Title: Wisdom, The First Born of Creation Text: Proverbs 8:22-31

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Jacob Baker
6 years ago
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1 Title: Wisdom, The First Born of Creation Text: Proverbs 8:22-31 We are continuing in our sermon series on discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, -but we are getting close to the end of our journey. And do you remember what happened with those two disciples on the Road to Emmaus at the end of their journey? -They came to the village of Emmaus where they lived, -and it says that Jesus made as if he were going to continue on further. -But the two disciples urged him to stay with them. -And as they were all sitting down to supper, it was in the breaking of bread that their eyes were opened and they recognized that it was Jesus who was right there with them, -and who had been with them all along. Jesus had been teaching them from the Scriptures all day along the road about why the Messiah had to suffer and die before he entered into glory. -But now their eyes were opened to discover Jesus himself. -And it was Jesus presence with them that transformed their lives. -They knew now the risen Lord, and would never be the same again. My friends, as we come to these last weeks of this sermon series, I d like our journey to lead toward that same end. -The goal of knowing all these Scriptures we have spent time with is actually knowing the One to whom all of the Scriptures point. -We want to pray, Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus. So this week and next week we are going to turn to two passages that point us to knowing Jesus in a different way than all those we have looked at so far. -Today Proverbs 8, and next week the Song of Songs. -The first is a personification of Wisdom, and the second is a love song. (Read Proverbs 8:22-31)

2 Have you ever read that passage before? -It s the personification of Wisdom. -The whole Book of Proverbs is about wisdom. -It is the collected sayings of wise men. -It is full of age old aphorisms comparing the way of the wise person to the way of the fool. But here in chapter 8 there is this fascinating little description of wisdom itself, -and the role that wisdom played in God s creation of the universe. And Wisdom is personified in the description so that it s like Wisdom was God s right hand man in the creation. I was there, Wisdom says, when God set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep.i was the craftsman at his side when he marked out the foundations of the earth. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing in God s presence, and rejoicing in His whole world, and delighting in mankind. Now this personification is not meant to be interpreted as a direct description of Christ. -But it does provide some of the background for the New Testament s portrayal of Christ as the Word made flesh, and as the wisdom of God. When the Apostle John begins his Gospel with the words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made. Well, we can t help but think, Wow, that sounds a lot like Proverbs 8. And when the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1 that Christ is the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. We can t help but think of Proverbs 8, and how wisdom is called the firstborn of creation and the one by whom all things

3 were made. And then Paul writes to the Church at Corinth and says, Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those whom God has called, both Greeks and Jews, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So he calls Jesus the wisdom of God, and tells us that that particular attribute of God is personified in Jesus. -In contrast to the foolishness of this world. So Proverbs 8, and the personification of wisdom, and the role it played in creation, -is again, an Old Testament pointer to Jesus. -For Jesus is the true personification of all God s attributes and is truly the One by whom, and through whom, and for whom all things were created. But what does all that mean for us? -Well I want us to think again about that moment in the little village of Emmaus, -when those two disciples had their eyes opened and recognized Jesus right there with them. That Aha Moment for them is what we call an Epiphany. -It s a sudden moment of clarity when they see Jesus, and in seeing him, they also come to a deep understanding of who He is, the Risen Lord; -and a deep awareness of who they are: his fallen but none the less deeply loved disciples; -and they also are somehow empowered to know what they should do: rush back to Jerusalem to join with the other disciples in living out a life of loving Jesus, and loving others and making disciples everywhere they go. That Epiphany, that moment of clarity brings with it wisdom. -Just like Proverbs 8 says, Wisdom is right there in those moments, -like the craftsman of God, bringing us insight and understanding,

4 -connecting the dots for us, and delighting to impart to us a deeper awareness of who God is, and who we are, -and who other people are and what God wants us to join Him in doing in this world. -It s a moment of enlightenment. -It s a moment that doesn t just give us more information, it transforms or lives. Think about the Apostle Peter on the night when Jesus was betrayed. -Peter was standing there in the courtyard of the High Priest s house. -He had just denied even knowing who Jesus was for the third time, -and then the cockcrows, and then Jesus turns from where he is standing before the High Priest about 30 feet away, -and he looks Peter right in the eye. That is Peter s moment of Epiphany. -Jesus looks Peter in the eye, and in that moment Peter sees himself for who he truly is. -And it all becomes clear to him in the flash of a moment. -And he goes out and weeps. -He is broken by his sudden awareness of who God truly is and who he truly is. -But guess what? His brokenness is just the beginning of wisdom. -Wisdom is right there by his side bringing insight and understanding, and humility, but also grace and mercy. And that wisdom enables Peter to NOT run away, -but to go back to the other disciples and confess his sin, -and then to become a witness to the resurrection and to the power of God s forgiveness, which he now knows to be true. In the Epiphany, wisdom is right there like a craftsman working on Peter s heart and mind and soul, -delighting in God s presence and delighting in Peter! Or how about the Apostle Paul on the Road to Damascus? -His Epiphany comes with blinding light that knocks him down.

