People of the Presence
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good morning. It is a privilege to preach the Word of God to you all this morning. I have had aWord stirring in my heart for us all week, and God placed on my heart to speak on the Holy Spirit a few weeks ago, but gave me more specific direction this week.
The title of this message is called “People of the Presence”. This morning I want to talk to us about being people who live continually with the Presence of God. As I have been studying, and praying, and writing this sermon, God has showed me that the central cry, the central theme that ties all the Bible together is the Presence of God among His people and creation. I think you will see this as we move along this morning. Let’s read 1 Cor 3:16-17 together.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
At first glance, we are tempted to think that Paul is just pulling at random with the imagery of Temple. However, as you survey the entirety of Scripture you see that Paul is actually picking up on a Theme that is prevalent throughout ALL OF THE SCRIPTURES. This is a very, very important theme, and is paradigm shaping in our understanding of the People of God; People of the Presence.
Let’s Pray and we will jump into what God has for us this morning:
Survey of OT: Presence
Survey of OT: Presence
Survey of OT: Eden
Survey of OT: Eden
As you look at the Bible, again, we will see this crucial topic of Presence. In fact this bookends the entirety of Scripture. In Genesis 2-3 we see the Creator God filling His world with His presence, and then creating mankind.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Apparently something that was a regular occurence was that God walked among His people freely in the Garden of Eden. We see that mankind was created and designed to live continually in the Presence of God. However, we know that this did not last. Sin entered the picture through the deception of the serpent and the desire for humanity to choose for themselves rather than listen to God’s perfect word.
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
We usually read this quickly, but don’t miss the significance of this. Adam and Eve were sent AWAY from God’s Presence. Biblically in Old Testament moving East was seen as moving away from the Presence of God.
So we see from the opening pages of Genesis the internal cry of creation and humanity it to be in the presence of God.
Survey of OT: Mount Sinai/Tabernacle
Survey of OT: Mount Sinai/Tabernacle
As we progress through Genesis we see God begin to form a people of His own, and leading the lives of people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Egypt the people of God grow into a mighty number, and God uses Moses to bring the people out of Egypt. Then the next time we see God’s presence manifest around his people is at Mount Sinai:
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.” Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’ ”
The problem here was that the people could not come into the presence of God because of their sin, but God still intended to dwell among them. So he had Moses oversee the construction of the Tabernacle.
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
This was a way that God would be able to dwell among his people. However, the problem of sin still remained. Only select people were able to go before God in the deepest part of the tabernacle to dwell with God.
God even told Moses at one point that he would not move on with them.
Moses knew the inadequacy of moving without the Presence of God
He pleaded with God to remain with them and He did. God’s glory filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:35) and they began to journey to the place the according to Deut 12:11 “the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for Himself”.
Stick with me, we are going somewhere with all this, I promise.
Survey of OT: Temple
Survey of OT: Temple
We see God make good on His promise in 1 Kgs 8:11 when God “filled His temple”.
When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
This is the crowing moment of the Israeli history. The House of God, the majestic, wonderful temple was built, and God’s presence filled that temple. The people weren’t even able to stand before the glory of God. It was a powerful and dynamic moment. The presence of God is what set Israel apart from all other people. And now God was dwelling in the Temple. The Temple was seen as synonomous with God’s presence. Every Jew looking would have immediately connected the Temple with the Presence of God.
In fact, the temple reminded Israel of the Garden of Eden. It had pictures and images of trees and other garden like things. It was meant to bring back the mental image of Eden.
As glorious of a moment as this was, it did not last. It is not long before we see Israel once again turning to sin and idolatry. This continued until finally Ezekiel records perhaps the most sobering moment for the Ancient Jew:
Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.
God’s Presence withdrew from His people. It wasn’t long after this that they were leading into captivity and exile. But even though God had withdrew His presence, all was not lost. The prophets foretold of a day that the presence of God would return, and this tine forever.
My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’ ”
So the people of God held on to this hope for years, awaiting again the day that God would once again return to his people.
Jesus
Jesus
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
God accomplished this in an expected way. Let’s look at John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For years and years the prophets foretold of a day that God once again would dwell with His people. Can you imagine, being God’s covenant people growing up with the expectancy that God would return.
But God did not come as he did in the past to Israel, He came in the Person of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the words “the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple”. God literally came to the Temple in the Person of Jesus. God literally visited His people by Jesus walking throughout Isreal, teaching in the temple and the synagogues.
God once again, was dwelling with His people through Jesus.
Yet, there still remained the problem of sin. The Dwelling of God still couldn’t fully be with man because of sin, but God’s solution also came through Jesus. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, sin was rendered powerless. Atonement was made by the blood of the Lamb. God became man through Jesus so sin could be defeated, death is broken, and new life, the true life that God intended for humanity to live in, was now possible.
New Testament: The Holy Spirit & the Church
New Testament: The Holy Spirit & the Church
But Jesus did not remain on the earth, but that was never God’s plan. His plan was to send His spirit to dwell with all mankind. In the Old Testament we see unique anointings given by the Holy Spirit, but very few were permanent. But through the Holy Spirit God intended to fulfill the promise of “His sanctuary or his dwelling would be with them forever.”
As the people of God, we are the temple of God. God has made each of us a temple for His spirit to dwell, and collectively we all for the universal temple of God
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
This changes everything. I fear that we have grown complacent and unimpressed by God’s marvelous plan. Before this happened, before God’s people’s sin was atoned for and the Holy Spirit was given to the church we had NOTHING. We had no future. We had no salvation. We had no hope.
What do we do?
What do we do?
But now we are People of the Presence. Our lives should be marked by the power of the Spirit. We should be people who are marked by the joy of the Spirit. We are people who carry God with us everywhere we go.
- Far too often we live as if God’s presence has left the temple. We often live as if God’s Spirit has left us. We may give lip service to the Spirit or nod when someone says something, but in reality we live as if the Spirit was absent from us.
- We can live with expectancy for the Spirit to move in is and bring life into the church. Healings can happen among the people of God. Miracles. Prophetic words that reshape our lives. Incredible moments of God’s presence as we sit in silence before God. Long, enduring peace in the midst of trials. Genuine joy and hope.
Church we need no longer to live like God is absent from us because he has removed that obstacle. God’s Spirit is here among us, and He is here to stay.
Our mission must be marked by the presence of God. Too often we try to advance the mission of God without the presence of God. Without His Spirit. But we cannot do it. We can have all the programs we want, we can have all the polished music we want, we have the sharpest teachers and preachers, but without the presence of God, with the work of the Holy Spirit on display among us, it won’t happen.
Response:
Response:
The world needs people who are full of the Holy Spirit. The world needs people who will carry the Presence of God to them. They don’t even have to come to church because God has made His dwelling among us. You and I are temples of God. The presence of God is among us each individually and us collectively.
I know I am young and many of you have followed Jesus far longer than I have, but I am so hungry to see God move in my life and in our church. I long to see Him bring awakening and renewal to His church. I’m thirsty to see people come to know Jesus. Eagerly desire God’s presence and walk in it. Seek to experience the new creation life and power of the Spirit. I don’t want to just hear stories as if they are a thing of the past. I want to experience the Holy Spirit now. I want my own stories to testify of the power of the Spirit in my life.
As we pray, would you begin to call out to God. Call out for Him to send His spirit and shake us up. Fill us with His presence. Make us a people who are marked by his Presence.
Pray