Christmas Blessings from Unexpected Sources--Luke 2:22-38

            Our news outlets are all abuzz these days with stories about who the President-elect is appointing for various government positions. Everyone is asking, “Who does he want by his side? Who is he selecting to help him carry out his plans? Who does he believe he can trust?”

            As people who desire to serve God and do his will, we would do well to ask the same kind of questions about him. Who does he know he can trust? What kind of people does he select to help him carry out his plans? If we want to be used by him, what kind of people should we be?

            We’re going to answer those questions today by looking at a couple of lesser-known characters in the Christmas story – a godly man named Simeon, and a devoted prophetess named Anna. These believers make only a brief appearance on stage in the Christmas story, but even that brief appearance is enough to illustrate for us what kind of person God delights to use to do his will.

We find their story in Luke 2:22-38. Before we jump right into that text, let me put these stories into context for you by pointing out two striking features of the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel.

Two Striking Features of Luke 1-2

            The first striking feature of these chapters is that God is communicating. Now you might think, “What’s so striking or unusual about that?” It’s striking because of the historical timeframe of these events in Luke 1-2.

            These events mark the end of a 400-year span of time that is known as “The Silent Period,” because during that time, God had not been giving any new communication to mankind. Many people don’t realize this, but 400 years elapsed between the time of Malachi (the last prophet of the Old Testament) and the birth of Jesus. During those years, God had not sent any more prophets to the people of Israel – as even the Jewish people acknowledged in their own historical documents!

            So for all of those years, there had been no new communication or revelation from God. Then all of a sudden, there was a great burst of communication from God to his people, as we read about in these chapters. We read about three angelic visitations to various people, and we read about several people being moved by the Holy Spirit to make prophetic statements. So out of silence, there is all of a sudden a great burst of communication.

            The second striking feature about these chapters is that God is communicating through and to people whom their society would not have expected to hear from God. Every character we meet in these chapters was one or two steps down the social ladder of their time. Whether it was their age, their income level, their occupation, their marital status, or a physical defect, every one of them had some factor in their lives that would have placed them in a lower social standing in the eyes of other people.

            Yet here they are, hearing from God and being called to play important roles in the fulfillment of God’s plan. What was it about these people that caught the attention of God? Why were they entrusted with the parts that they played?

            The common denominator that unites all of these characters is obedience to the commands of God. Even though their obedience may have been imperfect – as in the case of Zechariah, who doubted the words of the angel – it was nevertheless genuine and from the heart. So we learn, then, that it is obedience that God looks for when he selects those whom he will use to carry out his plans. We see this obedience exemplified clearly in the lives of Simeon and Anna, so let’s take a look now at their stories.

The Story of Simeon

            Speaking of obedience, the stories of Simeon and Anna come about because of the obedience of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary. They crossed paths with Simeon and Anna when they obediently went to the Temple to carry out everything that the Law of Moses called them to do. Let’s read about this [READ 2:22-24].

            Let’s briefly make sure we understand these details of the Old Testament Law. When a child was born in a Jewish family, the parents were to appear at the Temple after a certain period of time to offer sacrifices to the Lord. The Law called for them to offer a lamb and a pigeon or a dove. If they were poor, however, they could offer two birds instead of one bird and a lamb. We can see in verse 24, then, that Joseph and Mary were giving the offering that was allowed for poorer folks.

            Now if the child was a firstborn son, a special financial offering was also supposed to be given. Firstborn sons had been given a special place in Israel ever since God used the deaths of the firstborn sons of Egypt to free the children of Israel from slavery.

            So Joseph and Mary had come to the Temple to comply with everything that the Law of the Lord had called them to do. Their obedience brought them into contact with a godly man named Simeon [READ vv. 25-26].

            Let’s make sure we don’t overlook this token of kindness from the Lord. God did not have to make any promise like this to Simeon. His plans could’ve rolled along just fine whether Simeon was alive to see any of it or not. But God kindly blessed Simeon with the opportunity to see the beginning of the salvation that Simeon had desired to see for so long.

            Simeon responded by praising the Lord and giving testimony about God’s promise [READ vv. 27-32]. Those final statements reveal that Simeon truly did know God well. He understood something that many of his countrymen struggled to understand – that the coming of God’s chosen one, the Messiah, was not just a gift for the Jewish people but for the entire world. Simeon knew that even the Gentiles were loved by God, so they too stood to benefit from the coming of Jesus.

            But this was not all that Simeon had to say, and his next words would take on a rather somber tone [READ vv. 33-35]. Wow – those are some heavy words to hear, aren’t they? No wonder we don’t find these words of Simeon on the front of Hallmark cards around this time of year!

            Yet perhaps we should remind ourselves of these words around Christmas, and perhaps we should encourage others to take heed of them as well. During the Christmas season, we tend to emphasize nothing but happiness, nothing but joy. But the Christmas narratives in the Bible are not so exclusive. The Bible will not let us forget for a moment that the blessed baby of Bethlehem is also the crucified Christ of Calvary.

            Jesus did not come into this world just so we could have a holiday about a cute baby. He came so that the thoughts of the hearts of mankind might be revealed. It is a very humbling thing to have the true nature of your heart revealed, and so naturally, we are going to respond one of two ways to this – we will either trust Jesus and embrace him to save us from the sinfulness of our hearts, or we will reject him and oppose what his teachings reveal about us.

            That is what Simeon meant by “the fall and rising of many in Israel.” For some people, Jesus has become the cause of stumbling and a fall into the disaster of rejecting God. For others, he is the one and only reason that we have arisen from underneath the burden of sin and stand confidently before the Lord today as his forgiven children.

            This is the message that we must proclaim all throughout the year – Christmastime included! The Holy Spirit knew exactly what he was doing to move Simeon to speak those words at that time, and he has preserved them for us in precisely this place so that we will know from the very beginning of Jesus’ story that we must make a choice of how we will respond to him.

Simeon responded with praise, because he was a man who was already obedient to God. Anna was just the same, so let’s read about her response now.

The Story of Anna

            [READ vv. 36-37]. These details highlight just how devoted Anna truly was. She had made a decision early in her life to devote herself to worship, fasting, prayer, and undoubtedly serving others as well.

            She was widowed from a very young age. Luke tells us that she had lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. Jewish girls at that time typically got married when they were around 13 years old, so we can guess that Anna was around 20 when she became a widow.

            What a difficult thing to deal with so early in life! Anna could’ve chosen to get remarried and there would’ve been nothing wrong with that choice at all. But instead, she decided to devote herself to worshiping God, and she invested her life and that purpose for 64 years.

            You can imagine her joy, then, when she learned that the Savior had been born. Let’s see how she responds [READ v. 38]. Anna the prophetess became one of the first evangelists, we might say. And notice who she spoke to – “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

            That phrase highlights an important principle for how to be the kind of person whom God uses to carry out his plans. How do we follow in the footsteps of such faithful people as Simeon and Anna? Where did they find the spiritual strength to be righteous and devout, and to serve the Lord with such devotion for decades on end?

