Today, we come to the fifth and final mark of the church and the individual Christian found in Romans chapter 15:1-6. The church is called to do all things to the glory of God. Verse 6 reads, “So that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Okay, this sounds simple enough. Give glory to God. Do everything to the glory of God. So, here’s the question what exactly is glory? Have you ever stopped to think about it? What does it mean to give glory to God?
Sure, we’ve all heard about giving glory to God. We’ve sung about giving glory to God. We’ve sung about God’s glory.
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
“Angels from the realm’s of glory!”
“Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth.”
“All glory, laud and honor, to you Redeemer King!
You will notice that there’s a bit of a difference in terminology there. You’ll notice that on one hand when we sing about giving glory to God, it’s essentially that we are giving God praise. We are exalting God. On the other hand, we see that glory is something that God already has. God has glory. We see His glory. It can be a bit confusing.
So, let’s clear it up a little bit. The word glory in the Bible–particularly in the New Testament comes from the Greek word, doxa. This is where we get the title to the hymn we sing after we take up our offerings: the doxology. That’s just a bit of trivia for you this morning. But interestingly enough, the word doxa, denotes “divine and heavenly radiance” the “loftiness and majesty” of God, and even the “being of God.” It highlights “divine honor”, “divine splendor”, “divine power”, and “visible divine radiance.”
So, if this is the case. If the word glory means “divine and heavenly radiance”, the “loftiness and majesty of God”, “divine honor”, “divine splendor”, “divine power,” and “visible divine radiance,” what does it mean that a church does everything for this? What does it mean that we live our lives to give this to God?
Well, my brothers and sisters, fortunately, we do not have to turn to Google for help here. In fact, I am quite sure that Google will lead us astray. Fortunately, we have a word from God that helps us see what it means to give glory to God–the one who is already full of glory.
Let me read to you a portion of Exodus chapter 33 beginning in verse 18. You see, Moses and God are having a conversation up on Mount Sinai. They have talked long about a great many things, and Moses makes a request of God. “18Moses said, ‘Show me your glory, I pray.’ 19And God said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, “The Lord”; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20But’, he said, ‘you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’ 21And the Lord continued, ‘See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; 22and 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; 23then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.’”
So you see, my brothers and sisters, God’s glory is too much for us to comprehend. God’s glory is too much for human eyes. God’s splendor and majesty is too powerful for us to be able to look upon. It is so overwhelming; it is so powerful; it is so beautiful; that were we to gaze upon it, we would die. And so, Moses was not allowed to see the fullness of the glory of God–even though he deeply longed for it. Moses was not allowed to look into the face of God. God covered Moses’ face as He passed by. So, Moses only got to get a glimpse of God’s glory. Moses only got to see a smidgen of the overall beauty and majesty and power of God. But what effect did that have?
Well, we need to move on to chapter 34 of the book of Exodus. We need to see what happened after Moses encountered God. We need to see what happened after Moses got to see a glimpse of the glory of God. Here we go, we begin in verse 29, “ Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.”
Did you catch what was happening here? Did you catch what was happening to Moses after he talked with God? Did you catch what Moses was like once he had met God and encountered God’s glory?
Moses shined.
Moses was radiant.
Moses was beautiful.
Not with his own light. Not with his own power. Not with his own beauty. Not with his own glory. No. Moses was shining the glory of God, reflecting it to the people of Israel. Think about that a minute. After encountering God and God’s glory, Moses reflected that glory to the rest of the world. This was not something that Moses did on his own. This was not something Moses decided to do. Moses simply asked to see God’s glory, and after encountering just a smidgen of the glory of God, God made Moses shine!
Do you see the connection to the church? Do you see the connection to you and your life? We radiate the glory of God. This what it means to give Him glory. This is what it means to do everything to the glory of God. Because we have encountered God. Because we have seen the glory of God, we shine that into the world in everything that we do.
But this is kind of where we get into trouble. This is kind of where we miss the mark. Because oftentimes we tend to be more concerned about talking about ourselves than we are showing the glory of God. Now, I know that statement isn’t the nicest statement to say in regards to churches and individual Christians. Believe me, I am well aware that when I am pointing the finger out, there are three more pointing right back at me. I’m as guilty as anything of that statement. I know for most of my life, I’ve been more concerned with me and what I want. I’ve been more concerned with growing a church so that I could get recognition. I’ve been more concerned with attaining goals and status than I have been with showing forth Jesus. Don’t think that I’m innocent in this. I’ve been more than wrong.
And there are many churches that have fallen into this kind of stuff too. We focus on the wrong things. We focus on simply getting members to join our churches. We focus on growing our programs. We focus on making sure enough money is flowing into our offering plates. We focus on our music and on our youth. And while none of this is necessarily bad, where is God in the midst of this? Where is our giving glory to God. Are we going to give glory when our churches and our programs grow, or are we going to give glory to God first and then watch what happens when that glory is reflected into the world?
And this just makes sense. I mean, when Jesus gathered his disciples on the hill outside of Jerusalem and was lifted up into heaven, he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Now, what kind of disciples do you think Jesus wanted his followers to make? What kind of disciples do you think Jesus expects us to make? Do you think he wanted us to make disciples of St. John Lutheran Church? Do you think he wants us to make disciples of Pastor Haug? Of Christa? Of Ralph? Of Rick, or Debbie, or James? Do you think Jesus wants disciples of WELCA or Lutheran Men in Mission? No! He wants people to follow Him! He wants people to have Him enthroned in their hearts! This church can’t give people what Jesus can! We can’t give people what Jesus can! We can only point the way to Jesus so that they can fall in love with Him!
And so we give glory to God. We help people encounter God. And you may ask, “Where can I find God? Where can I encounter Him and His love? Where can I point people so that they can encounter Him? Where can we encounter God so that we reflect His glory just like Moses reflected His glory?”
And the answer my brothers and sisters is this: there are many places we can eventually encounter God, but if you want to meet Him and come to see His great love, look no further than the cross. Look no further than the place where the God of this universe took your sin upon Himself and died for you. Look no further than to the place where He loved you when you were unlovable. Look no further than the place where He hung and said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Look no further than the place where Jesus emptied Himself so that you and I may be filled. Look no further than the place where “sorrow and love flowed mingled down. Did ere such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown.”
For you see, my brothers and sisters, when you gaze upon the face of the one who died for you in your brokenness; when you look into His eyes and see His disappointment in your sin but also the depths of His loved; when you have your heart touched by Him, oh, oh you see that Jesus is the most beautiful; most awe inspiring; most wonderful thing that you can ever behold. You long for Him to reveal Himself to you. You beg like Moses begged, “Lord, show me your glory!” And He does. Yes, He does. And when He shows you His glory, then that glory shines off of you. It reflects off of you, and it draws people to Him. And then they will say, “There is no way we can account for what we see here other than to say that God’s hand is at work. There is no way we can account for the love, respect, care, and compassion that we see at work here. These things just don’t happen in the world. There must be something else at work. There must be something else that has brought these things to fruition. There must be a power that is real and greater than anything we have ever seen. There must be a God.” (Keller) This is the mark of a Christian. This is the mark of a church–that it gives glory to God so that others are drawn to Him. Amen.
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