Song: What a mighty God we serve, what a mighty God we serve, angels bow before him, heaven and earth adore him, what a mighty God we serve.

Some people refuse to believe in God because they do not know who he is, and they try to understand God’s law through the authority figures of the world.

In Matthew 22:29 Jesus says to believers who uphold laws over belief in him, “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.” When teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘which law is the greatest’, they were trying to find out what can people do to anger God the most or what can people do to bring God’s judgement on them, because they only saw God’s law as a guide for staying away from his judgement, instead of his law being a guide to know what kind of God they serve. They knew laws but they did not know God. They did not know that (1) God is merciful, (2) that his mercy is given to all who believe in him, and that (3) he is a God who keeps his promises.

What kind of God do we serve?

A God who is merciful.

God spoke through the prophet Hosea in Hosea 6:6 that he [God] desires to offer people mercy more than accept apologies for wrongdoings. Jesus tells teachers of scripture, that the first law that God is asking believers to obey is in Deuteronomy 6:5 which says, “and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” and the second is to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments” [Matthew 22:38-40]. The God who asks for your obedience asks also for you to believe that he is a God who is merciful.

What kind of God do we serve?

A God whose mercy is given to the whole earth through Jesus.

“Here is my servant [Jesus], whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope. This is what God the Lord says—the creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: ‘I the Lord have called you [Jesus] in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” [Isaiah 42:1-9]

The God that we serve is a giver of light, meaning to know God is to have true illumination and understanding of the world. As the giver of light, it is God’s responsibility to enlighten humanity who otherwise is blind to seeing him as a merciful God. God has fulfilled his responsibility to reveal himself by sending Jesus to teach us about who he is. Jesus is the one chosen by God to open the ‘eyes of the blind’ to know and believe that they too are chosen by God and not condemned. Jesus teaches us that the entire earth is chosen by God. He also teaches us that the one who chose the world while people were still far from believing in him is merciful. If you believe the words that Jesus teaches that God is merciful and has chosen you, you have access to the giver of light and his mercy. Because “it is God who sweeps away offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist and calls all people to ‘return to me, for I have redeemed you.’ [Isaiah 44:22] Meaning Jesus’ sacrifice is what was necessary to give the world understanding of who God is and how to access his mercy, through belief in Jesus.

What kind of God do we serve?

A God who fulfills his promise through Jesus.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” [Exodus 3:7-10]

Jesus was the blood of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12 God’s rescue plan and way of escape from the suffering his people were experiencing in Egypt. In this account God says I am the God who sees suffering and hears cries for help. In this account a sacrifice of obedience was required to free God’s people from their oppressors. Now, Jesus is God’s path to redemption. The same God who released the people of God from bondage the same night as the Passover lamb, is the same God who has given the earth Jesus, that releases people from the burden of not knowing God or his promises. Exodus 4:22-23 describes that God did not release the people of God from their captors only because they were suffering physical hardship but that they also were held captives of the ideas of the Egyptians and their gods. Exodus 4:22-23 says, but the Lord said to Moses, “say to Pharaoh, ‘this is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go so that he may worship me.”

Captivity in this sense is suffering endured because of separation from the knowledge of God. Jesus gives freedom to know God and to believe in him. It is this belief in Jesus that rescues people who believe in God out of suffering and into a ‘good and spacious land’, a place where God is the one who provides for all the needs of his people. Jesus gives this freedom from the moment you put your trust in him; and Jesus is God’s way of escape for the entire earth.

What kind of God do we serve?

A God who requires faith and belief in him.

“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. Then Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. [John 12:37, 44—46]

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life.” [John 12:47-50]

God’s word is the guide to know that his ‘law’ and his ‘commands’ lead to life and away from destruction and the commands that Jesus says that he is asking people to follow is to have a heart that wants to believe and ears that are open to hear about who God is and a mind willing to understand that the words of this text have not been written to condemn them but to bless them, save them, protect them and to show who God is to them, the one who is faithful to cover you in his righteousness, faithful to help you and save you, faithful to love you, whose mercy and love surrounds those who trust him, like a shield. [Psalms 40]

Prayer: Heavenly Father, no one can compare to you. You are wonderful and all that you have planned for people who put their faith in you is good. Jesus, help me to know you more, as I continue to seek you, through your word, continue to show me who you are, put your laws and commands in my heart as you desire, so that the truth of your mercy, your love and your faithfulness will always protect me.