Psalm 93:1-5, Exodus 24:12-18, 2 Corinthians 8:9, John 1:14-18.
A). THE LORD UPON HIS THRONE.
Psalm 93:1-5.
This Psalm is about, first and foremost, the Creator God upon His throne. He is “robed with majesty” (Psalm 93:1). He has also, incidentally, “established” the created order.
However, we are not to worship the creation (I interject), as it is only the Creator who is “from all eternity” (Psalm 93:2). There may be aspects of creation which man considers ‘awesome’ - such as the “floods” / seas / literally “rivers” (Psalm 93:3) - but the Creator is without a doubt greater than His creation (Psalm 93:4). Israel was aware of this, having seen His mastery of both the Red Sea, and the River Jordan.
The permanence of the LORD guarantees the permanence of His order. We see this elsewhere in the Bible: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1); ‘The law of the LORD is perfect’ (Psalm 19:7); ‘The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring for ever’ (Psalm 19:9). Result: “holiness adorns your house for ever” (Psalm 93:5).
Jesus spoke of ‘a certain nobleman’ who ‘went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return’ (Luke 19:12). Some of the subjects of this nobleman sent a message after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’ (Luke 19:14). Some of Jesus’ hearers may have thought that the ‘nobleman’ represented Herod: but in fact, he represented Jesus.
Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus was taken up in a cloud, and received out of the sight of His disciples (Acts 1:9). This is an earth’s-eye view of the ascension. The disciples were reassured of Jesus’ return (Acts 1:11; cf. Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7).
Meanwhile, Jesus was received into heaven to take His seat at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1). The prophet Daniel was allowed a glimpse of this awesome moment from the perspective of heaven (Daniel 7:13-14).
When the work of new creation (which began with Jesus’ resurrection) is completed, there is another enthronement to come (Revelation 11:15). As we sing, ‘Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord’ (cf. Philippians 2:10-11). However, be warned: those servants in Jesus’ parable who refused to have their lord to reign over them were dealt with accordingly (Luke 19:27).
In the meantime, the Lord is upon His throne (Psalm 93:1), and reigns for ever (Psalm 93:5).
B). A BEATIFIC EPIPHANY OF GOD.
Exodus 24:12-18.
Seventy-four people were called by the LORD to ‘come up’ and ‘worship afar off’ (Exodus 24:1). Each one had a part to play, but not all the same part (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:12; 1 Corinthians 12:28). The seventy elders, for example, were permitted a limited view of the LORD - and there (so that we know that this was not an ‘out-of-body’ experience) they ate and drank (Exodus 24:10-11).
Now Moses was called to proceed - alone - to receive the tables of stone, with the law and the ten commandments to teach the people. Moses arose, with Joshua his servant, and left specific instructions for Aaron and the elders as to how to conduct the affairs of the people during his absence (Exodus 24:12-14).
As Moses and Joshua made their way out of sight, perhaps the priests and elders were reminded of an earlier incident, when Abraham left his servants and took his son Isaac into a mountain apart to worship (Genesis 22:5).
There are some things in life which we must do alone. Whereas Joshua accompanied Moses at the start of his onward journey, only Moses entered the near presence of the LORD (Exodus 24:13).
You see, at the time when Moses turned to go down from the mountain (cf. Exodus 32:15), Joshua appears to have met Moses on the mountainside. Joshua had been on a lower level than Moses had been, but on a higher level than where they had left the elders: and certainly, well above the camp (cf. Exodus 32:17).
Christian personnel must each function at their own appropriate level, and each in accordance with their own gifts and calling. The pattern was later set that the LORD would speak to Moses ‘face to face’, but Joshua would remain in the tabernacle (cf. Exodus 33:11).
At the time of the transfiguration of Jesus, the main body of the disciples were left with the crowd, to minister to their needs (cf. Luke 9:38-40). Peter, James and John were the only witnesses to Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah (cf. Luke 9:30-31).
Peter, James and John were also brought into proximity with Jesus’ open-air prayer-closet in Gethsemane (cf. Matthew 26:36-37), but could not stay awake long enough to enter fully into His private anguish there (cf. Matthew 26:40). That belonged to Jesus alone.
As Moses went up higher, a cloud covered the top of the mountain. Moses was enveloped in the shekinah glory of the LORD, for six days: but only on the seventh day did the LORD speak (Exodus 24:15-16). There is a time when our worship will involve quiet contemplation as we ‘wait’ for the Lord. Then we must listen to the Lord, with a view to obey Him (cf. Matthew 17:5).
To the children of Israel down below, the sight of the glory of the LORD was as a devouring fire on the top of the mountain (Exodus 24:17). What had been a pillar of light to the Israelites had been darkness to the Egyptians (cf. Exodus 14:20). But now it was the Israelites themselves who wilfully descended into darkness (cf. Exodus 32:35).
Yet Moses was allowed into the midst of the cloud on the top of the mountain - and remained there for ‘forty days and forty nights’ (Exodus 24:18). There he received the law, and interceded for the people. Jesus, in His turn, was received up into heaven, and ever intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:34).
C). THE GRACE OF GIVING.
Text: 2 Corinthians 8:9.
Context: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15.
1. The example of the Macedonians (2 Corinthians 8:1-5).
(v1) By the grace of God, the Macedonian churches (Philippi and Thessalonica) had been particularly forward in giving.
(v2) Their gift was given out of poverty: like that of the widow with the two small copper coins (Luke 21:2-4).
(v3) They gave willingly (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:7).
(v4) They gave as an expression of ‘the grace and the fellowship of the service.’ When we give to the poor in other churches, it is an expression of our fellowship in Christ. The Macedonians evidently considered it to be a privilege to give to the poor among the saints in Jerusalem (cf. Romans 15:26).
(v5) Free-will offering arises out of a commitment to Christ, His cause, and His people (cf. 1 John 3:14).
2. ‘Incomplete!’ (2 Corinthians 8:6-8).
(v6) How many things in our Christian lives, I wonder, have we begun, but not completed? Well, here is Paul the Apostle, looking at the grace begun by Titus among the Corinthians, instructing his protégé now to bring it to completion.
(v7) It is not that the Corinthians are without grace: for in that they evidently abounded (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:4-8). “Since you abound in everything,” Paul argues positively, “… see that you abound in this grace also.”
(v8) Interestingly, the Apostle does not instruct the relatively rich Corinthians to tithe. There is to be no sense of compulsion in our giving (cf. Acts 5:4). On the contrary, Paul challenged the Corinthians to demonstrate their love by sharing in this grace of giving.
3. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 CORINTHIANS 8:9).
(v9) This is the key verse in the passage. The Apostle reminds the Corinthians of what they already know: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” How that He was “rich” but made Himself “poor” that we through His “poverty” might become “rich”. In fact, Jesus in His pre-incarnate glory was ‘equal with God’ but He ‘emptied Himself, took the form of a bondservant, became man, humbled Himself, was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross’ (Philippians 2:6-8). As the Corinthians had just been reminded, ‘He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). The pattern of Christ's giving (of Himself) is the paradigm for our (financial) giving.
4. Paul gives his advice (2 Corinthians 8:10-12).
(v10) The Corinthians were enthusiastic at the outset of the project. If there was a queue, they would have been first in it. But now their enthusiasm had abated.
(v11) Perhaps the delay in the collection was due to a fear that they would not be able to complete it? Paul will later remind them of their source: the abounding grace of God towards them (2 Corinthians 9:8).
(v12) Paul emphasises here that we are not necessarily called to give beyond our means. A gift is acceptable if we first have a willing mind.
5. A willingness to share (2 Corinthians 8:13-15).
(v13) Some may have felt that an unreasonable weight of responsibility was being laid upon them. This was not Paul’s intention at all.
(v14) Rather, “by an equality” - the equality that we already have with one another in Christ Jesus - we should each be willing to share out of whatever abundance we may have, to help those who lack. With reference to the poor in Jerusalem, Paul elsewhere mentions the spiritual indebtedness of the Gentile churches to the church in Jerusalem (Romans 15:27).
(v15) In this, there is a kind of reciprocity. Paul illustrates this with a quotation from the gathering of the manna: “he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack” (Exodus 16:18). This is the divine economy at its very best!
D). THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD.
John 1:14-18.
1. The Word became flesh.
Having established the connection between faith and being “born again” (John 1:12-13), the Apostle John now explains how that has been made possible. It took nothing less than the incarnation of God Himself (John 1:1). We can sense John’s awe, both here and in the covering letter (1 John 1:1-3).
The word “flesh” hints at vulnerability, the potential for suffering and death. In another context it is used negatively to represent that which is not spirit (Galatians 5:17). The wonder is that it is into the likeness of sinful flesh that God sent His own Son (Romans 8:3), born of a woman (Galatians 4:4), yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
He who was before is now coming after (John 1:15). The One who counted it not robbery to be equal with God, humbled Himself, embraced mortality, and died for us (Philippians 2:5-8). He who is the eternal Word of God took upon Himself our mortal flesh, and overcame death on our behalf (Hebrews 2:14).
Rather than man reaching up to God, God reaches down to man in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He became flesh and died for all the sins of all His people. He dwelt among His own people as a real living man: born of a woman, breathing the very air He had created; knowing hunger and thirst, sadness and tiredness, pain, and death.
2. The Word dwelt among us.
This was not the first time that God had pitched His tabernacle in the midst of His people. The imagery is of the tent of meeting in the wilderness, the place where the LORD manifested Himself in the days of Moses. The Word who was face to face with God (John 1:1), the only begotten Son of God who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), now took upon Himself frail flesh, gathering our humanity into the Godhead.
3. We beheld His glory.
Almost imperceptibly, the author has moved from declaration to personal testimony. The disciples caught occasional glimpses of the glory of God as they journeyed with our Lord, confirming His Messianic status, Son-ship, and divinity. Three of the disciples, Peter, James and John, were privileged to see Jesus transformed on the mountaintop, where He was revealed in His heavenly glory and conversed with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-5; 2 Peter 1:17-18).
4. Full of grace and truth.
This expression comes from the revelation of the glory of the LORD to Moses (Exodus 33:18; Exodus 34:6). Moses gave us the law, but the supreme demonstration of God’s covenant love and faithfulness, grace and truth, is seen in Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17). We are partakers of the grace of the Gospel in the One who has fulfilled the grace of the law (Matthew 5:17).
Moses was reminded that no man shall see the LORD and live (Exodus 33:20). Yet the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made Him known, being Himself the very exegesis of God (John 1:18). When we recognise Jesus for who He is, we also see something of the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:6).
