©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

06/01/03

A Time To Cry

06-01-03 A Time To Cry

I had notes written for our return to Ephesians this morning,

and I had every intention of sharing them with you.

But then some thoughts began rolling around in my head about mid week

that caused me to change my mind.

If you were with us last week

you may remember I mentioned

that, even though our doctrine,

that is our belief system about God,

is a crucial foundation in our relationship with our Creator,

there is something even more important.

That something is our attitude toward our God.

I can hold all sorts of correct beliefs about God,

but only a correct attitude within me

will enable me to correctly apply that doctrine in my life.

At those points where I finally get my attitude correct toward Him

I find that my doctrine lines up great.

Until I get my attitude correct

I will continue to misunderstand,

or misapply even the correct doctrinal ideas I hold.

I mention this again this morning

because I noticed something this past week in the book of Revelation

that has helped me in my attitude

about the way in which God does

some of the things that He does in our lives.

I think every one of us as Christians

have had certain points in our lives

when we have said to ourselves,

“Why doesn’t God just FIX this!?”

And you can see right here

that conflict between doctrine and attitude that I’m talking about.

Our doctrine tells us

that, as the all-powerful,

all-knowing,

loving and compassionate Creator of all that is,

God certainly has the ability to fix everything that’s broken in our lives.

And there are times in every Christian’s life

when we see that He has done just exactly that.

We can see places where He has recreated us,

where He has healed our spirits,

or intervened in our lives in deeply personal, powerful ways.

I like the way David described one of those points in his own life.

He says,

PSA 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry.

PSA 40:2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

PSA 40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.

PSA 40:4 ¶ How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

PSA 40:5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.

When David wrote those words

he wasn’t sharing theology with us,

he was sharing his own life experience.

He was talking about a specific,

real,

personal work of redemption and deliverance and healing and transformation

that God Himself had just accomplished in his life.

And every child of God has those points in his or her life as well,

points where we know

that what has happened

was not luck or fate or circumstance,

but the direct intervention of God in our life,

bringing about something that would never have been on its own.

And when those times happen

they affect our spirits

the same way David’s deliverance affected Him.

We find ourselves filled with a sense of gratitude and praise to our God.

But there is a side-effect to those glimpses of grace.

When we have seen the intervention of God in our lives,

when we have seen Him doing in us and for us

what we could never have done on our own,

it can’t help but raise the question,

“So then, why doesn’t He fix everything else that’s broken, too?”

Now, I’m certainly not going to pretend

that I can stand up here and reveal to us

the mind and purposes of God

in all that He does and doesn’t do in our lives.

But I will say that I made a discovery this past week

that has helped some.

And my discovery came once again through the book of Revelation,

from a passage just a few verses farther into the book

from that passage we were studying two weeks ago.

And once again we will need some background material

in order for us to appreciate what’s going on.

Two weeks ago we were studying the last few verses of the first section of Revelation,

a section in which John entered into a personal interview with the Risen Christ

and received from Him

specific messages for seven first century local church fellowships.

Then, in the first verse of Revelation 4,

there is a dramatic change of scene in the account.

John writes,

REV 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

REV 4:2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.

Now, for this to make any sense,

we must keep in mind what’s happening here.

This is not a dream that John was having.

It is not a trance or a vision of some kind.

This last book of the Bible is not called “The Trance”.

It is not called “The Vision”.

It’s called “The Revelation”

because that’s exactly what it is.

John literally saw a door standing open,

a door that provided him with literal, direct entrance into the spirit world,

and into the presence of God Himself.

John was conscious,

he was seeing things with his eyes,

and hearing things with his ears,

and at times he was conversing with other beings in the spirit world,

asking them questions,

consciously gaining information,

then conversing with them about what he was seeing and hearing.

In other words,

this was a real experience he was living through,

an experience he then remembered and recorded afterwards

in much the same way I can remember the vacation Sandee and I took last February.

And one other thing I want to point out here -

John was told from the very beginning

what he was going to see.

"Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

He was selected by God

to be the means by which God would reveal to His creation

some of the events that will take place during the final phase of life on this planet.

But one of the things that really fascinates me in what’s taking place here

is that John was not simply given knowledge,

facts,

doctrine about the end times.

Rather,

in the most remarkable way,

God staged for John a presentation of those events

that enabled John to actually live through them chronologically

and relate to them intellectually and emotionally each step of the way.

I’ve tried to come up with a parallel in our own experience,

and the truth is, none exists.

It wasn’t as if John saw a movie of the events.

