 |
Chris Steinle 5/5/2024. Sermon given at Stone Creek Bible Church, Phoenix, AZ. |
SEEING GOD IN THE FACE OF CHRIST.
2nd Corinthians 4:1-6 Chris Steinle 5/5/2024. Sermon given at Stone Creek Bible Church, Phoenix, AZ.
The story of God revealing His "face." Starts with the Aaron/Kohanim Blessing of Numbers 6... God revealing His Name as "Lord"... then on to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 4.
https://www.youtube.com/live/86ctQBGWgDw?si=B4gdCjKUr7m9mYYy&t=2361
Seeing God in the Face of Christ
What if—when you wake up tomorrow—you can see God? Now I
know that the Bible says we can’t see God the Father with our human eyes. But
what if we could? Just like the sun, He’s right there. Would that change anything
about what you believe? Would you do anything differently?
It’s interesting that when we look at the New Testament
Greek, there’s a word used all over the place that means, “I see, or I know.”
Well, which is it? But we do the same thing in English. You “see” what I
mean?” Or, do you “know” what I mean? You “see” how that works?
Those of us who believe “know” through the Holy Spirit that
God is right here, right now. But in the Old Testament, the priests would
describe the “face” of God at the time of the morning sacrifice so the people might “know” the character of God; and, His
loving care for His them.
Our main text will be 2nd Corinthians 4:1-6, but
we’re going to work our way there with some other verses up on the screen and
in the sermon notes.
Now, as a profession of faith, you would probably say that
your life is blessed. But when you think about God’s attitude toward you, do
you imagine God is smiling down on you? On a heart-level, do you “perceive”
God as approving, or disproving?
We can picture God in a “Santa Claus is coming to town” way:
“He’s making a list, and checking it twice.
Or if you saw the Pixar short film, “Lifted,” You’ve got this green alien boss writing down everything the apprentice is doing wrong. And it always starts out with the loud click of a click-pen: Then you’d know he was about to document the next thing Junior got wrong.
Sometimes we
can be our own worst critics. We remember all of the reasons why we shouldn’t
be blessed:
My sins, my
weakness, my faults, my character; and the list goes on... And then, even if
we’re having victory in other areas, we can question, “Am I doing enough?”
Maybe right now you’re thinking of one or more reasons why you’re “in the
doghouse” as far as God is concerned.
Psalm 130 helps
put the brakes on this kind of self-condemnation. Listen
to where the psalmist found himself; but then take to heart even more what
he knows to be true about God. Verses 1-4:
Out of the depths, I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my
voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If
you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
The Psalm is
obviously saying we have all sinned. And this “standing” is talking
about our being able to stand in the presence Holy God, only because of the
mercy of God’s forgiveness.
The Blessing
that was given at the time of the morning sacrifice was a kind of daily
reset to remind God’s people that they were indeed chosen by God,
and that God cared for them.
In Exodus
29 we see the instructions that one lamb was to be offered in the morning and
the other lamb you shall offer at twilight... And Exodus 29 continues: And
there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall
be sanctified by My glory.
God appears to be making a connection here between the
sacrifice and blessing; the sun shining; and the glory of God. The morning sun
represents the greeting of a new day. The warmth of the sun is imparted through
its “shining.” And nothing in nature is as glorious and bright as the sun.
Before we go on the read that passage, let’s look at a
couple fun facts.
Tradition has it that the priest who was performing the
blessing would lift his hands to give the impression that the blessing was
being imparted on the congregation.
There was a certain hand gesture that became associated with
the blessing that we can see drawn in historical artifacts.
When the actor Leonard Nimoy was
asked to play the role of Spock in Star Trek, he tried to think of a greeting
that someone from a distant planet might make, (instead of just a handshake or
other motion that we are used to “here on earth.” Being Jewish, he remembered
the gesture he had seen in synagogue as a child. And he also decided the
gesture should be associated with the words of a blessing, “live long and
prosper.”
Something else very cool about “the blessing” is a silver amulet found in West Jerusalem. It’s been dated around 600 BC—roughly the time of King Josiah, just before Judah’s Babylonian captivity.
The Ketef Hinnom scrolls are from the First Temple
period and contain the Priestly Blessing.
The scroll is the earliest known artifact written in
the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. In fact, it’s the oldest surviving text from the
Hebrew Bible currently known; and has been called, “one of the most significant
discoveries ever made” for biblical studies.
Now let’s look at blessing in Numbers 6:22-27. Andit lays
the groundwork for what we’re going to read in 2nd Corinthians 4:
And
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
‘This
is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
“The
Lord bless you and keep you;
The
Lord make His face shine upon you,
And
be gracious to you;
The
Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
“So
they shall put [invoke] My name on the children of Israel,
and
I will bless them.”
This blessing could easily be a sermon in itself. But we’ll
just cover some general concepts.
We might think the blessing is nothing
more than a “wish-you-well.” “May the Lord bless thee”—if it just so happens. On the contrary,
God finishes by affirming the reality: “and
I will bless them.”
The blessing is supposed to leave the people with an
impression of God’s heart—metaphorically expressed by His “face.” The Lord make His face shine upon
you.
