relationship
with God
Today we celebrate the holiday that is called Easter. Thus, this morning I am going to preach about
Jesus Christ who is the reason for season.
But this message will also be part 2 of our current series radical
relationships. Last week I drove home
the point that we are relational beings created for relationships and life revolves
around relationships.
Today I want to hone in on THE relationship of
relationships: our relationship with God through Jesus Christ which is a pretty
radical relationship.
Let me begin by explaining who it is that we are
talking about here when I say Jesus Christ.
For years I thought that Christ was Jesus’ last name. Eventually I realized that Christ is actually
a title, which comes from a Greek word that means “anointed one” and
corresponds to the Hebrew word messiah.
Much like we use the term “Dr” as a title, we use the term Christ as a
title. That is why at times the
Scriptures say Christ Jesus instead of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ. He is the messiah. He is the anointed one of God.
The coming of the anointed one wasn’t a surprise. When Jesus showed up on the scene, people
didn’t say, “A messiah. I didn’t know
God was going to do that! What a neat
surprise.”
For hundreds of years the nation of Israel had been the
covenant community of God, his special, chosen people who belonged to Him. God would send messengers known as prophets
to his people Israel to speak to them on His behalf. In some of their messages to the people, they
foretold a Messiah who God would send to bring salvation to his people and
restore them. So the idea of a coming
messiah was not foreign to God’s people; they expected such a one. The writings of these prophets were
incorporated into their holy scriptures and are included in what we call the
Bible today (Isaiah – Malachi). In those
writings, we can see that the time they expected the messiah is the very time
when he arrived on the scene which was about 2000 years ago.
It all began with a virgin named Mary who was with
child. She was told by an angel that the
child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that she was to give him the name Jesus because he would save
his people from their sins.
This Jesus grew in wisdom and in favor with God and man. When he was about 30 years old he began his
public ministry in which he traveled throughout the land performing miraculous
wonders. He turned water to wine. He walked on water. He fed thousands with only a few fish and
loaves. He drove out demons, healed the
sick, raised the dead. He taught the
people in parables and spoke with wisdom and authority, gathering a large
following.
His most astonishing declarations were those that
displayed his divinity. In John 8:58
and John
10:30. The religious
leaders were growing jealous and angry and plotted to kill him. So the night of
the Passover meal they had arranged for him to be handed over to the
authorities that he might be put to death.
Picking up the story in Matt 27:27-31 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the
Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it
on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and
mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on
the head again and again. 31 After
they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him.
Then they led him away to crucify him.
Picture with me the crown of thorns pressed into his
head puncturing his skin, so that blood flowed out. Picture his wounded back torn open from being
beaten. Picture this wounded Jesus
carrying a heavy cross through the dusty streets of Judea, carrying that
instrument upon which he would die.
Picture nails being pounded into his hands and his feet and the blood
flowing forth.
The cross is erected.
Now picture this Jesus hanging from the cross, finding it difficult to
breathe. And finally, He breathes his
last breath and gives up his spirit. The
Jews, who are very religious and very concerned with keeping the letter of the
Law don’t want to have dead bodies hanging on crosses on the Sabbath, so they
want to speed up the process and ensure that the 3 criminals are indeed
dead. So they have their legs broken. This way they cannot stand up to
breathe. They will suffocate and die
sooner. They come to Jesus and find that
he already seems to be dead. So they
thrust a spear into his side. Out flows
blood and water. They take the men down
and prepare them for the grave.
I know you’re into the story now. But let me interrupt it and point out something
to you. At this point in the story Jesus
is dead. This Jesus who was in an
intimate relationship with the disciples for three years was now dead. Their relationship is now over.
It’s very difficult to have a relationship with a dead
person. I have had loved ones die. You probably have too. At this point, our relationships with them
are over. That is why marriage vows are
intact until death do us part. At the point of death the relationship is
over. You can’t exactly have a
relationship with a dead person.
If Jesus died, if Jesus is still dead, then it is silly
for me to be talking this morning about a relationship with Jesus – a
relationship with a dead man. What makes
this morning’s message not silly is that though Jesus died, Jesus isn’t
dead. On the third day, Jesus rose from
the dead. He conquered the grave. Jesus is alive. That’s what we are celebrating this morning:
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Last week I stated that life revolves around
relationships. Today I want to take that
a step further and state that the life that is truly life revolves around the
relationship of relationships.
More explicitly stated, the abundant
life, the eternal life revolves around and begins in our relationship with God
and that is made possible only through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. 1 Tim 2:5 there is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus
Christ who gave his life as a ransom for all men (and women). It is through Jesus that we can know and have
relationship with God – he is the only mediator; we go through Him.
Jesus himself stated in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father (God) except
through me. Jesus is the only way
to God.
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given to men by which we must be saved. It is through Jesus
that we can know and have relationship and fellowship with God. Jesus’ name is the only name.
Jesus said in John
10:10 The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to
the full. Your version may say and to have it more abundantly. It is through Jesus that we have abundant
life. This speaks to quality of
life. Not just having things work out in
your favor, not just having more things, but having God, the greatest treasure
of all. Jesus is the source of abundant
life.
Jesus prays in John
17:1-3 …“Father, the hour has come; glorify
Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh,
that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is
eternal life, that they may know You, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You
have sent.
I believe this eternal
life Jesus mentions also speaks of quality of life, but I’m also convinced that
it speaks of quantity of life. He
defines eternal life as knowing God and His son Jesus and I believe this knowing God begins on earth here
and now, and it continues beyond the grave and into eternity.
This abundant life, this
life to the full, this eternal life is also the life that is truly life.
1 Timothy 6:19 In this way they will lay up treasure for
themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold
of the life that is truly life.
The life that is truly life revolves around and begins with the
relationship of relationships namely, our relationship with God made possible through
Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.
The Bible teaches that you
can be alive, ie walking around with a pulse, but dead at the same time. In other words, you can be physically alive
but spiritually dead. Only in Christ are
we brought from a state of spiritual death to spiritual life. We, who put our faith in Christ, participate
in his death, burial and resurrection and we go from spiritual death to
spiritual life. And I’m convinced that
apart from spiritual life, physical life is meaningless.
Additionally, I’m not
simply condoning a view that says I want to go to heaven some day, so I’ll say
a prayer and accept Jesus into my heart.
I’m condoning a view that values Jesus and says that the only reason
heaven is worth attending, is God’s presence.
So again, the life that is truly
life revolves around the relationship of relationships, namely our relationship
with God made possible through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.
Again, the reason we can
have relationship with Jesus is because Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead, he conquered the
grave. Jesus is alive!
It is easy to grasp human relationships because we can
see them, touch them, hear and smell them.
When it comes to having a relationship with Jesus that may not be so
easy to grasp since we cannot with physical eyes see him, or with physical
hands touch him and with physical ears hear him.
We are talking about a relationship with a Jesus who is
unseen. That takes faith. In fact, one of the 12 apostles, Thomas,
doubted until he saw and touched Jesus with physical eyes and hands. Jesus told him in John 20:29 “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Though you have not seen, believe with me, and
be blessed.
A relationship with God is attained through faith in
the risen Jesus Christ and that begins with having eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus said of his unbelieving contemporaries,
“In them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you
will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
They had physical eyes with which they saw him. They had physical ears which heard the words
that came out of his mouth. But they
lacked the ability to perceive Him for who he was and to fully understand what
he was saying. To use Paul’s words in Ephesians 1
the eyes of their
hearts needed to be enlightened.
May God open the eyes of our hearts that we may see him
for who he is, not just a wise man, not just a prophet, but as the Christ, as
the Son of God and more than that, as God in the flesh who took our sins upon
himself to reconcile us to Him for the purpose of a radical relationship.
That relationship is initiated by grace through
faith. How is it nurtured?
I’d like to share with you three basics for nurturing a
radical relationship with God through Jesus Christ. These should come as no surprise to you as
these are basic; these are indeed fundamentals:
1.
Prayer
2.
Fellowship with the Body of Christ
3.
Reading the Bible
PRAYER
is the first and most essential ingredient in nurturing a radical relationship
with God. Just as communication is
essential for any human relationship it is essential in our relationship with
God.
We recently spent several weeks in a sermon series on
prayer in which we defined prayer as conversation with God. Conversation is THE primary way to nurture any
relationship.
Paul encourages believers in 1 Thess 5:17 pray continually (pray without ceasing).
We can pray anytime, anywhere. It doesn’t have to be audible; we can do it
in the quiet of our heart. At work, at
school, in traffic.
Prayer is the most essential ingredient in nurturing a
radical relationship with God.
FELLOWSHIP
WITH THOSE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
A radical relationship with God is nurtured through
fellowship with other believers.
To put a direction to it, our horizontal relationships
are directly linked to our vertical relationship. God is not literally “up” since He is
omnipresent, but I think the metaphor helps convey the reality since we tend to
think in those kinds of terms.
The Bible uses the metaphor of the human body to
describe the church, whereas Christ is the head. In a sense, we as members of His body are the
hands and feet of Christ. In a sense,
fellowship with those in the Body of Christ is fellowship with Christ.
Loving those in the Body of Christ is loving Christ.
Jesus
tells his disciples In Matt 25 34 “Then the King (Jesus) will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world.35 For
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I
was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and
invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison
and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did
for me.’ (the precept there is that serving
those in the body of Christ is in fact serving Christ)
41 “Then he will say to those on his
left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me
nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not
invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when
did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in
prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth,
whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Again, our horizontal relationships are directly linked
to our vertical relationship. When we
feed, clothe, and visit those in the Body of Christ, we feed, clothe and visit
Christ. When we love and bless and do
good to fellow believers, we love and bless and do good to Christ.
The health of our relationship with God is in large
part dictated by the health of our relationship with people.
I don’t know that we can truly say, “My relationship with God is great,
but my relationships with people are not.” They are directly connected.
1 Pet 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as
you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and
as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder
your prayers.
It seems that Peter is here saying that a
man’s relationship with his spouse directly affects his relationship with
God. It seems that the implication is
that if he isn’t treating her with consideration and respect, it will hinder
his prayers. Our relationship with
people directly affects our relationship with God.
Peter continues in the text and when we
look at the context, it seems to further that precept and broaden it beyond our
spouses.
8 Finally, all
of you, live in harmony with one another (how
to treat people – relational); be sympathetic, love as
brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but
with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a
blessing. 10 For, “Whoever
would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from
evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11 He must turn from evil and do good; he must
seek peace and pursue it. 12 For
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to
their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (Psalm 34:12-16)
Again, look at the exhortation he
gives on how to treat other people (live in harmony, be sympathetic, love as
brothers, be compassionate and humble, bless, keep tongue from deceitful
speech, seek peace and pursue it – this is all relational). Then look how he follows that: the ears of
the Lord are attentive to the prayers of the righteous, but the face of the
Lord is against those who do evil. There
is a sense in which one’s prayer life is affected by the way he interacts with
people.
The scripture says, his ear is attentive to the prayers of the righteous. Granted, for those of us in Christ, we have a
righteous standing before God, but this context seems to speak not to a
standing before God, but to a way of living, a way of treating others with whom
we are in relationship.
The state of our human relationships affects our prayer
life. If there are issues in our
horizontal relationship it directly affects our vertical relationship.
If God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves and
we are not doing that, how can we come before our heavenly Father and petition
Him?
We have to, in a sense, say “God, I know that you have called me
to be gracious, forgiving, and loving and to allow no bitterness to take root,
but I’m not really into that right now, by the way, while I have your ear, will
you grant the following requests?”
Our vertical relationship is directly connected to and
affected by our horizontal relationships.
To put it another way: Our relationship with God is affected by our
relationship with His children.
I’ll just tell you right now, if I see someone
mistreating my children, treating them poorly, that individual is putting himself
at odds with me. We are still friends, I
forgive him, but he has impacted our relationship in a negative way. One way to show love to me, one way to bless
me is to show love to and bless my children.
Those of you who work in our children’s ministry and pour into my
children and teach them in the Lord and love them, you are essentially blessing
me and I appreciate that. THANK YOU!
I believe the same is true of God and his
children. Let us love and bless his
children, treating them with kindness, compassion, mercy and humility as that
is showing love to and blessing God and ultimately nurturing a radical
relationship with him because our horizontal relationships are directly
connected to our vertical relationship.
READING
THE BIBLE
Finally, the last means of maintaining radical
relationship with God is through spending time reading the Bible. Contained in the Bible is God’s revelation of
Himself. We learn so much about God, his
character and his dealings with mankind by spending time in the bible.
For those who are visiting, for those who don’t spend a
whole lot of time with us, I want to encourage you to strive to spend time
reading the Bible.
However, if you consider yourself a member of this
church, chances are, this is not necessarily a problem for you. Here at NCF we spend a lot of our time
together in the Bible, seeking to rightly divide the word of truth that we may
rightly apply it, which is a good thing.
I feel compelled to issue a caution when it comes to
the Bible. This will resemble the
caution that I issued last week. Last
week I reminded you that phones were originally created for talking, for nurturing
relationships through communication with other people. That was their ultimate purpose and
design. However, currently, our phones
are equipped with all kinds of gadgets, games and forms of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with playing games on
our phones, watching movies or youtube on our phone, but those are
secondary. The problem lies in letting
those secondary tasks eclipse relational encounters, when we get so distracted
by those entertaining aspects of our phone that we neglect people because
people and relationships should take priority.
The same is true of the Bible. The primary purpose of the Bible, I believe
is for better knowing God. There are
secondary and tertiary purposes, such as gaining a knowledge of theology and
doctrine, learning facts about history.
Those are good things and there is nothing wrong with educating
ourselves. But let’s not forget the
ultimate purpose: knowing God. Not just
knowing about God, but knowing HIM.
Envision with me a man who served in the military
received several letters from his wife while he was deployed overseas. He read them over and over because he loved
his wife and reading these letters gave him insight into who she was and how he
may better know and love and serve her.
When his deployment was over and he returned home to his wife, he would
retreat to his bedroom and spend hours reading those letters. She would go into the bedroom to be with him
but he would simply keep reading them essentially neglecting her presence. She would nudge him gently and say
“ahem.” He would respond, “Can’t you see that I’m busy reading these letters
from you so that I can better know and love and serve you?” The natural response to that is, “Hello. I’m
right here. You can talk to me. You can interact with me and fellowship with
me.”
This man’s perspective was skewed. He began on the right track by reading these
letters as a means to an end, but reading the letters became the end in themselves.
Bible study is so important for us as believers, but if
we aren’t careful, we will see bible study as the end in itself rather than a
means to an end. We can get so focused
on learning and knowing the truth in the Bible that we lose focus on the one
who said “I am
the truth.”
Reading and studying the bible is not the end in
itself, but the means to an end. Knowing
God and having a radical relationship with Him is the end; reading and studying
the bible is simply the means to that end.
So to recap:
We are relational beings created for
relationships. Life revolves around
relationships.
The life that is truly life revolves around the relationship of
relationships namely our relationship with God through Jesus Christ our risen
lord. Yes, this Jesus
was put to death on a cross, but he didn’t stay dead. That is what makes this relationship possible. Jesus is alive. Let us rejoice in that today as we celebrate
his resurrection and enjoy radical relationships, not only horizontal
relationships, but a vertical relationship.
Let us pursue and enjoy a radical relationship with God
through Jesus Christ. We can nurture
that relationship through prayer, fellowship with the Body of Christ, and
spending time in the Bible, but let us not neglect devotional reading of the
Word in order to enhance that relationship.
Because reading the Bible is not the end in itself, but a means to an
end and that end is a radical relationship with our Creator made possible
through our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
www.ncfgeorgetown.com Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church
Georgetown, Texas Preterist church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Sermon
audio mp3 sermon download Full Preterism. Covenant Eschatology. New Covenant
Fellowship Georgetown. Page House 10:00 am Loving God. Loving Others. Realized
eschatology fulfilled eschatology
Preterist church Austin Texas.
Bible church Austin Texas Second coming of Jesus Christ churches in
Austin area. Churches in Georgetown TX
No comments:
Post a Comment