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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

The Mystery of God

David Shin

The Mystery of God- Part 1

Have you ever had a situation where you saw someone on television and then you saw them in person I Have I watched Doug Batchelor for a number of years and Then I was at a camp meeting And I opened the door to go use the men's room and there he was.

Standing right before me and I was so startled I didn't even say hi, I just said oh and just walked past him.

And there was something immediately that crossed my mind, and it was, he's short.

Evidently, I'd imagined that he was a lot taller on the television screen than in person.

And I'll be honest, I said, praise God, short people can be preachers too.

Felt a little camaraderie there, a little bond, even though we didn't exchange any words.

He's about my height, maybe a little bit taller.

So hey, the Lord's not a respecter of height.

I listened to a favorite radio show host of mine, and I had this mental picture of what she looked like, and then I saw her actual picture.

And there was a great amount of dissonance in my mind.

My mental picture did not match the reality Just like my mental picture of Doug Baxter's height did not match the reality of actually who he was.

And today, we begin a three-part series of messages entitled, The Mystery of God.

The reality is, we worship and pray to and Talk to a God that we have never met in person You ever think about that?

You meet God face to face in person and you're like wow you are nothing like I thought you would be.

Now, I would imagine that it's going to be surreal, and there's gonna be some things that you're like, wow, This is just seeing him face to face.

But what if your picture of God is just so different of the reality of who God is?

I was on the internet when we were about to purchase our first home.

Newly married couple and get on Realtor.com or whatever it is and we're ready to purchase our new home.

And I said, honey, I have found the home.

I said we better go over there and buy this house right now.

So we set up an appointment, went to the house, and I got out and looked at the house, and I said, is this the same house?

Went inside, there were holes in the drywall.

And what I realized was I had been fed a lot of propaganda.

They had Photoshopped those images, taken a picture conveniently leaving out that gaping hole in the drywall.

And there was a distinct difference between reality and what I had been fed.

And could it be that there's a lot of propaganda out there about the nature of God, the character of who he is?

And could it be that there are many people, sad to say, that when they come face to face with the real God, he is the direct opposite of who he actually is.

And So in our journey together today, we'll be talking about how to avoid the propaganda.

Next week we'll talk about what do we do when God does not meet our expectations.

And so as we journey together, let's go to the very beginning.

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, as we go to the story of the Garden of Eden, perfection, Adam and Eve, there in the garden.

And you see that in the Genesis account, God says, look, everything is very good.

You have the perfect couple and the perfect place in the presence of a holy and perfect God.

Let's pick up in verse 15, Genesis 2, verse 15, then the Lord God took man, put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." We know the story, right?

Adam and Eve are told you can eat of every tree, but this tree, you can't eat of it.

And let's just ponder a little bit about how things have changed in reference to how the devil can work.

Back before sin, you had to go to Satan to get tempted.

You had to go to a specific location, Matter of fact, 1 physical location on planet Earth to get tempted by the devil.

And if I read my Bible correctly, when you'd see the rivers, Eden was somewhere over in the Middle East in Palestine.

Could be wrong, but correct me afterwards.

But it's somewhere over there, at least on another continent.

We have to go to the devil, to a certain tree to get tempted.

Things have dramatically changed since then.

You can eat of every tree of the garden, but of this particular tree you shall not eat.

Now, the book Patriarchs and Prophets fills in some of the details here.

Page 53, our first parents were not left without warning of the danger that threatened them.

Heavenly messengers opened to them the history of Satan's fall and his plots for their destruction, unfolding more fully the nature of the divine government which the prince of evil was trying to overthrow.

In other words, they were given some history about the fall of Lucifer and that this location was the only place that Lucifer, Satan, was allowed.

Adam and Eve go to and fall into temptation.

I should say Eve goes to the tree and Adam falls into temptation and we are here today as a result.

Now let's pick up in chapter 3 of Genesis verse 1.

There's a fascinating conversation here between the serpent and Eve.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

Now if you're like me, you're thinking if I were the devil I would have picked a different medium than a serpent to communicate to Eve, because if the majority of us, I would assume, if you saw a dangling serpent, a snake in a tree that said hello, I would not stick around.

I remember in academy, I was getting some clothes out of 1 of my dresser drawers, opened it up to get my pants, and in that drawer was a four-foot black snake.

And there was a blood-curdling scream, as you can imagine.

I didn't say, oh, wonderful, what a cute snake.

There's a certain reaction when you see snakes.

But when we look in the book Patriarchs and Prophets, I have this on the screen here, page 53, the serpent snake is not the same as it is today.

The serpent was 1 of the wisest and most beautiful creatures on earth.

It had wings, and while flying through the air, presented an appearance of dazzling brightness, having the color and brilliancy of burnished gold.

I can't imagine a beautiful snake for some reason.

But it was a spectacular, beautiful thing.

I imagine if I found a puppy dog in that third drawer, it would have been a different reaction.

Imagine the cutest puppy, golden retriever that talks.

And so this medium is used by the devil in this conversation, and it says in Genesis chapter 3 that the serpent was more cunning or subtle or crafty than any other creature which the Lord God had made.

In other words, this is going to be a conversation that is dripping with implications.

You need to watch the language that is used in this conversation, particularly by the devil, because he needs to frame things in a certain way.

In order to get Adam and Eve to fall, they need to come to the tree, he needs to then convince them to eat the fruit which God has told them not to eat.

So this is a very difficult thing for the devil to do.

So he needs to craft his argument a certain way.

We need to look at his words very carefully.

Now when a cunning person talks to you, you need to be careful of the implications.

I heard of a sales technique that was used by a door-to-door salesman.

I'll be honest, I used it a couple times, but I stopped.

And my leader actually taught it to me, and I said, I can't do this anymore.

What we would do, we'd go to the door, give our spiel, and when we got to the close, the close is the most important part.

The Mystery of God- Part 2

So good to be with you today in the house of the Lord.

Our Father in heaven, we thank You for this privilege and opportunity that we have to worship You in Your house.

We thank You for Jesus, the revelation of the character of God as manifested on Calvary.

We thank You for Your goodness towards us and Your tender mercies, and we pray that as we pause for a few moments to reflect on You, that You would inspire us, instruct us through Your Holy Spirit, for we ask these things in Jesus' name.

If you have not already, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 2, verses 41 through 52.

As James read our Scripture reading this morning, Luke 2, verses 41 through 52.

This is the only story from the childhood of Jesus that is recorded for us in the Gospels.

The next time that you see him, Jesus is about 30.

So we don't have a lot of Jesus' life, but this is a fascinating story because of what takes place.

It was a transition point between childhood and manhood in Jewish society.

And in Jewish culture, he was considered a son of the law, and this was going to be the first time that Jesus was going to camp meeting.

12, it's more like the equivalent of G.C., Passover, all the Jews from around the world would be gathered there.

They would caravan together, and this was a high point in the Jewish annual cycle.

So Jesus goes, and according to the desire of ages, he realizes who he is.

12-year-old, watching the Passover take place, watches the Lamb being slain, placed on the altar, and he sees himself.

The Desire of Ages tells us that he is wrapped in contemplation as if to be solving a great problem.

12 years of age realizes his true identity that he is the Son of God, his mission to the world is being manifested before him at this Passover at the age of 12, and he is so consumed in thought and meditation that he is left behind in Jerusalem.

His parents think that he's in the caravan and they come to the evening ritual about to break camp for the night and in my imagination I imagine that Jesus was very helpful and so his helping hands aren't there.

Mary perhaps says, Joseph, have you seen Jesus?

And they go out to the relatives and acquaintances and say, have you seen Jesus?

And then the sinking feeling sets in, he is left behind in Jerusalem.

What a horrific journey that must have been.

Parents, Imagine, you ever lost your child?

At the mall, at the supermarket, all of these visions of what may be taking place and it was a seemingly eternal 3 days.

So the only thing I can equate it to is our dogs.

We, like smart dog owners on July 4th thought, oh let's have a family outing.

