El-Shaddai (God Almighty of all-sufficiency)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 31 2009

Genesis 17:1, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD [Yahweh] appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’”

All-sufficiency… Today, I want to introduce to you another new name of God from the Old Testament.  El-Shaddai captures God's attribute of all-sufficiency. Elohim the Creator God and Yahweh the relational and holy redeeming God is God Almighty, El-Shaddai who is all-sufficient God.

1. El-Shaddai: Only all-powerful God can be all-sufficient God.

Let me start off by showing you a clip from Bruce Almighty featuring Jim Carry and Steve Carell.  It is about Bruce getting back at Evan after being endued with divine power.

God who is not all-powerful cannot be all-sufficient. In God’s name El-Shaddai, we see God as all-powerful. El-Shaddai is a Hebrew compound word formed by El and Shaddai. El is even more generic word than Elohim and it means God with power and strength occurring about 228 times in the Old Testament.

Here are some examples that show El as mighty God in his power and strength. Psalm 77:14, “You are the God [El] who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.” Psalm 68:35, “You are awesome, O God [Elohim] in your sanctuary; the God [El] of Israel gives power and strength to his people.” Psalm 18:2, 30, 32, 47, “my God [El] is my rock, in whom I take refuge… As for God [El], his way is perfect… It is God [El] who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect… He is the God, [El] who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies.”

As El-Shaddai, God is powerful in his might. This attribute of power is well reflected in the translations of El-Shaddai in English Bibles as God Almighty. We might assume that El-Shaddai, God Almighty must be able to do anything and everything. But, the truth is El-Shaddai doesn’t do anything and everything that would not reflect who he is. For example, Can God lie? Titus 1:2 says, “God, who does not lie,” and Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie…” Andrew Juke says, “Almightiness is the power to carry out the will of a Divine nature… He must be able to carry out His own will and purpose to the uttermost.”[2] Another word, in whatever God does he is always true to who he is. He doesn’t act inconsistently to his attributes. El-Shaddai, God Almighty, is always powerful to carry out his purpose according to his will and his character to completion. 

Elisabeth Elliot wrote in Shadow of the Almighty about Jim Elliot who was killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador along with his four other missionary buddies. The title comes from Psalm 91 which invites readers to consider God’s protection for his people. Specifically, the book’s title comes from Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty [Shaddai].” The psalm further spells out how God protects his people against fowler’s snare, the deadly pestilence, the terror of night, the arrow, the plague… Psalm 91:10-11, “no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angles concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:13, “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.”

Now consider the five young missionaries who were speared to death in the hands of Auca Indians. Doesn’t it seem to betray God’s promise from Psalm 91 to protect his people from physical harms? Was God Almighty, El-Shaddai, not powerful enough to protect these five young men from being killed? John Piper notes in his sermon that Elisabeth Elliot “called her book Shadow of the Almighty from Psalm 91:1 because she was utterly convinced that the refuge of the people of God is not a refuge from suffering and death but a refuge from final and ultimate defeat.”[3]

When we take a long view of life, God’s ultimate goal is to present each of us to himself as pure and blameless overcomers who are molded into the image of Christ. El-Shaddai is powerful to carry out his purpose in spite of all our temporary setbacks, difficulties, trials even seemingly untimely death like Jim Elliot and his four friends.

Satan told Jesus in Matthew 4:6, “If you are the Son of God… throw yourself down. For it is written.” He then quoted from the same Psalm 91, specifically he quoted from Psalm 91:12, “He will command his angels concerning you… they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Matthew 4:6, c.f. Luke 4:10-11). To this Jesus answered, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the LORD your God to the test.’” I like what VanGemeren has to say about this. He says that he who knows and trusts in the power of God and God’s protection walks securely while acting responsibly. So, testing God by subjecting themselves to harms and troubles to see how far God would go to protect them is no sign of faith.[4] To test God like this is to view El-Shaddai, God Almighty as nothing more than an insurance against accident rather than truly all-powerful God.

2. El-Shaddai who is all powerful is all-sufficient God.

As the word El helps us understand El-Shaddai is all powerful God, Shaddai helps us understand El-Shaddai is God Almighty who is all-sufficient God.

God told Moses in Exodus 6:3, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by my name the LORD [Yahweh] I did not make myself known to them.” In the generations belonging to patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they knew of God as El-Shaddai. So going back to Genesis 17:1 where God’s name, El-Shaddai first appears 17:1 we see “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD [Yahweh] appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’” Later God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, from “exalted father” to “father of many nations.” So, we read in Genesis 17:5-7, “No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”

El-Shaddai who promised Abraham to increase his numbers, to make him father of many nations, and to make him very fruitful is God Almighty, is all-powerful God who is all-sufficient to bless Abraham abundantly.

When you read the rest of Genesis, you can see this promise for El-Shaddai’s abundant blessing passing down through the generations after Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, and even to Joseph.

Genesis 28:3-4, in Isaac’s blessing for Jacob, “May God Almighty [El-Shaddai] bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham…”

In Genesis 48:3-4, when Jacob was ill and wanted to bless his sons, he retold his son Joseph of what El-Shaddai, God of all sufficiency promised him, “God Almighty [El-Shaddai] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.”

In Genesis 49:25, we see Jacob blessing Joseph, “your father’s God [El], who helps you… the Almighty [Shaddai] who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.” El, God who is mighty to help you is, Shaddai, who blesses with abundant blessings for he is all-sufficient God.

