Today I introduced a series of workshops at my church with a sermon about how a person comes to know God. This sermon looks at how Greek thinking may have influenced the way Christians approach knowing God and suggests we need to return to a Hebraic approach. My thoughts aren’t original but they have taken my own relationship with God to an exciting place and by God’s grace they might do the same for you?! See below to find out!
Sue Redman – July 27, 2009
If I was to ask you if you approach knowing God more like a Greek or a Hebrew, and there has to be a Facebook application for this 
, what would you say? Do you think you have been more influenced by Greek or Hebraic thinking when it comes to knowing God?
To help you answer that question, let me ask you some other questions . . .
How did the Greeks approach knowing anything?
- reason and analysis
- systems and theories
Were the Greeks more concerned with theory or practice?
- theory
Who were the most esteemed in Greek communities?
- those who knew the most
- those who could teach the best
In what ways do you think the Christian Church may have been influenced by Greek thinking?
- replaced an emphasis on faith and obedience with reason and analysis
- replaced an emphasis on a living relationship with God with knowledge about God
- esteemed those who knew the most about God and could teach the best instead of those who had a living relationship with God and were being changed into His likeness
I don’t know about you but from what I’ve read I’ve come to believe the Christian Church has been hugely impacted by Greek thinking and the reason I bring this to the floor this morning is because I want us to think about how we come to know God and whether or not our understanding of this is actually biblical.
Before I go there however, I want to tell you that 10 years ago when I finished my Theology degree I was as “Greek” as anyone else. I loved academia; wanted to become an academic. Even before I was a tertiary student I had a serious hunger for knowledge. Intelligence, knowledge, competence, these were the things I valued. And yet what I have learnt in the last 10 years is that a knowledge of God is not what saved me. Knowing about God does not now change me. Philosophising about who God is is not God’s picture of heaven and I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me so I can show you what is.John 17 as some of you may know, is a record of Jesus’ prayer just before He was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and verse 3 is where we find Jesus telling us what eternal life is all about. John 17:3 is where we are reading from . . . “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” “. . . this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
What this verse tells me is that knowing God, not knowing about God, is the reason Jesus came to this earth. Knowing God, not knowing about God, is what heaven is all about. Yes we need knowledge about God and I still love knowledge about God! Yes we need the Scriptures, the eternal truths of the Scriptures. But what does Jesus say about the Scriptures in John 5:39-40? “You pour over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about me. And you are not willing to come to me that you might have life.”
I don’t know if there’s anyone here this morning who could tell us what the Scriptures say about God but they are still struggling to have a meaningful relationship with Him? I don’t know if there’s anyone who could give us a Bible study on who God is but they’re still not sure they can trust Him enough to surrender their all?
In all honesty I believe many Christians are like this. My perception is that many Christians are stalled or dissatisfied in their Greek influenced relationships with God because they know enough about God to know they’re missing out on something but they don’t know what it is or how to find out. These people know God loves them because the Bible tells them so, but as much as they might want to they couldn’t honestly say they love Him with all their heart and soul and mind and they are confused and/or frustrated by the missing link.
Let me tell you about the Hebrews – and those of you who were at our 2004 Spiritual Retreat or have since read Experiencing God may know where I’m going with this. What the Hebrews knew and what we may need to learn is that we come to know God by doing His will. Doing God’s will is how we move from knowing about God to personally knowing Him, and I will illustrate with a story about Abraham.(1)
I imagine most of you know the story about God testing Abraham on Mt Moriah but let’s read it again this morning anyway. Genesis 22:1-14,
“After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on the mountain that I shall show you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had showed him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.
“When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an alter there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide,’ as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’”
Here we have the well known story of God testing Abraham. Known as a man of faith, known as a friend of God, Abraham, we can be sure, knew more about God than we do and he knew God provided, but what do we find in this story, theory or practice? When Abraham acts on his knowledge about God, his knowledge that God provides, what happens? He experiences God’s provision right? When Abraham surrenders his all and follows God in faithful obedience, he moves from knowing about God to personally knowing God, from knowing God provides to knowing God as his Provider, and how easy do you think it would have been at this point for Abraham to respond to God with love?
In case that’s too extreme an example, let me share one from my own life and this is one I usually share at least once a year so our new members know why I am where I am and I do what I do. The long story short is that at the end of 2003 when I was praying about God’s will for 2004, I had this major impression that God wanted me to come to Chatswood Church but I needn’t be afraid (which He obviously knew I was!) because He would be my Senior Pastor and I would be His assistant.
I’m not sure why I forget that sometimes and I not only run ahead of God but I stress unnecessarily, but anyway, the good bit is that God has been completely faithful to His promise and a more recent example was earlier this year before a Communion Service. I had been praying that week about what I should preach about that Sabbath and I was convicted out of seemingly nowhere that I should preach from the first chapter of The Desire of Ages which I have to confess I thought was a little simple at the time.
That Friday however, I was sick and wasn’t able to finish my sermon which of course I started to stress about. But there and then, again I fully believe God spoke to me and this time from Philippians 1:6 which says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” and I took courage.
The next morning, which was Sabbath, I obviously didn’t have a lot of time to work on my sermon so I decided I would just explain what the Communion Service is all about which is something I rarely do because I presume most people already know, but get this . . . That Sabbath there was a guy at our church who had not only never been to our church before but had never had Communion explained to him and he was so moved by the whole thing he said he wanted to come back again the next week!
I’m still not sure if he has ever come back but I believe this is another example of God being faithful to His promise to be my Senior Pastor and I not only thank Him for that but also for giving me an insight into who those words might have been for that day.
Can you see how it is as we act on God’s will that we move from knowing about God to personally knowing Him? If I had never put my trust in God and come to Chatswood Church, I would not be personally experiencing Him as my Senior Pastor now which I have to say is sending my love for Him through the roof!
As I said earlier, my relationship with God has seriously shifted in the last 10 years and most significantly in the last five and a half since I have come to Chatswood Church. As I have moved from knowing about God to personally knowing Him better, my Greek influenced approach to Christianity has become more and more Hebrew and I now, with the Apostle Paul, want to know nothing more than Jesus Christ and Him crucified! As humbling as it may be from a worldly perspective, again with the Apostle Paul, I no longer seek to proclaim the mystery of God in lofty words “but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith may not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
What I live for today is to inspire others to also surrender their all to Jesus so they too can live the abundant life that He has promised (John 10:10), and that’s why this afternoon I will be starting four workshops on how a person comes to know God. These workshops are designed to help make your relationships with God more real and to do that we will explore 1. what it means to surrender, 2. how we come to know God’s will, 3. the need for faith if we want to know God, and 4. the need for obedience. The workshops will start at 2.30pm here at the church and you can either bring your own lunch and eat in the hall with me or just come in time for the meeting.
If per chance you are 1 of the 15 people who have already done these workshops and you want to come again, by all means! As far as I’m concerned this topic will always be relevant for Christians so even though the content may not have changed significantly since you last did it, you may have and this will give you an opportunity to apply the Scriptural principles in a different context.
Just in closing, can I tell you one more time that God is desperate for you to know Him personally! He doesn’t want to be some distant God, defined as a force or a higher being. He has done and is doing everything He can to be a part of your all day everyday and if you let Him, I can promise you that He will take you on the most exciting adventure you could ever imagine!
If you haven’t already given your life to Jesus, can I encourage you to think about it. If you have, can I encourage you to seek out and do His will in every area of your life!
Endnotes
(1) Blackaby, Henry and King, Claude V. “Experiencing God,” (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994). This book is available from Koorong or Adventist Book Centres.
