God Made Us, not the Other Way Around
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | May 10, 2026
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Read Acts 17:22 – 31 (NIV)
Our New Testament lesson comes from the book of Acts which was written by the physician Luke, who is also credited with writing the Gospel of the same name.
There are some scholars will refer to the book of Acts as the sequel to Luke’s Gospel and even link the two books together, calling it Luke-Acts. The second portion of Luke’s writing presents an historical account of the birth and growth of the Christian church and chronicles the Apostle Paul’s missionary journeys that would lay the groundwork for the spread of Christianity.
Today, the Lectionary focuses our attention on a passage found in Acts 17, where we find the Apostle Paul giving a speech in the city of Athens.
Now to give us some context, just prior to the point where our text begins… we learn that Paul had caused a bit of a commotion with some of the things he had been saying about Jesus.
But there were some philosophers that were curious and wanted to hear more… so they invited Paul to a meeting in the Areopagus… which was actually a large rock outcropping that served as a court of sorts.
It is important for us to note here that Athens was a city that was full of idols… and this greatly distressed Paul… whose mission was to preach the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. So, as he stood before the people to speak in the Areopagus… he began by trying to establish some sort of common ground with them… to level the playing field.
To help build this bridge to form a connection between himself and those he was speaking to… Paul opened with an acknowledgement that they were very religious people… he went on to share his observation that they had many objects of worship… including an altar inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
At the time, the Athenians were living in a culture that worshipped many gods… and they believed that each of their gods was responsible for providing certain blessings or meting out specific punishments… depending on the circumstances.
And it would seem that the Athenians wanted to be sure that they had covered all of their bases… perhaps they were suffering from a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and they worried that they might be missing out on a blessing… or on the flip side… or perhaps they were grappling with the possibility of receiving some sort of punishment for not acknowledging this “unknown god” that they had heard about, but clearly had no real understanding of.
Whatever the case may be… the Apostle Paul saw this as an opportunity to teach them about the one true God as well as about Jesus and the resurrection. He also used this as a teachable moment, so to speak… about the futility of thinking that God could be contained within an earthly temple… further explaining that God cannot be made into an image of human design.
In other words, Paul was trying to get the message across that GOD MADE US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
As far back as the book of Genesis (1:26), we read that humankind was made in the image and likeness of God. As the Psalmist wrote, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3).
But somewhere along the line, the Athenians had gotten things out of order –mistakenly thinking that they could actually create an image of God.
The Apostle Paul explained to them that while God may have overlooked such ignorance in the past… that was no longer the case. God had issued the command for them to either repent or face judgment… and Paul let them know that God had already assigned the judge… Jesus, the One who had been raised from the dead.
Perhaps someone may be questioning… that’s a nice story, but what does this have to do with us today?
With everything that is going on in this season, we have an opportunity to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective… to consider what is our role as the church… and this passage from Acts gives us a chance to do just that.
For example, verse 24 of the text reads, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.”
This is a call for us to reflect on the fact that the church is actually made up of the body of believers… is not built out of brick and mortar… if you don’t believe me… just take a moment and try to describe the “church” that Jesus built. What kind of pews did it have? What color was the carpeting or the curtains? What designs were on the stained-glass windows?
Having trouble with that? Let me remind you of what Jesus said to Peter as it is recorded in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
If we were to do a quick word study on the name Peter… we would learn that it is derived from the Greek word, petros, which is the word for rock. And it is over in John 1 (42), that we read, “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas (which, when translated, is Peter).”
Let me assure you that when Jesus said, “on this rock I will build my church” …He did not mean that a literal building was going to be erected on top of His disciple. Rather as scholars suggest, Jesus was talking about Peter’s leadership and teaching about the true identity of Christ would be the foundation on which the church was formed… that is the “rock” on which the church has been built.
In preparing for today’s sermon, I was reminded of what was happening 6 years ago… when people were talking about churches being closed as a result of the pandemic. But if the truth be told… the church was NEVER really closed.
