How Can We Know God? - Murray Lambert

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TRANSCRIPT

 

 

Hey, welcome to the Centre podcast. We're a church based in Dural, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the center of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way.

we if you receive the church news email on Friday again, do something a little bit different.

We're going to kind of open the floor up a little bit in a couple of minutes. But this is kind of an opportunity to once again just express our Baptist values as a priesthood of all believers that we don't believe that the past is here, myself or Mitchell, Brian Luther, have special fairy dust on us that makes us any more spiritual and any more capable to communicate with God than anyone else.

Here we are, priesthood of believers. As one Peter four says. So what we're going to do today is express that value and share together about ways in which God has revealed himself to us throughout our journeys. But the big question that we're kind of exploring this morning is, how can we know God? Which might seem like a bit of a stupid question, because there's some probably very obvious answers.

You might be thinking off the top of our heads, but I think we don't spend enough time reflecting on God's transcendence. What does transcendence mean? It means that God is, although relational and personal, is the greatest example of that is through Jesus Christ, who took on flesh to be known by us. Although he is personal and intimately relational with us, God is transcendent.

He's completely beyond our frame of reference. He's made of different stuff to us, and even me saying that he's made, he's not made because he is the creator and we are the created. And it starts to become quite difficult to get our heads around how to really understand God fully. It's sort of like the Brazilian pineapple farmer who went on holidays to Antarctica, and when he got there, he met a blind man who lived in Antarctica his whole life.

And the blind man goes to the Brazilian pineapple farmer. So what do you do for a job? He goes, well, I grow pineapples. And the blind man goes, I don't know what that is. And the Brazilian guy is, well, it's a type of fruit. And the guy who's lived in and talk to you his whole life goes, I don't know what a fruit is and is like, hey, well, you see that baby penguin over there?

And the blind man says, no, I don't say it. He goes, well, you know what a baby penguin is? It's about that size is okay. A pineapple is about the size of a baby penguin, and it's soft and it's fuzzy. He's like, well, no, it's not soft and fuzzy. It's about the size of a baby penguin. But all over it.

And these little spikes, sort of like the baby penguin's beak all over it is like, hey, great. And the blind man talks to says, so we eat baby penguins. Do you eat pineapples? And he goes, yeah, actually we do. We do is what do they taste like? Yes. Oh, well, I guess this sweet. He goes, oh sweet.

Like baby penguin mate. He goes, okay, I guess so. And he goes, okay, I think I've got a pineapple is a type of baby penguin. And he goes, no, I think you've completely missed the point. It's really hard. The second we step too far outside our frame of reference to understand something, and it gets really, really tricky. So this is where a very, very smart man who lived some 700 years ago called Thomas Aquinas, started to reflect on how can we best know God and what he sort of came to a conclusion on, and what many theologians after him agreed is ultimately, any time we're thinking about God, it's as an analogy.

It's comparing it to something from our frame of reference, which ultimately God isn't. But he's like that thing. And this is the kind of quote from summary of theology that I put in the pastor's, newsletter on Friday. Now, God is not something existing, but he's rather super existence. He's beyond existence. Therefore God is not intelligible, but above all, intellect.

How do we understand this guy? Well, the only way that we can understand a being that is beyond our existence who is super existence is through analogy. So I put in the pastor's newsletter. What of these three metaphors and analogies is probably a better thing to say. Best reveals God to you in your life. If you had to think is there an element of creation that maybe you've been at in nature at some point in your walk in your faith relationship with God, and you've found a piece of the creator's creation reflecting his truth to you.

Is there maybe a biblical name or title or metaphor for God in scripture that you have really resonated with and has been quite formative for you and your understanding of God, or the sort of greatest revelation of God, Christ? Is there a moment in the gospel that for you, your heart just really latches onto? It's a powerful representation and illuminates of who God is.

So I want to you to turn to the people next to you for a couple of seconds and just share about of those three areas, which one has been most powerful to you? It doesn't have to be the it's the only one, but just pick one of those three and share with someone next to you. So I'll give you a couple minutes.

when we're going to do is actually create some opportunity to explore each of these, in, in process. And the first one that sort of Thomas Aquinas writes about in his own writings is that creation reveals God. And I think it's really important, just quickly, to understand where he's coming from.

He was writing in a time in which the world was moving to a platonic worldview. What does that mean? Well, previously, the philosopher Aristotle had sort of said that, you know, creation material is a revelation of the divine maker. He wasn't Christian and he wasn't even Jewish, but he definitely believed in something bigger than what we experience in Plato.

One of his students sort of twisted that a bit and started to say, well, no, actually there is a good spiritual and there is a bad, evil, dirty material. And what Aquinas was trying to do impart in his work was point people back to the goodness of creation, that although it's fallen and it's an imperfect metaphor for a perfect creator, that there is real meat to be taken from that.

So we say in passages such as Romans 120, this isn't an extra biblical idea. Paul writes, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Yeah. In a different way. Job. In the book of job chapter 12, he, breaks out into a sort of verse and says, but ask the animals and they will teach you all the birds in the sky, and they will tell you will speak to the earth, and it will teach you well.

Let the fish in the sea inform you which of all of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this. In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. We see here job reflecting that creation echoes its creator. So for anyone who kind of really connected with that first point, the creation reveals God going to open up the mic.

Who wants to maybe come up? I'm and quickly pray for us and then we can get into it. Father God, we thank you that Your Holy Spirit dwells in each of us who call Jesus their Lord and Savior. We thank you that we come here this morning with a wealth of experience and knowledge. But ultimately, God, your good and perfect wisdom and Lord, I just really want to pray again for a spirit of boldness and confidence this morning as people come up and declare the way that you've revealed yourself powerfully in their lives, Jesus name, Amen.

Who wants to be the brave first person?

There's two things that I look at and and it reflects God to me. One is, there's something I read the other day about this. There's hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals, or even millions that we've not even identified yet on this earth. And you look at the complexity of life, every piece of life, every plant has been designed.

It didn't just happen. And that tells me something about the incredible depths of God. The other thing is this tiny little thing that we're aware of, and it's called the universe. And you look at our planet, you look at the stars, our solar system, and it goes for how many billions of light years away, like the extent of it just blows my mind.

And if you try and look at the infinite list of God to me, the universe reflects that.

Thanks, Brandon. Always scared to be the first one out. Let's give a round of applause, guys. Let's encourage him. That's awesome. Love it. The expansive, almost limitless oneness that creation shows us, yet reveals the limitlessness of God and how he's so much bigger than we can wrap our heads around. See anyone else have any thoughts around how creation reveals God to them?

I think mine's quite simple, but I think just reflecting on maybe some of the hardest and, yeah, hardest times in my life, I feel like creation has been, just a beautiful thing to I always think of the idea of be still and know that I'm God. And on some of the hottest days of my life, I've seen not only a rainbow, but a double rainbow.

Either I've seen or other people have sent photos to me. And I just love that. Yeah. Beautiful imagery. And I think it's just that idea of be still, know that I'm God, your world feels like it's in chaos, but I am God. So that's how he's revealed himself to me.

Thanks, bears. And thanks, dude. Yeah. The rainbow definitely all the way back in Genesis. And. Sorry, Brant, do you want me to pass it down to you coming up? Yeah. Great. Yeah. The double rainbow all the way. Well, the single rainbow all the way back in the Noah story. God's promise and covenant. Just last week, scientists, photographed an electron which has never been seen before.

It's the most beautiful looking thing I've ever seen. It's, Of course it's microscopic. It's nano scorpion. It's, it's very small. But there are particles within that electron which are even smaller. Now, that's in contrast to the universe. So it's it's got to be a God thing. There's no doubt about it.

I just love getting out back and and driving the car and looking at the horizon and seeing this long road. And then the recognition that when you get up the top of that hill and looking further beyond, there is another expanse. And that God is over all that. And this is all part of God's domain. And we can never get to the end of, of God's creation.

And there's there's space all around. And in terms of that metaphor, familiar of where God is, it's a picture of, the space that God wants to, to build around. I mean, so many passages in Scripture say, and he brought me in to a spacious place. He brought me into a place where I could grow. And before I became a Christian, I used to think my life was going to be very closeted if I followed God.

Following God for me as a non-Christian was I was going to live life in a straitjacket and I wasn't going to be free to explore who God made me to be. And yet I discovered completely the opposite that God has brought me into a spacious place, a place to grow, a place to flourish, a place to see beyond what was most apparent, and to recognize whatever that journey might be.

That God was still there in the expanse of wherever he might take me.

Thanks, Brian, I love that. Yeah, all the way from the inner intricacies of an electron to the outer ends of the universe, you know, God can reveal his great infinite power and also his, you know, into into relational deep, even in the smallest detail power. So obviously the flaws of this style of analogy, and this is what some of Aquinas later writers spoke about, was that if creation is by itself going to be our spiritual revelation, then that can somewhat lead to a universalist or pluralist approach where, why don't like me?

Jesus and I don't need the Bible and I don't need the Holy Spirit. I'm just going to look at a rainbow and that's going to speak to me without any other, scriptural or biblical reference. So this is a really helpful analogy. Cool tool to a point, but there's some other really helpful things. And actually, Aquinas himself recognized that this was a bit limited and also came up with a second sort of great analogy that he found in Scripture, which was names revealing God.

So that can be actual titles such as Yahweh, Rapha, the Lord Who Heals Yahweh Shalom, the God of Peace. I really love this one. Just like a little bit of my research for this El Shaddai, the all sufficient one. There's a lot of theories from scholars that Shaddai comes from the Hebrew root word shabd, which is a woman's breast, and the idea that it's a mother who gives all life and sustenance to their children abundantly, that they provide everything that they need to their children, which is pretty cool.

The other sort of idea is similar. Saidu maybe, which is again the peak of a mountain which all the way back in Genesis, we get the river of life running from this peak of the mountain, which waters all the plants, which gives all life and sustains all things. Sort of this idea of the peak, the highest point of the mountain being the place where earth and heaven touch most profoundly so either or some pretty beautiful imagery around El Shaddai, the all sufficient one.

And then obviously as well, Scripture loves to use medicine in the Psalms, but throughout. So in Psalm 18 two, the psalmist writes, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. So just in that single verse, you've got some seven different metaphors for God, which are all individual, really quite powerful.

So the next one would be a question what name or metaphor for God is most significant to you? This one is a bit more of a Bible nerdy one, but would love to hear anybody have anything. It doesn't have to be a yeah, deeply, sort of, theologically deep thing. Just any title or name.

I so, this one for me. My favorite book in the Bible is the book of Hebrews. So I'm going to put my glasses on. I'm old school. I like to use the Bible.

And it's in Hebrews chapter six and moves on to seven as well, where it talks about Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who made Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom and also Abraham gave a 10th part of all, first being translated King of righteousness, and then also King of selling, meaning King of peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither the beginning of days nor the end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a 10th of his spoils, and indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham. But he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham, blessed him who had who had the promises now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better.

He mortal men receive tithes, but they he receives them of him of whom it is witnessed that he lives. So it goes on and talks about Melchizedek. And we know, from that, that Melchizedek represents Christ. And the beauty of Melchizedek is that Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life, the only way to the father that he created, that get, that he bridge, that gap that allowed us direct contact with the father in heaven so that we may have a relationship with him and know him.

But more importantly, does he know you? So I'm going to throw a spanner in the works because Jesus said, you know, talks about in the end times that I never knew you. So my question is not that do you know God? But as Christians, does God know you? So I want you to think about that, because we can say that we know God through creation, we know God through prayer and all that sort of stuff.

But my question to you is, does Christ know you? Because when you stand before him, before the great White judgment throne of God, will your name be written in the Book of life?

Thanks, Dave. Really appreciate it. Yeah, so much there. Because being a king and a priest, this things which ultimately are still earthly representations that are just an analogy of sorts for the ultimate king, the ultimate praise. Thank you friend, thank you. Yes. So in this style of analogy, again, it falls short because if you say God is good, for instance, even just as a really simple sort of title for him, well, first we're using imperfect human language, which is immediately flawed.

You know, if I say what's good for white, what's good for my white, well, am I saying what's good for gaining weight or what's good for losing weight? So you are interpreting things straight away. So it is imperfect sometimes. And also, an imperfect reference of goodness compared to God that we don't actually know complete goodness only in contrast to what is bad.

So there is beauty and power in all of these analogies, but it's just helpful to recognize where they fall short. And this is where Colbert comes in as a Swiss theologian in the 20th century. He was sort of coming from a different era in time, obviously, 700 years after Aquinas, and he was looking at a world that was instead of looking to creation and science as something to prove God.

Instead, at this point in the enlightenment period, moving into modernism, science and rational, rationalization was actually being used to try and disprove God. So he was saying, well, maybe some of these forms of metaphor that people have previously relied on have some issues in my context. So he ultimately pointed towards, maybe in some ways the most obvious revelation of God, who is Christ himself.

