Our Advocate

Introduction

Emmaus

We are like the disciples who don’t recognize Jesus right in front of our face

“Did we not feel our hearts burn within us”

The last two weeks we’ve looked at what Jesus has done: he’s the link between heaven and earth, and he is the one that saves us when we look upon him

But tonight, we’re going to be looking at how Jesus models zealous pursuit after God

Exodus 33:1-6

He confirms the covenant promises; to give them everything He’s promised them except for one thing: His presence

Do you love God for what He gives you, or do you love God for His presence?

Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

Some people might ask: why doesn’t God just let everyone into heaven? This is a complicated question with a lot of different answers, but one answer is this: God isn’t going to force Himself on people that want nothing to do with Him

How miserable of a place heaven would be for someone who has spent their life rejecting God

Heaven isn’t going to be great because the streets of gold, it’s going to be great because God is there

Notice how the Psalmist in Psalm 27:4 says that the one thing he seeks after in the house of the Lord isn’t the streets of gold. The one thing he seeks is to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to listen to His voice

Notice how the Israelites respond: they repent by taking off all their ornaments

These “ornaments” would have been, like, bracelets and necklaces. Wearing these were a symbol of status in Egypt, so by the Israelites wearing them, they were acting like the Egyptians in seeking status in what they were wearing

By the way, where did they get them again? Because of God

So by them stripping themselves of these ornaments, not only are they bringing themselves low, but they’re also shedding the material blessings provided them by God to show they don’t want what He gives them if it means losing His presence

Exodus 33:7-11

One thing to notice from this section: notice how the Tent of Meeting was pitched outside the camp

If God’s presence wasn’t going to go with them, Moses and the people sought the Lord where He could be found

By the way, sometimes I find myself getting discouraged in prayer when I think I’m not “getting enough out of it”

But I need to remember, I need to have this longing to seek after the Lord wherever He can be found, and even if He only gives me a taste of his presence, that should be enough

Do you have a holy yearning for the presence of God where you would seek it out outside the camp?

Something else I’d like to point out is that the Lord spoke to Moses as a man speaks to a friend. Who does this remind you of?

In this passage, Moses serves as a picture of what Jesus would later do

Just like Moses spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend, so too did the son of man speak to God as a friend

Just like Moses withdrew to the tent of meeting outside the camp, the book of Luke says that Jesus would often withdraw to desolate places to pray

But the biggest difference between Moses and Jesus is that with Moses, the Israelites remained far off. But because of Jesus, we can now be brought into that same communion with the Lord where we too can speak to Him as a man speaks to a friend

Exodus 33:12-23

So Moses intercedes for the people, and in his intercession, he reminds God that He was the one who had called them a royal priesthood and a holy nation. The only thing that sets them apart as holy from the other nations is the presence of God

So God relents. He says that His presence will go with the people

Does this passage show God to be indecisive?

No. The Lord’s desire is that they have a heart of repentance, and He’s seen that from the Israelites

But here’s a question: If Moses hadn’t interceded, would God’s presence have left the Israelites?

I’m not gonna answer that because we’re gonna be discussing that very question in our small groups later

But I will leave you with this for now, three things we know to be true from the Bible

God is completely sovereign. He knows all things and He has power to do all things

We are commanded to pray

When people in the Bible pray, things happen

Another question that might arise is: why His back?

John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

This is a confusing verse because didn’t Moses see God in this passage?

John 1:18 means, “no one has ever seen God’s essential nature.” God may be seen in a theophany or anthropomorphism but His inner essence or nature is disclosed only in Jesus.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:18

John 1:18

The reason why Moses only saw God’s back is because the rest of God wasn’t for Moses to see or understand

Three things I want to leave you with:

God is moved by our repentance

We can see that when the Israelites repent, God relents

We see a story similar to this one in Judges 10 that gives us a fuller picture of what’s going on

The Israelites fall into idol worship, so God abandons them and they fall to their enemies. They cry out for God’s mercy and He tells them to ask their false gods since they love them so much. So the Israelites repent again by destroying the idols, and the text says: “And He could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”

One of the greatest tragedies is not merely that we break God's rules; it is that we reject God's presence. The God who created the universe invites us into fellowship with Himself. He offers us His love, His joy, His peace, and His very presence, but instead of running to Him, we run to idols. We choose created things over the Creator, believing they will satisfy us more than God Himself

And yet, as astonishing as our rebellion is, God's grace is even more astonishing. It should not be lost on us how astonishing it is that God would not only forgive us of our rebellion, but that He would still desire to be near to those who are constantly pulling away from Him. Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Christian, remember this: The Christian life is not primarily about earning God's acceptance. It is about learning to treasure the God we are prone to ignore

Jesus made a way

Just as Moses interceded for the people of Israel, so has Jesus interceded for us

Moses stood in the gap and said “blot my name out of the book of life instead.” Jesus has done the same for us

One of the most astonishing verses in all of the Bible is John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

The glory that even Moses could not see, we have seen and experienced because Jesus Christ, through His intercession, has invited us into the love of the triune God

In the presence of God, there is fulness of joy

Jonathan Edwards: Sometimes, only mentioning a single word will cause my heart to burn within me. Only seeing the name of Christ or seeing some attribute of God will suddenly make my heart burn, and God suddenly appears glorious to me making me have exalted thoughts of God. When I enjoy this sweetness, it seems to carry me above the thoughts of my own estate. It seems that at such times, I am at such a loss that I cannot bear it, and I cannot bring myself to take my eye from this glorious pleasant object.

Some of you heard me say these words and felt completely disconnected from them, because I was describing an experience that you have never had

If that’s you, do you want what I’ve been describing this whole time? Then submit to God today and recognize that when you submit to Him and pursue Him, He has made a way for you to experience this glory

The world constantly promises us satisfaction through wealth, success, pleasure, comfort, and recognition. But every idol makes a promise it cannot keep. It may capture our attention for a moment, but it cannot give us what our souls were made for.

Others of you heard me say these words from Jonathan Edwards and you said, yes, I know exactly what he’s talking about

If that’s you, then stop settling for lesser loves. Let us stop drinking from the empty wells of the world when the fountain of living water is open before us. Let us ask God to awaken in us a deeper hunger for Him—to make us people who do not merely seek what He can give, but who seek His face.

Because there is nothing sweeter than the presence of God. In His presence is fullness of joy. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore