Behold the Glory
Bible Study Time 5-7-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 5-7-06
Moses first caught a glimpse of the glory of Jesus Christ while he was herding his sheep in the back side of the wilderness. Off in the distance he saw a bush which was engulfed in flames. This was not so strange in itself, but what caught his attention was the fact that the bush was not consumed by the flames. The bush just kept on burning and burning.
As Moses approached the bush to investigate, a voice called out to him, saying, “Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3)
Moses said, “Here I am.”
The voice said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
At that point, the Bible says that Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
I have often wondered how well Moses knew the Lord before this time. We know that he lived the first forty years of life in the house of the King of Egypt. How much Moses knew about his people or their heritage we can only speculate.
But here in the dessert, as Moses stood before the burning bush, God told Moses to go back to Egypt and bring the Jews up out of Egypt to the land of Canaan. At this point, Moses asked, “If the Jews should ask, what is Your Name?” This would indicate that if Moses knew God, he didn’t know Him very well, and we can be fairly certain that Moses had never had such a one on one meeting with God before.
What a difference this personal encounter with God was going to make in His life. Even as Moses stood talking to the true and the living God, he could not have imaged all that he was going to see and all that he was going to accomplish because of this one on one encounter with God.
Many people today know about God, but they’ve never had a personal encounter with God. Simply knowing about God will never bring a change in our lives. It’s not until we get one on one with God, confessing our sins and trusting Him for forgiveness, that God is able to make us a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Armed with this personal relationship with God, Moses was now ready to stand before the most powerful king in the world. He was positioned to deliver the entire nation of Israel out from under the bondage of slavery. He was ready to separate the waters of the Red Sea and hold them back while the nation of Israel walked across on dry land. By simply opening his heart to God, he had positioned himself to be the one who would give the greatest set of civil and moral laws that the world has ever known. All of these things lay just ahead in Moses life as he moved from knowing about God to knowing God.
Notice what it took for Moses to get to know God. First, he observed what was going on around him. Second, he listened to the word of God as he investigated the things he observed. Third, Moses believed the word of God, and he did what God told him to do.
Many people today never seek to know God because they fail to observe what is going on around them. They just go about their everyday lives, making money, marrying and giving in marriage as the people did in Noah’s day, but they never stop to see the incredible things that God is doing all around them.
One doesn’t have to read the papers everyday to notice that the world we live in is getting worse and worse. There are wars and rumors of wars. We see famine and disease. We see corruption and every sort of immorality. The global weather patterns as well as the global economy seem very fragile.
And yet in the midst of all this instability, we see the nation of Israel which according to all reasonable probabilities should have disappeared from off the face of the earth thousands of years ago. But here we are in the year 2006, and Israel is still alive. In fact, she continues to dominate the headlines. Israel is like the burning bush. She continues on through the fire, and she has yet to be consumed.
People who take an honest look at our world today will find themselves drawn to the voice that came from the burning bush. They will listen to that voice as they investigate what they see around them, and the Bible says that those who seek the truth will find it. Jesus Christ is the truth, and all who seek Him will find Him.
God has not make it hard for people to be saved. He has made it perfectly clear in His word what it takes to be saved. As Paul told the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
As we have seen, Moses observed what God was doing, he listened to what God was saying, and he believed what God was saying. Then after he believed, he did what God told him to do. As a result, God was able to change his life from a life of frustration and disappointment to a life that was nothing short of spectacular.
However, Moses did not find it easy to trust the Lord. When God challenged him to return to Egypt, Moses was skeptical. He had lived for forty years with some bitter memories of his last days in Egypt, and he had some agonizing conflicts when it came to his Jewish brothers back in Egypt.
Sure, Moses had killed an Egyptian, but wasn’t that Egyptian beating a fellow Jew? Wasn’t Moses simply trying to protect a Jewish brother. When the Jews who knew about the murder threatened to expose Moses, Moses had to run from Egypt, and he must have felt betrayed by his own people.
As we go out and talk to people about Jesus Christ, we can expect to find some people who are like Moses. When they look at their past experiences, they may feel nothing but frustration and disappointment. They may feel like they are living their lives on the backside of the desert. These past experiences may hinder their faith when they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You may have noticed that God didn’t really ask Moses if he would like to go back and deliver the Jews from slavery. No, God simply informed Moses that this was what He was going to do. However, in spite of this proclamation, Moses was reluctant. He didn’t really know God well enough to trust Him, so Moses asked, “Who am I that I should do this?” And then he asked, “What if they don’t believe that You are the One who has sent me?”
God told Moses to cast his staff down on the ground. When he did, his staff turned into a serpent. God said, pick that serpent up by the tail. When he did, the serpent turned back into a staff.
God told Moses to put his hand inside his shirt. When he pulled his hand out, it was white with leprosy. God had Moses put his hand back inside his shirt, and when Moses pulled his hand out this time, his skin was like normal skin. God was willing to give Moses these signs to bolster his confidence in the power of God.
