What did the heavenly host say when the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will towards men.” God was receiving glory because of the birth of Jesus. Habakkuk 2:14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea What do we mean when we talk about the glory of God? The word glory has been used in Christian circles for ever, but what does it mean? The glory of God is a difficult topic to wrap our heads around. Even the most well known biblical scholars have a difficult time describing what it is and what it means. It’s like trying to describe what you mean when you say something is beautiful. What does the word “beautiful”mean? You can easily describe the physical properties that make something beautiful...in your opinion. But the reason it is beautiful, is because it is more than the sum of it’s parts. You could say that you saw water, sand, the sun and some clouds at 8:30pm...But it’s not the same as saying the sunset at the beach was beautiful. Or maybe you could describe it as glorious. But glory is much more than just seeing something as beautiful. It can be how you feel about something also. How was your vacation? Glorious! Today we will look at some of the many verses in scripture that talk about God’s glory.
God’s glory is wrapped up in His reputation, His majesty, His truth, His creativity, His love, His justice, His compassion and everything else that encompasses His character. How does the Lord’s prayer end? “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power and the...glory, forever and ever.” If God owns the kingdom, it means that, God is the King. And if God is the King, it means that God has all the power. And if God has all the power, it means that God gets all the glory. Everything God does is about His glory. The expansion of God’s glory from the spiritual realm into the physical realm is the goal of His kingdom coming on the earth. The more His kingdom expands, the more glory He gets. Isaiah 43:6-7 “6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God created you to spread His glory over the earth. Hebrews 2:5-7 “5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him,or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,” Man was crowned by God to function in His image of glory and honor. Matthew 5:14-16 “14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it
under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” 1 Peter 4:10-11 “10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Your good works are for the purpose of bringing God glory. After being crowned with glory and honor God put everything under man’s feet so that we could have dominion over it. Hebrews 2:8 “8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” God gave us the authority and put everything under our feet, so why do we not yet see everything in subjection to us? Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Well there you go, that explains it. Our sin has caused us to fall short of the glory of God that we were crowned with originally. We did not fall short of heaven, we fell short of the glory. That’s how we know our reconciliation back to God was not about a ticket to heaven.
Our original assignment was to spread His kingdom glory over all the earth and that is what we are supposed to be doing after we are saved. We are not supposed to be just sitting around waiting for a rapture or to die. As we go through this kingdom life, what happens when we encounter obstacles? How do we feel about suffering? When we suffer as a disciple of Jesus, there are three possible sources of it. It is very important for you to recognize the source of your suffering, because if you don’t you can be led away from God’s will for your life. The obvious first source of your suffering could be satan and his work to steal, kill and destroy. Satan hates you because when he looks at you he is reminded of the image of the glory of God. The enemy is doing everything he can to keep you from bringing God glory by doing His will. He is a lier and will speak lies to you in a effort to get you to agree with him. He rarely comes at you with an out right evil proposal. He is much more subtle than that. He just needs to get you to agree with him about a small matter that sounds like it’s from God...but he has twisted it just enough for it to be a lie. Just like he tried to get Jesus off track by quoting scripture when he was tempting Him. Just because someone comes to you quoting scripture does not mean that they have been sent by God for your good. You have to know the scripture for yourself so you can determine if the context is right or if it is being used to throw you off track. The enemy is more than happy to use a low information believer who hasn’t studied the Bible to give you their opinion. They often use part of a bible verse thrown in out of context to try and support what they think. So you have to recognize if it’s truly the opinion of the king and the only way to do that is to know His word.
If you come into agreement with the enemy, he will quickly derail you and cause suffering. The reason you have to recognize the source of your suffering is because the next lie of the enemy is to get you to blame God for the situation that you are in. The second source of your suffering could be you and the bad decisions you’ve made to disobey spiritual laws. Often our default is to blame the devil for our situation, but a lot of times we give the devil more credit than he deserves. “My life is a mess because the devil is after me.” The reason we do that is because it’s easier to blame someone else for our own bad behavior. James 1:14-15 “14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Maybe you are in a mess because you have been living outside of God’s spiritual laws, that He designed to keep you safe. Your selfish desires lead you into sin and your sin leads to death. That is a path you don’t want to be on. You have to look in the mirror and ask the tough questions. Am I looking at the one responsible for my misery? If so, what am I going to do about it? The third and last option for the reason you are suffering is where we will spent the rest of our time today. That last option is God’s glory. God is good, all the time...and all the time God is good. That is a fact. It is part of His glory. It is not up for debate or discussion.
