We continued our “Sessions” at Gateway in Austin where we will sit down with the wisdom of Jesus – the ultimate Counselor – and dive into five of the most common emotional and spiritual struggles we face. Each week, we’ll explore a new “session,” not with a guru, but with the Savior who knows our hearts better than anyone else. Jesus doesn’t just offer good advice; He offers transformation.
This week’s topic is overcoming anxiety and worry. Perhaps you have gone to see your doctor, your counselor, your small group leader, your pastor and have said these words: “What Is the Meaning of Life?”
Digging Deeper
Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own or get together with your group, spiritual
running partners, or family to talk through what you are learning.
Message Video:
Message Notes from me and Haley Carter:
Today, in 30 minutes we are going to talk about and consider a small matter- the meaning of life.
No, I kid, not that we are going to be talking about meaning and purpose but that it is a small matter. I think every person at a certain point takes a good look at their life and asks what’s the point – why am I here.
This is a big question. It’s the kind of question that keeps you up at night or can make you feel so small and powerless that you wonder if anything matters.
We are currently in week 4 of a series called the sessions where we are looking at the wisdom of Jesus—the ultimate Counselor—while we dive into five of the most common emotional and spiritual struggles we face. Each week, we’re exploring a new “session,” not with a guru or therapist, but with Jesus, the Savior who knows our hearts better than anyone else.
As a church we believe that the Bible is such an amazing gift God has given us to help us see Him, the world, and ourselves more clearly, so today we are going to explore what the Bible has to say about meaning and purpose. For those of you exploring faith this is a great message for you to hear to see how the God of the Bible invites us to think about our purpose.
As a kid, wanting to be a combination of Andy Kaufman and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As a teen, I was encouraged to try things I didn’t think I could do. My parents and my youth pastor believed in me before I believed in myself.
In my 20s, trying different things and being told I’m good at certain things
Finding clarity in my 30s. My calling is to advocate for those who do not yet believe!
Consider going through A Process to Create a Better Future Today, a reflective exercise from Fruitful: Becoming Who God Created You To Be.
As we jump in we need to establish something. You and I are mortal right?! We had a start date and we will have an end date. As Christ-followers we believe that we are created by God who is immortal. So, if we are created beings then it begs us to ask the question created for what?
We will get there in a minute but first let’s consider some regular household objects.
Fork – remember in the little mermaid, Ariel used the fork for what? (to brush her hair). What is this actually for? What is its design?
Sock – what is this for? Well according to my dog, socks along with other dirty clothes exist to be stolen out of my hamper and hidden behind pillows and in the cushions of the couch in case I disappear so that she can come back to them over and over and smell them and remember me!?
So, let’s go back to that question I asked, as created beings what were we created for? Asked another way – why are we here?
This is where we are going to camp out for the remainder of our time together. This is a BIG question and people have dedicated their entire lives to answer this question.
Lets look briefly at a few of the most celebrated philosophies who have offered us various answers to this question:
Socrates and Plato
Meaning found in the pursuit of wisdom, virtue, and eternal truths beyond material life.
Truth is abstract and impersonal rather than revealed by a personal, loving God.
Stoicism – Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius
Meaning comes from inner virtue, rational acceptance of fate, and harmony with nature.
Denies divine intervention or relational connection with God; sees suffering as stoically endured, not redemptively used.
Humanism – Erasmus, Carl Rogers, secular ethicists
Meaning is created through reason, dignity, relationships, and service to others without appeal to the divine.
Relies on human potential and ethics alone, not on God’s grace, truth, or eternal hope.
Humanism, Existentialism, moral/political lens – James Baldwin (born in 1924)
Meaning is found in truth, love, justice, and courage to be fully oneself amid injustice.
Deontology, partly Humanism – Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Meaning is in acting from moral duty, guided by reason and universal moral law.
Existentialism, Nihilism – Friedrich Nietzsche a German philosopher from the 1800s
Life has no inherent meaning, but individuals must create their own through strength and art.
Absurdism, overlaps with Existentialism – Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian philosopher
Accept the absurd and live passionately and freely despite life’s lack of cosmic meaning.
All of these but Kant believed that each person had to find meaning for themselves and therefore there is no common purpose or meaning to life.
Kant believed that one person (or group of people) needed to make the moral compass that then everyone would follow. There is much to learn from the questions they asked and philosophies they offered, but ultimately if the answer is to find meaning in a meaningless world that is actually meaningless.
No matter what meaning you make, if it is all meaningless then why does it matter. If what you do in life to create meaning ends when you die (or at least in a few decades afterward) what is the point?
In contrast to the belief that life is meaningless or in Camus’s words absurd, the Bible paints a different picture.
What is the meaning and purpose of life that the Bible offers us?
Today, we are going to work through this question considering
3 things: Design, Distortion, and Decision
The Bible begins in the book of Genesis describing how God created order and beauty from the void. As the crowning piece of creation God makes humans. Let’s read and see what we can learn about our design and therefore purpose from this part of the creation account.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” – Genesis 1:26-28
DESIGN:
Image bearing – living idols
In verses 21 and 24 when God is creating the animals that live in the waters, sky, and land. He says that they are made according to their kind.
