Divinization and the Sigh of Relief

The more aware we become (in creeping, minutely incremental ways) how God is incomprehensibly other than we are, the more at home we are and genuinely content in our finite human skin. There's something beyond humility (though it likely turns out to be quintessential humility) in uttering with a sigh of relief, "Thank God I'm not God!"

Part of the relief is, of course, that the existence and state of the whole created order doesn't depend on me! Another part of it is, I realize there's a particular thought-experiment I need never invest my energies in conducting because it's a sheer waste of time. It's the one that starts: "Imagine what it's like to be God...." (Ah yes... yes, let's just... imagine that, shall we? Hold on, hold on, I think I'm getting it now...!)

Yet I can imagine someone, once, seriously setting himself that task, actually believing he could comprehend the essence and totality of God's... what? God-ness. And, having conceived that challenge to his powers of conceptualization, he reached the conclusion that he'd done it, figured it out, broken it down to its constituent parts, mastered the conundrum and qualified himself to assume the role and execute the duties thereof. He was called Lucifer.

What is piercingly poignant, in comparison, is what Scripture tells us about the only human being ever competent, capable and, yes, essentially entitled to indulge in that very thought-experiment: "What's it like to be God?"--essentially entitled because He was (and is) God. He is the single, singular case, out of all humanity through all time, of one who would not have engaged in something on the order of Monty-Pythonesque absurdity in saying, "Now my mind will conceive--authentically and clearly--what it's 'like' to be God. And I will enter into that reality now."

The thing that is piercingly poignant is, Scripture tells us He never did that. He chose, willed, not to. He completely set aside even the thought, having committed wholly to live as Man in absolute obedience to the God Who is not Man.

It's in the light of these things that what Scripture goes on to say about Him (and us, too) is so stunning. It is precisely this Jesus, Who, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage," but, instead, lived out, to the final degree and last extent, "the nature of a servant", and "being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!"  It's because of that alone that "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:6-11, NIV-UK).

In the (to us) gloriously paradoxical way of God's victories, it's the One who never conceived in his heart a creaturely lust for the Eternal Throne but expended Himself instead to the point of virtual annihilation, apparently reward-less and comfortless as Death closed in to swallow Him up, Who turns out to reign eternally with the Father in Heaven, "God from God, Light from Light," on the "throne of God and the Lamb."

"But wait, there's more," as the saying goes.

As for us, the Scriptures speak of the consummate realization of our redemption, which is a kind of glorification, in Christ--not to become the same as God or usurp His throne, as Lucifer conceived it in his heart to do, not to be identical in every possible way to Christ the Word Incarnate--only One will ever be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the Alpha and Omega, the express image and effulgence of the Father's Being. And yet, the apostle John says that "we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, speaks of the body that is "raised imperishable... raised in glory... raised in power... raised a spiritual body." In an echo and affirmation of John's assertion--which, considering how different we mistakenly tend to think of Paul and John being from each other, is really stunning--Paul too points to the moment when "we shall be like Him": "...as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. ...[W]e will all be changed.... For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."

Our resurrected state--in body and spirit as entirely redeemed and everlastingly, divinely renewed souls--within the entirety of the New Creation of God, will be possessed of a nature, of a quality and capacities, of a fullness and integrity of life, drenched with the living love of God Himself, such that, were it possible for us to see these future selves of ours, now, strolling toward us, we'd very likely fall on our faces like dead men. We might well imagine it was Christ Himself, or at least an angel, coming toward us. The apostle John did a fair bit of falling on his face before the heavenly glory revealed in the Revelation, whether at the aspect of Christ Himself or just an angel of God.

The theologians, and, yes, the mystics, speak of a process, "divinization." This isn't man-becoming-God. Rather, it's this very process of growing into the likeness of Christ through what is, in the simplest of terms, the "entire takeover" of the human will by divine love. Paradoxically, our divinization is so radically not man-becoming-God that it is, to the contrary, entirely dependent on the immutable fact--an eternal "verdict"--that we are not God. In other words, the only reason we may go on forever and ever growing in similitude, manifesting ever more sublime reflection of God is, quite logically, that we are other than He is. Otherwise all talk of "becoming like" is pure nonsense. We cannot go on "becoming like" what, actually, we have at some point become. I cannot be "like" myself, because I am myself! I may, however, become "like" the God Who I am not.

Divinization, then, turns out to be an eternally, endlessly "realizing" reality, because there is no end to the Being of the One Living God Whose life and love we are to engage, adore and extol, in infinite ways as yet unimaginable, all the more, forever and ever. Because He is infinite, our divinization, as His forever-finite creatures, is necessarily infinite. Such a singular, incomparable appointment and glory in the order of God's creation would be an impossibility to us if we were not... FINITE. Only the finite may infinitely "become". Only the finite may confront an infinite world of unknown, unexplored possibilities. These possibilities well up and spring, first and last, from the very life and creative will of the Living God.

Such is the glory proper and unique to Man, that of our created-ness and God-likeness in the sphere of the ultimately unfathomable designs and counsels of the Living Infinity that is the One True God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think it appropriate here to repeat what I said at the outset: the more aware we become (in creeping, minutely incremental ways) how God is incomprehensibly other than we are, the more at home we are and genuinely content in (and everlastingly thankful for) our finite human skin. There's something beyond humility (though it likely turns out to be quintessential humility) in uttering with a sigh of relief, "Thank God I'm not God!" It seems appropriate, too, to remark that the way of this divinization begins, for the Christian, not in the "by and by" but right here and now--pointedly, inescapably and uncomfortably by having "the same mindset as Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5), which brings no promise of earthly glory or splendor... quite the contrary....

Which is all the more reason for that "sigh of relief." Yes, relief... because the very sigh is the sound of faith that HE IS.

Clouds

This sermon is about as far as you can get from a "three-pointer", and forget about anything approaching "expository preaching" here. It's a cluster of notions united by a single image or figure: clouds. The conclusion is hardly a conclusion as much as a "gathering storm" of praise. 

