God s Presence Manifest in Jesus (Part 2) November 4, 2012 Series: Making Space: God is Moving [IN]

Transcription

1 God s Presence Manifest in Jesus (Part 2) November 4, 2012 Series: Making Space: God is Moving [IN] John 1:14, etc. Years ago, I attended a church where we would often sing a classic Pentecostal hymn called, When We All Get to Heaven. Some of you may be familiar with it. Country star Brad Paisley released his rendition of When We All Get to Heaven just a few years ago, giving a popularity boost to this hymn which was originally written by Eliza Hewitt in Here are some of the lyrics: Onward to the prize before us Soon His beauty we ll behold Soon the pearly gates will open We will tread the streets of gold When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We ll sing and shout the victory Sounds glorious, doesn t it? I ve sung that hymn with gusto many times. And every time I did, I was mistaken, with gusto. If you ve been tracking with our sermons at Cornerstone throughout the year, including our current series, you should be able to detect a theological error in certain lines of this hymn. It s well-intended, but an error nonetheless. What is it? It s kind of ironic, really. Christians often talk and sing about going to heaven, but God has always been interested in making his home here on earth. Your eternal destination as a child of the living God is not heaven up there. It s earth down here. The Bible leaves us with a final picture not of people going up, up, and away to heaven, but of heaven coming down to earth. You ve probably heard of the classic film From Here to Eternity. Many Christians would probably agree that the story of the Bible could also be given the same title (we go from here, off to eternity in heaven). But a more biblically faithful title for the great screenplay of scripture might be From Eternity to Here. The eternal realm heaven will one day come here, and as the Bible says, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). If you as a believer were to die and go to heaven today, you d be in a wonderful place, to be sure a place of rest and peace in the presence of God. But it would not be your final destination; it would be only an intermediate stage for you. There would still be something else to look forward to, a different and even better kind future to anticipate. The ultimate point of the biblical story is that heaven will come down, renewing the earth, and the entire universe. God will make his permanent home here, where he will dwell forever in the midst of his people. After the Apostle John foresees how the heavenly city the New Jerusalem will come down to earth in Revelation (21:3), he writes these words: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look! God s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. We re continuing our sermon series called Making Space: God is Moving [IN]. We ve been talking about how God s great passion is to make his home here on earth among his people, and ultimately to extend the borders of his earthly dwelling place until the whole of creation is filled with the glory of his immediate presence. Indeed, this theme is prominent throughout the whole sweep of scripture. We started by looking at the Garden of Eden in Genesis, where God made his home with Adam and Eve, manifesting his presence to them. We then considered the tabernacle and temple, where God made his home on earth among his people Israel for several centuries of biblical history. Last Sunday, we began to talk about how God made his new temple, his new dwelling place on earth, in a person the man Jesus Christ. The book of Colossians says that in Christ, all the fullness of deity the fullness of who God is dwells in bodily form (2:9, NASB). In her hit song from the mid-nineties, singer Joan Osborne asked, What if God was one of us just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home? In Jesus, God did become one of us, and in doing so, made his most decisive move toward making his eternal home here on earth, among his people. Last week we saw that because Jesus became the dwelling place of God on earth: There s no struggle too great that God can t relate; no sin too grave that God cannot save. In Jesus, God did indeed become one of us, and therefore he can fully relate to the trials and temptations we face in life, because he too has experienced them first-hand. Indeed, as our great High Priest, Jesus bore the weight of all human sin and brokenness on the cross, offering his own sinless life as a sacrifice to make our complete forgiveness possible. Therefore, as the Bible says in Hebrews, we do not have a High Priest who in unable to sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15a). Because God made his home in the flesh-and-blood person of Jesus, he can fully and personally relate to you this morning, no matter your struggles; and his complete forgiveness is available to you for the asking, no matter your sins.

