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Good morning.
I am Joan Benson, and I'm part of the North Berkeley Community Group and Women Reading Women.
Today's scripture reading is from the book of Exodus, chapter 33, verses 15 to 23, and
from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18, as printed in the liturgy.
Exodus 33, 15.
Then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.
How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and your people unless you go with us?
What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?
And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.
Then Moses said, now show me your glory.
And the Lord said, I will cause, excuse me, all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
But he said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.
Then the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face bids not be seen.
The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.
And now a reading from Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians.
Second Corinthians 3, 18.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Well, thank you for that scripture reading, Joan, and good morning, Christ Church.
My name is Andrew, and one of the pastors here.
I was away last weekend on vacation with my family, but we're glad to be back.
Glad to be back worshiping with our church family.
Will you join me in prayer?
Lord God, we ask this morning that in the preaching of your word, you would allow us to see what you want us to see.
That you would allow us to see you, and not just see you, but behold you, oh God.
One thing have I desired of the Lord.
That will I seek after.
That I will dwell in the house of the Lord.
All the days of my life, and behold the beauty of the Lord.
And inquire in his temple.
That's what we want to see, oh God.
We want to behold your glory.
We thank you that you are the kind of God who has revealed that glory to us.
Full of grace and truth in your son, Jesus Christ.
Be honored in the preaching of your word, in the administration of the sacraments, in our fellowship here today, oh God.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right, so we're continuing our series here.
This mini-series in Exodus chapters 32 to 34, right?
We're looking at this first great national rebellion.
The infamous incident of the golden calf turned into the first great national revival in history.
All right, so now what I want to do is I want to reset where we are in the story.
Remember, God has delivered his Hebrew people out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, right?
And he's brought them through the Red Sea to this holy mountain.
And this mountain is called Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai.
Now, this is a special mountain, all right?
This is the same mountain where an 80-year-old refugee and shepherd named Moses first encountered Yahweh, the living God, in an unburning bush.
You can read about that in Exodus chapter 3.
So this is holy ground where we are.
God has told Moses all the way back then at the unburning bush that he's heard his people's cries, right?
And he tells Moses that he wants to use him to deliver his people and to unite them to himself in a covenant bond.
And here we are now in Exodus chapter 33, and God has done exactly what he said he was going to do.
He's brought them back to this mountain because he wants to now ratify his covenant union with them.
He wants to bring them back to this holy site, like a sacred, nostalgic wedding venue.
Only this time, he's not manifesting himself in some little unburning bush.
The whole mountain is on fire, and there's a dark cloud, and there's rumblings of thunder and lightning,
and the presence of God here is undeniable.
It's unmistakable that God is here, and the people dare not approach this mountain.
So that's the scene, right?
And the people dare not approach, but God invites Moses up the mountain.
And so Moses goes up the mountain, and for 40 days, God reveals to Moses his detailed vision
for what he wants their union and their communion to look like as a family.
He's basically saying to Moses, this is the kind of beautiful home
and the kind of wonderful life and dwelling place I'm preparing for our family that I want us to enjoy.
But what happens when Moses is on the mountain after 40 days?
People grow impatient, right?
And at the very moment that God is detailing his plans to be intimately present with them,
they seek to force his presence and harness his power amongst themselves with the golden calf idol.
And God's heart breaks, and his anger burns, like with all the jealousy of a husband
who's only ever had eyes for his bride.
A husband who's been excitedly making all these plans for a beautiful life together with his precious bride.
And so God, he now desires to just wipe this people out, to just forsake his plan of union with them.
Just give them over to their new lover, give them over to their own self-destruction.
And he says, I'm just going to make a new nation out of you, Moses.
But what does Moses do?
He intercedes.
He pleads.
He says, but God, remember your promise.
And the crazy thing is, God relents.
He hears Moses' prayer, and he relents.
But still, we have this problem.
God does not want to dwell with this unfaithful people anymore.
He says, okay, I'm still going to let you live.
