Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
For most of us the PREPARATION before taking significant action is very important, right? We gather all needed supplies, and we make good plans BEFORE attempting anything of importance, don’t we? Preparation is vital to success in any significant endeavor, do you agree? But what about God, does HE do that?
This week we’ve been looking at what God was doing BEFORE the Creation miracles of Genesis 1! How was God preparing for His “Grand Narrative”? What “Grand Narrative?” That’s what we’re calling God’s great story which HE has been writing through all history. God’s story spans all TIME! Have the things we’ve seen this week in the Bible surprised you?
But do you know, there was one thing God was NOT doing in His Preparation? God was NOT gathering materials needed for what HE was planning to accomplish in His Creation of the Universe! Did you know the Creation miracles God performed in Genesis 1 are, for the most part, creating something from nothing! God simply SPOKE and things appeared which had never existed before, and they were all according to God’s perfect design! ! (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24)
Here’s another glimpse into what God was doing before Genesis 1: When Jesus was praying with His disciples on the night before He went to the cross, Jesus said to His heavenly Father, Almighty God: “I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:4,5)
Do you notice Jesus is clarifying that His time on earth was as an ambassador of God, with a specific, God given mission to accomplish? We discussed that Redemption Plan mission yesterday. Did you also notice Jesus refers to what I call “God Time” when in eternity past, before the world began, NOTHING existed except God? That “God Time” was well before Genesis 1 and God’s Creation of our Universe, our planet earth and our human race. We discussed the various TIMEs God created last Tuesday.
Do you see Jesus declared in His prayer that He was excited to return to heaven, from His earthly mission, expecting God the Father would RESTORE Jesus to the glory He enjoyed before He had come to earth? What does that mean? Only a few minutes before Jesus had said to His disciples: “I came from the Father and entered this world, now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” (John 16:28)
Repeatedly Jesus spoke about the fact that He and God the Father were united as One from all eternity past. His incarnation for a few years on planet earth, to live among humanity, had a very specific Redemption purpose which Jesus was accomplishing while still closely connected to His Father in heaven: “The works I do in My Father’s name testify about Me…My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.“ Jesus said and John recorded it in John 10:25-30.
For His disciples who spent those many months with Jesus, they were continually fascinated, intrigued by WHO Jesus really was? He appeared fully human in every way except sinless. But Jesus did miracles no human could do, and Jesus spoke about God as His Father and with wisdom no human being had. John the disciple described it this way: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The Life appeared, we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” (1 John 1:1-3)
For the remainder of their lives the disciples were faced with the great challenge of trying to explain the almost unexplainable: How did God the Son leave His indivisible union with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, which they had enjoyed for all eternity past, and come to earth incarnate as Jesus Christ, living His Redemption mission, while retaining union with both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit? How do you explain that my friends?
Do you remember several times God the Father’s voice from heaven audibly proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God? It happened at Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:16,17) and Jesus’ transfiguration (Matt. 17:5). And upon His victorious return to heaven (Acts 1:9-11) God the Father did restore Jesus to His glorious reign in heaven.
Hebrews 1:3 describes that moment in this way: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So, He became as much superior to the angels as the Name He has inherited is superior to theirs.” With His earthly Redemption mission accomplished, resurrected, ascended Jesus was seated on His throne at the right hand of God the Father, in heaven!
Then and there Jesus Christ, God the Son, resumed His glorious reign, which He had enjoyed in all eternity past, as Sovereign over all things, in all places, for all time! Did you get that my friends?
This same John, through his record of the great Revelation given to him by Jesus, helps us look FORWARD to a future time when Sovereign Jesus, reigning from that very, heavenly throne, will oversee events at the end of time. Here’s one of those scenes: “I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:9,10) Oh my what a victorious picture!
I know it’s difficult, but I’m trying to help us wrap our minds around the miracle of Triune God, united in all eternity past, sending God the Son to incarnate and live on planet earth for about 30 years, while still divinely CONNECTED to God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit empowering Him during His earthly mission?
That, of course, is a central reality of this “Grand Narrative” story of God, which we will begin unpacking over these next months, on Monday.
But before I leave you today, here’s one final glimpse of this miracle from the disciple Peter who walked with Jesus during His earthly mission: “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that 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 ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. HE was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:17-21)
Yes, my friends, in the PREPARATION time, before Genesis 1, the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, united as One, were preparing to write “The Grand Narrative” story of God. God’s great story would begin VISIBLY with the Creation story of Genesis 1,2; and continue through time to the pinnacle season of God the Son’s time here on earth, accomplishing God’s Redemption mission; and continuing to the end of Human Time in Revelation 22 and beyond.
It’s God’s Story, amazing in every way, and we are invited to understand this glorious Story, looking closely to see how WE, every person, you and I, fit into God’s Story! Are we ready to embark on “The Grand Narrative”? It’s going to be exciting as each and every day of this journey we will seek to celebrate Jesus Christ and what HE has been accomplishing for our good and His glory!
Let’s worship Him with this wonderful song, and I’ll see you on Monday as we launch “The Grand Narrative”.
Today’s Scripture: Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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