The Mystic Union: God Lives With You
Bible Passage:
John 14:15-23
Pastor:
Pastor Mike
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Sermon Date:
2010-07-31
What if God was your roommate? What if one day the doorbell rang and there waiting on the front step was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, suitcases in hand? That day would be a bit…different, wouldn’t it? If God the Father sat at your dinner table for your famous grill cheese sandwiches; if the Holy Spirit pulled up a chair and checked Facebook with you; if Jesus kicked up his feet and watched CSI on your couch. If God lived with you, what would be different about your life?
A lot. Think of the answers you’d get to your spiritual questions if God was right there. You and Jesus are watching T.V. and you ask, “What is heaven like?” And Jesus’ eyes light up. “Heaven? Like a feast with people from everywhere. Like a new city with no more pain or death or crying…Like…no, your mind can’t even conceive what God has prepared.” You think about his words until the news comes on. “Okay, Jesus. What about these terrorists? Why do so many wicked people get away with it?” “Get away with it?” Jesus jumps in. “The wicked will not get away with it. They will be thrown into the eternal fire. But I am patient. I want all people to repent and be saved.” Just think of that! If God lived with you, things would be different. You’d have answers to your questions.
If God lived with you, you’d probably take sin more seriously, too. As you’re about to send that gossip-filled email, you look at the Holy Spirit and see the anger in his eyes. In that moment, you realize how much God loves to protect reputations and how much he hates words that destroy them. Or sitting at the kitchen table, writing checks. You pay for the cable and the cell phone and the Home Depot trip and the new school clothes and the car payment and God the Father waits for the check to help others, to help his Word spread, to show your generosity. You meet his burning eyes and understand how he can’t stand selfishness and greed. If God lived with you, things would be different. You’d take sin seriously.
And if God lived with you, you’d understand how much he loves you. The moment you expect him to grab his things and leave or let you have it for your sin, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sit down with you. The Father nods to his Son and Jesus extends his hands. And two things demand your attention. The holes where the nails were driven. Reminders of the cross where Jesus took our place and suffered the wrath of God for our sin. But just past those holes, on the palms of Jesus’ hands, is a tattoo. Jesus places his palms together so you can read what’s written. It’s your name. The Holy Spirit speaks, as he spoke through a prophet long ago, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” And you realize how great God’s love is! God wrote down your name so you would know forgiveness is yours. The Holy Spirit wrote down these words so we would not doubt his unconditional love. If God lived with you, things would be different. You’d grasp the depth of his love.
And if God lived with you, you wouldn’t worry as much. Every day, you sneak glances at those holes, your name, that love, and realize God cares more than you’ll ever understand. Then you look out your kitchen window and watch flowers grow, rain fall, lightning flash, the sun rise and you realize your roommate created all that. So with love and power like that, why worry about anything? You reheat some leftovers and tell the Holy Spirit about another day without a job. You pour a glass of 2% for Jesus and show him the checkbook. You bring God the Father with you to the doctor. And every time, God smiles, “My grace is enough. In all these things I am working for your good.” You realize the uselessness of worry. God is here, so what’s the worst that could happen? If God lived with you, things would be different.
Perhaps you’ve read the classic book Pilgrim’s Progress. In it, a traveler named Christian and his friend Hopeful decide to rest from their journey and lay down for the night. But they don’t realize they’ve trespassed onto the property of a giant named Despair. The giant rises early to inspect his grounds and finds the two travelers fast asleep. Waking them with his gruff voice, Giant Despair takes them captive and drags them to his castle where he throws them in his dungeon. For four days Christian and Hopeful lay without food or light or hope of escape. One morning, the giant appears with a club in his hands and beats them without mercy. The next day, he appears again, this time with an offer, “Since you will never get out of here alive and I will not spare you of suffering, why not take your own lives?” The giant closes the door, leaving the two to consider the offer. When he returns, the travelers refuse. Filled with rage, he beats them again and leaves them to suffer. But late that same night, Christian and Hopeful pray for hours. But then Christian shouts in amazement, “What a fool! What a fool I am to lie here in this stinking dungeon when I have the key! Around my neck is a key called Promise, which will open any door in this castle!” And taking the key from his neck, Christian opens the cell door. That very night, the two travelers escape from their suffering and the Giant Despair.
