Assurance
Sermon
Living Between the Advents
Preaching Advent in Year B
Object:
We live our lives suspended somewhere between a period and an ellipsis. What has already happened is a completed sentence, the end of which is marked by that grammatical mark of finality, the period. What is happening now is not finished, so we cannot know how it will turn out. The present is a sentence which trails off into a series of periods -- an ellipsis. That ellipsis also indicates that there is a future; there is something else out there. We do not, however, know exactly what that is.
So we live between a period and an ellipsis, between a completed past and a continuing present, facing an uncertain future.
Such is true for all people, but it is doubly true for the person who professes faith in Christ and trust in God. Why? Because we live in our present between our past and our future, but we also live in God's present between God's past and God's future.
We could talk about the latter half of that statement for a long time, but I want to restrict it thusly: By "God's past" I mean the First Advent of Jesus Christ; by "God's future" I mean the Second Advent of Jesus Christ; by "God's present" I mean whatever events are happening now in the lives of believers. Obviously, for the Christian, our present and God's present intersect. The present is the present, after all. Also, our past is informed by God's past, and our future is assured by God's future. We can live between the Advents with assurance regarding the future.
Psalm 85 is about living between the past and the future. It is about knowledge, need, and assurance, and it reminds us that what we know from the past helps us in the present because it assures us concerning the future.
What We Know From The Past (vv. 1-3)
If you are a Christian, then you know from your past experience what God will do for you. You also know that he has done what he has done in response to who you have been and to what you have done. In other words, he has done what he has done out of his grace.
We Know That We Have Been Sinners Under The Judgment Of God
I once watched a documentary on the Beatles. It was amazing to see how much the members of the group changed from 1964, when they first came to the United States, until 1970, when they disbanded. You would hardly have known they were the same people. When I see old photographs of myself, I can scarcely believe that those pictures are of me. What I was seems so far removed from what I am.
So it is when we look back on our lives when we lived them apart from God and under the judgment of God. We can scarcely believe it, but there we were. Like the psalmist looks back and remembers a time when the people and the land were under the judgment of God because of sin, so do we remember what it was like to live apart from God.
We Know That God Has Acted To Forgive And To Restore Us
The psalmist knew. He remembered that in the past God had forgiven the sin of the people and had brought restoration to their land. He knew that God had withdrawn his judgment when the people turned back to him.
Can we not look back and see that God has acted to forgive and to restore us, too? When did he do so?
In the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The world was living apart from God, seemingly unable to comprehend his desires and demands despite his efforts to communicate them through the Hebrew people and the events and words of the Old Testament. So what did he do? He acted, and he acted decisively and definitively. He acted to forgive people and to bring people into a relationship with himself by the sending of his only Son. His Son entered the world at Bethlehem and departed it from Jerusalem. That is what happened; we can read it in the Bible and we can experience it in our hearts.
In the coming of Christ into our own lives. We know what God has done through Christ because we read it in the Bible and we believe it; we know what God has done through Christ in our own lives because we have experienced it. God went to all that trouble to send his Son into the world but he did it so that his Son could come into our hearts. When you experience something like that, you know it.
What do we know from the past? We know that we have been sinners who lived apart from God but we also know that God has worked in history and in our lives to bring us into relationship with his Son. He is in our hearts because of what has happened. But what is happening now? What do we need now?
What We Need In The Present (vv. 4-7)
We live against the backdrop of the past, but we do not live in the past. We live knowing what God has done in the past, but we live needing help in the present.
Such was the situation that this psalm addressed. The writer knew that God had helped his people in the past, but they needed help again, now! The people had sinned again, and they needed deliverance, again. They fell under the judgment of God again, and they needed to be liberated, again.
I do not really want to address you with the assumption that you are "backslidden," to use a term I heard a lot growing up. But I know that many times in my present I discover that I have sinned again, or that I am standing under the judgment of God again. So, when we are Christians and we have experienced God's salvation but we have harmed our relationship with him, what do we need?
We Need Restoration
We need restoration because we continue to violate our relationship with God and in so doing we harm ourselves. We go against his will. We have "other gods before him." We choose to do things our way rather than his way. We ignore the teachings of his word. When that happens, we need to experience God's restoring power, and because he has restored us before, we know that he will restore us again.
We Need An Exhibition
The psalmist wrote, "Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation" (v. 7). When we sin, when we harm our relationship with God, we need an exhibition of God's grace, of his faithful love toward us. We can be sure that he will show us his love and grace when, like the psalmist, we recognize our need for it.
