at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son”Hebrews 1.1,2 (NIV)
Leaving the town of
the
apostle Paul made his way to
The great city of
city of discussion, and debate, and thought.
There he waited for Silas and Timothy, two Christian friends, to join him.
While he was waiting, just as you or I would if we were visiting a city we’d never been in before, Paul took a walk round the streets, to see something of life in the city, its buildings, its shops………..its people.
But what stopped Paul in his tracks, as a visitor,
was
not the architecture of the buildings,
or the beautifully planned city centre,
or the colour and bustle of the markets,
or the statues that lined the lanes and streets
but a low stone altar he came across….
with an inscription which read:
‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’
Why did the inscription on this block of stone stop Paul in his tracks ?
It stopped Paul in his tracks, because for Paul,
the living God is not UNKNOWN,
but the very opposite.
Paul knew, with his whole being, his whole mind, Paul knew heart and soul
that the living God is One who makes Himself known,
that God breaks into human history and human life…..
This was written into Paul’s
own experience, because one day, long before, on a road outside
the living God, in His Son, Jesus Christ,
had broken into Paul’s life ! when Jesus Christ met Paul, made Himself known to Paul……….
The living God – not unknown…. but the opposite……
the Scriptures declare that such is God’s purpose for the world…..
that He makes Himself known;
Look at Abraham………..
who when we first read of him, is settled in Haran, living a settled, and stable life, moving at a steady pace towards retirement.
Then, God breaks into Abraham’s life………….!
calls
him from his home there in
Calls him to pack up all his belongings and begin the long journey to a new land, among new peoples.
Calls Abraham to a life of wandering as a stranger in a far off country.
God, makes Himself known to Abraham as El-Shaddai – Almighty God.
What did that mean for Abraham ?
Well, in the midst of all his wanderings, as a stranger far from home,
in the midst of the dangers that often threaten him
as we read through Genesis, we find that Abraham comes to know the living God as a protector, Abraham comes to know God in his own experience,
Abraham comes to know God as the One who gives life. For God blesses Abraham with a son, and promises Abraham land, and descendants beyond number.
The living God – not unknown…. but the opposite……
such is God’s purpose for Abraham…..
that He makes Himself known;
As the great message of the Scriptures unfolds,
we then find in the book of Exodus,
how God made Himself known to Moses.
These are now very different times and circumstances:
the
people of
trapped
as slaves in
But now - the living everlasting God, with the same steadfast love, makes Himself known to Moses, as He had done to Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob.
So this is not a new God that Moses meets,
but the same, the everlasting One; from age to age still the same.
And the living God now makes Himself known to Moses as the Lord
who
has remembered His promise to His people and will bring them to the land He had
promised. The living God now makes Himself known to Moses as the Lord - the
bringer of freedom,
who is going to shape and create the fragmented, lost, people of
the living God – not unknown…. but the opposite……
such
is God’s purpose for
that He makes Himself known;
Centuries later, the prophet Ezekiel, living among the people of Israel in Babylon, where they had been moved as an ethnic group of migrant workers, far away from their homeland, far away from Jerusalem, far away from the Temple………Ezekiel called the demoralised, wearied desperate leaders of Israel together…..
and reminded them of how God had made Himself known to Moses.
Ezekiel tells the elders of
and that He the Lord would, one day soon, bring them home,
to the land they longed for, wept for, prayed for………
The living God – not unknown…. but the opposite……
such
is God’s purpose for
that He makes Himself known;
So you see, the unfolding history recorded in the Bible shows us the living God who makes Himself known
to Abraham as guide, protector, giver of life;
to Moses as the one who called His people and redeemed them;
to Ezekiel as the One who remained faithful despite the faithlessness of His people.
So, we find men and women, began to look forward in eager longing for how and where the living God will next come to them, and make Himself known. The prophets of old began to look to the future, in prayer,
in careful listening, and heard God’s promise that He would One day come in even greater fullness, and make Himself known.
This is how the writer of the bookof Hebrews, describes that moment of fullness - that moment of completion.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets” – spoke to Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel…..
“but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son”………. Jesus Christ – who is the radiance of God’s glory !
Through all the changing circumstances of the world, the living God, from age to age still the same, has broken into human life, has come to and spoken to His people, in their wandering, in their slavery, in their exile, guided, protected them, redeemed them and restored them. Each time, in His mercy and goodness, He has come in richness, and blessing.
And now He has come to us in Jesus Christ.
The living God – is not unknown…. but the opposite……
such is God’s purpose for us…..
that He makes Himself known in Jesus Christ
And in Jesus Christ, the Son,
God makes Himself known to us as:
A loving Father who has created us, and has compassion on us, His children.
He provides for us, and blesses us with unnumbered gifts.
Jesus Christ
teaches us to turn to the Father who loves us, for all that we need,
teaches us that the Father waits for us to come to Him,
in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who has come among us,
we are given the glorious full and final radiance of all that
God makes known to us
we find life in His name.
The living God – is not unknown…. but the opposite……
such is God’s loving, everlasting purpose for us…..
that He has made Himself known in Jesus Christ
and calls us to come
and find
life in His name
AMEN