I'm still even going to let you go into the land flowing with milk and honey,
this promised land that I promised to send you into.
But I'm not going to go with you.
I'm not going to be present with you, because you are a stiff-necked people.
And I might destroy you on the way.
And so what happens?
The people mourn, and they strip off their ornaments.
Because of this great conundrum that their greatest need, the presence of God,
has now become their greatest threat at the same time.
Because, like, what is the promised land apart from the presence of God?
So what Moses does is he pitches a tent.
He pitches a tent far outside the camp.
Not among the people, but far outside the camp.
And amazingly, graciously, the presence of God in a cloud descends on that tent.
And he still meets with Moses.
He still meets with his people.
Even says that he speaks to Moses as a friend, face to face, mouth to mouth.
And as the people of God see the presence of God descend upon this tent,
they are filled with worship.
Because maybe they are not doomed after all.
Now it is in this tense of meeting that we find ourselves today in this passage.
Where Moses continues to intercede for his people who are still at odds with God.
And Moses says, you've told me to lead these people, God.
But who's going to go with me?
And God says, well, I will go with you.
My presence will go with you, Moses.
But Moses says, no, but unless you go with us.
With all of us.
What will distinguish me and your people amongst all the nations?
And this is where we left off last week.
In verse 17.
Where God graciously says to Moses, okay.
Okay, I will.
He says, I will do the very thing you have asked.
Because I am pleased with you.
And I know you by name.
Now if we don't grasp how crazy this is, we need to read this again.
This is crazy if you think about it.
The intercession and pleading of Moses has brought God from going,
I'm going to wipe them out.
To, oh, I'm going to let them go into the promised land,
but I'm not going to be with them.
To, now I'm going to be with them in my fullness and not destroy them.
Isn't that incredible?
That the prayers and the pleas of Moses would be heard and answered by God.
When everything that Moses asked for seemed so contrary to what his people deserved,
God granted his request.
Here in verse 17, the creator of the universe says to a mere mortal,
I will do the very thing you have asked.
Because I am pleased with you.
And I know you by name.
Wow, right?
Can you imagine if God said that to you?
I am so pleased with you.
And we have so personal a relationship that I will do the very thing you have asked.
It's like a blank check from the almighty God on high.
Now, if you had this many requests granted to you by God,
seemingly impossible requests granted to you by this God
who also just told you that he is pleased with you and he knows you by name,
what would you ask for next?
What would you ask for next?
If God wrote you like this blank check and your relationship with him was so deep,
so personal, so full of trust and confidence,
if God said to you,
I would do the very thing you ask because I am pleased with you,
what would you ask for next?
Instant retirement?
Impeccable health?
Your soulmate?
The picture of perfect family, eternal life, liberty, and happiness?
What would you ask for?
It's kind of hard to even imagine, right?
Like the most awesome thing we could think of probably seems too small a thing to ask for
with such a blank check from God, right?
But just because this question is hard to answer doesn't mean we should give up on considering
whether there might be a right answer.
Like what is the ultimate thing we could possibly ask of God,
especially if we knew he was pleased with us and knew us by name and had just promised to be present with us.
What more could we possibly ask for?
This morning, I think God wants us to consider the things that our hearts presently desire.
And I think God wants to show us what our hearts were made to rightly desire.
And this is so key to our understanding of revival.
Revival is all about our hearts' desires and returning to the purest and highest of possible desires.
Far from our culture's insistence that the heart just wants what it wants.
Revival comes when the heart wants what God wants it to want.
When we pray fervently, with sincerity, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
This is what God wants to show us today.
The heart of someone with an intimate relationship with God.
The heart of someone who is so convinced that God loves them,
so convinced that God cares for them and listens to them and is pleased with them
and will answer their prayers.
The heart of someone with a blank check from God.
What we see in our passage today in the person of Moses
is a man who had for 80 years lived without knowing the one true God of the universe.
