Sermon Cardiff 16 11 13
Good morning everyone. Today i would like to finish off the study of Galatians by going back to the bit that we skipped over in Chapter 4. We read through it but there is a lot there so I decided not to dwell on it but to give it a sermon of it's own. By way of introduction, the bible has a lot of depth wrapped up in what seems like simple storys, Jesus in particular used this form of teaching to great effect. The prodigal son for example is a simple story of a family with two sons, but when you think of what He was teaching us, it is profound. I'm not talking about the prodigal son today, but it illustrates the point that the story is one which people can relate to. The imagery of two sons, one of whom goes off the rails and one who stayed at home, the father running to meet him when he returned. These are all images we can relate to. The new testament also uses images from the old testament to refer to Jesus, such as him being the unblemished lamb, and the atoning sacrifice. This would remind people of the past and show how Jesus was relevant to them.
The passage I want to look at today is Gal 4v21-31. We read through it to give the context of Chapter 5, but I didn't really draw out any points.
Verses 21 - 23 set the scene by summarising the story of Abraham's two sons. One from his wife Sarah and one from the slave woman Hagar.
v21 "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?"
I think that there are many people who profess to keep the law, but don't really understand the consequences of what they say they are doing, and certainly wouldn't keep the letter of many of the laws that were set out for the Nation of Israel. Some people think of the law as the 10 commandments and conveniently ignore the rest. However, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that even if you think about breaking them, you are guilty, so what Paul is saying here is that people were claiming that they wanted to be under the law, but they didn't really know what they were saying.
Lets carry on in Gal4v22-23
"For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born as a result of human effort, but the son by the free woman was born as a result of a divine promise."
This paints a picture of the contrast between the two. One is a slave to human effort, the other is free in the promise. You could say that Abraham and Sarah took matters into his own hands to produce a child rather than waiting on the promise. The story is found in Gen 16v1-4. By human effort as it says in Galatians 4, they grew impatient and made it happen, even though if you read the following section of scripture, it shows that they wished they hadn't. The result was more important than having faith in God and waiting for the promise.
As an aside. I've read a few articles lately that warned that churches efforts and missions must not get in the way of their relationship with Christ. Mission is not Mission unless it's Christ's mission that we are joining in with, if not it would a project or a programme which may have some superficial benefits and make the church feel good for a while, however Christ's work transforms people and places and therefore goes much deeper if Christ is in it leading and guiding by His Spirit. They covered this a little at the conference and I've given a sermon on it earlier this year if you look back at the archive. If you think of each church as a dot on a join the dots puzzle, the picture that emerges is Jesus. We therefore pray that God uses us to do Christ's work here in South Wales, and that he will move powerfully through us. In and of ourselves we are small and insignificant, however God can multiply the magnitude of what we do if we have faith in Him and let him work through us. It's sometimes tempting to jump the gun and chase after every idea we have like Abraham did, however when God wants something to happen, you know it, and there is nothing stopping it by one means or another, like Sarah's conception and Isaac's birth.
Notice that Paul says in v22, "It is written" he's drawing reference to the Old Testament so the Jews could relate to it, and the gentiles would know where he's getting the story from. Think back a few sermons' the issue here was that the Jewish Christians were trying to claim that the gentiles were to be circumcised and come under the law, and the book is a warning not to walk into slavery but stay in the freedom of Christ that he'd taught them. He grounds the section in scripture to show that it was more than just a story, it was taking a historical account in the bible and then showing the significance of it in light of his new understanding.
Gal4v24 says "I am taking these things figuratively, for the women represent two covenants..."
So he takes the historical facts which he had already compared and contrasted, and relates them to the old and new covenants. So he's painted the familiar picture they knew and understood, and then makes it into a 3D image.
v24 continues "... One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are slaves: This is Hagar. v25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children."
This is a strong and damning verdict for the Jews. No doubt they would have considered Hagar and Ishmael as the second class citizens with them being the descendants of Isaac, however Paul here is switching it around and saying that Israel is the one enslaved. Hagar was likened to Mount Sinai which was the embodiment of the Old Covenant law, and Jerusalem, the home of the temple and the code of legalism that enslaved them. I'm sure this would have been a shock for the Jewish readers and listeners as they would have thought surely Hagar would have represented the gentiles. Imagine the shock if the capital of England was declared as being in Glasgow!! That would get people's attention.
