6_4_2023 - The Wonderful God

Opening Prayer)

(Sermon Introduction)

Today we begin our new series entitled “New Eyes,” focusing on seeing what we call the “Old Testament” with “New Eyes.”

(Series Context)

We recognize that it takes a lot of time and study to unpack the Old Testament with “New Eyes.”

However, we cannot overlook the importance of the Old Testament to the development of the Early Church and to the understanding the Gospel message and the depth of what Jesus the Christ has done for us.

I cannot tell you the number of times over the years that I have had well meaning people tell me, even those claiming to be Christians, that Jesus Christ hasn’t always been.

As we begin today I want to set the stage for this series with an understanding that Jesus has always been, He is, and He will be forevermore.

John 1:1–5 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is a distinct person of the Trinity.

As we take a look at the First Testament with New Eyes, I find it interesting how many western believers miss the obvious things that eastern believers would see quickly.

For instance, Eastern Eyes when they meet Jesus for the first time, find that He is all over the texts of Scripture.

They see Him readily, while we struggle to make the connection.

Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon

“Just as every road of England leads to London, every road of Scripture leads to Christ.”

“Don’t you know, young man, that from every town and every village and every hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?

So from every text in Scripture there is a road toward the great metropolis, Christ.

And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’

I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it and if ever I find one…I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a Saviour of Christ in it.”

(Spurgeon. “Christ Precious to Believers,” sermon at Music Hall, Royal Surry Gardens, London, March 13, 1859.)

As we work our way through Scripture, we are going to be looking at different accounts in the Old Testament where Christ is revealed in a powerful way.

I believe that God is going to give you new eyes as you read the Scripture, so that you see Christ!

(Context: The Angel of the Lord / Jesus Christ)

I want to remind you once again about The Angel of the Lord in these texts that we are studying isn’t some random angel.

The way He is referenced and the way that Scripture reveals Him it is clear that this “character” is in fact the Lord Jesus Christ.

William Pakenham Walsh

The unanimous voice of the early Christian Church acknowledged that “The Angel of the Lord,” who so frequently appeared as the Revealer of God’s will to man in the older dispensation, was none other than the Second Person in the glorious Trinity.

(Walsh, The Angel of the Lord, Or, Manifestations of Christ in the Old Testament, pg. VII, 1856.)

(Context: From Gideon to Samson)

The book of Judges records the cycle of apostasy that the people of Israel went through over and over again.

It is similar to how they would respond later in the books of 1 and 2 Kings.

After Gideon, Israel went back to doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.

The book of Judges reveals the evils of the human heart and reminds us that when mankind is left to themselves they do not honor God.

Apart from the saving hand of God, the empowerment of His Spirit, and the work of God upon the human heart, mankind will engage in evil and destructive practices.

Judges 21:25 (ESV)

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

After Gideon, God raised up Judges to lead Israel at different times.

God had risen up a few Judges after Gideon but it had been a while since the last Judge led Israel.

(Context: Manoah)

In Judges 13 the Angel of the Lord shows up to the wife of Manoah and this interaction takes place:

Judges 13:1–7 (ESV)

1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children.

3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean,

5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name,

7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

Manoah hears what happens with his wife and the Angel of the Lord and does something interesting, he prays that the Angel of the Lord would return that he might see and hear for himself.

4494 / Manoah/ Maw-no’-akh / מָנוֹחַ

Quiet, i.e. (concr.) a settled spot, or (fig.) a home:— (place of) rest.

James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).

Judges 13:8–24 (ESV

8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.”

9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her.

10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”

11 And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.”

12 And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?”

13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.

14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.”

16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.)

17 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?”

18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”

19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching.

20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

21 The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.

22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”

23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him.

Manoah’s wife identifies the Angel of the Lord as the “man of God” with an appearance “like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome” (Judges 13:7).

Manoah’s wife and Manoah both reference several times the Angel of the Lord as “the man.”

They sought to feed “the man,” the Angel of the Lord because they did not realize that it was the Lord.