El-Shaddai, is all-sufficient God who seeks to bless you abundantly. Do you know El-Shaddai?

3. To know El-Shaddai, God of all sufficiency, you must give up your self-sufficiency.

Consider Genesis 17:1 again. Yahweh revealed himself to Abraham and told him, “I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless.” To understand this verse we need to consider the context of God revealing himself as, “I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai] and commanding Abraham, “walk before me and be blameless.” Nathan Stone says, “Abraham’s faith had been marred by the fleshly and self-sufficient expedient to which he had resorted. The mighty all-sufficient One demands and deserves our complete faith-a wholehearted faith.”[5]

God first appeared to Abram in Genesis 12:1 where God told Abram to leave his country, his people, his father’s household to the land which he was going to show him. And, in Genesis 12:2, we see God making the promise to make Aram into a great nation, to bless him, to bless all peoples through him. And, we see in Genesis 12:4, “Abram left, as Yahweh had told him.” So, early on, we see Abram walking in faith.

But, as time went on, his faith was tested. When he got to Egypt, he was fearful of what might happen to his wife Sarai. So, he told her to lie to the Egyptians by saying she was his sister. Abram did this because he didn’t fully understand El-Shaddai was all-sufficient God, powerful to protect him and his wife. Abram took the matter into his own hand rather than trusting El-Shaddai, all-sufficient God. When we take matters into our own hands, we don’t make things better, we make them worse. Pharaoh thinking that Sarai was available took her into his palace to make her own. God intervened by inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household and Sarai was protected, untouched (Genesis 12:10-20).

How about the time when Sarai told Abram in Genesis 16:2, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I cam build a family through her.” And, Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So, there was Ishmael born to Abram not by Sarai, but by her Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagan born him Ishmael (Genesis 16:16). Over ten years has passed since El-Shaddai promised Abram would become a great nation. And, El-Shaddai’s promise wasn’t fully realized yet in their lives. They kept their faith in El-Shaddai’s promise to them. But, as time went on without immediate fulfillment, their faith in all-sufficient El-Shaddai was tested. We see how much their faith had wavered when we consider Sarai who assumed that El-Shaddai kept her from having children. What’s not written explicitly we can understand implicitly that Sarai and Abram didn’t trust in El-Shaddai as truly all-sufficient God to fulfill his promise to bless them with a child.

What was El-Shaddai doing in Abram and Sarai’s life? He waited until when all seemed to have failed. This is precisely when God revealed himself to Abram as El Shaddai in order to perfect him in his weakness.[6] It is precisely when things were dark and hope was fading that God intervened to change Abram and Sarai’s names. When we are weak and have little to go on, it might be a blessing in disguise for we may experience El-Shaddai as Abraham and Sarah did.

Andrew Juke said, “Thus His Almightiness comes to us in what appears to be our helplessness. The less of self, the more of God.[7] Nathan Stone agrees, “to experience God’s sufficiency one must realize one’s own insufficiency. To experience God’s fullness one must empty self… The less empty of self we are, the less of blessing God can pour into us; the more of pride and self-sufficiency, the less fruit we can bear.”[8]

4. Conclusion

Has God renamed you as he did with Abram and Sarai, to chang them to Abraham and Sarah because now they finally understood El-Shaddai is all sufficient and all powerful to fulfill his promise to bless them?

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[1] http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:R6h3hAJK2oYJ:www.ccel.org/ccel/smith_hw/comfort.XVII.html+all+sufficiency+God+illustration&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[2] Andrew Jukes, The Names of God. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1889, p. 63-64.

[3] http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/1/454_My_Name_Is_God_Almighty/

[4] VanGemeren, Willem A. “IV. Forms of Protection (91:11-13)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 5. 601. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1991.

[5] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

[6] Andrew Jukes, The Names of God, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1889, p. 62

[7] Ibid., p. 72.

[8] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

Yahweh, Psalm 9:10

hwhy

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 24 2009

Last week, we considered the common name of God, Elohim. Today, our focus will be on God’s proper, his personal name Yahweh. One has said that Elohim is God’s creational name, and Yahweh is God’s relational name.”[1] With Elohim, we understand that he is the uncaused being who was before the creation and who created the universe out of nothing. With Elohim, we understand God is greater, bigger than the universe he created out of nothing. With Elohim, we understand properly how insignificantly smaller than the smallest we are to God, Elohim, our Creator.

While Elohim occurs over two thousand times in the Old Testament, Yahweh occurs most frequently as the name of God at over 6800 times. With Yahweh, we can understand he exists, he is holy, and as relational God, he is pained by our sins, and he redeems us.

1. About the name Yahweh

Called the Tetragrammaton, tetra meaing “four” and grammatos “letter.” You may wonder in reading your Bible perhaps in various translations, you have not come across Yahweh, God’s name. You are right. You will not come across Yahweh in your reading of the Bible. But, what you do come across is, “the LORD,” all in capital letters. NIV and other English translations have decided to translate Yahweh with the capitalized “LORD.” The LORD is not a proper, personal name of Yahweh and thereby obscures the meaning of Yahweh. But, it’s been used that way because Jewish people have been very cautious about following the rules and commands. God told the Israelites Exodus 20:7, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD [Yahweh] your God [Elohim], for the LORD [Yahweh] will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

So being cautious, in reading the scripture they have used another Hebrew word like Adonai, which means “my Lord” for Yahweh. So, instead of reading, “You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh,” the Jewish people would read it, “You shall not misuse the name of Adonai.” But, being even more abundantly cautious, many Jews would not even use Adonai for Yahweh, instead they would use other terms like HaShem which means, “The Name.”[2]

Some may accuse the Jews for being legalistic and stickler when it comes to enforcing rules and commands. But, Christians often take the name of God so causally without thinking and misuse it to express their feelings about something or worse as expletives. We don’t want to become legalistic, but we need to take God seriously when he says he doesn’t want you and me to misuse his name.