2 Today, we re going to continue to explore the implications of the fact that the Jesus became the new temple the living, breathing, walking, talking dwelling place of God on earth. This will be part 2 of the message, God s Presence Manifest in Jesus. As a launching point, I d like to review with you a key verse of scripture we looked at last week John 1:14: The Word [logos] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. In the original Greek, this verse says that the logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The Greeks understood the logos to be the divine cause that brings life to the whole universe, the bond that holds all created things together. John borrows this notion of the logos, or the Word to refer to Jesus. In the opening verses of his gospel, John announces that the Word was God. But the mind-blowing statement that John follows up with a few verses later is the one before us now: The Word, the logos God took on flesh and became a human being, dwelling among us in person, here on earth! The literal translation is that he tabernacled or pitched his tent among us. Or, as The Message version of the Bible puts it, he moved into the neighborhood. When God wanted to fully communicate himself to us, he spoke forth the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. In Jesus, God moved in as never before. We have seen his glory, writes John, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Glory has to do with the revelation or manifestation of God s presence and character. John is saying that he and his fellow disciples have seen they have witnessed firsthand the fullness of who God is in the man Jesus Christ. John s message to us is this: If you want to know who God is in the fullness of all his grace and truth then take a long look at Jesus. As the book of Hebrews says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (12:2-3). These words were originally penned for a community of Christians that were facing challenging circumstances times of stress, times of strain times when, as the text says, they were at risk of growing weary in their faith, and losing heart. Have you ever been there? Are you there right now? What do we do when our faith is challenged and we re at risk of losing heart? What we do is this: we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Word made flesh. Most of you are very well aware of Cornerstone s Vision and Mission Statements you see them every Sunday printed on these banners. But I ll bet most of you aren t aware that Cornerstone also has something called a Bedrock Statement based on this passage from Hebrews. We ve had it for a couple of years now, but have not yet taken the opportunity to talk much about it. What s a Bedrock Statement? Well, bedrock is a consolidated rock layer under the surface of the earth that provides a foundation of stability. Cornerstone s Bedrock statement exists to help us remember where to turn in times of challenge or crisis, so that our faith remains stable even when our lives are shaken. You can find Cornerstone s Bedrock Statement on our website. It reads: When living in line with our Mission, Vision and Core Values as a church results in confusion or stress, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, remembering: His keen memory of God s past faithfulness His unwavering hope in God s promise His obedience in suffering His perseverance in the face of opposition At Cornerstone, we re at a very exciting point of our church s history. God has called us to build a unique facility that blends the concepts of church building and community center. Cornerstone Centre will be a means that allows this church to manifest God s presence to the greater community in ways we ve only begun to imagine. Thanks to God s gracious provision, we own the land free and clear, and now we ve entered into a Capital Campaign to raise the funds we need to start construction. Our big pledge day is less than a month away on December 2 nd a can t-miss event. But as we ve said all along, this God-given dream is also God-sized. It s a massive undertaking. As smart and as educated and as well-resourced a congregation as we may be, this dream is bigger than we are. Apart from God s intervention and provision, it s beyond our ability to achieve. And to me, that s exciting, because if we only attempted things we felt we could handle on our own, then well we wouldn t have any need of God, would we? Still, let s not kid ourselves: The Making Space Campaign and the Cornerstone Centre project represent the biggest challenge this congregation has faced to date. And with God-sized challenges come risks of spiritual warfare, stress, anxiety, setbacks, frustrations, and if we re not vigilant weariness leading to loss of heart. What a perfect time, therefore, to consider our Bedrock Statement, and be reminded to fix our eyes on Jesus who alone is the author and perfecter of our faith our God who put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. With the Making Space Campaign and the Cornerstone Centre Project specifically in view, I d like to take the remainder of the message time this morning to consider four ways that we must fix our eyes on Jesus: First, we must fix our eyes on his embrace of the least, the last, and the lost. Author Brennan manning observes, Jesus spent a disproportionate amount of time with people described in the gospels as the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the hungry, sinners, tax-collectors, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the captives, those possessed by unclean spirits, all who labor and are heavy burdened, the rabble who knew nothing of the [religious] law, the crowds, the little ones, the least, the last, and the lost... As the French philosopher Maurice Blondel said, If you really want to understand a man, don t just listen to what he says, but watch what he