            We find that the key lies in eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of God’s plans. Notice how verse 25 said of Simeon that he was, “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” And in verse 38, we read that Anna was among those who were, “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Those phrases both refer to the plans that God had revealed in the Old Testament. Simeon and Anna believed the word of God, and they knew that if God said something was going to happen, it was as good as done! So in that confidence, they anxiously prepared themselves to be ready for the fulfillment of God’s plans.

            That’s the kind of active response that Luke has in mind when he says that these two godly saints were “waiting.” This is not the kind of waiting we do when we are on hold on the telephone with the insurance company – where impatience builds with every moment and our attitude sours and we begin to lose confidence that someone is ever going to pick up.

            No, we’re talking about the kind of waiting that children do on Christmas morning when grandma and grandpa are coming over with presents. This is “standing by the window” kind of waiting; this is “so anxious I can barely stand it” kind of waiting. This is when we are so confident that God will fulfill his promises that we shape our lives to make sure we are ready when that day comes so we don’t miss out on the tiniest blessing that we otherwise could have had if we had been ready.

            That is the kind of waiting that can sustain us until the day comes when God fulfills his promises. It’s the kind of waiting that the prophet Isaiah referred to when he wrote, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31).”

            If the holiday of Christmas teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that God keeps his word! He said he would send a savior, and he did. He also has said that Jesus will come again to this world, and so he will. So we must ask ourselves, “Am I ready?” We prepare ourselves for that day by embracing Jesus as our Savior from sin by faith, and then as God’s adopted children, we live in obedience to his commands so that we will be fully prepared for Christ’s return, without any reason for shame and anxiously awaiting his kind rewards and the blessing of living with him.

Your Greatest Allies in Prayer--Life with God Series

            Teachers and their students have a rather ironic relationship when you think about it. On the one hand, teachers are given the responsibility of enforcing the academic standards of the classroom. They are the ones who test the students and evaluate them, and ultimately they are the ones who give the students a grade.

            But on the other hand, teachers are also the ones who give their students the most help to meet the academic standards of the classroom. They are their students’ greatest resource and biggest supporters at the school. So at the very same time, teachers are enforcing the standards and giving their students the most help in meeting those standards. That’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?

            In a similar way, we also see this irony in prayer. God, of course, is the one whom we pray to, asking him to hear our appeals, but as we are going to learn today, he is also the one who gives us the most help in prayer. So as we make our appeals to him, he is – at the very same time – the one who gives us the most help in offering our prayers.

            Today we will see how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each work in various ways to encourage us to pray and to help us overcome the general weakness that hounds us as we journey through a fallen world. We can be very encouraged today to see just how much God assists us so that we might pray!

We will look at each of the members of the Trinity in turn.

1. The Father draws us into prayer through His kindness

            To see this truth, we can review some of what we learned last week in Matthew 6:7-8. In those verses, Jesus contrasted the way that the Gentiles prayed with the way that we should pray. The Gentiles had no particular reason to think that their gods cared about them, but we enjoy a very different relationship with our God. He is actually our father, as Jesus reminds us in verse eight, and when we remember how he sent his own son to die for us so that he might forgive us and adopt us as his own children, we have reason to believe that God’s ears are open to our prayers because of the kindness of his heart.

            So when my mind says, “Do you really think God will care about what I pray?”, my spirit can say, “Yes, because I am his child, and he has shown such a great love to create this relationship.” So God’s kind love draws us to pray to him by convincing us that he cares and that he really will consider what we have to say.

Since we spent a little more time on that last week, let’s move on now to see how the Son helps us in prayer.

2. The Son leads us into prayer through His sympathy and intercession

            To learn more about this truth, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews. If you’ve ever wondered, “What is Jesus up to right now?”, the book of Hebrews tells us about one of his present-day activities. In the early chapters of this book, we learn that Jesus is in heaven serving as our high priest before the Father. That is a very rich image from the Old Testament, but today we might be a little more familiar with the idea of an ambassador or advocate – someone who represents our interests in the presence of an authority figure.

            This is one way in which Jesus is helping us right now. Notice how Hebrews 2:14-18 describes this [READ Heb 2:14-18]. Jesus knows what it’s like to deal with the weakness of a human body. He understands the temptation to be grouchy when you haven’t had enough sleep, or to be impatient when someone makes one more request of you after you’re already worn out. He understands these things because he has been through them, too.

            The author of Hebrews picks up this theme again in 4:14-16 [READ 4:14-16]. How wonderful that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses! He has been through the same struggles that we’ve faced, so he can serve as a merciful advocate. This should give us great encouragement to pray to God.

            Don’t we all find ourselves less than enthusiastic sometimes to talk to people who haven’t been through the things we’ve been through? We don’t feel very eager to talk to someone when we think that they just can’t understand what we’ve experienced. We may still labor through a conversation, but it’s likely to be hindered because of those feelings.

            Sometimes as we walk through life in this fallen world and we consider prayer, we find ourselves thinking, “What does God know about pain and suffering? He’s way off, somewhere up there in heaven being worshiped by angels. How could he really understand what I’m going through?”

            It is for that very reason that the Bible reminds us about the experiences and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and tells us that he is right there in the presence of the Father to sympathize with us and to intercede for us.

            Consider the variety of hardships that Jesus faced in his life, and consider if he can understand what you have been through. He likely lived in a level of poverty that none of us has ever experienced. If our historical research today is correct, he grew up in a home that was carved out of a cave – literally a hole in the ground! Every one of us lives in great comfort compared to that!

            Also, from the biblical story, we have very good reason to think that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, died during Jesus’ lifetime. Jesus would know, then, what it is like to feel the grief of losing a parent.

            Jesus also knows what its like to be misunderstood and opposed by your own family. We read a couple of times in the Gospels that his brothers thought he was crazy and tried to bring him back home from preaching all over the countryside.

            Jesus knows what it is like to live under the heavy hand of an oppressive government; he knows what it is like to pay unfair taxes; he knows what it is like to receive injustice at the hands of a judicial system; he knows what it is like to be stolen from; he knows what it’s like to be betrayed by your best friend; he knows what it’s like to face public humiliation.

            Do you remember that he even knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God? As he bore our sins on the cross, there was that fateful moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Perhaps in that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of the Father’s anger toward sin. He would know what it’s like, then, to feel that God Himself is opposed to you.

            And let us not forget what the author of Hebrews emphasized—Jesus has experienced every kind of temptation that we have. So when we speak to God in prayer, we know that we have a great high priest in Jesus Christ—an advocate who truly understands what we’re going through because he’s been there. Since God did not remain distant from the pain of this world but stepped down into it and experienced it, he is sympathetic toward our needs and is able to commiserate with us.

3. The Holy Spirit helps us in prayer to overcome our weakness

            In Romans 8, we learn about an incredible ministry that the Holy Spirit performs to help us in prayer. Beginning in Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul discusses the tension that we feel between the sufferings of this present time and the glory that awaits us as children of God. According to Paul, the glory that is to be revealed is incomparable, but at the present time our souls ache and groan because we live under the curse of sin.

