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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Our Picture of God

David Shin

Our Picture of God- Part 1

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this beautiful Sabbath that you've given to us, this opportunity that we have to come apart from the cares of this life to worship you in spirit and in truth.

We pray that you bless us now as a community of faith.

We ask that the Holy Spirit that inspires may also be the spirit that instructs.

Draw us closer to You and give us a deeper, more fuller sense of Your Spirit, for we ask these things in Jesus' name.

On the screen I have a photograph of my wife and I in Portland, Oregon on a tram that overlooks the city.

If you look at this photograph closely, you'll notice something a little bit unusual about my arms.

This is not an accurate portrayal of me, and it's actually a distortion.

It gives me stress relief for some reason.

And this was taken with a fish eye lens, which does 180 degree view, but in the process, it does not give an accurate picture of what reality is.

I'll give you another photograph that was taken on that same trip.

Obviously, this is not how the horizon looked.

And Distortions are fun for art and for photography, but they are not good when it comes to someone's character.

And today we begin a three-part series of messages entitled Our Picture of God.

And for the next 2 weeks, including today, or next 3 weeks, including today, we'll be going through 3 different vignettes from the life of Christ that give us a glimpse or a picture of who God actually is.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet Jesus face to face?

Ever imagine what that's going to be like?

I've had the privilege of being on 3ABN a few times and I want to tell you that when I meet somebody that has seen me, sometimes they say, pastor, You're shorter than I thought you would be.

Evidently, the television camera makes me look taller, praise God, than I actually am in person.

And so, have you ever wondered, when you meet God face to face, heaven forbid you're like, oh, you're nothing like I imagined you would be.

Can you imagine you meet him and you're like, you're not even in the same universe I thought you would be.

How do we know if we have an accurate picture of God?

And our picture of God is essential, as we talked about this last week, 3 aspects of our Christian experience.

Our picture of God, foundational, because when we recognize that God is beautiful, God is love, God is wonderful and long-suffering, you can't help but love a God like that.

Our picture of God brings out our love for God.

The love we have for God is grounded in our picture of who God is.

And because we love God, John 14, 15, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

So the things we do for God flow out of our love for God because of our picture of God, that He's a wonderful and beautiful God.

But if we start out here with the things that we do for God, and we don't have a love for God, because we don't have an accurate picture of God, it can be quite grueling in our Christian experience.

So we must have an accurate picture of who God is.

And this can be challenging because in the book Great Controversy 569, there's an individual that is out to distort who God really is.

Great Controversy 569, it is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God.

You can see that this is something that Satan does not want us to see.

He wants to have false propaganda in regards to who God really is because it will lead us down a path of not having a love for him and not keeping his commandments because if we have a distorted view of who he is.

Now, the purpose of Jesus in coming to earth, desire of ages, page 19, by coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and to whom?

He was the Word of God, as we read today in John chapter 1, God's thought made audible.

Until Jesus came and revealed who God really was, Even the angels had a deeper appreciation for the character of God after Jesus' revelation here on this earth.

Therefore, if we want to get the most accurate picture of who God is, we need to look at the face of Jesus Christ.

All of us have inherited a distorted picture of God.

We get a distorted picture from our parents.

You know, parents, bless the Lord for them, but I grew up with sinful parents, loving parents, but there are certain things that get passed down even with parents' best intentions that can sometimes distort our picture of God.

We can get a false picture of God from church, believe it or not.

Church members, Society, culture, all of these things.

And so it is important that we get an accurate picture of who God is, that way when he comes, we can have a relationship that picks up right where we left off.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is found where?

So today, Let's go to our first vignette from the life of Jesus.

Next few weeks, we'll be looking at the final moments of the life of Christ.

Open your Bibles with me to Matthew 26, as we look at Jesus' final moments before the cross.

Matthew 26, verse 36, this is in Gethsemane, right after the Last Supper, Him and His disciples are going to a very familiar place there and as He's going there, the desire of ages tells us that the disciples noticed that Jesus was not the same as usual.

He was struggling and as they got to this place, in verse 36, Then Jesus came with them to the place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there.

And he took with him Peter and 2 sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

The Bible tells us that he had the 70 disciples, then he had the 12, and then he had the 3.

So he takes these 12 disciples and he leaves them in a certain spot and he says, Peter, James, and John, I want you to come with me.

And he goes with them to another place and says, look, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

So he is going through something here, and then the Bible says in verse 38, then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

Another translation says, deeply grieved to the point of death.

Now he was numbered with the transgressors.

The guilt of fallen humanity he must bear.

Upon him who knew no sin must be laid the iniquity of us all.

So dreadful does sin appear to him, so great is the weight of guilt which he must bear, that he is tempted to fear it will shut him out forever from his father's love.

Feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression, he claims, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.

In this moment, the sins of the world, he is taking upon himself.

And he is feeling the crushing weight of that reality, according to the book, Desire of Ages.

