Series: Make All Things New
TEXT: Exodus 2:23-3:15
MESSAGE: “When God Shows Up”
Our vision as a church is to be a church for our city that seeks new life in Jesus
“Real revival is the intensification of the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit. The ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit are conviction, conversion, assurance, and sanctification. When those operations are intensified across a church, denomination, city, or country, you’ve got revival.” — Timothy Keller
What happened when God showed up in Moses’ life? He experienced the God of…(1. Impeccable Timing 2. Improbable Testimonies 3. Inconceivable Callings)
- Impeccable Timing (v. 2:23-3:3)
“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
“Forty years on and Moses was still a shepherd. The Hebrew of 3:1 involves a verbal form which stresses continuance, fully endorsing the use of the word ‘still’ and justifying the statement that ‘God is not in our kind of hurry’. This does not indicate any delaying or dithering on God’s part. He wanted a shepherd for his people, so his chosen man had to learn how to look after someone else’s sheep! In other words, Moses too had his period of probation and of undeclared discipline and training. Did he know that the hand of God was secretly shaping his destiny? If he did, he does not tell us so, but he certainly had to learn the lesson of being faithful in the ordinary humdrum routine of everyday life.” — Alec Motyer
“The messenger spoke as God not simply for God. This is what theologians call a “theophany,” an appearance of the invisible God. Many throughout church history, especially the early church fathers, believed appearances like this were pre-incarnate appearances of Christ.” — Tony Merida
- Improbable Testimonies (v. 3:4-6)
“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
“…In ancient Semitic culture, addressing someone by saying his or her name twice was a way of expressing endearment, that is, affection and friendship. Thus Moses would have understood immediately that he was being addressed by someone who loved him and was concerned about him…”
— Douglas K. Stuart
“…fire is the bracket which provides a framework around the central narrative of Exodus. It starts with the fire in the bush (3:2) and ends with the fire on the mountain (19:18)…This was the starting place for Moses as ‘servant of the Lord’, as it is indeed for all true and effective service. For ‘unless we have been on our knees, more or less in tears, because of the holiness of God, we have not begun’.” — Alec Motyer
- Inconceivable Callings (v. 3:6-12)
“Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
“Through Moses, he intended to rescue them from Egypt, a land of oppression, and bring them to Canaan, a land of opportunity. Moses’ response was hardly surprising: ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’. What qualifications had Moses for this task? How could a fugitive from Egypt possibly confront Pharaoh? God’s response was direct: ‘I will be with you’. This was accompanied with the promise of a sign. However, God did not promise an instant miracle; Moses had to exercise trust first before seeing it fulfilled.” — Desmond Alexander
TAKEAWAYS:
- Do I believe God’s timing is better than my timing?
- Have I had an encounter with the Living God?
- Has He called you to trust Him in a new way that you can’t understand?
“Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.” — Exodus 3:13-15
“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” — John 8:56-58