Glory of God SERIES
May 11, 2008
The Glory of God in Relationships
The Roman orator Cicero once said: “We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.” Community is a part of who we are. There is a base need in the human condition for a certain degree of community. This community is found in fellowship through relationships with other people. You cannot have a community by yourself. In order to experience community you have to be with other people. At the same time, just being around other people does not create a community. When you go to Wal-Mart for groceries you are around a lot of people, but that is not exactly an intimate community. Community is more than just a state of being near or around other people. Community is found when a group of people share an intimate fellowship. Community is found in relationships.
This week we are looking at the Glory of God in His Relationships in His community. God is relational, He is communal. Even in His existence before the creation of the world, God has been a communal God. He has existed in three parts, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit while at the same time He is one. From before their was time God has had relationships because He is a relational God. God is three parts in harmony together. This is called the trinity. Though the word trinity is never used in Scripture, the idea is found in a number of Scriptures: Gen 1:26 “God says let US make man in OUR image” Matthew 3:16, and 1 Corinthians 12:4 also support this idea of a multi-parted relationship aspect of God. So what I want to talk about today is the Glory of God in His relationships. These relationships are best seen through His fellowship with His people. So what I want to do today is to show you a few different aspects of the relational aspect of God so we can see His glory through relationships.
While we are on the topic of fellowship, I have an important story to tell you. While I was at Ozark I took a speech class. Our professor was a guy we called Griff. He was a good teacher and a really fun person to talk to. One day in class he told us this story. It is a story that I will always remember. He was telling us about one of his experiences in ministries. He told us that the church he was at was having some issues. They were having people come and making decisions but people were not sticking around. The leadership determined that the problem was newcomers we not getting connected. They were not building relationships within the church and so they would be around for a little while and then go somewhere else. So the church decided to start up care groups in order to help people get to know each other. To launch these groups they decided to do a four week sermon series on the Acts 2 church. The last sermon was titled ‘devoted to fellowship’. Everything was planned out and organized. This was a very strategic approach. They were going to do a sermon on fellowship the same day that they would announce their small group plan.
On that final week of the series Griff did his sermon on ‘devoted to fellowship’. He talked about fellowship being much deeper than just a ‘hi, how are you’ kind of relationship. Doing some background study in the original language he told the congregation that fellowship came from a commitment or partnership to a joint cause, and was used Biblically to describe a marital intimacy, and also could sometimes be used to refer to intimacy in a sexual relationship. Here is where he got in to trouble. Trying to be cute, but without realizing that he had not given his audience the same transition that he had made just after establishing that fellowship was a description of sexual intimacy he stops and says: “by the way your minister loves fellowship”. The crowd laughed and he went on. He moved to the practical part of his sermon explaining that they were starting up small groups. He failed to realize that his audience had not shifted gears and were still on the idea of fellowship being sex. He had moved on…they had not. This is what he told us: His first statement “Why do you suppose people accept Christ and join our church and within a few months they are gone? It is because we don’t give them fellowship when they come." I noticed a few chuckles and thought, "they’re not with me this morning." I had no clue that my listeners had not moved beyond my identification of fellowship with sex. Then he made another statement: “People will not stay happy and contented when they are not getting regular, good fellowship.” Of course the people were laughing more now. He still had not realized it and was becoming very irritated. He thought they were carrying on their own conversations. He made a few more statements and the laughter continued. The last straw was when he said: “fellowship is best in small groups of 8 to 12”. After that it was all over. He prayed and cut the sermon short very angry, still not realizing that the church was associating all of these things with sex. Sometimes you have to be careful what you say. Griff found that for a long time…he could not use the word fellowship. That story made me happy about my decision to go to Ozark.
On a serious note: Fellowship is a word to describe and intimate love for one another. It is such an intimate connection that it is used to describe sexual intimacy but that is not all it is used for. In fact understanding the depth of that intimacy is extremely important. Fellowship is a description of a deeply personal, intimate, connection that exists between two people. Fellowship is an essential aspect to a meaningful relationship. The bond that Christians have as children of God, our meeting together is a fellowship meeting because of the power an intimacy of our connection to each other through the blood of Christ. This intimate fellowship is really what makes relationships so meaningful.
Before there was creation God had relationships. He is relational. We can see the Glory of God through the relationship that He has with His people. The Glory of God is clearly seen in His relationships. This nature…this desire or maybe even need for relationships comes out of love. You can have a relationship with someone and not love them, but you cannot love someone and not have a relationship with them. It is in the nature of love to desire a relationship with the object of that love. If you love chocolate you will want to eat it from time to time. If you love your parents you will want to spend time with them. Love creates in us a desire to be around that which we love. You see the incredible thing about God being relational, is that this shows us how much He loves us. Because God loves us, He desires a relationship with us. In His relationships, in this community aspect of God…in this fellowship that He offers us…we see His glory.
1Co 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful
God called us into fellowship. God is relational He created man to be as well. For the Jews this idea of community was a powerful one. The word meant to have a sense of unity and common purpose. In community there are things in common…and there is unity. The power of the Jewish community is that they had unity through so many changes. Israel was set up of a loose confederation of tribes that were unified by worship of Yahweh God. They would come together as a nation only to be taken into captivity on numerous occasions by enemy nations. Yet after being split up, separated, driven apart, and dispersed by many different nations with many different cultural influences the Jewish people still managed to create a community. Even in exile they had community because the relationship, the connection they had made to each other…their bond was so strong. We are wired to be communal beings. Relationships are a part of who we are.
