Meeting Jesus, the Prequel Sermon at United Church of Beloit March 3, 2019

Meeting Jesus, the Prequel           

Proverbs 8: 22-31 NIV

“The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,
He began, In the beginning… to be absolutely clear that Jesus was indeed God, the Son of God, one with God and yet “Dwelling with us” also fully human.

    before his deeds of old;

²³ I was formed long ages ago,

    at the very beginning, when the world came to be.

²⁴ When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,

    when there were no springs overflowing with water;

²⁵ before the mountains were settled in place,

    before the hills, I was given birth,

²⁶ before he made the world or its fields

    or any of the dust of the earth.

²⁷ I was there when he set the heavens in place,

    when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

²⁸ when he established the clouds above

    and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

²⁹ when he gave the sea its boundary

    so the waters would not overstep his command,

and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰     Then I was constantly at his side.

I was filled with delight day after day,

    rejoicing always in his presence,

³¹ rejoicing in his whole world

    and delighting in mankind.

Sermon Series “Meeting Jesus Up Close”

So why should we need to meet Jesus? We come to church, we give, we volunteer here at church and for other organizations. We are nice people who say please and thank you!

But… we can always do better. We can always be better. Our faith can always be deeper, stronger. And for that to happen, we need to be up close and personal with Jesus. Jesus is and was and ever shall be..the embodiment of God, who lived among his very own creation, died and was raised from the dead, to give us eternal life.

And by spending time examining the life of Jesus, we can live as He did, sharing, caring, being even more kind, more generous and nicer…as He was.

The various stories in the bible tell us about the life and love of Jesus. How he interacted with the disciples, and everyone he met. And no one who met him was the same afterwards!

The Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) Book of Proverbs, written by Solomon, the great and wise king, son of King David. Proverbs is a compilation of teachings, called “lady wisdom”  Yes wisdom is female.

(Author Warren Wiersbe) -- book of Proverbs, we are given access to a perspective similar to that of a brilliant teacher, offering her insights on a wide range of subjects from relationships to wealth to spirituality. Proverbs shows us that there is an aspect of God, wisdom, that can guide us through our lives. Proverbs personifies this wisdom as "lady wisdom" and attempts to show us that anyone can access this wisdom and make an incredible life for themselves out of the gifts that it freely offers, so long as they are careful to respect the source of this wisdom—God.  Through hundreds of short pieces of insight, the book of Proverbs distinguishes wisdom from foolishness.

Our text from Proverbs, read by Stephanie, echoes Genesis 1, the creation of heaven and earth.   

Wiersbe: One of the lessons of this paragraph is that the power and splendor of God, seen all around us in creation, are evidence of what God’s wisdom can do.

Many of us find we catch a glimpse of God in the beauty of nature, in a sunrise, in the V shaped flight of geese overhead, in the stars and moon shining brightly on a clear night. When we take a moment to enjoy this natural beauty, we are enjoying God! Next time you see beauty in nature, whisper a ‘thank you” to God!

(This passage) is an explanation of the wisdom of God at work in the creation of the universe. While it isn’t a description of Jesus Christ, for the eternal Son of God was never created, it does foreshadow Christ as the creative Word that brought everything into being.

The same God who worked in the “old creation” also wants to work in our lives in the “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24; Col. 3:10). The Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the universe together and causes it to fulfill His will, can hold our lives together and accomplish His purposes for His glory.

Let’s look at another beautiful passage that tells us of Jesus being present with God…

John 1 New International Version (NIV)

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all HUmankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 This is called the Prologue.. John’s gospel was written several years after the other gospels. Mark’s was first, written roughly 30 years after the death of Jesus. Matthew and Luke wrote about 10 years or so later than Mark, and John’s gospel came probably 20 years after them.

Why were these written so many years later?  They initially believed that Jesus’ coming back to take all believers to heaven once and for all, would be very soon after his death and resurrection. When it got to be a few decades, and the original disciples and followers were getting old, and being martyred, they began to compile and write down all these amazing stories. There was also beginning to be false teachings that the original followers wanted to be sure to correct. John’s gospel in particular was written to correct many wrong ideas. 

Gospel writer John tells of another John—John the Baptist. The forerunner of Jesus who proclaimed that he would be followed by one for whom he himself was not fit to unlace his sandals! John baptized Jesus in the Jordan river, God spoke, this is my beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit (present with God at the beginning hovering over the waters of the deep) descended upon Jesus like a dove.

Writer John then explains his use of the imagery of Light, (in the beginning God said let there be light) saying that the darkness could not understand..

This is one of those words in the original Greek that has several layers of meaning. It means to Understand, comprehend, to hold onto..as we hold onto an idea or concept, or to overcome or extinguish,..to put out the light.

The darkness can not fathom, nor extinguish it! Or as the epistle to the Romans states, NOTHING in all creation can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus!

In the Proverbs text, did you notice the verbs? Lady Wisdom, coexisting with God

I was filled with delight day after day,

    rejoicing always in his presence,

³¹ rejoicing in his whole world

    and delighting in mankind.

Wisdom, created by God, sharing with God and delighting, rejoicing, celebrating all of creation, including humans!

Now if all you know of humans is what’s on the news, there may not seem to be much that’s worth celebrating?! Humanity as a whole would seem to be less like a beautiful ocean shoreline and a lot more like a road filled with debris and potholes! But there must be hope for us, because Wisdom delights in us!

And that hope is of course the one who lived, died, was raised from the dead and will indeed come back for us…and we will be together for all time in heaven, the New Jerusalem, the holy city, where there will be no suffering nor pain, and God’s very own self will wipe every tear from our eyes!

Author James K. Smith

In Jesus we hear God saying to us, “What you cannot do for yourself, I myself will do. Your sin stands between us, and you cannot remove it, so I will do it for you. {I} will cleanse your sins, and I will remember them no more. Nothing will stand between us. I will rise from the dead so you can live. My love is too strong for death to conquer. Once alive, I will invite you to die and rise with me. Eternal life is now available. It is in my Son.”

This is why we meet Jesus again, up close, in the Bible, in prayer, in community, and at the table. In the Lord’s Supper, Holy communion, we unite with God and each other exactly as we were created to From the beginning!

AMEN