You may have heard Jehovah instead of Yahweh. This is an older attempt to pronounce Yahweh and has been debunked inaccurate. The most well educated consensus is that the personal name God, Elohim revealed to us is pronounced Yahweh.

Isaiah 42:8 reads, “I am the LORD [Yahweh]; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” And, Psalm 9:10 reads, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD [Yahweh], have never forsaken those who seek you.” My prayer is that you and I learn to cherish and know Yahweh who never forsakes us as we seek him.

2. Yahweh exits.

Nathan Stone says that Yahweh is “One who will always be: personal, continuous, absolute existence.”[3] The best clue to understanding the meaning of God’s personal name comes from Exodus.

Exodus 3:13-15, “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God [Elohim] of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is your name? Then what shall I tell them?” God [Elohim] said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites; ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

I like what NIV Study Bible has to say about how God’s self disclosure as “I AM WHO I AM” relates to his name Yahweh. The Hebrew verb, to be, hayah (hyh) is used in the first person form here twice. When God refers to himself, he is, “I AM.” But, when we refer to him, he wants us to call him not as “I AM” but as “He is,” which is what Yahweh means “He is” or “He will be.” Grammatically speaking Yahweh is the third person form of the Hebrew verb translated as “I AM” or also as “I WILL BE” in Exodus 3:12 and 14. The difference we see here is that when God speaks of himself he says, “I AM.” When we speak of him, we say, “He is” that is Yahweh.[4]

What’s the implication that Yahweh means, “He is” or “He will be” that Yahweh exists?

Yahweh first appeared in Genesis 2:4 along with Elohim God, and Yahweh was first called upon in Genesis 4:26; “At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD [Yahweh].” But, it was not until later time in Exodus that God clearly revealed himself as Yahweh, Exodus 6:2-3 says, “… I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.” Walter Kaiser said,

Yahweh is the God who would personally, dynamically, and faithfully be present to fulfill the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The patriarchs had only the promises, not the things promised.[5]

Yahweh who exists was present with the generations of patriarchs, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yahweh gave them the promises, but they didn’t yet experience the fulfillment of God’s promises. It was in Exodus that Yahweh who was present with the Moses generation allowed them to experience the fulfillment to his promises to the generations of the patriarchs.

The implication is that Yahweh who exits is God who was, is and will be with and for us at all times and places faithfully. Yahweh who exits means God doesn’t act arbitrarily, capriciously or randomly but can be counted on to be who he is. [6] For it says in Psalm 102:27, “… you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

Yahweh who exists was present with the generations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua… And, today, Yahweh who exists is with us. We now encounter Yahweh in Jesus Christ who spoke of himself as “I am.” The Hebrew name for Jesus is Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎), Joshua as known in English and it means Yahweh saves. When an angel showed up to Joseph he said in Matthew 1:21, “… you are to call him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus said about himself in John 8:58, “before Abraham was born, I am!” And, the Jews responded in verse 59, “At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” They tried to stone Jesus because he was using God’s self revealed name for himself. In John, you find many “I am” statements from Jesus.

• I am the bread of life. (John 6:35)
• I am the light of the world. John 8:12; 9:5
• I am the door. John 10:7
• I am the good shepherd. John 10:11, 14
• I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14:6
• I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25
• I am the true vine. John 15:1

Yahweh who exits was with the Israelites in the history, and today Yahweh is still with us.

3. Yahweh is pained/grieved by our sins.

Yahweh who exits is holy. Psalm 11:7, “For the LORD [Yahweh] is righteous, he loves justices; upright men will see his face.” Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD [Yahweh] your God [Elohim], am holy.” Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD [Yahweh] Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”

What we see in the Bible is that Yahweh who is holy is pained/grieved by our sins.

Consider the account of the fall. Yahweh in Genesis 2:16, “And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Later in the account of Satan tempting Eve and Adam in silence abdicating his leadership, neither Satan nor Eve mentions God by his personal name, Yahweh, but only as God Elohim.[7] Satan asked, “Did God [Elohim] really say…” And, Eve answered, “God [Elohim] did say…” And, Satan lied, “You will not surely die… For God [Elohim] knows that when you eat of it your eyes will opened, and you will be like God [Elohim].” By refusing to recognize the name of God, Yahweh who put them under moral obligation, they were ignoring and rejecting God’s holy character.

Consider the flood… Genesis 6:5-7, “The LORD [Yahweh] saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth has become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD [Yahweh] was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain…”

Consider the time of when Jephthah was the judge over Isreal. Judges 10:6 says that Israelites did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. And, verse 7, Yahweh became angry with them and taking his protective hands from them thereby allowing them to be enslaved into the hands of Philistines and the Ammonites. But, when they turned to God and asked him to rescue them in Judges 10:16, it says, “he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”

Consider the time after the Exodus. Yahweh, “the great God [Elohim], the great King above all gods,” (Psalm 95:3) said in Psalm 95:10-11, “For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

Consider Isaiah 63:9-10, “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”

Consider Jesus on the up to Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37 He too was grieved by the stubborn refusal by the Israelites to welcome him as their Messiah, their Savior, “O Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

4. Yahweh redeems us from our sins into righteousness.

Andrew Jukes wrote, “His righteousness is not fully declared until He makes His creatures righteous with His own righteousness.”[8] Jeremiah 23:6 speaks to this desire of Yahweh, “This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD [Yahweh] Our Righteousness.” In Yahweh, what we see God who is moved in compassion as it says in Hosea 11:8, “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”

Consider these passages where we see Yahweh moved by compassion to rescue his people.

Exodus 3:7-8, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and hone- the home of the Canaanites…. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Exodus 6:6, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you… I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgments. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God… I will bring you to the land I swore… to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”

Zechariah 13:9 speaks about God putting through the Israelites a refining process, “This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD [Yahweh] is our God.”

Psalm 81:10-11, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with hone from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Exodus 33:18, “Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” Exodus 34:5- 7, “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD [Yahweh]. And, he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, [Yahweh, Yahweh] the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

5. Yahweh allows us to draw to him by making sacrifice for us.

In Genesis 3:8-9, we see the portrait of Yahweh seeking out Adam and Eve as they were hiding from him in shame, “… they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” Yahweh already knew the choice Adam and Eve made. But, we see him still seeking after them.

Later in Genesis 3:21 we see Yahweh at work, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This is the first account of sacrifice being made and here it was made by Yahweh Elohim himself. To make garments of skin required sacrifice of animals. Adam and Eve even to draw near to Yahweh required sacrifice.

Consider Noah’s account. Yahweh said to Noah to take with him seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, while to take only two of every kind of unclean animal, also of seven of every kind of bird, male and female (Genesis 7:1-3). And, when the flood was over, we see Noah building an altar to the LORD and taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds sacrificing burnt offering on it (Genesis 8:21), which the LORD smelled the please aroma and made a promise to never to destroy all living creatures, never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth (Genesis 9:11). Noah took more of the clean animals to survive in the ark and also to make sacrifices to God post flooding.

Some likens to Noah’s entrance into the ark as entrance into the tabernacle. And, Leviticus 1:3 informs us that at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, that is another Tabernacle, the Israelites were to present a burnt offering. And, when the tabernacle was completed (Exodus 39:43), and was readied and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38), people could draw near only by offering animal that was unblemished.[9]

And, going back to Genesis 3:15, the LORD said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Yahweh not only promised to deal with our sins, he also promised to victory over sins, the power of the devil.

All this was accomplished by Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:5-6 says, “he [Jesus Christ] was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD [Yahweh] has laid on him [Jesus Christ] the iniquity of us all.

6. Conclusion

Yahweh who exits, who is holy, who is grieved and pained by our sins, who must punish our sins, but laid all our iniquity upon Jesus, to be pierced and crushed for our sins, so that in peace we can draw near to Yahweh… May he allow us to know him deeper this week!

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[1] Keith Ekberg, The Names of God in the Old Testament, P. 5.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh#theophoric_names

[3] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

[4] Barker, Kenneth L. NIV Study Bible (Fully Revised): Exodus. 92. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1985, 1995, 2002.

[5] Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. “5. Reinforced by the Name of God (6:1-8)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 341. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[6] New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis: volume 4. 1296. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1997.

[7] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

[8] Andrew Jukes, The Names of God in Holy Scripture. London: Longmans Gree, and Co, 1889. p. 53.

[9] Sailhamer, John H. “c. The command to enter the ark (7:1-5)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 85. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

Life Application on God, Elohim, the Creator (Genesis 1:1)

J. J. C. Smart, "my mind often seems to reel under the immense significance this question has for me. That anything exists at all does seem to me a matter for the deepest awe.”[i]

God, Elohim, the Creator who created out of nothing

William Lane Craig in his article makes philosophical and scientific reasons to answer why something exists rather than nothing. He reasons three alternatives to answer this question.

1. The universe either had a beginning or had no beginning.
2. If it had a beginning, this was either caused or uncaused.
3. If caused, the cause was either personal or not personal.

 

And, he concludes, “If the universe had a beginning, it is inconceivable that it could have sprung uncaused out of absolute nothingness… the cause of the universe must be personal in order to have a temporal effect produced by external cause. This confirms the biblical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing).”[ii]

The Old Testament calls this “eternal, uncaused being for which no explanation is possible” who created out of nothing, God Elohim (<yhOa). The doctrine of creation out of nothing by God Elohim tells us that we owe our existence to him, that he has every right to account our lives as our Creator, that he deserves our worship, and that we cannot limit him nor tame him at our disposal.

• How do you try to put limits on Elohim and try to tame him at your disposal?
• How does knowing God as your Creator, Elohim affect your prayer life, your outlook and purpose in life, and your heart?

Pray

• Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Ask God Elohim, the Creator, to stretch your mind, emotion, thinking and action with the truth of who he is.

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[i] J. J. C. Smart, "The Existence of God," Church Quarterly Review 156 (1955): 194.

[ii] http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1980/JASA3-80Craig.html

Elohim (Genesis 1:1)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 17 2009

One of the things I try really hard when I meet new people is try to remember their names because it feels terrible not to be able to remember their names next time I meet them. I guess I could do what little children’s do about this. One of my daughters often tells me about other kids in her school classes. She would go on and on and tell me all about a kid, how much fun she had with her and how she considers her a good friend. I would ask her, “Mikayla, what’s your friend’s name?” Most of the time, she has no idea. For children, this is appropriate since their friendships are formed and shared when they play together. But, I also know that soon or later, she will need to learn to remember names of people she gets to know. So I keep reminding her that it is important to remember other people’s names, especially the kids she would consider her good friends.

Here are some suggestions from a web site called www.businessknowhow.com. The article is written for business people in sales. People in sales they know how important it is to remember well the names of their potential and current clients; I am sure we can learn something about how to remember names well from sales people. Here are some suggestions.[1]

• Repeat their name as they introduce themselves.
• Use their name a few times during your conversation.
• Later, record that person’s information in your organizer along with any personal or business information you learned during your conversation.
• Picture their faces as you state their name aloud several times.
• Picture them in different settings – imagine where you could run into them and visualize what they would look like in that environment.
• Focus on remembering the person rather than their name.

Listen to some of these passages from Hosea about knowing God. Hosea 4:6, “my people are destroyed from the lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:14, “… a people without understanding will come to ruin.” Hosea 6:3, “Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.” Having the knowledge, understanding about God, acknowledging him will require us to know God deeper and better.

My job as your pastor, as a preacher, as a teacher is to help you be fascinated, captivated, moved and inspired by who God is so that you adore and worship him, have plenty of good things to say about him. So, I’ve decided to explore who God is by studying the names he is known by in the Bible. The very first name that I would like to introduce to you is translated as God and in Hebrew is, <yhOa, Elohim. 

Let me show you a clip from National Geographic web site about creation. 

1. Elohim (<yhOa), The Creator

The Bible begins with Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The subject of this very first verse of the Bible is God translated from Hebrew word, Elohim (<yhOa). It is not the most common name for God in the Old Testament; Yahweh is the most common name for God. Nevertheless, Elohim occurs over two thousand times (2248 to be exact) in the Old Testament, making it the second most common name for God.

Elohim is plural form of El. And, El is the most common word for god, El, in the ancient languages group called Semitic languages which include Hebrew. But, Elohim is never translated as gods in polytheism when it is used for God of the Bible. Although it is plural in form Elohim is always used with singular verbs and adjectives in the Hebrew text to mean God, not gods. Scholars call this a plural of majesty or a plural of intensification meaning plural form is used to mean “great” and “highest,” and “only”[2] as a plural of absolutization or exclusivity as in God of gods.[3] Elohim although plural in form only is used to describe monotheistic God of the Bible.

When Elohim was used in the Old Testament to refer to God, it did not carry the theological understanding of God in three persons, Trinity. So, one cannot prove the theology of Trinity on the ground that Elohim is plural in form. Yet, as Christians looking back in hindsight, we can argue for a glimpse of Trinity in Elohim. In Genesis 1 in the beginning, God created by his word. “Let there be…” and there was. And, in John 1:1-4, in the beginning we see Jesus Christ as the Word preexisting already with God, and that the Word was God. And, “Through him [the Word] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has not been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” So, with the same phrase, “In the beginning” from Genesis and John, we see the unity of the Old and the New Testaments speaking for one reality of God in Trinity.

1 Corinthians 8:6 also speaks to this reality, “there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” So, in Elohim, we see the Father at work with his Son in complete unity.

2. Elohim (<yhOa), The Creator who created out of nothing.

The English translation of Elohim, God, is often abstract, impersonal, and static concept of deity in people’s minds. But, Elohim, God of the Bible as witnessed in Genesis is not an abstract reality, distant or uninvolved deity. What we see in Genesis 1 is God at work, actively creating through his spoken word.^[4] “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” begins Genesis 1:1. We see God Elohim creating cosmos out of chaos, light out of darkness, habitation out of desolation[5] and ultimately creating out of nothing. Let me give you a helpful illustration about God creating out of nothing from Colin Gunton. He said:

God is not to be likened, let us say, to a potter who makes a pot from the clay which is to hand; he is, rather, like one who makes both the clay and the pot. This teaching, which baffles understanding and is often rejected because there is no analogy to it in human experience, must be understood as an interpretation and summary of scripture’s witness to God as a whole.[6]

Paul Copan points the following scripture passages to speak to the reality of Elohim who created out of nothing.[7]

• Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
• Romans 4:17, “God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” God creating out of nothing is one of the cherish biblical understanding
• Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
• Ephesians 3:9, “God who created all things.”
• Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
• Isaiah 44:6, “Israel’s King, and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God.”
• Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega… who is, and who was, and who is to come.”
• Hebrews 1:10-12 (Psalm 102:25-27), “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, they will wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

William Lane Craig asks, “Why does something exist instead of nothing?” He answers:

Unless we are prepared to believe that the universe simply popped into existence uncaused out of nothing, then the answer must be: something exists because there is an eternal, uncaused being for which no further explanation is possible.[8]

This eternal, uncaused being for which no further explanation is possible is spelled out for us from Genesis 1:1 as Elohim, God.

This is God Elohim whom Isaiah spoke in Isaiah 54:5, “For your Maker is your husband- the LORD Almighty is his name- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” And, Isaiah 45:18, “for this is what the LORD says- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it, he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited.” Again, Isaiah 40:28-29, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LROD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” And, God asks in Jeremiah 32:27, “I am the LORD, the God [Elohim] of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

God Elohim, who never gets tired or weary, who is strong and mighty, comes to you when you are down, weak and struggling, to strengthen you, to help you fight for the faith in your Elohim, your Creator.

3. Conclusion

When you come to God, Elohim, and when you call on him, you are coming to the presence of the eternal uncaused being who was before the creation which he created out of nothing, who is now, and who will be, beyond the confines of time, space, and material. It is this God, Elohim, who told Abraham and Sarah that they should expect a child to be given them in the impossible old ages. It is this God, Elohim, who did the impossible thing to deliver the Israelites out of the iron grip of Egypt. It is this God Elohim who sent his Word, his Son to us, to take the guilt, the consequence and the power of sin upon himself to die; and for nothing was too difficult for Elohim, he raised Jesus Christ, his Son from the dead.

To this God, who created out of nothing, who is all powerful, all sovereign, fully in control, all knowing, we now draw near in Jesus Christ. Should this change the way you and I pray to God when we call on him, God Elohim?

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[1] http://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/remember-name.htm

[2] http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=349

[3] New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis: Volume 1. 405. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1997.

^[4] Wenham, G. J. (1998). Vol. 1: Word Biblical Commentary : Genesis 1-15 (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Word Biblical Commentary (15). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

[5] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

[6] Gunto Collin, The Christian Faith, p. 17

[7] http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_exnihilo_copan.html

[8] William Lane Craig, Philosophical and Scientific Pointers to Creatio ex Nihilo, Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. 32.1 (March 1980), p. 2.

Life Application: Redemption, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ephesians 1:7, 13-14)

To welcome, accept and appreciate the redemption in Jesus Christ, we must face the objective reality of about the human condition, our condition in captivity without the redemptive work of Jesus.

Consider the Israelites, their life in Egypt before God intervened in Exodus. When God met Moses at Horeb the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1), he revealed to Moses his reason for intervention. Read Exodus 3:7-10:

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

The captivity of the Israelites illustrates the captivity of the humanity, our captivity apart from the Redeemer. Before the Israelites could turn to God, they had to realize that their lives were in shambles with misery, suffering and oppression needing redemption. Before you can welcome, accept and appreciate the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, there are two things you must do.

• You must believe in God’s objective assessment about your hopeless condition in bondage to sin and its terrible outcome to face God’s holy wrath and his judgment apart from Christ (Read Romans 1:29-32 & 2:5-8).
• You must believe Jesus Christ paid the ransom with his own blood, his suffering and death to break your bondage to sin and deliver you from the guilt and punishment of sin.

People who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, do not realize they are in bondage to sin and that the terrible judgment awaits them. How about you?

How are you different from the majority of people who see no need for Jesus to redeem their lives?

Another aspect of redemption is its future orientation. Redemption began at the cross but it will be completed at the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14). Considering this future orientation of redemption, to fully welcome, accept and appreciate the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, another thing must take place.

• You must let today’s failures and sins drive you to Jesus, your Redeemer. You must look at your current condition honestly without deceiving yourself by explaining away sin as something benign or acceptable or simply ignoring it as though it doesn’t exist; Be brutally honest about your sinful heart, conflicts, failures! But, don’t stay there with self-pity. You must let your failures and sins drive you to Jesus, the only one who can forgive you and perfect you. The complete redemption awaits you tomorrow in Jesus and you need to live today with the living hope and trust in God’s future plan to perfect you in his Son. Let today’s failures and sins drive you to Jesus, your Redeemer.  Redemption means we can now approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

How honestly do you examine the condition of your heart?

When you are confronted with your own inadequacy, failures, and sins, what do you do?

Redemption: Yesterday, today, tomorrow (Ephesians 1:1-14)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 3 2009

Today, I would like to focus on one of the many facets of the gospel, the good new of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our focus will be on redemption. You find this important term “redemption” twice in Ephesians 1:1-14.

• Ephesians 1:7-8, “In him [in Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

• Ephesians 1:13-14, “the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the praise of his glory.”

To understand redemption, an important facet of the gospel, let me tell you a story of a baseball hero, Lou Johnson, better known as Sweet Lou Johnson:

Lou Johnson was the hero of the 1965 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the seventh game of the series against the Minnesota Twins, Johnson hit a home run that won the game, and the championship, for the Dodgers. That was the last time he was a hero for a long time.

Johnson became a drug addict and alcoholic. Within a few years of hitting the winning home run in the World Series, he had sold or given away his uniform and glove from that season, and the bat he used to hit that home run. In 1971, he gave his World Series ring to drug dealers in exchange for drugs.

Eventually, Johnson straightened out his life. He got clean and sober, and eventually his history with the Dodgers got him a front-office job with the club. But he was never completely free of his past. He had no World Series ring to show his grandchildren, nothing to remind him of his moment of glory. He tried to track it down and recover it, but wasn’t able to. A part of his life was irretrievably lost.[1]

The Major League championship Lou Johnson clinched for Dodgers was the shining moment for his career. All the hard and disciplined practices and countless games finally paid off big time for Sweet Lou; he fulfilled his childhood dream by not only winning the World Series championship, but winning it with his home run. And, his most fulfilling, shiniest moment of his baseball career was all captured in his baseball bat he used to hit a home run, his uniform, gloves, and most of all, his World Series championship ring. He had it all. But, he lost it all.

His shiniest baseball career moment was ever tarnished, irretrievably lost and overshadowed by his struggle with drug and alcoholic addictions. He tried to regain the big part of him he lost, but the captivity in addictions made it hopelessly irretrievable.

1. Redemption presupposes inescapable bondage in sin.

This real life story of Lou Johnson reminds me of the fate of humanity. When God created very first humans, Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden of Eden where everything was just right and plentiful. If there was ever a perfect environment, this was it! But, it was short-lived; the eternal perfection they enjoyed was abruptly and woefully interrupted when they decided that God given perfection wasn’t good enough for them. Trust, relationship, blessing, perfection, all were shattered when they fell into the temptation to mistrust God, that God wasn’t enough and all that he provided for them weren’t good enough.

Forsaking God and his gift of perfect world for a temporary fix for a piece of fruit, does it make sense to you? Sin never makes sense; it is illogical to choose flaws and dramas over perfection and peace. Sin of rejecting God and his gift of life in order to gain what we think would make our lives exciting, meaningful, fun, and fulfilling apart from God and his plan imprisons us.

We cannot fully appreciate what redemption means to us unless we face this ugly reality of human condition in captivity to sin, which we are all part of. Redemption presupposes that something has gone terribly wrong with us that even the greatest riches in the world would not be enough of payment or ransom to get us out of trouble.

Death epitomizes the inescapable depth of trouble. According to God’s word, the ultimate result of sin is death. Death came about because of sin, both physical death and spiritual death of separation from God. Romans 3:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” It is the powerful reality that even the richest person would not be able to pay his way out of death. Psalm 49:7-8 says, “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.”

Do you feel this way about your life? Are there things about your life that binds you, chokes and suffocates you, things that keep popping up, keep you out of control, seemingly impossible to get rid of? You try your best, but it just is not enough. As Lou Johnson tried his best to recover what his lost, but it only seemed irretrievable, does it seem like you are stuck making no progress at all or worse digressing and feeling trapped with no way out. There is a good reason why solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments for crimes.

As terrible and depressing it may be to feel and think this way about your life as being trapped, confined, out of control, and irretrievable, it is actually far better than having no self-awareness about reality of sin. If you know what it is like to be oppressed by the force of sin, evil, broken and massed up world we live in, if you know what it is like to stare at death and smell the woeful stench of death and crushed by its inescapable weight, you are in better shape than many who march at the drumbeats of self sufficiency and self confidence. If you know what it is like to struggle through the spiritual desert of dryness with little motivation and relief in sight, if you know what it is like to struggle to fight for the faith even though you may find yourself defeated and dejected, you are in better shape than the people with little or no sense of urgency to fight. If you know what it is like to carry the heavy weight of oppressive guilt and shame, you are only few steps away from experiencing redemption.

When you are honest about yourself, your limitation or rather, inability to deal with the oppressive weight of temptations and trials in your life, when you are honest about the damages you sustain from exerting your self will against God’s will, thinking and acting as though you are smarter than God, you be well in your way to experience redemption.

2. Redemption- yesterday

Here are few verses from Isaiah out of many references in the Old Testament where God was known as the Redeemer of Israel.

• Isaiah 41:14, “Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
• Isaiah 43:1, “But now, this is what the LORD says-he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
• Isaiah 44:23, “Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into son, you mountains, you forests and all you trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.”
• Isaiah 54:5, “For your Maker is your husband-the LORD Almighty is his name-the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.”
• Isaiah 54:8, “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.”
• Isaiah 59:20, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.”

3. Redemption- today

Redemption speaks to gaining what would be irretrievably lost without a payment of ransom. Going back to Psalm 49:7-8 which says, “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.” It means sins that mar our body, our soul, our spirit, sins that mar our whole being, who we are as a person cannot be dealt with any other mean than the payment of blood. Hebrews 9:22 speaks to this truth, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

One of the benefits of reading through the books of the Bible that deal with the sin offerings and guilt offerings for atonement of sin is understanding that atonement requires blood sacrifice. No amount of wealth can wipe way sin, only blood would do. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” What can make Isaiah 1:18 a reality?

Only the blood, not any kind of blood, but the blood of Jesus Christ can transform scarlet, crimson stain of sin to white as snow, as wool.

Jesus the ransom for atonement: Jesus said about himself in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45, “… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom (lytron) for many.” The Old Testament predicted Jesus as the suffering servant who gave himself as a ransom, a guilt offering. Isaiah 53:10-12 speaks of Jesus as the suffering servant, “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” Psalm 130:8, “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”

Here are more biblical references that speak to the reality of Jesus Christ as one who gave himself to redeem us from our sins. Paul describes Jesus in 1 Timothy 2:6 as, “who gave himself as a ransom (antilytron) for all men.” Galatians 2:20, Jesus Christ is “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” And in Ephesians 5:2 Paul exhorts us to live a life of love because Jesus giving himself as ransom sacrifice to set us free from our sins. He “gave himself up for us as fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Galatians 1:4, Jesus “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” Colossians 1:14, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” which echoes our passage, Ephesians 1:7. Romans 3:24, “and are justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 9:15, “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant… he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Redemption of yesterday cannot be envisioned any longer today outside of the realm of Jesus Christ.

Jesus the ransom price: Ransom speaks to buying at a price. Jesus paid the price with his own life. Jesus is the price, the ransom to atone for our sins. 1 Corinthians 6:20 tells about us, “you were bought a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” And, 1 Corinthians 7:23, “You were bought a price; do not become slaves to men.”