The doors to the buildings where people gathered for worship may have been closed to keep people from coming in… but the church has not and cannot be closed as long as the believers in Christ are taking the Word of God out to the people.
Because as Paul explained to the Athenians, God does not live inside any manmade structure… the maker of the universe cannot be confined or contained within any single dwelling. God is omnipresent … meaning God is everywhere… far beyond the four walls of any sanctuary.
But then Paul takes it a step further in verse 25, telling them, “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Let’s be clear, God does not NEED us to do anything. The God we serve is a great God… a God who is perfectly capable of doing anything and everything that God wants done.
It’s kind of like a poster I saw years ago that read, “Good morning, this is God. I will be handling all of your problems today and I will not need your help.”
But what that does not mean is that we are supposed to just lay around eating bon bons and reading tabloid magazines all day. God may not NEED us to do anything… but God definitely WANTS us to do something.
Because if we keep reading in the text, we find, “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. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”
God wants us to draw closer to Him… to recognize that our existence is found only in Him. Because when everything else gets stripped away… whether through sickness, financial hardship, relationship challenges, or whatever else may come our way… when it feels like we have nothing left… we discover what has always been most important of all… and that is God and our relationship with God. As the old saying goes, you never know God is all you need until God is all you have.
And that brings us to the last verses of the text:
Read Acts 17:22 – 31 (NIV)
Our New Testament lesson comes from the book of Acts which was written by the physician Luke, who is also credited with writing the Gospel of the same name.
There are some scholars will refer to the book of Acts as the sequel to Luke’s Gospel and even link the two books together, calling it Luke-Acts. The second portion of Luke’s writing presents an historical account of the birth and growth of the Christian church and chronicles the Apostle Paul’s missionary journeys that would lay the groundwork for the spread of Christianity.
Today, the Lectionary focuses our attention on a passage found in Acts 17, where we find the Apostle Paul giving a speech in the city of Athens.
Now to give us some context, just prior to the point where our text begins… we learn that Paul had caused a bit of a commotion with some of the things he had been saying about Jesus.
But there were some philosophers that were curious and wanted to hear more… so they invited Paul to a meeting in the Areopagus… which was actually a large rock outcropping that served as a court of sorts.
It is important for us to note here that Athens was a city that was full of idols… and this greatly distressed Paul… whose mission was to preach the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. So, as he stood before the people to speak in the Areopagus… he began by trying to establish some sort of common ground with them… to level the playing field.
To help build this bridge to form a connection between himself and those he was speaking to… Paul opened with an acknowledgement that they were very religious people… he went on to share his observation that they had many objects of worship… including an altar inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
At the time, the Athenians were living in a culture that worshipped many gods… and they believed that each of their gods was responsible for providing certain blessings or meting out specific punishments… depending on the circumstances.
And it would seem that the Athenians wanted to be sure that they had covered all of their bases… perhaps they were suffering from a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and they worried that they might be missing out on a blessing… or on the flip side… or perhaps they were grappling with the possibility of receiving some sort of punishment for not acknowledging this “unknown god” that they had heard about, but clearly had no real understanding of.
Whatever the case may be… the Apostle Paul saw this as an opportunity to teach them about the one true God as well as about Jesus and the resurrection. He also used this as a teachable moment, so to speak… about the futility of thinking that God could be contained within an earthly temple… further explaining that God cannot be made into an image of human design.
In other words, Paul was trying to get the message across that GOD MADE US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
As far back as the book of Genesis (1:26), we read that humankind was made in the image and likeness of God. As the Psalmist wrote, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3).
But somewhere along the line, the Athenians had gotten things out of order –mistakenly thinking that they could actually create an image of God.
The Apostle Paul explained to them that while God may have overlooked such ignorance in the past… that was no longer the case. God had issued the command for them to either repent or face judgment… and Paul let them know that God had already assigned the judge… Jesus, the One who had been raised from the dead.
Perhaps someone may be questioning… that’s a nice story, but what does this have to do with us today?
