Omni-what?

Foundations for Evangelism   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  47:09
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Tonight we are continuing with our series: Foundations for Evangelism (Go, Therefore, Confidently)
By way of brief reminder and road map, starting back in January, the first “chapter” in our series was on Worldviews, the second was on the Bible, and now we are on the topic of God. Later this year we will have a chapter on Hard Topics (like Hell, LGBTQ, Unbelieving Spouses, along with congregational questions, and will close this series with a “chapter” on Unity that will be heavily influenced by the book of the same name by Francis Chan.
But for today, we are going to look at God’s “omni” characteristics - a “trinity of Omnis” you might say - Omnipresence, Omniscience and Omnipotence. Just for ease, while I’m talking here the next minute or two, please open your Bibles to Psalm 139, we’ll get to the text shortly.
Earlier this week I sat down with Tina to conduct a “scientific” poll - a poll with a sample size of... one - about what comes to mind when a person hears the word “omni - anything” uttered.
Her “gut” response was Dodge Omni! I must say I have heard about this car for 22 years. And, in defense of to my wife’s beloved first car, it did have reliable 2/55 air conditioning (I some of you remember that) and.. AND… a legitimate, honest to goodness, steel bumper - the kind that was actually made to bump into things (without resulting in a 2000 repair bill!) But, despite its name, the Dodge Omni has nothing to do with the attributes of God!
Back to the matter at hand...
So I asked, “when I say omniscience, what does that mean to you?”
Tina: I have no idea...
OK, how about “omnipresence?”
Tina: ever present - always there.
Hmm, not quite, but on the right track..
Alright, let’s try “omnipotence?”
Tina: All I hear in my brain is “I am the great and powerful OZ!”
I looked at her and said, “babe, I can’t use that..”
She said, “sure you can, it’ll be funny!”
I said, “I suck at humor.”
Tina: “Yup, you do, but you can use it anyway, people will like it!”
So, there you have the results of my “scientific” poll. While it might not really have been scientific, or even a poll (I think for a poll you have to ask at least 2 or more people), I think was fairly accurate...
If I went around the room tonight and asked each of you the meaning of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, I think I can safely say I would receive a fairly diversified explanation of these words.
This is completely understandable - these are not words you and I use in our everyday conversations - if ever. You may be hearing these words for the first time tonight. And, even if you have heard these terms before, the person who has a comfortable understanding of them is probably the exception rather than the norm.
So, for those of you who are already preparing to turn off your brains to avoid that pain that comes with “theology stuff,” hold on, stick with me, because, while they are big seminary-type words, the concepts are pretty straight forward. And, at least we aren’t talking about the hypostatic union today! (or will we?)
Don’t worry, we are not going to be diving deep into these attributes, there simply isn’t time for that in a single sermon, but we will take a look at the basics of them and then I’m going to talk a bit about why they are important.
Before we dive into definitions, lets go to Psalm 139 for a moment:
Here in this Psalm, we see hints of all three of God’s omni-characteristics. Vs. 1-6 we see Omniscience, in vs. 7-12 we see Omnipresence and in vs. 13-16 we see Omnipotence.
Lets take a minute to define each of these characteristics and then look at the respective passages to see how they show up in Psalm 139.
Omniscience: God knows everything, all things actual and all things possible, effortlessly and equally well.
A.W. Tozier in his book Attributes of God explained it this way:
God has never learned from anyone. God cannot learn. Could God at any time or in any manner receive into his mind knowledge that he did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, he would be imperfect and less than himself...
God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.…
Because God knows all things perfectly, he knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, he is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor does he seek information or ask questions. (except when rhetorically quizzing humans for their own good)
Psalm 139:1–6 ESV
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
In short - God knows everything. If the thought of purple elephants pops in my mind, before I even had the thought, God knew it.
If you try to wrap your head around this (or any of God’s attributes - but especially the omnis) you will hurt your brain.
God’s Omniscience, like the Trinity, just is. We can explore this attribute, study it, see it from different angles, but we will never fully understand it.
God’s Omniscience sets Him apart from every other god throughout all history.
God knows everything.
Omnipresence: God is everywhere present with His whole being at all times.
Hildebert of Lavardin, a French Bishop born in 1055, put it this way:  “God is over all things, under all things, outside all; within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining, wholly within, filling”
God is not “diffused” throughout the universe - God’s presence is not like spreading butter on toast - God’s immanence, His presence, does not diminish in relation to the size of His creation; He is equally and fully everywhere - at the same time - while yet being fully distinct from His creation.
