How Jesus Reveals Himself

SERMON: 2012-01-29--ac1281--how-jesus-reveals-himself-part-3 SOURCE DURATION: 00:47:39.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire sequence of candidates constitutes a sustained prayer or benediction (a form of sermon content). Since there is no observable non-sermon material following candidate 15, and the flow remains consistent with concluding liturgical speech, the final segment is selected as the last part of the sermon. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:42:55.820-00:47:36.500 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Amen. Well, we've been seeing together in this little mini-series on how Jesus reveals himself that so far there are three ways in which he reveals himself to his people. The first is by direct and immediate revelation and the Apostle Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus is a very good example of that. Jesus showed up and changed his life for good. Second way in which he reveals himself we have been seeing is through the scriptures and we've quoted John 5 verse 39 and 40 which tells us you diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. The written word always points to the living word and you may recall the story in Luke chapter 24 where Jesus joins the travelers on the way to Emmaus and they have no clue who he is but then the Bible says that beginning with Moses and the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself and I said last week for many of us it is our study of the scriptures that gives us the revelation the insight as to who Jesus is. Then the third way that we've talked about is how the Holy Spirit is the agent of the Godhead who opens our eyes to help us to behold the exalted Christ and one verse that we've quoted is John 16 13 and 14 when the spirit of truth comes as Jesus he will guide you into all the truth he will not speak in his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you and that brings us this morning then to a fourth and I think final avenue that we want to study together about how Jesus reveals himself and that is believe it or not through the church. I want to talk about that in just a few moments but before I do I want to revisit what we were talking about last week with regard to a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him and what happens when we pray. You will recall this verse these two verses Ephesians 1 17 and 18 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened and we talked about the fact that there are two things that we are to pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened and then as the passage goes on and we spent some time on this last week there are three things in particular that Paul says he prays for the church and that by extension you and I want to be praying for the first is that we may know the hope to which he has called us the second the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints and then his incomparably great power for us who believe now I want to come back to that for just a moment and talk about what do you suppose happens when you make that a part of your prayer because the prayers of scripture I said last week are not only inspired by God but they show us the heart of God and scripture says pray according to my will and I will give you what you're asking for so you're praying now Lord open the eyes of my heart give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself show me what is the hope to which you have called me and that of course is the hope of sharing the glory of God what do you think is going to happen when you pray for that well most of the time we think we're going to sprout wings sport halos and go from glory to glory and there's an element of truth to that but my experience has been and I I think I can say this fairly authoritatively that as God begins to answer our prayers he will most likely do so in the context of our everyday living and so you pray for the hope of glory what happens well the first thing that begins to happen is that God opens the eyes of your heart he begins to give revelation about the brevity of the human experience remember I said last week heaven is the kind of place everybody wants to go nobody's in hurry to get there why because we are firmly rooted in the here and now and it's nice to sort of have heaven waiting for us at the end of the journey but but our eyes seldom lift beyond the here and now and the concerns of the here now is not true and when you're young especially you think life's going to go on forever and who wants to go to heaven when you're having a good time here my fear when I say that so now you start praying give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation and show me the hope of your calling and guess what happens God opens your eyes to the brevity of the human experience because fact of the matter is whether you live to be 20 or 40 or 60 or 80 where it's always described as fading like a flower we're here today and we're gone tomorrow and the reality of life isn't the older you get for those of you that are young you'll discover it sooner rather than later there's always a fly in the ointment there's a disease that can't be cured there's a relationship that can't be fixed there's a world that's filled with turmoil and conflict and war and however much happiness we experience by times it's often transient and no matter how many blessings we experience and how much good we have in life it's temporary it fades like the flower of the field that sounds negative but that happens to be the reality and when our eyes get opened we begin to see that that's the reality and what that does then is it creates in the heart of the believer a longing for glory a longing when your body no longer hurts a longing for the day when perfect peace and friendship reign as the hymn says a day when we will be reunited to the ones that we've lost a day when we sit with Christ in glory and we will be able to celebrate the victory of God forever imagine imagine now you know being able to throw yourself into an eternal career of joy and glory and you're always flying and you're never being pulled down I don't know about you but that kind of appeals to me amen