WHAT IF
HOW WOULD I KNOW WHAT GOD IS LIKE?
DR. JIM DIXON
ISAIAH 9:6
DECEMBER 2, 2012
Our daughter Heather and her husband Chris are in the midst of adopting a baby boy from Africa, from Ethiopia. They are excited. They have named their new baby Elijah. This, of course, is a Biblical name and a wonderful name. But they have chosen it phonetically. They like the sound of Elijah, they like the sound of Eli. They like the way it goes with their family name. Heather and Christopher Lowe—this will be Elijah Lowe, Eli Lowe. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
I think that most people choose their names phonetically. That is true of our son Drew and his wife Rachel. Their first child is coming next month. Rachel is very pregnant. They are going to have a baby girl in January. They have named her Kensie Marie. Again, they have chosen those names phonetically. They like the sound of Kensie Marie. That is how we all are. Most of us choose our baby’s names phonetically. We might call our daughter Heidi, we might call our daughter Miriam, we might call our son Cory, but we if we do that, we like the sound of the names. We are not thinking about the fact that Heidi means battle maiden. We are not thinking about the fact that Miriam means bitter. We are not thinking about the fact that Cory means pool-dweller. We choose the names phonetically.
God, however, is different. It should not surprise us. God is different. He has an appreciation for phonetics, but he chooses his names etymologically. He wants to know derivation and he wants to know meaning of the word. When the baby comes in the world, when our Lord comes into the world and is born in Bethlehem, the Father names him. The Father names him Yeshua, which is anglicized as Jesus. Yeshua sounds beautiful, but that wasn’t the reason the Father chose the word. He chose it etymologically. It comes from a root word meaning to save. You shall call his name Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins. The Father gives another name to the son and that name is Emmanuel. Again, Emmanuel has phonetic beauty but God is concerned with the etymology, with the root meanings. The root meaning is God with Us. The Father knew he was sending his son into the world to reveal himself and to reveal the very nature of God. God with us. So, we ask the question: If Christ had not come, would we know what God is like? If Emmanuel had not come, would we really know what God was like?
I would like us to look at this in terms of three attributes. First of all, would we know that God is triune? If Jesus had not come into the world, if Jesus had not been born in Bethlehem, would we know that God is a tri-unity? Would we understand the concept of the Trinity if Jesus had not come into the world? The Bible tells us that God is one. There is one God. Yet the Bible says that Jesus is God, the Bible says the Father is God, the Bible says the Holy Spirit is God. If you put those concepts together you have one God in essence and in nature, but three different persons. This is the basis of the whole concept of the Trinity. You look at our passage of Scripture for today from Isaiah chapter 9 and two of the titles, two of the names given to Jesus reveal much. One is the name El Gibbor. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and his name shall be called El Gibbor, God the Mighty. That is an amazing name for a child born in this world. God the Mighty. El Gibbor.
Then the other name that is given to him that connotes deity is “Abi-Ad.” His name shall be called Abi-Ad, Abi, meaning Father, Ad, meaning everlasting. So, his name shall be called Everlasting Father. He does reveal the Everlasting Father. The translation of Abi-Ad could also be the Father of everlasting, Father of eternity, Lord of time. An amazing title given to the child born in Bethlehem.
These titles are consistent with the rest of Holy Scripture with regard to Jesus Christ. If you think the Bible is iffy about the deity of Christ, you haven’t read the Bible. If you think the Bible leaves in doubt whether or not Jesus is God, you simply have not read the Bible and do not understand the Scriptures. This message is stated again and again and again that Jesus Christ is God and he is God with us. In John chapter 1, the words are these: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made. In him was life and the life was the light of man.” Then it goes on to say, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory.”
An amazing passage. The statement is clear that Jesus was in the beginning with God. He is the Logos, he is the Word. This is the Greek term used for the mind of God. In the beginning was Jesus, in the beginning was the logos, and he was with God and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. Without him was not anything made; all things are made by him. These are amazing statements.
Hebrews is perhaps my favorite book in the entire Bible, and in chapter 1 you have these words: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken through the Son whom he has appointed the heir of all things and through whom also he created the world”—literally, “the cosmos,” in the Greek. “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp, the very impress of his nature upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for our sins he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angel as the name which he has attained is more excellent than theirs.”
These are amazing words, that Jesus reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature. Through Jesus, the Father created the world. Even now, Jesus upholds the universe by his word of power. Do you realize how radical those statements are? When we think of the macrocosm, when you think of the galactic systems, when you think of the billions of light years, when you think of pulsars and quasars and black holes and supernovas, when you think of the universe, or the multiverse, when you think of the world of inner space, when you think of quarks, when you think of string theory, when you think of subatomic particles, when you think of creation, you should think of God in his wholeness. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why in Genesis chapter 1 it says that when the creation took place the Spirit of God was moving over the creation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This is consistent with what Jesus himself said of himself. That is why when Jesus was talking with the disciples in John chapter 14, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions, many dwelling places, many abodes.” The Greek word is “monai.” “If it were not so, would I have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. You know the way where I am going.” Philip said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How could we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me you would have known my Father also. Have you been with me so long, Philip, and you do not know me? How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Again, it is an amazing statement of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then in John 8, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees—not the disciples, but to the Pharisees. He has expressed to the Pharisees the error of their thinking and the error of their ways. The Pharisees then try to attack him and tell Jesus that he is defying their father, Abraham. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Your father Abraham longed to see my day. He has seen it and is now glad.” It is an amazing statement. They are just incredulous. They said, “Wait a minute. Abraham lived 2,000 years ago, and you are trying to tell us you know him and you know what he is feeling now?” Jesus gives this response: “Truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I Am.”
This is an amazing statement. You might be thinking, “Why didn’t he say, before Abraham ever was, I was?” Isn’t that what he is kind of saying here, that before Abraham existed, he existed? “Before Abraham was, I was?” The answer is yes, but what Jesus said and how he said it is intentionalized. It is how we are meant to say it. Jesus is taking the Tetragrammaton, he is taking the divine name, the name of the Lord God Almighty, and he is applying it to himself.
What is the name of God? The name of God, as God revealed it to Moses, is Yahweh. This is the Hebrew name of God. It is translated into English as Y-H-W-H. It could also be transliterated into English as J-H-V-H. It is either pronounced Yahweh or Javeh. A hybrid word has been created by taking the vowels of the Hebrew word Adonai, which means Lord, and adding them to the Tetragrammaton and coming up with the name Jehovah. So, JHVH becomes Jehovah.
What is the meaning of these words? The root meaning of Yahweh is “I am.” The root meaning of Javeh is “I am.” The root meaning of Jehovah is “I am.” So, Jesus said, ”Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I Am.” They took up stones to kill him for blasphemy. This is what you find in the Bible. It is not fuzzy. It is not hard to understand. It is hard to believe, but it is just not hard to understand.
Jesus says very clearly that he is God. That is why as God and Creator, he could change water to wine. How does a guy change 120 to 180 gallons of water into 120 to 180 gallons of fine wine? He can do that if he is the Creator. He can change the molecular structure if he is the Creator. How does he raise the dead? He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. His body had begun to decay and to stink. Jesus said, “Lazarus come forth.” The dead man came to life. He is the Creator. It all fits if only we would believe. How would we know that God is triune? We know this because Jesus has come into our world and he is God with us.
In the early ecclesiastical church councils such as the Council of Nicaea in 325, the Council of Constantinople in 381, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, these early councils gathered all the great leaders of the Christian world and they poured over the Holy Scriptures. They said, “What is God telling us?” They concluded that God is telling us there is one God and he exists forever in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus, in John 17, in his high priestly prayer speaks of the glory he shared with his father before the worlds were made. That is why Jesus could pray to the father and say, “Father, I have glorified your name on earth having accomplished the work you gave me to do. Now, glorify you me in your own presence with the glory which I share with you before the worlds were ever made.” What an amazing statement. The disciples were standing there and heard it. I say to you, this is not a difficult subject in terms of Biblical interpretation; it is just hard for people to believe. This is the wonder of Christmas. We look at Jesus and we know that God is triune.
We also know that God is kind. How do we know that God is kind? We look at Jesus and we know God is kind. Let me ask you this: If all we had was the Old Testament, if all we had were the Jewish scriptures, if all we had was Genesis through Malachi, if all we had were the Pentateuch, the Torah, would we know that God is kind? I think most of you, if honest, would reply by saying, “We know that God is sometimes kind.” The Old Testament is really tough and God has not fully revealed himself. God has appeared in theophanies, glory clouds, pillars of fire, burning bushes, the Shekinah in the Holy of Holies, but God has not fully revealed himself. Not until he sent his son.
There are difficult episodes. The dealing of God with Moses is kind of hard. Moses was so great, and I think we all love this man who was humble and a shepherd. God raised him up to lead the people of Israel and to stand before the Pharaoh of all Egypt and say, ‘let my people go.” We love this guy. The people of Israel, the children of Israel complained, they grumbled, they murmured, they were thirsty, they were complaining so Moses cried out to God, “How do I give them drink?” God told Moses to go to the rock of Meribah, the rock at Rephidim, not too far from Mt. Sinai or Mt. Horeb and to strike that rock and bring forth water for the people. This Moses did, as shown in Exodus 17.
In Numbers chapter 20, the people are again crying out. They are again complaining, they are again grumbling, and they are again dying of thirst. Moses cries out to God, “How do I give water to your people?” God says, “Go to a rock also called Meribah but at Kadesh Barnea and take your rod, but don’t strike the rock. Speak to the rock and water will come forth for the people.”
Moses goes and for some reason he strikes the rock twice, water does come forth, people are provided for, but God is upset with Moses because he didn’t follow his instructions. God says to Moses, “I am sorry, but you cannot enter the Promised Land. Because you have done this you cannot enter the Promised Land.” Moses, after begging God, is allowed to see the Promised Land from the other side of the Jordan. He is allowed to see the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, and then he is buried in Moab.
I don’t know how you feel when you read that, but does that sound kind? It is hard, isn’t it? There is a lot of hard stuff as you go through the Old Testament. Understand, God’s heart is not fully revealed there. Israel had a lot of enemies. There were many nations and ethnic groups that were enemies of Israel. There were the Amalekites, there were the Ammonites, there were the Edomites, there were the Hittites, there were the Midianites, there were the Moabites, there were the stalactites, the stalagmites, a lot of enemies. As you go through the Old Testament you see God, who is Jehovah Sabaoth, who is the Lord of Hosts, raise up the armies of Israel, the hosts of Israel in battle. You see this war God and you see Israel prevailing over its enemies and you see people sometimes slaughtered, men, women, even children and animals—it is hard. God is not fully revealed yet.
We understand that God is Holy. We understand that God is righteous. We understand that God is omnipotent. We also understand that some in certain subcultures, were so debauched, so wicked, they had to be eradicated from the earth. It is hard. I think this, in fairness, at least for me, as I go over the Old Testament it seems that the kindness trumps the hardness. In the Old Testament, again and again we do see the kindness of God, but I think had Jesus not come, had Jesus not been born in Bethlehem, it would have been so hard to fully grasp the kindness of God. Jesus came.
We know that his followers, very early on, were called Christians, “Christ ones,” followers of Christ. We know that even in the book of Acts it is recorded for the followers of Jesus. The followers of Jesus were called Christians, from the Greek word “Christos,” which means “the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one.” In the Roman world, which was the world of early century Christianity, it was a Hellenized world, so most people did not speak Latin. Almost everybody spoke Greek. This word Christian was not a known word throughout the Roman world. It was misunderstood.
In a lot of the early literature, we see that early Christians were oftentimes not called Christians, but were called Chrestians. That is more than a curiosity because it has to do with an understanding of Hellenism and the Greek language and the closeness of the Christos to the word Chrestos. The word Christos means the Christ, the Messiah but the word Chrestos means kind. Chrestos is the word for kind. Chrestos means “kind ones.” Christos means “Christ ones.” There was this misunderstanding in the Roman world. Many times, Christians were called kind ones, Chrestians.
I think that is kind of cool. That kindness is seen in Christ and hopefully through his people. You look at Jesus and you look at the life of Jesus and you see, by the way he treated women, his kindness. It was a patriarchal world. Sometimes people today still speak as though our culture is patriarchal. There may be elements that are patriarchal to our culture still, but when compared to the Roman world, or to the Greek world, or even to the ancient Hebrew world, these are not patriarchal times at all. The Roman world was so patriarchal—”Pater potestas,” Father power. In the Greek world, women were property. It was a patriarchal world. Men owned everything.