And yet had come to experience the surprising defeat of the greatest empire in the world,
the parting of the Red Sea, manna and quail from heaven, water from a rock,
affirmative answers to his impossible prayer requests,
and a face-to-face conversational relationship with the living God
who also says to him,
I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you.
So basically here we have in Moses a man with every reason to believe
that he is loved and cared for by God
and every reason to believe that he has the very ear of God.
He's a man truly convinced that God is pleased with him
and will do the very thing he's asked.
So what does he ask for?
Verse 18.
Then Moses said,
Now show me your glory.
Or more literally in the Hebrew,
Cause me to see,
Cause me to see your glory.
What does this man ask for?
Who's been given deliverance that he and his people don't deserve,
forgiveness that they don't deserve,
sustenance they don't deserve,
prayer requests answered that they don't deserve,
a promised land they don't deserve,
God's very presence that they don't deserve.
What do you ask for when you have it all,
even the affirmation of God and his promise to answer your prayers?
What do you ask of this kind of a God?
You ask him for more of him.
You ask for more of him,
to see more of him,
to know more of him,
to experience more of him
in all his inexhaustible fullness.
You ask to go deeper
into the bottomless well of living water
for fresh experiences of him
and all his goodness that are new
every single morning.
That's what Moses asked for.
when he asked to see the glory of God.
And that is the primal plea
and the burning pursuit
that catalyzes every revival,
a hunger and a thirst
for nothing but God and God alone.
As King David said in Psalm 27,
one thing have I desired of the Lord
that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty,
the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
So with the rest of our time today,
we're going to look more closely
at Moses' bold request
and God's balanced response.
And the big idea is this,
to see the glory of God
is our greatest pursuit,
our greatest problem,
and our greatest privilege.
To see the glory of God
is our greatest pursuit,
our greatest problem,
and our greatest privilege.
Now maybe you're here
and you're not sure
you can even believe in God.
Or you're not sure
how to relate to this Old Testament account
about Moses.
Or maybe you identify as a Christian,
but you honestly don't feel
much of a hunger
or much of a thirst
for more of this God.
And so Moses' prayer
caused me to see your glory.
It kind of sounds abstract, irrelevant,
and unrelatable.
But I think that if we give
some attention to Moses' requests here
and consider what glory even is,
I wonder if you might find
Moses' prayer
to see the glory of God
more relatable than you might think.
And not only relatable,
but essential.
Even our greatest possible pursuit.
So let's start by considering
this word glory,
which admittedly is a hard word
to define and to describe.
Because as theologian Richard Gaffin,
one of my professors at Westminster,
he said,
glory is preeminently
a divine quality.
Only God has glory.
And so all other glories
are only derivatives.
So that makes it hard
to describe and define.
But still, I think we can arrive
at an approximate definition.
After all, God himself
has revealed his glory to us
that we might grasp,
that we might grasp
what he wants us to grasp
about who he is, right?
So let's go for it.
All right, in the Hebrew,
the word for glory
is this word kavod.
Kavod, which primarily
has this sense of weightiness.
Weightiness.
Now first, this might sound weird.
The glory of God
as the weightiness of God.
But maybe another helpful word
is like gravitas.
Or when we talk about
weighty matters
or weighty subjects.
These are subjects
of first importance, right?
Of most ultimate priority.
Things that matter the most.
So when we talk about
the glory of God,
we're talking about
the supreme weightiness of God.
God as the ultimate anchor
and foundation of all reality.
The ultimate reference point.
The sovereign creator
apart from whom nothing exists.
The glory of God
is the gravitas of God.
Now in the Greek,
the word for glory
is another word.
It's doxa.
Which carries this sense of honor
and recognition
and praiseworthiness.
So to talk about glory
is to talk about
what is worthy of praise.
What is worthy of my honor
and my worship.
The glory of God then points
to the supreme worthiness of God.
Worthy of all our worship
and honor and praise.
The only one before whom
we ought to bow down in worship.
