20120520 7th Sunday of Easter B Ascension Sunday B
Slide 1
Title: When Others See God
Text: I John 4:7-21 (12-17)
Slide 2
Thesis: Love is at the core of what it means to be a Christian.
Series: The third in the series from I John 4:7-21, “The Christian’s Litmus Test”
(If there were one decisive factor in determining the reality of one’s Christianity… what would that test be? A confession of faith and doctrinal purity? Would the test be ethical or behavioral… a holy life? Good works? Unconditional, Christ-like love?)
Introduction
When we lived in eastern Kansas one of my past-times was walking over an historic Santa Fe Trail spot called the 110 Mile Crossing. The Santa Fe Trail originated in Independence, Missouri and wandered a path of least resistance for some 775 miles to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 500 of those miles were through Kansas.
A man named Fry McGee owned a tavern, hotel and a toll bridge across the creek which was 110 miles from Independence, Missouri. Some of the buildings of the settlement were still standing when we lived there and the present landowner let me roam over the site. I explored the creek bank and found the site of the original toll bridge and I also found another site where those who wished to avoid the toll bridge had worn a rutted and muddy path down into the creek and up the opposite bank… which was only possible when the water was very low.
I explored tumbled down buildings. When the crops had been harvested I found evidence of where other structures had stood and where they dumped their trash. I never saw any people but I knew they had been there.
I also walked the fields along the Dragoon Creek where the Osage Indians were known to winter. In the spring you can still find arrowheads and broken shards. I never saw any of the Osage Indians but I knew they had been there.
Once while walking along a dirt road I noticed Irises growing along the road and thought it was a strange place for Irises to be growing. So I poked my way through the undergrowth and back in the woods I found what was left of a very old, long abandoned house. Poking around further I found remnants of an old coal-oil cooking stove and a rusted out wash tub and other stuff left behind. I never saw any people but I knew they had been there.
Though I did not see any of those trailblazers of the Santa Fe or meet up with any of the Osage along the Dragoon Creek or catch a glimpse of those who lived in that old house… it was apparent that they had been there.
While on my walks my curiosity was certainly peaked by the evidence of human presence, but I was always very much aware that it was apparent that, though I did not see God, I knew God had been there.
When I would find a petrified bone in a dry creek bed or turn over a slab of limestone in an out cropping on a hillside and discover the fossilized scales of a fish or the fossilized imprint of a leaf… I knew God had been there long, long before the Osage wintered along the Dragoon or the pioneers drove their wagons along the Santa Fe Trail.
The Bible says of anyone who has ever lived on this planet, “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” Romans 1:19-20 Though we may have never seen God, the evidence of God’s existence is sufficient proof that God has been and continues to be here.
Transition: Meanwhile, our text today says, “No one has ever seen God…”
Slide 3
I. No one has ever seen God
No one has ever seen God… I John 4:12
A theophany is an appearance or manifestation of God. You might think of a theophany as a “God-sighting.” In the Old Testament there are a number of occasions where it seems people did in fact encounter God in some way:
• Adam and Eve were with God in the Garden of Eden - Genesis 3:9-19
• Noah walked in close fellowship with God – Genesis 6:9ff
• God appeared to Abraham - Genesis 12:7ff
• God showed up at Abraham’s tent, i.e., three men – Genesis 18:1-3
• Jacob claimed to have wrestled with God and seen God “face to face” – Genesis 32:30
• God appeared to Moses in a burning bush – Exodus 3:3-6
• God revealed himself at Mt. Sinai – Exodus 19:16ff
• God spoke to Moses “face to face” - Exodus 33:11
• God showed Moses his glory in Mt. Sinai – Exodus 33:18ff
• There was never another prophet in Israel like Moses, who the Lord knew “face to face” – Deuteronomy 34:10
• Isaiah saw God in a vision, “High and lifted up” – Isaiah 6
I am sure there are other inferences where God spoke to or appeared to people.
In the New Testament God make himself known:
• At the Baptism and Transfiguration of Jesus where God spoke from heaven affirming Jesus as His Son.
• On the day of Pentecost God made himself knows in the sound of the mighty, rushing wind and the tongues of fire.
• In John’s vision in the Book of Revelation, while in the spirit he saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on the throne.
