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)
1. He will not return to this earth physically, our eyes will not see His body until the day of His return and our judgment
2. He will call us home from this earth to stand before the bar on high
3. Our flesh cannot see Him
B. But our spiritual eyes can
1. We see Him through His word, when we look into it we can see clearly
a. 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known"
b. The perfect thing is the Bible, inspired to show us the way, truth, and life
2. Matthew 6:22-23, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
3. We see Him clearly through the unstained word of God inspired to show Him to us
4. When we look upon Him with clear eyes, unstained by the world and unfiltered by our own misconceptions, we can lay up treasures in heaven
C. We will not see Him as did the apostles
1. We will not sit around an earthly table and share a meal
2. We will not go to the garden as He prays on His and our behalf
3. We will not walk along a dusty road and talk with Him as did the apostles
D. But we can be joined fully to Him
1. In the same manner as those 3,000 in Acts 2:41
2. I John 1:7 applies to each of us, we can now have full fellowship with God
3. Fellowship is what Adam lost
4. It is what the Bible attempts to bring us to
5. Further we have more than just that
6. Romans 8:14-17, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together"
a. This was the relationship that was withheld from the apostles before Pentecost
b. They were servants, disciples, and friends
c. Until the kingdom opened up they could not be counted as sons and therefore joint heirs
E. When we see God in His word and walk in that light we can have fellowship with Him that was lost in the Garden of Eden, withheld until Pentecost and re-offered through obedience
CONCLUSION
1. The Garden was not the most important thing Adam lost, he lost mostly his relationship with God
2. From that point forward God has been trying to be reunited with us
3. He sent Moses, David, many prophets and priests along the way
4. He sent John the Baptist to prepare the road
5. And He sent Jesus the Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, the means by which we could be rejoined to Him
6. And He inspired the Bible to show Him and His way to us
7. Now we can see Him through the eyes of the apostles and the words of the Holy Spirit
8. Through obedience to that word we can become joined to Him again and have the hope of inheritance to heaven available to us
9. Now that you see Him, what will you do with Him?
