Not of the World
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When you go to a foreign country, you are immediately struck with how different the people are from yourself. The further from your native culture you are, the stranger it will seem. These differences are not just the surface level stuff; the food, the housing, the clothes. It goes down into values, ethics, political mindsets, religions, philosophies, even view on the nature of reality differ from place to place.
Now if you go as a tourist, you enjoy the different ways of life for the week or two you are there to see it. If you are an immigrant, you begin to figure out how to assimilate yourself to the people there, although you likely will never completely forget the ways of where you came from. But generally, the faster you can learn the language and adapt yourself to the culture, the easier it will be to live in your new home.
The difficulty that Christians have in the world is that we are called to live in it, and even to adopt many of the outward pieces of the cultures in which we live, and yet not be of it. We eat the same food, work at the same places, and are very much like others around us in outward, shallow ways. But the glaring difference between us and the world is shown when we refuse to belong here, or identify ourselves with this world and age. Just as God desired Israel to stay separate from the Canaanite people and the Egyptian nation, Christians hold an eternal national identity with the Kingdom of heaven that makes it impossible for us to ever truly belong anywhere else. This is the paradox of being in the world but not of the world.
Going in to Come Out Again
Going in to Come Out Again
Last week we saw how God led Jacob out of the promised land and into a land that he had previously disciplined Abraham for going into and forbidden Isaac to go into, even during famine. We saw how it was God’s will for Jacob to go into the world, although he was called not to become of that nation. He and his descendants were to keep themselves from becoming one people with the Egyptians like he had almost become one people with the citizens of Shecum by giving Dinah in marriage to them. Jacob would be in a foreign land, but a foreign land that was, nonetheless, under the authority of his son Joseph. Jacob would be far from the land that God had promised him, but he would go with the promise that God would be with him. Although he was leaving, he had the assurance that God would one day lead his posterity out of the promised land.
In our text today, we get an account of those who went into Egypt. We are told that the entire family of the covenant goes into Egypt, none are left in the promised land. They are all led into a country that represents a foreign and even hostile composure to them and their God so that the Egyptians would not even eat with them. While Pharoah accepts them with open arms at the beginning, years will go by and the Egyptians will begin to notice that the Israelites have no intention of becoming Egyptians. This fosters a suspicion towards them. Who are these who live in Egypt and yet are not Egyptian? Why will they not give up their old identity as nomads living in the land of Canaan and embrace the nationalistic identity of being an Egyptians. This likely led to the genocide and enslavement that we see at the beginning of the book of Exodus.
Exodus 6:14-27
Exodus 6:14-27
If you look ahead to Exodus chapter 6:14-27 you will see a list very similar to that in our text in this chapter. It proves the purity of the people of God by refusing to become lost in the Egyptian people. A clinging onto the promises of God kept them from being absorbed into a worldly society until it was time to be led away from the world and into the promised land.
Last week we saw how important it is to be in the world when God goes with us. Just like Jacob, we are led into a foreign and worldly place out of obedience to God so that we may faithfully walk in him and display him to the world that God is still reaching out to with his grace and mercy. It was God who showed Egypt his great power through Joseph, now he would have his people stay and show them this God that had saved them.
What should stand out to us when we compare our text today with the text in Exodus 6 is that they are virtually identical. This does a few things in terms of how this story unfolds to us as we read it.
It establishes unity in the story. The author is very carefully trying to make sure we understand that the story being told here is the same story told in Exodus. There is a direct connection that reminds us that Jacob doesn’t go into Egypt and is never heard from again. God’s promise to bring them out of Egypt will be realized and all we need to do to see it realized is keep reading into the book of Exodus.
It establishes Israel’s purity from Egypt. Israel did not have the freedom to intermarry into other nations because of the danger that they would lose their national identity, an identity that was founded on the promises of God. Because God had made a promise Abraham and his offspring, those offspring cannot lose their identity into becoming Canaanites or Egyptians or anything else. God is making a holy people for himself. This is a holy identity is not based on culture or race, since Gentiles like Ruth are accepted into the family of God. The Holy Identity is based on following God and believing his promises by faith. If Israel becomes one people with the Egyptians, they will lose the identity they gain through their heritage.
It establishes God’s faithfulness. Even while God’s people were in a foreign land under immense pressure and persecution, God’s presence remained with them. Although Ezekiel 20:7 suggests that the Israelites had fallen into idolatry with Egyptians gods, God had kept them from losing their national identity so that he could bring them out of the land and into the promised land in due time.
if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
Waiting For God to Lead them Out
Waiting For God to Lead them Out
Since we know that God has led us into the world as he led his people into Egypt, and since we know that remains faithfully with us during all that time, and since we know that God will keep his church until the end, what should be doing in the meantime? We wait.
