30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 23 06-17 THE LORD WATCHES 05 Luke 23 10 The message of the church
📖 Luke 23:6-17
Fri19Nov2021 – The message of the church - Luke 23:06-17 - THE LORD WATCHES (05) - Bible reading: Acts 17:22-28
The Lord longs to reveal Himself to any person who is seeking and hungering for the truth. If anyone reaches out to the Lord, He responds with joy, to bring that person into His embrace and into fellowship with Him.
Luke 23:10 The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.
We have been considering why the world is accusing the church. We have considered the reason for their deep suspicion and animosity towards the church. We have also, simultaneously, looked at the basis for the message of the church to the world. We must be prepared to explain our message.
We have a model message in the Bible on how we can explain the distinctiveness of Christ, to the world.
Apostle Paul spelt out and positioned the message of the church to the people at Athens.
Act 17:22-31 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; (23) for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
Apostle Paul begins by acknowledging that people are searching for God, for the truth. He commends their sincere desire to quench the deep thirst of their souls.
People are wanting to find out what stands the test of time. People adopt various cultural-socio-religious practices, hoping to satisfy the hunger in their hearts.
God has revealed Himself to all people groups and cultures and so no one can give an excuse saying that they do not have a revelation of God. When a person thirsts, genuinely, he or she will find that God has made Himself known to man. God longs to make Himself known and be known by man.
Psalms 19:1-3 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. (2) Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. (3) There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.
(24) God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. (25) Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
God is the source of life and breath. If man sets up his own deities, claiming these man-made gods to be the source of life, then it will lead to more futility and darkness.
God cannot be reduced and put into man-made structures and systems.
King Solomon acknowledged that the magnificent temple that he had constructed could not contain the God of heaven and earth.
I Kings 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
(26) And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
We belong to different cultural, religious, social, language, regional backgrounds but we are all one, for we come from one blood. We live in different places, following different practices and ways of life.
Nations are not just divided by geographical boundaries but in every political/geographical nation, there are cultures, people groups, ethnicities, languages. These are all created by God to be a beautiful mosaic of people, who worship God in their unique ways. They bring the beauty of their cultures to glorify the God of heaven and earth.
Here is the picture of the New Jerusalem
Revelation 21:24-26 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. (25) Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). (26) And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
The Lord is revealing Himself to all cultures and people groups so that they will bring their glory and their beauty into the presence of the Lord.
(27) so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Every nation and people group have the opportunity to come into a personal relationship with God.
Jeremiah 23:24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?" says the LORD; " Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD .
Since God has made Himself known, the Lord longs for man to come into a habitat relationship with Him. It is only in the habitat relationship with God that man is complete and finds his fulfilment. This is the message for the people of all nations.
(28) for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Man’s search for the fulfilment of his soul comes to an end when man enters into the habitat relationship with God.
This is the message that the church must share with our cultures and people, that in their own unique way, they can come into a relationship with God, where God is our habitation. We live and move and have our being in Him.
This experience for man to be in a habitat relationship with God is by faith in Jesus Christ.
The world may respond in anger and seek to destroy the church. God is watching to see if the church is correctly presenting God’s message to our world, with love.
Thought to ponder
God does not want man to perish but to have everlasting life.