OK, hang on, cause I’m about to ask a question that will probably rattle some of your Sunday school theology. Has God ever allowed or even approved of suffering in the life of a righteous person, in order that He would receive glory? If so, how could that be good? You may be tempted to think that God would never do something like that. And the reason you would think that God would never do that is because you have a very limited view of what “good” actually is. The bible says over and over that God is good. But the definition of “good” is up to Him. When something happens that looks bad to you, can you stop and try to consider God’s perspective? Or do you believe your human perspective is all that is needed to render judgment on the situation? When a parent stops a young child from behavior that will cause them problems if not corrected, is that parent acting from knowledge of what’s good for a 5yr old? Or does the 5yr old get to decide what is good for them? Can the 5yr old possibly comprehend all the factors that went into the decision of the parent. Was it love for the child that motivated their actions... even if the child hates it and believes he is suffering because of it? Yes, love is the motivation. Love requires a parent to provide a course correction for the benefit of the child’s future. What a parent does is much more about the future of the child than a punishment for their past behavior. Here is the main question. As a child of God, have you set yourself up as the judge and jury of what is good? Have you decided to be the one to determine what would be best for yourself. But do you understand the big picture the same way
God does? Do you know how things will turn out in the future like God does? If you are arrogant enough to set yourself up as the judge of what is good and what is suffering, you will view God as a narcissist who gets pleasure from bringing suffering to people. Let me be very clear, as a loving Father, God takes no pleasure in the suffering in your life, even if He approved it. If He brought it about, then it is for your ultimate good and to bring Him glory. This can be hard to accept as a child, but His glory is of a higher priority than your comfort and He is the only one who can define what is good for you ultimately. What is good for you is to do His will, in order to bring Him glory. Now, before you start thinking your suffering is because God has done you wrong...consider Job. Here is how God answered Job when he questioned God about what had happened to him. Job 38:1-7 “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? When questioned by Job about his situation, God establishes who has the greater understanding about what has been put into action. You see, the entire situation with Job was started by
satan questioning the integrity of God. God said “have you considered Job? He is blameless, upright and fears Me.” Then satan says, it’s only because You protect him. If you remove the protection he will curse You to Your face. This little scene played out in front of the sons of God. So God defended His integrity and knowledge of who Job was by allowing satan to test him. God’s integrity which is part of His glory was more important than Job’s comfort. There is no way to look at this and say that God was not ultimately the One who decided to allow Job to suffer...But it was for His glory. The main point here is that God has an eternal perspective about what is good. A man can not possibly conceive what God is doing long term, because man does not know the future. God’s glory is more important than your comfort. Job wasn’t the only one who went through something that they would rather have not, for God’s glory to be fulfilled. John 9:1-3 “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Just like job’s friends, Jesus’s disciples thought that this suffering was a punishment for sin, but Jesus told them they were wrong. It wasn’t a punishment, it was for God’s glory. We have to stop thinking about our suffering as a punishment. Why had this man suffered his entire life being blind? So that God’s glory
might be put on display. If you read the rest of the chapter you will see what an impact this miracle made. How about let’s consider Mary, the mother of Jesus and Joseph the man who raised Him? Luke 1:26-33 “26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Have you ever considered the suffering they must have gone through? And yet, she was favored of God. How difficult was it for them to live their lives explaining why Jesus was born before she and Joseph were married? Mary had to live with that reputation her entire life. And yet, not only did God allow it, He made it happen. Luke 2:34-35 “34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
The suffering of Mary was like a sword piercing her soul and yet, God chose her specifically for that duty. And He did it so mankind could be reconciled back to Himself...for His glory. Let’s move on to the next person who intentionally suffered for God’s glory. Jesus. John 12:27-30 “27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.” Hebrews 2:9-10 “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Look at verse 10 again. “in bringing many sons to...what? GLORY. Jesus was made perfect through...what? Suffering. Everyone likes to quote Isaiah 53 when we want to be healed, but let’s look at the context to see what is going on. Yes, we all understand that this is talking about Jesus, so let’s read it. Isaiah 53:3-7 “3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him
not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:10 “10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;” “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” If God was willing to cause His Son Jesus pain and suffering to bring you to a place of reconciliation...for His glory, what makes you think that you are immune to suffering? Or do you believe that you are too special for God to be glorified through your suffering? The Apostle Paul didn’t expect to go through his life of ministry without suffering. Because God told him he was going to suffer right off the bat. When Saul (who would later be know as the Apostle Paul) was knocked off of his horse while going to put Christians in jail, Jesus blinded him and sent him to a house to await further instructions. And the instructions were not about how awesome things were going to be for him moving forward. Acts 9:10-19 “10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias
answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” God will and does cause “good” suffering in the life of a righteous person, when it will result in His being glorified. It wasn’t just Paul. The other disciples were also expecting to be beaten and killed for the sake of the name of the King. They actually rejoiced when it happened. They were excited that they were counted worthy to be persecuted and suffer for God’s glory. Acts 5:40-42 “40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Are you ready for that? Are you willing to continue this kingdom life, even if God calls you to suffer for His name? 1 Peter 2:19-22 “19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his
mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
1 Peter 3:17 “17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.”
1 Peter 4 :19 “19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
The spiritual surgery is painful, but He does it so you won’t die. Does pruning feel good? Have you asked Him to conform you to the image of Christ? Did you think that would be a painless process for Him to remove your self centered thinking and actions? Is Jesus welcome into every room of your life? Is He allowed to go in and transform you into His image, even if it means He has to painfully remove parts of you that you think are “Good?” Remember, you are not the judge of what will ultimately be good for you. God reserves that judgement for Himself alone. This world and everything in it were created for God’s glory... including you. We must surrender to the will of the Father so He will be glorified, regardless of what that means for us. God’s glory is a higher priority than your comfort. God is good all the time.
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