Series: Break it Down- Week 1 GOD Acts 17:22-34

INTRO> Anyone ever watch the TV Show “Shark Tank” I love this show. The idea behind the show is that entrepreneurs come in with a product or idea and they are seeking an investor. But here is my favorite part, they have to pitch the product and tell the investors about it. If they can’t pitch and or explain their product, there is never an investment.

APP> Now, what if you were in a conversation or before people and they said, “Hey you are a Christian? Great! Tell me the Gospel…” Could you do that? My great fear is that we talk about the gospel we talk about Jesus but we never actually know what it is. Often times people who think they know the gospel don’t actually know the gospel. The top 3 answers I hear when people tell the gospel, are not the gospel.

The Gospel is NOT:

• • your testimony.
  • your morality.
  • your good advice.

APP> So then what is the gospel? The word “gospel” is used 133 times in the scriptures, it looks like this εὐαγγέλιον . This word means literally “good news” it is a secular word that a king would announce when a battle was won or a good report was announced. But how do we use it as Christians?

• • • “The Gospel is the good news of God loving and saving lost mankind through the ministry in word and deed of his Son, Jesus Christ.” – “To be a Christian” Anglican Catechism pg 23

SERIES> So through this series we are going to use an acronym borrowed from Greg Steir at Dare 2 Share ministries to help us lay this definition out and help us articulate this:

God

Our

Sins

Paying

Everyone

Life

CONTEXT> Now this week, we start with God, that should be a pretty easy task right?! It is important that we start here and not with you. Think about how the bible starts, “In the beginning God…” Genesis 1:1 I think that’s the most offensive verse in the Bible because it forces you to reckon with a reality The same things is true of the Gospel.

Big Idea > The Gospel is good news because it starts with God.

• “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” 1 Peter 3:18

“In place of this, we have turned the love of God and the Gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of. The acid test of biblical God centeredness-and faithfulness to the gospel- is this: Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his son, He enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?.. Is God’s glory in Jesus the foundation of your gladness?” – John Piper, God is the Gospel pg 11-12

APP> So if the gospel is not primarily about us and is about God. What God are we talking about here?

• • • “God is one divine being eternally exiting in three divine persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the Holy Trinity.” – To be Christian, pg 38

CONTEXT> Now, in our text today we see the Apostle Paul stand up and give the gospel to a bunch of unbelievers, well educated unbelievers. In his gospel explanation he zero’s in on God and gives us some characteristics of who God is.

1. God is creator. v24

• • • • “The God who made the world…” This is fundamental to our understanding of the world, the scriptures constantly teach this, why? Because the higher the view of God… the more beautiful he becomes.

APP> This is also what’s so offensive as well because If God is the creator of everything then he is also owner of everything.

2) God is sustainer. v25

• • • • “and he is not served by human hands…” Paul really narrows down with his argument and raises God even higher!

APP> “Any attempt to tame or domesticate God, to reduce him to a level of a house hold pet dependent on us for food and shelter, is again a ridiculous reversal of roles. We depend on God; he does not depend upon us.” APP> God does not need us but he desires us. God wasn’t lonely, Jesus wasn’t hanging on the cross because he needed us, he did that because we needed him!

3) God is ruler. v26-27

• • • • “having determined allotted periods…” Paul is telling them essentially that God is in control, that God is not ignorant. He essentially in total control.

4) God is father. v29

• • • • “being then God’s offspring…” Paul again is bringing it home again. He is saying that God is creator but also a Father.

APP> This separates christianity from all other religions, he is saying that God is our source. *ILL> Roman and Andie are always asking about my mom and dad and our family because there is a desire to know where you come from. APP> God is a perfect father pursuing his lost kids.

5) God is savior. v30-31

• • • • “people everywhere to repent… by a man…” Again Paul is putting God in an entirely different category

APP> Here is something we have to understand, Salvation belongs to the Lord. You didn’t find God, this that and the other. Do started it, God is continuing it and God will complete it.

APP> God is found in Jesus Christ.

Big Idea > The Gospel is good news because it starts with God.

“Now all this is part of the Gospel. Or at least it is indispensable background to the gospel, without which the gospel cannot effectively be preached. Many people are rejecting our gospel today not because they perceive it to be false, but because they perceive it to be trivial. People are looking for an integrated world-view which makes sense of all their experience. We learn from Paul that we cannot preach the gospel of Jesus without the doctrine of God, or the cross without creation, or salvation without judgement. Today’s world needs a bigger gospel, the full gospel of Scripture, what Pual later in Ephesus would call “the whole counsel of God.” – John Stott, Acts Commentary page 290

Big Idea > The Gospel is good news because it starts with God.

Application>

• • • Is this your God?
    • Is this the God you reject?
    • Is this the God you love?