Biblical Humanity - Knowledge

Intro -

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand” - Albert Einstein

In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare develops various characters. He gives them emotions and certain levels of information. If Hamlet were a real person in the play how could he go about finding out more about Shakespeare? Could you search the pages of the play write and learn Shakespeare’s favorite color or food? Prior to it being written could he find out his own purpose or why Shakespeare had created him? No, the only why Hamlet could learn anything about Shakespeare is if Shakespeare revealed it to him through writing it into the play. There’s nothing that could be initiated by Hamlet to learn more about his creator, it is the creator, Shakespeare who must bridge the gap and provide knowledge and purpose to Hamlet.

TR: As we examine humanity through the lens of Scripture we see that one of the items that man needs to rightly view is “knowledge” and first we must consider that knowledge is bestowed...

Knowledge Bestowed

Knowledge was bestowed in two ways, by the revelation of God and relationship of God.

In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare develops various characters. He gives them emotions and certain levels of information. If Hamlet were a real person in the play how could he go about finding out more about Shakespeare? Could you search the pages of the play write and learn Shakespeare’s favorite color or food? Prior to it being written could he find out his own purpose or why Shakespeare had created him? No, the only why Hamlet could learn anything about Shakespeare is if Shakespeare revealed it to him through writing it into the play. There’s nothing that could be initiated by Hamlet to learn more about his creator, it is the creator, Shakespeare who must bridge the gap and provide knowledge and purpose to Hamlet.

Imagine the amount of intellectual power Adam had. The innate ability not to learn the animals names but to bestow names upon them

Knowledge is something that is bestowed by the revelation of God.

Job 28:9–13 ESV

“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light. “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.

Knowledge, instruction, intellect, wisdom....all are related and intersect. While man may learn facts about things, they are only discovered through the revelation of God.

The gift of language, purpose, discerning the best path for all of God’s creation and cultivating it toward that path with no example to look to.

The true wisdom of this world, as Job states, cannot be found in the land of the living. It is something that must be revealed.

The knowledge of God was bestowed upon them through the presence of God and a untainted mind.

Try as Hamlet might, he could not have discovered anything about Shakespeare unless it was written into the script.

Adam was familiar with God and had direct access to Him. Imagine what those conversations would have been like as Adam explored his surroundings and discovered their potential.

Adam had a clear sense of identity and knew that there was nothing that was like him that was created.

Think of Adam and Eve, when creation started, were gifted with a tremendous task in stewarding God’s creation. That creation was built on the foundation of God’s wisdom.

As God brought animals of all shapes and sizes to him he inspected them, observing their features, movements, habits, uniqueness and then naming them accordingly.

Proverbs 8:22–31 ESV

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

He walked around the Garden looking at all of the plant life, flowers, fruit and vegetation as he learned to eat and create meals, all for the pleasure of it.

Wisdom is more than mere knowledge but is the application of that knowledge to God’s designed purpose of things.

Imagine Adam, as he examined the animals, one by one, examining their design, function and behaviors then naming them. Cultivating that ground with seeds that have been designed in a particular way by the Lord.

There was a discovery of the purpose of things that was revealed by God to him without question.

Pastor Brent mentioned how Adam, created physical, was tasked with exercising dominion over creation and helping it to yield its potential.

My son Malachi got a number of gifts recently but a couple of his favorite were some robots that he had to build. It was amazing to watch him studiously pull all of the parts from the box, open the booklet for instructions and then spend hours in exploratory bliss as he built, unlocking the potential and place of each part. Yet at the end of it what would he had done if he built it all and didn’t know what it as for? There would’ve sat a creation of some sort but with no purpose given.

In much the same way, God placed various parts in creation for Adam to put together, build and combine. Cultivate and manage, all through revealing it to him. God’s masterful creation.

However that knowledge is also bestowed through relationship with God

And it was in this that Adam discovered purpose for that creation. He had direct access to the source! While like my son Malachi, Adam may have discovered various pieces, but he also had direct access to the instruction manual AND a picture of what the finished product should look like and was for!

He knew the reason for things, the reason he was in the garden, the reason he was given a spouse, etc. He knew this not by simple discovery but by relationship with his creator who told him the purpose of things.

Think of the majesty of things as they explored and found gems, colors, effects and life. Naming it and cultivating it toward God’s desired end which was to enjoy it, help it to flourish to the glory of God.

TR: However, not too long after that knowledge was bestowed by the revelation and relationship with God, it was broken.

Knowledge Broken

Knowledge is broken through divorcing it from the Creator and directing it toward man

Knowledge is broken through divorcing it from the Creator

If perfect humanity had knowledge that was dependent on revelation of God than to destory that would mean making it dependent upon something else, chiefly man’s efforts.

