Not Yet Face to Face
Scriptures we don't often preach at Christmas • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsComing face to face with God is something that we have longed for since early times. In our sin, we can no longer view
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12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
A theme of Advent is waiting. We think often of the Old Testament Characters after the fall longing, waiting expectantly for the Messiah a Savior. Waiting is frustrating. I know very few people who are good at waiting. Think about all the places where we wait:
In line at the grocery store or buying that gift during this Christmas season - do you ever look for the longest line?
On the phone as we’re trying to make contact with a live person
Online when our internet isn’t moving as fast as we’d like - an IT person once told me that the reason our computer was freezing was because we were impatient and needed to allow it to finish one task before we asked it to do another.
In traffic
For that anticipated day...
The start of a vacation
The first day of school or a new job
Christmas morning and whether someone will like the gift we got them and if we’re honest that hope for that gift we’ve been dropping hints for.
As christians we too are waiting expectantly. But what is it that we truly are seeking? I think this morning’s passage speaks directly to that.
Desire to know
Desire to know
Faith is a difficult thing. In Hebrews we read:
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
When we don’t see the object of our faith it can make it difficult to believe. This really comes into view as we speak in reference to God. It doesn’t seem to be so difficult for people to believe in other things we’ve never seen:
Aliens, goblins, leprechauns, Sasquatch and a host of other beings that we’ve never seen and yet when it comes to God...
One comedian observed, “Our culture is so willing to believe in some things and not so much in others. We totally believe in Sasquatch but if a sign says, ‘Wet Paint’, we are compelled to go and touch it to be sure.”
Moses spoke with God, on a regular basis, to the point that he was able to quote and write down their conversations.
In this conversation Moses is given the promise that God will go with the people of Israel. Think about that for a moment.
I love Moses’ response:
15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
And even with God’s assurance Moses longs for something more to know God more intimately, He says: “Show me”
Desire to know
Desire to know
Show me
Show me
Moses was no different. He wanted to see God, to know God even more as he was already known by God, and so he asks something very bold - to see his glory.
I find this whole conversation interesting. Think of the knowledge of God that Moses has at this point:
Burning bush,
staff turning into snake,
hand turning leprous white,
his turning the Nile into blood,
the 10 plagues,
Pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,
parting of the red sea,
manna from heaven,
quail,
the ground opening up…
I could go on, but I’ll let you read it for yourself and I can assure you it’s better than the movie!
Yet, even with all of that, Moses wants to know more of God. I hope that is true for you as well.
Moses did not have the advantage of having the Bible written out for him. And even if he had, I doubt he would have asked for anything less.
Moses desires a closer relationship.
Desire to know
Desire to know
Show me
Face to Face…Not quite
An amazing thing happens - the lord tells him the glory of the Lord will pass before him...
19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
Ex 33:19-20
And the Lord does exactly that.
That’s what we’re longing for during Advent - to see God more clearly than ever before. The Apostle Paul writes:
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
We don’t have a clear picture of God even today, and yet there is something so amazing about having seen God as the disciples saw him in Jesus:
14 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.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
That was the first Advent. The first coming of the LORD. And it caused great celebration and a desire to share about it:
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Such passion. We long for that same connection. Something more. Moses longed to see God, the disciples saw Jesus, and we long to see him too. That is the longing of Advent...
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
We wait, and we long for Jesus - to see God face to face again. And what will it be like?
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
I john 3:2
Yes, that is what we long for.
Oh, to be like Jesus.