5 And in the light he sees the Risen Lord Jesus, who speaks to him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? -And Saul says, Who are you, Lord? -And Jesus responds, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the City of Damascus and you will be told what you must do. And my friends, that moment, and just those few words from Jesus would change Saul s life forever. -Because in that instant, Saul somehow was made aware that his whole life had been going in the wrong direction. -He was made aware that Jesus was indeed the Messiah of God, -and that his own attempts to eradicate the Christians was actually working against God and His Messiah. -And he suddenly knew he had been a massive sinner, living a life opposed to God, -and he needed to now repent and bow before the Messiah and give his life to serving and not persecuting him. It all became clear to him, because wisdom was right there like a craftsman, -bringing God s insight, and understanding, and humility, and grace. -And it transformed Saul s life, such that he became the Apostle Paul. My friends, do you see how the incarnation of Jesus and the personification of wisdom go hand in hand. -Proverbs says that when God went about his creative work of bringing forth all creation, -wisdom was somehow right there such that everything that was made was made with wisdom and understanding and insight and deep awareness of truth and beauty. -And I believe that when God does his creative work of redemption in our lives, He sends us His Son. -And when Jesus reveals Himself to us and opens our eyes to see who He is, and to see who we are, -somehow wisdom is indeed a large part of what gets revealed to us.

6 And we call it awareness, and we call it insight, and we call it understanding, -and it is accompanied by humility. It is not a knowledge that puffs us up. It is an understanding we get that properly chastens us, but also bathes us in grace and love. -We come away transformed, and we come away wiser and more empowered to live in a way that honors God. There have been multiple times in my life when God has come to me in just this kind of way and given me an Epiphany. -First at my conversion when Christ was first revealed to me in Germany, and all of a sudden I understood the Gospel, and was enabled to believe it. But there was also a time about 10 or 12 years ago when I was really mad at Jeff Hancock, -who was our associate Pastor at the time. -And I loved Jeff, but we were very different people, and there were times when he drove me crazy. And this one time I was so mad at him that I didn t even want to see him, -and as I was stewing and praying and stewing and praying, -three little words were planted in my mind and heart that were an Epiphany to me: Keeping up appearances. And that might seem like an odd thing for God to say to someone, but for me it was like a light-bulb went on. -And I knew that Jesus was right there with me wanting to reveal himself to me, -and wanting to reveal myself to me -and wanting to reveal Jeff to me. And those three words were all I needed, because wisdom was right there in the room bringing understanding and insight and awareness and humility. And the insight was this, in a flash I understood that what made me so mad about Jeff was that he was not interested in keeping up appearances, but I was. I was made aware that day that keeping up appearances was

7 a deeply held core value that I didn t even know I had. -And I was also made immediately aware that it was a core value of my family growing up. Unspoken, but there. But Jeff s whole goal in life was to be and not to seem. -He was all about getting rid of false fronts and appearances that were contrary to reality. -And wanted people to know the unvarnished truth about himself and about Heather and about me & everything. -But I had worked hard to put a nice varnish on everything. -I wanted everyone to be happy, and everything to look good, and everybody to think I was always doing fine. Jeff wanted to get under the varnish and get at the wood. -And at times he ticked me off. -But in that moment of Epiphany, Jesus came and brought wisdom alongside of him. -And he transformed my life. -He revealed ME to myself, and he brought me to a place of repentance for my vanity and my sin. -And he gave me insight into who Jeff was and enabled me to forgive him and love him. And those three words have helped me learn how to live in a more authentic way myself. -That core value is still there, it s bred in my bones. -And there are assets to that core value, but also liabilities. -But once it was named for me, it helped me to see it and understand it, and then learn to live with it, and put some healthy boundaries around it. -For wisdom has continued to do its creative work in me, -bringing me to greater awareness of who God is, and who I am, and who others are around me. It s like that moment in the village of Emmaus when those two disciples suddenly have their eyes opened. -Jesus is right there with them; and wisdom is there, too. delighting in the presence of God and delighting in mankind, -and delighted to give insight and to transform their lives. Have you ever had an Aha Moment like that? -Let s pray that we all will, again and again. -Yes, open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.

Paul s Letter to the Colossians Week 1 Colossians 1:1-20. Day One

Paul s Letter to the Colossians Week 1 Colossians 1:1-20 Day One 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: