Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Romans 11:33-36
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  September 6, 2020

I saw this illustration of the Milky Way Galaxy and the greatness of God.* Our Milky Way Galaxy is shaped like a disc with a bulge in the center. It looks something like this: [show small Milky Way]. Now this is crazy, but if this were our galaxy, I couldn’t make a speck visible to the human eye to represent our whole solar system. Not our planet,—our entire solar system would be microscopic. You wouldn’t be able to see it, our sun and everything. That’s how big the Milky Way Galaxy is. They say it would take approximately 100,000 light years to cross our galaxy. I can hardly comprehend that. The speed of light is going 186,000 miles per second. Not per hour, per second. To put it in another way, if you could travel at the speed of light, you could go around the Earth 7.5 times in one second. That’s ridiculously fast! And you’d have to travel at that speed constantly for 100,000 years to go from one end of our galaxy to the other…You’d be traveling through the vast recesses of space for 100,00 years just to get through this one galaxy. And this is the part that really blows me away, they estimate, although we have no idea of the universe’s actual size, that there are 176 Billion galaxies in the observable universe. And that’s only what we can see with our best telescopes. It keeps going. If you read Psalm 8:1, it says that God has set his glory above the heavens…He says, “If you think what I made is impressive, you should see me.” 

King Solmon said that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” Because if you don’t think that God deserves your respect, you are delusional. And yet, I’m afraid we have all been deluded to a certain extent. We have stopped trembling in God’s presence and we’ve started yawning. We are tempted to think of God as small and irrelevant and ourselves as significant, which is just preposterous. Today, I am going to talk about AWE. Regaining the humble awe that we should have before God. We can never take anything away from God, but we can rob ourselves of comfort and security, of purpose and confidence when we forget how big our God is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The only logical response to his greatness is awe.

As the apostle Paul contemplated how God designed and carried out his plan of salvation, he was moved to this great exclamation of awe that ends Romans 11. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways!” Paul says, “O, the depths…” God’s nature is reflected in the word depth.  The Greek word for deep is bathos. A bathysphere is a small submarine used to explore the deepest ocean depths. And that’s what I think of when Paul talks about God’s depth. It’s not that we cannot know God at all, but rather that we can never swim deep enough. We will never get to the bottom of who he is in his greatness. His riches, his knowledge, his wisdom. But they are each as vast as the universe. We can only know him in part. He is God and we are not. Ultimately his ways are, as Paul says, “unsearchable” and “untraceable”. Then, as he has done consistently in Romans, Paul supports his statements with Scripture. Verse 34 cites Isaiah 40:13: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?” And Verse 35 cites Job 41:11, “Or who has first given to God that he will be repaid?”  Both verses are rhetorical questions to which no one can give an answer. In fact, in the contexts of both Isaiah 40 and Job 41, God asserts his greatness by also asking unanswerable questions.

Note the contrast between God’s greatness and humanity in Isaiah 40:12-17: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens by their span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has informed him? With whom did he consult and who gave him understanding? And who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales…Every pundit is telling us that the upcoming election is a big deal, right? When I read Isaiah 40, I get the feeling that we should be paying more attention to God.

In the book of Job, again which Paul cites here, God begins by asking Job, “Who is this that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)” He proceeds to hammer Job with question after question, “Where were you when

I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. (Job 38:4-5)” God concludes by saying, “Who then is he that can stand before me?…Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. (Job 41:10-11)”

I wanted to show you the contexts of these Old Testament verses to explain that while Paul is proclaiming the greatness of God, he also is saying by way of comparison, “Remember that you are not God.” We are small, he is great. We are weak, he is Almighty. You are not a big deal, God is. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser? Or who has first given to God that he will be repaid?” Just like in Isaiah and Job, here in Romans 11, these questions have no answer. There is nothing to say. We can only tremble in silent awe. 

But that’s the problem, isn’t it? We don’t often bow in silent awe before God. We have so much to say. I’m reading in the book of Numbers in my personal devotions these days and I came to chapter 11 when the people of Israel complain about not having any meat to eat as they travel across the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. They say, “Why do we only have Manna to eat, we had fish and all sorts of food back in Egypt!” And I’m thinking, “Oh, those complainers, who are they to tell God what he should do? Then God, in response, blows a flock of migratory quail from over the sea to their location. And he provides such excess that there are dead quail littered on the ground as far as a full day’s walk from the camp. But then, just as the people begin to eat, the Lord sends a plague that kills many of them because they were ungrateful. And I thought, “Why, God? Why did you do it that way? Was that really a good solution?” And I realized I was as bad as they were, because I was trying to give God advice! Paul asks the questions, “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?” And I have to confess, I’ve tried. Boy, there are a lot of people who think they know how to run this world better than the Almighty Lord. How about you? Do you ever try to be the Lord’s advisor? “God, if you would just do things my way, my life would be much better! If you would just change things, if you could just fix my situation, or my kids, or my spouse, or give me what I want, I could be much happier! If you would just make me the center of the universe, then I’d be happy!” We sometimes even turn our prayers into complaints that imply we have some advice that God needs to listen to.