With everything that is going on in this season, we have an opportunity to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective… to consider what is our role as the church… and this passage from Acts gives us a chance to do just that.
For example, verse 24 of the text reads, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.”
This is a call for us to reflect on the fact that the church is actually made up of the body of believers… is not built out of brick and mortar… if you don’t believe me… just take a moment and try to describe the “church” that Jesus built. What kind of pews did it have? What color was the carpeting or the curtains? What designs were on the stained-glass windows?
Having trouble with that? Let me remind you of what Jesus said to Peter as it is recorded in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
If we were to do a quick word study on the name Peter… we would learn that it is derived from the Greek word, petros, which is the word for rock. And it is over in John 1 (42), that we read, “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas (which, when translated, is Peter).”
Let me assure you that when Jesus said, “on this rock I will build my church” …He did not mean that a literal building was going to be erected on top of His disciple. Rather as scholars suggest, Jesus was talking about Peter’s leadership and teaching about the true identity of Christ would be the foundation on which the church was formed… that is the “rock” on which the church has been built.
In preparing for today’s sermon, I was reminded of what was happening 6 years ago… when people were talking about churches being closed as a result of the pandemic. But if the truth be told… the church was NEVER really closed.
The doors to the buildings where people gathered for worship may have been closed to keep people from coming in… but the church has not and cannot be closed as long as the believers in Christ are taking the Word of God out to the people.
Because as Paul explained to the Athenians, God does not live inside any manmade structure… the maker of the universe cannot be confined or contained within any single dwelling. God is omnipresent … meaning God is everywhere… far beyond the four walls of any sanctuary.
But then Paul takes it a step further in verse 25, telling them, “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Let’s be clear, God does not NEED us to do anything. The God we serve is a great God… a God who is perfectly capable of doing anything and everything that God wants done.
It’s kind of like a poster I saw years ago that read, “Good morning, this is God. I will be handling all of your problems today and I will not need your help.”
But what that does not mean is that we are supposed to just lay around eating bon bons and reading tabloid magazines all day. God may not NEED us to do anything… but God definitely WANTS us to do something.
Because if we keep reading in the text, we find, “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. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”
God wants us to draw closer to Him… to recognize that our existence is found only in Him. Because when everything else gets stripped away… whether through sickness, financial hardship, relationship challenges, or whatever else may come our way… when it feels like we have nothing left… we discover what has always been most important of all… and that is God and our relationship with God. As the old saying goes, you never know God is all you need until God is all you have.
And that brings us to the last verses of the text:
As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Now as we look at ourselves in comparison to the people of Athens, we may think that we have very little in common with them – after all we don’t live in a city full of idols like they did; or do we?
Last week, I was having a conversation during Sunday school and was reminded of a scene from the movie, “Concussion,” which starred Will Smith as the forensic pathologist who discovered a degenerative brain disease that was caused when football players sustained repeated trauma on the field.
In this particular scene, Smith’s character, Dr. Bennett Omalu is told:
You are going to war with a corporation that has 20 million people, on a weekly basis, craving their product; the same way they crave food. The NFL owns a day of the week, the same day the church used to own. Now it’s theirs. They’re very big.
This scene came to mind as we were talking about the pervasive practice of schools and athletic organizations planning youth sporting games and events on Sundays… the day when we ought to be gathered for worship.
Now, I know I am probably stepping on some toes of diehard football fans, but I have to call it like I see it.
But for those who could not care less about football or any other sport… don’t get too comfortable. There is no shortage of things that we make into idols whether that is sports, shopping, entertainment, etc.
You see, from a biblical perspective… idolatry is the blind worship or admiration of any undeserving object.
And as we have witnessed throughout the course of history… no matter how much we admire or place our trust in them… there are no sports teams, celebrities, financial markets or political figures that have the ability to save us… only God can do that.
Remember, GOD MADE US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
As the world continues to be turned upside down, we watch as wars (sanctioned and otherwise) rage on… people are still engaging in violent acts against one another… rights are continuing to be trampled on… and it clearer than ever that none of the people or things that we held in high esteem have proved to be worthy of worship or blind admiration.