Now look at vs 26. It says man (or hebrew word (a.dam) which means human) is made according to what kind? _______ in the image of God.
Image = tse.lem
Idols made of wood and stone
So, then if God is making us as living idols then we should know what an idol is in the ancient world.
Dr Crispin Fletcher-Louis (biblical scholar) says:
“the role of idols in ancient Near Eastern religion … where an idol is set up to be the real presence of the god. Because the god is really believed to inhabit the image, the image is the god, and its proper care and veneration guarantees the god’s benefits and protection for the worshipping community… Every Ancient near eastern religion had a temple (the place god dwelled) and idols, or images were in that temple.”
– Dr Crispin Fletcher-Louis
So, God sets up humanity as His representation, His likeness in his temple – the earth.
According to the Genesis account God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, earth was the place He dwelled.
We see this explicitly stated in the book of Acts 17:24, “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. And he is not served by human hands. – He isn’t a created thing that needs tending to. He is a living God and we are to live as His representatives in this world.“
Ok now with that understanding let’s go back to Genesis 1.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:26, 28
So, as God’s images in the world we are to subdue and rule over the earth, be fruitful, as well as fill the earth with other images of God!
The word here for subdue or rule is exactly what it sounds like – to rule over or have authority over. Now in this environment before sin and brokenness has entered the world this kind of rule was one that promoted flourishing and mutual benefit. Being fruitful points to doing things that produce a good result. So, we are to live in the world caring for it in the exact way that God would if He was living in your body in your life.
How has humanity done at ruling like that? Well we’ve killed, started wars, oppressed those we don’t like or understand, and done whatever it takes to be the ones in power- in short we’ve done really bad!
Let’s make it personal – How have you done at living as God would live in the spaces you occupy?
How have you produced fruit through what you do or added to the flourishing of others? Work is a God given gift to us to bless, influence, lead as He would lead.
Or if you are honest do those around you not see or experience the goodness of God when they are around you?
So, what does Genesis say about our DESIGN which points to meaning and purpose?
We are created to be God’s image in the world, His living Idols, living as He would live and ruling as He would rule. This is our design.
This is significant! This is a privilege! What an amazing responsibility we have! What a different view God gives us for purpose!
Let’s jump forward to an interaction with Jesus in the book of Matthew in the New Testament where he confronts idolatry and lays out a vision of what our lives should go after.
Here’s the context: Jesus enters Jerusalem his last week alive and he goes to the temple (the center for worship in the city) and sees that they have turned it into, in his words, “a den of robbers”. There have been tables set up for people to exchange the money they bring from wherever they’ve come from for local money, so they can buy animals for their sacrifice and give the temple tax. Jesus sees that they are taking advantage of people and over charging them or creating exchange rates that aren’t fair and this makes him mad that people are being taken advantage of in the very house of God where all people are supposed to be able to come! He throws over tables, leaves the temple, goes out to Bethany, then comes back in the morning to the very scene where he had just overturned tables and began to teach! This makes the religious leaders of the time furious – and Jesus knows that it will so, a show down takes place. This isn’t a western with pistols, but it’s just as dramatic – it’s a show down with words!
In Matthew 21 & 22 there are 3 parables Jesus tells that all point to the fact that those in “spiritual authority” are no longer leading people to truth, each parable ends with a judgement of them. Then, Jesus is asked 3 questions by various religious leaders. 1st concerns Earth, 2nd concerns Heaven, and the 3rd concerns the ultimate goal or purpose for us (they are covering all bases here). This section ends with Jesus stumping them with a question that silences everyone.
DISTORTION:
We are going to focus on the 1st and the 3rd question asked of Jesus in Matthew 22, but I’d encourage you to go read through Matthew 21-22 to see the whole arch of the interaction.
First Question (focused on this world)
Matthew 22:15-22
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
What is going on here and what does this have to do with our meaning and purpose? Hang with me for a few minutes as I set up the imagery used here.
In the 1st century in the Roman empire the Denarius was a coin with a picture of the emperor, who at this time was Tiberius. The inscription on the coin read, “The Great Tiberius Caesar son of god Augustus” on the other side of the coin would have likely been a picture of either the goddess Roma or perhaps Tiberias’s mother Livia with the inscription – high priestess. This coin was required to pay the mandatory poll tax.
This coin was an idol declaring the emperor, or Caesar, God and on the back had another idol of the goddess Roma.
Scot McKnight, a biblical scholar, says in his Matthew Commentary, “By requiring payment via the denarius, Caesar was forcing all subjects of Rome to make a statement, to acknowledge symbolically his claims to divinity.”
Carrying this coin as a Jew was to carry around an object that was an idol! In the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:4 God said, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
The religious leaders that were asking Jesus this question would have known this command from the 10 commandments & they would claim to NOT worship idols!
