message: Paul was on his missionary journeys going here and being led there. He found himself in Greece where my maternal grandfather’s people came from. They didn’t know what to make of Paul in Athens. Yet they were people who were ready to hear different ideas. Paul was surely different so they asked and he talked to them. Follow as we read Acts 17:22b-30.
“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too rsuperstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your ||devotions, I found an altar with this sinscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, thim declare I unto you. 24 uGod that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is xLord of heaven and earth, ydwelleth not in temples zmade with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, aas though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all blife, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath cdetermined the times before appointed, and dthe bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, ethough he be not far from every one of us: 28 For fin him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of gyour own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, hwe ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God iwinked at; but know commandeth all men every where to repent:” [2]
Paul was brave. First he said that they were too superstitious. Next he told them that they were ignorant in their worship. That probably got their attention. Then Paul declared God to them.
He explained that all things come from God and because He is God all things exist on earth and in heaven. Nothing that man can make can hold God and God doesn’t need anything that man makes. God alone decided all things including all the different peoples of the world. God set the boundaries that we cannot cross and He even set the times when all things will happen including the time that we will live here on this planet. Paul told them that certain poets of their said it right when they said we are from God as His children.
There is nothing more precious than God. There is nothing from this earth including gold or any other thing we think is precious that can be compared to God. We live in a time when God is allowing things which we do against Him but there is coming a day. While He winks and we think He has missed seeing what we are doing in our ignorance of Him; He sees! He is allowing this time for us to turn from our wickedness. It is not because He does not see what we are doing. It is because He is giving us time to repent. It is because of His mercy!
Now to the focal verse… God has appointed everything. He has appointed a specific time when all this winking will end. He is allowing us because nothing happens that God does not allow. We are making our choices and He is watching and patiently waiting.
The specific time was arranged when He arranged everything and only God knows that time. Jesus admitted that when He was here as a human being even though Jesus is God, Jesus didn’t know at that time. How can we begin to think that we know? We study the prophecies that say that we can’t know and then we read books that say they have figured it all out. Really??
That Man Jesus that God the Father ordained to judge us, God assured that only That Man would bring righteousness to this world. Jesus didn’t come here to make you a better person so that you could improve yourself to become righteous. Only Jesus is righteous and His righteousness has been imparted to you. Otherwise we have no chance.
But through Jesus we have the absolute assurance that we are saved from destruction. Instead of the eternal separation from God that we would have otherwise; now we will always be with Him only because God is God and we are not. It is all up to Him. We must find that assurance.
All men, and women by the way, have that assurance; if they will only accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. We know that because as Jesus was a part of this world for a time, when Jesus left this world He was accepted back to heaven by His Heavenly Father where He began and Jesus will always be.
God raised Jesus from the death of this world. He accepted Jesus back and He alone can accept you because of what Jesus did. God the Father and God the Son have always been in full agreement to save us from our own wickedness. There is nothing that we can do ourselves to save ourselves. There is nothing that we can think up on our own to make us good enough to make it through this world into eternity. There will never be another man like Jesus and there has never been.
Some forty days after His resurrection from the tomb Jesus ascended. God had already raised Him from the dead. He is alive! That period of time while He walked in His glorified body was necessary to let us see what we will be. Alive!
Prayer: Let us pray…
Invitation: As we go back and read this verse again, the theme is there that God alone has decreed all things. Five times Paul declared what God declared. He hath appointed. He will judge. He hath ordained. He hath given assurance. He hath raised.
God has done and God will do. Nothing else really matters then right? There is one thing that you must do that really does matter. What do you decide? If your decision is to continue to make your plans to continue the way you are headed then whatever God has decided for you will not matter to you.
Is there anything still in your life that you believe that you can mold into the shape you want it to be. When are you going to do that? You can’t know because only He does and it only happens when He say so. You can continue to try and fight and insist that the god you have created will submit to you. Keep on believing that and The One True God will allow that for a time.
There is coming a day when no heartache will come. No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forever more when we reach that golden shore, what a day glorious day that will be.
Is today that day for you? It can be. I pray that it is today. Decide as we sing…
l John 5:22. ch. 10:42. Rom. 2:16. So ch. 24:25. Rom. 14:10. 2 Cor. 5:10.
m See ver. 6.
c ver. 31 (Gk.). See Luke 22:22.
|| Or, offered faith.
n See ch. 2:24. So John 16:10, 11.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Ac 17:31). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
r So ch. 25:19.
|| Or, gods that ye worship. See 2 Thess. 2:4.
s See Matt. 22:20 marg.
t ver. 3 (Gk.).
u See ch. 14:15.
x Matt. 11:25.
y ch. 7:48.
z See Mark 14:58.
a Ps. 50:8–12.
b See Gen. 2:7. & Num. 16:22. So Job 27:3.
c ver. 31 (Gk.). See Luke 22:22.
d Deut. 32:8.
e So ch. 14:17.
f So Job 12:10.
g So Tit. 1:12. Comp. 1 Cor. 15:32.
h Isai. 40:18, 25. & 46:5.
i So Ecclus. 28:7. Comp. 1 Pet. 1:14. See ch. 14:16.
k Luke 24:47. So Tit. 2:11, 12. 1 Pet. 4:3.
[2] Ibid., Ac 17:22–30). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
