Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Theophanies

One writer wrote,

Before any work for God there always comes the vision of God.

To behold Him, to be lifted up above our troubled hearts, above our worries and discords, and to be absolutely sure that we have spoken with God, and He has spoken with us—this is the indispensable preliminary of doing anything in God’s service.

If a servant of God is uncertain of his Master, he will be uncertain of everything that follows in his service.

If you and I have no doubt about having seen God, then our divine service will grow sweeter and clearer and easier every year we live.

I have had men say to me, “Didn’t Paul’s Christian life begin with the question, ‘What wilt thou have me to do?’ “ No, it did not; no life begins with that question.

It began with the question, “Who art thou, Lord?” (Acts 9:5ff).

When Paul had settled that it was the risen Christ who appeared to him, then came the much easier question, “What wilt thou have me to do?”

We cannot feed the multitude out of an empty basket; we cannot present the Lord until we have seen the Lord.

In the Old Testament, God made a practice of revealing Himself in a variety of ways.

This revelation was not simply cognitive and inward.

Rather, God revealed Himself in a very tangible and experiential way.

It is an extraordinary thing that God, who is not seen, reveals Himself in a visible and literal way.

These are called theophanies.

It is formed from the Greek compound θεός (theos, “god,” “God”) and φαίνειν (phainein, “to appear”), and it describes a category of narrative in which God appears to human beings (LBD).

In fact, a theophany is a visible appearance of God to humans (LBD).

In general, the theophanies are described as very dangerous and intimidating experiences.

The following theophanies appear in the Old Testament:

storms, thunder and lightning (Exodus 19:16)

fire (smoke, volcanic) (Exodus 3:2, 19:18; Deuteronomy 1:33; Judges 6:21; 2 Chronicles 7:1; Nehemiah 9:12, 19)

human presence (Genesis 3:8, Genesis 18:1-2; Genesis 32:24, 28; Exodus 33:18-23; Genesis 16:7-12, 21:17-18; Numbers 22:32-35; Judges 6:11-23, 13:3-22; Zechariah 3:1-2; Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 33:2).

However, in our text today, we find the experience of those who encountered a theophany to be a bit different.

The text demonstrates that Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders were able to abide in the presence of God.

The interesting thing about this text is that their experience was enjoyable.

This opportunity is so unique that I began to wonder how real it must have been.

Exodus 24:9 says these men “saw” God.

This means their perception of God was determined by their vision [literal sight] of God.

How can you see the invisible?

Yet, the text is very clear that they saw something.

Here are a few things we may take away from this text:

Tangible experiences with God are possible

Perhaps, God is more visible than we may think

The visual presentation of God is not some abnormal sight, but a normal sight with direct revelation of its supernatural essence

If Moses was here to share his experiences, he would frown at the new church’s idea of literary experiences [experiences of God from reading a text] to confirm God’s existence.

Rather than suggesting that all of God can be experienced through the text, I would submit that the text is the place we begin to know what can be experienced of God; the reading of the text is not the experience itself.

In fact, Moses’ tangible experiences with God were so common that he would have considered it a natural way of life.

What God afforded the elders in our passage is a glimpse into Moses’ life.

Tonight, I want us to take a journey into the revelation God gives concerning the experiences one can have with Him.

Ultimately, we understand God has intended to reveal Himself to mankind.

Paul’s Revelation of God

We cannot begin any serious consideration of one’s personal revelation of God until we recognize the manner by which God revealed Himself in the personhood of Jesus Christ.

In John 1, the apostle speaks of Jesus’s eternal existence.

He depicts Jesus as the Word of God, which simply means the logic or thinking of God.

Miraculously, God’s thinking has become a human being, which means we see, bodily, the very thoughts and mind of God.

If everything God thought was a person—it was Jesus.

What an amazing thing to imagine.

Yet, no man knew of that line of thinking, which is why Jesus appeared to be so foreign to man.

Could you imagine?

Man’s thoughts are so far from God’s thoughts that Jesus appeared as an unappealing character in a world created through Him.

It goes to show, that mankind, even more, those who would consider themselves righteous, knew nothing of the mind of God.

Yet, we are so pressed to work on behalf of the God we know very little about.

Consequently, John 1:14 demonstrated how Jesus made a tent or tabernacled with mankind to provide a fuller revelation of God.

He tabernacled among men, because the truth is all men are called to work on behalf of God.

He has implemented this mandate as our Creator.

So then, God created a general means by which we may know Him before we can work for Him.

Paul is unique in that He had an ambition to work for God.

Yet, if you were to ask Him whether he knew God, he would have replied with a resounding “yes!” For, he, as would many of the Jews of the time, thought their knowledge of the law and covenant was equivalent to their knowledge of God.

In fact, their very existence was one that focused on the revelation administered by Moses.

Yet, they failed to see the invitation Moses’s revelation gives to those who really comprehend it.

Therefore, many, like Paul, zealously served God out of an incomplete understanding of God.

One may even conclude it was the literary understanding that we so adamantly advocate in the today’s world as the revelation of God, rather than the invitation to the revelation of God by experience.

So, God provides for Paul an experience that is to be comprehended by his sight or the taking of such outside of that which he may have earned by literary study in the school of the Pharisees.

He is blinded and given his sight again, and when he sees again he bears the testimony that he has finally seen God!

That is, his perception and knowledge of God is based on that which is perceivable by experience—actually seeing God.

I believe this single experience led to the development of who became the apostle Paul.

Additionally, Stephen’s martyr may have played a role in provoking and preparing the heart for the revelation of God, which is actually the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Here are a few things we can take away from Paul’s experience:

When an individual’s view of God is incomplete their work for God will be incomplete

Revelation of God through experience is necessary for fulfilling the work God has assigned to our life

The experience of reading the written revelation is God’s invitation to receive the experiential revelation

The written revelation and the experiential revelation cannot contradict one another, but the experiential confirms the written.