A.W. Tozer once wrote, “What first comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you”.
Many people have been turned off of God and church and Christians by some of what gets popularized from the Old Testament. They think that God is a cruel, genocidal, tyrant who wants to take away all human freedom and enjoyment. That he’s just watching for us to break the Law so he can punish us. And I admit that if you just pick out certain passages from the Bible you can make God look that way.
If Christians depict him that way by legalistic, punitive, unforgiving, exclusive behaviours and attitudes, that just adds to the problem. And once someone has formed an opinion about God and church, it’s difficult to persuade them otherwise.
So today, rather than looking at God’s prohibitions, let’s look at His permissions and invitations. This sermon is for those unbelievers who have a warped view of God, but it’s also for believers who have not experienced the abundant life that being a Christian can offer. What first comes to mind when you think about God?
I want to start in the Garden of Eden because this is where many people start their attack against God. It’s very easy to look at the story in the garden and focus on the one prohibition God gave, and then say that they made just one mistake and he kicks them out and puts guards at the entrance. That doesn’t seem like a very fair God. But it all depends on your perspective. Let’s look at the story in Gen 2&3 2:8-10, 15-17 ; 3:1-6, 22-24…
God had just created everything and said it was all very good. Now we won’t get into the creation account today, that’s a whole other story. But what I want us to see is that God created everything on earth essentially for human beings. He put them in this perfect paradise, gave them dominion over every plant and animal and said this is all yours, enjoy it.
In chapter two he says you may eat from every tree in the garden, but don’t eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because it’s not good for you, you will die if you eat from that one (and I am warning you because I don’t want you to die).
Even the tree of life was in the garden, and notice there was no restriction against eating from that one. So there was a tree of life and a tree of death.
Now Satan comes along and notice what he does. He doesn’t focus on looking at all the wonderful things God has given them to enjoy and have dominion over, he focuses Eve’s mind on the only one thing that God prohibited. Eve acknowledges that He gave them permission to eat from every tree in the garden except that one. Satan simply takes the focus off the goodness and generosity of God, and puts her eyes on his power and control over them.
God is all powerful, he is perfectly holy and this is why he has to have obedience in order to dwell with us. That is not a bad thing, it’s just the reality of who God is.
Anyway, they eat the fruit from the forbidden tree and God has to eject them from the garden, why? They now knew about evil and the realities of life outside of God’s paradise, and God did not want them to suffer in that state for eternity, so he took away the ability for them to live forever in that state by kicking them out and putting cherubim with flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life. He warned them about the tree for their own good, and he kicked them out for their own good.
The only reason we see God giving many other laws and commands throughout the rest of the Bible, is because he kept trying to get us to have a good life and relationship with Him. Finally sending his son to die because he saw that we could never return to perfect obedience again.
And if you look at every problem in this very problematic world we live in today, it is all because we have chosen not to do this thing God’s way. His way is not meant to restrict but to bless, to provide abundant life.
You see only a holy, omnipotent God can know good and evil and choose only good all the time. The point is that He gave them everything, and they chose the one thing that wouldn’t be good for them. That is the perspective of God we need to have and today we are going to look at many of the other ways that God invites us to enjoy Him and his blessings, as opposed to the restrictions.
You see God knew at creation what Psychology now takes credit for. How many of you saw the movie the Lion King.
In that movie the father, king of the beasts, tells his son Simba to stay away from the elephant graveyard because it’s very dangerous. Well there is something called negative suggestion that says that people will tend to be attracted to and tempted to do things that we put the word “don’t” in front of, more than those things that we put “do” in front of. You probably know this if you’re a parent.
Well Simba can’t resist and he sneaks off with his little friend to the elephant graveyard and they both almost get killed by hyenas if dad didn’t come to save them at the last minute. It’s a similar principle where the father shows Simba the whole kingdom that will one day be his, but he wants to go to the one place that is forbidden. We will forego all the promises for the forbidden.
To see God’s invitation, I first want to look at the parable of the great banquet or wedding feast, because this parallels the story in the garden quite well. We read this in Mt 22:1-14…
Again we want to focus on the last part of that, that if we don’t do what God says, we are punished forever, that’s the natural consequence. And I think we misunderstand what being “chosen” means as well. First in verse 3 it says that everyone was invited, but they would not come. Now if I’m invited to something great, whose fault is it if I choose not to come and reap the benefits? If a loving Father says don’t run in front of a moving bus because I don’t want to see you die, and you run in front of the bus, does that make the father a bad guy, because he forbid you from running in front of a bus?
Notice in verse 4 he re-invites them. He gives them the benefit of the doubt and another opportunity to come. He even reminds them of the good stuff that they will receive, but they paid no attention. And it’s important to see what they found more important. Their belongings and their work. God is saying come, freely without effort, take part in this feast that is completely free and provided for you. Just relax and let me lavish you with good things. But they said I would rather work and get stuff myself.
