The Promise of Glory

Prayer

The Weight of Glory

Do you remember the climactic scene in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark?

If you’ve never seen movie, the title tells you main plot: Indiana Jones is an archaeologist / adventurer who is hunting for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark is the golden structure Israelites built as instructed by God to house the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the covenant between God and his people

Problem is, the Nazis are after it as well. Indiana finds the ark, but the Nazis find him, and in this scene they are all in a secret Nazi lair. Indiana and his lady friend, Marian, are tied up and the moment of truth has come. After thousands of years, they are about to open the Ark of the Covenant.

They carefully lift the cover off, everyone steps closer to get a better look, annnnnnnddd…nothing. Just sand. Huge disappointment.

But then...electrical equipment starts going haywire, sparking, light bulbs popping.

They hear a storm brewing…and it’s coming from inside the Ark. Light and fog start spilling out from the Ark while thunder crackles…they all step back. Indy warns Marian, “don’t look at it. Shut your eyes, don’t look at it no matter what happens.”

It all keeps building as streams of light start bursting out of the Ark, swirling around the room - as you look closely, there seem to be figures within the lights. They start swirling around the Nazi soldiers. One of the lead Nazis cries out, “It’s beautiful.”

One of the spectral figures slowly approaches another of the Nazis, a beautiful angelic face emerges…which slowly morphs into the face of death. The Nazis look in terror as they realize these are angels of death. Indy keeps shouting at Marian, don’t look, keep your eyes shut.

Then, fire, holy fire, bursts out of the Ark, and begins to consume the Nazis one by one (it’s rather gruesome). Until, finally, the fire fills the cave, and shoots up toward the heavens before it comes crashing down bringing the lid of the Ark of Covenant back on top of the ark itself, closing it back up. Then all is quiet. Only Indy and Marian and the Ark remain, everything and everyone else has been destroyed.

I really like this scene (not the melting faces so much), and one of the main reasons I like it is how seriously they took the glory of God. God is the Holy One, a consuming fire (literally, here), the King of Glory, King of kavod, he is weighty. Even the Ark containing his covenant commands with the Israelites is not to be trifled with, as the Nazis come to find out.

You see this throughout Scripture, when anyone encounters glory of God, they are overwhelmed, terrified by the sheer weight, splendor of God’s glory.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem to announce Jesus’ birth, the Bible says that the glory of the Lord shone around them. The shepherd’s response? They were terrified.

The apostle John has a vision of the glorified Jesus and it’s so beyond his imagining, he can barely describe it (Revelation 1) The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze flowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters…his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

Just imagine trying to draw that! I didn’t even mention the double-edged sword coming out of his mouth!

And how does John respond to this vision? “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” He just face plants to the ground, won’t move a muscle, he’s so scared.

In Exodus we see Moses coming down from Mount Sinai after having been with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights and receiving the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments on them.

But what Moses didn’t realize is that his face was radiant, glowing with the glory of God - so much so that the Israelites were afraid to come near him.

This is clearly a whole other level of glowing, radiant skin - no face moisturizer is going to give you that! Because his face was so radiant, he would wear a veil in the presence of Israelites. Think about that - even the divine glory that reflected on his face was too much for the Israelites to bear!

But the glory of the Lord is not meant to be feared and avoided, but embraced, longed for. Throughout this series, as we’ve talked about God’s glory, his kavod, we’ve talked about what that means for us, that God is the King of Glory.

We talked about the fact that we were made for the glory of God. To reflect it. We’ve all fallen far short of that.

We looked at how we can see God’s glory all around us - the whole earth is full of the glory of God - if we have eyes to see it.

Last week, we focused on the idea that by our lives we can help others see God’s glory, when we live to the glory of God in all that we do, eating, drinking - anything and everything.

This week, I want to take that point one step further. When we live for the glory of God, when we seek his glory, we will share in that glory. It is the promise of glory. God wants to invite us into his glory, to share it with us.

Paul, working off of the story in Exodus of Moses and his face reflecting God’s glory, says this (2 Corinthians 3:18): And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The more we look to the glory of God, contemplate it, seek it out, the more we will become like Jesus and share in his glory. God gives us his glory.

The Glory You Seek

There’s a basic truism that what you seek, you will in a sense, become. It will shape your heart. It will begin to define you. But it may not be what you hoped it would be. Jesus describes it this way in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

C.S. Lewis gives a striking example of this in his book from the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

A group of travelers is making a journey on a ship, making their way from island to island. On one of the islands, a boy by the name of Eustace wanders off from the rest of the group and finds a cave where he stumbles across a dying dragon and his hoard of treasure. The dragon dies, and Eustace rumbles through the treasure until he’s worn out, falling a sleep on a mountain of gold with, as Lewis writes, “greedy, dragonish thoughts” in his heart.

To his great surprise and horror, Eustace wakes up to find that he himself has become a dragon. He has become a treasure hoarding dragon. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark wanted the ark because of its power. They wanted to use that power for their evil purposes. They got their power, all right. Didn’t turn out so well for them.

Very thing you value most, what you nurture as thing you desire most, that will grab your heart. It will begin to define who you are and what you’re about.

