Wherever You Are, There Jesus Is

ACTS 17
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

                                         TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

When Paul engaged the Athenians he looked around and saw the idol to the “Unknown God.”

This was his hook.

The Athenians wanted to know everything, and here they admitted that there was a god they did not know.

Paul says, I know Him!

Let me tell you about Him. They listened to this because Paul met them right where they were.

I remember when Patricia and I started going to church after we first got married. I had not been to church in a decade, but something happened in me as a new husband that made me want to hear from God again. There was a church and people to meet me right where I was.

Five years later after Anne was born, I had a deep need for strength and guidance to be a good father. There again was the church to help me be the man I didn’t know how to be.

When we moved to SC and I was working really long hours I was struggling with how to pursue my relationship with God and also do a good job at work. A group of guys came alongside me and we would meet every Friday for breakfast early before work and study a book on discipleship.

Wherever I was in my life, there were always people in my church who met me right there and showed me how to walk with God.

So What?

The people you meet, every one, are all at a point of need too.

It may be a marriage, or a birth, or a new job, or an illness, or a death in their family, or just about anything, but there is some need there that only God and His people can meet for them.

People are hungry to have their questions answered.

Just like the Athenians they’re always looking for something new to solve their problems.

Just look at the proliferation of self-help books and Dr. Phil type talk shows. Everyone is searching, and God has given us the answers to life’s most deepest questions.

The Bible teaches us that God has planted the knowledge of Himself in every heart, and in every life there comes points when we want to know God.

“19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”, Romans 1

Here Paul is telling us that even those who have never heard of Christ still have the knowledge of God implanted in them. So much more so the Christian believer.

What may be known of God is manifest “IN” them, for God has shown it to them.

Since when? Since the creation of the world. That’s from the very of time, from the very first person on down the line, God has planted an awareness of Himself in every person.

Consider it this way...

It’s like the artist who signs His paintings or an author who signs his writings. Sometimes there will be a secret symbol that represents that artist.

This is the symbol for Albrecht Durer. If you see this on his artwork you know it's his. He's done some things you would recognize even if you don't recognize his name.

In a similar way God has written Himself on our lives. He has signed our hearts as His workmanship, His artwork.

We just need someone to come along and tells us that the signature we see there belongs to Christ.

So what does that mean for us?

It means we must share Christ wherever we happen to be, but to do that we must meet the people where they are.

I’m not talking mere geography here,

but in the questioning and desiring that people have in their lives.

There is a God shaped hole in every heart that only God can fill.

So what should we do?

Put simply, we must love people.

We must truly love people before they’re going to open up and allow us to share the love of Christ with them.

… but how?

We need to listen to the people around us and understand them.

People are saying one thing, but often meaning another. Listen to what they’re really saying.

"How are you? Oh I’m fine…." But really they’re not and they need you to talk to.

Build relationships and become genuinely interested in their lives.

People can smell a rat, and if they sense we are only interested in them to get another dollar in an offering plate or another person in a pew then they are going to run the other way as fast as they can.

But if they know we are truly interested in them as a person and that we have a true relationship with Jesus Christ, then we might be able to share Christ with them.

Be genuine and genuinely care.

Folks we need to realize that the world around us has changed.

I’m very sorry to tell you that, but it has. The good news God has brought the world to our doorstep.

Listen, don’t hate those people for being different.

Don’t despise them for not being like us or for not coming to our church.

They don’t know who we are or what is going on in here.

They really don’t.

We must meet them where they are and show them the love of God in a real and tangible way.

Find the common ground of loss, pain, struggle, longing, hopelessness, and introduce them to Jesus.

Will you do that?

Will you proclaim Christ wherever you are?

Will you proclaim Christ wherever they are?

Will you?