Waiting Faithfully
Waiting Faithfully
First, we wait faithfully. This can be expounded in two ways,
We wait faithfully holy
Waiting in a state of remaining holy is key to being faithful to the one who leads us in the world. In remaining holy, I mean that as we wait we remain completely and totally devoted to God. It means that we live as citizens of the Kingdom of God although for a short time we dwell in these lesser kingdoms of men.
To be holy means that in how we live, in what we value, in what we want to accomplish, in what we love, in what we believe, and in how we communicate the glory of God and the Name of Jesus Christ is always at the centre of it. To be holy simply means to act like a citizen of heaven even while on earth in this age. This way we distinguish ourselves as those under the blood of Christ who will have the angel of death pass over and will experience the salvation of God.
We wait faithfully active
But remaining holy is not the only part of waiting faithful. Think of the parable of the servant who buried his talent. He did not wastefully spend his master’s money, but he was punished nonetheless because of his inactivity with that money. God leads us into the world for a purpose, and those who are faithful to God and love his ways are going to be eager to make that purpose and invest all they have into it so that they may rejoice in a full harvest on the last day.
Waiting for God’s Timing
Waiting for God’s Timing
Second, we wait for God’s timing. Look at Paul’s words in
I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
The only way to be obediently in the world, while we obediently remain holy in the world is to wait with a holy expectation for God’s timing.
Waiting for God’s timing means putting no stock in worldly goods, reliefs, and goals.
Waiting for God’s timing means finding meaning in the present age of suffering. Our time in Egypt, the world, is no longer than it must be, nor is it shorter than God means for it to be.
Don’t look for heaven here. Christians can not see this life as a good life, but rather one of humility before God as we prepare for the good life.
Christians should also not be pessimistic about living in this world. We are here on God’s timing with God’s presence. Every trial, persecution, suffering, and temptation is the result of living in this fallen world, but that does not make our lives here miserable.
In this life we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
In this life we have the sweet fellowship of the church.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
In this life we have a foretaste of blessings and glories to come.
In every good thing.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
In sweet experiences of grace in the presence of Christ.
The puritans spoke often of the sweetness of coming into the presence of Christ in private prayer and meditation. For them, it was a small taste of the throne-room of God where they beheld his glory, felt his love, and admired Christ with felt devotion. These experiences are important for us. They serve as little pieces of the joys of paradise, crumbs from the table at which we will one day feast. The Christian who ignores these sweet times of communion will quickly forget the future life they are waiting to live.
The same must be emphasized in the fellowship of the church, which is also a sweet experience of the presence of Christ and the joys of heaven.
Waiting for God’s Appointed Leader
Waiting for God’s Appointed Leader
This leads us to what exactly we are waiting for. Just as the Israelites were waiting for God to raise up a man to lead them out of the hardships of Egypt into the joys of the promised land, the prophets waited for a day when a leader of God’s people would be raised up liberate them from the captivity of their own hearts to sin and trusting in themselves and their own supposed powers. Now we, as God’s people, wait for the return of our Messiah, the man Christ Jesus, the appointed Leader of God’s people.
Christ is the leader who separated us from the world.
The parallels to Moses are important to keep in mind. Like Moses, Jesus is the one who came into the world in order to redeem us from it. The people of God needed a leader who could separate them from the world so they could be wholly devoted to God like they were made to be.
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Christ is the leader who gives us the ability to remain holy in the World.
Once of the biggest problems with Israel in the OT is that, even when they were in the promised land, somehow they kept defaulting to worldliness rather than holiness. This all changed with the coming of Christ.
Christ is the leader who overcomes the world.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Christ is the leader who will lead us out of the world and into a new one.
For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
We are that house of God, and the Kingdom is being built in our hearts by that great architect Christ Jesus. He leads us out of the land not only to bring us into a new one, but to build us into a new one. A new race, a new Kingdom, a new people for a new age.
While We Wait
While We Wait
Knowing that Christ is a good leader who is not only coming to take us to heaven in the future, but came already to begin leading us through the land of Egypt, through the wilderness of Sinai, and eventually into the promised land, we can have confidence while we wait. But should we do while we dwell in this foreign world? How can we make sure that while we are in the world we will not be of the world.
Remain with our leader, Christ, walking as he walked in the world.
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Endure suffering and hardship righteously.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
Display the God of our deliverance to those who have yet to be delivered.
As Charles Spurgeon said, be a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We remain here to do the work of Christ and his work was to preach the Gospel (Mark 1:17), gather the lost sheep of God’s physically chosen people (Matt 10:6) and go into the world to bring that Gospel to the sheep who were chosen from eternity all around the world (Matt 28:19; John 10:16)
Live for tomorrow, not for today.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
With that, I hope you see clearly what it means to live in the world and yet not be of it. It means to abide in Christ, the true vine. It means to find your identity, your life, your joy, your hope, your security, your salvation, and all that you are and value in him. It mean to, in your heart, sell all you have into the hands of God to do what he will with it. It means to hate those you love compared to the love you have for God. It means Being with Christ and in Christ during your short stay in this world.