When the sun shines, it imparts light and heat, which are
very real. Obviously, we can’t see the heart of God, but that doesn’t mean that
God’s love can’t make an impression on us.
Psalms 27 says: When You said, “Seek My
face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” So, obviously, how
God “presents Himself” to us is a big deal to God. He wants to reveal Himself
to us.
In the blessing, it said, The Lord lift up His countenance upon you.
Countenance is an old-fashioned way of describing someone’s facial expression. We
can get a better understanding of how this word was used in Old English by
comparing this “lifted” countenance to the opposite response from the rich
young ruler in Mark Chapter 10 (17-31). There it says the rich young ruler’s “countenance
fell” and he went away sorrowing.
The priestly
benediction was to represent God as
“smiling” on his people. This is where we begin to see how our
perception—how we see things with “the eyes of our heart” can effect our life
and our faith.
Just like an infant responding to the smile of a parent,
this “lifted countenance” was meant to impart a warmth, security, and positive
expectation of what God had in store for them each day.
How do you
start your day? There was a Scottish missionary in the 1800s named Robert
Murray M’Cheyne. In one of his letters, he wrote, “Never see the face of man
till you have seen his face who is our life, our all.” M’Cheyne was talking
about meeting God in morning prayer.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says God’s mercies and compassions are
new every morning. Just how interested is
God in the details of our lives?
Psalm 139 says, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.”
Based on these verses, let me give you kind of a “corny”
example of the impression we should have of God’s excitement over us each day
of our lives. This could apply to young kids waiting for their parents to wake
up.
But I think most of us have seen how a loyal dog will sit at
the bed and stare, waiting for their owner to open their eyes.
And then what happens?
They’re usually wriggling and bounding with excitement that “------- you” are
finally awake.
Get past the
idea that there’s something inherently blasphemous in using a dog example about
God. Doesn’t God have that much love? That much life/exuberance? That much interest—so
many thoughts that counting them would be like counting sand.
Paul said in Romans 8:32:
“He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things?” Wouldn’t “Giving us all things” include God giving us His
attention? Of course! God is that big; and yet God is that detailed. He knows
and cares for every soul He has made in His own image and likeness.
So what takes our attention away from greeting God with our
first thoughts of the day? Let me suggest a few:
· You’ve just never thought about the
“face” of blessing that God wants to present to you every morning.
· You’re kind of used to walking with
God and tend to forget how special is each new day.
· You’re in the “doghouse.” Some
recent or habitual sin has you sitting-out from close fellowship with God. When
you get your act together or enough time has past,—then… you’ll get closer to
God.
· You’re going through trials that
have worn you down. And the suffering seems to outweigh your knowledge of the
truth that God loves you.
· Or, maybe you’re unsure of God’s
love because you haven’t yet trusted Jesus as your Savior.
And this is one of the issues that we’re going to cover now
in 2nd Corinthians 4:
In 2nd Corinthians Chapter 3, Paul had been
talking about the glory of God; and, how we don’t yet in our mortal bodies see
the face of God clearly. Nevertheless, God’s glory is changing those who have
believed the gospel of Jesus.
Paul, along with other ministers of the Gospel are being
persecuted and slandered by the unbelieving Jews. Paul says that besides having
the human inability to “see” God, their unbelief in Jesus creates a
further “veil” that prevents them from seeing how God had already revealed Himself
in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament portrayed God as
gracious, merciful, and forgiving; but the Jewish leadership were more
concerned about how to interpret all the rules.
Let’s begin reading 2nd Corinthians Chapter 4:
1 Therefore, since we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.
Peter and John said, in Acts 4:20 “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
All believers have the ministry of sharing what Jesus has done in their lives.
In fact, no one else can show what it looks like for Jesus to get hold of your “fill
in the blank’s” life.
And we need to have the boldness to be a witness of Christ’s
work in us, even when it doesn’t “look like” we’re being blessed. Many
times, Paul was doing this from prison!
We’ve got something encouraging to talk about. We have
received mercy. Instead of what we deserve, we have received the righteousness
of God through Christ.
And in Christ, there is a paradigm shift in how we define
blessings. The Old Testament standard of blessing was based on possessing “the
Land,” victory in war, or abundant provisions.
Touching back on Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler,
that’s why the Disciples were so amazed when Jesus said, “How difficult it is
for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus presented a new model of blessing in the Beatitudes on
the Sermon on the Mount. To mention a few, He said:
3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be
filled.
8
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
10
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
In all these instances, Jesus says we are blessed NOW, even in our present circumstances, because of the assurance that these issues are ultimately resolved through Christ.
Continuing in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2:
2 But we have renounced the hidden
things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God
deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man’s conscience in the sight of God.
This verse reminds me of the multi-level marketing
businesses we’ve seen over the years. I don’t know about Herbal Life or Magic
Chef, but Amway was the flagship.
You’d get invited to some special dinner, but the host wouldn’t
say what it was about. This became so common that people started asking: Is
this Amway? And many times the hosts were taught to say, No. Then, you’d go,
and sure enough—it was Amway.
