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The God Who Is: The Meaning of Life
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: We will come to know the meaning of life when we discover the God who is.
Who God Is
How He Said to Live
What He Came To Do
Who God Is
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
- C.S. Lewis
Why is this so? God is the meaning of life.
John 1:1-18
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 through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ( John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
This mirrors the Genesis account of creation.
In the beginning....
It is declarative of origins, that God is the creator of all things through Jesus Christ and the physical laws of nature which he established.
We can learn at least four things about God from this text:
God is uncreated and all things begin with him. This is what it means that God is eternal.
As shared in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Greek culture to whom the Gospel of John was written understood the terminology used for “Word” as that which was used for “the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.” The word implied the plan for and meaning of life.
This eternal Word became flesh in Jesus Christ. Thus Jesus is God and shows us the meaning of life.
God came to have relationship with his creation through the incarnate Christ.
God’s nature and character are vitally important because as the Westminster Catechism says,
“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”
This means that it is only in God that we will find the meaning of life.
When we remove the crutches of physical accountability, we see where our passions truly lie.
What am I giving myself to when no one else is around?
What do I choose to invest in and pursue?
When we’re removed from the face to face encouragement of the people, we realize how desperately we need it by God’s design to advance
Jeremiah 2:11-13
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
What happens when you lose your looks?
What happens when you are are no longer attractive physically to a world on which your approval and sense of self worth depended?
In Christ, you don’t have to hold on to things that are destined to change for value.
You can find your anchor in the unchanging one.
You also don’t have to live someone else’s life, even vicariously, to find contentment.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
You need to hear this.
This will provide liberty for you in your days.
You are only expected and required to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for you to do, not someone else.
That means your eternal success is in daily finding those good works and giving yourself to them.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
This kills striving in an unhealthy manner for a sense of purpose and significance.
You are a part of a team in the Kingdom and you are simply required to be all in for the good of the King, the team and play your role.
Why your life and Work Still Matter:
“Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavours, even the best, will come to naught.
Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavour, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling, can matter forever.”
- Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work
Yet this fulfillment needs to be seen as a result obedience, not the source of your value.
I am a Fisher whether I choose to do the right thing or not.
My family name remains the same, though my choices can bring either honor or disrepute to that name.
If I am only doing good deeds to somehow validate my worth, my works become a taskmaster since I am only as significant as my last deed or work accomplishment.
However this has never been the source of our salvation, right standing or worth before God.
God’s gospel is a message of grace where we have entry into his Kingdom solely because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.
In this way, we stand forever before God in Christ’s merit, not our own.
Whenever we step outside of this, we are left to fend for ourselves, hiding, excusing and justifying our shortcomings, rather than humbly submitting to the one who can both save and rebuild us.
How He Said To Live
God said to live like him in this world.
This is an issue of identity.
Your identity determines how you live.
It determines what you pursue.
It determines how you respond.
It determines what you do.
The revelation of who God has called us to be needs to shape our identity as of first reference.
It is where we will find true fulfillment and the meaning of life.
it is through Jesus’ teachings that we learn more about the character and nature of God.
Matthew 5:2-12
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Your identity in Christ is the only thing that will last for eternity.
When you become a Christian, God calls you a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Galatians 3:27-29
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
Being Christian does not mean that I no longer have an ethnicity, but it does mean my Christianity defines my allegiances, my response to offense and my activity in this world.
And that response is dealt with at the cross.
It is an idolatry of identity if you put anything before the God you worship and the manner in which he chooses to both define and liberate you.
This is true whether it be nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, class or political affiliation.
This is the great trap and danger of identity politics.
YOU MUST CLING TO THE CROSS, JESUS WHO HUNG ON IT AND YOUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST BEFORE ANY OTHER DURING TURBULENT TIMES.
“Why are there wars in the world? Why is there this constant international tension? What is the matter with the world? Why war and all the unhappiness and turmoil and discord amongst men? According to this Beatitude, there is only one answer to these questions-sin. Nothing else; just sin.”
- David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
What He Came To Do
God came to restore the meaning of life by destroying the power of sin and death in fallen humanity.
Luke 4:17-19
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Jesus can help you in your anxieties, comfort you in your fears and free you from your resentments.
He has stood in your place at the cross to shoulder your guilt.
By his resurrection from the dead Jesus provides hope as you press through life’s discouragements.
God does so because he made you and understands you.
So for every one of these there is a Scripture that ushers you into the liberty and life of God!
“The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man's troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment. That is a tragic fallacy. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.”
- David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
No one is innocent.
We are all guilty of sin.
We all need a perfect Savior to pay for that sin, redeem us and make us like him.
Jesus did this at the cross and calls us to a restoration of life with meaning through repentance and faith in him today.
Study
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Second City Church - The God Who Is - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020