Stephen spoke this morning on the deceitfulness of sin. The song ‘The Snake‘ (sung here by Al Wilson) reminds us that no matter what kindness shown to a half-frozen snake, it will always be true to its own nature; in the song, the snake eventually bites the woman who has rescued it and reminds her that this is, after all, what snakes do. To show mercy and kindness to the snake ultimately counted for nothing; the snake repaid the kindness with a poisonous bite.

In Genesis 3, we see that the devil appeared to Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent, ‘more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.’ (Gen 3:1) Through the deception of the snake, Adam and Eve both disobeyed God’s command and ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin may well have appeared in the form of delicious-looking fruit (Gen 3:6), but the consequences were death, banishment from the garden of Eden and eternal separation from God. The appeal of sin may be great, but we should not be deceived: the ways that seem so right to us, if not God’s ways, will lead to death.

We too can be like the tender-hearted woman in the song, befriending sin, holding it close to our hearts and believing that its appealing allure means we will come to no harm. We can dress it up, cover it up, hide it and rationalise what we are doing, but ultimately, sin will always come back to bite us. If we do not confess our sin and repent of it, sin will lead us away from the life God wants us to live.

It’s all too easy to become comfortable with sin and essentially to sleep spiritually because of it. We must not tolerate sin in any shape or form in our lives, but must run from it. (2 Tim 2:22) We must ask God’s Holy Spirit to reveal sin in our lives to us, for our hearts are deceitful and it’s all too easy to be lulled into thinking everything is fine when it is not. As we pray the words of Ps 139:23-24, asking God to search us and reveal any offensive ways to us, we can be confident that God will enlighten and highlight any areas which need our repentance. The, having confessed our sin and repented, we can be guided by God’s Spirit and can walk in the paths of light. (1 John 1:9)

In the middle of his speech in Athens, Paul, talking about God as the Creator of all mankind, said, ‘God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.’ (Acts 17:27) Seeking God is part of our spiritual journey; as Jesus reminded us, ‘seek and you will find.’ (Matt 7:7) That seeking may well feel like groping or fumbling in the dark, but it indicates both determination and persistence.

Moses told us that we would find God ‘if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul’ (Deut 4:29; see also Jer 29:13) and the psalmist reminds us that the Lord has never forsaken those who seek Him. (Ps 9:10)

To seek God is to put Him before all other things; it requires a determined heart and a steadfastness of purpose. So often in the Psalms, we see people whose longing for God becomes their heart’s cry: ‘My heart says of You, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ (Ps 27:8) or ‘You, God, are my God; earnestly I seek You; I thirst for You, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.’ (Ps 63:1) We catch a glimpse of this earnest seeking in the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus to heal her daughter. When Jesus apparently rebuffed her advances because she was not of the Jewish faith, she said, ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table’ (Matt 15:27) and was subsequently commended by Jesus for her great faith. (Matt 15:28) She received her heart’s cry (the healing of her daughter), in part because of her persistence and earnest seeking.

Jesus demonstrates to us the importance of right priorities in our lives when He told us, ‘I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.’ (John 5:30) He came to seek and to save all who were lost (Luke 19:10), and his determination in seeking us out when we were sinners and wanted nothing to do with God gives us a glimpse into the kind of persistence and determination which has to become part of our pursuit of God. To seek God is our goal and desire… and we know that those who earnestly seek Him – with determination, refusing to be cowed by the dark night of the soul or the apparent silence of heaven at times – will be rewarded by Him. (Heb 11:6) Zephaniah urges us to seek righteousness and humility (Zeph 2:3), and as we seek God with all our hearts, we will surely find Him to be our satisfaction and delight.

Jealousy is an emotion that is often perceived as being negative, birthed in insecurity. We feel jealous when we perceive someone to be more beautiful or successful than ourselves, for example, or we feel jealous when we feel that someone we love does not give us their exclusive attention or are threatened by a third party in the relationship. Jealousy can often lead to reactive, suspicious behaviour and is not always rational, and in these situations, it is often said that jealousy is unhealthy.

But God describes himself as a ‘jealous God’ (see Ex 34:14) and it is clear that He is not referring to the petty, insecure feelings of jealousy which we so often experience. Jealousy in this respect means to have a proper regard for the honour and glory of God’s name. God is not willing to share His glory with another or to give His praise to idols (Is 42:8); it would not be proper or fitting for that to happen, because no one else can compare to God. Giving praise and worship to a created image or statue doesn’t make any logical sense, and therefore for God to be jealous about His people transferring their affections to an inanimate object is not unhealthy, but the caring response of a loving God.

