Sermon Tone Analysis

! Close Encounters Of The God Kind

!

A Close Encounter Through Miraculous Deliverance

Exodus 14:21-31; 15:1-21

 

 

The whole world seems to be mesmerized with close encounters with aliens.

Accounts of flying saucers and alien abductions have become as common place as air.

Whether you believe these accounts or *not*, they are becoming far too common place to simply ignore.

So, as I thought about the theme of “Encounters With God,” I began to notice some strong similarities between professed close encounters with aliens and close encounters with God.

Consequently, I felt impressed to use the subject of “Alien Encounters” as a launching pad for our biblical discussion of “Encounters with God.”

In first three sermons in this series, we worked hard to develop a definition for a “Close Encounter Of The God Kind.”

That definition is

 

A “Close Encounter Of The God Kind” is a face-to-face meeting with God that cannot be totally explained, but which—when fully experienced—will bring about a response of genuine worship or celebration, which includes the remembrance of a redemptive past and~/or the conviction of a liberated future that changes people forever; causing them to move and grow by over-recording the intuitive tapes of their core belief.

In the fourth message in this series, we explored one of the major barriers to experiencing a close encounter with God.

We called that barrier:  “The Brain Barrier.”

“The Brain Barrier” *is the American, Greek influenced tendency to separate and exalt the intellect above the emotions.*

We then began to explore twelve “Close Encounters Of The God Kind.”

In the fifth message, we explored Abraham’s first encounter with God.

In the sixth message, we explored God’s encountering of Abraham through a test.

In the seventh message, we explored God’s encountering of Jacob through a dream.

In the eighth message, we began to develop a theology of dreams.

In the last message, we saw that God encountered Moses through the miraculous revelation of a burning bush that was not consumed, for the purpose of giving him a God-sized assignment of delivering the Children of Israel from the harsh bondage of Egypt.

/(This brings us to the next “Close Encounter Of The God Kind.”)/

In this message, we are going to see God encounter Israel through a miraculous deliverance.

Let’s review the background of the miraculous deliverance we are going to explore today.

\\         The background of today’s encounter with God actually goes back to the beginning of time.

Somewhere in eternity pass, in the unbeginning beginning, the triune God, in His own infinite wisdom and sovereignty, decided to create Man, to allow him to fall, and to send His only begotten Son to redeem him—all for His glory!

We cannot cover the entire story of redemption, but we can sketch the story of God’s redemption up to this point.

In the fullness of time, God stepped forth from behind the hills of eternity and created the heavens and the earth.

He said,

 

“Let there be light,”

 

and the light which had *no* consciousness or self-will came into being by the sheer power of His personality.

He went on to create all that is in existence, including the plants and animals.

Then God created His masterpiece:  Mankind—and for His own inscrutable, incomprehensible, sovereign purposes He allowed Mankind to fall at the hands of His archenemy, Satan, the serpent himself.

But in the midst of that fall, God prophecies of His ultimate intention.

He says to the serpent in

 

Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Theologians call this the /protevangelium/, /proto/-first, /evangel/-gospel, i.e. the first mention of the Gospel.

There would be warfare between Satan and the seed of a woman, the One who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ.

The principle battle would take place at Calvary, i.e. the cross, and Satan would bruise Christ’s heal in crucifixion—but Jesus Christ would crush Satan’s head in that same event—providing salvation for His children.

That is what today’s narrative is all about.

*It is about Calvary!*

The events of the Exodus are a long way from Calvary, in the space-time continuum, but they are at the center of Calvary in the realm of the Spirit.

*The narrative today is about how God delivered His earthly people, the Israelites, from the harsh bondage of Egypt to preserve the line of the Messiah Jesus Christ and to picture the deliverance of the New Testament gift of salvation.*

But, we also need the background of this encounter of deliverance.

In keeping with His own will and according to His own timetable, God called Abraham from Babylon and gave him fantastic promises.

One of those promises was that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

The word is not plural “seeds,” but singular “seed.”

