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! Close Encounters Of The God Kind
!
Towards A Biblical Theology Of Dreams
 
 
The whole world seems to be mesmerized with close encounters with aliens.
Accounts of flying saucers and alien abductions abound.
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 felt impressed to use the subject of “Alien Encounters” as a launching pad for our biblical discussion of “Encounters with God.”  So, we are presently involved in a series of messages entitled:  “Close Encounters Of The God Kind.”
Whether you believe in alien “Close Encounters” or not, you must admit that anyone who claims to have had one is changed forever!
Similarly, when a person has a close encounter with the Jehovah God, it is an experience that changes that person’s life forever.
In addition, when a person has a close encounter with a UFO, it cannot be totally explained.
Likewise, when a person truly encounters God, something happens that he~/she cannot totally explain or rationalize.
In the 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 last message, we explored God’s encountering of Jacob through a dream.
We discussed the fact that this church is built upon a dream and the Word of God.
I shared with you the initial dream from God and its ongoing interpretation and application to our church.
In so doing, we talked about developing a theology of experience that would include dreams.
Well, as I began to think about this and decided to take one sermon and take a stab at beginning to develop a theology of dreams.
\\ /(So, let’s begin to do just that.)/
It is *not* enough to merely develop and believe theological propositions, and it is *not* enough to merely experience the person and power of the Holy Spirit without being able to ground those experiences in the Word of God.  *We need a theology of experience that leaves room for legitimate, biblical experience on the basis of the experiences that are recorded in the narratives and history of the Word of God in the light of the didactic or teaching passages of the Word of God.*
At this point in my life, I don’t have the time or the ability to write a complete theology of experience, but God is beginning to lead me in that direction.
I am beginning to put this together in our doctrinal statement with respect to the filling or baptism of the Holy Spirit.
*Let it suffice to say that a theology of experience will be a theology that will set a biblical framework or context for believers in Jesus Christ to experience the person and power of the Holy Spirit.
*Whether we understand it or not and whether we believe it or not, experience plays a major role in the founding, history, and perpetuity of Christianity.
Even though I can’t develop a complete theology of experience at this time, any theology of experience must include a theological perspective on dreams.
As I studied for our last message, I began to develop a biblical theology of dreams.
So, notice the title of this morning’s message, “Towards A Biblical Theology Of Dreams.”
*This is not a complete or even good theology of dreams, it just my first step towards systematizing what the Bible has to say about dreams.*
/(So, let me present that to you this morning.)/
*In the Bible, God spoke to and encountered people through dreams.*
In the Bible, the words for dreams and visions are almost identical and are used interchangeably—the only difference being that visions may occur when one is awake, while dreams and visions occur when one is asleep.
*I believe that God still speaks to and encounters people through dreams.*
To be honest and thorough, I must make you aware of the fact that there are good biblical scholars who would disagree.
They are primarily cessationists, who believe that virtually all spiritual manifestations have ceased.
I believe that I have proved biblically, at least to my satisfaction, on Wednesday nights, that there is *no* biblical statement for that belief.
On the contrary, there are Scriptures that promise certain manifestations until Jesus comes.
Therefore, I believe that God still encounters people through dreams.
This being true, we need to use the Bible as our guide to dealing with dreams, and the Bible should be our guidebook on how to interpret dreams.
Don’t pick up a book on interpreting dreams from the bookstand at the grocery counter, while you are waiting to check out.
*The Bible must be our guide and measuring stick of the things that we experience in our lives.*
\\ /(With this minimum belief, let’s see what we can learn from the Bible.)/
I.
The Prominence Of Dreams In The Old Testament.
Dreams are a prominent part of the Old Testament.
I believe that is because the Old Testament has a great deal more narrative material than the New Testament.
When we come to the New Testament, the historical~/narrative books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts do deal with dreams.
But, the majority of the New Testament books are didactic~/teaching letters written by Paul.
Therefore dreams are *not* mentioned as often.
Be that as it may, we shall cover a Scripture that gives us a New Testament context for dreams.
/(But first, let’s survey some of the places where dreams are prominent in the Old Testament.)/
1.
God warned Abimelech in a dream about Abraham’s wife.
Now we get no indication in the Bible that Abimelech served Jehovah God, but he knew something about God—or at least the God of Abraham—and God spoke to him about His servant!
That is interesting indeed.
2.
God showed Jacob mating techniques in a dream.
When Jacob was tending the flocks of his uncle Laban, who was cheating him, God showed Jacob—in a dream—how to mate the sheep so that they would be certain colors.
God, in a dream, spoke to Jacob about animal husbandry or the science of farming.
3.
God warned Laban in a dream about how he should speak to Jacob.
When Jacob slipped away from Laban to return to his homeland and Laban pursued them because his household gods had been stolen and he believed that all that Jacob had belonged to him, God warned Laban in a dream not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.
It is interesting that in two early situations, in the Bible, God spoke to people in a dream about mistreating His servant!
 
4.
God-given dreams were a very big part of Joseph’s life.
1)      God revealed Joseph’s destiny to him through a dream.
You will remember that sharing that dream with his brothers and his father brought him great suffering.
2)      Joseph’s interpretation of dreams in prison provided a providential audience before Pharaoh.
3)      Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream led him to second in command in Egypt.
Not only did God speak to Joseph through dreams, but also Joseph had a special gift of interpreting dreams.
Although this specific gift is not mentioned in the New Testament, it may fall under the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, or prophecy.
The lists of gifts in the New Testament are ad hoc and not intended to be complete.
5.
God strengthened Gideon through a dream.
God did not have enough faith to believe that God would deliver Israel from the torment of Midian by his hand, so God let him hear a dream the He had given to a Midianite about Midianites’ destruction and this strengthened Gideon.
Once again, God even spoke to unbelievers.
6.
Job said that God speaks to men through dreams.
Job said this in
 
Job 33:14-18, “Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it.
*In a dream, a vision of the night, When sound sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds, Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction,* That He may turn man aside from his conduct, And keep man from pride; He keeps back his soul from the pit, And his life from passing over into Sheol.”
That’s pretty plain!
7.
God approached Solomon through a dream offered to give him whatever he asked.
This is similar to the dream that God has given me concerning me preaching to many people, in a large building, and the Spirit of God visibly moving through the assembly!
8.
Dealing with dreams was also a big part of Daniel’s life.
1)      The Lord worked with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzer in a dream similar to the way He worked with Joseph and Pharaoh.
2)      Daniel also had a special gift for interpreting dreams.
Daniel 1:17, “And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; *Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.*”
\\ Daniel 5:12, “This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, *interpretation of dreams,* explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar.
Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation.”
Sister Johnson has always received from God and has some insight into dreams and visions.
/(Dreams are also found in the historical~/narrative books of the New Testament.
I am not prepared to deal with the prophetic book of Revelation, which has all kinds of unusual happenings.)/
9.
God let Joseph know it was okay to marry Mary through a dream.
You may not know this, but God told me to marry Cathy through a dream!
10.
God warned Joseph about Herod through a dream.
/(Okay.
Let’s turn from our survey of the Bible to:)/
 
II.
God Speaks To His Prophets Through Dreams.
1.
God said that dreams was one the ways that He would speak to His prophets.
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