Or how about the other question? Who has first given to God that he will be repaid?” So many people think God owes them something. Because they’ve given a lot to the church, because they’ve been better than other people, because they have been praying for a long time. Last time I checked, everything we are and everything we have all result from God’s gracious hand. We cannot demand anything from him because he’s given us everything to begin with. We sometimes forget that we are merely stewards of our money, stewards of our time, stewards of our children, stewards of our own bodies. They are all gifts which he gives to us.

When God finished questioning Job, Job can only say that he had spoken about things beyond his understanding, and he repents in dust and ashes. This is the same humbling repentance that I see asked for in Paul’s words here. We ought to humble ourselves before God—we need to shut our mouths and simply stand in awe of his power and his wisdom. He is God; we are not.

This worldview flies right in the face of our American society though, doesn’t it? The message these days is empowerment, believe in yourself! You are great! Don’t worry about what some old book says, focus on yourself! But this is not wise because God is the ruler of the universe whether we are aware of it or not! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The wisest course of action is a life lived in humble awe before God. And it’s also the way to joy! Notice, God didn’t comfort Job by saying, “Hey Job, cheer up, I know your family is dead and your riches are lost, and your entire body is covered with boils… but you are a great guy, just believe in yourself!” No, Job repented in dust and ashes and then God restored him. He healed him, blessed him with a new family, and doubled his former riches. It is also interesting that in Isaiah 40, the other chapter Paul cited which talks about how great God is and how insignificant humans are in comparison. The chapter ends with these words, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Our Lord is the one who loves to humble the proud and exalt the humble. Any pragmatic person would see that humility is the rational choice here.

May we stand in awe with Paul and simply say, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways!”

Often it is the untraceable characteristic of God that causes us the most frustration, but it is really that which should cause us to stand in awe.  Especially if you consider the untraceable nature of his love for us. He did what was, quite literally, unthinkable. The infinite Lord became a finite human. The Almighty LORD, bigger than 176 Billion Galaxies, became a newborn baby. Martin Luther put it this way: “He whom the worlds could not enwrap, yonder lies in Mary’s lap.” No one but God himself could ever dare to think of that. And then again, in unsearchable wisdom, the Father would choose to sacrifice his perfect Son. The Lord of all died a miserable, humiliating, excruciating death on a cross. The Just died for the unjust. The Sinless One bore the sins of the world. How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways. What is most unthinkable about God’s greatness, is the undeserved love he has shown us in Christ. 

Paul finishes the chapter with these words: 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. God is all in all. Everything comes from him, everything through by his power, and everything is ultimately directed to his glory. My friends, remember who sits on the throne of this universe. You exist to give him glory. I am reminded of St. Augustine’s famous words, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.” 

Now, there are some great applications of this text. If we remember who sits on the throne of this universe we will first of all have: Peace. The more we understand and worship the greatness of God, the smaller our problems become. They don’t go away, but everything is put into perspective. We realize that he who is for us is greater than those against us. We remember what is truly important, not any earthly status or opinion matters, when you are standing before the Almighty. Even pain, sickness, and suffering are changed. They don’t go away either, but we realize that all these have a purpose and will be used to glorify God. Like an ant crawling through the dark portion of a painting, we might be tempted to think that our whole life is going to be painted in sorrow, but God has a lot of colors on his palate and only he can see the whole picture. If we trust in his wisdom, we can be assured that the picture he paints with our life is part of a great masterpiece which we will get to see someday in heaven.

As we stand in awe of God we will have a great Desire to Serve Him. The greater God is in your eyes, the more you respect his power and revel in the fact that he loves you, the more the Spirit will encourage you to live to his glory. Being conscious of God’s holiness and unlimited power will naturally warn you to avoid sin, that which he hates, and gratitude for his love will motivate you to practice the good deeds which he has planned for you. If God is the king on your throne, you will desire to serve him.

And finally, as you stand in awe of God, you will be a great  Witness. My wife and I watched the first Jurassic Park movie during the shutdown. I think of the scene from the original movie when they first drive into the park. Ellie is in the front seat of the jeep all excited about this leaf she found when Alan, in the back seat sees a brachiosaurus. He stands up, takes off his sunglasses and stares in awe. But Ellie is still going on about this leaf. Alan doesn’t say anything, he just reaches down and turns her head so that she can stare in awe with him at this enormous dinosaur. This is why I think standing in awe of God can be such an effective form of witnessing. Because standing in awe turns heads. People are so absorbed in themselves, looking down, focused on trivial, vain things. Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply turn their heads toward God. Our kids, our friends—our world—doesn’t need us to tell them that going to church is fun being a Christian is cool. People need to see Christians who are in awe of God. Christians who lay their lives down before God and give him glory. Not because it’s hip, not because it’s easy, but because there is no other logical response to our Almighty God. If you are living in awe of God, you have friends and family who will stop and wonder what has so captivated you. Living a life of genuine devotion for the Lord will turn heads. Practicing your faith with integrity will attract those around you. All you need to do is point them to the Lord. The Spirit will go to work through his Word and Sacrament to convince them of God’s greatness. 

May all our lives serve such a purpose as we stand in awe of the Almighty God. As Paul said, To him be the glory forever! Amen.  

*Credit to Pastor Francis Chan