The seed that God was talking about is Jesus Christ, the genealogical seed of Abraham and the literal seed of a woman, because His Father was God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was genealogically the son of Abraham and heir of the promise.

Matthew proves this through his genealogy, but he asserts it before he recites the genealogy in

 

Matthew 1:1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

In Matthew’s first mention of the genealogy, he skips back from Jesus to David, to Abraham.

Matthew is showing that Jesus Christ was the human son of David, as the Messiah was to be, and not merely a real Jew and the heir of the promises to the nation of Israel, but *the very promise* made to Abraham.

So Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus Christ back to Abraham, while Luke traces his line all the way back to Adam.  *God had Jesus Christ in mind from the beginning!!!  Therefore, God would need to create and preserve Abraham’s seed.*

Well, miraculously, Abraham had a son named Isaac, and God extended the promise to him.

Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau, and God extended the promise to Jacob.

God eventually changed Jacob’s name from Jacob to Israel.

Then Israel had twelve sons, and these twelve sons became the nation of Israel and heir to the literal promises of Jesus Christ.

Okay?

Okay!

Through a long sequence of events, one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, rose to be the second highest leader in the world.

During his reign, Israel, his eleven sons, and his whole house went to live in Egypt.

While they were down in Egypt God blessed them and they multiplied.

Then there arose another Pharaoh that did *not* know Joseph, nor that things that he had done for Egypt.

He feared the Israelites and put them under harsh bondage.

But, “Praise God!” that is *not* the end of the story.

The Israelites began to call upon Jehovah God, because of the harshness of their bondage and God listened to the cries of His people and called Moses to be their Deliverer!

Last week, we touched on Moses’ 40-year leadership course, on the backside of the desert, where God encountered him and commissioned him through a burning bush!

When his course was over, Moses went back to Egypt and began to carry out God’s plan of deliverance.

He initiated ten plagues against Egypt and her gods.

These ten plagues would demonstrate to all the power of the true and living God over and against these false gods!

When these plagues were over, Pharaoh drove Israel out of Egypt.

Egypt was ruined and Israel walked out, through God’s power, with the last remaining riches of this one proud world power.

When Pharaoh saw that Israel was gone, he hardened his heart and God hardened his heart, and he gathered up the army and chariots of Egypt and pursued them.

As they approached the children of Israel, they were hemmed in on both sides by mountains, while Pharaoh was behind them and the Red Sea in front of them.

And when the Israelites saw Pharaoh and his army approaching they were frightened and began to call upon the name of Lord.

\\ Then they began to complain against Moses, and it seems that Moses began to complain to God.

The Bible says in,

 

Exodus 14:15-18, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me?  Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.

And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.

And as for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.”

Then the angel of God that had been in front of the children of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud that had been leading them moved and stood between them.

And they were separated all night.

/(This is where we pick up the story.

Please notice with me Exodus 14:21-31.)/

These Israelites had an encounter with God through His miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea.

They saw and experienced the awesome power of God in deliverance.

·        They saw the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night move and stand between themselves and the Egyptians for protection.

·        They heard the voice of Moses and saw him lift his staff.

·        They felt, upon their faces, the wind that pushed back the Red Sea.

·        They walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, by the power of God, and watched the Egyptians, who tried to do the same thing in their own power, drown.

·        They walked along with hundreds of thousands of others.

In this experience, they encountered God, i.e. they came face-to-face with God.

Moses stated explicitly in

 

Numbers 14:14 (*KJV*), “And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, *that thou Lord art seen face to face*, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.”

*This is a face-to-face meeting with God that could not be totally explained, but it was a meeting with God that had to be fully experienced!*

\\         When this encounter was fully experienced, it brought about a response of genuine worship or celebration, which entailed the remembrance of a redemptive past.

Immediately after the event, Moses and the sons of Israel sang a song, and the song rehearsed and remembered what had just happened.

*Then Miriam and all the women took tambourines and went forth in a dance of celebration.*

And the Bible says in