It is God alone who deserves our worship and our praise. It is God who should be glorified… not athletes, not entertainers, not financial analysts, not even politicians… make that especially not politicians.
Because when all is said and done, we would do well to understand that it is not the political leaders who will have the final say… in spite of what some folks think.
What really matters most is what God says… because at the end of the day… God will have the final say. And as our text encourages us, God is saying that we need to seek Him.
It reminds me of what the Prophet Jeremiah wrote to the children of Israel as they were living in exile in Babylon.
It is in Jeremiah 29 (12-14) that we find:
Now, I know I am probably stepping on some toes of diehard football fans, but I have to call it like I see it.
But for those who could not care less about football or any other sport… don’t get too comfortable. There is no shortage of things that we make into idols whether that is sports, shopping, entertainment, etc.
You see, from a biblical perspective… idolatry is the blind worship or admiration of any undeserving object.
And as we have witnessed throughout the course of history… no matter how much we admire or place our trust in them… there are no sports teams, celebrities, financial markets or political figures that have the ability to save us… only God can do that.
Remember, GOD MADE US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
As the world continues to be turned upside down, we watch as wars (sanctioned and otherwise) rage on… people are still engaging in violent acts against one another… rights are continuing to be trampled on… and it clearer than ever that none of the people or things that we held in high esteem have proved to be worthy of worship or blind admiration.
It is God alone who deserves our worship and our praise. It is God who should be glorified… not athletes, not entertainers, not financial analysts, not even politicians… make that especially not politicians.
Because when all is said and done, we would do well to understand that it is not the political leaders who will have the final say… in spite of what some folks think.
What really matters most is what God says… because at the end of the day… God will have the final say. And as our text encourages us, God is saying that we need to seek Him.
It reminds me of what the Prophet Jeremiah wrote to the children of Israel as they were living in exile in Babylon.
It is in Jeremiah 29 (12-14) that we find:
“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Reading that passage calls to mind the song “How Great Is Our God” by Chris Tomlin who wrote:
You’re the name above all names
You are worthy of our praise
And my heart will sing
How great is our God
(Songwriters: Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves; © Capitol Christian Music Group, Music Services, Inc., 2004)
Jeremiah might answer that question, “How great is our God?” by telling us that God is so great that God not only hears us when we pray, God answers our prayers in ways that we could have never anticipated.
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great that even when we find ourselves living in seasons of exile, God still wants to draw us close to Him.
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great that when we were lost and in need of salvation, God gave us His only Son to be our Savior and to pay the ultimate price for our sins.
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great, that if we stayed here the rest of today and every day that is to come, we could not find enough words to adequately describe just how great God is… because there really are not enough words in the English language, or any other language for that matter, that can put into words just how great God is.
But the hymnwriter, Stuart Hine, did a pretty good job at it when he wrote:
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great that even when we find ourselves living in seasons of exile, God still wants to draw us close to Him.
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great that when we were lost and in need of salvation, God gave us His only Son to be our Savior and to pay the ultimate price for our sins.
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD…
God is so great, that if we stayed here the rest of today and every day that is to come, we could not find enough words to adequately describe just how great God is… because there really are not enough words in the English language, or any other language for that matter, that can put into words just how great God is.
But the hymnwriter, Stuart Hine, did a pretty good job at it when he wrote:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
(Songwriter: Stuart K. Hine, 1953, based on a Swedish folk melody and a poem by Carl Gustav Boberg, 1885, © 1953, renewed 1981 Manna Music, Inc.)
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD… I think it is fairly safe to say God that the God who made us is awfully great!
And as we think about just how great God is and give thanks to God for making us and sustaining us… let us take this opportunity to stand and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: How Great Thou Art #33
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And as we think about just how great God is and give thanks to God for making us and sustaining us… let us take this opportunity to stand and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: How Great Thou Art #33
