'You can't see the forest for the trees.' I'm guessing that
many of you have heard that bit of wisdom somewhere. There are times when we
get so focused on the details that we are unable to see the big picture. And
that happens in the Church as well as in the world. Sometimes we get so caught
up in the details of what it means to be a disciple that we forget about what
God is doing over the long haul. I'd like to try to fix that today, or at least
to move toward fixing that. I'd like to talk to you about the big picture. And
there is an important reason why I want to do this. I want you to be able to
understand better what God is doing in your life. And that can happen as you
can see your own life in the larger context of what God is doing through
history. Let's see how well this works.
I like history. I realize that that will seem strange to
some of you students who have to study it and find it boring. I even enjoy
knowing dates. We have been taught the dates of some important events. So,
there's Columbus and 1492, and the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Thinking more widely there's the last invasion of Britain in 1066 and the Magna
Carta in 1215. And for Protestants there's always Martin Luther and 1517. These
are important events in the history of the world. But they are not the most
important events in the history of the world. There are four events that
clearly overshadow them all. It's these four events that we're going to look at
this morning.
Here's the first. Creation. Starting with absolutely
nothing, God created all of this. And then, He stopped and evaluated what He
had done.
And God saw everything that he had
made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1.31)
'Very good'. What does that mean? The word that came to mind
as I thought about this was the word 'beautiful'. God created beauty. So,
picture a towering mountain, an image of the resolution to stand firm. Or a
tree lifting its limbs to God in praise. And all the colors, blending together
in luscious harmony. That's beauty for the eye.
Now, consider the emotional aspect to that word 'beautiful'.
For Adam and Eve there was peace, satisfaction, the desire to enjoy creation
and to be engaged by what this new creation offered. And all of those things,
again, existing in harmony. And that included harmony between Adam and Eve, as
well as between them and the rest of creation. Beauty.
And the best part was that Jesus was there. The theologians
talk about this as the 'pre-incarnate Christ'. Jesus was there. So, there were Adam
and Eve busy doing something, completely caught up in whatever it was that was
in front of them. And they would hear a gentle voice behind them, 'What are you
doing?' They would turn and see this face with sparkling eyes and upraised
eyebrows, eager for an answer. And what would follow would be an excited
explanation about the wonder of some little insect that can actually manage six
legs at the same time, or about how the various flowers blend their colors so
gloriously, or about the mystery of how some letters on a page can form words
that reveal the deep thoughts of a soul.
And the beauty of creation extends an invitation. It beckons
to discover more. Creation! Beautiful Creation! The first of the most important
events in all of history.
But then comes sadness. The next event brings such evil: the
invasion of sin. It's as if all the lights go out. Darkness covers everything.
Oh, you can still see, but not very well. And what you see is so disturbing.
That insect with the six legs, lies dead, its life crushed out of it. The
flowerbed is torn up. And instead of rich colors, all you see is drab brown.
And those once-glorious and revelatory words are now poisonous barbs in their
attacks upon souls. There is so much ugliness. Where has the beauty gone? Sin
has invaded. And God speaks into the ugliness.
And to Adam he said, “Because you
have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis
3:17-19)
Where is that enjoyment of discovering the intriguing
secrets of creation, of exploring what God had made, of wisely developing the
hidden treasures of the world? It's gone. Instead, for Adam, there will be
thorns and thistles, pain and sweat. And he ends as a mere bit of dust.
And what of Eve? The plan was for her to be able to
participate in the beauty, to create more beauty with God. Babies. But now it's
pain. And that's about more than a difficult labor. It's about watching as one
son kills another. It's about watching as your children struggle with life, not
really understanding it and having such a hard time charting a wise course
through it. A mother's pain.
What is this but the real Dark Ages? Ugly darkness was
everywhere. God decided to destroy it all - or almost all - so that He could
start over. But Noah's descendants were no better than Adam's. So, while there
is no longer the threat of worldwide flood there is still the cruelty of one
man trying to kill another, members of the same family at each other with their
plots and deceptions, hope being built up and then crashing in despair. All is
darkness, and everything is broken.
In the midst of this dark world is one little night-light
off in a corner of the world: Abraham and his family. It's such a small light.
