Sermon Tone Analysis

! Close Encounters Of The God Kind

!

A Close Encounter

!

Through Miraculous Passage Into The Promised Land

Joshua 4:1-11

 

 

Nearly one third of the people of this great nation of ours say they believe “somewhat” in UFOs.[1]

Consequently, I felt impressed to use the subject of UFOs as a launching pad for our biblical discussion of “Close Encounters Of The God Kind.”

In first three sermons in this series, we worked hard to develop a technical 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 how intellect *sometimes* keeps us from wholeheartedly worshipping God.

We then began to explore twelve “Close Encounters Of The God Kind,” using the definition that we developed.

We have explored God encountering Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the woman at the well, Peter, James, and John, and the two Mary’s on resurrection morning.

/(Today we move to our next “Close Encounter Of The God Kind.”)/

Although we have been moving through these encounters in biblical order, i.e. according to their place in the biblical record, today I want to backtrack to the Old Testament.

We have basically covered encounters with God before Pentecost.

Pentecost is such an important encounter with God that before we deal with it we want to backtrack and deal with its Old Testament antitype, i.e. the Old Testament picture of Pentecost.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that the Children of Israel were examples for us in the things that happened to them, so that we should *not* crave evil things.

It is generally accepted among Bible scholars that the Children of Israel are examples to Christians in far more than that.

Their deliverance from Egypt represents salvation.

Their wandering in the wilderness represents a certain portion of the Christian journey.

These things being true, what does the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land represent?

\\ /(Well, let’s see if we can answer that question in our covering of this encounter.)/

First, let’s cover a few of the details of the Israelites crossing of the Jordan River.

The passages of Scripture describing this event are rather long, so allow me to narrate the event and read the passage that I want to elaborate on.

Even though the children of Israel had miraculously crossed the Red Sea and were followed by water underground as they wandered in the wilderness, it was not God’s desire for them to wander in the wilderness for forty (40) years.

When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, they were only a two-week’s journey from the Promised Land—but the children of Israel did not have faith that God could deliver the land into their hands.

So, they were sentenced to wander in the wilderness until every adult of that generation died out, except Joshua and Caleb, who were the only two men who expressed faith in God’s ability to give them the Promised Land.

So, after their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and the death of Moses, Joshua is now ready to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.

The Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of Jehovah God, was carried by the priests into the Jordan River—at the request of Joshua by direction of God.  *When the priests stepped into the Jordan River, something miraculous happened.*

The waters of the Jordan congealed and stoop up in a heap and stopped flowing.

Perhaps the water looked like quivering Jell-O?

The priests then stood in the middle of the Jordan, on dry ground, until all of the children of Israel crossed the Jordan.

Certainly this was “A Close Encounter Of The God Kind.”

 

·        As the waters congealed at the Red Sea, so they did at the Jordan River.

·        As the children of Israel were miraculously delivered from Egypt and into the wilderness, so they were miraculously delivered from the wilderness into the Promised Land.

·        As they walked on dry ground through the Red Sea, so they walked on dry ground through the Jordan River.

At the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses compiled a song that stated in

 

Exodus 15:8, “And at the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.”

Moses painted a beautiful, anthropomorphic picture of God congealing the waters of the Red Sea by the blast of His nostrils.

Wouldn’t this picture also be appropriate of the action of God at the Jordan River?

It is not specifically stated, but why not?

At any rate, the Children of Israel came face-to-face with God through their miraculous passage into the Promised Land.

*They saw God face-to-face in His miraculous power!*

 

\\ /(Now what was their genuine response of worship?)/

Well, this is what I want to center on.

Notice with me please Joshua 4:1-11.

This encounter is a somewhat different than that ones that we have been exploring.

In those encounters, we have been exploring naturally occurring responses to the encounters.

*In this encounter the worship response is orchestrated and commanded by God.*

 

/(What are we to make of this?)/

I believe that this encounter with God was so important that God did not leave the response totally up to the Israelites.

