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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Dwelling in God |
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1
John 4 First
Sunday of Trinity June
6, 2010 Let
us pray. "O
Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of
sinful men; Grant unto thy people that they may love the things which thou
commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that among the sundry
and manifold changes of this world, our hearts may surely be there fixed,
where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen." "Grant,
we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy
only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens;
so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually
dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God,
world without end. Amen." These
Collects from the Book of Common
Prayer are treasures. The
first asks God to enable us to love what He commands and to desire what He
promises. The second desires one of the greatest things God promises; His continual
presence in a way that is so full it can only be described as God dwelling
in us, and us dwelling in God. God answers these prayers with a great,
Divine "YES." He,
"hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:6).
This verse from Ephesians is not talking about "going to
Heaven" when our life on earth is over.
It is talking about dwelling in Heaven, meaning, in God, by faith
here and now. God loves us so
much He actually invites us into Himself, that by faith we may dwell in
Him and He may dwell in us. God
in us and us in God is the great theme of our Epistle Lesson for this
morning. God is "in
us," according to verse 4. He
"dwelleth in us," says verse 12.
"We dwell in Him and He in us," verse 13. "God,
dwelleth in him and he in God," verse 15.
He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,"
verse 16. Five times in
sixteen verses this theme is explicitly stated, and it is implied in every
other verse of this passage. These
verses were chosen intentionally for this day in our cycle of prayer
because they recall all the great acts of God we have been looking at
since Advent, and tie them together by answering the question,
"Why?" Why did God create us? Why did He send Christ to die and rise again? Why
did He send the Holy Spirit? Why did He establish the Church?
Why did He give the New Testament? Why did He give the full
knowledge of Himself as Father Son and Holy Ghost? Did
He do all of this simply so we could escape hell and go to Heaven? No, His purpose is much deeper and infinitely more generous
than even that. He did these things that we may dwell in Him, and He may
dwell in us. In
one sense everyone dwells in God. God
created and sustains our very being.
It is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:27).
His presence fills the created order.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell thou art there (Ps.
139:7-8). Where can we go and not be in the presence of God? Jonah may
have thought he was getting out of God's reach when he boarded a ship and
sailed away from Israel. He
may have thought God's power and presence were limited to a certain
geographical area. If so, he
soon learned better. He found
that God was as present on the sea, and even at the bottom of the sea, as
He was in Jerusalem. "Do
I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23:24).
So, simply by existing, we all dwell in God, and God dwells in all
of us. Yet this is not what
the Bible means in John 4 when it talks about dwelling in God. To "dwell" as it is used there, has a more
intentional meaning to it, and it has a much more personal/relational
meaning to it. We
dwell in God and He in us when we are united to God in Biblical faith.
This is what John meant when he wrote, "Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in
God" (1 Jn. 4:15). Biblical
faith means more than just saying Jesus is the Son of God.
It means we "confess" that He is the Son of God.
It means we agree with God in all the doctrines and teachings of
the Bible. It means we "truly repent and unfeignedly believe His
holy Gospel." It means
we have seen that we are sinners, but we have also seen that Christ died
to reconcile us to God, and have trusted Him to present us to God as if we
had no sin. There is great
truth in the Biblical image of being washed in the blood of the Lamb.
By the shedding of His blood, we are made clean from our sins and
we are regarded as pure and sinless by God.
Every unkind thought, every selfish deed, every hurt you have ever
caused has been washed away, and you are regarded by God as if they never
happened. Our sins are hidden
in Christ. In fact, our lives
are hidden in Christ. We are
"in Christ" because we are forgiven and reconciled to God.
We believe this by faith. By
faith we dwell in God, and He dwells in us. We
dwell in God and He in us when we dwell in love (1 Jn. 4:16).
What is love? Jesus said if we love Him we will keep His commandments.
He said love is the meaning of all the laws and prophets of
Scripture. So, love, in its
most basic form, is living a life of holy obedience to His will.
To obey God is to love God, and to love God is to dwell in Him, and
He in us. We
dwell in God and He dwells in us when we make proper use of the means of
grace. What are the means of
grace? They are simply the
means by which God draws us into Himself and we draw God into ourselves.
They are the means by which we participate in God.
The Bible is a means of grace, because through the Bible God speaks
to us, and reveals His love and will to us.
In its pages we "meet" God.
Holy Communion is a means of grace because in Holy Communion we are
reassured of God's favour and love towards us. In
it our faith is strengthened as we feed on Christ in our hearts by faith.
There are other means of grace.
Prayer, private and public worship, and the Church are all means by
which God dwells in us, and we dwell in Him. The
most obvious way God dwells in us, and we in Him, is through the presence
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in every true believer.
"Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because he
hath given us of His Spirit" (1 Jn. 4:13).
Jesus said God would make His abode in us; He does this through the
Holy Spirit. When the Spirit
came on Pentecost, the Bible says the disciples were "filled"
with Him. He came to be in
them. He came to abide in
them; to dwell in them. We
are each one individually temples of the Holy Spirit.
In a greater way, we, as the people God has redeemed with His blood
and called out of the world to be His own unique possession and Kingdom,
are The Temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells in us, and we dwell in God.
Christ calls us His "body."
He dwells in His body by means of the Holy Spirit.
His Spirit gives life and being to the Body, as our spirits animate
our own bodies. The Holy Spirit enables us to have faith, love God, and make
use of the means of grace. By
the Spirit God is in us and we are in God. I
am sure you have noticed the element of participation that permeates
everything I have been talking about today.
Faith requires participation. Love requires participation.
The means of grace require participation. Even the Holy Spirit requires participation.
We are not passive in any of these things.
We are active. We are
not spectators, we are participants.
If you are not a participant, do not be surprised if, at this time
next year, you are no further along in the journey of faith than you are
today. Sometimes people tell
me they are spiritually discouraged and dry, and feel as though God has
abandoned them. A few
questions usually reveal they are doing little or nothing to dwell in God
or invite Him to dwell in them. They
don't know or read the Bible. They
don't pray. They don't make
use of the means of grace. They
don't attempt to live a holy life. They
don't make any real attempt to dwell in God.
Why are they surprised when they feel far away from God?
They are far away from Him. The
surprise is not that their faith is small and weak; the surprise is that
they have any faith at all. It
is only the grace of God that keeps a spark of faith alive in them.
They are like people who sign the forms and pay the dues to join a
club or civic association but never go to the meetings or participate in
its functions. Their names
may be on the roll, but they never really "join" the club.
They never really put their hearts into it.
To dwell in God and God in you requires that you put your heart
into Him. It requires that you really join
Him. It requires that you
really participate in Him, and that you allow Him to participate in you. This
is the purpose for which God saved you.
This is why He created you, came for you, died for you, rose for
you and continually comes to you now.
It was all done that He may dwell in you, and you may dwell in Him. Let
us pray. Holy
God, grant that we may believe with all our heart that You have covered
our sins with the righteousness of Christ, and so let us dwell in Thee and
Thee in us by faith. Grant
that we may love Thee with all our heart, mind and soul, and our neighbors
as ourselves, and so let us dwell in Thee and Thee in us by love. Grant
that we may be drawn into Thine heart through the Scriptures, worship,
prayer, Church, and sacraments, and so let us dwell in Thee and Thee in us
by the means of grace. Grant
that we may be filled continually with Thy Holy Spirit, that He may be God
in us as Christ is God with us, and so let us dwell in Thee and Thee in us
by Thy Spirit. Grant
these, our humble prayers, through Thy most gracious mercy, in the Name of
Christ. Amen.
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