Before I actually put my trust in Jesus, I remember going to
church or hearing preaching, and it seemed like they were trying to talk people
into something. You may be wondering: What do churches or ministers “get out of
it” to make such a big deal about trusting Jesus?
Paul says in verse 3: “But
even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing…” The
“gospel,” is the good news that God loves us; and, that everything in life we might
question, all the injustices, all of our own character deficiencies, all of our sins… everything has be
reconciled to God through Christ—we
can be at peace with God by believing in Jesus.
Who wouldn’t want that? And then you’d have to wonder: Why
might someone not want that? To give up their argument with God—to have all their
grievances settled. Who wouldn’t want to believe they are loved by their
Creator?
You can see that there’s a problem here, because there’s
really no logical answer why people wouldn’t want to be right with God.
Verse 4 whose minds
the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
The problem is there’s
an outside influence that urges people to resist God. We’ve
talked about the light shining from the sun. But there’s a “being” in the
spiritual realm whose darkness is blinding.
A force that doesn’t want our “self” to be reconciled, but
to stay independent from God. And this battleground is in our mind, our
thinking, our own heart.
The “god of this age” is the devil. “This age” is the era in
which we have been corrupted by sin through mankind’s rebellion against god. 1st
John 3:8 says the Son of God was revealed
that He might destroy the works of the devil.
But Jesus said there’s a reason some people don’t want to
see the works of the devil destroyed in their life: John 3:18-20, but he who does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God.
And this is the condemnation, that
the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and
does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
Back to 2nd Corinthians 4, verse 5, Paul
continues: 5 For we do not preach
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for
Jesus’ sake.
The Apostles didn’t preach about their
own ability to save people. What did Paul preach? “Christ Jesus the Lord.”
That the Jesus who died on the cross for our sins IS the same LORD referred to
throughout the Bible.
We’ll come back to this, but first let’s read verse 6:
Verse 6 For it is the
God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.
Paul is going back to creation here; where God said, “Let
there be light. And there was light.” Just as certainly as light had to come
forth because it was commanded by God; so, God has caused the light of
Christ to shine in the hearts of those who believe.
Since Paul has taken us clear back to Genesis, let’s talk
about God’s revelation of Himself. We need to believe that Jesus is Lord. That
means we need to believe in the “Lord” of the Bible—to believe that Jesus is
that Lord.
God revealed Himself to Moses in the light of a burning
bush; and that’s where God announced His Name as “Lord.” God told Moses to tell
His people he was sent by “I Am, that I Am,” which has—from the time of the
Greek Bible—been translated as “Lord.”
For me, believing that Jesus is Lord started with the truth
breaking into my self-absorbed world, that God exists; that “He is, He is real.”
He did this in my life by confronting me with my sins. Jesus said He would send
the Holy Spirit who would convict the world of sin. And man, was I surprised
when God made Himself real to me in this way.
In physics, there is theory about singularities, or “black
holes.” An “event horizon” is a point along a path, that when it is crossed, matter
gets so dense—and gravity so strong—that going beyond that point literally
changes everything. Now imagine this process in reverse.
Starting out in the dark—blinded by that darkness. But by a
supernatural miracle—because of the love of God—there is an “event horizon” to
cross over from darkness to light. A light commanded
by God to shine out of darkness.
Believing in Jesus is that “event horizon.” Once someone
sees their need for a Savior, once they have stepped out in faith and trusted
Jesus, they understand the gospel; the Bible makes sense; they “see” / “know”
the true picture of God—the “face of God.”
This physics example isn’t perfect. Jesus said it in other
ways; that He is the door, the gate, the way.
Verse 6 says we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.
What do we see in Jesus? The cross. Perhaps God chose the
cross because we remember Jesus with open arms. We see in Jesus “the welcome”
of God. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His
life for His friends.”
In the cross, we see the assurance of God’s love poured out:
our sins paid for and forgiven.
And, at the same time, we see in Jesus: a righteous life, a spotless lamb, received up
in glory.
Only Jesus can rescue us from the curse of sin and
selfishness. And instead, He enables us to stand in the splendid radiance of
God’s glory—in the very presence of God.
Do you see it? The truth of the gospel. On the dark side,
people are blind in their sin and in self.
On the other side of faith in Christ, we can know God.
Those who have made peace with God see the glory of God more
and more. The love of God continues to draws us into the light. [Example of
walking—heat “tiles.”]
Now let’s finish by talking about Paul’s preaching that Jesus is Lord. He wrote in Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Paul’s
talking about stepping out in faith to confess to God that you believe
what the Bible says about Jesus.
Just
as the words spoken during the Blessing placed the Lord’s
name on the people, the spoken
acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord is an act of humility that says
you are ready to come under Christ’s lordship—to be part of God’s people.
People say,
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Faith says,
“I’ll see it when I believe it.”
Now if you
have placed your faith in Jesus, trust God’s word that you are saved. You have
been obedient to God’s instruction. God doesn’t want you to doubt your
salvation.
Has God been
making Himself known to you this morning?
Has the Holy
Spirit been showing you the problem of sin and separation from God?
How do you
need to respond?
“All who call on the name of the Lord will be
saved.”
No comments:
Post a Comment