So we went to Grand Rapids downtown, took our 2 golden retrievers, thinking they would enjoy it, sat down right by Grand River there, and the fireworks went off right in front of us.

Their eyes lit up like saucers, as frenzy.

Thousands of people went underneath the feet of all these people and before I knew it I was chasing her through downtown.

We went everywhere, got a hotel, went the next day up and down, it's like a needle in a haystack, went to the police station, no avail, put the lost dog thing on Craigslist And it's striking the parallel.

I had to go back to work in East Lansing.

Paws were raw from running all over the place.

I don't think any of you, if you lost your child, would go back to work.

Now, this is from the Justice Department.

The Justice Department estimates that an average of 2, 185 children are reported missing every day.

And the article I read, ABC News, it's quotes, and I quote, parents always wonder if they could have done something to prevent this.

They always play back the last day or the last week.

And here's some quotes from that article, Parents of Missing Children.

1 other parent says, at this point, I just want some closure.

I need to know where she is, and if she's not alive, I need to know.

The article says, parents of missing children say that the pain is excruciating, and psychologists confirm that the loss can be even greater than when a child dies.

So I just imagine Mary and Joseph, 3 days, Grand Central Station, New York City.

I imagine them running through the streets of Jerusalem, disheveled hair, tears, streaked faces, and just in a frenzy, looking for Jesus everywhere.

The most horrific, eternal 3 days as parents.

And then they're like, let's check the seminary.

Walking through the seminary, Old Testament department, Zarephathia says they hear a voice.

And they say that there was no voice like Jesus's voice, earnest yet full of melody.

And I imagine Mary's there and she says, wait a minute, that voice, it sounds like Jesus.

And they peer around the corner and there is their 12 year old son surrounded by professors and PhDs, department heads, and they're taking notes.

Jesus is having a theological dialogue, and the Bible says that they were amazed at His understanding.

Now it's amazing the transition that takes place.

You ever see a parent that has lost their child at the mall and they've been searching for hours?

Perhaps they find them at Barnes and Noble and they're just chilling out, reading.

And the transition from fear or from relief to frustration, right?

Oh, you know, the parent transitions from relief to frustration, and let's pick it up.

Mary's word to Jesus after she finds him at the seminary in this theological discussion.

So when they saw him, the parents of Jesus, they were amazed.

And his mother said to him, son, why have you done this to us?

In other words, inconsiderate, irresponsible, you should have texted.

You can sense the frustration in the tone or in the nuances of this question.

The Mystery of God- Part 3

In our home, as we are expecting in the next couple months, a radical transition in our lives with the expecting of our first child.

It's been interesting to see the transformation that has taken place in the genre of books that are stacked next to our beds.

On my side of the bed, it has gone from Alvin Plantinga's epistemology to the happiest baby on the block, and baby-wise, and tips for being a good birth partner.

And as I've been reading, I came across this article on prenatal perception.

Even before we're born, we knew our mother's voice and could distinguish it from other voices.

That's 1 of the key findings of an ongoing research project by Canadian and Chinese researchers who are studying infant development, the research suggests that while still in the womb, our brains were learning speech patterns and laying the groundwork for language acquisition.

The article said that they took 60 women in the final stage of pregnancy.

All the mothers were tape recorded as they read a poem aloud.

1 heard the recording of the mother, and the other heard the recording of another mother who was not their own.

And the studies showed that in both cases, the poem caused a change in the baby's heart rate.

The heart rate accelerated among those who heard their own mother's voice and decelerated among those who heard a voice other than their mother's.

In the womb, they could perceive and hear and recognize their mother's voice.

I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 1, verses 41-45 as we look at another prenatal perception that is recorded in the Bible back in the first century.

Luke 1, verses 41-45, you know the story, Mary has just been told by the angel that she will conceive and have a son, that her son will be none other than the Son of God.

The angel also tells her that Elizabeth, in her senior citizen age, is also with child.

So Mary goes to the hill country of Judea and goes to the house of Elizabeth and in verse 41 the Bible tells us, and it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the baby leaped in her womb.

Mary comes into the house of Elizabeth and says, Hi Elizabeth, I'm here.

And John the Baptist, in utero, Latin for in the womb, I found out.

And in that moment, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and look at her words.

Then she spoke with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb for Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Blessed is she who believed for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." John the Baptist in utero, in the womb, recognized the presence of divinity.

Leaped in the womb, and as we progress in our message this morning, I wanna paint a picture of the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, a unique relationship, Jesus and John the Baptist.

Before birth, There was some sort of, I don't know what you call it, in the womb, there was some sort of acknowledgement, some sort of connection between Jesus and John the Baptist.

Jesus and John were linked from birth, even in the prophecy of the angel.

She not only says that Mary will have a son, but also mentions that Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant.

There's a connection between Jesus and John the Baptist.

Not only that, in their adult years, Jesus and John were ministry partners.

It was a relationship of deference and mutual respect.

Look at the words of Jesus and John When they talk about 1 another Jesus said regarding I should say John said regarding Jesus.

He must increase I Must decrease this is when the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of John were having a little bit of a rivalry.

The disciples of John came to John and said, look, our crowns are going down, his crowns are going up, what do we do?

John said, he must increase, I must decrease.

Good words for those of us that are in ministry.

Amen John said of Jesus I Am unworthy to untie his sandals John baptized Jesus and Jesus said about John among those born of women there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist.

There's a lot of great prophets, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, but Jesus said the greatest prophet is John the Baptist.

So you can see that even in their adult years, they were ministry partners, They were linked from birth, but it goes deeper than that.

Luke 1, verse 36, the Bible says, Mary and Elizabeth were relatives, and some translations actually say that they were cousins.

So if you follow that translation you could argue that Jesus and John the Baptist could have been second cousins or relatives at the very least.

So when you put this picture together, they were linked from birth.

In adult years, in their adult years, they were ministry partners.

It was a relationship of deference and mutual respect, they spoke highly of each other and on top of that they were blood relatives, they were related.

This was a unusual relationship And when you take all of these factors into consideration, it is mystifying the response, or I should say, the lack of response of Jesus when John the Baptist, his cousin, got into some trouble.

This is after the temptation in the wilderness.

Matthew tells us, Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he departed to Galilee.

This is a peculiar passage because the Bible did not say when John, Jesus' cousin, was put into prison, that Jesus went to go and rescue him from prison.

You're in prison and your cousin's like, all right, I'm outta here.

And you can see that In the Desire of Ages, this was an issue in the minds of the disciples.

Then the disciples had wondered why Jesus, with the power to perform wonderful miracles, had permitted John to languish in prison and to die a violent death possessing such power why did not Christ save John's life now the question is did Jesus have the ability to free John from prison?

You remember the story in the book of Acts?

When Peter was in prison, an angel came, released him from prison.

And the Desire of Ages goes on to paint a very interesting picture, because while John is in prison, it appeared from all external perception that Jesus was going about life as usual.

But Jesus seemed to content himself with gathering disciples about him and healing and teaching the people he was eating at the tables of the publicans.

So while John is incarcerated, while John is in prison, while John is behind bars and languishing and rotting away, Jesus is out there eating with publicans and sinners.

This was very challenging to John and you can see that there were doubts that started to creep into the mind of John the Baptist while he was in prison because he sent messengers to Jesus.

And what was the question that John asked of Jesus?

Series

The Mystery of God

The Mystery of God- Part 3

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Inspired Word

The Inspired Word- Part 4

1h 15m

The Mystery of God

The Mystery of God- Part 2

35m

Justification by Faith

A Legal Biblical View of this Core Teaching - Part 4

57m

A God Worth Knowing

01 The God Who Hears and Knows

49m

The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

5. From Tragedy to Triumph: The Problem of Evil

1h 30m

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

06 I Will Arise

20m

Seminars

Understanding the Longest Time Prophecy

50m

Hebrews 11- Faith

17 The Faith of Barak

38m

It Happened Because of Prayer

Give Him Not Silence

42m

Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things

39m

Faith on Fire

30m

God's Ordained Order

God’s Ordained Order - Part 5

56m

Sound Doctrine