(He appeared enough like a man that they thought He may be hungry like them.)

After they offer the sacrifice to the Lord they saw the Angel of the Lord ascend to heaven and so they fell on their faces recognizing that “He was the Angel of the Lord” (Judges 13:20-21).

They even state to one another that they would die, why?

Because they had “seen God” (Judges 13:22).

We however have even more insight from the text because the Angel of the Lord, the man, the Christ, says to Manoah in verse 18, “Why do you ask my name, see it is wonderful?”

What does that verse remind you of?

In most Bibles the cross-reference for this statement is Isaiah 9:6, which reads:

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(Sermon Title: The Wonderful God)

The title of the sermon today is: The Wonderful God.

In a time of unrest, Manoah (whose name means, rest), and his wife find themselves in the presence of the Wonderful God.

He truly is Wonderful and I want to unpack a few things that we should know and live out in relationship with Our Wonderful God.

1. Our God Is Still Wonderful When The World Is Not

Manoah and his wife lived during a very dangerous and trying time in Israel’s history.

Typically, wonderful is not the world we would use for the world we live in and I am sure they wouldn’t have described it that way.

The Lord in His perfection describes Himself as Wonderful knowing full well that the world isn’t.

Truly the Lord is holy and set apart.

He is not the same as the world.

He doesn’t operate according to the world’s standards.

He is not affected by the world’s evil, it doesn’t change Who He is, in fact the world stands in polar opposition to Who He is.

James 4:4 (ESV)

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 4:4–8 (ESV)

4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2. Our God Is Still Wonderful When We Don’t Understand

The request of Manoah and his wife was an odd request.

There son would be a Nazarite, for what purpose?

God had a plan that involved Samson, but they didn’t understand fully what God would do or how Samson being a Nazarite would serve His purposes.

5144 / Nazarite/ naw-zar’ / נָזַר

a prim. root; to hold aloof, i.e. (intr.) abstain (from food and drink, from impurity) spec. to set apart (to sacred purposes), i.e. devote:— consecrate, separate (-ing, self).

James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).

The Lord called Manoah and His wife to set apart Samson unto the Lord.

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We are called to walk according to the Wonderful will of God.

The Lord in His Wonderful character calls us to follow Him in what He is doing and that is not always to do, but it truly is best and wonderful.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psalm 33:4 (ESV)

4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

It can be hard to navigate the plan and purposes of God.

It can be tough to see what He is doing and why He leads us along certain pathways, but He knows what He is doing.

Psalm 119:105 (ESV)

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

3. Our God Is Still Wonderful When We Fail

(Response)

(Invite the Worship Team and the Prayer Team)

(Context: The Rest of the Story)

Manoah’s son Samson would eventually be born and would deliver the people of Israel from the Philistines through a final act of obedience to God.

However, during Samson’s life he repeatedly failed to do all that God had commanded him through the commands that had been given to his parents before his birth.

He would break every one of them and fail to follow the Lord as it was laid out for him.

However, God still used him and redeemed him to complete the task he had been called to do.

Samson follow the commands of God imperfectly and failed miserably at times.

However, the failures of Samson did not diminish the Wonderful God who had called him.

Our failures don’t change Who God is and what God does.

Romans 8:31–39 (ESV)

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jude 20–25 (ESV)

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

22 And have mercy on those who doubt;

23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

(Sermon Recap)

The Wonderful God:

Our God Is Still Wonderful When the World Is Not

Our God Is Still Wonderful When We Don’t Understand

Our God Is Still Wonderful When We Fail

(Worship Song)

(Closing Challenge)

(Closing Blessing)

Numbers 6:24–26 (ESV)

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

(Response Card)

1. What did you hear? (Blank Lines)

2. How will you live it out? (Blank Lines)

3. Who will you share it with? (Blank Lines)

4. Who are you discipling? (Blank Lines)

5. What are you praying for? (Blank Lines)

6. How has God answers your prayers? (Blank Lines)