A few weeks ago we celebrated "Harvest Festival" in the church, which is always a very enjoyable Sunday service - especially when it's followed by a big lunch! At Harvest Festival Sunday we thank God for all His many physical blessings -- the sun, the rain, the fruits of the earth... blessings we're grateful for, even if we don't always talk as if we're grateful! Let's admit it, on other days, when it's not "Harvest Festival", it's very easy for us to whine and moan if the day's cloudy or drizzly; we look outside and say, "Ugh, what a gloomy, dreary day." Though, personally, I have to say that I've always really liked gray, rainy days. When the sky is thick with clouds and the sun can't break through, I always feel very cozy and safe, like I'm under a big blanket in bed. I can't stand the feeling of being "broiled" under the sun. But even if you don't like overcast days at all, you must admit that clouds promise blessing -- the blessing of rain without which we can't live! 

Psalm 135 talks about these clouds God has created. Let's read verses 6 and 7 (read). 

In the sphere of visible nature, clouds, like all of nature, are a symbol of God's power and blessing-- and more than just a 'symbol', clouds are a vehicle of real blessing in the natural realm. Psalm 147:7-8 likewise tells us: (read). 

But clouds aren't only a vehicle of blessing in the natural dimension. There are clouds that announce and at the same time conceal the presence of God. (Read Exodus 19:9, 16, and 24:15-18). 

What is this "thick cloud" into which God summoned Moses? I don't know, but I know what it did. It simultaneously manifested and concealed the presence of God. Because of the cloud, the nation knows that God is there, and because of the same cloud, the nation knows they cannot see Him. In this way the cloud teaches us a timeless lesson, which is that we can know that God is near--yes, we can even hear His voice, see His power, love and worship Him and know His fellowship... but, but, on the other hand there will always be, figuratively speaking, a CLOUD, a certain cloud, in which is concealed the infinite glory and eternal depths of God's very being which we can never plumb. 

This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18, NIV-UK). 

No one has seen God, even though several times the Bible tells us, quite literally, about people who did see God! Is this a contradiction in the Bible? It tells us people have seen God and people haven't seen God! No, it's no contradiction. Because even those people who saw God didn't see God. Why? Because there's always a cloud, because even the very manifestation of God is a cloud concealing God--what He reveals of Himself is a limitation accessible to our finite understanding, which necessarily excludes infinite depths of being in Him from all conceivable apprehension. There is always a "cloud". 

Here's a quite elementary, primitive, but apt illustration! (Holding out my hand, palm forward, to the audience) Now I'm showing you my hand. I'm also hiding my hand from you at the same time, because when I show you this side (pointing to my palm), I'm automatically hiding this side (pointing to the back of my hand, which the audience can't see).  You can't see both sides at once - it's impossible! 

Now, if that's true on such a simple, physical, human level, just imagine how much more true it is on the level of God and the inexpressible, immeasurable degree of His eternal being. Whatever God shows us of Himself automatically excludes "everything else" that He isn't revealing to us of Himself at the same time. The very fact we finite creatures can perceive anything of God means that what we're perceiving is already a limitation, a finite phenomenon, which paradoxically means that what we are perceiving is both God and not-God at once. "No one has seen God", the apostle John tells us, and not by accident in the direct context of his exposition of the Eternal Word's Incarnation, because it is only Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, who has seen and known God the Father in the "cloudless" perfection of unlimited knowing. 

Let's look at another place in the Old Testament where "clouds" come up: (Read Exodus 40:34-38)

Here's a wonderful paradox. Even though God surpasses all our capacities to fathom His essence, and even though even the most stunning revelation of His presence and glory hides more than it reveals, nevertheless this incomprehensible, uncontainable God abides among His people, fellowships with them, accompanies them, leads them and, in the unsearchable depths of His love, loves them. That's the mystery of the Presence of God: there where we cannot penetrate the infinite presence of God, right there, nevertheless, He is infinitely present and we can understand that He is infinitely present. To put it differently, the God Who is absolutely everywhere is absolutely able to be absolutely near, without contradiction. 

This truth manifests itself in the highest degree--historically, personally--in the very person of Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God", "for it pleased God that in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily." 

As God did in the wilderness, in the cloud as He led the nation, so now in Christ He abides with us, fellowships with us, accompanies us through life's long way, in Christ in Whom abides His infinite fullness, even if that's a truth we can't possibly encompass by human logic. It's enough that it's so. It's enough that the "fullness" is there, in Him, and that He is with us - Immanu El, our "God with us"!

Here is another picture of the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament, and note especially the way the nation responded to the movement of the cloud. (Read Numbers 9:15-22, with special emphasis on all the times the text says that the nation always responded immediately and exactly to whatever the could did; if it moved on, they moved on, if it stayed put, they stayed put)

May our following after Christ be as attentive and faithful, with full cognizance of that glory that once appeared to three disciples on a mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became whiter as light itself, and then, a cloud, a shining cloud, overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in Whom is all my pleasure. Listen to Him."

This very God Who unveils His glory in the cloud, gives us as well a cloud of witnesses, as it says in Hebrews 12:1; they are the witnesses of faith whose testimony provokes us to ruthlessly abandon whatever interferes with our all-out race for the goal and run with eyes fixed on the Originator and Culminator of our faith, Jesus Christ, Who promises that one day we will see the Son of Man "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). For, as it says in Thessalonians 4, "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." 

"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." (Revelation 1: 7 - NASB)

Now, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6 - NASB)

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 6

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Friday, October 18th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. 

(Based on my May 24th post in Serendipitous Intersections: "Brave the terror, run into Love's fearsome power"-- which is itself based on the May 24th readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #145 in "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

One of the most touching sights I ever see is when a parent has disciplined a very young child, with a stern word or even a light slap on the bottom, and the child, heartbroken as only a very young child can be, in that end-of-the-world way that will be completely forgotten in ten minutes, in a flood of tears and sobs envelops itself and disappears into the arms of--the parent who just performed the distressing discipline! The logic of cause-and-effect suggests the child should run away from the source of its pain and frustration. But here an entirely different logic is at work: the logic of love. Mysteriously and wonderfully, the child knows, without ever needing to analyze it, that parents whose word can ruin all your plans and spoil all your fun, whose hand may bring a certain twinge to posterior places, are the same parents whose enfolding embrace, soothing words and loving eyes will heal your hurt, will assure you yet again that you are treasured and have a home in somebody's heart--and not just "somebody's", but in the heart of the ones who are the center of your whole world. 

Christ says, "Unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." I think this implicit, wholehearted trust--the trust that runs into the arms of the parent who has just punished you--such childlike trust is exactly what Christ calls us to. 

George MacDonald writes, "If then any child of the Father finds... that the thought of God is a discomfort to him, or even a terror, let him make haste--let him... rush at once... for shelter from his own evil and God's terror, into the salvation of the Father's arms." [Mc] There's the delightfully intriguing paradox: we rush into the Father's arms for salvation from our own fear of the Father. 

In the Book of Revelation, the apostle John tells how he naturally, spontaneously reacted at the sudden vision of the Heavenly Christ: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." Now just think: this is Jesus, the beloved Master with whom John walked and talked, lived and worked, laughed and wept, in the most intimate, implicit trust, for three years. In the simplest of human terms, this was John's "old friend", his cherished friend! But at this overwhelming 'materialization', before his eyes, of the Risen, Glorified Son of God, John can only fall in a dead faint.... 

Analogies are always limited, and that includes the one I began with this morning. We cannot always rush un-self-consciously into the arms of God, like a child wanting comfort. Sometimes we can only fall down in awe and, yes, dread. And you know who understands that best? God. God doesn't despise the pitiful helplessness of His utterly overcome child. What does Jesus, the "Old Friend", do when John  falls prostrate? "Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid."Oswald Chambers says, "In the midst of the awfulness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. ...In the midst of all His ascended glory the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, and to say, 'Fear not.' ...I delight to know that there is that in me which must fall prostrate before God when He manifests Himself, and if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God." [OC]

Even if I am too overwhelmed to rush into the Father's arms, I hope, I trust it will be the hand of God that touches me and the voice of God that says, "Don't be afraid."

But when Jesus raises His beloved disciple back to his feet, it isn't only to calm his fear. It is to give John a task: "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later." A disciple always receives a task; otherwise he is no disciple. The child of God's true joy is when the heavenly Father says, "Come, let's do my work together." But the work of God is love, and that can be frightening. To run into the Father's arms for His love, even for rescue from fear of Him, that's one thing. But what about when He tells us to love Man? To love all the people around us, the people we don't know, the people who will never take a friendly step toward us if we don't step first... and maybe not even then? Do we run into that assignment? Do we embrace the task the same way we want the Father to embrace us? Do we demonstrate that same wholehearted, childlike trust to God in the work as we do in our our most private, solitary recourse to Him? 

We can never--fortunately or unfortunately--divorce the authenticity of our most intimate meetings with the living God from the authenticity of our life for Him in the world. It is inevitable that to whatever extent the one is inauthentic, so will the other be.

George MacDonald writes, "O God of man,.../...Love of my kind alone can set me free;/Help me to welcome all that come to me,/Not close my doors and dream of solitude liberty!" [Mc]

The apostle John says it more prosaically and more piercingly (1 John 4:20): "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." 

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 5

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Wednesday, October 16th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. 

(Based on my May 21st post in Serendipitous Intersections: "Beyond the fear: surrendered to the Making Will (or, From first fear to first love)"-- which is itself based on the May 21st readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #142 in "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

Does the Bible say that love casts out fear? No, it doesn’t exactly say that. Let’s read 1 John 4:18 (read).

So it is perfect love that casts out fear. Yes, “there is no fear in love,” but it is only perfect love that casts out fear, all fear.

Just as the Law was a good tutor to control and guide us till we came to Christ, so fear is a good “supervisor” until we come to perfect love. Ultimately, love is the whole essence and substance of our relationship to God, but until perfect love is realized, it is good that fear serves as at least a poor, elementary bond with God, a bond between Man and his Maker. [Mc]

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It’s not the end of wisdom, but it’s the beginning, and if you don’t begin the journey you’ll get nowhere!

Jesus told His disciples, “I have called you my servants, but now I call you my friends.” The servant fears his master, and, yes, he may love his master, too, but only friends partake together in perfect love that casts out all fear.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus scolds the Ephesian church for losing their first love. They have lost their first love in two senses: the love they experienced at first, when their faith was new and vibrant and zealous; and the love that should always have first place in their lives. “First love” is first with respect to both time and priority. It is the entrance into life with the living God and it is the “pearl of great price” for which we are ready to lose everything else… if, by God’s mercy, we are in our right minds.

And in His perfect love Jesus gives the Ephesian church something: a reason to fear; He will remove their light if they don’t repent and return to their first love.

Thank God for a healthy, correcting fear. But fear cannot be the perfection of our life in God; it is only the beginning of wisdom. The soul that stands distant from God, in alienation from Him and darkness—there is no hope for that soul if it never experiences fear. The path to the true fulfillment of the human soul is from first fear to first love, from first love to the perfect love that will cast out all fear forever, when we live for only “the Making Will” and the soul-filling breath of God [Mc]. When we live for that alone, no place is left for fear, only for perfect love.

Then we will understand, in starkly new dimensions of understanding, what it means to seek first--first of all, most of all, in all and after all--to seek first the kingdom of God [OC]. Perfect love casts out all that pretends to be first but is not the life of God. Perfect Love is First Love's conclusive victory and triumphant arrival, with all contenders vanquished, at the union of wills with the Beloved.

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 4

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Tuesday, October 15th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. 

(Based on my August 22nd post in Serendipitous Intersections: "Life on the margin, where there's no 'what's next' but for the next touch of the chisel"-- which is itself based on the August 22nd readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #235 "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

Read Matthew 3:11

“I indeed baptize you with water… but… He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” [OC]

John the Baptist lived for “What’s Next” in the vivid, pulsating, perpetually unfolding work of God. Every moment in the poignantly brief account of his life is one of expectation. John goes out to the desert expecting to encounter the will of the living God there; he begins to proclaim the arrival of the kingdom, expecting a great movement of God’s power among the people; he baptizes them with the baptism-of-repentance, expecting a Greater One to come and pour out the Spirit of God; and in awe and wonder he baptizes The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sins of the World, expecting Him to increase and himself, John, to decrease.

Every expectation was an openness to the blow of the Master Sculptor’s chisel [Mc]; every blow of the chisel was God’s work, not only for the saving of the world but for the personal life-experience of one real man we call John the Baptist. Every blow of God’s hammer and chisel became an eternal aspect of John’s unique story—the story that is understood from the inside by only two: John and his God.

And so it is with every one of us. James in his epistle says, “Let patience have its perfect work.” The least thing James means is that we should know how to wait for anything to happen; far more, the patience to be perfected is the kind that shows as persistent openness in the midst of all the things that keep happening, openness to the pervasive divine will in which patience is anchored. George MacDonald writes, “Statue under the chisel of the sculptor, stand ready to the blows of his mallet. Clay on the wheel, let the fingers of the divine potter model you at their will.” [Mc]

Everything God wants to do in your life, to do through you, is for reasons and goals that are bigger than you are; it is for others, perhaps countless others you’ll never know in this life, and it is for His Own supreme glory. But the magnificent paradox is, at the same time, everything God will do through you is for you, for your singular, inner, inviolably personal knowledge, contemplation and glorying… in the sacrosanct, unrepeatable bond of one soul and its Maker-Redeemer forever.

John says “I indeed...;” yes, I myself am certainly doing this now… I baptize you with water, but… when He shall come…. [OC] What about us? We are all doing something now, but when He shall come, when He shall move, when He shall strike the hammer to chisel to soul, will we yield to the blow or will we clutch and cling to what “I am doing now,” forgetting the work has always been His and that to make it ours is to make it nothing? You need perpetually—without ever a let-up or break—to embrace what He is doing and “What’s Next”, because He is making your life. He is making you part of something infinitely greater than you are— for you! For the whole creation around you! For Himself and His endless joy—the joy of the living God!

“I indeed, but He….”

“Let patience have her perfect work….”

Live on the edge of "What's Next" in the perpetual unfolding of God's life and will in you and His world. 

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 3

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Monday, October 14th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. Additional note: while I genuinely set out to incorporate thoughts and words from Chambers and MacDonald more overtly in this meditation, the meditation, as it formed in my mind and on paper, took on a life of its own and refused to stop and let me "insert" the things I had anticipated as critical to its final shape. Finally, I knew I was beaten and I allowed the meditation to "carry on" to its own conclusion. Nevertheless, the entire meditation is "sparked" by the Chambers and MacDonald readings for May 18th. 

(Based on my May 18th post in Serendipitous Intersections: "Let him who has ears to hear, eyes to see, a heart to open...."-- which is itself based on the May 18th readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #139 in "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

This morning I want to talk about "The Beauty of the Life of God". Let's begin by reading Matthew 6:25-34 (read). 

"Behold the lilies of the field... the birds of the air... your heavenly Father cares for them... do not worry over what you will wear, or eat...." Can these words be true? Really true? Can we rely on them? Is Jesus asserting that this is the fact and reality of life, the genuine order of the universe? Or... are these just poetic sentiments pronounced to comfort and soothe us? 

This part of the Sermon on the Mount is classically quoted as an example of the "philosophy of Christ" - a philosophy of simplicity, poverty, pacifism, even "Christian communism." 

Take note, however, why Jesus speaks these words. See what it says in verse 25: "For this reason I say to you...." 

Everything Christ says about not worrying, everything He says about the lilies of the field and birds of the air, everything He says about how the heavenly Father knows our needs, everything He says about seeking first the kingdom of God, He says for this reason: "No one can serve two masters...; you cannot serve God and wealth." (v. 24)

All these beautiful words--and they are beautiful--constitute an absolute, yes, a severe summons to service. These words are not only true words; they are the non-negotiable conditions of our service in the army of Christ. The people hearing Jesus that day knew very well that this startling man from Nazareth wasn't presenting them with a bouquet of lovely notions to cross-stitch into pillow covers or wall hangings. Jesus was starkly summoning them to abandon hope in all else and give up their dreams of everything else but the kingdom that He, Jesus of Nazareth, was now unveiling, right there and then, in His Own Person. He was commanding them to make a choice, and they knew it. His challenge didn't make them feel philosophically "inspired" and He didn't intend it to. His challenge jolted and threw their accustomed categories of thought into desperate confusion. 

That's why Matthew tells us: "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." (Matt. 7: 28,29) We read this wrong if we imagine the people milling about, exchanging commentary, "My, my, that was certainly an impressive sermon; I'd say this young man knows a thing or two." The people were not "impressed" by Jesus' "expertise". That's not what Matthew is talking about when he says they were amazed at His authority. The people were stunned, shocked, speechless, because Jesus' teaching was an announcement of supreme, absolute authority vested in Himself, over heaven and earth, forever and ever. The same "Sermon on the Mount" that contains beautiful phrases about lilies of the field and birds of the air is the "Sermon on the Mount" in which Jesus categorically announces that on the last day mankind will turn to Him, crying, "Lord! Lord!" That's the authority that astounded the hearers that day; moreover, it's the authority, and the command to submit to it, that most of those listening that day finally rejected. 

All the words and deeds of Christ are beautiful with the "beauty of the life of God."  But this is not the kind of beauty that exists to charm and inspire us to sunny optimism. No, it’s the Beauty that drives a man like Paul to tell believers: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12: 1). It’s the kind of Beauty that compels you to make a total sacrifice of your life as the only possible, fitting, worthy response. It’s all or nothing. “You’re in the army now….”

Many people will reject, and slander, and try to destroy the beauty of the life of God, exactly as they did when it walked among us incarnate in Jesus. And when we face such rejection and hatred, that’s when Jesus’ words about the Father’s love and care stop being charming notions and become a lifeline we desperately cling to for survival.

“Behold the lilies of the field… the birds of the air… they neither toil nor spin… do not worry over what to eat, what to wear… your heavenly Father knows what you need….” Can these words be true, can they be real? Lord, tell us, is this Reality, the way things actually are? Can we take Your words as the absolute word from Heaven above, and stake our lives on them? 

Jesus answers: "“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.  Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." (John 7:17) 

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 2

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Friday, October 11th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. 

