Glorifying God

Transcript S1E7

Glorifying God

Hi, I'm Tony Kostas, and welcome to the Led Into Love podcast.

I'd like to talk about the glory of God.

You may recall that, at the end of my previous episode, I talked about being a living sacrifice to God – and I said that this is the kind of person through whom God can be glorified.

God wants to be glorified in his people – and when you think of it, the glory of God is one of those terms that's used so much amongst Christians.

I lived in England for many years, and it's incredibly common to see churches – old churches that are all over the country – and the foundation stone of any church that was built kind of in any time over the centuries will start off with the phrase: ‘To the Glory of God’. And men have got all kinds of ideas about what glorifies God, or what ‘the glory of God’ means. 

Again, it's a term that is so commonly used. We sing about it. I remember years ago learning that old hymn: ‘To God Be the Glory, Great Things He Has Done’. But the fact is that if we want to know about the glory of God and we want to know what glorifies God, you can really only find it out from God.

At the start of the previous episode, I took you back to Gethsemane and what Jesus was facing, as the cross was coming very close, and the anguish that He went through when He knew what He was going to have to do to complete the reason why He came into this world.

But before Jesus went to the cross – long before He went to the cross … from the time that He came into this world, even as a baby (but don't forget, that baby was the Son of God being born into this world) – the thing that was in His heart was to glorify God, to glorify His Father.

But if we go ahead – not as far as Gethsemane this time, but a bit before that … but not too far before it – when Jesus was in Jerusalem, facing the fact that before long He was going to be crucified. He knew it was coming. His disciples still didn't get it, no matter how much He tried to explain it to them.

And as things were kind of building, and He knew … He knew that intensity that was building up around him, that expectation from people in Jerusalem, but none of them really knew what was going to happen.

They just knew that this guy had become famous. You remember He made that triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the day that Christians celebrate as Palm Sunday.

But Jesus was feeling the sort of building up of what was ahead of Him. And at one point He said to His Father, “What shall I say? Father, Glorify your name.” And at that point, a voice spoke from Heaven. God spoke, and He said: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” God knew how He would be glorified in what was about to happen in the crucifixion and in the resurrection – and then the birth of the Church that was to follow.

But even before that – because Jesus came … as I talked about in the last episode … He came to do His Father's will. He only had one thing in His heart: to glorify His Father.

Now you might say, “Well, if God is really God and God is who He says he is, and the things we read in the Bible – particularly in the Book of Revelation – about His great glory and His throne and the elders falling at His feet, and the ten-thousand times ten-thousand angels praising Him … well, He gets a lot of glory anyway!

But what I'm talking about, concerning God's glory, is God being seen and known for who He really is. And, like, you can't get your mind around that! I mean, I'm sure that if you've read the Book of Revelation (many of you will have), you know, you start reading and your mind starts to try and create pictures of what John described in words when Jesus gave him that revelation.

And it's interesting that in that Book of Revelation, at the end of that book, it says that it's a prophecy from God that is not anything for anyone to add to or take from. And it's amazing how many people try to add to it, try to enlarge on it, try to expand on it, because they want to try and kind of make the thing live … create it, create word pictures or actual pictures or in some way they might get the graphic reality of that.

But you know that everything that goes on between us and God starts at the very depth of our being.

When you come to know Jesus, you discover Him not from the outside, but from the inside. And everything that God does, that transforms you from a mere human being that didn't know Him, to someone who – if you keep responding to God – who has not just the ability, but is called to glorify God through this human life that we live while we're still living within this body … this body that, as I mentioned before, we're exhorted to offer to God as a living sacrifice. All of that is the work of God's Spirit in and through me.

So let's not talk about, like, some external … some ‘glorifying of God’ that's done on some scale or in some context outside, or away, from me and away from my life.

Let's talk of how God wants to be glorified in your life. Because you have to remember that when Jesus came as a man into this world … when that baby was born … that baby contained the Son of God who was with God in the beginning. The Son of God who had a name above every other name.

The Son of God who knew everything because he's as much God as the Father and the Spirit!

And yet people saw that baby … they saw that boy growing up … they saw that young man. They they heard when He began to preach. They saw his miracles. Some responded. Some loved Him. Some hated Him. Eventually they crucified Him. But this was a human form. And if you think that Jesus was some kind of glamorous character, then you might not know the prophecy in Isaiah that says: ‘He has no form or comeliness that we might desire Him’. 

Jesus was not attractive in a human way. You had to be drawn to what was in Him. And yet that human being that He was in this world had come for one purpose – to glorify God. And He did glorify God. Not just at the end – because as the Father said to Him on that day: ‘I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.’ Because Jesus only lived for God's glory.

So why am I saying this to you? I'm saying it to you because you have the privilege of not only belonging to God … not only being born of His Spirit … not only experiencing God … not only knowing that you have a God who cares for you and loves you … not even so that you can have beautiful times with God and be involved with other people who love God.

You have been brought into God's kingdom – if you have opened your heart to Him – you've been brought into God's kingdom so that you may live for His glory. That's the highest fulfillment of any human being!

Jesus was not at all meant to be a one-off. Jesus did not come into this world to do everything He did and then to become just a historical figure who left enough through what He did so that people could become Christians. People could come into a knowledge of God and get the benefit of what Jesus did on the cross. 

Jesus came into this world so that through His death, through His resurrection – and then after that, God's Spirit would come into this world because He would send the Spirit upon those who believed in Him, from then right through till now – and so that He would continue to be glorified. Not just through one human, but through a whole body of people!

That body, which the Bible calls, the Church – which is not an institution, which is not an organization. It is a living, mystical body of people who are living for God. When I say mystical, I mean it's a spiritual body – because you don't see the body. You might see a bunch of people together. You might see them worshiping. Maybe you're seeing the body or not. But God knows what is going on inside those people. God knows whether He's being glorified in their lives. God's intention is to be glorified in us human beings.

If you remember in the Old Testament, when God got Moses to not only build the tabernacle, but He gave him strict specifications for that. Yes, but He also gave him very strict specifications for the Ark of the Covenant – that impressive piece of furniture. Everything about it, its dimensions and everything – not only on the outside of it, on the inside of it – was exactly as God specified.

But that Ark of the Covenant, when it was transported – and particularly during the 40 years that the Israelites wandered around in the desert – it had to be transported quite a bit because they were nomadic and they moved from place to place. Do you remember how it was transported? It had to be carried on the shoulders of the priests. They didn't touch the Ark itself. At its four corners it had rings, metal rings, through which poles were passed. And the Ark was carried on the shoulders of those priests. Now, the reason why it wasn't trundled around on a cart was because God's glory … and the Ark did represent the glory of God … and when the Ark was in the tabernacle and it was in that Holy Place, the glory of God was there. Only once a year could anyone enter into that place and bear being in the glory … in that glory … of God. That had to be the high priest.

I don't want to digress on that. So, let's come back to the ark being carried on the shoulders of the priests. That glory of God was born on the shoulders of men … carried on the shoulders of men … because God wants always to be glorified in human flesh.

That's why Jesus came into the world. You know, we know, this amazing truth that we Christians, not only … I was going to say believe it – but, you know, not as a religious belief. We know it, the truth of it. It's celebrated at Christmas – but Jesus is not celebrated. But the truth is that Jesus came into this world as God in human flesh. And we think: ‘Wow!’ It's like an amazing thing. But that's what God's always wanted … from the time that He made Adam in His own image … from the time that God breathed into this human form that He created in the Garden of Eden, and breathed the breath of His life into it – the life of God was in a human form … in a human body.

And if Adam and Eve had not disobeyed God, it would have remained like that. Adam and Eve were not meant to become corrupt human beings. They were not meant to have a lifespan. They were meant to live forever. God has longed to be seen and known through humanity. God created us to glorify Him.

Your privilege in being born into this world … to be a human being … is not just ‘another baby was born and it happened to be you’. Your privilege, if you know Him … when you know Him … is not to say ‘being a Christian’ or ‘being one of God's people’. It means a whole lot of things which …which it does mean.

But what is the essence of it – the same essence that was in Jesus and the same essence that was in the purpose of Jesus being brought into this world? The essence of it is that God wants to be glorified in and through your life.

And how can He be glorified in and through your life except in the same way as He was glorified in and through the life of Jesus? And how did that happen?

Because Jesus came for one purpose – not because He was programmed to come for one purpose. Not because He had no choice. As I said – particularly in the previous episode and before that – He had total choice. He had total free will. He came by His total choice, not just to perform something heroic. He came to glorify God as a man – and then leave in this world generation after generation of people who believed in Him in the same way. Who would live as He lived, who would glorify Him!

Now we know if we belong to Him, that one day we'll see His glory. One day we'll see so many things that our human eyes don't see now. But to live within the apparent human limitations of these bodies we live in – these bodies that grow old and die – to live in, not just the limitations, but the difficulties of this world. 

We think that, like, we do pretty well, if we kind of get through that somehow, and come out the other end of it not having done too badly as Christians. But that's not your calling. That's not what you were created for. That's not what Jesus died for. That's not why he responded to your heart's desire for Him!

The reason why, is so that you may have the privilege of being someone who can say to God, just as Jesus did, “Glorify your name. I want my life to be for your glory.”

Paul once wrote some words that, in a way, can almost seem a bit … a little bit more ordinary than what I've just been talking about, when he was talking to … writing to … one of the churches. And he wrote about some of the controversies they had about what they should eat, what they should drink and things like that. And he said, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” Do it all to the glory of God!

God's glory is the reason why we live! So even the most everyday things in our lives take on a whole meaning when all we want is for Him to be glorified in our lives.

Now, you know, when I share these things with you, obviously … you know … you can't see me and I can't see you. And I'd love to be looking at you as I'm talking to you now … like I'd like to be in your presence, so we could … we could talk about this.

But this is what I have on my heart to share. And this is the means that God's given me now to do this. And I love to say this to you, but I'm saying I don't like something that easily happens with God's people – always has happened in the Christian church. And that is, that we talk about something wonderful, and then in everyday life we bring it down to what we can handle. You know, when we make excuses like: ‘well, you can't be too idealistic’ and ‘you've got to be realistic and be careful that you don't go to extremes.’

Imagine if Jesus had that rationale or that mindset: ‘Yeah, I know I've come to glorify my Father. I know I've come to lay down my life for this world and so on. But, like, that's the ideal, but we'll see how it goes. And, you know, you kind of got to be realistic and take things as they come … and I'll do my best.’

And yet, and yet, I've lived long enough, and I've been amongst so many Christians and churches long enough to realize that that actually tends to be – to varying degrees and with varying expressions – but it tends to be pretty well the mindset of most Christians. Like, ‘you shoot for the moon and you hope that you'll hit the treetops’.

Now, that is not what we are called to! And that's why – like Paul in that verse I mentioned before – Iwhy Paul said, “I urge you to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God”.

He didn't say, ‘Oh well, I hope that you'll. You'll do this and at least take this as a bit of encouragement.’ That actually was an expectation of Paul's. It was something that he expected the people that he had brought the gospel to – the people who he had the care of in the churches – not to kind of think, ‘Oh, well, there was Jesus. He was right up there. Paul's pretty much up there too. And we'll do our best to kind of live by the things that Paul tells us.’

There is no difference.

And the other thing I want to say is – that's not a burden, that's a privilege! 

I mean, why live in any other way? Why talk about being Christians or being God's people, unless the only thing you want to do is to give your life to him … to abandon your life to him … to say, ‘I want to do your will’. To say, ‘Glorify your name’.

That's where my heart is. I have no other purpose for my life. Not just because of the age I am now – but that's what I've discovered in knowing Jesus all these years. There is nothing else worth living for. There's no other purpose for any of us. And it's not just for a few people, it's for anyone!

There's a beautiful verse in the Bible – I think it's in Revelation – that says, “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely”.  Like: come … don't just come, go all the way! Let the water of God's life fill your life. Let your life be everything that glorifies Him.

Believe me, there's nothing definitive about this. There's no prescription. There's no ‘how-to’.

But I tell you, if you, from the depths of your heart, tell God and mean it, that you want to glorify Him with your life, and you put your life and keep your life in His hands … you abandon your life to Him … you give up any right you have to yourself in favour of God and what God wants, and never let go of your desire that you keep expressing to Him, that He will be glorified in your life.

And that glorification of God in your life can take so many forms, in so many situations. What you don't need to know … what you will discover … in that glorious adventure of living with God – living with Jesus … knowing them for who they are … knowing our God for who He is – is the wonderful way that He will be able to be glorified in your humanity … through your human flesh. That you will be someone who not only is thankful for Jesus who made all this possible, but who will be a worthy brother of Jesus and a worthy brother of people who live today – and a worthy brother or a sister of many who have lived before.

At the end of Hebrews chapter 11 …in fact, I think it's the start of Hebrews chapter 12 …

after you read that long list of people who did amazing things by faith – many of them who laid down their lives by faith – they're referred to as the cloud of witnesses. And the writer to the Hebrews says, at the beginning of chapter 12: ‘Seeing as we are surrounded by that kind of cloud of witnesses, we've got somewhere to go. We've got a race to run!’ We've got a reason to go all the way with God. Others have lived and died and glorified God before us. We have the privilege of glorifying God today.

Today's world might look very different to what you imagine yesterday's world, and last century's world, and 2000 years ago, was – but essentially it's not.

This is still the world that Jesus came for, and we are still the humanity that inhabit this world – through whom God wants to be glorified.

Let it be so for you. Settle for nothing less!