And at times even that is nearly extinguished. In this second section of
history darkness rules, and it rules almost entirely. Sin has invaded, and has
conquered.
And that leads to the third most important event in all of
history: the counter-invasion by the Son of God made flesh. As that old hymn
puts it:
The whole world was lost in the
darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus!
Jesus arrives to fight the darkness. He brings the light of
life, the life of God. And so, as a result, there is freedom. Jesus said,
If you abide in my word, you are
truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free. (John 8.31, 32)
Jesus brings freedom from the hated invader, sin, and its
overlord, Satan. Sin had full dominion during those Dark Ages, but no more.
Satan was a cruel taskmaster with near complete power, but no more. Jesus has
come, and He gives life to all who follow Him. So, these are freed and are no
longer forced to sin. They are no longer slaves of Satan, obligated to serve
him. Satan was lord. But that is no longer true. Jesus has come. Jesus is Lord!
This is the third part of the history of the world. This is
the invasion of the Kingdom of God, the Lordship of Jesus. This is where we
live.
Along the way I encountered a phrase that explains our
situation well: substantial healing. Think about the Gospels. There's Jesus
healing lepers, blind people, the lame. And don't forget what He did with
Lazarus. All of them are pictures of a deeper reality. Jesus has come to put an
end to the Dark Ages. He has come to heal us from the many ways that we have
suffered at the hands of the sin that invaded God's creation. And the key to
that healing is the life of God within you. You have experienced healing, the
healing of Jesus. So, there is a fundamental difference between you and those
who are still trapped in the death of the Dark Ages. You are alive with the
life of God. They are not. You have experienced healing. They have not. But
this healing is not yet complete. You have experienced substantial healing. It
is real healing and healing that makes a daily difference. But it is not a
complete healing. There is more healing to come. And you are in the process of
gaining more and more of that healing as the Spirit does His work in you. And
so, you can have the joy of healing now.
But for you who fear my name, the
sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out
leaping like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4.2)
Jesus has come. He has acted. You have been changed. But
there is still more that needs to be changed. And that leads to that
all-important fourth event. Jesus, the valiant invader of the Dark Ages, will
completely vanquish His enemies. Jesus will win this war. Then, there will be
the final healing that completes the process, the resurrection of the body.
Then, the rest of Creation will also be fixed. And beauty will return. That is
our hope. So, Peter writes,
Therefore, preparing your minds for
action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1.13)
This revelation of Jesus will signal the beginning of the
fourth section of the history of the world, the new heavens and new earth. No
more sorrow or suffering or tears. No more ugliness. There will only be beauty,
beauty that will never be lost.
And that helps us understand some things. It helps us
understand who we are now. There still is sorrow and suffering and tears. We
feel them, and it hurts. But the Father uses these to bring even more healing
into our lives. And we wait for the day when that healing will be complete. We
wait for the day when the Father will keep His promise. We wait for the day
when Jesus will return.
This also helps us understand other people. So many still
live as if Satan were still lord. He is not lord, but for them he might as well
be. They live as those in the midst of the Dark Ages. They are still without
freedom, but rather are slaves to Satan. Life for them is a living death.
Sometimes that will show and sometimes not. But that is the reality of their
existence. Out of pity, if for no other reason, we need to call them out of
their experience of the Dark Ages and into the new age of light and life. We
need to urge them to come to Jesus. And some will respond and come. When they
do, they also will experience substantial healing. But there will be others who
will not come. And they will not just refuse to come, but they will fight
against us as we live according to the light and call others to join us. We
must patiently love them in the hope that they will come to their senses and
turn to Jesus. But there will be some who will resist and respond with anger
and with plots to attempt to thwart Jesus' conquest. The time may well come for
us to respond to their rage which is not so much against us but against Jesus.
So, let me read again that quote from Malachi but include the next sentence.
But for you who fear my name, the
sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out
leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for
they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says
the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 4.2, 3)
That's the big picture. That's the plan that God has had for
the history of the world. That’s the four most important events in history of the
world. And you are in that picture. It is my desire that you would understand a
bit better what God is up to. That understanding will help you live faithfully
as a disciple of Jesus. It is your faithful discipleship that Jesus will use to
complete His conquest and bring in the promised age of light and beauty.