This sermon was delivered in St Oswald Church in Maybole, Scotland on the 24th August 2009 by Gordon McCulloch.
Prayer: Father, you speak in the bible of the spiritual realm; a realm that we can neither see, hear, feel, touch or taste; but it is the realm where you live, along with the other dark forces. Father I thank you that Jesus conquered this realm, and that you want us to follow in his footsteps, footsteps that show us the way to victory. Amen.
Our reading today are: Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18, Ephesians 6:10-20, John 6:56-69
Introduction.
We heard the words in Joshua this morning asking the people of whom they want to serve, God or Idols?
The answer to me is obvious, God of course; but most people today worship idols although they may say they do not. I will give you an example; how many times have you thought that if you only had this one idol, then you would be happy.
This idol could be new furniture, a new car, a new house, a new job even; but they are all idols in their own right. Now think, when you get that idol you desperately desire, you will be thrilled, even ecstatic for a while, and I am sure you deserved it, but ask yourself this question, how long does this contentment or excitement last? One thing for sure, it has a finite length of time, and it is not too long before you weary of this idol and seek another.
This continual seeking of idols seam to suit most people; it is normal life for them, it is their God for a while, it is their focus, and they build up these idols thinking they will help them, but they are not the answer to life's problems; although they can be use to cheer people up when they are down.
But when trouble really sets in, and it does, ... and when people are left on their own in these times, ... they know the idols they have collected will not carry them through.
And that is why these people will never speak openly of such intimate matters, that is personal troubles to openly because they know they are weak inside, and to speak of such matter is only proclaiming their weakness. In fact I am sure they would deny them strongly if you confronted them on how they are handling such trouble, as it is obvious that such idols and such a way of living will not see them through; ... they have severe limitations as there is very much more life than we they hear, see, speak, smell or touch.
And if there is more to life than this, what is out there? They would have to admit the existence of God, or even the Son of God who lived on this earth. And if you admit that Jesus is alive, they would have to admit that his teachings were sound, and that what he taught was true, even the existence of the devil. And if the devil exists, then they have to admit their is a war going on, that they are part of.
What I am trying to get at here is that there is a point within everyone’s lives where they are in touch with things spiritually, and I personally have no doubt that most adults within this world have tasted spiritual things at some point even if they do not realise or admit what they are; things which are not of this world and things they are reluctant to speak.
Spiritual Warfare.
We will leave that for the time being as an introduction and move on. We read Paul in Ephesians this morning say “for we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies – the evil rulers of the unseen world …”
This verse go on, but the point I want to make here is that Paul is stating there is a spiritual world out there; a world that we cannot see, but a world that very much exists; and Paul goes on later in the passage to let us know how to fight and win this spiritual battle. So how can we win a battle, if we do not recognize the fact there is a battle going on in the first place. And if we acknowledge that then we need to acknowledge that is an enemy out there; after us; which we cannot see; with weapons you cannot see, hear, feel, touch or smell?
But there is a battle; there is an enemy; he is after us, with a passion; and we cannot sense it; or it weapons against us. In fact it gets more complicated, God tells us how to win this battle; a battle he has already won, and he tells us to do like-wise; using HIS weapons, and HIS tactics, ... to defeat HIS enemy who is getting at him through us, in an arena called Spiritual Warfare. ... Spiritual Warfare, ... I am sure many of you may have heard this term, but I am also sure this maybe new to others.
How can I prove this spiritual world exists? I can’t, any more than I can prove that this Church is full of waves. It is full radio waves, television waves, x-rays waves, infra red and ultra violet waves. It even has radiation waves, running right through this church this morning; ok they are not dangerous, but they are there all the same.
We cannot see, feel, hear, touch or taste these waves, and the only way I could prove they exist, is to put a receiver of these waves and transmit them in a sense that we can understand. A Transistor Radio for example will pick up radio waves and transfer these waves into music for example. A television will pick up television waves or TV signals and broadcast a program to you. Similarly there are devices to detect and transmit all the other types of waves I have just mentioned. So because we cannot see, hear, feel, touch, smell or taste these waves, do they exist? Well obviously they do.
Likewise in the spiritual world, because we cannot see, hear, feel, touch or taste the spiritual realm, how can we say it does not exist? Jesus believed it, and Paul wrote about it, and that will do me. If you find this difficult, please accept this for the time being, ... and hopefully it will all make sense later.
Let me this morning introduce some of the aspects of Spiritual Warfare. What kind of receivers do we need to detect the spiritual realm? Well the spiritual realm is detected by man, by us, (by woman); and I am aware I need to keep this short but I will start off today by describing the basic make up of man and how he relates to God and this spiritual realm.
So what exactly is man made off, that is, from a spiritual viewpoint? And I will promise to keep this simple.
The Body.
First and man or a woman has a body; as we all know fine. We all have different bodies, even identical twins have different bodies. Our bodies are what we get about in, our bodies make us mobile. Our bodies have nothing to do with class, creed, wealth or intelligence, our bodies get us about in the physical realm, end off.
The Soul.
Man also has a soul, and although different people describe this differently, I believe this is the best description.
Our soul is made up from our mind, our will and our emotions. Our mind is made up from our education, our family and our location. Our mind, with our memories, is the computing power within our body, and it is located in our brain.
Our will is the part of us that wants action, or non action. It is the part of us that wants to do something, normally after some deliberation or thought process.
And our emotions are that part of us that feel, ... and we tend to feel two main things; we feel pain or pleasure, or some degree within. We have no other feelings. It is only pain or pleasure!
You might be thinking, but sometimes I can sense things around me, how does that fit into the soul? Well it does not fit into our soul; it fits into our spirit, ... our human spirit.
You must have heard this term which is often used to describe great feats of achievement, such as, “what a wonderful achievement it is for the human spirit to land a man on the moon”, or, "is not the human spirit wonderful, to allow a man to walk to the North Pole alone"? ... You may also have heard a similar expression, ... the spirit of man, or ... the human spirit.
I better qualify this. The body and soul are well understood, but the human spirit is much more complex. You maybe confused at this stage as the bible speaks of the soul in different terms; for example the word “heart” is used interchangeably with the word “soul”; and the word soul for some people include the human spirit.
It is confusing at first as these words are found interchangeably in the modern translations of the bible; but it is different in the original Ancient Greek version; as Ancient Greek is much simpler and more logical in its details; and in the original version it is clear that the spirit and the soul are separate: and the heart is the soul, and not the organ used to pump blood.
1Thessalonians 5:23 clear divides there three main areas, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"; Spirit, soul and body.
So for now, please accept the fact that man has his own, independent spirit, his human spirit, and one thing you will notice in the modern English bibles is that the word spirit either starts with the capital letter “S” for the Holy Spirit or a lower case letter “s” to denote any other spirit.
What of God?
Enough of man for the time being, what of God? Well it says in Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let (him) have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc etc …….”
I am doing this backward, but I am doing it for a reason.
God said; Let us make man in our image. Jesus is our heavenly body. He is the body of the Godhead. The body of Jesus was broken on this earth, but he was given a new heavenly body after his resurrection, and rules in the heavens.
God the Father, is the soul of the Godhead; nobody can seen the father except through the son, and he cannot see us except through the body of Jesus, in fact he only sees is in relation to Jesus as Jesus conquered sin. God the father is the intelligent part of the Godhead with feelings and a will and a memory.
And the Spirit of the Godhead is, well the Holy Spirit of course; who is by far the most complex part of the Godhead, and I hope to speak of Him at another time.
So we now know what is meant by the words in Genesis 1 that, man is made in Gods image. God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ... Soul, Body and Spirit. ... And likewise, man is made up of body, soul and spirit.
This morning we have only briefly touched on the introduction. The very basic make up of man and God, but I will finish now with their relationship, and how they communicate or interact.
A man will make a decision in his mind to pray emotionally, from his body to God. The will, mind, emotions and body do not come into contact with God. The only part of man that interacts with God is the human spirit.
John 4:24 says “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Small “s” in spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
What is the truth?
I like John 14:6, “Jesus saith … I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The only part of the Godhead that interacts with man is the Holy Spirit.
So why would God the Father want to communicate with us? Because God is love, and we are his children. God sent Jesus to die on the cross to save us. He let his own son die for us on a painful shameful cross. Why then would God not want to communicate with us?
We can communicate with God because Jesus died for our sins, and God does not see us as filthy human beings full of sin, but he sees that part of us that is made righteous by Christ Jesus our lord within us, ... within our human spirit. That part of Jesus that lives in our human spirit.
I am finishing now by quoting 1 John 4:15 which says "whosoever", are we part of whosoever, yes: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God". God therefore dwells in our human spirit.
The true worshippers, will worship the Father, in spirit, (small “s”) and in truth. I think we will finish here for the time being, that is a lot to take in.
Let us pray
Thank you Father for this wonderful gift of communication you have given us through prayer into the spiritual realm. Although we do not see, hear, feel, touch or taste this realm, we take comfort from the fact that you want the best for us, to justify the painful death of Jesus on the cross.
We know that you love us very much Father and that you want to answer our prayers which are asked in the name of Jesus.
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