Jesus calls out their Hypocrisy. He acknowledges up front that He knows they are trying to trap him, but then he lets it play out. He says, show me this coin and they produce one immediately, meaning they were carrying around this idol! (notice Jesus himself didn’t have one)
Then it gets worse, He asks whose inscription is on this coin and they say, Caesars. Remember back in Genesis 1:26-27- whose image are we made in? GODS! So, if they were pure and had not been defiled by the culture around them buying into beliefs to get along and not be persecuted they would have answered this softball question with the answer they knew from Memory, “ well Caesar is on the coin and all humanity is made in the image of God,” but they didn’t.
I can just picture Jesus’ face here as these students of the Pharisees (those who were SUPPOSED to be pointing people to the reality of God) answer the way they do- sorrow! They don’t see how deceived they are.
Jesus’ response to them in vs 21 “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s”. Well the poll tax is something required by the ruler of the land, so give that to him. Jesus gives us guidance in how to be a good citizen withIn a corrupt government, but what does Jesus mean by give back to God what is God’s? To answer this, let’s jump to the 3rd question Jesus was asked …
DISTORTION QUESTION:
Where have you bought into our culture and been sucked into a distortion of truth? Where are you compromising what God says is good, because it is easier or socially acceptable?
I feel like I have had to unlearn so much over the years.
Most recently, I discovered that I had adopted (along with so many other Western Christians) a Platonic view of the afterlife versus a biblical worldview.
Oxford biblical scholar and 1st century Jewish historian, Dr. N.T. Wright points out the differences to be the following:
Wright emphasizes that the Platonic view distorts the biblical story by suggesting that material creation is unimportant or disposable. In contrast, the Bible insists that what happens in this world matters and that God’s ultimate goal is the reconciliation of all things (Colossians 1:20).
He has said:
“Jesus’ resurrection is the launching of God’s new creation, and those who belong to Him are invited to share in His mission of renewal….
God’s plan is not to abandon this world but to renew it, to restore it, to flood it with His presence and love.”
– Dr. N.T. Wright
3rd Question focused on the point or goal
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:34-40
They are asking what is the most important of the commandments that were given to them, because at this point there are 1000s of commands that the Pharisees have added to the original law and NO one can follow them all. They are like, “dude- help us prioritize”
The word for Commandment is the word entolē (en-toll-lay) which means order or prescribed way something is to be done. It is an intensification/ clarification of the word τέλος (teh-los) which means the aim or the purpose.
The laws or commands in the old testament were given to answer the question, “what kind of people does our God call us to be, so that we show the world the kind of God we serve?”
Jesus does a Jesus thing and answers the question of which ONE law is the most important by giving two answers!
Jesus says the end goal of life or the purpose (and what Jesus ultimately gave his life for) is to love God and love people. Why did Jesus say these are the most important? Because if we love God our affections are aimed in the right direction – toward the only one who can truly satisfy. And how are we to love him – with heart, soul, and mind – with our entire being.
When you love someone what do you do – you give them your time and attention and you sacrifice for them! You also bask in and find security in their love! IF YOU ARE A CHRIST FOLLOWER – do you love God like this?
When our affections are aimed toward God, we get to experience His overwhelming love that will then naturally flow out onto others “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” – 1 John 4:7-8
So how do you know if you are loving God? You will be loving others! That is His second (unsolicited) most important commandment. Why? Go back to Genesis 1- we are to rule and be fruitful in our lives as images/ reflections of who God is. AND God has always for all time moved in the direction of us as humans in love. So, the ultimate goal or Telos is to love others as a result of giving ourselves fully to Him.
I know that loving others isn’t easy! But if we are committed to following Jesus it requires us loving others.
As a community we want to equip you to do just that- Join us this afternoon 1-3pm for a practical training that will help each of us learn to tell our story and the story of Jesus with those in our lives. This is a practical way we can love others – tell them about the God who loves them and has given them purpose and meaning!
So, let’s put it all together- the meaning and purpose of our life is: to live as images of God in the world to bring His flourishing and mutual benefit to those in the spaces we occupy. Jesus came and He perfectly lived as the exact representation of God in the world and he tells us the goal or aim of life is to love God with our whole being and love others as an overflow from our relationship with God (the source of love).
DECISION:
So we have two options: build and worship idols OR be idols
You have a decision to make.
Will you live as Images of God in the world, Loving God with your whole being submitting to and following Him?
OR
Will you spend your life building and worshiping idols which are lesser things that will never satisfy?
Jesus was really hard on those who said they were following Him, but were actually sold out to the culture and were giving their lives away to build their own image, not God’s. In Matthew 23 (that follows the chapter we just looked at) He calls these religious leaders hypocrites, blind guides and a brood of vipers (a snake that eats its own kind). So if you claim to follow Jesus we need to take a good look at how we are living!
During this next song, do some reflection and ask God to show you how you are currently answering the question of the meaning and purpose in life and where He is inviting you to consider a new way forward.