Genesis 3:6–7 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:6

Notice the temptation of knowledge. It was that mankind, through his own efforts, can achieve divine level of wisdom in some other source than God. You’re not dependent on Him! The tree can give it!

It’s interesting how we are still going around chasing foolish things just like Adam did the Tree believing it can grant us knowledge but instead like them it ironically brings us simultaneously power and shame.

They had been naked this entire time and no shame, was nakedness somehow wrong, NO! But like many of us they acquired a truth and didn’t understand it.

Fact, when I paid my first light bill I swore I was grown. I knew that’s what grown people did and felt like a boss at that moment. No one could tell me what to do. I went home and like a boss left every light on I wanted to because I do what I want. Next month the bill came....shame.

Society has done a great job of grabbing facts about things but divorcing them from who revealed them. And when we do that we end up many times feeling things from those facts because our expectations aren’t met.

See to partner with what Pastor Brent said last week, emotions are valid and not wrong. However, many times the way we feel about things is going to be determined by what we know about them. But if that knowledge is divorced from the source than we’re left to our own devices to manage it.

Many times this leads to directing that knowledge toward glorifying man

When we direct knowledge to glorify man we become fools. We miss the purpose of things. The purpose of all that you know is to honor God.

2 Timothy 3:7 ESV

always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Imagine all of the information that we have our hands on. The internet exposes us to so much. Philosophers swore that if people knew better that they’d do better and yet what has the result been for all of our intellectual advancements?

It’s because for all of our advancements the one thing that man can’t do without God is ascribe purpose to things.

For instance, if I were to show you this watch and ask, is this a good watch or bad, what would you say? Or what about my car? I tried to draw a picture with it the other day and it didn’t work therefore it must be a bad car. You would look at me like I was foolish. Why? Because that’s not how it was intended to be used.

Yet this is how we approach so many things in our lives. Is this a good marriage or bad marriage? Bad marriage because it doesn’t bring me happiness.

Are they a good employee or bad? Good, they rarely show up but when they do they skip doing any work and just play on their phone causing no problems at all.

Lastly, are they a good person or bad person? What were they created for? See science can’t ever answer that. That is because it is based on wisdom, knowledge of intended purpose and that’s only achieved when information is viewed in relationship to God.

TR: However, we have not been left alone. Our intellect, wisdom, knowledge has been redeemed, bought back, through the person of Jesus Christ...

Knowledge Bought Back

Knowledge is redeemed through Jesus and produces awe of God and compassion toward people

Knowledge is bought back, redeemed, through Jesus Christ

Going back to the example of Hamlet, unlike Shakespeare who didn’t write anything about himself into the play. Not only did God write about Himself into the creation (cf. ) but also, He literally wrote Himself into the play.

He became a character in His own story. Why? To show us many things but not the least of which is the perfect human.

For all of Jesus’ knowledge it was all directed for one purpose, to honor God. However, when it’s directed to give us a better understanding of God, it’s so much more beautiful.

Invite up Jon Weinzerl, Christa Rice and Devaney Cole

Knowledge when redeemed produces awe of God and compassion toward people

Notes:

Philippians 2:5 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

There is a mind that comes with being a believer. If you use it than it radically changes how you view God and man. You begin to see things as God sees them, facts with the purpose that God sees them and you become less foolish.

Knowledge in the Garden of Eden

Imagine the amount of intellectual power Adam had. The innate ability not to learn the animals names but to bestow names upon them

Some of you all right now know things about people, situations, etc. and you use those things to make yourself more comfortable. You become the purpose of that knowledge.

You end that relationship because you learned some things and now it’s time to end. You learned you have some excess income and now it’s time to blow it on yourself. See, you’re comfort is the purpose, just like Adam thought.

The gift of language, purpose, discerning the best path for all of God’s creation and cultivating it toward that path with no example to look to.

INCREASE INTENSITY

The knowledge of God was bestowed upon them through the presence of God and a untainted mind.

However, that’s not what Jesus did.

Adam had a clear sense of identity and knew that there was nothing that was like him that was created.

John 21:17 ESV

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

Jesus when betrayed, knowing who did it, LOVED!!! His knowledge led Him to compassion for man. He KNEW we’d need redemption and therefore came to man’s aid, not His judgment. He had forebearance with people!!!

He used his resources, his knowledge of things, to display the Father who HE KNEW!!!

His knowledge of fishing, farming, weather, etc. all used to highlight the Father to the world.

What do you use your knowledge for????

Some of you all are approaching things wondering why they don’t work right, maybe it’s because you think the purpose of those things is for you!!! It’s for God!!

But when you see things through the lens of God, everything is more beautiful. You have compassion on people when they sin, not disdain. You see the pain in people and it breaks you, it doesn’t cause you revulsion! JUST LIKE JESUS!!!