Sometimes the answer is right there. A key called Promise hanging around your neck. If God lived with you, you wouldn’t forget about his promises. You wouldn’t despair. You wouldn’t worry. If God lived with you, things would be different.
Yes, life would be radically different if the true God lived with you. But, friends, here’s the thing—he does! God does lives with you. That’s the biblical teaching we call the “mystic union.” God lives with and in his believing people.
Listen again to the shocking words Jesus from John 14. “15If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." 22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" 23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
God lives with us! “The Spirit of truth…will be in you.” “I [Jesus] will come to you.” “I [Jesus] am in you.” “My Father and I will make our home with you.” In this mystic, mysterious way, the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—unites himself to his people. And that makes everything different.
That difference begins at our conversion, the moment we believe Jesus is our Savior. At that instant, when you first believed the gospel through preaching or reading or baptism, God chose to make his home with you. And from that moment on, nothing has been the same.
Since God lives with us, we have answers to our spiritual questions. Jesus promised, “[The Father] will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth.” The Holy Spirit is our counselor, leading us to God’s answers to our questions. 1 Corinthians 2 adds, “We have received the Spirit… that we may understand what God has freely given us.” Instead of thinking the cross is foolishness, we understand it is our salvation and the answer to the problems of sin, guilt, and hell. The Holy Spirit, living in us, allows us to believe that.
But beware! The mystic union doesn’t mean you need to “journey within yourself to find the truth” as false eastern religions will tell you. “Do what you feel is right. Discover your own truth within you,” they say. Buddhism and Hinduism encourage us to seek peace and tranquility so that we can find the truth that is within us. Eckhart Tolle tells us to do the same through personal meditation. Tolle wrote A New Earth in 2005, one of Oprah’s books of the month, which has sold over 5 million copies. Yoga is based on the same idea. The word ‘yoga’ comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “to unite.” Yoga’s goal is to control the mind so that we can experience freedom and unite ourselves to the truth.
But Jesus doesn’t like that. He hates Buddhism and Hinduism and Oprah’s false teaching because they turn us inward to ourselves instead of outward to the Word of God. The mystic union is not God’s encouragement to search your feelings for truth and freedom. No, it’s God living in you, pointing you to the Scriptures for the truth. Jesus stresses that here. “15If you love me, you will obey what I command…21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” If you want answers, read the Bible. Know it. Study it. Meditate on it. God lives with us. So we want to find answers in his Word. That makes everything different.
And since God lives in us, we want to fight against sin. Romans 8 says, “You are not controlled by the sinful nature if the Spirit of God lives within you.” Since God lives within us, we don’t have to sin. You don’t have to be greedy anymore. Cut the first check to help others, to spread the gospel. And you don’t have to hurt others’ reputations anymore. Edit the emails before you send them. Think through the words before you speak them to your spouse. You don’t have to sin sexually anymore—No more living together. No more pornography. No more affair. No more excuses. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, “Flee from sexual temptation…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?...You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Since the Holy Spirit lives with us, we remember the price Jesus paid to rescue us, and we want to fight against sin. Things are different now.
And, finally, we don’t have to worry. The Almighty God is not somewhere out there, hopefully checking in every few weeks. He is here, within us. The Cherokee Indians have a rite of passage for boys to become men. A father brings his son deep into the wilderness. When they are far from home, the father sits the boy down on a stump and blindfolds him. If the boy is able to endure the night alone, not shouting in fear or taking off the blindfold, he will become a man. So the father leaves. The long night begins. The boy’s head turns with every sound. He jumps with every rustling of the leaves, every animal call. But he leaves the blindfold on. Early in the morning, when the sun peeks over the trees, the boy takes off the blindfold, proud to have passed the test. And that’s when he sees his father, silently sitting just a few feet away. He had been there the whole night. Although the boy couldn’t see him, there was nothing to worry about.
We can’t see our Father. Or his Son. Or the Spirit. But the mystic union reminds us they are not far from us. They have not left us alone. They are right here. There is nothing for us to worry about.
So, fellow “temples of God”, don’t be afraid. Fight against sin. Know you are loved. Find answers in the Word. The mystic union is true. God lives in you. And that makes everything different. Amen.
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