At the church where I serve, we just finished a Christmas
sermon series entitled “Presence”. During this series we have been discussing
the reality that, at the end of the day, Christmas in our culture is about the
presents. Christmas in our culture is driven by the presents we receive from
others and Christmas in our culture is driven by the presents that we give to
others. And everything around us reinforces that reality.
We then asked ourselves the following question: After all
the energy and effort that we expend on finding just the right present for that
special someone, have you ever found yourself disappointed in the response to
the present? We then discussed that the reason that we can experience
disappointment when it comes to presents is because the presents that we
received really did not have the lasting impact that we thought that they would
have. The presents that we thought would fulfill a desire and need in our lives
ended up being unable to fill that need. And we wondered if there are times
that Christmas can become about the wrong kind of presents.
We then discovered that
Christmas began not so that we could experience presents; Christmas began so
that all of humanity would have the opportunity to experience God’s presence. Christmas
is not about us experiencing presents; Christmas is all about God providing the
opportunity for all of humanity to experience God’s presence. Christmas is all
about God revealing His presence in the most radical way imaginable, so that
all of humanity could know that God was real and that God was present and
active in the world. You see God’s presence was desperately needed because we
have a problem. Christmas is about the reality that God’s presence cannot and
will not be present with selfishness and rebellion.
Christmas is about God
responding to the problem of selfishness and rebellion that created a void that
separated humanity from God with a promise. Christmas is about God promising to
solve a problem that no present under a tree could ever solve. Christmas is
about God promising to solve a problem that only the presence of the Son of God
hanging on a tree could solve. A promise
of His presence being delivered at just the right time to provide an
opportunity for the rescue of all of humanity.
And Christmas is about God
delivering on that promise at just the right time, by sending His Son Jesus to
enter into humanity in order to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived
our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though
we lived Jesus perfect life. And when we respond to God delivering on the
promise of His presence by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and
Leader, we receive the forgiveness of sin and are able to experience the
relationship with God that we were created for.
However, as we live some 2,000
years after God delivered on His promise to reveal His presence in the most
powerful way imaginable, there is a tension, isn’t there. There is a tension
because we are not able to see and touch the presence of God. I mean, it is not
like we can go to the firehouse and have a conversation with Jesus face to
face; it is not like we can snapchat with Jesus. It's not like we can Facetime
Jesus or chat with Jesus on Facebook or send Him a tweet on twitter. It is not
as though we can text back in forth with Jesus.
And because of these realities,
we can find ourselves facing the tension of wondering if God’s presence is
present. We can find ourselves wondering if Jesus is really present and active
in our lives. Maybe I have just described you. Maybe you are wondering if God’s
presence is actually present today. Maybe you are wondering if God is present
and actively at work today, or if He is just sitting back in a rocking chair
keeping time as a disinterested observer of your life. So, is God’s presence
present? What do we do with this tension when it comes to God’s presence being present?
The tension that surrounds the
issue of God’s presence being present is not a new tension; this tension has
been around for 2,000 years. As a matter of fact, there is an event from history
that is recorded for us in the Bible that reveals the reality that the
disciples, the very people who had seen and experienced God’s presence in the
most powerful and radical way imaginable, wrestled with this tension.
The very people who had
witnessed Jesus arrest; the very people who heard of Jesus death; the very
people who had encountered Jesus after He was raised from the dead; they
wrestled with this tension. We see this tension revealed for us in a section of
an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. So let's
look at this event from history together, beginning in Matthew 28:16:
But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus
had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
Now to fully understand what is
happening here, we first need to understand the context in which this event
from history takes place. After being raised from the dead, Jesus provided instructions
for the disciples to travel to Galilee to meet up with Him there. The
disciples, following Jesus instructions, traveled to Galilee, where they met up
with Jesus. Matthew tells us that when they saw Jesus, they worshipped Him, but
some were doubtful.
Now a natural question that
arises here is “what are they doubtful about”? Were they doubtful that it was really
Jesus? I don’t believe so, because they all worshipped Jesus. They would not
have worshipped Jesus if they were uncertain as to whether or not it was
actually Jesus that they were seeing. So, why are they doubtful?
To understand why they were
doubtful, we need to look back at the final conversation that Jesus had with
the disciples before He was arrested. In that conversation, which is recorded
for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John,
Jesus explained that He was leaving to go back to God the Father, and that they
were not going to be able to come with Him. And while Jesus also stated that
they would not see Him during the time that He was arrested, crucified and
buried; and while Jesus had promised that they would see Him again after He was
raised from the dead, the disciples knew that Jesus was going to be leaving to
go back to Heaven.
Now imagine yourself as one of
the disciples. You have left everything to follow Jesus; you have experienced
God’s presence in the most powerful and radical way imaginable. You have seen
Jesus resurrected from the dead. And yet you know that Jesus had every
intention of going back to God the Father in Heaven. How would you be feeling?
Would there be doubt? Would you have doubts?
Sure you would have doubts. You
left everything to follow Jesus because you believed that He was the Messiah,
who you thought was going to usher in the Kingdom of God. And now He is leaving
to go back to Heaven and leaving you behind. I believe that the disciples doubt flowed from
two fundamental questions. The first question was “What now? What are we
supposed to do now?”
And the second question was
this “How are you going to be present with us? If you are in Heaven, and we are
here on earth, how is your presence going to be present in our lives?” You see
the disciples doubted how God’s presence could be present with them as they
moved forward on earth while Jesus was in Heaven. The disciples found
themselves wrestling with the tension of wondering if God’s presence would be
present. The disciples found themselves wresting with the very tension that
some of us may be wrestling with this morning. Is God’s presence present?
And it is in this context that
we enter into this event from history. And in this event from history Jesus
makes a statement that is one of the most famous statements that is recorded
for us in the entire Bible. And it is in this statement that Jesus makes a
promise that is often overlooked but provides us the confidence that we need to
navigate the tension that we can experience when it comes to the issue of
whether or not God’s presence is present.
Tomorrow, we will begin to look
at this famous statement…
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