In the Hebrew, Jewish, Rabbinical world, it was extremely patriarchal. So, Jesus comes into our world and we see that he loves men and women equally. You can’t go through the pages of the Bible and not see that Jesus loves men and women equally, values them equally. You say, “Oh yeah, but he chose twelve guys to be his disciples.” Yeah, he had to function in a patriarchal world, but he had women followers too. They rose up. He empowered them and he loved them. Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene were part of the band that went with Jesus everywhere and helped support the ministry. Even those women who had fallen in the eyes of the Jewish world, Jesus loved and showed kindness to. The woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, who had been married five times and now had a live-in guy, Jesus offered her living water and eternal life. He saved her.
The woman caught in the act of adultery, that the mobs wanted to stone to death, Jesus condemned her sin, but he did not condemn her. “Is there no one left to condemn you?” After the mob dispersed. “No one Lord.” “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Do not sin this sin again. Kindness.
The woman who came off the street was the woman who was a prostitute and she came in to where Jesus was dining at the home of a Pharisee. She started crying and washing the feet of Christ with her tears and wiping his feet with her hair. Jesus blessed her, Jesus forgave her, Jesus healed her, and her gratitude is overflowing.
This is God. This is Jesus giving a glimpse to us of his Father. Every miracle, every healing, every time Jesus healed the blind or the deaf or the dumb or the lame, it shows God’s kindness. It is the kindness of God as we see it in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The response of Jesus to lepers and to a world of leprosy (lepers were the outcast of society) was kindness. I hope you understand nothing was more hideous than leprosy in first century Palestine. They were banished to dens and caves of the earth. They lost their jobs. They were excommunicated from their communities; they were exiled by their families. They were outcasts. Their bodies were ulcerated. You couldn’t come close to them because of the stench as their ulcers literally would over time start to ooze and they would reek. Their nervous systems were degenerating, their musculature shrinking. Their destiny was coma and ultimately death.
They were not allowed by Jewish law, by rabbinical law, to come within 100 feet of a normal human being. They had to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” But you see lepers coming to Jesus. Why do you see lepers coming to Jesus? I think for many reasons. Other people had no power, so why bother? Also, his kindness. You see that scene where the leper comes up to Christ, right up to Christ, in violation of all Jewish law, and says, “Rabbi, Master, if you only will you can make me clean, you can make me whole.” You see Jesus reaching down and touching the untouchable. Nobody would touch a leper. He says, “I will. Be clean. Be healed. Be whole.” That is God. That is the heart of God revealed by the Son, his kindness.
Even the parables of Christ reveal the kindness of God. Jesus gives us the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is really a parable of the loving father. It is really a parable of the forgiving father. Jesus is saying to the world, “My father is like the father in this parable. He is waiting for prodigals to come home. He longs to hug them. He longs to run to them. He longs to kill the fatted calf for them. He longs to put the signet ring on them and to receive them.” This is how Jesus reveals the father. In The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is simply saying, “We who believe need to start showing that kindness to others as God has shown kindness to us now. We are to show our kindness to others.” We look at Jesus and we see that God is kind. Many throughout history have been blown away by the kindness that they have found in Jesus.
I would assume all of you have heard of Vincent van Gogh. I would assume some of you are knowledgeable in the world of art and you have some knowledge of the masters. Certainly, most art historians would view van Gogh as a master, although in his time he was not popular. He did not find profitability. Today paintings by van Gogh go for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. Van Gogh was brilliant.
Did you know that on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1888, van Gogh cut off his ear, or part of his ear. It was a bad Christmas for Vincent. Now today, historians look and they say, “What went on that Christmas for Vincent van Gogh?” Some historians believe he got into an argument with Paul Gauguin. They believe that in this argument with Gauguin that van Gogh took out his razor blade and wound up cutting his own ear. Others believe van Gogh had a seizure that Christmas Eve because it is suspected that he did have seizures. Others say it was hard to say because his life was beginning to unravel and he had some mental illness. His days alternated between extreme creative bursts of energy and great depths of depression. He was finding it harder and harder to hold up.