3 does. As we fix our eyes on Jesus, watching what he does, we will see that his life embodied the mission he proclaimed at the beginning of his public ministry: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor (4:18-19). Yes, the Cornerstone Centre project will be challenging, and our only proper response to that challenge will be to fix our eyes on Jesus. He has called us to build Cornerstone Centre so that we can be his hands to embrace the last the least, and the lost in our community in a way we never could without such a facility and given the brokenness of humanity, just about everyone, including you and I, fit into the category of being the last, the least, or the lost. It s this vision of embracing peoples of all kinds in the love of Jesus that will keep us going through the sacrifices, strains and setbacks we will have to face in getting this building up. If we re truly embracing the Jesus who embraces the world, ours will be an increasingly radical and inclusive love a love that captures the attention and hearts of our neighbors in this community, as they see presence of Jesus manifest in and through our lives. On December 2 nd, you ll have the opportunity not only to make a financial pledge toward the construction of Cornerstone Centre. You will also have the chance to pledge to make space to [IN]vest in one neighbourhood, and also to [IN]vest in one hurt, injustice or need in our world. For the pledge to make space to invest in one neighbourhood, it doesn t matter if you don t live in northeast Markham. We ll be providing you with various opportunities for fulfilling that pledge in whatever neighbourhood you happen live in it could be on your street, in your condo, it could be focused on getting to know your next-door neighbour, volunteering at your local public school or a senior s center the possibilities are endless, really. It may even be helpful to think of your workplace as a neighbourhood you want to invest in for the sake of God s kingdom. Next year we re aiming to offer an experiential Learning Lab called Making Space for Neighbours that will help you put neighbour love into practice in whatever context you find yourself in, and taking that Learning Lab can be a way of fulfilling your pledge. We re also aiming to offer other experiential learning opportunities to serve the poor both in this community and in other parts of the world. The point is, if Cornerstone Centre is going to become a place of embrace, we must practice being a people of embrace. What good is it if we fling open the doors of our new facility, but we re not developing as the kind of people who have flung open the doors of our hearts to love people the way we see Jesus loving people in scripture? As we fix our eyes on Jesus in the face of the Cornerstone Centre challenge, we must also fix our eyes on his prayerful intimacy with God. I ve once heard it said that prayer is like windsurfing. When you windsurf, you stand on this surf board in the middle of a lake, with this big sail attached to it. The moment the wind catches the sail is exhilarating, because a power much greater than you is propelling you through the water. Your job is just to put up your sail and catch the wind. That s prayer. Prayer is when we raise our hearts to God, and the wind of his Spirit catches us, and propels us to the places he wants us to go. In this vein, you might call Jesus the ultimate windsurfer. Jesus ministry was empowered by his prayer life, by his intimacy with the Father. It was in prayer that Jesus caught God s passion for embrace, and was filled with the Spirit s power to live a life of embrace. His life consisted of a rhythm of withdrawing to be alone with God in prayer, and then engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry. In Mark chapter 1 (12-13), before his public ministry began, it says that Jesus went off into the desert and spent forty days alone with God, praying. Later in the same chapter, when his ministry lunches, it says that, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place to be alone with God and pray (Mark 1: 35). Before he chose the twelve disciples, Jesus went to a mountain and spent the night in prayer (Luke 6: 12). After he fed the 5000 a big crowd of the least, the last, and the lost sheep of Israel Jesus withdrew to be alone with God (John 6:15). When he hears the bad news about John the Baptist s death, he goes away to be alone with God (Matthew 14:13). This pattern is true throughout Jesus life right up to the time he s going to go to the cross. He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and brings some friends with him, but he withdraws from them to be alone with the Father (Matthew 26:36-46). All the time, he was teaching his people including us to follow his lead. As we seek to build Cornerstone Centre, and as we seek to engage in its ministry, Jesus would remind us this morning to be careful to be prayerful. It is only in prayer that we can catch the wind of his Spirit that will propel us into the places he wants us to be. Asking God: My story about China (what if we asked God about our pledges? Financially and otherwise ) Making Space to Pray gatherings (first one s this Wednesday) Pledge: Making Space to let God [IN]habit my one life (experiential learning labs on how to have a prayerful, intimate, conversational relationship with God) We ve also seen that as the people of this God, our mission is to live in and extend God s presence in this world. Prayer is how we live in God s presence, and if we don t live in God s presence we can t extend his presence to the world. We can t give away what we don t have. The third way we must fix our eyes on Jesus in the face of the Cornerstone Centre challenge is to focus on his trusting faith & costly obedience. The writer of the book of Hebrews, the same one who exhorts us to fix our eyes on Jesus in the face of our challenges, also writes of Jesus prayerful intimacy with God. In Hebrews chapter 5 it says, During the days of Jesus life

4 on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (7-8). Notice in these verses how prayer leads to costly obedience. It is the prayerfulness of Jesus that prepares him to lay down his life on the cross for the sake of others for the sake of our eternal salvation. Notice too how it says that Jesus had to learn obedience. Isn t that interesting? We might assume that Jesus, being fully God, wouldn t have to learn anything. We might also assume that Jesus was able to do all the wondrous miracles he did because he is God. But that s not how Jesus operated. Jesus was also fully human, and when he was here on earth, he set aside the use of his divine prerogatives. In everything he did, he operated as a human being fully submitted to the will of the Father, and in full reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide and empower him. So as we fix our eyes on Jesus in the face of our challenges, we fix our eyes on the one who is the perfect human model of trusting faith and obedience. His trust in God was nurtured by his prayerful intimacy with the Father, and so when the Father called him to costly obedience even obedience unto death Jesus was able to obey. He knew he could trust his heavenly Father to take care of him, even in death. Hear the trusting faith that Jesus expressed to the Father even as he hung helpless on the cross: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Lk. 23:46). Now we ve been speaking of Jesus as the temple, the