(Based on my April 29th post in Serendipitous Intersections: Only from our badness, our passage to beatitude, and the vision-- which is itself based on the April 29th readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #120 in "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

Let's read 1 John 3:1-3 (read).  

We don't yet know...! We don't know but we press on, believing that we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. So, there is an assurance, there is a reason, and there is a means. The assurance is that we will be like Him. The means by which we press forward is faith. And the reason we will be like Him is, mysteriously, that "we will see Him as He is." I can only understand this to mean that we may perceive the pure life and quality of God only if we correspond in nature to Him-- according to the image of God created in us and redeemed in Christ. Those who will not be like Him will never "see Him as He is." As Hebrews says, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." 

It can be hard for us to believe that we--yes, we ourselves--will be in such a state or condition so as to gaze upon the pure holiness of the Lord, and live! But this is God's promise, a promise He fulfills in His grace, a promise we embrace by faith, believing with all our hearts that it is so, and, consequently, we strive forward expectantly towards its fulfillment... and the expectation actually operates in our lives to bring us concretely closer to the real condition in which "we will see Him as He is": "All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure." [NIV] This is the wondrous interaction of grace, faith and sanctification. 

Oswald Chambers comments on this passage, saying, "When we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy." [OC] We do not know what we shall be--that's our uncertainty, and it is a joyful uncertainty because it is full of expectancy that, whatever we will be, it will be wonderful because of God's incomparable supreme love. So we remain forever loyal to him [OC].  George MacDonald anticipates this un-picturable moment of meeting: "Then shall my heart behold thee everywhere./The vision rises of a speechless thing,/A perfectness of bliss beyond compare!" [Mc] It is to this we press in faith. 

And it is hard to imagine that far, far back, near the very beginning of the story, of our story, there is a tragedy called the Fall. How could such a glorious reality arise from such devastating disaster? There can only be one answer: GOD. Only God could conceive in Himself such an all-encompassing, elemental transmutation of Reality. And the only reason He could both conceive and realize is it Love. And only His love could make our disastrous guilt into the felix culpa, the "fortunate guilt" as the theologians and Christian thinkers have called it down the centuries. Let's state it clearly: the guilt possesses no redeeming qualities in itself, but all its "fortune", its "blessedness," lies in the adamant aim of God to subject reality to His redeeming power. And in that way the guilt is a "happy" and "fortunate" one, because IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? Not even our original guilt can be against us anymore. It all becomes, intrinsically and fully, the one story of His grace and, as George MacDonald anticipated, we see Him in all of it. 

We have to admit that is only from our badness that our passage to blessedness began - that is our story! And because "we will see Him as He is", we will see Him everywhere [Mc]--yes, even in that; we will see Him in the whole story, from the very beginning, and we will see Him in every conceivable element and aspect of His glorified, transfigured reality forever and ever. 

Morning Devotions in Armenia, October 2013, Number 1

I have another blog, a private one, called Serendipitous Intersections, which features one post every day of the year. The gist of the blog is, it's a melding of three other 365-day "devotionals", one the famous work of Oswald Chambers and two others containing the work of George MacDonald. What I do is, I juxtapose the daily readings, usually in excerpt form but sometimes in whole, from the three sources and then add a heading of my own intended to unite them in a single concept or angle. 
Here in Armenia to teach a two-week course, I lead the morning devotions. I decided to use some of my blog posts as material for my "meditations". I specifically took those posts in which the excerpts from Oswald Chambers include a direct Scripture citation. Here is one I shared on Thursday, October 10th. First I will give the title from my "Serendipitous Intersections" blog (which I did not include in my talk to the students and staff). In the meditation, parts taken from Chambers or MacDonald, whether in direct quote or paraphrase, will be in bold font with "[Mc]" afterwards for MacDonald and "[OC]" for Oswald Chambers. 

(Based on my April 3rd post in Serendipitous Intersections: Sanctifying need, transfiguring response: to know the things that belong to our peace-- which is itself based on the April 3rd readings in "My Utmost for His Highest" [Chambers], "Diary of an Old Soul" [MacDonald], and reading #94 in "365 Daily Readings from George MacDonald", [MacDonald, edited by C.S. Lewis].)

Let's read Luke 19: 41-44 (read). "If only you had known...!" "Jesus had entered Jerusalem but a strange god was there" [OC], a god who ruled the heart of the people, a god who would not see and wouldn't let the people see when their Redeemer and eternal King had come into their city. Jesus wept. "If only you had known the things that belong to your peace...." It's an unusual phrase--the sense is, if only you had realized what it truly is that corresponds to, makes for, pertains to your true blessedness. If they had known, they would have greeted, invited, begged Jesus to come in, to stay forever, to take up His own kingdom! If they had known, then they'd also have known that they themselves possessed nothing but this one thing: the capacity to ask, to say to Christ just as Christ Himself was so soon to say to His Father: "Not our will but Yours be done!' 

Even in our poverty "the making of any request brings us near" to the Father [Mc]. Christ says, "Ask and it will be given to you, that your joy might be full." The apostle James tells us that we do not have because we do not ask. To ask is to come near, to receive the Giver. A favorite author of mine writes:  Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire. [Mc]

Asking "belongs to your peace"! 

When we we have faith to ask, and faith to receive, then God will give us both the easy and the hard in life [OC], as He did in the life of His Own holy Son. Christ stood one day before the grave of Lazarus and He prayed, "Father, I know you always hear me..." and the Father did indeed hear His Son that day and answer, to the stunned astonishment and joy of everybody there. But on a different day Christ asked, "Let this cup pass from me, if it is possible", and the Father said: No. No, for the sake of the whole world's salvation, it is not possible. But in every situation the Son accepted the Father's answer-- be it "yes" or "no" -- as the one that was perfect and, ultimately, to His Own perfect joy and exultation in the Father's glory. 

But over Jerusalem, Jesus weeps: "If only you had known what belongs to your peace!" 

Do we know? Do we ask? Are we ready to receive? Whatever it may be, at the Father's perfect hand? If so, then, as Hebrews 12 tells us, let us cast aside whatever gets in our way, along with the sins that bog us down, and let's run with endurance the course God has marked out for us--with our eyes glued on Jesus, Who brought our faith into existence with His Own life and Who will work it out to its ultimate, sparkling perfection in us. "For the joy that lay before Him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." [NIV]  Let your need of Him bring you close; let His response to you have its way, in every part of your life. 