Now this willingness on the part of God to give signs to people, is something that is unique to the Jews. The Apostle Paul said, “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” (I Corinthians 1:22)
God has never given Gentiles signs. He never gave the Gentiles of Noah’s day a sign to prove that the flood was coming. He never gave the Gentiles of Nineveh a sign to prove that they were on the verge of destruction. When the Gentiles experienced the miracles of the Acts period, even those miracles were given as a sign to the nation of Israel so that they would believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
Now don’t get me wrong, God does not expect us, as members of the Body of Christ, to believe in Jesus Christ without any evidence. God does give us plenty of evidence to substantiate our faith, but the greatest evidence of all is the internal evidence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said:
John 6:44 (NKJ)
44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father . . . draws him . . .
That means that those who come to Christ in faith have been drawn to Christ by some very strong evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He is man’s only hope of salvation. However, today this evidence does not come in the form of outward signs and miracles. It comes by the conviction of the Holy Spirit as we respond to the word of God. Hebrews 11 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
If the Greeks seek after wisdom, then certainly this is the kind of wisdom that we should seek. The wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit will come from the word of God, and it will be confirmed by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
As Moses listened to the voice of God, he had some physical miracles to confirm the words of God, but I believe that it was the pulling of the Holy Spirit that really convinced Moses of the power of God. It was the pulling of the Holy Spirit that kept Moses from turning around and walking away.
It is interesting to note that even though Moses was given miraculous signs to verify the words of God, these signs did not reveal the glory of God. It was not until after Moses believed the word of God and dedicated himself to following the Lord that he saw the glory of God.
What a great privilege it is to see the glory of Christ, but that is a privilege that is available to all believers today. John said:
John 1:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Here John spoke as one who had believed the words of Christ and had dedicated his life to following Christ. Those who believe God’s word and follow Christ will behold the glory of Christ.
From the time Peter first started following the Lord Jesus, he saw the Lord do many miracles, but it was not until after Peter made his confession, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”, that Peter was allowed to see the glory of Christ.
Matthew says that six days after Peter’s confession:
Matthew 17:1,2,5,6 (NKJ)
1 Jesus took Peter, James, and John . . . up on a high mountain by themselves;
2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, . . . His clothes became as white as the light.
5 . . . (And) behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; . . . suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.
Peter saw the miracles, but He never saw the glory of the Lord until after he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. When Peter saw Christ in all of His glory, it had a tremendous impact on his life. In Peter’s second epistle, he was speaking of himself and the other apostles when he said:
2 Peter 1:16-19 (NKJ)
16 . . . we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but (we) were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
If you don’t know Christ today, don’t let disappoints in your past keep you from seeing the glory of Jesus Christ and experiencing all that God has for you in this life and in the life to come. If you believe that Christ died for your sins and if you dedicate your life to following Christ, you can see the glory of Jesus Christ.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
As Moses approached the bush to investigate, a voice called out to him, saying, “Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3)
Moses said, “Here I am.”
The voice said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
At that point, the Bible says that Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
I have often wondered how well Moses knew the Lord before this time. We know that he lived the first forty years of life in the house of the King of Egypt. How much Moses knew about his people or their heritage we can only speculate.
But here in the dessert, as Moses stood before the burning bush, God told Moses to go back to Egypt and bring the Jews up out of Egypt to the land of Canaan. At this point, Moses asked, “If the Jews should ask, what is Your Name?” This would indicate that if Moses knew God, he didn’t know Him very well, and we can be fairly certain that Moses had never had such a one on one meeting with God before.
What a difference this personal encounter with God was going to make in His life. Even as Moses stood talking to the true and the living God, he could not have imaged all that he was going to see and all that he was going to accomplish because of this one on one encounter with God.
Many people today know about God, but they’ve never had a personal encounter with God. Simply knowing about God will never bring a change in our lives. It’s not until we get one on one with God, confessing our sins and trusting Him for forgiveness, that God is able to make us a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Armed with this personal relationship with God, Moses was now ready to stand before the most powerful king in the world. He was positioned to deliver the entire nation of Israel out from under the bondage of slavery. He was ready to separate the waters of the Red Sea and hold them back while the nation of Israel walked across on dry land. By simply opening his heart to God, he had positioned himself to be the one who would give the greatest set of civil and moral laws that the world has ever known. All of these things lay just ahead in Moses life as he moved from knowing about God to knowing God.
Notice what it took for Moses to get to know God. First, he observed what was going on around him. Second, he listened to the word of God as he investigated the things he observed. Third, Moses believed the word of God, and he did what God told him to do.
Many people today never seek to know God because they fail to observe what is going on around them. They just go about their everyday lives, making money, marrying and giving in marriage as the people did in Noah’s day, but they never stop to see the incredible things that God is doing all around them.
One doesn’t have to read the papers everyday to notice that the world we live in is getting worse and worse. There are wars and rumors of wars. We see famine and disease. We see corruption and every sort of immorality. The global weather patterns as well as the global economy seem very fragile.
And yet in the midst of all this instability, we see the nation of Israel which according to all reasonable probabilities should have disappeared from off the face of the earth thousands of years ago. But here we are in the year 2006, and Israel is still alive. In fact, she continues to dominate the headlines. Israel is like the burning bush. She continues on through the fire, and she has yet to be consumed.