If you treasure most the approval of people, you will find yourself constantly striving for the “likes” of others. They will begin to define who you become - and you’ll never know who you truly are.

If you treasure security, feeling safe, you can get it, but it will become a self-induced prison as you isolate your heart from others.

All this is why Jesus gives us wisdom to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you”. To live for the glory of God in everything we do. Because that’s exactly what we will begin to receive.

James Bryan Smith, in his book, the Good and Beautiful Life, illustrates this perfectly in telling the story of two men that he knew, both of whom had been born in 1910, had amazingly successful careers in their respective fields, yet whose lives had very different outcomes:

James met one of them, Ben Jacobs the summer he served as a interim chaplain at a retirement center. At Ben’s request, James would come to visit regularly. Ben’s story, as told by James…***

Ben Jacobs got exactly what he pursued, what he sought after, he just never thought it would bear this cost.

James Bryan Smith also got to know John Wooden

If you’re not familiar with John Wooden, he is considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time. His UCLA Bruins won ten national championships under his leadership - no other coach has won more than four. At one point, his team won 88 straight games - no other men’s team has won more than 42.

James asked him the secret to his life. John said, in 1935, at the age of 25 (same year and age Ben made his first million), John made up his mind to live by a set of principles and he never wavered from them. They were principles rooted in the teachings of Jesus. John chose to live a life to glory of God, to seek God’s glory in all that he did - and he came to share in that glory as well.

To the day he died, former players called him as often as once a week to tell him they loved him and what influence they had on his life, and to seek his advice. James writes about his experience with John, “John has lived an amazing life. His love for this beloved wife and for Jesus seemed to fill the room. He smiles infectiously, laughs easily and is genuinely humble. He is glad to be alive, able to see his children and grandchildren, but he told me he is ready to move on to the next life so he can be with Jesus and his beloved Nellie. John has lived a wonderful life, ‘better than I deserved,’ he told me. But the truth is that he has lived the kind of life we are meant to live, based on truth, virtue and integrity, a life leading to true happiness. John Wooden has lived a good and beautiful life.”

A good and beautiful life. A glorious life. A life radiating with the glory and goodness and love of Christ.

I hope that’s our desire. To seek the glory of God in order that we might share in the glory of God. That’s God’s amazing promise to us - promise of glory, but we will only find it in him.

Two ways we can actively seek the glory of God

First is one we do every Sunday, act of repentance. But what does that have to do with seeking glory of God? Let me share a couple of verses with you.

Romans 8:17-18 - Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Why sufferings? It’s process of dying to sin. Of all those false glories, all those other treasures we seek.

Philippians 3:10-11- I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

It is the way of Christ, the great humiliation, the cross, before the great exaltation, the resurrection.

Remember - those who exalt themselves will be humbled (those who glorify themselves will be humbled), while those who humble themselves (glorify God) will be exalted.

There’s a follow up to story of Ben Jacobs. Throughout the summer, as James and Ben continued to meet, Ben began to trust, that even at the age of 75, it wasn’t too late for him. He began to pursue life in Jesus. He began to humble himself, this self-made man sought to become a Jesus-made man, following his teachings. He asked forgiveness of his daughter. Ben Jacobs began to seek glory of God.

There’s suffering in this. Dying to self, whole way of thinking and living. Coming to deal with your sin and brokenness, people you’ve wounded. But it’s the only way to share in the glory of God as well.

James heard from Ben’s daughter, Rachel, after Ben’s death 13 years later. The two had reconciled. Rachel said he spent his last years a changed man. A man who quit seeking his own glory, sought the glory of God - and began to share in that glory. As James writes it, he died a radiant death.

Process of Repentance - willingness to share in the sufferings of Jesus, joining him in dying to sin (what needs to be crucified in me, Jesus?) so we can share in his glory. Make this a daily practice.

Pray the Lord’s Prayer Daily. If you look at this prayer closely, it’s a prayer that orients us toward glory of God.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. (Abba Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved above all others)

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Your Kingdom reign. We want you to reign as the King of Glory).

Rest of the prayer are our humble requests before King…give us this day our daily bread, forgive...

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, Amen (and that’s just the way we want).

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that reorients us, from self-seeking life toward a God-oriented life. We’re seeking glory of God. Glory that we will share in.

Let me finish with this quote...

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, he’s talking about the moment that all of us will experience one day when we come face to face to God. Day of Judgment, when we are judged, examined.

The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the Divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.

Do you hear what he’s saying…if we choose, if we embrace Jesus, his death on cross for us, if we repent and live for glory of God - we will survive that “examination.” That judgment.

Not just survive, but we shall find approval. We shall please God. And then he talks about what an amazing thing that is - that we could be a real ingredient in the Divine happiness - that you and I could bring joy to heart of God. God not pitying us, but loving, delighting in us - it seems improbable, impossible - a weight of glory that we can scarcely imagine. But so it is.

Indiana Jones was right - if we’re looking for our own glory, the divine glory will be a terrible thing to encounter. We will not want to come face to face with God. Don’t look!

But, on the other hand, he was absolutely wrong. There is no better place to look - and we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.

This is the promise of glory - as we seek the glory of God we will come to share in that glory.