These two things, a restoration of your relationship with God and an exhibition of God's faithful love, may be experiences of which you find yourself in need today. You may sense your sin; you may feel yourself to be standing under God's judgment; you may be seeking a way out. To God is where you must turn in hope, because he has helped you before. He sent Jesus; he saved you. He will help you again -- now!
What We Know For The Future (vv. 8-13)
We have said that we know what God has done in the past because of his Word and because of our experience. That knowledge enables us to have hope in the present, in this time between the Advents, when we sin and need forgiveness and restoration. We can also have assurance for the future, even though we cannot see it. This assurance is based on the promises of God.
The Promise Of Peace
"He will speak peace to his people, to his faithful ..." (v. 8). "Peace" here is shalom, that state of well-being that proceeds from a sound relationship with God. There will be peace in our lives when the relationship we have with God is sound and secure. This peace is made possible by the First Advent of Christ; it will culminate in the Second Advent of Christ. We can know that a great day of peace for God's people is coming. We can be sure of it because God has promised it.
The Promise Of Presence
The word from the Lord to his longing people was, "Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land" (v. 9). Here, as in many other places in the Bible, "glory" is a synonym for "presence." For the glory of the Lord to be present is for the Lord to be present. In the future, God promises to come be with his people.
What a day it will be! Jesus Christ will come again and fully establish the reign of God in the world! But remember, he has already come -- the proof is already there, and remember, he is already present in our lives through the Holy Spirit, who is the signifier to us of our salvation. We are assured by his promise of his future presence.
The Promise Of Productivity
The psalmist paints a glorious picture of a future for his people when everything will be as it ought to be. The attributes of God will be fully experienced by his people and will be reflected by his people. If it sounds like an idealized picture -- everything as it should be, the land abounding in productivity -- that is because it is. Truly, God comes to us in marvelous ways, here and now. But there is coming a day when things really will be as they ought to be -- we can be assured of that.
We live between a period and an ellipsis. We know what has happened: Christ has come into our world and into our lives. We know what does happen: We harm our relationship with God by our sinfulness, and we need restoration. And we know what will happen: God will make his presence known among us when his Son returns, when his world is made productive as he meant it to be, and when full peace is established. Let us live between the Advents, then, with assurance -- the assurance that comes from God's Word, our experiences with God, and God's promises.
So we live between a period and an ellipsis, between a completed past and a continuing present, facing an uncertain future.
Such is true for all people, but it is doubly true for the person who professes faith in Christ and trust in God. Why? Because we live in our present between our past and our future, but we also live in God's present between God's past and God's future.
We could talk about the latter half of that statement for a long time, but I want to restrict it thusly: By "God's past" I mean the First Advent of Jesus Christ; by "God's future" I mean the Second Advent of Jesus Christ; by "God's present" I mean whatever events are happening now in the lives of believers. Obviously, for the Christian, our present and God's present intersect. The present is the present, after all. Also, our past is informed by God's past, and our future is assured by God's future. We can live between the Advents with assurance regarding the future.
Psalm 85 is about living between the past and the future. It is about knowledge, need, and assurance, and it reminds us that what we know from the past helps us in the present because it assures us concerning the future.
What We Know From The Past (vv. 1-3)
If you are a Christian, then you know from your past experience what God will do for you. You also know that he has done what he has done in response to who you have been and to what you have done. In other words, he has done what he has done out of his grace.
We Know That We Have Been Sinners Under The Judgment Of God
I once watched a documentary on the Beatles. It was amazing to see how much the members of the group changed from 1964, when they first came to the United States, until 1970, when they disbanded. You would hardly have known they were the same people. When I see old photographs of myself, I can scarcely believe that those pictures are of me. What I was seems so far removed from what I am.
So it is when we look back on our lives when we lived them apart from God and under the judgment of God. We can scarcely believe it, but there we were. Like the psalmist looks back and remembers a time when the people and the land were under the judgment of God because of sin, so do we remember what it was like to live apart from God.
We Know That God Has Acted To Forgive And To Restore Us
The psalmist knew. He remembered that in the past God had forgiven the sin of the people and had brought restoration to their land. He knew that God had withdrawn his judgment when the people turned back to him.
Can we not look back and see that God has acted to forgive and to restore us, too? When did he do so?