that's the hope of glory and the hope of glory is God's revelation then when it dawns on us that there's more to life than this life there is a life of glory for the children of God I'll never forget years ago I was standing at the bedside of a woman in this congregation who was dying of of brain cancer and it was an horrific experience for her and for her family and as I stood by her bedside and you know how often we talk about you know God's power to heal in the here and now and how often we talk about God's desire to bless us in the here and now always balanced off against the reality of the already not yet in the kingdom of God and I had a moment of revelation and I stood there and suddenly it dawned on me the words of the Apostle Paul that for this life only we had hoped in Christ we would be of all people most miserable and it dawned on me how little there is to live for when you get to these places where you are mortally ill and then if you didn't have the hope of glory how desperate is your life and the opposite of that is true too when you have the hope of glory what are these transient sufferings that we go through compared to what it is that God has prepared for those who love him and you know when was the first time that that dawned on me back in 1969 when my father suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 56 and until then like most of us I had never thought much about death I don't recall that I had ever been to a funeral in my life maybe when I was really little to the funeral of a grandmother only funeral I've ever been to prior to that and I remember thinking how sobering it was to discover that death is real but that Christ has overcome death and there is the hope of glory for God's people sooner or later the spirit of wisdom and revelation will take us to getting a proper perspective on time versus eternity making sense here so what happens when you pray for the eyes of your hearts to be enlightened so you may know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints well again your eyes are opened first of all to the reality of brokenness even in the church and among God's people I love that him the church is one foundation the verse third the third verse says though with scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed by Sisms rend asunder by heresies distressed yet Saints their watch are keeping their cry goes up how long and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song and so as you realize and understand how much work God has to do in all of our lives before his word can be fulfilled and Christ will be all and in all then he points us beyond all our obstacles all our barriers and all our broken places and he begins to show us his unsearchable riches in Christ when we become most pessimistic when we are most hopeless about the condition even of the church sometimes God opens our eyes and he shows us where he is at work and how he is transforming and changing lives you know there isn't a profession of faith service that goes by in this church when we hear people tell this stories of how they have been apprehended by Jesus Christ but my soul thrills with the realization that God is alive he's here and he still finds people who he brings to their knees and whose lives he changes a lot of you were here when we had our last profession of faith service and without singling one story out over the other a lot of you will remember Joe's testimony how most of his life he had been an atheist and how in the wisdom and in the profound care of God God got after him brought him to his knees and at his advanced age in life called him to himself you know how many people get converted at the later stages of life statistically very very few and so when God does that you have to stand in awe and say what a mighty God we serve that's the riches of God's glorious inheritance in the same not to draw this out but now you pray to understand his incomparably great power in us who believe what do you think happens well you come face to face with all the brokenness and with all the limitations of the world you get your eyes open to your own sin how hard it is to forgive those who have offended you how hard it is to lift your eyes beyond the things of this world to the things of God how hard it is to overcome the downward pull of all the crud that you find not only in the world but that you find in your own heart and that you find in the hearts of other people and even as you become aware of that and you get brought to the end of your own resources the gift of faith rises up in you and you begin to see the power of Jesus who is able to transform and change lives and use even you to bring blessings to other people heard a story just the other day Donald Miller of blue like jazz fame author and speaker tells the story of his good friend Bob goth Bob goth is a lawyer had trouble getting into law school barely got Ian but is a sold-out disciple of the Lord Jesus and over the years has been very successful at being a lawyer and has made a great deal of money which he uses for the cause of Jesus and he travels internationally and he establishes relationships with people in varying positions and authorities in government and he's built himself a cottage or a chalet somewhere in British Columbia to which he then invites the significant industry and political leaders from around the world and he talks to them about Jesus and he does that very freely and openly and he's done some work in the nation of Uganda and the people in Uganda have been so impressed by the schools that he's built and the other stuff all with his own money that they've invited him to be their official lawyer their their consular representation and as he's made those connections he's become aware of an injustice in the nation of Uganda that cries out to heaven for for straightening out because you see in certain parts of Uganda witch doctors still have a lot of power and some of these witch doctors kidnap children cut off their body parts if you can picture this and sell them to the construction industry you say why in the world would they do that well in the animism that is part of some of those cultures the the body part gets put into the cornerstone of the building and that is a way of warding off evil spirits you can believe it and a way of inviting blessing on on that enterprise little twisted in the thinking as you can imagine but nobody's ever been able to take that on because these witch doctors are very powerful and have a great deal of influence in the nation and so in his contacts with the Ugandan officials he said you know there's something wrong with this the United Nations has as a resolution against this you need to pass this we need to pass laws in Uganda making this illegal all of that happened and then he said in order for it to be established we've got to have a case that goes to trial and sure enough there was a little boy called Charlie eight years of age and you'll have to forgive me for describing this graphically but he had his private parts cut off in order to facilitate this sale of body parts but he instead of dying lived to tell about it and the witch doctor who was responsible for that was a guy by the name of George Kobe and and Bob got said we've got to take this guy to trial everybody said you're crazy because there's way too much power behind that well long story short it went to trial he got convicted and he got sentenced to a life term in jail and then they met and gathered all the witch doctors together and they said if you don't stop doing what you're doing that's what's going to happen to you and so that practice was severely undermined by one American lawyer who had the courage to believe in the power of Jesus to change lives and the story goes on beyond that actually because Charlie was adopted by him he became his legal guardian and in a very unusually twist of events his cottage is on a lake he flies a float plane and he has a friend who is a major surgeon who wanted to learn how to fly float planes and the pilot who was teaching him is a woman who is good friends if you can follow this with Bob goth in conversation it turns out that as they begin to talk about all of this sort of business and they begin to talk about this young boy called Charlie this guy who is a head of surgery at Cedar Sinai his name is Randy Sherman says to the person when she describes the story of Charlie says to him her you won't believe this but I am the premier surgeon in all of North America in terms of reattaching male genitals believe this so they bring this kid over and I have no idea how you do this so you know the pictures his brings not always good but you understand what I'm trying to say here Jesus orchestrated in an incredible fashion through these folks a miracle of restoration that gives glory to God talk about the incomparably great power of his resurrection and so you and I we struggle in our places we pray Lord show me your power we come to the end of ourselves and in coming to the end of ourselves we discover that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we have hoped or think Paul talks about that you will recall in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 when he says we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure he's talking about his mission trips here indeed we felt the sentence of death but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead he's delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us with your prayers and he goes on to say then many will give thanks to him well let me wind this part up by the observation that as we pray those prayers the Lord opens our eyes to the negatives of life and then opens our eyes in response to our cries for help to the glory of God in the face of Jesus that gets incorporated into who we are and what our calling is because the Bible talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ I don't know if you've ever thought about the word unsearchable but that's pretty big and I for one am convinced that for all eternity God is going to keep on unfolding who Jesus is and what are all the riches that belong to us because we belong to Jesus that's what I call unsearchable you can't get to the bottom of it because he is the infinite God and God has no bottom you can't define him you cannot continue and so as we do life and God has a particular calling in your life and in my life what happens now in those places then he gives us revelation of himself and that becomes part and parcel of the place where we have faith and where we have an ability to step into the things that God has for us let me try to illustrate let's suppose you call it a business and part of business as a Christian is that you you better learn to trust God that he will look after you so now as part of the journey in your Christian life there may well be times when things are tough and as you struggle with that and you wonder how do I do this as a child of God then God will open your eyes in that area to show himself and his power and now that gives you authority in that area because it's no longer just theory it's actual practice does that make sense or you're called to care for somebody and you say to yourself I don't know how to do this I don't know what to say or how to say it and you get a revelation of of the power of Jesus to help you in that spot and now you know that you know that you know that he's able to do far more abundantly than all that you ask or think or he called you to a healing ministry and and you've been sick yourself perhaps and there are many stories on record like that of people who were mortally ill and they cried out to God and God healed them and then God incorporates that into your life and that becomes a gift of faith that enables you to step out and to proclaim Jesus and so Paul has this revelation of Jesus on the road to Damascus wine so he can go and proclaim to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of God if Jesus can change my life he says the chief of sinners then you have no excuse to say I can't do it because it's not about you it's about Jesus you with me that's a pretty tepid amen you have to experience it and if you've never prayed Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 I would recommend you do what I did many years ago I made it a part of my prayer for two years straight and I said Lord give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation open the eyes of my heart show me what is the hope show me the riches of your inheritance show me the power the power the power that raised Christ from the dead that's at work in your people and as that take root takes root in our hearts and lives faith arises and life changes well that's all introduction this morning just for the record we'll go through the rest real fast so that you're not here all day want to talk now you know how long eternity is you know how many hours there are in a week and if we want to spend eternity in the presence of God the least thing that we can do is get ourselves ready for it don't you think all right so bear with me I'll get you out of here don't worry fourth way then in which Jesus reveals himself and I'll be brief on this although it's a huge subject just for the record is through the church Ephesians 1 the chapter that we've been looking at ends in the verses 22 and 23 with these words God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness of him who feels everything in every way now notice the church is his body the fullness of him who feels everything in every way and without spending a lot of time on that what Paul is saying is that when you become a Christian and you're joined to Jesus Jesus comes to live in you not only individually but collectively and what that means is that you if you're in Christ and Jesus is in you then Jesus becomes visible through you and in the verses that we've read from Ephesians chapter 3 Paul talks about that visibility in the context of a cosmic universe for notice again what he says in Ephesians 3 10 and 11 his intent God's intent was that now in the era of the church through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be known should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord the context as I mentioned earlier is the mystery of the gospel that the dividing line between Jew and Gentile has been broken he deals with that in Ephesians 2 and God through the cross of Jesus has removed the enmity between the two groups of people and God is making a new humanity that is the mystery he says that was not revealed in previous generations but God has shown it to me says Paul because I am the Apostle to proclaim it to the Gentiles have often said you and I would not be here today were it not for that revelation that was entrusted first of all to Peter in Cornelius's house and Lord willing we'll talk about that in the future but also through the ministry of the Apostle Paul but now notice where the emphasis lies if we can have that verse back up again for just a moment his intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms who are the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms well they are the spiritual powers behind the universe because the Bible is categorical that there exists not only a physical universe that you and I can see feel here in touch but there is a spiritual universe that is inhabited not only by the Father Son and the Holy Spirit but by myriad upon myriad upon myriad of spiritual powers and those spiritual powers control to a very large degree and extent the things that happen here upon the earth and of course later on in Ephesians 6 12 the classic passage describing that is our struggle is not against flesh and blood that is to say it's not people but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms behind the great movements of our day and age stand a whole arrangement of spiritual powers with different spiritual authority and with a desire to make the kingdoms of this world the kingdom of Satan and his power you can't understand human history you can't understand a Hitler or a Stalin or the events that happen in the cruelty among the nations unless you understand that there are huge spiritual powers behind that and when those spiritual powers gain access to a people whether individually or corporately they will drive them as agents of the world of darkness now Paul says it's God's intent that through the church he is going to manifest his with his wisdom to the spiritual strongholds the spiritual powers of the universe and what's interesting about this passage is that commentators differ whether these are good angels or whether they're bad angels or a combination of the two and I say I don't think it makes any difference because none of the spiritual powers truly understand the gospel apart from what God does in the church as a model the bad spirits if you will they're so deceived by the lie of the devil that they have bought into the devil's wisdom which is a wisdom that says if you want to get anywhere it's your power it's your glory it's your fight that's going to get you there that's the wisdom that permeates the nations of the world the good angels they don't understand grace because they can't figure out how a holy God can get along with sinful people and not compromise his integrity and so Peter says salvation is a thing into which angels long to look so here you have this whole cosmic battle taking place whereby the scripture says God by the work that he does in you and in me now get this is to demonstrate his wisdom to the principalities and the powers that means how you and I fare individually and corporately what we do with the gospel and how we embrace it is a thing that is of keen interest to spiritual powers and one of the places where you see that is in the Old Testament where the angels of God are the sons of God which are these principalities and powers they come before the throne of God you remember this story and what does God say to Satan have you seen my servant Job and the devil's got his own opinion on that so there's the their whole spiritual spectacle that is taking place remember earlier Paul says us Apostles we are arranged last as a spectacle not only to men but also the principalities and powers but it's not only to principalities and powers that God wants to show the power of the gospel the wisdom of God which is focused on Jesus's death and resurrection but he also wants to show it through us to the world and here's that verse that you've often heard me quote because it's critical to understanding the mission of the church you are a chosen people one Peter 2 9 a royal priesthood a