Pentecost 2013

In this sermon I include quite a number of verses which I allowed, mostly, to speak for themselves as I spoke to the church. 

(Read Acts 2: 1-4)

The day of Pentecost speaks starkly about what the Holy Spirit does, what His power, role and work are. Also, the day of Pentecost testifies to what an indescribable honor God bestowed on us—because God led us into the sphere of His own divine action. He made us partakers of the divine life, even co-laborers with Christ.

To better open up the majesty of what God bestowed on the Church on the day of Pentecost, it is in my opinion indispensible to compare the baptism of Jesus Christ, in which the Holy Spirit played a central role, with what happened on the day of Pentecost, in which the Holy Spirit again played a central role. It is one and the same Holy Spirit, and in the sphere of God's plan and purposes it can't be coincidental that these two events contain such similarities.

In both events we see God's Spirit doing what God's Spirit does, what is essential to the Spirit's acts in the sphere of creation. What is it that the Holy Spirit does?

The Spirit indwells: (look at Romans 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16; Gal. 4:6; John 14:23—about this last one, emphasis on the point that while the Holy Spirit isn't specifically named in this verse, the whole meaning of the verse depends on the role of the Spirit in bringing the presence and power of the Father and Son into our lives)

The Spirit enlivens and fills with power:  (look at 1 Cor. 2:12,13; Gal. 5:16-18, 25; Eph. 5:18; John 6:63)

The Spirit manifests God's glory: personally, I believe that the glory that appeared in the tabernacle was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit; also that the "star" that led the Magi to the house in Bethlehem where they found the Christ Child was a specific manifestation of God's Spirit. Also (look at 2 Cor. 3:7-8; 1 Peter 4:14)

The Spirit brings forth a new creation: (look at 1 Cor. 12: 13; 15:45; Titus 3:5)

This is the Spirit of God who was displayed in the most awesome way in both the baptism of Jesus Christ and the day of Pentecost.

Let's look at the familiar passage concerning Christ's baptism (read Matt. 3: 13-17).

The baptism powerfully testifies of the Trinity which today's holiday especially proclaims [Note: Pentecost is known in Ukraine and other countries where the Orthodox Church predominates as "Trinity Day"]. Father, Son and Spirit in one action announce the beginning of a new day, a new reality, an entirely new order of things. The Father speaks, the Spirit descends, the Son receives the anointing. This is the official appointing and empowering of God's Christ before the whole world. This is the greatest manifestation of the Holy Trinity in world history. We cannot imagine the depth of the glory of this moment. The Spirit of God anoints the Son of God in whom dwells all the pleasure of God the Father. Man could never have dreamed up such a scenario. God astonishes us with the perfection of His self-witness. And, by the way, witness is also another key role and work of the Holy Spirit: (read John 15:26).

And so we return to the day of Pentecost. In light of everything I've said already, what I want to underline are two aspects of this great day: appointment and honor.

"Appointment" itself has two aspects: authority and power. Either one without the other is useless. On the day of Pentecost, God dramatically, in front of the whole world, fills His Church with power and confirms her authority to preach the Name and Gospel of His Son.

Concerning this authority, the Scriptures tell us: (look at John 17:2; Acts 9:27,28; 16:18; Philippians 2:9)

And concerning this power, the Scriptures say: (look at Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:4,5; Ephesians 3:16)

Together with the appointing of the Church, the day of Pentecost testifies to the indescribable honor God deigned to bestow on His people.

The Lord God condescended to baptize His Church with the very Spirit with Whom He baptized His holy Son Jesus Christ, and in so doing declared with stunning clarity that He receives us in the name of His Son—receives us, indeed, into the very life and fellowship of His beloved, risen Son. Who can put that honor, the glory of that, into fitting words? I can't. I think we all realize how unworthy we are of it, how infinitely far any of us is from earning such honor, but that's precisely what grace, God's overflowing love, is all about.

The day of Pentecost is the holiday of the Holy Trinity's superabundant, overflowing love, openly displayed in the anointing of the Church of Christ—anointing for love, for witness, for authority and power, for fellowship with the Most High and for the glory and joy of the Creator and our Redeemer forever. 

Meaningful Numbers

In the Bible there are significant numbers which witness about key realities in God's revelation, in His historical plan of redemption, and in His own nature and character. For example, if I just mention the number three, we right away think of the Holy Trinity. If 12, the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles, and the 12 gates in the New Jerusalem. If 1, the fact that there is only one God.

There are other numbers that convey special meaning in the biblical narrative. But I want to say a word of warning: We Christians do not practice numerology, which is a kind of occultism. We don't seek secret, hidden revelations in all numbers and quantities that show up in the Bible or other spheres of life. That is inadmissible.

But when God Himself, not in a hidden way but openly, invests significance in some number so that it consistently speaks of something God has done or who He is, then of course we need to pay attention—all the more so as God brings that number back again and again in various contexts. In fact, the repetition of a specific number in Scripture, in such a way that it reminds us again and again of the same theme, even though it is showing up in quite different biblical contexts—this tells us that a single and specific theological lesson about God and His ways is developing, like a thread of thought, through all these different parts of biblical history.

Today we're going to look at a single place in Scripture—that is, a single event in history—where not one, not two, but three such significant biblical numbers play important roles together, in perfect harmony. This is something unusual. Perhaps the "collision" of three such fateful numbers in one event testifies how the event itself overflows with the most intense theological revelation and historic, redemptive meaning. 

But before we look at that place in Scripture, we'll take a quick look at Genesis 1:31-2:3 (read).

For six days God worked, and everything He made, everything He did, was good.   Whatever God created, fashioned, intended, desired, appointed, established, whatever God accomplished over these six days, and whatever was designed to come of what God did, was good. There was categorically nothing that was not good. The "not-good" didn't exist. So you have six days of the creating of everything that isn't eternal, the creating of everything that isn't God Himself, the creating of everything that the eternal God, in the superabundance of Love, deigned to make and bless. And "to bless" means to bestow blessedness, the ultimate bliss and gladness.

