I am grateful for science. Getting into a hot shower with water pumped into my home, waking to a climate-controlled home in comfort, having an automobile to drive me to work, understanding more about the working of my body so I can enjoy longer life and better health – all these things are the result of scientific inquiry and the development of knowledge! But, I do not worship science because at the limit of human knowledge, there is God, Who is greater, God, the Creator, and Giver of Life.
In my walk with Jesus through the closing chapters of Matthew I came to the story of His encounter with the Sadducees. These men were elites of the day, holding power and wealth. They had a ‘form of godliness while denying His power.’
Here is a part of the text. "That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” (Matthew 22:23-28, NIV)
They came to mock the Rabbi Jesus, to poke holes in His message of hope. These leading men just ‘knew’ that Resurrection life was not possible, that the realm of angels and spirits did not exist. After all, they were enlightened.
But they were wrong because they made a wrong assumption at the beginning of their argument – that life after death is just an extension of the present reality. They were not alone in that error. Many people make fanciful claims about Heaven even today, because they cannot grasp the amazingly wonderful life beyond this temporal one.
Here is how Jesus answered them: “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together." (Matthew 22:29-34, NIV)
My point today is not to try to explain Heaven. I want to ask you, as we approach this holy weekend, to pray for faith, to ask God to give you eyes to see His reality.
Many Christians today are much like the Sadducees having discarded the supernatural, the mystery, the unexplainable, for a ‘faith’ that is subject to the limit of their mind’s ability to reason. They just ‘know’ that certain things could not possibly be true because the god of science has ruled out such things.
It is increasingly popular among Christians to say “I just believe the ‘red letters’” which is a way of saying that they only accept the words of Jesus (which are printed in red letters in some Bibles) as authoritative, discarding large parts of the Scripture. In this claim, they slip into error, and worse, rob their faith of power, of hope, of the compelling truth that God meant for us. It is a tragically misplaced worship of human knowledge that makes God secondary, which is idolatry.
Please know that I am making no brief for ignorance. Many stupid things have been done in the name of ‘faith.’ Some have let their mind rot because they are afraid of rigorous inquiry or too lazy to care about the questions. God is greater than our questions, His Truth able to meet our honest desire to know. IF, however, we come to Him proudly thinking that we can make Him fit into the box we create with our present knowledge, we lose in the end.
I stand humbly before God, first, and before science as well. There are things I do not yet know – either because He has not revealed them to me or because my knowledge is incomplete. So, I allow for the mystery, desiring to know Him, desiring to understand my world, always a disciple and a student.
Will you come to the Cross to gaze on the mystery of Redemption
with me?
How can God become flesh and die for our sins? I believe Him.
Will you hear the story of His Resurrection, and allow the wonder of the event,confirmed by many eye witnesses, to cause you to worship in hope? I believe Him.
The word from the Word is a song of worship. Join in, won’t you?
" For the director of music. According to gittith. A
psalm of David.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your
enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the
seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8, NIV)
_________________
So
Will I (100 Billion X)
(An amazing song of worship. Listen!)
God of creation
There at the start before the beginning of time
With no point of ref'rence
You spoke to the dark
And fleshed out the wonder of light
And as You speak
A hundred billion galaxies are born
In the vapour of Your breath the planets form
If the stars were made to worship so will I
I can see Your heart in ev'rything You've made
Ev'ry burning star a signal fire of grace
If creation sings Your praises so will I
God of Your promise
You don't speak in vain no syllable empty or void
For once You have spoken
All nature and science
Follow the sound of Your voice
And as You speak
A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath
Evolving in pursuit of what You said
If it all reveals Your nature so will I
I can see Your heart in ev'rything You say
Ev'ry painted sky a canvas of Your grace
If creation still obeys You so will I
So will I
So will I
If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in rev'rence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if ev'rything exists to lift You high so will I
If the wind goes where You send it so will I
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I
If the sum of all our praises still falls shy
Then we'll sing again a hundred billion times
God of salvation
You chased down my heart
Through all of my failure and pride
On a hill You created the light of the world
Abandoned in darkness to die
And as You speak
A hundred billion failures disappear
Where You lost Your life so I could find it here
If You left the grave behind You so will I
I can see Your heart in ev'rything You've done
Ev'ry part designed in a work of art called love
If You gladly chose surrender so will I
I can see Your heart eight billion diff'rent ways
Ev'ry precious one a child You died to save
If You gave Your life to love them so will I
Like You would again a hundred billion times
But what measure could amount to Your desire
You're the One who never leaves the one behind
Benjamin Hastings | Joel Houston | Michael Fatkin
- © 2017 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) CCLI License # 810055
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