The God Questions

May 29, 1994

TRINITY SUNDAY

John 3:3 Jesus answered [Nicodemus:] "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

On a day called Trinity Sunday you might imagine that we ought to consider the deep and profound mystery of the Triune God. But when we begin asking deep and profound questions, as Nicodemus did one night to Jesus, we find that Jesus does not deal in abstract speculation. Instead He challenges us about life in the Spirit, and He asks us if we are ready to live by the very breath of the Spirit. We come to know God when we respond to His self-revelation. We come face to face with that revelation when we dare to ask what I call the God-questions.

To begin to think about God, as impertinent as it sounds, we have to ask at least three God-questions: (1) IS THERE A GOD? (2) WHAT IS GOD LIKE? (3) WHAT IS THIS GOD TO ME?

I. IS THERE A GOD?

It may seem sacrilegious to ask such a question from a Christian pulpit. Of course there is a God! As a church we certainly are not neutral in this matter. We believe it, we teach it. We certainly don't intend to leave to our children to decide for themselves when they turn eighteen. We have all been brought up on the (good) assumption that there is, indeed, a God.

And yet for most people God is not very "real." The fact is that many believers— even professing Christians— live from day to day as though God did not exist at all.

"IS there a God?" YES! And yet each one of us has to answer that question for ourselves! This is a God-question— a question that only God can finally answer by revealing Himself. There are what Morris Weigelt calls "intersections"— God-crossed moments in each of our lives when we KNOW we have encountered God.

Oh, we could speak of evidences: (1) We see God in His Creation: the heavens declare the glory of God! (2) We come up against the fact of God in The written word: "God at sundry times and divers manners has in the past spoken to us by His prophets! (3) The highest "proof" of God is The Living Word: Jesus said, "If you have seen ME you have seen the Father!"

But finally, God Himself must make Himself known to us. And He does, He will, if we are prepared to respond. He does this in many different ways.

[ I think on this college-dominated weekend of the godly men and women who showed me God's face while they taught me here at E.N.C. I have a portrait of Bertha Munro on my study wall. God has spoken to us by their faith; faith revealed to faith. And I often wonder can OUR LIVES answer, begin to answer that question for those who may be seeking an answer?]

It is a question that cannot be satisfied by cold logic and facts, but God still does convince and assure us when we dare to look for Him (Hebrews 11:6.) We seek Him with the gift of faith, and He makes Himself known. Have you been thinking of intersections in YOUR life where this question has been answered beyond doubt for you?

But that brings us to a second question:

II. WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

There are plenty of people who are ready to answer this question for us if we will let them. Some of the answers are helpful, or even necessary.

We have our "official" definitions of God; the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene states:

"We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign of the Universe; that

He only is God, creative and administrative, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose; that He, as God, is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

Such definitions are both good and necessary. But they are not complete or exhaustive. And they don't leave us with a very warm feeling.

The Bible gives more light on the question of what God is like; there are names that are deeply significant. Names like Elohim (power;) and "the unspeakable name" which the ancient Hebrews would not speak— the name Moses heard as I AM THAT I AM, the name we call Jehovah and scholars usually call Yahweh. The Jews had compound names Jehovah-Jirah (the LORD will provide) and Jehovah-Nissi (the LORD my banner) and Jehovah-Shalom (the LORD send peace) and Jehovah-Shammah (the LORD is there) and Jehovah-Tsidkenu (the LORD our righteousness.) Another Hebrew name for God was "El Shaddai" (God our Nourisher) "Adonai" which means lord or master was usually spoken when the 'unspeakable name" was read with the eye.

Jesus told us a lot about God; He showed us that God is SPIRIT, and that God is LIGHT and God is LOVE and God is LIFE ETERNAL. Interpreted and illuminated by the other New Testament writers we learn to say that God is HOLY, God is ETERNAL, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We say that God is OMNIPRESENT and OMNISCIENT and OMNIPOTENT.

And the very highest insight we can have into the question WHAT IS GOD LIKE? is Jesus Himself. It was E. Stanley Jones who was famous for saying, "We have a Christ-like God!"

But once again— this is a God-question. Many people are genuinely convinced that God exists. But all too many of them do not know for themselves that God is like Jesus, His Son— loving, full of grace and truth; and that God is present in this world by His Holy Spirit. In His great love, God reveals that He truly is like His Son, Jesus. In Jesus God has come all the way to where we live.

But there is a third God-question. And if we are open and honest before Him we will face the challenge:

III. WHAT IS THIS GOD TO ME?

God IS, and that's a fact which we may be convinced of. God is like Jesus, and we can believe that, too. But nothing really happens in the spiritual world until by grace we respond to God in a person-to-Person connection. The greatest question is not just what God is, or what He is like, as important as those questions are. But the important question for you and for me is Who is God to YOU?

Jesus put it to Nicodemus this way: You can't even SEE the kingdom of God until you are born again! The Spirit has to breathe life into your being! If you don't have a personal relationship with God you are window dressing in the kingdom of God, absolutely void of spiritual life and power.

Two-hundred-fifty-six years ago last Tuesday— although in 1738 it was a Wednesday- - an Anglican priest went half-heartedly to a small group Bible study and prayer meeting. The study was Romans. The leader read an introduction to the book by Martin Luther. The Anglican priest said later that as the leader was reading he felt his heart was strangely warmed, and he knew in his heart that he was a Christian, his sins forgiven, the assurance of his salvation certain.

Before that hour John Wesley had eloquently answered God-questions one and two both with word and with deed. He knew more about God then than most of us will ever know, perhaps. But after he answered the third question he did not just know about God, he knew that he KNEW GOD! And his Gospel message abruptly changed, and he began to go about his duties with a different emphasis. "You can KNOW God! You can KNOW YOU ARE SAVED!" And in the next 50 years John Wesley changed the course of history!

Jesus does not deal in abstract speculation. He asks us if we are ready to live by the very breath of the Spirit. He says to YOU "Are YOU born of the Spirit of God?" If you want to know more about God, let Him have your heart! God has made Himself known to you in many ways! You know that He is a God who loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that you might have eternal life. But who is this God TO YOU just now?

Prayer: Great God, our Father, our Friend! Speak again to us today! Help us to know not only THAT You are, and WHAT You are— but help us to KNOW YOU! Help us to belong to YOU! Help us to return Your great love, and share it with a world that needs You. Amen

#42 (in Sing to the Lord) Praise, My Soul the King of Heaven