Jesus the ransom for reconciliation: Jesus is the ransom that reconciles us to God: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, “God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ… that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them… God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus the ransom for deliverance from empty life: We are redeemed from the empty way of life and by the blood of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19, “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

4. Redemption- tomorrow

One of the important aspects of Christian life is that we live in between now and what is yet to come. It is true that we get to experience the redemption today. But, evidently we all know that what we have is not complete yet, because the call to fight for the faith assumes progression, growth and change. This is where faith defined by Hebrews 11:1 is required, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what do not see.”

I may not see the drastic effect and change from redemption today. I may have to struggle and fight for motivation in the climate of spiritual desert. I may fail and fall today. But, what God’s been pressing me lately is that I don’t loose my heart because of what I see today. So, I’ve been praying that I will be able to grab hold of God’s purpose, his plan, his path, his outcome for me, for my family, for our church, for our nation. And, as follow his lead to look to him and to consider his promises for his future kingdom, what I experience is hope rising and strength for today to fight harder. God of redemption for yesterday and today is God of redemption for tomorrow.

• Romans 8:23, “we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
• Ephesians 1:14, “[the Holy Spirit] a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”
• Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
• Titus 2:13-14, “…we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem (lytrousthai) us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

The history will be consummated by the return of Jesus Christ and when he establishes his kingdom. Then, full redemption will take place. No more spiritual desert, no more apathy, no more fights, no more struggles, no more temptations, no more trials, no more death… it will be as it should be, our hearts filled with ever deepening gratitude, praise, awe and love of amazing God, his Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is going to take us there. And, the day is drawing near. Your job is to learn to trust his promise, his plan, his leading for tomorrow. Your job is to trust that today God is working in your life although you may have hard time seeing God at work. God was at work yesterday, God is at work today and God will be at work tomorrow. This is the story of redemption. So, dream with me where God’s going to take us tomorrow in his Son. Let’s dream together how God is going to change our character, our relationships, our families, our church, our nation, our world tomorrow.

5. Conclusion

Going back to the story of Lou Johnson:

Sweet Lou had no idea that someone was working behind the scene to recover the irretrievable piece of his identity. He had no idea that his World Series ring had come up for auction on the internet. It is the ring that 30 some years ago he traded in for a quick fix. When Dodger president Bob Graziano learned about the auction of Lou’s ring, he wrote a check for $3,457 and bought the ring before any bids were even posted. When he presented the ring to Lou Johnson, this 66-year-old ex-baseball player broke down and cried. “It felt like a part of me had been reborn,” he said. [2]

This is what redemption is all about. What you and I could not do yesterday, cannot do today, or will be able to do tomorrow, God has done it through his Son paying the ransom with his life on the cross. God has set the history in motion for full redemption in Jesus’ blood. God will accomplish what he has started; nothing can thwart his purpose, his will, his plan. Whether you know it or not, God has redeemed you yesterday, is redeeming you today and will fully and completely redeem you in Christ Jesus.

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[1] http://www.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=28005

[2] http://www.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=28005

Life Application: Grace to become a servant of the gospel (Ephesians 3:7-13)

God’s grace that shapes you to become a servant of the gospel

We often think of God’s grace in the sense of being saved (c.f. Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have saved, through faith…” Grace activates salvation. But, from Ephesians 3:7-13, what we see is that grace not only activates salvation in our lives, but it also shapes us to become a servant of the gospel.

Paul said in Ephesians 3:7, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” Paul received salvation by God’s grace in faith. But, it didn’t stop there. God’s grace that saved him shaped his identity to become a servant of the gospel. This grace that shaped him to become a servant of the gospel was Paul’s focus in Ephesians 3:7-13.

As a servant of the gospel, he was passionate about communicating the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery (Ephesians 3:8-9). Simply, he was passionate about communicating the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ clearly as possible to the people who weren’t Christians.

Andrew Kim in his sermon this past week at our church asked, “What is the gift of God’s grace in your life today?”

Considering the dynamic aspects of God’s grace,

• grace which has activated salvation in your life
• grace which shapes you to become a servant of the gospel

Explore the following questions:

1. How are you experiencing God’s grace to shape you into a servant of the gospel?
2. How are you growing in passion to communicate the gospel clearly to non-Christians? If you don’t think you are growing in this area, what do you think is preventing you from being shaped into a servant of the gospel?
3. Can you explain the gospel clearly to a non-Christian?

Read together “Two ways to live,” which clearly lays out the gospel

Pray

• Ask God to help you experience his saving grace freshly and to experience his grace so that you become a servant of the gospel.
• Ask God to help you learn to clearly communicate the gospel to non-Christians.

Notes on Nehemiah 6:1-14

Diversion by deception

• Nehemiah discerned diversions that would have distracted him from restoring the broken walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:2). 
• Nehemiah stayed focused on God given mission (Nehemiah 6:3). 
• Nehemiah knew when to say, "No," because he knew his priorities (Nehemiah 6:4). 

Diversion by accusation

• When Nehemiah was falsely accused (Nehemiah 6:6-7), he refuted it by stating the truth (Nehemiah 6:8); he was able to discern the false motive.
• When attacked with the false accusation, he prayed for strength (Nehemiah 6:9).

Diversion by temptation

• Nehemiah was tempted by a false prophet to run away in fear by breaking God's way (Nehemiah 6:10).
• Nehemiah discerned the deceptive temptation by remaining in God's truth, being a man of principle (Nehemiah 6:11-13).
• Nehemiah prayed against the false prophets (Nehemiah 6:14)

Ground your life in God given priorities and stay on the course through intimacy with God in prayer and standing firmly in his truth when you face hardships and oppositions.