            Our natural limitations as creatures are only exaggerated by the effects of sin on our bodies and our minds, and so in this sense we live in a general state of weakness. Should we despair, then, because of our weakness? No—just look here at verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.”

            Now, I don’t believe Paul is saying, “Shame on you! You should know better than to ask for the things you ask for.” No, I think he’s saying that we cannot always know what to pray for. We pray according to the best of our knowledge, but our knowledge is limited. Sometimes this life can be so disorienting that we don’t even know where to begin when we speak to God. We don’t know whether to ask for this or to ask for that.

            There’s certainly nothing wrong with praying for the things we desire to have come about, but in our limited knowledge, we just don’t know exactly what God’s plan will be. Before I ever met Carmen, I spent a whole summer praying that a certain girl would become my wife. We were good friends, and I’d heard from some mutual friends that she was interested in me, so I had some high hopes. During that summer, I can remember frequently taking walks in the evening, praying that God would bring us together and anticipating what that would be like, because I had high confidence that God would grant my request.

            Well, when the school year started up, we reconnected and re-kindled our friendship. After about three weeks, I asked her out on a date, and would you know that I didn’t even get one date with that girl? She politely declined, and I asked her if this was a “no” for now or a “no” for good, and she said it was a “no” for good.

            I couldn’t believe it! I had prayed about it for months, and I thought it would be a great match, but God declined that request because he had a different plan in mind.

            Now, I didn’t know that, and I couldn’t have known that, so should we just give up on prayer, then, because of this confusion? No, we can offer our prayers and trust in what the Spirit will do for us. Continued reading in v. 26—“but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

            Just think of this grace and sympathy—the Holy Spirit supplements our prayers to bring them into accord with the will of God. He speaks up for us even when we don’t know what to say, or when we might say something amiss.

            Since I’ve had children, I’ve come to learn that I can often understand what they’re trying to say even when other people can’t. I know how they say things and when they might mix up certain words, so if they’re talking to someone else and not getting through, I can usually step in and say, “Here’s what they were trying to say.”

            Perhaps that’s how we should think of the Holy Spirit’s help for us. As we struggle to communicate our desires to God or the depths of our grief, the Holy Spirit intercedes and says, “Here’s what they’re really trying to say.”

            If I could put all of God’s help for us in prayer into one picture, I think it would look like this—the Father stands out in front of us, calling us through kindness to come to him in prayer. As he calls, Jesus stands beside us and takes us by the arm, saying, “Yes! I’ve been where you are. This is the right step to take. Go to him and you’ll find mercy and grace.” Behind us, with a hand on our shoulder, ready to steady us, is the Holy Spirit, saying, “Go ahead. Don’t worry—I’ll help you!”

            Though we appeal to God in prayer, he is the very one who gives us the most help for our prayers. So don’t decline his kind-hearted call to ask, seek, and knock. Don’t think that he can’t understand, because Jesus can—and He does! Don’t worry if you’re not entirely settled on what to say, because the Holy Spirit will help you. Let us take advantage of this great outpouring of help from the Lord.

Speaking to God in Prayer--Life with God Series

            When I play board games, I’m the kind of person who likes to play as an individual. If a game is designed for me to have a teammate, that’s fine—I can live with that. But sometimes, I find myself at a gathering that has 12 people, but we have a board game that only allows for four players. Now what? Some of you don’t mind just pairing up with another person, but I would rather bow out and watch everyone else play than play with someone as a team.

            The reason for that is pretty silly, to be honest—when I think I have a winning strategy, I get so stubborn that I don’t want to have to work with anyone else! They may not see the obvious superiority of my strategy, and they may have the audacity to suggest a different plan!

            Playing a board game as an individual is one thing, but there are some activities in life that simply require partnership and cooperation. Communication is definitely in that category. We’ve all been in one-sided conversations before, and we can all attest that they are a far cry from real communication. Communication truly is a two-way street; it involves sharing and receiving. If only one person is truly interested or active in a conversation, communication simply will not take place.

            In the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned that God communicates to us through the Bible. Today, we’re going to start talking about how we communicate to God, and that is through prayer. Along with obedience, prayer forms a major part of how we respond to what God communicates to us in the Bible.

            Since prayer does form a major part of our response to God, it’s just like God to give us plenty of teaching about it in the Bible. Today, we’re going to start taking a look at the model prayer that Jesus gave us which we often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” We’ll take a close look at the Lord’s lead-in to that prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, and in that lead-in we will find the roots of fruitful praying.

The Roots of Fruitful Praying

            If I had to sum it up, I would say that the roots of fruitful praying are to pray in a manner that fits with what our God is like. We must pray in a way that is befitting the kind of character that God has, as He has revealed it to us through His promises and actions. In that light, we find two attitudes in Matthew 6:7-8 that could give us a disease in the very roots of our prayer lives if we don’t watch out for them.

Diseased Attitudes About Prayer

1. God can be manipulated into answering my prayers

            Notice the warning that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:7 – “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Let me focus here not so much on what these non-Jewish people did, but on what they thought – they thought their prayers would be heard because of their own actions. Their confidence for answered prayer was not in their god, but in whether or not they did things in the proper way.

            In this case, Jesus highlighted the practice of offering long, drawn-out prayers, but the actions could be anything. He could’ve mentioned offering the proper sacrifices or demonstrating sorrow in a visible way like cutting yourself, because those were also common practices among the Gentiles.

            This attitude toward prayer is a hallmark of false religion. There are many examples of this notion that I can make my prayers effective by my own actions. Consider the Muslim habit of prayer, for example. They believe that their prayers will be effective if they offer them at precisely the right times of day, facing the proper direction, and with the proper order of standing, kneeling, and bowing. Or we could consider Hindu practices, such as crawling for miles to a temple in order to show your sorrow over your sins.

            Whenever I start to think that I can force God’s hand by something that I do, I am catching a disease at the roots of my prayer life. Yet it’s very easy to slip into this mindset. I might think to myself, “If I just get down on my knees and stay there until my knees are raw and my back aches, then God will see how serious I am about this prayer business, and he will answer my prayer.” Or I might think, “If I can just work myself into tears about this, then God will see how desperately I desire this request, and he will give it to me.”

            I have a friend who preached at a church one time, and during the course of the service he prayed a prayer from the pulpit. After the service, the elders of that church were furious with him because he didn’t end his prayer in the way that they thought was necessary. They told him that he had to end his prayer with, “In Jesus name I pray.” They thought his prayer wouldn’t be effective with any other ending.

            My friends, let me be clear about this – when God grants us what we request, it is not because of anything we have done, but simply because of what God is like. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He is willing to answer prayer because he is good, not because we have made him cry “Uncle!” by using the right postures or the right phrases.

Remembering what God is really like is the key to avoiding the second diseased attitude.

2. God needs to be convinced to care about me

            The Lord continued his teaching on prayer by saying this in verse eight: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In their religions, the Gentiles had no reason to think that their gods really cared about them. Perhaps their gods kept tabs on them, but there wasn’t really a notion of personal concern or affection.

