29 OCTOBER 2006: WONDER OF WONDERS – Awe and Mystery In God’s Presence

TOPIC: Wonder (of God) [Awe; Majesty; Mystery]; Christmas
TITLE: WONDER OF WONDERS – Awe and Mystery In God’s Presence [Adaption of Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening, “Evening,” January 26]
TEXT: Luke 2:18

“All who heard it wondered (marveled; were astonished)
at the things which were told them.”

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: Where does holy awe and wonder lead us?
CONCISE OUTLINE:
I.
TRUTH/CONTEXT: Every Sunday is a time when believers should feel, personally and powerfully, the awe and mystery of their God’s presence.

I will continue our focus on Matthew 6:33 and Romans 14:17 and so today we re-flect on the King of the Kingdom!

[BABIES] In the early days of the nineteenth century, men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their homes, babies were being born. Just think of some of those babies.

In one year, lying midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of well-known men! During that year, 1809, Mr. Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Al-fred Tennyson drew his first breath at the Somersby rectory; and Oliver Wendell Holmes made his initial appearance in Massachusetts. On the very self-same day of that self-same year, Abraham Lincoln made his debut in Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederick Chopin at Warsaw and Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg.

But, nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet, viewing that age in the truer perspective which the years enable us to command, we may well ask ourselves which of the battles of 1809 mat-tered more than the babies of 1809.

When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. This is why, long, long ago, a Babe was born at Bethlehem.

The context for this morning’s message is the angelic proclamation to the lowly shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night” [8], the specific scene – the stable where those attending their newborn King heard “the things … told them by the shepherds.” [18]

We must never cease to be in awe and wonder at the great marvels of our God … the prophecies which pointed to Him, the history which pointed to Him, His Incarnation, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His soon Second Coming!

Over the crib falls the blinding shadow of the cross.

In the same way that it is impossible to detach godly fear from genuine reverence of God, it is impossible to separate HOLY WONDER and authentic worship.

To wonder is used approximately 42 times in the New Testament; 13 times in Luke alone (the most). Its most often used to describe Jesus’ miraculous works: e.g., His raising of Lazarus, his purging of Legion from the Gerasene Demoniac, His cursing of the fig tree, His healing of the dumb man, the blind man, and the lame man, or His quieting of the wind and the waves.

It has not all been seen

When God interacts with man, the soul is overwhelmed with His presence and His majesty in HOLY WONDER … His person and our salvation experience.

Though the soul may not always express itself in open and spontaneous song or in an impromptu dance or in brokenness and contriteness … still, though, it quietly adores and worships its newborn King.

But be reminded of what has been seen

Recall Isaiah’s words, John the Baptist leaping with joy in His mother’s womb, and later saying he is unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals; remember the burning hearts of the men on the road to Emmaus, the exclamation of “doubting” Thomas … “my Lord and my God,” and John’s quiet awe at beholding the Lord’s glorified beauty in Revelation chapter one!

But these are simply the first drops of rain in the deluge of His glory yet to be poured out!

We have His concern rather than His disdain

That God …

• should take notice of us in our fallen condition, what wonder!
• should undertake to be our Redeemer; rather than sweeping us up as a gardener would fall leaves, what glory!
• and should then pay our debt while we were yet in our sins … what words can express?

This, and infinitely more, is indeed astonishing – full of wonder, awe, reverence, and amazement!

Our experience of His wonder is yet uniquely personal

For each of us, redemption is most wonder-filled when viewed in relation to our self. Is it not an infinite miracle of His grace that Jesus left His royal home, and refused all power and privilege here on earth to suffer the shame of the cross for you?

Lose yourself in the awe and mystery of the incarnation

Now, allow your soul (your subconscious spirit) to lose itself in the awe and mystery of the Incarnation of the Pauper King, the Baby Savior. And then look ahead and let your spiritual emotions be fuel with wonder and astonishment at what is yet to come.

INQUIRY: Where does holy awe and wonder take us?
EXPANDED OUTLINE

I. HOLY WONDER will lead you to

A. Grateful worship … Glory to God in the highest!
B. Sincere thanksgiving … O thanks be to the One True God!

II. HOLY WONDER will create within you

A. Godly watchfulness … seek first His righteousness!
B. Awesome reverence … fear to sin against a love such as this.

III. HOLY WONDER will cause you

A. To feel the presence of Almighty God … in the gift of his “only begotten Son” …
B. To be humbly circumspect … “Woe is me a man of unclean lips amongst a people of unclean lips” [Isaiah 6:5].
C. To behave fearfully … “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” [Exodus 3:5].

IV. HOLY WONDER will fill you with a glorious and eternal hope

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we ex-ult in hope of the glory of God.”

Romans 5:1

V. And then HOLY WONDER will move you to the altar of sacrifice and find you presenting

your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: And so we see where HOLY WONDER leads us.

Oh, for understanding of and discernment into these “things,” that HOLY WONDER would be a continuous state not a random condition.

Consider your expectations

Will you be disappointed when one day you realize they were wholly insufficient?

If Jesus did indeed do such marvelous/wonderful/astonishing “things” on our be-half, perhaps we, like those in the stable, should not consider golden streets too great an expectation.

Who among you is now astonished by anything

If indeed you’ve truly been astonished by the manger and the cross? Subsequent to witnessing the birth of the King of kings and being sustained by the Prince of Peace, what is left that is as wonderful or as astonishing?

Concluding his message on this same verse, Spurgeon said:

“it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life, you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told (others) what they had seen and heard, but you can, at (the) least, fill up the circle of the worshippers before the throne, (in astonishment) at what God has done.”

[IMCOMPARABLE] Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40 and Jesus for only 3 1/2 years. Yet the influence of Christ's ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined years of teaching from these greatest of philosophers.

Jesus painted no pictures, yet some of the finest artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him.

Jesus wrote no poetry, but Dante, Milton and scores of the world's greatest poets were inspired by Him.

Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the music they composed in His praise.
Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth.

If you then, upon personal examination, find you have never been at the manger’s side and seen the King’s birth or blinded by the shadow of His cross, maybe, just maybe, this morning is the morning you will fill the void and end the drought of His wonder and majesty?

RELATED LINKS: The SHEEP'S CRIB

SPECIFIC TAGS: Luke, Wonder, Worship

GENERAL TAGS: Homiletics, Preaching, Sermons