This is very different from pantheism - the idea that god is everything - as popularized in shows like the Lion King, Avatar, Pocahontas and... “may the force be with you” … Star Wars. Don’t be fooled by pantheism dressed up in nice clothes - the idea is a falsehood substituting for the true nature of God.
Psalm 139:7–12 ESV
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Again, God is everywhere. There is nowhere I can go to hide from God. If I climb to the top of Everest, or dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, God is there. If I fly to Mars. God is equally there. If I could somehow travel at the speed of light to the edge of the universe, God is there, too, fully and completely as he was everywhere else.
Like Omniscience, if you try to wrap you head around this you will hurt your brain.
God’s Omnipresence just is.
God’s Omnipresence sets Him apart from ever other god throughout all history.
God is everywhere.
Omnipotence: God is all-powerful and able to do anything consistent with His own nature.
To quote AW Tozier again:
Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. And that is what omnipotent means, having all power...
God possesses what no creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute. This we know by divine revelation, but once known, it is recognized as being in full accord with reason. Grant that God is infinite and selfexistent and we see at once that He must be all-powerful as well, and reason kneels to worship before the divine omnipotence.
(by the way, if you are not familiar with AW Tozier, I highly recommend you become familiar with him - Knowledge of the Holy, Pursuit of God and the Attributes of God are short, powerful and incredibly useful and important books)
Let’s go back to Psalm 139...
Start Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-lQOooYAs8
Psalm 139:13–16 ESV
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
To understand the gift and miracle of life is to understand God’s unlimited power - His omnipotence. From the order of the cosmos, to the order of our Milky Way Galaxy, to the order of our solar system, to the order of human life - all things are ordered and controlled - the miracle of two cells, one from each of two parents - each with half the chromosomes needed for life - coming together as one cell that, within 9 months, become roughly 2 Trillion cells all working together, consuming food containing the energy of the sun and converting it into heat and electricity to run this incredible machine we call our body. Just stop and ponder that for a minute - the awesome power of God displayed in our mere existence.
God is the Almighty, the all powerful, he is Omnipotent
Like our other Omni-attributes, if you try to wrap your head around it, you’ll hurt your brain.
God’s Omnipotence just is and it sets Him apart from ever other god throughout all history.
God is all-powerful.
God knows everything (Omniscient), God is everywhere (Omnipresent), God is all-powerful (Omnipotent).
Complex, yet simple? Deep, yet accessible? Eternal and Other-ly, yet personal, right?
Does this remind you of anyone? I don’t know about you, but that reminds me of Jesus.
Jesus is fully human AND Jesus is fully God (yes - that is the hypostatic union!) The Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent God who created us, put on the very human flesh he created and became one of us to rescue us from ourselves. To make a way for us to return to Him after we turned our backs on Him. (4th blank = Jesus for both)
Don’t miss this, in Jesus...
The Omnipresent God stepped into a place in time with us.
(God is everywhere present with His whole being at all times)
The Omniscient God condescended to experience all we experience and to lead and teach us to follow Him.
(God knows everything, all things actual and all things possible, effortlessly and equally well.)
The Omnipotent God laid down His life and allowed us mock and abuse and murder Him on a cross... paying our sin-debt through His death...
(God is all-powerful and able to do anything consistent with His own nature.)
The Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent God then rose from the grave defeating death!
Not because He needed us but because we needed Him;
Not because He was lonely but because we were estranged and hopeless;
Not because He felt any sort of guilt or responsibility for our sinful behavior but because we were shameful, guilty lost and wholly without any power to change our situation.
He did it because it is consistent with His nature - God. Is. Love.
Brothers, Sisters, this is Mercy (not receiving what we deserve - death), this is Grace (receiving what we don’t deserve - life), this is the Gospel, the Good News - admit that you are a sinner, that your works can’t save you, believe that Jesus is the Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent Eternal Almighty God, believe that Jesus took your place and did the work that you couldn’t - that through His death the penalty due for your sin was paid in full, and that in His resurrection you have hope for eternal life.
Friends, this is the Love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the Good News. This is our Hope, our Pearl of Great Price, the infinite Riches of God. All God asks is for you to have faith in - to believe - and follow Jesus. One last quote from Tozier… (See Crucified Life)
Hold fast to the Truth of God, the Mercy of God and the Grace of God found only in Jesus...
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