Our Three Dimensional
God
John 14:8-17
May 30, 2010 – ©Rev.
Dr. Linnea E. Carnes
Introduction
Mike Yaconelli told this story in his book Dangerous Wonder. After church one Sunday, he was talking with an
elderly woman who was visiting. During their conversation he asked about her
husband. “Oh,” she said, “he passed away a year ago.” “I’m sorry,” he said.
“How long had you two been married?” “Forty years,” she said in a dull voice. “Forty years? You must miss him
terribly.”
“I wish
I did,” she whispered, “But I have come to terms with the fact that in forty
years of marriage I never knew him.” Imagine. Forty years of being together,
sleeping together, having children together, celebrating grandchildren
together, and all you can say at the end is, “I never knew him.”
Forty
years of passionless marriage where two people are strangers to one another. …
When there is no passion, we live our lives in the smoky fog of sameness. … Yaconelli says that he believes that most of us have lost
our passion: the passion of our marriages, the passion of our jobs, and the
passion of our faith.” [Mike Yaconelli, Dangerous
Wonder (Colorado Springs, CO, NavPress, 2003)
108-109].
Whether
you have been a Christian for one week or eighty years, I cannot think of
anything worse than hearing that “you never knew Jesus.” A faith in Jesus
Christ without passion is a tragic loss.
Black
Hawk fans are passionate about the chances of their team winning the Stanley
Cup. Cub fans are always passionate about the Cubs, win or lose.
My fear
is that too many Christians have lost their passion for Jesus – if they ever
had it – that they will come to the end of life saying, “I never knew him.”
This is
Trinity Sunday. We take a look at God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We try
to explain how God could be all three but remain only one God. Oreo cookies can’t
really give us the whole picture.
However,
let’s begin to look at what Jesus tells us in John’s gospel. Let’s turn to John
14:6-17.
Jesus and the Father
In John
14:6-7, Jesus said, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really
know me you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have
seen him.” Philip then said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be
enough for us.” Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have
been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” [vs.8-9].
Listen
again to two verses from this passage that speak clearly about Jesus and the Father. If you really know me you will know my
Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. … Anyone who
has seen me has seen the Father.
His
disciples had been with Jesus for three years. They had walked with him, ate
with him, talked with him, slept where he had slept, watched him teach, heal
and raise the dead. But they never knew him.
They
knew the man Jesus, but they didn’t know God.
So even
though Judas knew Jesus, he betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. Even
though Peter knew Jesus, and even said, “You
are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” [Mt.16:16], when Jesus was arrested, he denied even
knowing Jesus. Most of the disciples hid when Jesus was nailed to the cross to
die.
There
was no true passion for their Lord. Passionate followers do not deny or betray
their Lord. Passionate disciples will even die for their Savior and Lord. Did
they really know God?
In
Romans 1:20 Paul wrote, “From the time
the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky and all that God
made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine
nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” God
revealed himself first in creation.
God
also revealed himself in Jesus, his Son. In fact, Jesus came to reveal God to
people. Paul in Colossians 1:15 wrote, “Christ
is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything
at all and is supreme over all creation.”
Max Lucado in Just Like Jesus writes that on a few occasions in Brazil he
served as a translator for an English speaker, who stood before the audience,
complete with the message. Lucado stood at his side,
equipped with the language. His job was to convey the speaker’s story to the
listeners. He did his best to allow his words to come through him. He could not
add to or subtract from his words. When the speaker gestured, he gestured. When
the speaker spoke louder, he got louder; when he got quiet, he did too.
Lucado said that when he walked
this earth, Jesus was ‘translating” God all the time. When God got louder,
Jesus got louder. When God gestured, Jesus gestured. He was so in sync with the
Father that he could declare ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’
[John14:11,NRSV).” … Clearly, Jesus didn’t act unless
he saw his father act.” [Max Lucado, Just Like
Jesus (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998) 64-65].
Okay,
so we as Christ’s followers should know God because we know Jesus. Why is it
that so many Christians even admit that they really don’t know God? Why do we
see so little true passion in those who follow Jesus?
I think
it is because, like the disciples, we interpret everything from our human point
of view. We see God, describe God, think of God from a
worldly perspective. So we may never really
know God.
We
think of God the Father and assume he is like our earthly father: distant,
angry, accusing, absent.
We
think of God as a harsh judge who will make sure we are punished for every
mistake, every bad thing we ever did or said, every sin. So we are afraid of God, and don’t really want to know this God.
We
think of God as the boss, the all-knowing CEO who we must obey or lose our job.
We try to talk to God, but we feel like God puts us on hold, doesn’t take our
phone calls or read our Faxes or our text messages. So we just go through life
doing what we think God wants us to do without much enthusiasm for being a
Christian.
Whatever
our image of God is like, it probably has been formed by our images of humans
in this world.
So what
is God like? What is the essence of God? What one thing describes God? (ask for
responses)
John
wrote in 1 John 4:16, “God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
What
does that mean? First John 3:16 tells
us: “This is how we know what love is:
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for
one another.”
Paul
said in Romans 5:8, “God proves his love
for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
Jesus
said, “For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will never perish but
have eternal life.” [Jn.3:16].
God is
love – so we can say that the Father is love and the Son is love. Everything
Jesus did was an act of love and a reflection of God’s love for us. Yet even
those who believe in Jesus find it hard to accept God’s love and give it. They try to do all the right things, say all the right things, so
maybe they will really feel the presence of God. They want to experience the
power of God’s love but are not sure it will ever happen to them. We want to
know God.
The
good news is that God wants us to be just as passionate about him as God is
about us.
Seeing God in Three-Dimension
Listen
again to Paul’s words in Romans 5:1-2, and 5.
Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace
in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. … And
hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
We now
have been made right with God, we are at peace with
God, because of Jesus’ death on a cross for our sins. Now we can hope to spend
eternity in God’s glorious presence. And this hope is sure. We can be certain
of it because “God’s love has been poured
out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus
said in John 14:16-17 that God the Father would send “another advocate” (helper), Jesus being the first advocate, who will be with us forever –
the Spirit of truth. While the world cannot see or know the Spirit of God,
those who trust in Jesus “know him, for
he lives with you and will be in you.”
Maybe you
are going through your Christian life seeing God in two dimensions: Father and
Son. You believe. You know you are forgiven. You think you will go to heaven
when you die. But you never really have felt any excitement, any passion, in
your life of faith – maybe a warm, fuzzy feeling now and then. But no passion!
God
knew that without the Holy Spirit in us, we would never fully – in three-dimension
– know God. So he sent the Holy Spirit to live in us.
If we
are going to know God fully, we must invite the Holy Spirit to live in us,
guide us, speak truth to us, and help us experience the love of God in a new
and powerful way.
Last
week I spoke about needing to unwrap the Holy Spirit,
let it out of the package we keep it in. God sent the Holy Spirit to us because
God knows we need the Holy Spirit. God sent the Holy Spirit because he loves us
and wants us to love him and one another with such a passionate love that the
world will know that we are followers of Jesus and that God loves them too.
When I was
a child I knew God. God was real to
me. As I grew older, I heard about Jesus and knew that I had to believe in him
and follow him. But I then spent quite a few years seeing God in only two
dimensions. I wanted more. I wanted to know God personally. Then I heard people
talk about the Holy Spirit and why we need the Holy Spirit. From the moment I
invited the Holy Spirit to work in my life, God began doing remarkable things
in me.
I
didn’t want to attend the day at Denver Seminary to learn about the seminary
programs. I almost walked out when I realized I was in the room for prospective
M.Div. students. But suddenly I heard something that totally changed my life.
It wasn’t just about the right program to enroll in. It was about a God in me
speaking to me, encouraging me, to follow him even through seminary. Everything
changed.
I was
so excited about going to seminary. But I told God I would do everything but
preach. Well, we all know the end of that story. Somehow the Holy Spirit
changed all that too. The one thing I said I would not do for God is the 1
thing that I am most passionate about – preaching about Jesus.
When
I start talking about Jesus, something in me changes.
· I
want people to know the Jesus I know.
· I
want people to experience the overwhelming love of God I have experienced.
· I
want others to know that no matter what they have done in life, Jesus has
forgiven them.
Conclusion
I want
you to know that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit can
transform your life from the inside out. I don’t want any of you to get to the
end of your life and say, “I never knew God.”
God is
able to heal your past hurts, your failures, and painful experiences.
God is
able to transform your present into a life that makes you excited about living
every day for Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And God
will give you a sure hope that you will never be without him, now or in
eternity. Every step we take is with God, including that step we take into
God’s very presence.
So put
on those 3-D glasses.
Unleash
the Holy Spirit in you.
Let God
use you to do great works for the kingdom.
Let God
bless you with your heart’s desire.
Let God
turn your faith into a living, passionate faith.
Experience
the passionate love God has for you.
Live
your life of faith with such passion that your life will over flow with love.
Then
everyone will know that you know God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
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This sermon is copyright ©2010 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes,
Immanuel
Evangelical
Covenant
Church,
Chicago,
Illinois.