holy nation of people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light many years ago I did a little informal investigation among people that I know and friends that I have and I asked them how did you get to know Jesus and what were some of the influences that brought you to faith and almost without exception you know what it was that the Lord had used it was an other Christian who in some small way shone with the glory of Jesus because whether or not you and I are aware of it if Christ is in us the hope of glory we radiate we smell Paul says to those who are dying we stink but to those who are being saved we are a message of life and without you know extending this any further here's what I want us to understand when Ephesians chapter 1 talks about the incomparably great incomparable greatness of his power when it talks about the riches of his glorious inheritance when it talks about the hope of God's glory the revelation that God wants to give us is that in us and through us he wants to demonstrate the reality of the message of the gospel to the nations of the world and we don't do that just by power tripping and we don't do that by the great and mighty miracles because that's often how we think is the most obvious way in which God manifests his glory but his ultimate glory was manifest in the sacrificial death of his son on the cross and you and I by walking in union with Christ receiving from Christ the power to be the least the power to lay down our lives the power to walk obediently and to stand firmly in the face of difficulty stress and opposition that is how Christ begins to shine through us it was when Jesus died on the cross that the centurion said truly this man was the son of God and so my question for each of us as we wind this up this morning is the question where in your life do you find God giving you revelation of his graciousness and of his power and where in your life can you show Jesus by your sacrifice and by your care I've often thought some of the greatest rewards when they're handed out in the new age are not going to be given to the big people of this age who have had their acclaim and who have had their fame it'll be given to that widow who nursed her dying husband behind the scenes for many many years giving up her hopes and her dreams it'll be given to that mom who you know forsook her career to wipe the snotty noses of her children and who made it her life's passion to grow them up before God it'll be given to the man and to the woman who took up their cross and who followed Jesus and who invested their hearts and their lives at great expense and cost of themselves into the lives of other people so that Christ's purposes might be accomplished here upon the earth and you and I may not be a Bob Goth you and I might not have the resources that he had but we all have our little niche in life don't we and we all have our contacts and we all have our connections and we all face the choice day by day while I follow Christ and take up my cross and serve him without a claim without prestige without fame simply because I love Jesus and you know what happens when you do that when you love your enemy when you forgive those who have wronged you when you continue to step out in faith when you're disappointed in God and you wonder where he is you're showing the power of the resurrected Jesus to the world around you and while half the world will look at you and they will say you're crazy you know why are you doing what you're doing there will be those who are elect of God in whom the Spirit of God is at work and they will recognize Jesus in you and the power of Christ is made manifest in our obedience to his will and then when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory nothing that is hidden will not be made known and we will receive the fullness of our reward as we follow Jesus. Amen? Stand with me as we pray please. Father the message of the cross is foolishness to those who perish but it's the power of God to salvation and Lord I know we've talked about a lot this morning and I have no idea how much of this resonates with us yes or no but I know Lord that what you want to do is open the eyes of our hearts and to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation and how you want us to see that how we do life is keenly studied not only by heaven but also by earth and so you know the places where we find ourselves the places where what's really in our heart is laid bare the places where we struggle the places where life is difficult the places where we feel unheard unloved unwanted where we even wonder sometimes where you are we pray that the power of the Lord Jesus who remained faithful to you even unto death might also live in our hearts by faith and that is we behold his glory and experience his power that Lord you will give us much joy just in living before your face and doing your will and we know Lord the day is coming when we stand before you and we will hear from you those incredible words well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful over little I will put you over much so Lord bless us make us a blessing we pray it together in Jesus name amen [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:42:55.820; remove through 00:47:39.000] a father of creation raise up a chosen generation all creation is long for your own baby of power would you release your oh god let this be that's your glory for in this room as we gather to see you nation see the church in victory make us strong in your mind we stand up and fire let your boy in this room let it go from here to the nation let your friends rest in this way as we gather to see your name let your key to the car let your kingdom come let your will be done let us see all on earth let us see all on earth the glory of your son let your kingdom come let your kingdom come let your will be done let your will be done let us see all on earth let us see all on earth the glory of your son let your glory fall in this room let it go from here to the nation let your fragrance rest in this way as we gather to see your face as we gather to see your face [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:47:39.000; resume after this marked segment]