dwelling place of God on earth. And just before Jesus uttered this final expression of trusting faith, Luke records that the curtain of the Jerusalem temple the building was torn in two (Lk. 23:45). That heavy curtain was what separated the Holy of Holies the place where God s presence once dwelt from the remainder of the temple. The curtain was a reminder that human sin blocked the possibility of full and immediate access to God s presence. But when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world, that curtain was torn in two. It was a sign that free and open access to God was now available for all. In this way, Jesus trusting faith and obedience led to untold blessings for all those who put their faith in him. In the Making Space Campaign, and in building Cornerstone Centre, there s no doubt that God is calling us to trusting faith and costly obedience. Wouldn t you agree? He s calling us as a congregation and each of us personally in different ways to lay down our time, talent, and treasure for the sake of his kingdom. Will we trust God enough; will we have faith in his goodness enough, to obey? On pledge day, the fourth and final pledge is making space to [IN]vest my financial resources toward the construction of Cornerstone Centre. The goal is to raise $3 million, a chunk of which we trust will come from special fundraising events as well as donations from one or two other churches. But the bulk of responsibility to raise what is needed of course lies with us, the people of Cornerstone. Again, this is bigger than we are, so what do we do? We listen to God, and discern the amount he wants us to pledge. Later this month, we ll be giving you a guide sheet to help you with that part of the process. Then, once we know what God wants us to do, we put our trust in God s all-sufficiency to meet our need, and then we actually do it. We take action. We pledge, and then we give what we pledge to give. We obey. One of Cornerstone s Core Values is Faith & Obedience, defined on our website as follows: We show our trust in God s faithfulness by doing what he says. One thing s for sure. If we all obey, God will open up untold access to blessings for the people of the greater community untold blessings they could never know apart from our trusting faith and costly obedience. God is calling us to be like Jesus, you see. He s calling us to trust him enough to believe that it is more blessed to give than receive. He s calling us to lay down our rights, our resources, our prerogatives, for the sake of others, so that his blessings can be opened up to many. The challenge is bigger than we are, but it s not bigger than Jesus. Our job, friends, is to simply bring what we have to him our loaves and our fishes and let him then do his job, of multiplying our resources to feed multitudes of the least, the last, and the lost. The fourth way we must fix our eyes in the face of the Cornerstone Centre challenge is to focus on his passionate plea for unity. And with this point, we begin to prepare our hearts for the Lord s Supper. In John 17, we see Jesus in prayer surprise, surprise, Jesus is praying again. This is one of his final prayers before he goes to the cross. Now, if your own death was imminent, and you knew it, how would you pray? I bet your prayers wouldn t be about inconsequential things. You d be praying about the things and about the people who are most precious to you. A dying prayer is a window into what matters most to a person. Listen to what Jesus prayed on the eve of his death: My prayer is not for them [my current disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus prayer on the eve of his death is that his people, his church, might be one. God s mission in this world depends on it. When the church lives in loving unity, then the world will know of the saving love of Jesus. If we re not united, then God s mission in this world gets compromised.

5 Building projects are always a notorious test any church s unity. Lots of congregations blow up over building projects. At Cornerstone, we ve enjoyed a remarkable history of unity, thank God. Indeed, Unity-in-Diversity is one of our Core Values. To my knowledge, in this Campaign, we re so-far-so-good when it comes to unity. But in actually following through on this God-given Cornerstone Centre dream, we are going to face spiritual opposition from Satan s kingdom. The other week I shared about how God spoke to me, saying, We are at war. May we never be at war with each other, church, but only with the spiritual forces of the devil. Satan s strategy, you see, is to divide and conquer. When we re dealing with major financial considerations and sacrifices; when we re dealing with how our ministries will share space in the new building; when we re dealing with questions of the additional staffing we ll need; when we re dealing with questions of the design & interior decoration of the new building I mean, good golly, do you see how testy and nasty people can get on those home renovation reality TV shows? in any church building project, there is so much material for potential disunity. Knowing this, it s incumbent on each and every one of us to: Handle any concerns we may have constructively. Share concerns directly with the party involved, don t leak your concerns by complaining sideways to others in the church. If someone leaks to you, don t just nod in agreement. Gently challenge that person in love to deal with their concern more constructively to address their concern directly with the appropriate party. It will involve give & take. Pray at all times this is one of our greatest weapons in spiritual warfare pray for the church s unity as Jesus prayed for unity in John 17. In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes that, That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God s judgment upon yourself (11:28-29). The body of Christ is the church. We discern the body by making sure that we are in right relationship with others in the church, and that we conduct ourselves in a way that promotes the unity of the body. Paul goes on to say in the next chapter 1 Corinthians For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. God s math is easy, you see. The answer is always one. Is there anything you need to make right? Resolve to do so, and then come to the table. Take time to pray as you need- especially for church unity and your role in keeping it All are welcome to come to the table if you desire to draw nearer to Jesus When ready, line up at one of the 4 stations Serve the person that follows you in line we serve each other as one body as an act of unity Partake at the table COMMUNION (ONE LOAF = ONE BODY, UNITED)