In the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The world was living apart from God, seemingly unable to comprehend his desires and demands despite his efforts to communicate them through the Hebrew people and the events and words of the Old Testament. So what did he do? He acted, and he acted decisively and definitively. He acted to forgive people and to bring people into a relationship with himself by the sending of his only Son. His Son entered the world at Bethlehem and departed it from Jerusalem. That is what happened; we can read it in the Bible and we can experience it in our hearts.
In the coming of Christ into our own lives. We know what God has done through Christ because we read it in the Bible and we believe it; we know what God has done through Christ in our own lives because we have experienced it. God went to all that trouble to send his Son into the world but he did it so that his Son could come into our hearts. When you experience something like that, you know it.
What do we know from the past? We know that we have been sinners who lived apart from God but we also know that God has worked in history and in our lives to bring us into relationship with his Son. He is in our hearts because of what has happened. But what is happening now? What do we need now?
What We Need In The Present (vv. 4-7)
We live against the backdrop of the past, but we do not live in the past. We live knowing what God has done in the past, but we live needing help in the present.
Such was the situation that this psalm addressed. The writer knew that God had helped his people in the past, but they needed help again, now! The people had sinned again, and they needed deliverance, again. They fell under the judgment of God again, and they needed to be liberated, again.
I do not really want to address you with the assumption that you are "backslidden," to use a term I heard a lot growing up. But I know that many times in my present I discover that I have sinned again, or that I am standing under the judgment of God again. So, when we are Christians and we have experienced God's salvation but we have harmed our relationship with him, what do we need?
We Need Restoration
We need restoration because we continue to violate our relationship with God and in so doing we harm ourselves. We go against his will. We have "other gods before him." We choose to do things our way rather than his way. We ignore the teachings of his word. When that happens, we need to experience God's restoring power, and because he has restored us before, we know that he will restore us again.
We Need An Exhibition
The psalmist wrote, "Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation" (v. 7). When we sin, when we harm our relationship with God, we need an exhibition of God's grace, of his faithful love toward us. We can be sure that he will show us his love and grace when, like the psalmist, we recognize our need for it.
These two things, a restoration of your relationship with God and an exhibition of God's faithful love, may be experiences of which you find yourself in need today. You may sense your sin; you may feel yourself to be standing under God's judgment; you may be seeking a way out. To God is where you must turn in hope, because he has helped you before. He sent Jesus; he saved you. He will help you again -- now!
What We Know For The Future (vv. 8-13)
We have said that we know what God has done in the past because of his Word and because of our experience. That knowledge enables us to have hope in the present, in this time between the Advents, when we sin and need forgiveness and restoration. We can also have assurance for the future, even though we cannot see it. This assurance is based on the promises of God.
The Promise Of Peace
"He will speak peace to his people, to his faithful ..." (v. 8). "Peace" here is shalom, that state of well-being that proceeds from a sound relationship with God. There will be peace in our lives when the relationship we have with God is sound and secure. This peace is made possible by the First Advent of Christ; it will culminate in the Second Advent of Christ. We can know that a great day of peace for God's people is coming. We can be sure of it because God has promised it.
The Promise Of Presence
The word from the Lord to his longing people was, "Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land" (v. 9). Here, as in many other places in the Bible, "glory" is a synonym for "presence." For the glory of the Lord to be present is for the Lord to be present. In the future, God promises to come be with his people.
What a day it will be! Jesus Christ will come again and fully establish the reign of God in the world! But remember, he has already come -- the proof is already there, and remember, he is already present in our lives through the Holy Spirit, who is the signifier to us of our salvation. We are assured by his promise of his future presence.
The Promise Of Productivity
The psalmist paints a glorious picture of a future for his people when everything will be as it ought to be. The attributes of God will be fully experienced by his people and will be reflected by his people. If it sounds like an idealized picture -- everything as it should be, the land abounding in productivity -- that is because it is. Truly, God comes to us in marvelous ways, here and now. But there is coming a day when things really will be as they ought to be -- we can be assured of that.
We live between a period and an ellipsis. We know what has happened: Christ has come into our world and into our lives. We know what does happen: We harm our relationship with God by our sinfulness, and we need restoration. And we know what will happen: God will make his presence known among us when his Son returns, when his world is made productive as he meant it to be, and when full peace is established. Let us live between the Advents, then, with assurance -- the assurance that comes from God's Word, our experiences with God, and God's promises.
