Man's Relationship With God

MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Text: John 14:12

INTRODUCTION

1. Relationships are important, infants who have physical needs met will die without proper love and affection

2. The term religion means to be rejoined or retied to

a. The root lig

b. Like ligature, a device used to tie something

c. Or ligaments that hold bones together

3. Our Christianity is a relationship with God in which we are rejoined to Him

4. Let’s look at man’s relationship with God in the past

a. Adam, man saw God and lost Him

b. Apostles, men saw God and were not joined to Him

c. All of us, see God through the eyes of others and are joined to Him

5. We can be reunited, rejoined to Him with full fellowship as that which Adam enjoyed

a. Read text

b. This is the greater thing that can be accomplished, we have full fellowship with God even when we can only see Him through the eyes of others

TRANSITION: To begin with, man was with God:

I. Adam saw God and lost Him

A. He was able to see God and talk with God regularly

1. Genesis 3:8, "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden"

2. God was walking through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day

a. This does not seem out of the ordinary for Adam and Eve

b. When they heard the sound they recognized it and hid themselves

3. He also had a verbal exchange with Adam, which actually seems normal for them

a. Remember He had a conversation with Adam in naming the animals

b. He had a conversation with Adam in relation to Eve

c. He gave instructions concerning the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

d. A conversation with the creating God of the Universe was not unusual for Adam

4. Adam and Eve were in communion with God in a manner which no one has ever been since

B. But he lost it

1. He essentially had only one rule, "Do not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil"

2. He could not obey this one simple rule

3. For the first time, man messed up and knew it so now he is in trouble

4. Listen to God’s first question, "Where are you?"

a. Now in reality God knew the physical location of Adam and Eve, they were not lost to Him in that way

b. But for the first time man needed to be worried about his spiritual position, he was now out of God’s grace and separated from God’s fellowship

c. The rest of the Bible is an effort to get man to answer this same question, "Where are you?" and to find the pathway home

TRANSITION: The way, truth and life came to earth and:

II. The apostles saw but were not yet joined to God

A. When Jesus was on earth they saw Him

1. 1 John 1:1-2, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us"

2. They were in full and complete contact with Immanuel, God with us

a. They ate with Him (John 13:1-30)

b. They prayed with Him (Matthew 26:36-46)

c. They spent their lives with Him day in and day out for excess of three years

B. They saw God, but still were not joined together with Him

1. The kingdom was promised to them in the future (Matthew 16:18-19)

2. The keys to the kingdom were not used until The Christ was gone from the earth (Acts 2:38)

3. This is when Jesus joined Himself together with men again (Acts 2:41)

C. Hebrews 9:16, "For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator"

1. Before the death of Jesus these men were not able to be in full communion with Him

2. Because it is His blood that bridges the gap and makes that tie back between God and man

3. Religion, being reunited with God, required the blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb of God on behalf of sinful man

TRANSITION: Now we have the opportunity to do what they could not:

III. All of us can see through their eyes and be joined to Him

A. Jesus ascended back into heaven (Acts 1:9-11)