People who take an honest look at our world today will find themselves drawn to the voice that came from the burning bush. They will listen to that voice as they investigate what they see around them, and the Bible says that those who seek the truth will find it. Jesus Christ is the truth, and all who seek Him will find Him.
God has not make it hard for people to be saved. He has made it perfectly clear in His word what it takes to be saved. As Paul told the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
As we have seen, Moses observed what God was doing, he listened to what God was saying, and he believed what God was saying. Then after he believed, he did what God told him to do. As a result, God was able to change his life from a life of frustration and disappointment to a life that was nothing short of spectacular.
However, Moses did not find it easy to trust the Lord. When God challenged him to return to Egypt, Moses was skeptical. He had lived for forty years with some bitter memories of his last days in Egypt, and he had some agonizing conflicts when it came to his Jewish brothers back in Egypt.
Sure, Moses had killed an Egyptian, but wasn’t that Egyptian beating a fellow Jew? Wasn’t Moses simply trying to protect a Jewish brother. When the Jews who knew about the murder threatened to expose Moses, Moses had to run from Egypt, and he must have felt betrayed by his own people.
As we go out and talk to people about Jesus Christ, we can expect to find some people who are like Moses. When they look at their past experiences, they may feel nothing but frustration and disappointment. They may feel like they are living their lives on the backside of the desert. These past experiences may hinder their faith when they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You may have noticed that God didn’t really ask Moses if he would like to go back and deliver the Jews from slavery. No, God simply informed Moses that this was what He was going to do. However, in spite of this proclamation, Moses was reluctant. He didn’t really know God well enough to trust Him, so Moses asked, “Who am I that I should do this?” And then he asked, “What if they don’t believe that You are the One who has sent me?”
God told Moses to cast his staff down on the ground. When he did, his staff turned into a serpent. God said, pick that serpent up by the tail. When he did, the serpent turned back into a staff.
God told Moses to put his hand inside his shirt. When he pulled his hand out, it was white with leprosy. God had Moses put his hand back inside his shirt, and when Moses pulled his hand out this time, his skin was like normal skin. God was willing to give Moses these signs to bolster his confidence in the power of God.
Now this willingness on the part of God to give signs to people, is something that is unique to the Jews. The Apostle Paul said, “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” (I Corinthians 1:22)
God has never given Gentiles signs. He never gave the Gentiles of Noah’s day a sign to prove that the flood was coming. He never gave the Gentiles of Nineveh a sign to prove that they were on the verge of destruction. When the Gentiles experienced the miracles of the Acts period, even those miracles were given as a sign to the nation of Israel so that they would believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
Now don’t get me wrong, God does not expect us, as members of the Body of Christ, to believe in Jesus Christ without any evidence. God does give us plenty of evidence to substantiate our faith, but the greatest evidence of all is the internal evidence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said:
John 6:44 (NKJ)
44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father . . . draws him . . .
That means that those who come to Christ in faith have been drawn to Christ by some very strong evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He is man’s only hope of salvation. However, today this evidence does not come in the form of outward signs and miracles. It comes by the conviction of the Holy Spirit as we respond to the word of God. Hebrews 11 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
If the Greeks seek after wisdom, then certainly this is the kind of wisdom that we should seek. The wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit will come from the word of God, and it will be confirmed by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
As Moses listened to the voice of God, he had some physical miracles to confirm the words of God, but I believe that it was the pulling of the Holy Spirit that really convinced Moses of the power of God. It was the pulling of the Holy Spirit that kept Moses from turning around and walking away.
It is interesting to note that even though Moses was given miraculous signs to verify the words of God, these signs did not reveal the glory of God. It was not until after Moses believed the word of God and dedicated himself to following the Lord that he saw the glory of God.
What a great privilege it is to see the glory of Christ, but that is a privilege that is available to all believers today. John said:
John 1:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Here John spoke as one who had believed the words of Christ and had dedicated his life to following Christ. Those who believe God’s word and follow Christ will behold the glory of Christ.
From the time Peter first started following the Lord Jesus, he saw the Lord do many miracles, but it was not until after Peter made his confession, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”, that Peter was allowed to see the glory of Christ.
Matthew says that six days after Peter’s confession:
Matthew 17:1,2,5,6 (NKJ)
1 Jesus took Peter, James, and John . . . up on a high mountain by themselves;
2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, . . . His clothes became as white as the light.
5 . . . (And) behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; . . . suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.
Peter saw the miracles, but He never saw the glory of the Lord until after he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. When Peter saw Christ in all of His glory, it had a tremendous impact on his life. In Peter’s second epistle, he was speaking of himself and the other apostles when he said:
2 Peter 1:16-19 (NKJ)
16 . . . we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but (we) were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
If you don’t know Christ today, don’t let disappoints in your past keep you from seeing the glory of Jesus Christ and experiencing all that God has for you in this life and in the life to come. If you believe that Christ died for your sins and if you dedicate your life to following Christ, you can see the glory of Jesus Christ.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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