But he goes on in Verse 26 "But the Jerusalem that is from above is free, and she is our mother. v27 For it is written:
"Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman that of her who has a husband."" He's quoting here from Isa 54v1
So Israel under the Old Covenant was likened to the normal conventional physical regime, typified by Hagar, the second wife where Abraham and Sarah had taken matters into their own hands to produce an heir. What Paul is doing here is switching the roles and identities of God's people by saying that Sarah, who was desolate and barren would be the mother of more than the conventional way. Sarah on the other hand produced a child out of promise, this was the covenant God had with Abraham and this is what passed down to his Seed Jesus, and it is through him that billions have received the promise. That means you and me.
Lets read on Gal4v28.
"Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise."
We like Isaac are children of promise. Through grace we're in Christ, the seed of Abraham, therefore we have new life made possible by the new covenant.
Abraham was promised that his Seed would be as the stars in the sky and that the world will be blessed through the Seed. Lets have a look at Gen 22v17-18 which takes place just after Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac and he does what he's told. It says,
"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, [or seed] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
There is also a promise that the Seed would inherit the land. Again Paul flips the imagery and gives new meaning to conventional wisdom. In Verses 25-26 he linked Hagar, Mount Sinai which is synonymous with the Old Covenant, slavery and Jerusalem which the physical descendants of Sarah would have held dear, but he says that the Jerusalem above is free she is our mother. What Paul is doing here is saying that the people of promise through the Seed, Jesus, are children of the new Jerusalem, not the old. That is what we look forward to - the promise will be fulfilled finally when we, in Christ, in the Seed inhabit the new Jerusalem. Jesus gave us a model prayer, his prayer which says Thy Kingdom Come. This is for us.
v29 of Galatians 4 shows that the descendants of the old covenant had persecuted the Christians - "At that time, the son born of human effort persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now." - when you think about it, Paul himself was the worse culprit, so this is very personal to him and it's kind of a confession. The early church suffered terrible persecution at the hands of the Jews.
v30 is again very strong language "But what does scripture say? [again quoting Gen 21v10] "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." - If you try to achieve salvation by works, under the old covenant, you will not share in the inheritance, the old was all about the old physical Jerusalem but the new brings Salvation and the New Jerusalem so by quoting Sarah, Paul is saying to get rid of the slave woman and her descendants. Does that justify anti Semitism and the atrocities we have seen in history? No, of course not, Matt 10 says that the Gospel was first preached to Israel, they had the preview but they didn't listen. The commission in Acts 1 says go to Jerusalem, Judea then Samaria and to the ends of the world. God loved Israel, still does, but to paraphrase Romans 11, it says that they have been cut off for unbelief. They are blind, but one day they will see the light and be grafted back into the body of Christ which is where they belong. But it's clear that if people don't believe in Christ and don't accept the gift of Grace, they will not inherit the promise. One of the themes through Galatians is a warning not to go back into slavery, and those who preach a false Gospel would be accursed. This is serious stuff.
Gal 4v31 " Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman." 5v1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
This is a clear warning that we are under a new covenant, a new freedom and that we are not under the slavery of the old.
Hebrews has a lot to say about the old and new covenants, and the way that Jesus superseded the old system of animal sacrifices with one sacrifice for all. The bible has the concept of the one for the many which I think fits in with the incarnation so it may pop up next time I speak (in December).
Conclusion.
We see that the promise made to Abraham was to be fulfilled through his seed - Jesus Christ. What Paul has been showing us in this passage is that the old covenant was physical, and based on working on a legal contract, you behave and you'll be blessed in the land. Israel's history shows that it was in and out of favour with God, and He was therefore faithful to his covenant. However, as it shows in Chapter 3, through the seed of Abraham, God introduced a new covenant, one which He, by grace has freed humanity from the slavery of sin and the slavery of the law. This covenant replaced the old, so whoever believes shall be saved.
Gal3v26-29 says "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. v27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. v28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Galatians is a book of warning on one hand, that we should not go back to slavery of the old, and also a book of hope and joy. We have freedom in Christ, we are under a new and more excellent covenant, so that as promised, we can be a blessing to the nations of the world.
So that wraps up all I have to say about Galatians.
Scriptures from Todays New International Version.
Tuesday 19 November 2013
Saturday 2 November 2013
The Trinity
At an Anglican men's
breakfast i was invited to recently, after the message someone asked the
speaker what he, being a non conformist, thought about the common book of
prayer and the Anglican liturgy. I found
the answer and following debate interesting.
The speaker was an Apostolic pastor and said that he envied the
structure of Anglicanism while he believed there should be balance and the
flexibility to express yourself and be led by the Holy Spirit. One of the people there said he'd come from a
Pentecostal church but found that for him, it lacked the backbone or structure
that he personally needed to ground him in the faith. He said he liked the Anglican church because
it had a structure and they rehearsed weekly the statement of faith in the
Nicean creed to remind them of what they believed.
Does anyone know it? We
should do as it's included as part of our GCI statement of beliefs as it is one
of the foundations of the Christian Faith, but it's something that I've never
really taken any notice of.
I'll read it to you.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of
heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten
Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made. For us
and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy
Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius
Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in
accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the
right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and
the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of
life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son he is
worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.
We
believe in one holy, all-embracing and apostolic Church.
We
acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look
forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
(Translation based on The Book of
Common Prayer, 1979 copied from the GCI Statement of Beliefs on www.gci.org)
This all sounds very familiar - or at
least is should do. Today I want to rehearse
what should be very familiar passages to reinforce our foundational beliefs
about God. The first thing to note is
that we are trying to get our human heads around non human concepts, so our
vocabulary and understanding is limited.
It's like two slugs trying to describe the nature of a human being.
In the old testament we see God the
creator, being all mighty and powerful delivering His chosen people Israel from
their enemies, and we see His Spirit resting on people and inspiring them to do
things, whether it be leading countries or teaching or prophesying.
The new testament however teaches us that
it was actually Jesus who created everything, but the father and son
relationship was not apparent in the old testament, so they saw it as God being
One God and his Spirit or presence resting on people at various times.
Then, God became human, and since
that time, people have been trying to figure out how God works when you now
have a father and son relationship being described in the scriptures. In the centuries after Jesus died, there were
those who said Jesus was not God and those who said Jesus was not human – and
in this context, the church of the day formed the doctrine of the triune God,
commonly known as the Trinity. This was
defined and refined in the Nicean Creed in AD381 after much debate and study of
what the scripture said and what had been passed down from the apostles
themselves to their followers. What
emerged was the Trinity or probably more accurately described as Tri -
Unity. The unity of the three. This is not a biblical phrase but it is used
to describe what is revealed in the bible.
The aim today is to show that there
is one God but He is revealed as three elements, and these three elements are
evident through the revelation of Jesus as recorded in the bible. But to understand you have to look at it
through the lens of the new testament.
If break down any substance into its component parts, it's made up of
different elements. Taking water as an
example, it's made up of two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen, so each
individual molecule is made up of three distinct atoms. For water to be water it must have all three,
they are inseparable and intertwined so as to form one substance. All the atoms are equally water but if you
take away one element it becomes something else.
In the context of God, the commonly
used phrase is that God is three persons.
In our terminology – when we think of a person, we think of a unique and
separate individual so with this in mind we may incorrectly think that Father,
Son and Spirit are three individual Gods, but that is not the case. Person was actually derived from the Latin persona,
which at the time referred to actors when they would put on a mask and change
character and outward appearance but they were the same person. God likewise was seen in three different ways
and has three different roles, all distinct yet all one God.
The point is that the doctrine of the
trinity does not suggest that there are three Gods, but one God who is three distinct
persons. How? It’s a mystery because we
are looking at something beyond our human experience and understanding, but let’s
see what’s revealed in the bible.
Let’s look at a few scriptures back
to back to confirm the oneness of God.
Jesus himself said that the Lord is
one in Mark 12 v28 – 31 that is drawing reference to Deut 6v4-5.
v28 One of the teachers of the law
came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer,
he asked him, “of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
v29 “The important one,” answered
Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear o Israel
v30 Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength’
v31 the second is this ‘Love your
neighbour as yourself’. There is no
commandment greater than these.”
Isa 45v5-7 says:
v5 “I am the Lord, and there is no other, apart from
me there is no God. I will strengthen
you though you have not acknowledged me,
v6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of
its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other.
v7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring
prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord do all these things.
If you look back at v1 this is the
word of God revealed to Cyres. It talks
about one God, the creator.
In John 10v30 Jesus says “I and the
Father are one”.
1 Cor 8v4-6
v4 So then, about eating food
sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and
there is no God but one.
v5 For even if there are so-called gods,
whether in heaven or on earth (indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
v6 yet for us there is but one God,
the Father, from whom all things
came and for whom we live; and there
is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through
whom all things came and through
whom we live.
Notice the subtle differences. This talks about one God the Creator being
Father from whom and Son through whom all things came, one creator
but the product of the two, it's like having a painting commissioned, someone
will say I want a portrait of my tortoise and the artist will paint it, but as
we’ll read in Genesis in a minute, the Spirit was there too.
Clearly we are talking about One God. But we see distinct persons evident in Matt 3v16-17
v16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he
went up out of the water. At that moment
heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting
on him.
v17 and a voice from heaven said
“This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Clearly there are three distinct persons
evident here. Father in heaven, the Spirit
and the Son. The father is distinct from the spirit who is distinct from the
son. God in heaven, speaking, God on
earth, Jesus and God going between one and other, The Spirit.
This is reinforced in Matt 28v18-20
v18 Then Jesus came to them and said
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
v19 Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit
v20 and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And
surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
These are Jesus words,
differentiating between the three persons of God. Baptizing in the name of Father, Son &
Holy Spirit.
So we see revealed by Jesus Himself
that God is three distinct persons. That’s straight from the horses mouth so to
speak.
Ok, let's look at some more examples.
John 1v1-3&14
v1 In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
v2 He was with God in the beginning.
v3 Through Him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.
v14 The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and only who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth.
This is clear, that in the beginning the
Word was with God and the word was God – one God, two persons. God created everything through his word and
then the word became flesh and dwelt amongst them.
So we see the Father and Son’s role
in creation, but if you look at Genesis 1v1-2 the Spirit of God hovered over
the waters – guess what, a third element is revealed as well. One God – three persons – tri – unity.
In Col
v15 He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation.
v16 For by him all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
v17 He is before all things and in
him all things hold together.
Lets continue in 19-20
v19 For God was pleased to have all
his fullness dwell in him and through him
WHY? to reconcile to
himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Jesus was the image of the unseen
God. He revealed God. The fullness of God dwelt in him and through
him all things are reconciled to God. How?
We are saved by his love, for He died on the Cross to reconcile God and
Humanity.
Picking up the point about the fullness
of God, let's look at the incarnation story in Matt 1.
Matt 1v18 says “This is how the birth
of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to
Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through
the Holy Spirit.” Again we see God in
unity, he sent his spirit to plant his seed in Mary, so we have the three
distinct persons, father, son and spirit evident.
The Word, Jesus was therefore both fully God and fully
human. The second element of God became
human and therefore the creator became part of his creation, how, by the Holy
Spirit so you have the unity of the one evident in three different ways.
Although distinct persons, we see in
John 14 that these persons are one – then we see reference to the Spirit being
both the Spirit of God and Jesus – so the Spirit is revealed as divine a third
element of one God. Please turn there
with me. Again these are Jesus words.
READ John 14v6-21
Let’s break it down.
v6 Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth and THE
Life – He’s the ONLY way people can get to the father. The Old Testament perception was that of a
distant God, the only way to reach God is through Jesus. Don't forget the
curtain that separated God and man was torn from the top down when Jesus died.
v7 If you know Jesus, you know
God. How do we know Jesus? He is the
word – so by reading the word – the bible we can get to know him. By getting to know Jesus, we see God revealed
to us. Of course Jesus is alive and
living in us by His Spirit as we'll discover later, so we have a relationship
with him and through prayer, through both talking and listening, we get to know
him.
v8 Philip wanted Jesus to reveal his
father.
v9 Jesus says that whoever has seen
Him, has seen the father. One God.
v10 Jesus is in the father and the
father in him. His words are not his own
but the father speaking through him.
v11 Jesus repeats it saying “believe
me” I am in the father and father in me.