And some even got so annoyed that the servants kept bothering them with this invitation that they killed the servants. Now if I sent my kids to come invite your kids to a birthday party, and you killed my kids because they annoyed you with the invitation, would it be wrong for me to want you punished? Well that’s what the king did, and if we put ourselves in His shoes, I don’t think we could find much fault. Of course Jesus and his disciples represent these servants who get killed.
So he goes and tries to find anyone else who will accept the invitation whether they were good or bad. And many of them came. But there was a condition. You were to dress up in the appropriate wedding garment. Now I know many of us come to church wearing whatever, but would you dream of wearing an old t-shirt and cutoffs to someone’s wedding or funeral?
Of course the garment here is the cleansed robe of Jesus atoning sacrifice. You have to wear Jesus if you want to get into the feast. That is what is meant by chosen. Many are called to put their faith in Jesus, which is the same as accepting the invitation.
When it says few are chosen, it’s essentially the same as saying few choose to accept the invitation. God chooses who comes to the Kingdom based on our response to the invitation, that’s all that means.
Revelation 17:14 says that “the Lamb (who we are to have this wedding supper with), will conquer because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful”. Are you? Once you have accepted the call and are chosen, and see what God has to offer, it is very natural that you will be faithful.
I wonder how many people who see God in the negative light have ever read some of the words of Jesus such as in John 10. He talks about the good shepherd and if we pick it up in verse 7 he says “I am the door of the sheep, all who came before me are robbers and thieves (because they tried to pile all these 613 laws on you in the name of God). I am the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will have the freedom to go in and out to find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And I do this by laying down my life for them.”
A couple chapters later in John 12 Jesus says, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I came not to judge the world but to save the world.” What did Jesus tell us to do? Very simply, love God and love each other. Is that bad? He said make disciples teaching them to obey those things. Why? So we could be miserable and have no freedom, and have to give all our stuff away?
No, so everyone could have eternal life, and have abundant free life, and God’s blessing in this life, and so that the world would be a better more loving place while we’re here. Why would we not want to follow that?
Perhaps the greatest invitation comes at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who desires take the water of life without price”. Earlier he says let those who wash their robes take from the tree of life and enter the city by the gates (no more flaming swords). Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Does that all sound like a God who only wants to catch us screwing up and punish us?
In the last century or so Christianity has promoted the idea of inviting Jesus into your life or your heart. I think that’s backwards, it is Him who does the inviting. You think God needs an invitation?
Becoming a Christian isn’t inviting Him to do anything, as if he needs an invitation, as if he hasn’t already done what he needed to do. To me that’s human arrogance. No, becoming a Christian is responding to His invitation.
I know it says in Revelation to the lukewarm church of Laodicia, that anyone who hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. Then it says, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. What is he really saying?
He’s inviting us to open the door and let him in so that we can have a mutual relationship. The Bible says we would never invite Him on our own. He’s the one that stands at the door and knocks, extending the invitation for us to open the door and let him in. He is calling to us, choosing us, and if we hear his voice we can open the door or not. But it’s clear that he is initiating the invitation.
In Revelation 19 it says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”.
Jesus invites us to enjoy his peace, his rest, to eat and drink from him - the bread and water of life. Even the commands he gives are an invitation to a greater life and deeper relationship with Him. And until we reframe our view and see his commands as loving and inviting instead restrictive and punishing, the world will have a hard time with the God of the Bible.
Once you start reading the Bible this way, seeing all his commands as invitations to something greater that he wants for you, it changes everything. We excitedly become much more willing to obey and take risks, anticipating what great adventure he has in store for us, rather than feeling like a guilty and obligated slave.
So today as we get ready to say goodbye to summer I am not going to ask you to invite Jesus into your life, I am going to ask you to accept his invitation to be your Lord as in Romans 10.
“Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, (we already know he is Saviour), and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved.
For it is by believing with your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing or agreeing with God with your mouth, that you are saved. Anyone who puts their life in trust with Him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”.
That calling upon him is crying out to him saying yes Lord, I accept your invitation to eternal life and to be my master. Do you know how that chapter ends in Romans? “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Who is taking the initiative there? And it is in Romans also where Paul says that “No one seeks for God”. Without God taking the initiative, pursuing us, and inviting us into a life with Him, none of us would have sought Him.
You may think you made the choice to invite Jesus into your life, and I guess in some sense you did. But Scripture says, I come and knock on everyone’s heart, you just accept the invitation when I come to you. If you have done this, then it is also natural to help others accept this invitation – to be the one Jesus knocks through, and I would suggest that rather than giving them a prayer to recite, you simply ask them if they are ready to trust in Christ’s work on the cross and accept the invitation to make Jesus their Saviour and Lord. And then don’t just leave them there to fend for themselves.
Saviour and Lord, both are equally good and beneficial for us, have you accepted both invitations?