And then when you put
these two words together,
kavod and doxa,
what they have in common
is that they both connotes
a sense of splendor
and majesty,
abundance and wonder.
And this is why
when the glory of God
is beheld
throughout the scriptures,
it makes people hide.
It makes people turn away.
It makes people fall to the ground
and gaze with wonder,
shock and awe.
Now we could dive deeper
into the many dimensions
of the glory of God.
But me and Jonathan's
favorite theologian,
Herman Baving,
he defines the glory of God
like this.
The glory of the Lord
is the splendor
and brilliance
that is inseparably associated
with all of God's attributes
and his self-revelation
in nature and grace.
The glorious form
in which he everywhere
appears to his creatures.
So there can really be
no end to this discussion
of the glory of God.
But I bring up
these three aspects,
the weightiness of God,
the praiseworthiness of God,
and the splendor of God
to highlight precisely
why the glory of God
is our greatest possible pursuit.
Because don't you see,
we're all looking
for something weighty.
that one thing
that matters most,
the heaviest of anchors,
right,
that will hold us fast
and keep our ships
from drifting
and sinking
under the waves
of this chaotic world.
We're all looking
for an ultimate
weighty foundation
that can hold us secure
amidst the shifting sentiments
of public opinion,
the shifting values
of each new generation
and every transition
of power
from one empire
to the next.
And we're also looking
for something worthy
of our worship,
someone to worship.
As the late essayist
and Pomona College professor
David Foster Wallace
once said,
here's something else
that's weird but true.
In the day-to-day trenches
of adult life,
there's actually
no such thing as atheism.
There's no such thing
as not worshiping.
Everybody worships.
The only choice we get
is what to worship.
Wallace was absolutely right.
We're all looking
for someone
to bow down to as Lord.
Something or someone
of the most ultimate,
far surpassing worth
to devote our lives to.
Someone worthy of ordering
and organizing
and orienting our lives,
our beliefs,
our values,
our commitments
and our every moment
of existence.
Someone to rescue us
from our otherwise
untethered,
arbitrary,
meaningless,
and ironically
self-conscious
self-worship.
And not only are we
looking for that
which is the weightiest
or the most praiseworthy,
but we're looking
for something
with such splendor.
Something so transcendently
beautiful
that it cannot
but take our breaths
away in its presence.
Something that is
more than just true
but something that is
so compelling
and captivating
that it's astoundingly
rapturous
beyond words.
This is what
the glory of God
is.
This is what
Moses is asking
to see.
the most ultimate
thing he could
conceive of.
God,
cause me to see
you.
In all your radiance,
in all your glory,
in all your fullness,
let me experience
all of who you are,
your very essence.
Reveal to me
your identity
and your character
in an undeniable way.
Moses wants to
behold God's glory
because he wants
to know God
even more.
And Moses wants
to know and behold God
because to know God
and to behold
his glory
is to know
and behold
the single most
important thing,
the single most
profound,
the single most
foundational reality.
What Moses is after
is what I want to call
that one thing.
And we all have it.
That one thing,
that one vision,
that one encounter,
that one experience,
the realest,
the most fundamental,
most transformative,
life-altering
and awe-inspiring
sight one could
possibly behold.
The glory,
the gravitas,
the awesomeness
and splendor
of God.
The one thing
we're all after,
a single orienting reality
that will anchor
and inspire
all of us
in this otherwise
chaotic,
uncertain,
arbitrary,
and meaningless world.
The one thing
to which all else
is subjected.
With a blank check
from God,
Moses asks
for more of God
because he's been
up the mountaintop
and he knows
that there's no
greater pursuit
than to behold
the glory of God.
Now based on
Moses' track record
of prayer requests
so far,
we might assume
that God's like,
alright,
one more,
Moses?
Sure,
I could do one more.
Sure,
you can see my glory.
But what we find here
in verses 19 to 20
is actually neither
a full yes
nor a full no.
It's more of,
I'll tell you
what I'm going to do
instead.