So we see the oneness or unity of God the father and son.
v12-14 says that whoever believes in
him will do even greater works than he did, because he was to return to his
father and whatever we ask in his name he’ll do. This is why we pray for things in Jesus
name. That's why we can step out in
faith when we do the will of God.
So how will Jesus do these things?
v15-16 Those who love Jesus will do
what he commands. Jesus prays to his father and he sends the comforter. The Holy
Spirit, so he will live with us forever.
So here we have it, father son and spirit, one God working in
unity. The glorified human, Jesus,
intercedes or prays on behalf of humanity and as a result God comforts us by
his Spirit. Isn’t that cool. Again we see that God is one God who is three
persons working in Unity.
v17 says that the world would not
recognise the Spirit but he lived with them and would live in them. From Pentecost we know that God’s Spirit
lives in us, it’s not just resting on us.
We are temples of God – not a distant God, a personal God.
v18 To further emphasise the one-ness
of Father and Son, and God revealed in Jesus, Jesus says that He will not leave
us without comfort and that He would come to them.
v19 We’ve been nearly 2000 yrs since Jesus died,
but he’s still alive living in and through his church, how, through His Spirit. In comparison to eternity this has been a
very short time without seeing Jesus in his human form.
So we see the Spirit coming from both
father and Son. Are there two Spirits?
no, because father and son are one.
v20 Jesus is in the Father, and we’re
in him and he is in us. REPEAT. This shows that we’re united with him
also. We are Included in the Trinity as
we are in Christ.
Another word used to describe this is
perecoresis – the mutual interpenetration of the three distinct persons of
God.
There is sometimes confusion over the
Holy Spirit. Is it, or he, a powerful
force or something else?
We’ve read that the Holy Spirit is
both sent by God and by Jesus, so is he, a lesser part of the trinity? The church used to say that the Spirit was an
“it”, a power or force sent from God but denied He was actually God Himself,
not a distinct person. The Holy Spirit,
simply is God, living in and around us, the third person is the essence or
Spirit of the other two combined. They
are inseparable, when you get one, you get them all. In this way, God is alive and living right here,
right now, and so is Jesus by the presence of the Spirit. So does that mean that the Spirit is somehow
lesser with no independent thoughts or actions?
No. Just as Jesus said that he
spoke for the father, he also had a mind of his own, so too does the
Spirit.
It says in Romans 8 that the Spirit
intercedes for us.
v26 In the same way, the Spirit helps
us in our weakness. We do not know what
we ought to pray form but the Spirit himself intercedes for us in groans that
words cannot express.
v27 And he who searches our hearts knows
the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God’s will.
Even when we don’t know what to pray
ourselves, the Spirit prays for us, but he does so in accordance with God’s
will, so although distinct, he operates in accordance with God’s will because
HE is GOD also. The Spirit is in and
around us, so He knows what’s wrong and takes it to the Father.
The Spirit also has emotions –
because we are talking about God.
Eph 4v30 says “And do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”
Matt 12 v30 – 32 shows that a) you
can blaspheme the Holy Spirit and b) doing so is unforgivable. Jesus says
v30 He who is not with me is against
me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
v31 and so, I tell you, every sin and
blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not
be forgiven.
v32 Anyone who speaks a word against
the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit
will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Jesus said he’d forgive those who
spoke against him, remember on the cross he said forgive them for they don’t
know what they were doing. But those who
blaspheme the Spirit – God – would not be forgiven. This further emphasises the point that the
Church does not preach universalism – this indicates there are those who will
blaspheme God and reject the gift of Grace that’s been given to them. This is
also where we have to be careful with our relationship with others, we can't
judge others, especially other Christians even if we don't agree with them 100%
because we don't know what God by His Spirit is doing in their lives where they
are at. We don't have perfect
understanding either, so we're not in a position to condemn others who may have
a different ministry or different understanding. Whilst we may not agree with them, we need to
be careful we're not judging others or blaspheming what God may be doing in
their lives by His Spirit. I was talking
to someone the other day who had been a drug addict and dealer, and now he's a
street pastor who goes out talking to people suffering with the issues he once
had. He changed so we can't judge others
as we don't know what God's doing in their lives.
You cannot therefore dismiss the
Spirit as just being like a power or a force that God uses – God’s Spirit IS
GOD interacting in the world today. We
have the living God living in and around us continually. God is not a distant God, he’s an intimate
loving God. He created us and knows us
literally inside out. We don’t even know
a fraction of how the spiritual reality works, but from what the bible reveals,
and we read this just now in John 14v20 we do know that God lives in us, and we
in him. We are included therefore in the
reality of the trinity even though we can’t describe the mechanics of it. Just as we are in God, and God in us, we have
independent thoughts and actions, so to do the three distinct persons of
God.
Conclusion
To conclude, there is confusion over
terminology as we try to explain God, however as I’ve said before, us trying to
explain God is like a pair of slugs in my greenhouse trying to explain to each
other what I am. There are numerous
diagrams and models of God if you google it.
The eastern orthodox churches have a different view from the western
churches, and many splits and divisions have been caused by people having
differing views. The fact is, God is, who
God is, and no matter how hard we try, we are trying to explain God from the
perspective of our limited human understanding, so all the triune models are
helpful to visualise and humanise God but they are imperfect.
So we see that the bible is quite
simple in its description of God. We
have, revealed, three distinct but inseparable persons that make up one
God. There is God the Father, God the
son, the Word who created all things, who became human flesh and blood, and God
the Holy Spirit, who rested upon people in the old testament and who, since
Pentecost dwells within us. When we
think of God, all three persons are intertwined and inseparable. The bible reveals what we know about God, but
that is not really very much because the bible writers were also conveying what
was revealed in Jesus but with the constraints of their own experience. What I’ve gone through today is the tip of
the iceberg, the more you look at it, the more there is to discover. Who God is and how he works is a mystery, but
what he’s done, what he’s doing and what he’s going to do are clear. God loves the world so much that he became
human, was born, lived, died, rose again and ascended, so that we may be
reconciled with God and enter into the relationship that exists between the
different persons of God, and thereby we have eternal life in Him.
Scriptures are quoted from Today's New International Version (Zondervan)
Prelude to the Trinity.
Today I want to look at a couple of different perspectives of
God as an introduction to the next blog looking at what the bible tells us
about the nature of God – today I want to look at the old testament perspective
through the eyes of Asaph, and look at who he was and why his perspective is
interesting. I will then look at the
post biblical perspective and see some of the misconceptions that arose after
Jesus died and how the doctrine of the trinity developed and next time will
look at the statement of beliefs and what we know about God from looking at
Jesus.
So for the first section lets look at Asaph. He is a little known character however he wrote
12 chapters and there is mention of him in many more so even though he didn’t
have a book of his own, he is an important biblical character. In Ps 73, you get a good insight into him. Basically this chap almost fell away… he said
that its not fair when the wicked prospered … then God revealed the truth that
the wicked were on a slippery slope and that he was right to stay
faithful.
Who was Asaph? He was originally one of King David’s court –
he was a chief musician so he would have been close to the King right at the
heart of the administration. He saw the
reign of David and Solomon and afterwards, the slide of Israel Egypt
Where do we find reference to him?
1 Chron 15v16-17 refers to King David commanding the Levites
to appoint musicians and Asaph son of Berechiah is included amongst them. v23 is interesting, his father was a door
keeper for the ark – he was a guard right at the heart of the nation so Asaph
would have been brought up in the thick of things.
1 Chron 16v4-5 gives an insight into his job. v7-12 sounds
like David would write songs and poems and let Asaph and the other musicians
set it to music. This is the starting
point of Asaphs career and lets read what it says.
1 Chron 16v7-12 7. "That
day David first appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to the Lord
in this manner: 8. Give praise to the Lord, call on his name; make known among
the nations hat he has done. 9. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all
his wonderful acts. 10. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who
seek the Lord rejoice. 11. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face
always. 12. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgements
he pronounced."
David was humble and praised God – gave God the glory and
sought his face which meant he tried to do his will. v34-37 says "34.Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good; his love endures forever. 35.Cry out, "Save us , God our
Saviour; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to
your holy name, and glory in your praise." 36. Praise be to the Lord, the
God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said
"Amen" and "Praise the Lord." 37. David left Asaph and his
associates before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister there
regularly, according to each day's requirements."
Despite his flaws, David was a man after God’s own heart and
he was blessed for his attitude. Asaph
would have been at his right hand recording these psalms and setting them to
music.
He was around through Solomon’s reign, then 2 Chronicles 10
shows that when his son Rehoboam took over, the 10 northern tribes revolted and
Chapter 12 shows that Egypt
Ps 73 I referred to earlier was the first of a series of
Psalms written by Asaph and they form a potted history of the nation of Israel Israel
I want to follow on with Ps 74 as this raises several issues
and interesting thoughts about the nature of God and our relationship with him
that I’ll expand on again.
1-2 says "O, God,
why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep
of your pasture? 2. Remember the people you purchased long ago, the tribe of
your inheritance, whom you redeemed - Mt Zion where you dwelt."
He reminded God that Israel Israel
3-8 says "Turn your steps toward these everlasting
ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary. 4. Your
foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as
signs. 5. The behaved like men wielding axes to cut through the thicket of
trees. 6. They smashed all the carved panelling with their axes and hatchets.
7. They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of
your Name. 8. They said in their hearts "We will crush them
completely!" They burned every place where God was worshipped in the
land."
What a mess – we have a description here of the devastation
of Jerusalem
9-10 says " We are given no signs from God; no prophets
are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. 10. How long will the enemy mock you God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?"
Asaph is pleading for God to reveal himself and deliver
them. It shows that they were lost and
confused, no one was there showing them the way or when it would end. A far cry from “The Lord is My Shepherd… Notice though in v10 he asks how long will
God let the enemy mock him… this turns things around from it being punishment
on the nation to it being about God
being disrespected – I think he’s missed the point here – the troubles were as
a result of their
weakness rather than God’s weakness.
V11-17 says "Why do you hold back your hand, your right
hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! 12. But God is
my King from long ago: he brings salvation on the earth. 13. It was you who
split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the
waters. 14. It ws you who crushed the heads of the Leviathan and gait it as
food to the creatures of the desert. 15. It was you who opened up springs and
streams; you dried up the ever flowing rivers. 16. The day is yours, and yours
also the night; you established the sun and the moon. 17. It was you who set
all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
This gives us a glimpse of Asaph’s perception of history to
that point. He remembered the mighty
interventions between God and mankind, creation, waters splitting of course
being the escape from Egypt
V18 says "Remember how the enemy has mocked you, Lord, how
foolish people have reviled your name."
Finally he acknowledges that it was because of the nation’s
foolishness that the enemies were scoffing at God – but again notice that it’s
shifting the focus – help us because you are being mocked rather than forgive
us because we’ve been wicked and now we are in trouble.
Rest of the chapter is a plea for God to intervene.
v19 "Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild
beasts; do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever. 20. Have
regard for your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of
the land. 21. Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace: may the poor and needy
praise your name. 22. Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long. 23. Do not ignore the clamor of your
adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually."
The over whelming message that comes through is that Asaph
could remember the good times and wanted God to intervene, smash the enemies
and take them back to the glory days of old.
On one hand he was praising God for all the good things and on the other
he was begging him to intervene and save them.
The next few chapters go though Israel Israel
The Psalms show that there was deep respect for the law and
trying to please God, however this was from a distance. By looking at it from Asaph’s perspective we
get a fly on the wall view of things – he was not the King or one of his
advisors but he was a musician, recorder of the Psalms, a bit like a scribe, or
a biographer these days – who would have access to the subject person and
observe what’s going on. He was also
present through the highs and lows so he had a longer term perspective when he
wrote late on than the people who were writing as they go along. To summarise we see the Old testament view of
God as being detached – you had the great interventions such as creation, the
flood and the exodus but for the most part, God was perceived to be shut away in the tabernacle or temple and there was a
barrier between him and his people.
That’s before Jesus.
For the rest of the message I’m going to briefly take a look
at the perceptions of God and some misconceptions historically after the bible
was written. This is the background to
the doctrine of the trinity. Next time
we’ll have a look at what is revealed about God when we look at Jesus.