It was more as if

we could walk up to the screen of a movie theater,

and then step through that screen into the scene we were watching,

allowing us to talk with those inside the scene,

asking them questions,

gaining information about what’s going on.

OK, now, I want us to walk through the first few minutes of John’s experience after he passed through that door.

Here he is, in the presence of God Himself,

surrounded by all sorts of eternal, supernatural beings

that he couldn’t even begin to adequately describe to us

because they are utterly outside of our experience.

Throughout the rest of chapter 4

John gives us a powerful description of the throne room of God

and of the those who are in it.

Then, at the beginning of chapter 5,

John draws our attention to an item that is present in the throne room,

in fact an item that is being held in the right hand of God Himself,

an item that becomes central to nearly everything else that happens throughout this Revelation.

It is a book,

a book that is sealed with seven seals.

And if you remember some of that study of Revelation that we were involved in a few years ago,

you may remember

that those seven seals

provide us with the basic outline for the next nine chapters of the book.

As each seal is broken

certain major events take place both in the spirit world and on the earth.

I find it interesting to notice

that we are never actually told what that book contains.

We are only told

what takes place

as each seal is broken.

If you’d like a guess,

I’d suggest that the book is the account

of all those events that surround God’s final dealings with this, His physical creation.

Each seal on the book

is linked to a certain set of those events.

And when each seal is broken

it triggers those corresponding events recorded within the book to take place.

But what I want to draw our attention to this morning

is what we see happening before any of those seals are broken.

And let me just read the first few verses of this 5^th chapter for us.

REV 5:1 I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals.

REV 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?"

REV 5:3 And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

REV 5:4 Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;

OK, here is John standing in the presence of God.

And there is this sealed book in God’s right hand,

and the attention of every creature in that throne room

is focused on that book.

And then, just so that John is sure to get the message,

a strong angel proclaims in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?"

And John understands.

He doesn’t know yet what’s in that book,

or what will happen when the seals are broken,

but he definitely understands

that this book is very, very important.

It’s important to God.

It’s important to the human race.

It is important that this book is opened

and that it’s contents are revealed.

But the book can only be opened

by one who is worthy to do so.

It can only be opened

by one who has earned the right to break the seals.

And John waits,

and all of the other creatures present wait...and watch...

to see if anyone steps forward,

waiting to see if anyone can be found.

And no one steps forward.

It is at this point

that the painful tragedy of the situation

utterly overwhelms John.

REV 5:4 Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;

It is that statement that drew me to this passage this past week.

When I saw what was happening there,

I was absolutely amazed.

Here was John

standing in the presence of God,

surrounded by more evidence of the Creator’s majesty and power than the rest of us will ever see.

And yet, at that point,

his mind and emotions were flooded with a deep sadness,

and helplessness,

and loss.

Now why did John have to go through that?

He wasn’t reading a script.

He wasn’t playing a part.

He didn’t receive some instruction from the play director

telling him that he should now burst into tears.

He cried because he really did feel emotional pain and sorrow

brought about by his situation.

Now keep in mind

that even though John was in the presence of God,

he was still in his earthly body,

with his earthly mind and emotions

just like all of us are this side of the grave.

And when I saw John standing there,

filled with this agony

because no one was found worthy to do what needed to be done,

I saw John modeling for us

a crucial truth about the process God must lead us through

with so much of the growth that He brings into our lives.

It is not enough for us to know the truth intellectually.

True growth,

true change can only take place in our lives

when knowledge is integrated into our experience

in ways that impact us at the feeling level.

And I want you to listen closely to me here.

I am not saying that we should follow our feelings in our walk with our Lord

because our feelings,

our emotions have no ability apart from the oversight of our logical reasoning processes

to discern truth and lies.

Everyday we live

we feel things that are inconsistent with truth.

We may feel helpless,

or hopeless,

or abandoned by our God,

none of which are true.

I’m certainly not suggesting that we should follow our feelings,

but I am saying

that unless and until our discoveries about our God,

and about ourselves,

impact us at the feeling level

they will not bring about change in our lives.

And when it comes to our discoveries

about the true nature of the love of our God,

and about the nature of His grace,

and the security and hope we have in Him,

those discoveries can only begin to transform us,

to become a part of us,

to begin to replace the lies we have been believing

and FEELING about our God our whole life

when He is able to move us through a learning process

that involves our feeling the pain that comes

from seeing ourselves and our lives as they truly are without Him.

And that’s what we have happening here with John, of course.

The pain he was feeling,

and the sorrow it was bringing into his life

was the pain that comes from seeing what his future

and, indeed, the future of all of creation would have been

had there not been One who, above all others, was absolutely worthy in every respect,

One who fulfilled the will of God the Father perfectly on this earth,

One who, both by position, and by performance was absolutely qualified

to fulfill the one role we need fulfilled more than any other,

the role of Messiah,

Redeemer,

Savior,

the One who’s blood was an adequate payment for our sins.

And so often that same pattern of learning must be duplicated in our lives as well.

Apart from the working of the Spirit of God within us

we invest all of our energies into hiding from the truth about who we are apart from our God.

We assure ourselves that, whatever needs to be done in order for us to find success and fulfillment in life

can be done through our own abilities,

our own resources,

our own determination and skills.

But the truth is

we are created beings

separated from the Creator who loves us more than we can ever imagine,

and we will never find peace with ourselves

until we first find peace with our God.

But that discovery does not come easily,

nor can it come on a purely intellectual level.

Facts alone will never take us where we need to be.

The human personality simply does not change on that basis.

And so, just as with John in that throne room,

the Spirit of God seeks to bring each of us into the pain that comes

from the discovery of seeing what our life really looks like without our Lord.

And I’m not just talking here

about that point at which we first submit to His Lordship in our lives.

I believe that every significant step forward we make in our growth with God

will follow the same pattern.

It begins with a grieving process

brought about by our Lord giving us eyes to see

our utter helplessness apart from the intervention of God into our lives.

Just as John stood there in the throne room of God

and saw the need for this book to be opened

and for its content to become a living reality in human history,

and then realized that, apart from the intervention of God Himself,

there was no hope whatsoever,

so God’s Spirit seeks to bring each of us to that same realization in our own lives

again and again and again.

It is both the most painful

and the most healing process we will ever go through.

I’ll share just one example with you from my own life this past week

to help you better understand what I’m trying to say here.

Our daughter, Joni has been home with us this past week.

Here husband, Matt, is in a medical training program with the Coast Guard for three months,

so we coaxed the kid to come visit the old folks for a while.

She was actually in Alaska last Sunday,

but she wasn’t with us here Sunday morning

because she wasn’t feeling at all well.

She had a bad sinus infection and cold,

but there were some other things going on inside her as well

that were clearly not cold related,

and when I got home from church last week

my little sweetie was sitting in the kitchen with two of those home pregnancy tests in front of her,

and as soon as I came in she and Sandee announced to me

that I was going to be a grandpa.

Now, with all of us, our initial response to this news was just what you’d expect.

We were all thrilled...a little apprehensive, of course, but thrilled.

But then Sunday afternoon and evening, and then again Monday

there were growing indications that the pregnancy might not be progressing the way it should,

until there appeared to be the strong possibility that Joni might loose the baby.

She went to the emergency room at the hospital,

confirmed that she was indeed pregnant,

and was told that the next 48 hours would be critical

and she should remain as quite and still as possible.

She took up residence on the same couch

that she use to camp out on whenever she was sick as little girl.

I had all sorts of projects going

so I threw myself into them

and did one of the things I do best - emotionally shut down and pretended that everything was fine.

Then, about mid day,

I finally went up to the loft,

sat on the edge of the couch next to Joni,

and told her I wanted to pray for the baby.

I laid my hand on her tummy,

and all of the sudden I, too, was where John was in that throne room with no one worthy to open that book.

I knew,

no...I didn’t just know,

I was overwhelmed with the realization

that the only hope for this child’s future in this world,

whether it lasted a matter of minutes,

or a matter of hours,

or stretched out for many years to come,

was completely out of our control.

Unless God intervened,

there was no hope for this child.

And it is that one truth that God seeks to bring each one of us to

both about our own lives,

and about the lives of every child that ever enters this world.

It was at that point, for the first time at least,

that I chose to place that child into the hands of his or her Creator.

And that utter helplessness I felt

changed me,

and my relationship with that child,

and my relationship with my God a little bit.

We still don’t know what future God has for that baby,

and we may not for some time to come.

Joni went back to the doctor two days later and had another blood test done.

The doctor told her that, if the pregnancy was progressing correctly,

certain hormone levels should have doubled since her last visit.

She went home

and was told to call later that afternoon for the results.

The three of us were all in the loft when she called.

The hormone levels had doubled.

But nothing has really changed, of course.

That child’s future does not rest upon hormone levels,

it rests in the hands of its Creator.

And perhaps the best way I can end what I have been trying to say this morning

is to complete that passage from the book of Revelation.

You see, it doesn’t end with John standing in the presence of God, overwhelmed with grief.

John goes on to say,

REV 5:5 and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals."

REV 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

REV 5:11 ¶ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,

REV 5:12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."

REV 5:13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."