God is a God of relationships. That is the point of life. We were created to have a relationship with God. Have you ever thought about that? That the almighty all powerful all knowing God of the universe wants a relationship with you.
Have you ever noticed how Jesus did ministry? Jesus has a mission, the most important mission in the history of the world. He comes to earth to live a righteous life, but ultimately to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Jesus comes to earth to die. His mission does not require that He make friends. His ultimate goal does not actually require that He build relationships…but He does. He finds twelve people that the world wouldn’t think twice about and He brings them along for the journey of His life. Jesus chooses to make relationships. He chooses to take twelve strangers and make them into His friends…His brothers. Knowing that through one of those relationships He would be betrayed and killed He still chose to have them. Make no mistake Jesus could still be the savior of the world if He did not take on the disciples. He would certainly still be Lord. Jesus didn’t need them to do anything. He didn’t need these guys so that He would have someone to talk to. He didn’t need these guys so that He could avoid the traps of the religious leaders. They didn’t offer Him anything that He could not have gotten on His own. Yet still He invests in them. He spends time with them. He opens up to them. He cares for them. He loves them. Jesus chose to develop relationships with us because He is a relational God. Jesus desires relationship. He wants to have community with His creation. God is a communal God who desires relationships.
If you would turn to Matthew 6. God desires relationships not because He is petty and wants the praise, or insecure and needs the validation. God desires relationships because He is loving. Since He is loving He needs something to love. Out of His loving nature God created us so that He could love us. He seeks a relationship with us out of love for us. Look at Matthew 6:9
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Mt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Mt 6:11 Give us today our daily bread. Mt 6:12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Mt 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ Mt 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Mt 6:15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Look at this. Do you see it? How does Jesus tell us to address God? As our Father. This is not a totally new idea, throughout Old and New Testaments God is referred to as ‘Father’. The Jews would think and even speak of God as ‘Father’ but not in the same way that Jesus does. Jesus refers to God with a word that is likely translated from the Aramaic word “Abba” the English equivalent of this word is somewhere found between father and daddy. This takes the idea of a personal God to a whole new level. In the Jewish religion while God was a Father He was so transcendent that He was untouchable. He had the title Father, but the way they looked at Him was almost impersonal.
This picture of a Father meant something a little different to people living in the first century than it does to us today. Now a father is simply the male parent. He might run the household, he might be the one with the job, but the parents are basically equal in authority. At that time in society a Father held absolute power of life and death over his family and children. In many senses they were like property. Even Jewish culture if you look at Exodus 20 in the Ten Commandments you see that: You shall not covet your neighbors house, wife, servant, or donkey. The wife is listed in a group of possessions. Even in Jewish law she was property to be owned. The father had complete and total power over the household. With his children he could decide to raise them, or kill them. Also if the child displeased his father the father had right to punish the child by execution. The Father was the only one who could own property. As long as he was alive his children no matter how old could not own anything. At this time the Father had absolute authority over the house hold. The Father had all the power. He was to be respected…maybe even feared. This is fitting of the common attitude Jewish people would have towards God. God was called father…but not daddy. That was too personal. Too informal.
Yet that is the word that Jesus uses, that He instructs us to use. Jesus reminds us not only of our connection to God but of the intimacy of that connection. This is word He uses is not just a recognition that God has absolute power over us, it is an intimate, personal description of a relationship. God tells us, instructs us to call Him Father. Over 100 times God in the NT alone God is referred to as our Father. This seems to be the most common title for God used in the NT. Do you see what this means? There is no relationship on earth that truly parallels that of a father and his child. There is no bond quite like that of a father and his child. Even if the father is a lousy father…that bond still seems to exist. God who is infinite in His power and wisdom chooses to be identified as our father. He could be king, tyrant, master of the universe, but His preferred title…is father. It seems God’s favorite title for Himself is an indication of His relationship with us.
We see this relational aspect of God not just in how He works with us, but in the partnership He makes with us. In Matthew 28 we find the great commission. This is a shared mission, God entrusts us with a task. He leaves us to run things, to serve Him. God doesn’t need us…but He chooses to partner with us because God is a relational God. Look at the text and what it says: Matt 28:18
Mt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Mt 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Mt 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus offers us salvation, and He lets us play a part. God partners with us in making Himself known to the world. We get to be the ones who tell the world about Him. The good news has already happened. The hard part is done. All that is left, is telling the world about it. That is the part that He gives us. The easy, the fun part, the reward part. We get to partner with God in telling the world of the news of His Son and what that means. For too long we look have looked at evangelism as a chore or task that we are burdened with, it is not…evangelism is a privilege that we have been blessed with. God chooses to let us partner with Him and we get to be the ones who tell the world what His Son has done for them. Do you see just how powerful the love of God really is? Do you see how relational He is? God does not need you, He doesn’t need me to complete this task. He chooses to let us play a part so that we may help bring people to eternal life. It’s like God went out and bought them this incredible gift…and we get to be the ones who tell them about it. Don’t you see…evangelism is not a chore…it’s a privilege. It is a blessing. It is a gift from God that He lets His children, play a part in His purpose in this world.
God is a relational God, and it is that relationship that saves us. It is that relationship take makes a difference. Christianity is not about a list of do’s and don’ts it is about a relationship with the almighty God. We need to see that, and to work on that relationship.