He goes a little way off from the 3 and he prays and he fell on his face and prayed, Oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

In Luke chapter 22 verse 44, Luke gives this account of the physical effect of what is taking place.

And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

This is a physical condition caused by great stress where you actually sweat blood.

Now if there was ever a moment that Jesus needed support, especially from his disciples, the chosen 3, Peter, James, and John, it was here because you can see what Jesus says to them 26 verse 38 stay awake with me verse 41 stay awake and pray Now a few years ago.

I was at an evangelistic series as a Bible worker in South Central Los Angeles, and we would have these all-night prayer vigils every other night.

That was challenging, And I remember getting up in the wee hours of the morning, they would let us sleep a couple hours, but then we would have this all-night prayer vigil for 5 hours.

It seemed like all night, but it was only 5 hours.

And we would pray and pray for a Bible study context.

And we did this night after night, every other night.

And finally, your body starts to crave sleep.

You know, I'm praying over these names and sleeping.

I remember 1 time I was praying through my names and I woke up and everybody had left me.

I didn't know how long I was sleeping but there I was.

And so this is an all night prayer vigil.

They are praying with Jesus and they want to pray, they want to support and Jesus specifically says, look I'm going through a lot right now, please stay with me, pray with me.

So he prays, then comes back in verse 40, then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

He wakes them up and says, look, can't you just pray for me or with me for a little bit?

Our Picture of God- Part 2

Today we're continuing in our series entitled Our Picture of God.

And last week we began with this quote from the book Great Controversy, 569.

It is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God.

All of us have received from society, from culture, perhaps even our parents, a distorted picture of God.

I was at a meeting with some colleagues and conference president, not in the lower 48 or even in America for that matter, stood up and he gave his personal testimony.

He said he was 11 years of age or just turned 11.

Jumped out of bed and said, Dad, it's my birthday.

And he went on to tell how his dad said, oh, it's your birthday, huh?

And this grown man with tears in his eyes, years later, recounting that memory, said that shook him to his very core and really shaped his picture of God for years, for years.

And it wasn't until recently that he was able to understand that that was an inaccurate picture of who God was.

And so we have been tainted by propaganda in regards to who God is and none of us have had the privilege of meeting God face to face, at least I haven't.

We haven't met him in person and so we are in this interesting dilemma Because all of the billboards, as it were, all of society, because of sin, is painting a certain slant, a certain misrepresentation of who God is.

And this is Satan's constant effort to do this.

And I would guarantee that most of us, if not all of us, have certain things in our minds in regard to who God is that couldn't be farther from the truth that we've perhaps struggled with.

Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice, 1 who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor.

He pictured the creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men that he may visit judgments upon them.

Satan's been pretty successful in this picture, hasn't he?

Don't you have this fear almost in the back of your mind sometimes when you make a mistake that God is up there ready to swat you?

She goes on, it was to remove this dark shadow by revealing to the world the infinite love of God that Jesus came to live among men.

Sometimes when I meet someone for the first time, they say, oh, David, I've heard a lot about you.

And I give the person the benefit of doubt, assuming all the good intentions, but here is someone that has ill intentions who is out there to give us a false picture of who God is.

Desire of ages, page 19, by coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and to angels.

He was the Word of God, God's thought made audible.

The entire universe was watching when Jesus was on this earth.

Wouldn't it have been wonderful to be alive in the first century?

Every gesture, every tone, every look, Every act, every micro-gesture, I would say, was a revelation of who God was.

And the apostles recorded it for our benefit.

Second Corinthians 4, verse 6, our Scripture reading, for the light of knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

When you look at the face of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels, it gives us a picture of who God is.

So today, our vignette, our focus is found in John chapter 18, verse 28.

I invite you to turn with me there in the final moments of the life of Jesus.

Jesus before Pilate, as we look at this story and get a glimpse as to who God really is.

John 18, verse 28, this is in Pilate's court, while you're turning there, this is an inscription that was found in 1961, there in the Middle East, bearing the inscription of Pilate.

Pilate was an individual that was not afraid to use lethal force.

Josephus records that there was an uprising in the temple and Pilate issued his Roman soldiers.

They went in there and they cut the Jews down.

There was another instance in which he assigned his Roman soldiers to dress like Jews, and in the midst of protests, they brandished their swords and cut down the Jewish protesters.

Pilate was an individual that was not afraid to use force.

He was a hardened, mean man, and he was not in a good mood when the Jews came to him early that morning.

We pick up in our story in John chapter 18, verse 28.

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but they might eat the Passover.

This is the irony of ironies, because here the Jews are plotting to kill the Son of God, but they don't want to receive ceremonial defilement.

And in verse 29, Pilate went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?

And the story goes on for a little bit because Pilate does not want to prosecute or condemn Jesus to death.

And in verse 30, then they answered and said to him, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

Now, as we piece together this story from the different aspects of the gospels, my Thesis this morning is around this notion that Pilate did not want to kill Jesus.

He did not want to have the guilt of condemning an innocent man to death.

And you can see this In Luke's account, Luke 23, verse 4, Pilate turned to the leading priest and said to the crowd and said, I find nothing wrong with this man.

Luke 23, verse 14, you brought this man to me accusing him of leading a revolt.

I have examined him thoroughly on this point in your presence, and find him what?

I find no reason to sentence him to death.

So over and over and over again, Pilate is proclaiming this man is innocent.

And in Luke 23, verse 21, the Bible explicitly states that Pilate argued with them because he wanted to release Jesus.

In the interview with Jesus in the back of his palace, Pilate immediately realizes that this man is innocent.

Herod has a little bit of fun with him, sends him back.

This is a problem that is simply not going away.

In John chapter 19 verse 12, the Bible says Pilate tried to set Jesus free.

And then to make things even more complicated, while Pilate is trying to make up his mind in Matthew 27, verse 19, while Pilate was sitting in the judge's seat, his wife sent him a message and said, don't have anything to do with this innocent man, for I've suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him." So Pilate right now really wants to release Jesus.

And you know the story, he says, I have an idea, I'm going to get Barabbas, who is a hardened criminal, surely if they had to pick between the 2, they're gonna pick Jesus to be released.

Now, there was a turning point in this story where Pilate gave an inch and the rest was history.

I have found no reason to sentence him to death, so I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.

He says, look, he's innocent, but I'm gonna have him flogged.

And the minds of the people, they're like, okay, the pressure's working because he's willing to have an innocent man be flogged within an inch of his life.

Now, we need to understand that the floggings in Jesus' day were not what we imagine or would even like to imagine.

A muscular Roman soldier would have a whip.

On the end of the whip would be lead balls, scraps of bone.

And the theory was that 40 lashes would kill someone, so they would give them 39.

So Jesus is there, and here is a quotation from a physician, Dr.

William Edwards, who's a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, and this is his analysis of what would take place with a Roman scourging.

As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victims back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

Then as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.

Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock.

He's the church historian, Eusebius said, for they say that the bystanders were struck with amazement when they saw them lacerated with scourges, even to the innermost veins and arteries, so that the hidden inward parts of the body, both their bowels and their members were exposed to view." This was brutal.

So Jesus is there, back lacerated, and after the scourging, in Matthew's account, Matthew chapter 27, verse 27 through 31 in the New Living Translation, the soldiers gathered around Jesus, the soldiers assigned to the governor, took Jesus into the governor's palace and the entire brigade together for some fun.

They stripped him and dressed him in a red robe.

They plaited a crown of branches, a thorn bush, and set it on his head.

They put a stick in his right hand for a scepter.

Then they knelt before him in mocking reverence.

Bravo, king of the Jews, they said, bravo.

Our Picture of God- Part 3

On the screen I have a picture of Kim Jong Il.

He is the deceased former dictator of North Korea.

He's the father of the current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

It's interesting when you look at some of the legendary propaganda that is associated with Kim Jong-il and undoubtedly his son as well.

This is a portrait of the deceased leader there on the screen.

And here are some of the things that are said to the people of North Korea about Kim Jong Il.

Legend has it that a double rainbow and a glowing new star appeared in the heavens to herald the birth of Kim Jong-il in 1942.

Before his birth, a swallow foretold his coming.

Here's some other things that are said about him.

He wrote over 1, 500 books in a three-year time span.

Wrote 6 full operas that are considered by experts to be the best 6 operas ever created.

The first time he played golf in 1994, he shot 11 hole-in-ones and was 38 under par 34.

Verified, of course, by all of his bodyguards, no less.

From there, he nearly always shot several hole-in-ones any time he golfed.

He began walking at just 3 weeks old, and could fluently speak at just 8 weeks old.

People the world over received plastic surgery to try to look more like Kim Jong-il.

His face and clothing styles are also widely mimicked.

His birthday is highly celebrated throughout the world.

He had the ability to control the weather and it usually reflected his moods.

He invented hamburgers as a way to provide a new tasty food for his impoverished people.

These are some of the things that are told by the press to the people of North Korea.

And here is an analysis of the lies of North Korea.

The Korean government lies to the outside world.

The press depicts South Korea as a suffering, an American occupied country.

The leader's speeches talk about North Korea being the envy of the world with the highest quality of life.

Facts are not a key part of the equation in North Korea.

And this satellite image at night of the Korean Peninsula says it all.

You can see where the 38th parallel actually is.

Alluding to the economic conditions of North Korea and below it you see South Korea.

There are a lot of lies that are promulgated in North Korea that could not be farther from the truth.

And as we continue to our third installment of our series entitled Our Picture of God, Our thesis is around this notion that there are many lies associated with the character of God.

Many of these lies we have struggled with in our childhood, even as adults, a picture of God that could not be farther from the truth.

And the reason why the devil wants us to have a tainted picture of God is because our picture of God, if it is accurately portrayed, draws us out to a love for him.

To love God, or I should say to know God is to love him.

When we see that God is a wonderful, beautiful God, we love him.

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Our Picture of God

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