How We Know He Is With Us
Commentary
I suppose if there is anything that faithful persons would covet, it would be some sure sign that God is with us. Everybody wishes that, sometime, he would just step out on the balcony of heaven and let us all take one good look. Moses wanted him to do that. It seems like it would solve all our problems, doesn't it? We could invite all the wavering and skeptical over for dinner and watch the show. Then we could say to them, "See!"
See? See what?
I suggest that you take your Bible off the shelf and begin to riffle through the pages; remember all the stories you encounter. You are not going to find some portrait of God's anatomy, some description that you can copy and put on the wall. What you are going to find is a portrait of a God at work in the world. The only pictures we have of God are action pictures, telling us what God is doing.
Now, take another look at today's Scriptures in light of that insight, and check out the action words in the text. Reconciled, gave us, in Christ, reconciling, not counting, entrusting, making his appeal, made him to be sin, "Peace! Be still!"
The real task of faith is to stop looking for God in all the wrong places, and begin to understand that this God of ours only reveals himself in action.
OUTLINE I
The God Who Keeps No Records
2 Corinthians 5:18--6:2
Introduction: One of the most scary revival sermons I can remember from my childhood was one in which the preacher maintained that life was much like a checkbook. One was born with an even start. Good deeds were deposits. Bad deeds and thoughts were withdrawals. The trick, he said, was to have a balance in the bank when you arrived at the Pearly Gates. What a threat! Who could live under such tyranny? Such anxiety, to live with one eye on the checkbook all the time. Little wonder Paul would cry out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Paul had tried the checkbook scheme, and had come to despair. The good news is that:
A. This Is a God Who Keeps No Records. Many of us have our heads stuffed with pictures of row upon row of bookkeeper angels, sitting chained to their desks and keeping records of our lives. Paul reminds us that there is no such counting house in heaven, and there are no such angels. We are not hemmed in by this terrible doctrine of works.
B. The Books Are Already Balanced. Reconciled. That is what the word means in bookkeeping parlance - balanced - and, by God himself. Go ahead and trundle out whatever theory of the atonement seems to suit you best. You will discover that only those are good news that tell about what God has already done.
Conclusion: So. Therefore. Note that Paul always has one or the other. And then look. We are entrusted with this message about God. We are his ambassadors sent to others to share this good news. This is the God who keeps no records.
OUTLINE II
Lord of Creation
Mark 4:35-41
Introduction: The longer the early church thought about who and what Jesus was to them, the more territory they took for themselves. For instance, note that Mark begins Jesus' life with brackets around the baptism on the one end, and the resurrection on the other. Matthew runs the story from Abraham to the edge of world evangelism. Luke begins with Adam and ends up with his church out on the streets and in the world. John opens with the words of Genesis, "In the Beginning," and declares that the expected return of Jesus has occurred, and that he is with them in the Spirit. Little wonder that they would not hesitate to see him in other dimensions.
A. Time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. That does not mean he was present at the beginning and will be at the end. It means that wherever he is encountered in time, he is the same - always seeking to reclaim and redeem.
B. Space. Read the record again; you will find barriers that keep him from us. Do some study on the matter of the exaltation. What it really means is that he leaves his limited sphere of activity and becomes available in every place. The Ascension does the same thing.
C. Nature. This is the Lord of the Universe. He is not bound up in the laws of nature. He can call the gifts of nature to do his bidding. This is no attempt to wow everybody with a miracle. It is simply the early church telling us about how it comes to identify Jesus with the God of the Ages.
Conclusion: Mark will end with the question that he uses all through his Gospel: Who is this? That is the question the reader is supposed to ask. Ask your listeners to hear it, to ask it, and listen for the answer.
OUTLINE III
Surviving the Storms
Mark 4:35-41
Introduction: While in its original sense this Scripture must have had to do with Jesus as Lord of Nature and the Universe, later it must have gained other meanings. Do your history lesson again on the years AD. 66-70 in Jerusalem. Become aware of the fomented rebellion by the hawks in the city, and the response that came from Rome. Read Barclay's description of those days. Even better, find a copy of Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, and read of the horrors that took place in that city besieged by Vespasian and his son, Titus.
A. The Rocking Boat. Jerusalem! A great storm was tearing that city apart. All of them
- hawk and dove, Christian and Jew - were in the same boat; and that boat was being torn apart. Surely there were those Christians in Jerusalem who sought remedy and hoped that Jesus would come soon and rescue them from their situation. He didn't.
B. The Gift of Peace. Everybody knows that real peace did not come to Jerusalem. Titus' siege was disastrous. But did a kind of peace come - that inner peace which protects one from what is going on outside oneself? Was it that peace which enabled many of them to take bold action - to abandon ship and go off to Pella?
Conclusion: There is no promise that we are going to be delivered from trouble or have God put up some invisible shield in front of his specially beloved. But there is a promise that we are not alone, that there is one who can build inside us the strength and power to deal with what life brings. No matter how the strength comes, when it does come, we stand with those in the early church and marvel and ask, "Who is this?"