On the seventh day God rested. Not because God is able to get tired, but because the work of creation was done; also because there was something else to do.  Notice that the Bible doesn't say that God did nothing on the seventh day; it only says that He stopped creating. So, what does God do when He is not creating?

Well, in the first place the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that God is unceasingly maintaining all things, that is, realizing their continued existence, by His mighty word. So, for one thing, God was doing this on the seventh day. The Scriptures tell us, too, that God is love. On the seventh day God didn't stop being love. On the seventh day, as well, I believe God, in all the majesty of His eternal love and grace, was contemplating His creation and by this contemplation, by this very gaze, was blessing it—because to be contemplated by God is the supreme beatitude. The seventh day is a gift of the Father to His creation: a day of meeting, contemplation and love, a day of exultation.

For six days, God alone creates. The seventh day means the enjoyment of the fruits of the divine act.

Six, and seven.

Now we'll look at one more place in Genesis: 7:13-17 (read), also verse 23 (read).

For forty days the flood increased, until everything that breathed upon the land perished, with the exception of Noah and his family in the ark. The number 40 speaks of God's wrath, of a period of trial, of the power of God and the fear of all flesh before Him.

In Moses' time, when the Israelites rose up against God, God announced the punishment: for forty years, until all the present generation passes away, the nation will live in the desert. While the Israelites knew very well, of course, the way to Canaan—that was no secret!—the point was that the Promised Land was forbidden to them until God said it was time. Before that: a time of testing, purging, preparation for a new day and order of life. 40 days, 40 years. And we all know that the Lord spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and overcoming the devil's temptations, even as He was being tried and proven by His own Father in heaven. There in the desert Christ manifested the perfection of faithfulness and obedience, and emerging from the desert Jesus Christ began proclaiming a new order of things—the Kingdom of God.

And now, let's open Exodus 24 and read verses 12-18 (read).

What sort of moment is this in the history of the nation? Well, God has already led the people out of Egypt and has sealed a covenant with them stipulating that they will be His people and He their God. But now, here at this moment, the Israelites are entering a deeper level of consecration to God. Here they have promised to observe God's holy law; indeed it may be said that at this stage the nation is committing to be God's collaborators (imagine the honor that means!), wholly devoted to the accomplishment of God's will on the earth. And in response God is now, if I may put it figuratively, "fixing to come down" from the mountain, to "live" in the holy tabernacle His people will build according to the plan they received from Him, and reside in the midst of the Israelite nation forever—as long as they stay faithful to Him.

This was an unprecedented moment in history. There had never been anything remotely like this, unless you count the fellowship Adam and Eve knew with God in the Garden. God will come down from the mountain, "move in" to the Tabernacle and permanently live with His people! Now, we know that heaven and earth cannot contain God, but that truth cannot contradict the powerful symbolism of what's happening here and the statement God Himself is making through it. Yes, heaven and earth cannot contain God, but neither can heaven and earth stop God from specially revealing His presence and power, uniquely and gloriously, anywhere He wants and for any purpose He wants. Here in the desert, at the mountain of Sinai, God unveils an unprecedented order of things, a new basis for relationship between God and a holy nation all His own. I will even dare to say that, only after the incomparable, ultimate feat of Christ Himself, this event in the desert is the most significant and powerful in the historical unfolding of God's redemptive work. It is a foreshadowing, too, of that day when God will descend to dwell with His nation, in the very Person of His beloved Son Jesus Christ and in His omnipresent glory in the eternal kingdom and a new creation.

Pay very careful attention, therefore, to the precise sequence and the symbolic connotations of this event:

(Read verse 16 again)

Six days. That is the term of the divine work and accomplishment. For six days God creates; this is the duration of His labor. Notice that during these six days the Lord doesn't invite Moses into the cloud. It's because God alone is Creator, and we get the impression that, there in the cloud, hidden from human eyes, something of surpassing glory is being made ready, something no human may take part in creating. And then, only on the seventh day, on the day of rest, God summons Moses to enter. It's paradoxical that precisely on the day of rest God commands Moses to do something, to act. Yes, the "day of rest" doesn't mean "the day of doing nothing". The day of rest denotes our entrance into God's rest, into His peace and gladness; we contemplate His works and majesty; we contemplate the love of Him who condescends to contemplate, and bless, us. And so, the seventh day, though the last of seven, is always the first day of something new. When the six days of creation ended, something new appeared on the scene: a day of rest, God's rest.

And as if to underline that fact, God kept Moses there on the mountain for forty days. That's the term of testing, purging and preparation for an entirely new order of things. During these 40 days God was showing Moses the heavenly blueprint for the tabernacle, the image of the holy place in which God's glory would dwell.

Six, seven and forty.  These three meaningful numbers all testify that it is God Who first realizes—makes real—everything necessary for our blessedness. The deed, the act, the feat, is His only. Then He invites us to enter His peace and rest, like Moses entering the cloud on the mountaintop, where we may contemplate Him. And it is in the sphere of this spiritual rest that He commands us to serve Him as faithful stewards of what He has made real.

Here there is a whole picture of our salvation in Jesus Christ, inasmuch as He accomplished everything Himself when we were totally helpless and incapable, dead in sins. And once He had done, forever, the perfect work, He summoned the children of His love to enter freely, "Peace I give you, my peace I leave you". And it is beginning with peace, beginning with rest, that we enter into, and launch out onto, our "forty days", days of trial and preparation, not to earn what the works of the flesh never could, but to grow into the faithful collaborators of Christ Himself in joyful devotion to His Lordship.

And He is worthy of this devotion, because (Heb. 3:2-6)"He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."

And therefore, (Heb. 4:7b-11) "…Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience."

  

Ascension Day Sermon 2013

Today I would like to talk with you about three results, or meanings, of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we think about each one in detail, let's just list them to start off with:

1. The Ascension of Christ launches a period in history in which the Church must be His representative in the world.

2. The Ascension underlines the deity of Christ.

3. The Ascension directs our attention to the source, the starting point, of our salvation.

So let's begin with the first point: "The Ascension of Christ launches a period in history in which the Church must be His representative in the world."  Christ's ascension appoints and establishes a period in world history in which God's nation can be witness of Him in a unique manner that was impossible earlier. Jesus says to His Church: "You will be my witnesses."