Van Gogh, in his heart, had a love for Christ. Did you know that? He longed to be a preacher. He was almost messed up enough to be a preacher. He longed to be a preacher and wanted to be a pastor and wanted to be a shepherd. He loved Christ. He went to theology school in the Anglican Church. In the year 1876, he flunked his theology finals and could not be ordained by the Anglican Church. He didn’t give up hope because he had such a passion to serve Christ so he became a missionary and a preacher on the mission field. He was supported by a segment of the Anglican Church. He went to the coal mines of what is now southwest Belgium.
There, in the coal mines, Vincent van Gogh labored for Christ. He told people about Jesus and invited people to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. He believed that Jesus showed us how to minister to people and that is by becoming incarnate. You have to enter another person’s world as Jesus entered our world. Van Gogh entered the world of the coal miners. He did what they did, he dressed like they did, and he ate like they did. The Anglican Church was mad because he was going beneath the status of the clergy. He got into conflicts with the higher-ups in the church but he never ceased to love Jesus.
He poured himself into the world of art. People debate if he was impressionistic, post-impressionistic, expressionistic. There was vibrancy in his paintings. Van Gogh always said that vibrancy, the vibrant color, for him represented the presence of God. He committed suicide in 1890 when he could bear his life no longer. Maybe he just decided to throw himself into the mercy of God believing in the kindness of Christ. Suicide is horrible. It is a sin; it is a grave sin. Vincent van Gogh was right about the kindness of Christ. You look at Christ and you see that kindness in this world that is so hard and so, hurting and you know God is kind. I don’t think we would know what God is like apart from Jesus.
God is triune and God is kind. Finally, briefly, God is joy. I don’t know that we would know that God is joy apart from Jesus. Would you know that? As we start this Christmas season, are you aware of the fact that God is full of joy? What an amazing thing. Last month we had a meeting of our Elders, an Elder retreat. It is just wonderful to hang out with the leadership of the church. There was a segment of time when Mike Henshaw, one of our Elders who heads the Governance Committee, was giving a report. Mike invited us all to go around the room and share with everyone else two things that nobody else knows about you, or at least nobody in the room knows about you. They went around the room and each one shared two things. One of the Elders said, “One thing that none of you know about me is that I am funny. I am really funny. I have a great sense of humor.” I knew enough about him to know that it is true and I had seen glimpses of that. He had given a devotional to the Elder board just a month or two earlier where we all cried. It was so moving, it was so touching that he cried and we all cried. I think he thought, “Maybe they think I am never light-hearted.” It is hard to fully know people.
Do you know that God is fun? Does the thought offend you that he might even be funny? Can you imagine God laughing? Do you think there is any sense in which God laughs? Do you think the imago Dei and the image of God that is vested upon us and our capacity of humor in some way reflects God’s humor? That thought occurs to me.
The Bible says in God’s presence there is fullness of joy. All joy is partial on this earth but in God’s presence there is fullness of joy. He sends his Son into the world. “Behold I bring you good news of great joy,” “charan megalon,” literally meaning mega joy in the Greek. This is mega joy. “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
The Bible tells us that Jesus has been anointed with the oil of gladness above all human beings. The Greek word is “agalliasis.” It means overflowing joy. Jesus said, “I speak these words that my joy might be in you and your joy might be full.” I love the picture of the laughing Christ because I really believe that Jesus was constantly like that. Why do you think all of these guys left their jobs? Why do you think all these fishermen left their nets and followed him? Why do all these women band up and follow him? Why did everybody love him so much? This guy had more joy than anybody.
I think there were times when he really was funny. I think we have kind of sanctified the whole deal so much that we don’t let him be human in the midst of his divinity. The reality is, when he said to the Pharisees, “You guys are straining out gnats and swallowing camels,” that is funny. The Pharisees weren’t laughing, but I think everybody else was. This was just a great guy to hang out with. He shows us the Father. He shows us that the Father is triune. God has complexity within himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He shows us that God is kind and shows us that God is full of joy. This begins our Christmas series. Let’s have a word of prayer and then we will have the benediction.