*He prescribed the worship response that He wanted from the Israelites, for their own benefit, for the teaching that would benefit future generations, and for His own glory.*

The response had to do with taking twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and setting them up as a memorial or worship marker to remind them, and their children, forever, of the miracle that God performed at the Jordan River.

*The word “memorial” is also used in God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt.*

In that marvelous deliverance, it was *not* stones but the day that was to be the memorial.

God said to the Israelites in

 

Exodus 12:14, “Now this day will be a *memorial* to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.”

Even as God prescribed and commanded the worship at the Red Sea, so He prescribes and commands the worship at the Jordan River!!!

 

/(But that’s not all!)/

They also took twelve stones from the Promised Land and placed them in the middle of the Jordan River.

When the Jordan River returned to its riverbed, these stones were covered forever in the Jordan River.

We shall seek to understand this in a few moments.

/(Let’s begin to explore the meaning of this stone memorial.)/

This worship memorial would bring about the remembrance of the redemptive past and a conviction of a liberated future.

The memorial was to remind them forever about what God had done.

No doubt, this memorial also gave them a conviction of a liberated future.

*They were convicted or convinced that that God who had miraculously brought them across the Jordan River would go before them in battle, as they fought enemies to recapture lost territory.*

\\         This response of worship over-recorded the intuitive tapes of their core belief.

Forty years earlier they doubted that anyone, even God, could help them overcome their impressive enemies in the Promised Land, but now they were ready to do battle with their enemies under the banner and through the power of Jehovah-Nissi, whose compound name means “The Lord our banner.”

God is a banner of protection to His people!

 

/(So, what does this say to us?)/

I believe, along with others, that the crossing of the Jordan River represents what happened at Pentecost, in Acts 2.  So, I want to talk about a few of the large features and typologies of the crossing of the Jordan River.

/(Before I begin this study, I want you to hear me closely.)/

I am *not* talking about anything Pentecostal, i.e. anything have to do with spiritual manifestations—tongues in particular.

I am talking about the kingdom perspectives of Pentecost, as it relates to the crossing of the Jordan River.

I want to talk about some of the large features of what happened at Acts 2.

 

/(So, with that disclaimer, let me get started.)/

Acts 2 is “the dawning of the new age that was signaled by Pentecost.”[2]

It is here that Peter’s quotation of Joel’s prophecy becomes so significant.[3]

Acts 2:16-17, “But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:  ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all MANKIND; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams.’”

Joel talked about a new age that he called “the last days.”

Peter identified Joel’s “last days” with what had just happened at Pentecost.

So*, what happened in Acts 2 was the dawning of a whole new age.*

This new age is the dawning of the kingdom that Jesus taught and prophesied about.

Some are confused about this because they don’t understand the *now* and *not yet* manifestation of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God has a present manifestation and a future manifestation.

The kingdom of God has already begun, but it will not be consummated until the future.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, was a present manifestation of the kingdom, but Jesus, the King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of princes will be a final manifestation of the kingdom.

\\         “According to all four Gospels, John the Baptist predicted that Jesus the Messiah would usher in this new age:  /He/ would baptize his people in the Holy Spirit.”[4]

I am *not* discussing what this baptism is or how it is shown, but what it initiated.

So, I am merely pointing out that what happened on the Great Day of Pentecost was the dawning of a new era or age in the sovereign workings of God.

 

/(Now let’s look at several typologies.)/

·        Jordan was the line of demarcation between wilderness wandering and entrance into the Promised Land.

·        Acts 2 is the line of demarcation between wilderness wandering and entrance into the spiritual Promised Land of abundant Christian living.

*God wants to encounter us for the purpose of miraculously providing a way for us into the Promised Land of abundant Christian living!*

 

¨      God does not want us wandering through wilderness of Christianity.

¨      God does not want us living beneath our privilege as sons and daughters of the most high God.

¨      God does not want us to remain in a barren, wandering, thirsty experience of Christianity.

That is never what God had in mind for us.

¨      God had in mind, from the beginning, a short journey through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.