All of the references to the Lord having appeared to someone or having spoken to someone or having spoken to someone in a dream or through a vision does not necessarily constitute actually seeing God. I do know for certain that when Moses asked God if he could see him, God said, “I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live. Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.” Exodus 33:19-23
And our text explicitly states, “No one has ever seen God.”
Illustration: Creative Imaginations It is always fun to see how forensic scientists can take a human skull and, with computer generated graphics and modeling clay, recreate what that person looked like while still living. But even more abstract, though having never seen God, artists have attempted to depict God. One of my favorites is Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam.” But excavations of ancient Hebrew archeological sites have revealed nary a single depiction of God. The Second of the Ten Commandments specifically forbade the making of images of God or gods. Any images of God we might see are purely imaginative and creative works of art.
The fact of the matter is, when John wrote those words to those early Christians, not a single one of them had ever seen God. And the fact remains; all these centuries later… no one has seen the face of God.
Transition: No one has ever seen God but: God has revealed himself to us.
Slide 4
II. We see God in Christ (God has revealed himself in Christ.)
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the Unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. John 1:17-18
A. The Law is not intended to be a revelation of the nature of God.
There were those who lived at the time of Christ and who live still who cling to the Law as a revelation of God’s nature. Their perception of God is that God is a nitpicker and wrist-slapper.
The Bible says that “No one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. It is through faith that a righteous person has life. The way of faith is very different from the way of the law… [However] before the way of faith in Christ the law was our guardian or our school master that brought us to Christ. [Therefore we no longer need the law as our guardian or school master. For we are all Children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:23-26 God does not reveal himself to us through the Law…
B. God reveals himself to us through Christ. God shows us his unfailing love and faithfulness in Christ.
So the Word or Jesus Christ, became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14
Colossians 2:9 says it even more clearly, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” When we see Christ we are seeing the image of God. If we wish to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
But that is not the end of it… God has not gone out of the business of revealing himself.
Transition: And, just as God has revealed himself in Christ, God makes himself know through us as well.
Slide 5
III. Others see God in and through us. (When we love others, others see God.)
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. I John 4:12
Though no one has ever seen God, the Bible says, “But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect [or God’s love is perfected in us]…” I John 4:12 and 17
We know a Christian is a Christian when his or her actions are loving. Love is who a Christian is and love is what a Christian does. But more than that: A Christian is a person in whom and through whom Christ lives again…
Illustration: We live on through our children… We are in some ways products of our environment but mostly we are products of the DNA of our parents. All parents have good and bad qualities. All parents have good mannerisms and not so good ones. And we are likely wired to be a lot like our parents… and that may be a good thing or a bad thing.
I think my Dad was a pretty good guy. He would have been 90 last Wednesday. But occasionally Bonnie will say, “You sound just like your dad.” And when she says that, it isn’t a good thing. Recently Bonnie said, “You smile just like your mother.” After our son got married our daughter-in-law observed me in a thoughtful moment and said, “Oh my goodness, so that’s where Corky gets that look.” We may or may not want to look like or act like our parents but we likely do.
The bible says that when our Heavenly Father lives in us by His Holy Spirit, we will look and act like our Heavenly Father. We will look and act like Jesus Christ. We will love like the love of God because that is how we are wired.
As I said last week, the “ought” of love is that God has expressed His love to us and God expresses His love through us by His Holy Spirit… and that being the case, love is then at the core of what it means to be a Christian.
Transition: No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. I John 4:12
Slide 6
Just as God has revealed himself in Christ, God reveals himself in us and through us … especially so, when we are loving.
Conclusion
I regret that people likely rarely see God in me. Perhaps you feel the same way. But I am hopeful for myself and for you…
Becoming a Christ-like person… becoming a person who thinks and acts like God is a process. Though the theme is repeated elsewhere in Scripture:
Transition: I think the understanding of godliness being a process is most clearly stated in II Corinthians 3:18:
Slide 7
“And the Lord, who is Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” II Corinthians 3:18
We are not yet who we will be…
There was a curious line repeated several times in the film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” The young Indian proprietor of the abysmally run-down old hotel he hoped to restore to its original glory clung to his motto: “Things always work out in the end and if they aren’t worked out, we are not yet to the end.”
There is a story of a time years ago when Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth, were driving through a construction zone. After several miles they finally arrived at the other end of it, where the sign read, “Construction Ended. Thanks for your patience.” When Ruth read that sign she turned to Billy and said, “That’s what I want on my tombstone: ‘Construction Ended. Thanks for your patience.’”