Frequently in the Old Testament, we see God’s people provoking Him to anger through idolatry (see Deut 9:7,22; Ps 106:28-29; Hosea 8:5), and in the New Testament we see Jesus full of zeal for His Father’s house as He makes a whip out of cords and scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. (John 2:13-17) Paul experienced similar emotions when he saw Athens ‘full of idols’ (Acts 17:16). The NIV says he was ‘greatly distressed’; J. B. Phillips translates this as ‘his whole soul was revolted at the sight of a city given over to idolatry’. (Acts 17:16) When we see things which directly dishonour God, it’s not only right but proper that we are distressed by these things and the horror we feel (the Greek word gives us our word ‘paroxysm’, often used to describe deep emotion) needs to be the fuel for our action. John Stott comments that obedience to God’s command to witness is one motivation; compassion for people who are lost without God is another, but ‘the highest incentive of all is zeal or jealousy for the glory of Jesus Christ.’ (Commentary on Acts, P 279) May we all experience not only distress at all that dishonours God in our society but the fire and passion to then share the gospel so that all may have the opportunity to hear the good news and turn away from wrong ways to serve the living God.

John’s first letter ends with the simple admonition, ‘Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.’ (1 John 5:21) It’s tempting to dismiss that as irrelevant in modern society, since in many countries, we no longer worship statues or images made of wood, stone or metal in the way that used to happen. However, when we realise that an idol is anything we substitute for God (and that fame, wealth, power, sex, food, alcohol, drugs, parents, spouse, children friends, work, recreation, television and possessions – even church, religion and Christian service – can all be idols), John’s warning does not seem so bizarre.

In Acts 17:16-34, we find Paul in Athens, in a city surrounded by evidence of idolatry (it was ‘swamped’ by idols). Deeply distressed by this fact, Paul attempted to reason and debate with Jews, God-fearers, ordinary people and philosophers alike in order to show them that they should turn from idols to the living God. He spoke of God as the Creator, Sustainer, Ruler, Father and Judge of the world and debunked the myth that people can make and control God, either by confining him within limits which we impose (such as beautiful buildings) or by domesticating him (making him dependent on us.) All idolatry ultimately tries to bring God under our control and instead of humbly acknowledging that God has created and rules us, presumes to imagine that we can create and rule God.

We may feel that idolatry is not a Western problem, but the reality is it’s a very human problem. People don’t like to submit to God; we prefer to make our own rules and worship a safe, tame god of our own making. Paul reminded the people in Athens that they needed to repent. (Acts 17:30) His message still stands for us today, and John’s warning still applies, even to those who are already following Christ.

Paul’s speech in Athens (Acts 17:16-34) shows us how he constantly turned every opportunity he had into a proclamation of the gospel. He started where the people were, talking about their altar to an unknown god and quoting from their own philosophers, but went on to describe God as the creator and sustainer of all mankind, the ruler of all, the Father of all creation and the judge before whom justice would be served.

In so doing, he exposed the lack of logic in serving a multitude of gods. If God created everything and everyone, it is absurd to think He could be contained by a man-made building, however ornate it was! (Acts 17:24) If He sustains everyone, giving life and breath to us all, then it is absurd to think that He can be sustained by us. (Acts 17:25) We depend on God; He does not depend on us. The world was formed from one man (Adam) and all nations came from him. (Acts 17:26-28) The history and geography of all nations are ultimately under God’s control. His purpose is that humans (made in his own image) should seek him (or ‘feel after him’, a verb which ‘denotes the groping and fumbling of a blind man,’ as John Stott says.) If God is the creator, He can also be called the Father of all mankind, and therefore all idolatry such as was common in Athens is inexcusable because idolatry is the attempt either to localise God (confining him within limits which we impose) or to domesticate him (making him dependent on us.)

Paul begins his speech by talking about the altar of an unknown god and ends by talking of the people’s ignorance which has now come to an end because of all God has revealed and done through Jesus Christ. Now is the day of salvation, the day of repentance, an opportunity to be seized because judgment is definitely coming. The death and resurrection of Jesus mean He has been declared Lord and Judge by God and so the appropriate response is repentance and faith. Some in Athens took this step of faith and became believers. What is our response going to be?

Dave (back in his suit tonight!) spoke from Romans 5:1-8 tonight, talking about peace and specifically the peace we need between humanity and God. This passage reminds us that at just the right time, Jesus died for the ungodly – peace with God was made possible through His sacrifice on the cross, enabling us to have free and unlimited access to God.

We all need peace with God, and Isaiah 57:19-21 reminds us that life without God is rather like the sea. The sea is affected by the moon (which governs the tides) and by gravity, and in some ways, the two cause tension and mean the sea is in constant motion. Isaiah tells us the wicked are like the sea in that they are constantly restless, never satisfied. People have a conscience telling them what is right and wrong, and in all of us there is a battle between good and evil. People without God are not satisfied; they pursue different things to try to find satisfaction but ultimately we all need God in order to find true satisfaction.

Whether we consider ourselves to be near God (as the Jews did) or far from Him (as the Gentiles were considered to be), Eph 2:17 reminds us that all need the reconciliation and peace which the gospel offers. In Acts 16, we see Paul (a Jew) and a Philippian jailer (a Gentile), but both needed salvation in the same way. Peace with God is what every person needs and, as the Christmas story reminds us, this is available to all men now (Luke 2:13-14).

Jesus promised to give His peace to HIs disciples, and Paul promises us a peace that transcends or surpasses human reasoning and understanding. (Phil 4:6-7) The peace that comes from knowing God personally spills over to every area of our lives and gives us the ability to live at peace with God, with ourselves and with others.