There is a misconception that God in the old testament was a
strong deliverer, a mighty God on one hand who smashed Israel Roman Empire , gave
a message of love. Then there is the
Holy Spirit, is it a power or force you can summon to help you, or is it, or he
something or someone else? The bible
clearly shows that God has three elements, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Confusion arises over the terminology used to
describe God and there is no way for
us to accurately describe him.
Imagine if slugs could communicate with each other – imagine two
slugs trying to get their heads around what a human is and how one works! They may be able to understand that a human
is one entity, but it has arms and legs that move around independently of each
other, how does that work? They would
see the human as a person who’s created a wonderful environment and provided
them with lots of delicious plants to eat.
Of course the slugs are only interested in getting into our green
houses, but you get my point.
Us understanding God is like a slug understanding humans – we
have a very sketchy understanding, so we have to look at what’s revealed to us
and interpret it within the our own limited understanding. Next time I’m going to look at what is
revealed but now lets set the scene by looking at what others have got wrong
and how our understanding has developed.
After Jesus death there were those who said that he could not
have been God, because God is good, people are evil therefore either he wasn’t
human or he wasn’t God – the two could not coincide. These people were known as the Gnostics. They believed in Jesus but fitted him into
their Greek philosophy and their way of thinking so tried to steer Christianity
away from the truth that Jesus was God in the flesh, both divine and human. They believed that if He was God, he could
not have been human, and he was a kind of hologram that appeared but was not
real. A bit like Rimmer in the comedy
show Red Dwarf who was there but was not real.
Others believed that God could not express emotion as this
would suggest that he could change and react, a contrast to the distant God of
the Old testament that they were familiar with, and therefore Jesus could not
have been God because He clearly did show emotion. They thought that he was a human who was
somehow blessed by God but was not God. These were people who followed a chap called
Arias.
So in the 2nd century, Christianity fought the
Gnostics who had been around for some time before Christ but had embraced
Christianity, and 3rd century they fought the Arians who were from
their own people.
In the end there were different Christian groups believing
different things and there was a chance that the whole religion was going to
implode because they were following different thoughts and philosphies rather
than looking at what had been revealed though Jesus. Along came the Roman Emperor Constantine who
converted to Christianity and saw it as a way of uniting the Empire, so he saw
the in-fighting and got scared that it would help tear the already faltering
Empire apart. He therefore called a
conference of all the leaders. The
teachings of Arias were read and they realised that this was not what they’d
learned from the sayings and writings that had been passed down from the
disciples so they had to figure out and agree what the bible actually said
about God. Of course they didn’t have a
neat little book as we have today, they would have had the old testament
scrolls and a collection of letters and books written by the apostles.
The result was a creed, that was drafted and took 56 years of
refinement to be agreed as the basis of the Christian faith. It was written to counter the false teachings
of the Gnostics and Arians in the hope of uniting Christianity and defining
what was revealed about God.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of
heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten
Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down
from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the
Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius
Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in
accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the
right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and
the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of
life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son he is
worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy, all-embracing and apostolic
Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the
life of the world to come. Amen.
(Translation based on The Book of Common Prayer,
1979)
The term trinity is used as there are three elements to
God. It’s not found in the bible as it
is the word used to describe what’s revealed in the bible rather than a word
used in the bible itself. God is a
mystery so we can’t explain or express in words what he is – we just can’t do
it.
We can however look at what is revealed in the bible, God’s
word and what’s revealed by Jesus.
So what can we say, what does the bible say about God? - God
is the Creator. God sent his Son Jesus, the word became flesh as shown in John
1 and Jesus sent his Spirit into the world, who dwells in us, and so when we
talk about our experience of God we can’t separate it from talking about God
the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit. We can’t separate it. That’s how
it’s come to us. The Holy Spirit is God
living in us, and as a result we live in him and are sat in heavenly places –
this means that we are in his presence right here right now. How? It’s a mystery!!
We had an insight into the detached relationship between God
and Israel
To conclude, Asaph’s Psalms are pretty much gloom and doom as
they were written in bad times, however he lived through the highs and lows of
the nation and always praised God for what he’d done previously and what he was
capable of doing. The old testament
reveals the relationship between God, individuals and the nation of Israel Israel Israel
Scriptures are quoted from Today's New International Version (Zondervan)
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