PRESENTER'S NOTES
One of the very special visions that God provides to us during this Holy Day, the Feast of Trumpets, is that of literal, personal presence of Jesus Christ with us and us with Him as it reminds us of the first resurrection to the salvation of the saints as Jesus returns to earth in power. It will also be His reintroduction to this earth and all of mankind as He carries out His wrath against the spirit of rebellion, to replace corrupt rulership with righteous rulership.
At the same time, you may have been taught that you come before God when you come to services. In certain regards this is true, but where do you figure the Father or Son actually is when we meet on God’s Sabbath and annual Holy Days? Is Jesus literally in this room? How about the Father? Are they personally present? Or trying to be as with Laodicea, Jesus literally standing outside our door right now knocking, wanting to come in? NO, they are not! Either we are going to believe that which is taught in God’s word, or we will not.
Well, if they are not literally here, then where are they?
Let’s go to Hebrews 12:1-2 and read where the writer of Hebrews acknowledges the Father and Jesus to be.
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Peter also affirms this in 1 Peter 3:21-22…
21 There is also an antitype which now saves us––baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
Does that then mean that God is not here at all? After all, no people or persons of the God family are here on earth or in this room.
Well, I declare to you, “God is HERE!!” How, then?
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep[d] My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that (It) may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, (which) the world cannot receive, because it neither sees (It) nor knows (It); but you know (It), for (It) dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Clarifying, literally, each Person of God, The Father, and Jesus is in Heaven. But, God, through the Holy Spirit can be and is present with us even now.
We can go to Galatians to learn that the Spirit is perfect.
Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,[a] before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you[b] as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
So, God’s presence is through the Holy Spirit.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. We could say that the Father or Son might as well be right here because they can hear and see us. They hear our songs of praise and petitions in prayer. They hear our words used to instruct or in fellowship. They see our behaviors. We still go before Father’s throne in this regard, in the figurative sense. But, additionally, that is no less the case when working in the field or kneeling in prayer at home.
As we understand the distinction between God’s personal presence and the presence of God by His Spirit, realizing that at this time it is God’s Spirit in us AND WORKING IN US that puts us in the presence of God, we can start to appreciate the privilege and responsibility of possessing that Spirit.
What I want to emphasize, today, is the assemblage, or compounding, of that presence. God gives us each all the measure of the Spirit that we need to grow and overcome in our daily lives, but God also requires that we come together and learn to be a functional, happy family.
Turn to Ephesians 4…
Ephesians 4: 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you[a] all.
7 But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”[b]
…move on to verse 11.
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
You and I could come to church and scrutinize the frailties real and imagined of our brethren, but for each brother or sister in Christ we do that to, we take our own selves away from the presence of God. If each of us is a begotten child of God, meaning each of us possesses that Spirit, if one sits in judgment of the frailties of another, how can the judger be in the presence of God with that other person, since God IS perfect and has shared the Spirit of God with that person?
Not only will the person judging be focusing on the natural man and not on the Spirit given to that man, the judger will not be utilizing God’s Spirit in him or herself, either. If I can’t come to church searching for the precious, pricelessness of God’s presence by God’s Spirit, how will I ever be able to see the precious, priceless value to God of the flawed individual who houses it?
So, let us be thankful for, grateful for, the FACT that God is present here today, and in far greater concentration of power than God’s presence in each of us individually.
The presence of God is here in this room even though the Father and Son are still in heaven. That presence is by God’s Spirit, not over in one of the chairs not taken, not necessarily in the air we are breathing, for that is not a residence, but in each of us, having come together with our unique personalities, strengths, and even flaws to perform as one body in Christ growing on to perfection by the power of God’s Spirit, as we await the return of our Brother and King, Jesus, the Christ.
