For May 31

Sermon: When God Speaks

Intro: When our God speaks, things happen. Throughout the Bible and beyond, even today, when God speaks, things happen. That’s a statement no other god of any religion can make. But to gain the full perspective of that statement, we must recognize God as the Triune

God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we limit our perspective of God to just the Almighty, speaking from His Throne. Or the Son only as Jesus in his earthly form. Or the Spirit as a thing, not as a He. But, our God speaks as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And no matter which of the three persons God speaks from, things happen.

I. God Speaks

A. We first see God speaking, and things happening, at the Creation. The earth was formless and empty, darkness over the surface of the deep, with the Spirit of God, hovering over the waters. But, as we alluded to in our Call to Worship, God spoke, and the heavens and earth and seas were formed. God spoke and plants and animals were created. God spoke, then man was created, and given life by the breath of God. It would be impossible to separate each persona acting individually.  But that’s the difficulty in understanding the Triune God. So, I’ve been deliberate here in using the word God, rather than He, which would tend to focus on the singular, rather than plural persons of God acting as One.

B. At times we do see God acting as One. God calls Moses to Mt Sinai, speaking with him there over 40 days, giving The Ten Commandments, although. Moses wasn’t able to see God because of his human sinfulness. God spoke to Israel through Moses throughout the Exodus, even having the people make a Tent of Meeting so God could dwell in their midst, but who only spoke directly to Moses at the Tent of Meeting. And God continued to speak to people through His chosen prophets.

C, At other times, we can see a specific persona of God speaking or acting. God, as the preincarnate Son eats a meal with Abraham to discuss the promised birth of his son, and later wrestles with Jacob, speaking to Jacob during that ordeal. Jesus, in human form, speaks to the Father in prayer, even from the Cross. We saw the Holy Spirit being poured out at the Pentecost, and specifically acting throughout the Book of Acts, sometimes referred to as the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

II. Acts 10:9-19

A, In our NT reading, God speaks to Peter in a vision. Jewish laws were pretty strict about what was clean or unclean. A Jew would be considered unclean if he touched a corpse, or another’s blood, or ate foods specified as unclean. Gentiles were unclean. A Jew did not go into the house of a Gentile, or invite a Gentile into their homes. If you became unclean, you would have to go through a ritual of purification to become clean again. You couldn’t go into the Temple or a synagogue unless you were ritually clean. So, Peter was on a rooftop, praying, hungry, waiting for meat to cook for his meal, when he sees a vision of a large sheet  filled with all kinds of animals, clean and unclean, being let down to earth. God’s Voice, as the Holy Spirit, tells Peter to get up, kill, and eat. Peter objects, saying he’d never eaten anything unclean or impure. Then the Spirit tells him not to call anything He had created to be unclean. This happened three times. While thinking about what the vision meant, unknown to Peter, there was a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and all his family, who was devout and God-fearing. Cornelious is told to send men to bring Peter to him to hear what Peter would say. Before the vision, Peter might have refused to go to this Gentile’s home, but he goes as the Spirit instructed him, and witnesses about Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes upon the Cornelius household, and, speaking in tongues, praise God. Peter and his companions are astonished the Spirit had been poured out on these Gentiles, then realizes, just as Joel had prophesied, that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all people. Peter, now understanding the vision about what God considered clean, baptizes them in the name of Jesus. When God speaks, and people listen, things happen.

B. In the OT, God is often seen as an angry God, who speaks, and things even happen that we might see as terrible. The psalmist, in Psalm 8, expresses the wonders of God’s creation, and in comparison, asks why God would even be mindful of mankind, even care for us. By His Nature, God opposes sin, and mankind’s sin continued to destroy God’s perfection. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, ridding it from the earth for its sexual perversion even involving animals. By the time of Noah, sin and evil  had tainted all of creation so that God destroyed the world by Flood, saving only righteous Noah and his family to repopulate the earth. In conquering the Promised Land, God tells Joshua to destroy every living person in several conquered cities, where children were sacrificed to their pagan gods. In Israel’s cycles of sin, God allows enemies to even conquer Israel. God, the Father even allows His incarnate, sinless Son to be killed by crucifixion, a horrible, agonizing death to defeat sin. When God speaks against sin, harsh things happen.

C. But God loved His creation enough to mercifully give it second chances and more. His rainbow, symbol of a covenant that He would never destroy His Creation by Flood again, showed the depth of His love and mercy for His creation. But Israel, who was chosen to be God’s Voice to the world, continued to sin. Despite repeated warnings through the prophets of impending judgement, Israel continued to disregard His warnings before God ultimately resorts to allowing Babylon to be the instruments of His discipline, taking them into a 70 year exile. He could have turned His back on them, as Israel thought He had, until God speaks through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, to show them compassion and mercy. God spoke through Isaiah, in particular, to prophesy about the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, that the people walking in darkness would see a great light, as a means giving them comfort and hope in their despair that God had abandoned them because of their sin. When God speaks to warn against dark days as the result of sin, God responds with mercy, love, and forgiveness for those who respond to His warnings.  

III. I Kings 19: 1-14

A. While God speaks against large scale sin, God also speaks to individuals who are doing His will. Our OT  lesson shows such multiple happenings. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, perhaps the most evil of all Israel’s rulers, had made Baal the god of Israel. God had sent Elijah to them often to speak against their evil rule. Finally, God has Elijah challenge them to a contest with Baal. Two altars were set up, with a sacrificial bull laid on each. Whoever’s god would send fire down to consume the sacrifice would be the winner-take-all, with the losing prophets put to death. The 450 prophets of Baal go first. For hours they call on their god, even cutting themselves for a blood appeal, but of course, nothing happens. Finally, it’s Elijah’s turn. God had Elijah completely douse the altar with its sacrificial animal with so much water that a ditch around the altar became filled. Elijah lifts his prayer to God, and fire from heaven completely consumes the sacrifice, and even the stone altar. When the 450 prophets of Baal are consequently put to death, Jezebel is furious and, in a rage.vows that Elijah would be killed within a day. Despite God’s show of power, Elijah is afraid and runs for his life. God spoke, and things happened. But what about Elijah? Had he been merely a disposable tool in God’s action?  Would God ever see us that way?

B. Exhausted after a day’s journey to the wilderness he falls asleep, but an angel tells him to get up and eat to prepare for a forty day travel to Mt Horeb, also known as Mt Sinai, considered the mountain where God dwelt, where Moses had received the Ten Commandments. Arriving there, he spends the night in a cave. Then he hears the word of the Lord asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  God’s question is probing, yet compassionate. Elijah is afraid and greatly discouraged. He tells God he is zealous for the Lord, but Israel has rejected Him as their God, torn down His altars and killed His prophets, so that now he (Elijah) is the only one left, and he is about to be killed. Elijah is told to stand on the mountain, for the Lord was about to pass by. Subsequently, a great and powerful wind tears the mountains apart and shatters the rocks...but the Lord wasn’t in the wind. Then an earthquake, but God is not there. Nor is he in the fire that sweeps by. But then in a gentle whisper, God asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

C. It's a probing, compassionate question, not for God’s benefit, but rather to challenge Elijah to a self-examination of his prophetic calling. Elijah reiterates his initial answer, that Israel had rejected God and killed all His prophets, except him. Then God shows Elijah the error of his thinking by presuming he was God’s only hope in Israel, the last prophet left alive, as God reveals that He still had 7000 others who had not bowed down to Baal. Elijah had lost sight of God’s protection and saving grace. But God hadn’t revealed Himself through the power of a mighty wind, earthquake, or fire, but speaking in a still, gentle whisper, gently reassuring him that he was in God’s care. .

D. The lesson here for us is that we too get impatient, even discouraged, when we expect to see God working in mighty ways. We want to see His power and feel protected by a show of force. But God doesn’t have to reveal Himself in shows of force. He has just as much power in a gentle, reassuring whisper. Nor should we feel that God depends on us to do His Will. We need to depend on Him, trust Him to lead us through those valleys of trouble or discouragement. Trust Him even in gentle, still whispers assuring us of His Presence,  As Almighty God, who does miracles that aren’t the result of a show of power.

E. But what does God’s speaking to us sound like in our lives?   I’ve been reading a Guidepost’s book called, God’s Work in Our Lives. It’s a collection of stories of actual experiences of God speaking in people’s lives in different voices and ways. Whispers of reassuring hope, of unexpected healings, visions of impending calamity, guidance through such calamities, and God calling people to help in other’s lives. Testimonies of God still speaking, and things happening.

F. In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John encounters Jesus appearing in His God form in heaven, where He initially hears Jesus’ voice like the sound of a trumpet. He turns to see the Jesus in His divine, glowing form, His voice sounding like the rush of mighty waters. If you’ve ever stood near a large waterfall and tried to talk, it’s like your voice is swallowed up in the fullness of that sound. Yet John is able to hear Jesus’ speaking to him. Seeing the divine Jesus, John falls to his face as if dead, but Jesus  touches him, and tells him not to be afraid. In the song, In The Garden, the author porttrays Jesus speaking, and the sound of his voice is so sweet, the birds hush their singing, While the song is not Biblical, it’s similar to Mary Magdalene’s experience at the tomb, when Jesus just speaks her name, and she comes from deep depression to overwhelming joy. Although we hear variations of the volume and tone of Jesus’ voice in these encounters, there doesn’t seem to be any fear in hearing His voice.

Conclusion:  In our present world, we may find ourselves in various situations of need, spiritual as well as physical. Needing God’s Presence, like the afraid, discouraged Elijah. Or needing God’s direction, like Peter. Or finding ourselves lost in our sins, or feeling distant from God, but desiring His Presence. But that’s when God speaks to us, even in a gentle whisper, encouraging us that we are not in this alone, that God doesn’t depend on us, but that we must depend on God. He is always present with us, always sustaining us. But unless we listen for His voice, and do what His Voice tells us, we may miss seeing and knowing His Power working within, and through us. When God speaks, things happen, especially when we listen. Amen.