The apostle Peter tells us (read 1 Peter 2:9). We are to manifest the excellencies, the majestic glories, of Christ. In as much as it was God's will to receive Jesus Christ back to Himself and appoint the Church to do this, as the Body of Christ, it means precisely that God desired and intended such a period in history, one in which His people, His holy nation, would, as witness, manifest the fullness of what it means to be God's people.

The Lord could have, of course, remained on the earth after His resurrection and immediately set up the Kingdom. But He didn't. That was His choice, and all God's choices mean something. The fact of His going away speaks of God's holy intent to appoint the Church to an age and mission on earth, to sojourn here, for a time, in a fallen, mutinous world, bearing the light of the Gospel and testimony of Christ.

Can we fully comprehend why this was God's choice? Of course not. But there are in the history of God's work some hints and glimpses as to why. And the starkest one of all is the history of the Israelite nation. How long the Lord wrestled with His people, exhorting, blessing, punishing, forgiving, rescuing, handing over into captivity and delivering yet again. It all points to the central fact that God desires and wills that on this earth there should be a nation faithful to Him, that lives by faith and in the freedom of love demonstrates perfect obedience (or as near as Man may ever attain it this side of eternity), to the glory of His name.

The pain and grief in the heart of God Himself are audible in the words of the apostle Paul when he writes (read Romans 9:1-5).

This divine desire was not fulfilled in the Israelite nation the way it must be fulfilled before that final, "great and terrible" Day of the Lord. But Scripture declares that, no matter what, the Lord God was determined to display the riches of His grace in a chosen people in this fallen world. And nobody will stop God from enacting what He has determined will be. (Read Romans 9:22-26).   About this very nation the apostle Peter says: (read 1 Peter 2:9).

Today you and I are that nation, in a sense "wandering" in this desert of a fallen world, as we show forth the life and might of Him Who leads us, just as God once led Israel in the desert; even more, He lives in us to unfold and display His redemption and salvation through us. If Christ had not ascended, then this unique period would never have been—precisely this unique period in which exactly this divine intent and desire comes marvelously true once and for all. It is a special moment in the plan of God that never happened before the advent of Christ, and in fact it will never happen again—when we are here, and He is there, but He is in us, and we are in Him, and all of this is a fallen world desperately needing His witness.  For His reasons, desires and will, God so deigned it to be: that we should be left here, for now, by our Risen Savior in this world—but not left as orphans (read John 14:18).

And now my second point: the Ascension underlines the deity of Christ.

A few weeks ago, at Easter time, I mentioned in a sermon that, for now, only Jesus Christ has been resurrected, in the full and true sense of the word. Others were raised from the dead but they died again. Only Christ is risen in true Resurrection. But we, who have a share in Him, await a resurrection like His: (read Romans 6:5). Yes, we will rise like the Lord Jesus Himself. It's amazing!

But when we consider the Ascension of Christ, we realize there's a uniqueness in this event that sets it apart even from the Resurrection.  And I can sum it up in one phrase: we won't ascend to the Father just like Jesus did! The Ascension is Christ's unique right and glory as God the Son.

Christ ascended and sat down at the right hand of His Father in heaven. Christ declared, "I am returning to my Father." He says (read John 16:28).

Which of us can say the same? None of us. None of us came from the Father into this world or will return to the Father from Whom we came. Which of the prophets of God or the patriarchs of Israel could ever speak such words? None of them! And none of them dared try.

The Ascension of Jesus Christ to His Father testifies uniquely of the deity of Christ, and it perfectly concludes the earthly/heavenly revelation of His first coming. It reminds us that He Who returned to the Father is the very One of whom the book of Revelation says: (read Rev. 21:22-23).

Scripture doesn't say that the Lord God and the Lamb and the Church are the temple of the New Jerusalem. Scripture doesn’t say that the Lord God and the Lamb and the Church are the light of the eternal Kingdom. No. It is the Lord God and the Lamb Jesus Christ who are the very Light, Glory and Life of the heavenly kingdom forever. "I am returning to My Father". (Read Hebrews 1:1-3).  

Yes, surely: Christ will come and take us to be with Him where He is; the apostle Paul, led by the Spirit of God, tells of a day when we shall meet the Lord in the air. It is all true. Amen. BUT, no one but Jesus Christ will ever ascend to the Father from Whom He came into this world, returning to the glory He had with the Father before the creation of the world. This ascension, this return, belongs uniquely to the Son of God.  

The third meaning of the Ascension that I wanted to talk about today was: the Ascension directs our attention to the source, the starting point, of our salvation.

(Read Philippians 3:20)

Why do we await a Savior from heaven? Someone will reply, "Isn't it obvious? It's because He is in heaven!" Well, yes, of course, but we await a Savior from heaven also because Heaven—to be precise, the Lord God of Heaven—is the Source, the Author, the Initiator of all our redemption, rebirth, new life and world. The ascension of Jesus Christ testifies that we are called there, to our Maker, to reconciliation with the Father Creator; it testifies that the very essence of life for us is now no longer to be found in this fallen world but in the risen Son in whom we have an eternal inheritance.

(Read John 14:3; Colossians 1:13; 3:1-4)

We await, we expect, a Savior from heaven precisely because heaven—the heaven of God's holiness—is the very place where the new, redeemed Man in Christ must arrive and be forever with Him.

(Read John 14:3 again)

This doesn't mean that our eternal dwelling is "out there somewhere", in space or in some ethereal dimension we call "Heaven". No. About that the apostle Peter says clearly (read 2 Peter 3:10), and the apostle John says, (Rev. 21:1), and also (Rev. 21:5).

There is a new creation, a physical creation, awaiting us in which we'll live forever in new bodies that are like the risen body of Christ Himself. It's a whole new universe God will create, in which there's no decay, grief or tears. But we await this ultimate, consummate redemption and glory from where precisely? From heaven, from the very place we are waiting for our Savior from. God in Heaven is the wellspring and Author of all the eternity we can possibly hope for.  The Ascension of Christ constantly prods us to look up, to strain our gaze in expectation, and know where our hope comes from.

"Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven."