The Way Of God Series

The Way #1 (God)

Assertion: The church is supposed to be the living embodiment of God in the world. The church is to strive for perfect unity learned from the example of a triune God.

Scripture: John 14:6, John 10:10, Matt 7:13-14, Gen 1: 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 26-30, Gen 2:18, Acts 17:28,

Creative:

Did you notice a very nuanced sense when they said yes to following Jesus that he had a better life planned out for them?

God has an amazing life of adventure and purpose waiting for us all. But very few people find it. A lot of people think “I tried the God thing, but it didn't work.” The problem is that the promises of God don't happen without the practices of Jesus. AND Most people aren't taught what those practices are. OR how to live them out in a busy life in the real world. Good News! Jesus promised, “I am the Way.”

In other words, if we learn to do what Jesus did, we’ll discover the pathway to purpose THAT God has for all of us. This Lent season we will explore the 7 practices of Jesus to help you grow spiritually. Religion doesn’t lead to real life– following Jesus does. This is “The Way” is our series leading up to Easter

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. The traditional start to the Lenten Season - a time of preparation leading up to Holy Week and Easter.

The followers of Jesus for the first 100 years were known as the followers of The Way - The way of Jesus. The pre-christian label was a by-product of Jesus' famous statement from John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” As John noted, Jesus came to give His followers life, and life to the fullest. John 10:10

The problem is many people don’t understand what this means. Jesus tried to let us know how difficult it will be to stay focused in his most famous teaching when he said Matt 7:13-14.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it

This is why many who “try” church, religion or even mission fall away. They believe they can figure it out on their own. You don’t need anyone to show you. You only need a bible, a commentary and time. However, that’s a lie of America. We are all about our independence and our thoughts of our superior intellect. All of which has led America to where it is now.

The truth of The Way is you can’t experience the promises of God without the practices of Jesus. To fully understand Jesus, we must embrace the full essence of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

God is a relational God. Take a look at Genesis 1:26:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Us, Our Image, Our Likeness - all are indications of what we understand as orthodox Christians. God is three distinct aspects of the same essence. The theologians like to use the word “Triune” which means three in one.

There is a Greek word for this called Perichoresis. Perichoresis comes from two Greek words, peri, which means “around,” and chorein, which means “to give way” or “to make room.” It could be translated as “rotation” or “a going around.” Perichoresis is not found in the Greek New Testament but is a theological term used in three different contexts.

perichoresis refers to the two natures of Christ in perfect union within the same Person.

It refers to the omnipresence of God as He “intersects” with all creation (see Acts 17:28).

It refers to the mutual intersecting of the three Persons of the Godhead

I like how Meister Eckhart, the 13th century monk and mystic, describes the core of the idea of the trinity. He wrote: “When God laughs at the soul and the soul laughs back at God, the persons of the Trinity are begotten. When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit.”

Karl Barth Theologian once said, Laughter is the closest mankind gets to the grace of God.

So if love is the essence of God then it's not wrong to say all mankind is born of the Laughter of The Trinity. Who doesn’t love the picture of the laughing Jesus.