Glory to God!

We’re going to do something unusual today. I thought a great way to end this year and start the next one would be for us to lift up our eyes and see the greatness of our God. So what we are going to do.

We need to do this because we so often try to make God small (smaller) so that we can, you know, manipulate him to do what we want. You know those prayers you pray when you’re saying with your mouth “your will be done” but in your heart you’re saying “You better do this or else!”
We’re praying not in humble awe of our mighty King, but praying as a way to get points with God (doing our religious duty) so that we can cash them in and make him do what we want.

Our problem is sin, and sin is simply that we imagine that we are God in our own lives. “I am the captain of my destiny” – all that rot. Are we? Did you decide where you would be born? Who your parents were? Your intelligence? Your emotional disposition? Can you stop an earthquake? Quieten a storm? Heal a broken bone? So many things we just take for granted. So many areas where we forget we are so dependent on the grace of God – even in providing a community of people where we all work together. Just think about the road builders and the police and the firemen and the garbage collectors – imagine if they weren’t there. How would you be able to be captain of your destiny surrounded by piles of rubbish…on fire… with thieves and hooligans stealing your stuff? And no roads or electricity or water or sewage or shops or anything else?

Be thankful that God is God, and we are not! So let us stop pretending and lift up our eyes to our great God.

1. God is glorious. God is great!

As the weary pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem used to see the final mountains in front of them which they had to cross to get to the Holy city, as they used to say “I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2, NIV84)

Because our God, in his exalted greatness, looks down on us, sinful, small, dust – and speaks. And cares. And loves. And forgives. And enters this world himself as one of us in order to deal with sin once and for all. Yes, we have pretended that we are God. But we don’t need to pretend any more. We can bow our head before the cross of King and say “I am sorry”. And hear those marvellous words “You are forgiven! The price is paid. You belong to me.”
What grace and mercy!

We’re going to start in the book of Ezekiel. Open your Bibles to Ezekiel 1 (page 491) Eze 1:1 On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
The Israelites had rebelled against God, and been thrown out of the land. They were in captivity in Babylon, the enemy territory. This vision was given to them to show them that God is still God even in Babylon (even in Norway). And that God is the God of rebels, of sinners, of all those who are in need of forgiveness. He rescues sinners. He saves the undeserving!
4 As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber. 5 From the centre of the cloud came four living beings that looked human, 6 except that each had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze. 8 Under each of their four wings I could see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings. 9 The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around. 10 Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back. 11 Each had two pairs of outstretched wings—one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body. 12 They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved straight forward in any direction without turning around. 13 The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them. 14 And the living beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning. 15 As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them, one wheel belonging to each. 16 The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it. 17 The beings could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved. 18 The rims of the four wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered with eyes all around. 19 When the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. When they flew upward, the wheels went up, too. 20 The spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. So wherever the spirit went, the wheels and the living beings also went. 21 When the beings moved, the wheels moved. When the beings stopped, the wheels stopped. When the beings flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. 22 Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal. 23 Beneath this surface the wings of each living being stretched out to touch the others’ wings, and each had two wings covering its body. 24 As they flew, their wings sounded to me like waves crashing against the shore or like the voice of the Almighty or like the shouting of a mighty army. When they stopped, they let down their wings. 25 As they stood with wings lowered, a voice spoke from beyond the crystal surface above them. 26 Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man. 27 From what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from his waist down, he looked like a burning flame, shining with splendour. 28 All around him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the LORD looked like to me. When I saw it, I fell face down on the ground, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me.

What an amazing image. Frightening creatures. Eyes all around. Wheels. Darting forth like lightning. There is nowhere you can go to escape their gaze. There is no way to outrun them. They are all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful. And yet, they are nothing compared to the one upon the throne. They serve him, the LORD (Yahweh) Himself, the omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all- powerful), omnipresent (everywhere at once, nowhere where he is not)) God.

And then, seeing the glory of the Lord, Ezekiel falls to the ground, face down. How would you respond?

God is glorious. God is great!

2. God reveals his glory through speech

Note the goal of this vision: speech. The Lord speaks to Ezekiel.

As we saw a few months ago: God is a God who speaks. He reveals himself to us by His Word. He rules through His Word. He is His Word in the form of Jesus Christ – the perfect representation of the Father. To know Christ is to know the Father.

(Page 3) Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

God rules by His Word and reveals himself through his Word.

(Page 727) Heb 1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

Jesus is the very Word of God, the final revelation. He is all we need. He is the greatness and the glory of God. Don’t be fooled, fobbed off by some cheap imitation of knowledge or revelation – he radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God. And we can know Him!

And this is who we know:

(Page 749) Rev 1:9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. 10 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. 11 It said, “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” 12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

Jesus, who beat death on the cross as he rose again! He is the First and the Last, alive forever, and holds the keys to eternal life. He is mighty, vast, powerful. Head and hair white as wool, eyes as flames of fire. A voice that thunders. Can you see him? Can you see him vast, huge, holding stars in his hands? Is he small in your mind? Make him bigger. Expand your mind. Try to grasp his vastness. Are you filled with awe yet? Make him bigger! Standing amongst the galaxies, holding stars in his hands. This is our God.
This is our gentle Jesus meek and mild, revealed in his glory and power – not as a servant, as he came, but now as KING!

Can you see him?

(Page 758) Re 19:11–16 Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. 12 His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. 13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. 16 On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

This is whom we serve. This is whom we pledge allegiance. This is our God. Our Lord and Master. His name is Jesus.

Psalm 8:1–4 (ESV, adapted) 1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the sons of men that you care for them?

Because the wonder of wonders is that he, this awesome, mighty God, is a God of love and mercy and compassion. This King shrunk himself down, humbled himself, even to death on a cross, in order to show his glory to worthless rebels like us – and to change us, breathe LIFE into us, transform us into objects of grace, a display case to his greatness, jars of clay with this treasure, the treasure of Chris’s Holy spirit within us. Hallelujah!

(Page 709) Phil 2:5–11 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This year, let us remember that God whom we serve, and the message of hope and power that we have to share. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the very power of God for salvation for ALL who believe. (Rom 1:16)