            For that reason, their prayers were more like uninvited interruptions, and if you’re going to interrupt your god and make a request, it had better be good, right? You had better speak eloquently, or you better offer lots of compliments. Or better yet, you might try to butter him up by offering some gifts or making some vows.

            But what a drastically different situation we face when we pray to the true and living God – the God of the Bible! As Jesus reminds us here, he is our Father, and one way he demonstrates that is by keeping up with our needs – anticipating them and knowing them before we even realize that we have them!

            When we go to God in prayer, we are like a weary traveler who stops at a home to ask for shelter only to find that the table has already been set for our arrival! The bedsheets have already been turned down in expectation of our visit! Prayer is not a means to convince God to care about us because he already does!

            When we feel like God needs to be convinced to care about us, the result is that we will not pray about very many things. We will consider most things to be too insignificant to merit God’s attention, so we won’t pray about them. Consequently, we will miss out on a multitude of opportunities for God to strengthen our faith by showing his faithfulness through his compassion and care.

            We know God cares about the “big” problems in our lives. We know he cares when we are diagnosed with a devastating disease, or when we receive that eviction notice – but does he still care when we’ve lost our car keys for the third time in a week and we have to get to an appointment? Should we think that we have an invitation to pray even about that, or should we feel like it would be an interruption?

            I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with battling this prayer disease, but I can tell you that when I have chosen to pray to God about the “little” things, he has so often delighted my heart by showing me that he cares. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed that we could find a child’s blanky at bedtime! And you know what? We still have their blankies!

            I remember a time a few summers ago when I was briefly working for Matthew over at United Suppliers. I was driving a delivery truck, and I usually had to leave pretty early in the morning to make my deliveries. On one particular morning I arrived at the warehouse and for some reason, my key simply would not unlock the door! It was like someone had changed the lock; I just couldn’t get in.

            Because it was so early, I didn’t want to call Matthew and bother him, so I said a prayer something like this: “Lord, I really don’t want to have to bother Matthew right now, but our customers need this delivery. Would you please help me get into the building?” I don’t know if an angel came and straightened out my key or something, but I put it back in the lock, and that knob turned as if it had just been freshly oiled!

            When we fail to pray about the little things, we miss out on so many opportunities for God to show his concern and to build our faith. God cares about you, and he even cares about the little details of life. You don’t have to convince him to care, so go to him with all of your concerns.

Now that we have dismissed these diseased attitudes about prayer, we might be left asking ourselves…

What is Prayer All About?

            If prayer is not a way to make God work for me, what is it all about? If it’s not a method to convince God to care about me (since he already does!), then what is its purpose? If it’s not even a tool to inform God about my needs (since he already knows them), then what is it really for? By remembering that prayer is part of a cycle of communication, I think we can readily see one purpose.

1. It is a way to express my love to God

            Even if you know that someone loves you deeply, it’s still good to hear it again, isn’t it? And even if I’ve expressed it to my loved ones a thousand times, it’s still good for me to say it again – “I love you!” Expressing your love has an interesting way of expanding your love. When you express your love to God, it reinforces that love and builds it.

            When you pause to pray, that choice communicates that you value your relationship with God. Even if you don’t speak the words “I love you,” your actions demonstrate it. Expressing love is a healthy and vital part of any relationship, and prayer is one of the ways that you can express your love to God.

And when we think about what God wants to build in our lives, I think we can see another purpose for prayer.

2. It is a way to express and cultivate humility in my heart

            Whenever you pray to God to thank him for something or ask him for something, that act is a tacit admission that you cannot live this life on your own. Praying to God reveals that you understand your need for him; praying to him even about the little things in life demonstrates that you know you need his power and intervention every moment of the day.

            Perhaps more than anything, a lack of prayer should be seen as a symptom not of busyness or forgetfulness, but of pride. When I do not pray frequently, my actions express that I believe I can make it through most of life just fine on my own. In those moments, I am treating God more like a safety net than a shepherd, as if he is simply something for me to fall on when I’m in trouble rather than a kind master whom I have to trust for every need in my life.

            I’m starting to think that the main reason that God answers prayer is this – because prayer expresses humility, and God has promised to give grace to the humble. James and the Apostle Peter both remind us that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Because God is good, he delights to respond with kindness and grace toward those who humbly approach him.

            Why would we ever hesitate to pray to a God like that? Why should we ever doubt whether he cares about the things that concern us? He has given us this wonderful way to express our love and our humility to him. May we not be negligent to use it!

Hearing From God Through the Bible--Life with God Series

            When I graduated from high school, I walked across the stage with people who were my best friends in the whole world. Some of them I had known since I was in kindergarten, and I had so many great memories with them. On that day, I couldn’t have even imagined that just one year later, I would have very little contact with most of those people.

            That’s how it goes for many people with their high school friends, and it’s all because communication dies off. When you were in school together, it didn’t take any effort at all to communicate. You saw them every day, you were in the same classes and activities together, and so you were always communicating.

            But after graduation, you may have gone to different schools; you now lived in different places. All of a sudden, communication took effort. You didn’t just run into each other anymore, so now you had to initiate communication if it was going to happen. And for many people, that communication with their high school friends slowly fades away, and the depth of those relationships goes with it.

            This is a principle that’s as certain as death and taxes – if you don’t communicate with someone on a regular basis, the depth of your relationship with them will disappear. Communication is the heartbeat of a relationship, and when that heartbeat grows weak, the relationship will atrophy and eventually die.

            A lack of communication with God is likely the main reason why many Christians do not enjoy the close bond with God that they would like to have. Now last week, we learned that the main way in which God has made himself known to us was by sending Jesus into the world. And today, the way that we get to know Jesus is by reading about his teachings and actions in the Bible. So God’s channel of communication to us today is the Bible. If we want to communicate with God, we must hear what he has to say in the Bible.

            Today, I’d like to show you what kinds of ideas and information God communicates to us in the Bible. We have a great summary of these ideas in 2 Timothy 3:16, and alongside that verse I’m going to bring in numerous statements from Psalm 119—a psalm that is all about the Word of God.

What kinds of ideas does God communicate to us in the Bible?

            2 Timothy 3:16 is one of the most important verses you will ever read about the Bible. It is the Bible’s testimony about itself, we might say, and the last part of the verse gives us a helpful word picture for understanding what it is that God communicates to us in the Bible. Let’s read this verse, and then we’ll focus on each of the four parts of this word picture [READ 2 Tim. 3:16].

            The picture here is that in the Bible, God reveals to us the proper path to follow in life. He also alerts us if we get off that path and shows us how to get back on the path. Finally, he instructs us in how to stay on the path from that point forward. Let’s look at each of these ideas in turn.

Teaching

            In its teaching function, the Bible shows us how to think and how to act in the proper ways. It tells us the true story of how we got here, why we are here, and what we are supposed to do in life. In this way, the Bible shows us the path that we should follow in order to live out God’s will.

            Psalm 119 describes this teaching function in verses 9-11: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

            Notice the emphasis at the end of verse 11 – if I want to stay on the right path and avoid sin, my heart has to be a warehouse for the word! I have to store up God’s message in my heart so that I can then distribute it to my mind, my emotions, and my will. Otherwise, how will my mind know the proper ways to think? How will my will respond in ways that are proper for me to act? Yes, I can always look up God’s teachings in the Bible when I have a question about them, but that’s a far cry from having those teachings tucked away in my heart to where they become part of me.

            College basketball coaches often talk about how young players think too much when they’re out on the court. The plays aren’t yet like second nature for them; they’re not yet familiar with their teammates’ tendencies, and so young players tend to make a lot of mistakes because all of that information hasn’t yet been internalized. They have to slow down and think about a lot of things, but the game doesn’t slow down for them, and so it forces them into a lot of mistakes.

            Isn’t that just how life comes at us? We have to make 100 decisions off-the-cuff every day! Life has no pause button, so when your toddler throws a fit and your temper flares up, you don’t have the opportunity to say, “Stop! Let me go to Bible Gateway and look up 10 verses on anger.”

            The Bible gives us God’s teachings, and we need to internalize those teachings in order to know them and obey them. Even if you never memorize very many verses word for word, you have to know the essence of God’s message – the gist of it – so that you’ll know how he wants you to think and how he wants you to act.

But we don’t always stay on the right path, so God also uses the Bible to express another kind of idea.

Reproof

            A reproof is a statement of correction; it’s a declaration that you have done wrong. That’s not always the kind of thing we want to hear, but if we have in fact done wrong, we need to know it! God is very kind to provide reproofs and rebukes for us as we read the Bible. He has accomplished this by naming sinful attitudes and actions in the Bible, so as we study the Word, we discover instances where some of our own behaviors are labeled as being sinful.

            Though it’s not always pleasant to be told that you’ve done wrong, it is necessary and it is very beneficial for us if we will learn from it. The author of Psalm 119 recognized this. In verse 67, he wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” He repeated that thought just a few verses later in verse 71: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

            So reproofs are to the soul what physical pain is to the body. Pain tells us that something is wrong; something about our physical condition needs to be addressed before we have greater and greater problems. Reproofs give us that same kind of alert about our spiritual condition, and so they are very good for our souls if we will respond to them properly.

Now God, in his grace, doesn’t just tell us that we’ve done wrong – he also tells us how to correct the situation. And so, we find that the Bible expresses a third kind of idea.

Correction

            In the Bible, God also explains to us how to get back on the right path after we have wandered off of it. And so, we read about actions like repentance, which is a change of mind about what we have done. When we repent, we move from thinking that our actions were okay to deciding that they were not acceptable – and in fact they were sinful.

            We also read about an action like confession, in which we express our change of mind to the Lord. When we confess our sins to him, we lay aside any justifications or excuses that we may have had for our actions, and we acknowledge that he is right to call our actions sinful. God encourages us to confess our sins by giving us a promise like that in 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

            How wonderful it is that God has given us that promise! When we come to understand that we have sinned, we may be devastated by that realization. We can then echo the words of Psalm 119:28 – “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” It is the promise of God that gives us reassurance and comfort after we have gone astray, as the psalmist acknowledges in Psalm 119:58 – “I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.”

            So once we have repented of our sins and confessed them to God, we are ready to get back on the right track. If we have harmed anyone else by our actions, the Bible also teaches us how to ask for forgiveness and pursue reconciliation with others. So we can leave that bad detour behind us and get going again down the proper path.

As we get heading in the right direction again, our desire is to avoid taking any more disastrous detours, and so the fourth kind of idea that God communicates to us is training in righteousness.

Training in Righteousness

            As God trains us, he shows us how to stay on the right path even when we might be tempted to go astray. Training in any endeavor is meant to teach us how to successfully accomplish the task that is set out for us. Training on the job is meant to show you how to do what you’ve been hired to do, and so you learn the computer systems that you might have to use or the techniques for your job, and you also get some instruction in how to troubleshoot problems that you may encounter. Training in a sport is meant to teach you the skills that you need to be successful and to train your body and mind for the demands of the game.

            God’s training gives us the “how to” of the Christian life. How do we follow the commands that he has given us? In the Bible, we learn about the resources that we have – like the power of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts that he has given to us, and the bonds of support and encouragement that we have with other Christians.

            God’s training also answers the “why” question about our motivation for obeying him. In the Bible, we learn that even little creatures like ourselves can bring tremendous praise to God as we obey him. We can also gain rewards from him for faithfully obeying his commands. By learning about these things, we come to see that we have tremendous motivation for walking down the path of obedience.

            As we learn about the how and the why of obedience from the Bible, we can learn the attitudes of the psalmist in Psalm 119. We can learn how to obey despite opposition from others – “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes (v. 23).” We can learn to honor and adore the Lord as we see his promises carried out – “Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared (v. 38).” We can learn to love and delight in the word of God – “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces (v. 72).”

            God communicates with us through the Bible, so make it a point to regularly read what God has to say in the word. Read it or listen to an audio Bible; memorize it or ask someone else to read it to you. Whatever it takes, get familiar with God’s teachings in the Bible, then continue to learn them until they become part of you – until they control the way that you think before you even think about it; until they direct your will before you even realize it. If you will devote yourself to hearing from God through the Bible, you will find the deep friendship with God that you desire.

How Do We Get to Know God?--Life with God Series

            A few days ago, my family and I were at home, being silly, and my daughter piped up and said, “Take a video and post it on Facebook!” For some reason, I was totally taken aback by her statement. It dawned on me that when I was her age, it wasn’t even possible to make that statement! Internet access at home was still about a dozen years away, and Facebook was even farther still.

            But today, we live in a world where communication is dominated by technology. Many people wonder how well our face-to-face communication skills are going to survive. That’s an important question, because while it can be very convenient to communicate through technology, there’s no good substitute for face-to-face communication.

            We understand this well in our relationships. FaceTime and Skype are great for what they’re worth, but you just can’t beat being in the same room with someone you love. Consistent face-to-face communication really helps a relationship grow deeper.

            This fact presents a bit of a challenge for us, however, when we start talking about having a relationship with God, because we can’t communicate with God face-to-face today. Even though we would love to, we can’t sit down across the table from the Lord and enjoy a cup of coffee together. We cannot choose to visit Heaven and see Him there. So how do we get to know God?

How do we get to know God?

            Since we don’t have the same kind of interaction with God that we do with human beings, God has revealed himself or made himself known in a variety of ways so that we can get to know him. The universe that he created gives us a glimpse of his power and wisdom. The way that he gives all people certain good and necessary things like sunshine and rain testifies to his kindness and love. At times, he has communicated with us through messengers like angels and prophets. But above all, God made himself known to us by sending his own Son, the Lord Jesus, to be a flesh-and-blood example or demonstration of what he is like. So more than anything else…

We get to know God by getting to know Jesus.

            Let me show you how a few passages lay out this truth for us. In John 1 for example, we read in verse one about a divine person whom John simply calls “the Word.” He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Down in verse 14 then, we read something fascinating about this divine person: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

            Now since we’re familiar with the rest of the story, we know now that the Word is none other than Jesus Christ. But notice what John goes on to say about him in verse 18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father side, he has made him known.” This verse gets us into some of the deep waters of the Trinity, but notice that the emphasis here is that although we cannot see God ourselves, Jesus has made him known to us. Jesus was a visible display of the nature of God here on Earth.

            The author of Hebrews makes a similar point in the opening verses of that letter [READ vv. 1-2]. Then in verse three, the author gives us two word pictures to show us how Jesus was the visible display of the nature of God here on earth. First, he wrote that Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God.” For a bit of a modern-day explanation of this word picture, think about the way that we see the sun with our eyes here on Earth. Space travel and technology have allowed us to get pictures of the surface of the sun from outer space, but of course, those images are not what we see with our own eyes here on the ground. We see the rays of light that have come out from the surface of the sun. The dazzling rays are what the sun looks like on earth. In the same way, Jesus is what God looked like on earth. He was the visible display of something that we could not see with our own eyes.

            Second, the author goes on to write that Jesus is “the exact imprint of his nature.” In our area, many of us have had the experience of branding cattle. I had that experience once with my father-in-law, and let me tell you – I never knew that cows could make noises like that until I got to help with branding them!

            When you brand a cow, the imprint that ends up on its hide is the same pattern or design that’s on the end of your branding iron. It’s the very same pattern, now imprinted on that cow’s flesh. In the same way, Jesus is the imprint of divinity into a human life. So Jesus displayed what God is like in a way that we could see it – by observing a human life.

            Now at this point, we run into another difficulty in knowing God, because as we all know Jesus is no longer on this Earth in the flesh. He has gone to heaven for the time being, until he returns. So if we get to know God by getting to know Jesus, how do we get to know Jesus even though he is not right now here with us in the flesh?

How do we get to know Jesus?

            Fortunately for us, we have the Bible, which is a record of his actions and teachings and descriptions about him. And it’s not just the Gospels that serve this purpose, even though they focus on the life of Christ. The entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – teaches us about Jesus. In the Old Testament, it is by way of introduction; in the New Testament, it is by way of description and explanation. Let’s unpack that statement just a bit.

The Old Testament is a grand introduction to Jesus, which is still valuable today!

            When you’re getting to know someone, especially in the early stages, is very helpful to have some introductory information about them. When you meet someone, if you already know that they’re a member of the Jones family or the Smith family, it gives you a head start for getting to know them.

            The Old Testament gives us all kinds of wonderful information about what Jesus would be like when he came to the Earth and what purpose he would serve by coming. Jesus himself illustrated this when he encountered two of his disciples very soon after his resurrection. He could tell they were having a very difficult time understanding what had happened, and in Luke 24:25-26, he said to them “Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then Luke adds in verse 27, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

            Now, Moses wrote the first books of the Old Testament, and the books of the prophets come toward the end. So from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of it, there are lessons to be learned about Jesus. These lessons are still highly relevant for us today!

The New Testament is a record of the actions and teachings of Jesus, as well as the teachings He communicated through His followers.

            You know that the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record the actions and teachings of Jesus. But the other books of the New Testament are no less teachings of Jesus even though they have come to us through his human followers.

            On the night before Jesus was crucified, he explained to his disciples that he was going to continue to give them his teachings even though he would no longer be with them in the flesh. How would this happen? Well, in John 14:25-26, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” So the Holy Spirit would be a “stand-in” for Jesus, we might say, and He would continue to give them the teachings of Jesus.

            We see this same thought again in John 16:12—“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

            So as Peter and James and John and Paul wrote their letters, they were communicating the teachings of Jesus that had been given to them through the Holy Spirit. So from beginning to end, the whole of the New Testament is a record of the teachings of Jesus. As we read it, we get to know his thoughts, and we learn what he values and what he despises.

So we get to know God by getting to know Jesus, and we get to know Jesus by reading about his actions and his own teachings that are recorded for us in the Bible. But there is one final factor in all of this that we need to take to heart…

As we read, we must be willing to embrace the message to properly understand it!

            When you talk with other people and you’re sharing opinions back and forth, there are times when you can tell that another person really isn’t interested in hearing what you have to say. They might let you speak your peace, but you can tell they already have their mind made up and they’re not interested in giving you a fair hearing.

            It is entirely possible for us to read the Bible with that same attitude – and many people do! They’re perfectly happy to read the Bible, but they really don’t give it a fair hearing. They already have their minds made up about what they think is true and false or right and wrong. So when they read something in the Bible that disagrees with their own thoughts, they simply say, “Well now, I don’t think God would really say that, so this part must simply be the human author’s own opinion.”

            Biblical teaching is frequently dismissed in this way when we use our own thoughts to edit the Bible rather than allow the Bible to judge and correct our thoughts. To get to know God through the Bible we must be willing to embrace the Bible’s teaching whatever it may be! Yes, we must study carefully to gain an accurate understanding of the Bible’s message, but our attitude should be the same as little Samuel in the Old Testament when God was trying to talk to him. Whenever we open this holy book, our declaration must be, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!”

            In John 7, some of the Jewish people were amazed at the wisdom of Jesus’ teachings because they knew he had not been to one of their “Ivy League” institutions, so to speak. Jesus said to them in verse 16, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”

            Unless we are willing to do God’s will, we will never understand it, and thus we will never understand God. So as we seek to get to know God by getting to know Jesus through the Bible, we must be willing to embrace what it says – not force it to say what we want it to say. Only then will we gain an accurate understanding of what God is like, and thus have a better relationship with him.

           

A Passion to Know Him--Life with God Series

            There are certain relationships in life that only thrive when you have a passion to get to know someone. I think a relationship with a good mentor is like that. When you find someone you really admire, someone that you want to be like, you have a strong drive to learn everything that you can from them. You want to be around them and learn how they think and ask them a million questions to learn why they do the things they do.

            Romantic relationships certainly belong in this category as well. In those early stages of a romance, could you even imagine having an attraction to someone and NOT having a passionate desire to get to know them? That wouldn’t even be an attraction anymore! And many couples can attest that romance grows cold when the passion to get to know each other fades away.

            Your relationship with God is certainly a relationship that is worthy of your greatest passion. The simple fact that we are relating to GOD calls for that kind of passion from us! You cannot let a closer bond with God slip on to that list of “things I’ll get around to someday.”

            We all have a list like that in our minds, don’t we? Maybe you’ve had a desire for years to remodel your kitchen, but when it was time to either make plans or set it aside, you said, “we’ll get around to that someday!” Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to play an instrument, but every time you’ve seen a used one for sale you’ve said, “Well, it’s just not the right time. I’ll get around to that someday!”

            Only God knows how many Christians have remained infants in their faith because they’ve said, “I’ll get around to knowing God better someday!” Maybe when things quiet down a little bit around work; maybe when the kids are out of diapers; maybe when the kids graduate; maybe when I retire.

            We all know that song and dance, don’t we? We sincerely have the best of intentions about prioritizing our relationship with God, but we wait for a time when we think it might be easier to do than right now, and that time just never comes! The key is that we must choose to prioritize our relationship with God above everything else. We must assess the things we value in life and choose to put our relationship with God at the very top.

            God Himself summed up this need very well through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 9:23-24. In these verses, the Lord considered a couple of things that we might be tempted to value highly, and then he reminded us of what we should prize more than anything else: “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

In the rest of our time together today, I want to look with you at a little piece of autobiography from the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. In this chapter, he describes for us how he came to value knowing God more than anything else.

Philippians 3:7-11

1. A change in Paul’s “personal accounting”

            In vv. 5-6, Paul described the accomplishments that he used to value before he became a believer in Christ. He had valued these things because he thought that they all added up to put him on very friendly terms with God. Let me quickly run through this resume that Paul provides:

·         Circumcised on the eighth day—This, of course, was required in the Law of Moses. It shows that Paul came from good stock—he had faithful parents.

·         Of the people of Israel—They were the ones who had heard from God through the prophets, and they had his promises.

·         Of the tribe of Benjamin—The Benjamites had faithfully served King David from the very beginning of his reign, so this carried some prestige.

·         A Hebrew of Hebrews—Even though Paul was not born in the land of Israel, his parents brought him up in the language and culture of his ancestors—unlike some other Jews who were leaving those things behind.

·         As to the law, a Pharisee—He was a member of the strictest sect of Judaism.

·         As to zeal, a persecutor of the church—He had tried to stamp out the Christian faith initially because he thought it was an insult to God.

·         As to righteousness under the law, blameless—No one could find fault with Paul by the standards of the law, because he kept it so faithfully.

            But after Paul met Jesus in that fateful encounter on the road to Damascus, he began to see all of these things in a different light [READ v. 7].

            Paul used some terminology here from the world of accounting, and he paints a word picture like this—he used to think of those things as being like deposits or credits in his spiritual bank account. He thought he had great spiritual health, then, and was firmly in God’s good graces because his spiritual bank account seemed so large. But after he met Christ, he realized that those things had been more like debits from his spiritual bank account. Just as financial debt can hold us back from important goals, Paul’s spiritual resume had been holding him back, blinding him to the truth that he needed to be saved from his sins by the Lord Jesus Christ.

            So Paul came to realize that the spiritual resume that had once given him such pride had actually been a barrier that kept him from coming to Christ. That experience taught him that he must not allow himself to value anything as much as he valued getting to know Jesus well.

2. Nothing compares to knowing Christ

            Notice in verse eight how Paul looks beyond his old spiritual resume to take stock of everything in his life [READ v.8a]. Now keep in mind here that Paul is making a comparison. We know from his writings that he certainly valued his friendships and he valued his possessions – even though they may have been meager – but compared to the value of knowing Jesus deeply – well, by that comparison, nothing else had much value at all! In fact, if any of those things would hold Paul back from knowing Jesus better, he understood that he would be suffering a great loss.

            This attitude sustained Paul through all of the real-life losses that he did suffer. He did lose friends for the sake of Jesus; he probably lost family members as well. He speaks of these losses as we continue in verse eight [READ v. 8b].

            This is a very interesting statement from Paul, and I think what he means is that whatever he lost for the sake of Christ, he doesn’t want it back if it means he would have to be unfaithful to Christ. When Paul converted, he lost significant fame and prestige among the Jewish people and perhaps even significant wealth, but in the same way that you no longer want the trash that you set out on your curb every week, Paul no longer wanted those things because he now had something so much better. He wanted nothing at all to keep him from knowing Jesus better and better.

            Paul then goes on to tell us his purposes for adopting this attitude [READ v. 9, beginning in v. 8 at “in order that”]. Paul never again wants to think that his spiritual life is like a resume of his own accomplishments. Even as he grew in Christ, he wanted to remember that all of that growth came simply by trusting in God. On his part, Paul could take no credit even for his spiritual maturity or the powerful ways that God used him. It all came about simply as he continued to obey God in faith.

            And then in verse 10, we read of how thoroughly Paul wanted to know Jesus – to understand the Lord’s thoughts and attitudes and motivations and strength [READ v. 10 through “resurrection”].

            When God raised Jesus from the dead, he did what was seemingly impossible, and in our lives today, that same power can still accomplish things that are seemingly impossible. God can empower us to forgive people who have hurt us no matter how deeply those wounds have cut. He can reconcile us with people about whom our world might say, “There’s no hope for their relationship! It’s too far gone.” But God can do it!

            God’s power can help us control our inner desires and urges that will dominate and destroy us if we give full expression to them. Our world thinks that we will be psychologically harmed if we don’t let our anger erupt somehow or if we say “no” to any lust that we might have, but that’s because our world does not understand the power of God!

            Paul wanted to know that resurrection power by experiencing it in his own life as it transformed him and put to death the sinful desires within him, truly giving him a new quality-of-life. And then Paul goes on to say something perhaps even more profound [READ v. 10 from “and may share”].

            We love all that talk about resurrection power, but talk of suffering is a harder pill to swallow! But if we want to understand Jesus thoroughly, we have to remember that as the Scripture says, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And he willingly embraced all of that, so if we are going to know him well, we have to learn why he was willing to endure those sufferings in obedience to God the Father, and we have to learn the attitudes that allowed him to remain faithful to the Father through it all.

            Paul describes some of those attitudes back in chapter 2 when he told the Philippians that it was great humility that led Jesus down the path toward the cross. He didn’t view his powers and position as God as things to be used simply for his own advantage, but he considered our needs and set out to meet them even though it required great humility and sacrifice from him.

            If we want to say that we know Jesus well, we have to come to understand why he so highly valued attitudes like humility and a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others. And if we want to understand why he thought that way and why he lived that way, we will never understand it through a casual effort. We must embrace this passion that leads us to say everything else is loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

            If I achieve great success in this world but never get to know Jesus, I will have suffered a great loss. If I earn unimaginable wealth but never get to know Jesus, I will have suffered a great loss. Even if I simply piece together a nice life for myself with my wife and kids and a steady job and a gold watch when I retire but I never get to know Jesus, I will have suffered a great loss.

            My friends, you will never get to know Jesus well until you decide that that is the most valuable thing you could possibly pursue in your life. Understanding him requires you to become like him, and the sacrifices to do that are great enough that you will never do it unless you decide that it’s worth it. So decide today that everything else is like a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord. Put that kind of passion in your relationship with him because that relationship will never grow without it!

Someone I'd Like You to Meet--Life With God Series

            I never thought I’d be able to say this, but it felt strange not to see the Royals in the playoffs this year. But even though I didn’t have the chance to cheer for them, I’ve still been able to cheer for my favorite player—Ben Zobrist of the Chicago Cubs!

            Many of you heard about my distant connections to Ben while he was playing for the Royals last year. Several members of his family attended the same Bible college that I went to, so I have some connections to his family. I’m on a first-name basis with his sisters, and I have some acquaintance with his dad, who is a fellow pastor.

            I’d be lying, though, if I said I had a relationship with Ben, because the truth is, I’ve never met him. Until that might happen, I won’t have a relationship with him no matter how many of his family members I know and no matter how much I know about him!

            For all of us, this principle holds true in every area of life—if you want to have a relationship with a person, you have to meet him first. This principle also holds true when it comes to God—if you want to have a relationship with Him, you have to meet Him first!

            Now, what’s it like to meet God for the first time? Well, that really depends on who you ask. As it turns out, you would get a very different answer to that question if you listened to the dominant idea of our culture or whether you listened to the Bible! Let’s talk about the different answers that we would receive.

What is it like to meet God for the first time?

Our culture—It’s like meeting a distant relative. There’s no reason to think we can’t hit it off just fine! I can build a closer relationship with my relative through my own efforts.

            Think about it like this—imagine meeting your third cousin for the first time. Your third cousin is someone who has the same great-great grandparents as you. I’ve never met my third cousins, but if I did, I don’t have any reason to think that we couldn’t have a great friendship from the get-go. We don’t have any bad blood between us because we’ve never even met, so it seems like we could hit off pretty well. All that seems to be required is for me to look them up and contact them. And as I long as I put in a little effort to stay in touch with them from now on, maybe it could be the start of a beautiful friendship!

            This idea of connecting with a distant relative is probably the dominant way that most people in our culture think about meeting God. They might say, “No, I’m not very close to God right now, but if I just started praying more often and going to church a bit more, me and God could get along just fine! We could probably get pretty close if I just stayed in touch a bit more!”

The Bible, though, paints a very different picture of what it’s like to meet God for the first time.

The Bible—It’s like making peace with someone whom I’ve deeply offended. Our relationship is broken, and it can only be repaired by God’s grace and mercy.

            When I’ve deeply offended someone, there are problems there that must be resolved before I can have a close relationship with that person again. And when I’ve committed the offense, I’m the one who has to ask for forgiveness. And as far as repairing that relationship, that ball really isn’t in my court. That ball is in the other person’s court – he has to decide whether he is going to extend forgiveness to me and whether he is willing to rebuild that relationship.

            According to the Bible, this is a more accurate picture of what it’s like to meet God for the first time – or to be a little more precise, we might say that this is what it’s like to meet him on friendly terms; to establish a friendship with him. We do learn in the Bible that we have always had a relationship with God, but unfortunately, it has been a broken relationship – even a hostile relationship! The Bible uses some very unflattering terms to describe what we are like in relationship to God because of our sinfulness:

·         An adulterous spouse (Hosea)

·         A rebellious child (Luke 15:11-32)

·         Lovers of darkness and haters of the light of God (John 3:19-20)

·         Following the spirit of Satan (Ephesians 2:2)

·         Ungrateful creatures (Romans 1:21)

·         Exchanged the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25)

·         Enemies of God (Romans 5:10)

            The reality of our broken and hostile relationship to God is why the Bible uses such dramatic word pictures to tell us what its like for us to come to be on friendly terms with God. A few of those word pictures are:

·         Moving from a state of spiritual death to a state of spiritual life (Ephesians 2:5)

·         Being forgiven of an oppressive, unpayable load of debt (Matthew 18:23-27)

·         Being freed from slavery (Romans 8:15)

·         Becoming a citizen after being a foreigner (Ephesians 2:19)

·         Moving from a domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:13)

·         Being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)

To make sure we all understand what is necessary for us to get on friendly terms with God, I’d like to focus on two more word pictures that tell us what is necessary for this to happen—one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.

I Need a New Heart! (Ezekiel 36:22-27)

            The prophet Ezekiel ministered during the time when the Lord had allowed the people of Israel to be conquered and taken out of their land because of their sins against Him. We call this “The Babylonian Captivity” because they were taken as captives to Babylon, which was in the area that is now modern-day Iraq.

            One result of all of this is that the surrounding nations had started to really look down on the Jews and their God. They saw them as weak and powerless and thought that their god must be the same because he apparently wasn’t able to save them (though in reality, God had allowed all of this to happen as a discipline upon the people of Israel).

            In Ezekiel 36, God told the Israelites what he was going to do to restore His honor among the nations and provide forgiveness and spiritual life for the people [READ 36:22-26].

            Think about that word picture literally for a moment. If my physical heart is stone cold, then I’m dead! My heart cannot sustain life in that condition. It is the same with my spiritual heart, or my spirit. God is telling me as I read this passage that my heart cannot sustain spiritual life in its natural condition. I need a new heart, which only he can give.

            And the new heart that he gives is even a fitting place for his Holy Spirit to live! Notice verse 27 [READ v. 27].

            So here in this passage we read a very dramatic word picture that describes what it’s like to meet God. Coming to be on friendly terms with him is like receiving a heart transplant! He removes my heart which is stone-cold dead and gives me a new heart in which his own Spirit actually lives!

I Need to Be Born All Over Again! (John 3:1-7)

            One of the dominant word pictures in the New Testament for meeting God is just as dramatic as the idea of receiving a new heart. Let’s read in John 3 about an exchange between Jesus and a religious leader named Nicodemus [READ 3:1-7].

            So according to Jesus, nothing that we received in our physical birth is sufficient to give us a home in the kingdom of God. God’s Holy Spirit must give us spiritual life, which we can think of as being born all over again. We are receiving a new kind of life from a new source, the Holy Spirit.

            Don’t miss the fact that Nicodemus was a devoutly religious man! He was a Pharisee, and the Pharisees were famous for the great care that they took to obey God’s commands as closely as possible. If there ever was a man who could have been on friendly terms with God through his own efforts, it was Nicodemus! Yet Jesus told even this devoutly religious man that he needed to receive new life from the Holy Spirit if he wanted to enter the kingdom of God.

            The question before us now is, “How do we do it?” How do we come to be on friendly terms with God? How do we get this new heart; how do we receive this new life from the Holy Spirit? Well, the answer is described for us in this very same chapter – John 3. Look at verses 16-18 [READ 3:16-18]

            To receive this new life from the Holy Spirit, here is what you must do. First, you must acknowledge to God that what he says about your spiritual need is correct – that if you do not trust in Jesus, you are condemned already because you have sinned. You need to confess that you have been in rebellion against God; that you have done things you should not have done and that you should do no longer.

            And once you have admitted that God’s assessment of you is correct – that you are guilty and deserving of punishment – then you only need to accept the forgiveness that he offers to you through Jesus Christ. Place all your hope of being forgiven in what Jesus accomplished for you by dying for your sins on the cross. He, as the son of God, came into the world, died to pay for the penalty of your sins, and came to life again to achieve new life for anyone who understands their need for it and trusts him to give it to them.

            If you desire to have a closer relationship with God, you must meet him in this way if you never have before. Get on friendly terms with him today by acknowledging your guilt to him and receiving the free gift of forgiveness that he offers through Jesus Christ!