In John 14 nine, anyone who has seen me, Jesus has seen the father. So as we sort of come to this final analogy for this morning, I'd love to know, is there a moment in the gospel? Is there a element of Jesus which for you just most powerfully and personally reveals God?

I'm just a little a little snippet here from, Matthew 12, verse 46, while Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. He replied to them, who is my mother? And who are my brothers?

Pointing to his disciples, Jesus said, here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. I don't know why. Like all throughout the Bible, You know, God is referred to as the father. But this, I don't know, some, One day when I read this, it just kind of the whole concept of family, just kind of.

And they've got so many broken families. People have so much childhood wounding this being a part of a restored family is just quite amazing. Kind of. And with Jesus and God and, and it's very complicated, but that perfect restoration of family and that, it kind of spoke to me about, an answer to that longing to be a part of something that we all feel sometimes, you know, sometimes you're you're with a lot of people, but you still feel alone or, you know, sometimes you don't feel like you belong or just, you know, those sorts of feelings.

It not it's not quite right. That idea of that restored family that you're part of, that is just such an incredible. It's such an incredible revelation to me. Thank you.

Thanks, Lizzie. Being adopted into the family of Christ, really, really powerful.

So, as Lizzie had herself sort of pointed to not just Jesus as God stand alone without any relationship, that there is Jesus, part of his identity is solely hinging on the Holy Spirit and God the Father. And this is the one thing that we can do if we become almost to Christ centric, that we forget to seek the Holy Spirit who is living and breathing today, that we only look to Scripture and tradition and previous things rather than fresh revelation of God.

So yeah, just wanted to point to one Corinthians two, where Paul himself writes, I'll just wait until we get it up on the screen. Perfect. Thanks, mate. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak not in words taught to us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the spirit. Explaining spiritual realities with spirit taught words. The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit.

So it's sort of the takeaway that I want to leave you with today. That there is actually a final analogy of God that I find really powerful. And that's the work of Meister Eckhart, who was only 100 years after Thomas Aquinas. And he was really big about the silent contemplation and the it's not just through silent contemplation itself, in which we can experience God, but silence as an analogy for God.

When he writes on silence, he's not talking about the cessation of thought that we empty our minds in the way that a Hindu or a Buddhist would, but more in the way that it is the awareness of silence permeating all things our words, our thoughts, all of creation. And it's seen really powerfully in the story of Elijah in the book of one Kings 19.

I'll just wait till it. Yeah. Perfect. Oh, sorry. That's a good quote. Actually, I should read that as this is Mr. Eckhart himself saying no image represents and signifies itself. It always aims and points to that of which it is the image. And since you have no image but of what is outside yourself, which is drawn in through the senses, and continually points to that of which is in the image, therefore, it is impossible for you to be bare, defiled, or blessed by any image whatsoever, and therefore there must be a silence and a stillness, and the father must speak in that, and give birth to his son and perform his works free from

all images. And yeah, if we go to that passage in One Kings, it's really beautiful when Elijah is seeking God, and the Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. And then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Ultimately, the best way to know God is through an amalgamation of all of these things and reflecting on his presence in creation and reflecting on his names and titles and metaphors of Him in Scripture, and reflecting ultimately on the greatest revelation of Him in Christ. And not just having that as head knowledge and walking along on our day, not allowing it to sink into our heart, but having genuine moments of silent reflection to really allow that to permeate into our souls.

So I'd like to encourage you this week to find some time to reflect on one of those things a bit more, just for 10 or 15 minutes in the silence, and find what God's Spirit might have to further reveal to you. So I'm going to call the band up as we pray. Father God, we thank you so much for all of the ways in which you reveal yourself to us through your son, through your Holy Spirit, through your Word, through your creation.

God, you are a good and generous God, and you continue to bless us each and every day. And God, we just pray that, as Steve said, it wouldn't just be that we know you, but we are known by you, Jesus. You yourself say it is not those who prophesy and cast out demons and heal that will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who are known by you, it is not our works, it is our intimate relationship with you.

And I pray this week as we go out and reflect further on all of the ways in which you reveal yourself to us, that it would not be due to good works, that we would think we are coming closer to you, but it would be through seeking a deeper, intimate relationship with you. So we thank you for this.

We thank you for this time, and we pray that as we go out of this service, we can continue to talk about these things, that our conversations would not go to superficial and shallow things, but we would continue to encourage, exhort, and teach one another with words of wisdom and encouragement. In Jesus name, Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at the center. Gerald. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life.

Be blessed.