See,
because as much
as God loves Moses,
as much as God
is pleased with Moses
and has graciously
granted so many
of his prayers
already,
to see the glory
of God
is not a small
and simple thing.
To see the glory
of God
isn't just
our greatest pursuit
but it's also
our greatest problem.
Look at verse 19.
Here's the partial yes.
And the Lord said,
I will cause
all my goodness
to pass in front of you
and I will proclaim
my name,
the Lord,
in your presence.
I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy
and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.
But,
verse 20,
and here's the partial no,
but he said,
you cannot see my face
for no one may see me
and live.
Now I imagine that
for many of us,
we struggle here
with verse 20,
this concept
that people cannot
see God's face
and live.
Maybe you're still
caught up back
a couple verses earlier
with this notion
of God's fiery anger
burning against
idol-worshiping Israelites
and God wanting
to even wipe them out
as a whole entire nation
for worshiping
this golden calf.
And I can understand
how this irritates
our modern
Western sensibilities
that have so elevated
each one of us
human beings.
I can see
how this might trigger
even some of us
who have this
conception of God
that he's primarily
a wrathful God,
an angry God,
mostly to be feared.
And you know,
I would love to have
an extended conversation
with you,
our elders would as well,
but for the sake of time,
I want to share with you
some words from a book
I highly recommend.
It's by hip-hop artist
Jackie Hill Perry.
This book is titled
Holier Than Thou,
How God's Holiness
Helps Us Trust Him.
Because I think she
hits it right on the head
in her commitment
to the holiness of God
and in her explanation
of this interface
between this God
who is holy,
holy,
and his sin-stained
creatures,
including you and me.
Listen to what she writes.
She writes,
The holy,
holy,
holy God
should never be treated
as so familiar
to the degree
that he becomes
approachable
on our own terms.
I'm going to read that again.
The holy,
holy,
holy God
should never be treated
as so familiar
to the degree
that he becomes
approachable
on our own terms.
See,
the glory,
the gravitas of God
demands that we acknowledge
that he is God
and that we are not.
That he's the creator
and we're his creatures.
And therefore,
we must not approach him
on our own artificial terms,
but on his authoritative terms.
And according to God's terms,
his holy presence
cannot abide
that which is not holy.
Jackie Hill Perry,
she writes,
God's wrath
is nothing like the anger
we know of by experience.
Wrath isn't a response
to God's ego being bruised,
nor is it that he's a sadist
taking pleasure in our pain.
It is quite the opposite.
The wrath of God
is the holy revulsion
of God's being against
that which is a contradiction
to his holiness.
God cannot be indifferent
towards sin
because he is too
holy,
holy to do so.
The reason we,
she writes,
the reason we eventually
find the confidence
to accuse God
of injustice
whenever his gavel
falls too hard
for our liking
is because we have
a ridiculously low view
of sin
and an equally mediocre
grasp
of the holiness of God.
And that is why,
she writes,
we can ask to see his glory,
but it's either death
or a cleft
available to us
if God allows himself
to be seen.
And so when Moses
asks to see
the glory of God,
he's not only asking
for the deepest longing
of his heart
and for the very thing
he was meant to gaze upon
forever and ever
into eternity,
but he's also
making a death wish.
And that's the conundrum
for all of us.
How can we dwell
with a holy God?
How can we dwell
with a holy God?
But thankfully,
this isn't the end
of Moses' story,
nor is it the end of ours.
And that's where
this cleft comes in.
For to see the glory
of God is not only
our greatest pursuit
and our greatest problem,
but it's also
our greatest privilege.
Look with me
at verse 21.
Just as soon as God
introduces this tension
of,
I will cause all of me
to pass in front of you,
but you cannot see my face
or you will die,
God also says
in verse 21,
there is a place
near me
where you may stand
on a rock.
When my glory
passes by,
I will put you
in a cleft in the rock
and cover you
with my hand
until I have passed by.
Then I will remove
my hand
and you will see
my back,
but my face
must not be seen.
And do you know
what this is?
This is a foreshadowing
of the gospel.
The good news.
The good news
that when we couldn't
come nearer,
even behold,
the glory of God,
the glory of God
shining from the face
of Jesus Christ
has come near
and revealed himself
to us.
That when all we had
was a tent
far outside the camp,
the eternal word,
as the gospel of John
puts it,
the eternal word
became flesh
and dwelt among us,
tabernacled among us,
and we beheld his glory
full of grace
and truth.
You see,
because of Christ,
when even mighty Moses
with whom God
was pleased to answer
so many of his
prayer requests,
what mighty Moses
could only see
in part
in Christ,
God's own son,
we can see
in full
through his son
with whom
he is well pleased.
And what Moses
needed to shield him
from the unapproachable
glory of God,
his greatest need
and yet his greatest threat,
we have
in Christ.
a better rock,
a permanent rock,
a rock who will go
with us,
the ultimate cleft
to Haydn,
with no need to fear
the awesome glory
of God.
And this is the good news,
that at the cross,
the conundrum
of our greatest pursuit
being our greatest problem
because of sin,
at the cross,
it's resolved.
In Christ,
Jesus has put
the problem,
he's put our sin
to death
in his own body
and if we will trust him,
if we will hide ourselves
in him
as the ultimate cleft,
we can be called
the very righteousness
of God,
the very holiness
of God,
partakers in the glory
that once threatened
our existence
as people who once
so foolishly
ascribed all weightiness
and worthiness
and wonder
to created things
rather than
our creator.
And this is the gospel.
This is the gospel,
this is the heartbeat
of every revival
when people have caught
such a glimpse
of the glory of God
in Jesus Christ
that they humbly
yet boldly
seek more of him
and pray along with Moses,
oh God,
show me your glory.
And that's what we celebrate
today,
this Reformation Sunday
when we remember
Solus Christus.
There is only one mediator
between God and man
and it is his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't need a priest,
we don't need to
fulfill any rituals,
we don't need to pay anything
out of our own pockets,
but solely through Christ.
We can come before
the throne of God's grace
with confidence.
Now perhaps you're here today
and you've been sitting
through this revival series,
right?
And we're, what,
nine sermons in now
to this revival series
and you're like,
ah, shoot.
I still don't feel anything.
I haven't made it
to the top of the mountain.
I haven't had that experience.
Come on, Jonathan.
Light us up, man.
Bring the fire.
Lead us up the mountain.
And I'm trying, man.
But you know,
this reminds me of a story
that one of my favorite
preachers,
Francis Chan,
loves to tell.
He tells the story
of this Indian pastor
who is his mentor.
And he's an incredibly
fruitful pastor in India.
He's planted like
thousands of churches.
But one day,
Francis Chan receives this call
from this pastor
and the pastor
is just weeping.
He's weeping
because he's just found out
that yet another
high-profile pastor
in America
has fallen,
has had another
moral failure.
And he's weeping
because he knows
what kind of effect
this is going to have
on the church in America.
We who so love
our celebrity pastors,
we who are so dependent
on these fiery guys
on YouTube and Instagram
just inspiring us
and carrying us
on their backs
up the mountain.
And what he says
to Francis Chan is,
Francis,
what's wrong
with you guys?
Don't you know
you can go up
the mountain yourselves?
Don't you know
that you can go up
the mountain yourselves
and behold a glory
far beyond
what Moses ever
could have dreamed of
until he saw
the transfigured Christ?
Well, that's who
we have now.
we have the Christ.
He has come.
He has given himself
to us
to behold
the good news
of God's word
to us today,
the good news
of Reformation Sunday
is that in Christ
and through Christ
we can go up
the mountain.
We can behold
his glory.
Will you come?
Will you come
and see?
Will you come
to Jesus?
Come to this table
and behold
his glory
and find it
full of grace
and truth.
Will you pray with me?
and be damned
in theừng
and sab
and
who