Sermon Notes – GOD HAS COME DOWN … AND HE HAS BEEN WORKING | sn20260830

 

SERMON     

 

INTRODUCTION  

A.  We have prayer meetings on Thursdays … many repeat requests 

B.  Those many repeat requests can cause one to wonder if God is aware … or why He has not answered … or, IF He has answered, what that answer is … Yes, No, Not yet??  Where is God in all of this?  

C.  What we should have seen over the past few Sundays … God’s silence does not mean God’s absence.  

D.  What we saw last week … God is at work in the background, even though not always obviously. 

E.  What we’ll see this week … that the God who seems absent is often closer than we realize.  More than that … our God is not a distant observer of human suffering.  Instead, He is a God who comes down.    God has heard … has been working … and will act at the right time.   

Title: God Has Come Down and Has Been Working    

Text:  Exodus 3:1–15 NIV 

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up.”   

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  

And Moses said, “Here I am.”   

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.   

⁷ The Lord said, “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.  ⁸ 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.  ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”    

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”  

¹³ 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 3:1–15 NIV  

 

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What is that passage saying to us?  What can we take away?   

On a personal note … This passage speaks to me on two levels:

• 1) as a Christian who has cares, concerns, challenges … and
• 2) as a Christian who is part of a church that is on a mission.  

As a result, I found it very hard to put all my insights into just one sermon.  So, if the message comes across a little disjointed, it’s partly because I’m trying to fit two messages into one sermon … so I’m not as organized as I’d like.  

 

Exodus 3:1–3 … 

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up.”   

flames of fire … Throughout Scripture, fire and smoke often symbolizes the presence of God.   In the burning bush, we see a glimpse of God’s character. He comes near without harming. 

did not burn up … Incredibly, the fire did not destroy what it filled.

  

 

This example matters for us today.  We may not be enslaved in Egypt, but we probably have seasons when God seems absent.  Like Israel, we know what it is like to feel trapped by circumstances beyond our control.  Some carry grief that has not lifted.  Some struggle with illness that has not gone away.  Others wrestle with loneliness, anxiety, addiction, family conflict, financial pressures, or disappointments that seem to have no end.  

When the story opens in Exodus 3, Moses is now eighty years old.  He’s no longer in the palace; he’s a fugitive tending sheep a long way from Egypt.  When we left Moses last week, he was a toddler.  His mother cared for him until he was probably three or four years old.  Then he was considered old enough to be brought into the princess’ household. Adopted by the king’s daughter, Moses had enjoyed all the privilege of growing up in the palace.  

So how did he end up here?  

Why not read the section between where we left off last Sunday and where we begin today?  It’s Exodus 2:11–25.  Since we are spending nine Sundays preaching in the book of Exodus, this is an excellent time to study Exodus at home, in your connect group, or over coffee with friends and neighbors.  

As an adult, Moses witnessed a slave, one of his own people, being beaten by an Egyptian.  Moses killed the Egyptian.  When Pharaoh found out, he wanted to have Moses killed.  So, Moses fled into the wilderness.  

Have you ever looked at your own life and also wondered, “How did I end up here?”  You’ll see from Moses’ story that you can never get so far “off track” that God would abandon you.  God is near to you.  God comes down.

Year after year, Moses has lived a quiet life on the far side of the wilderness.  Moses is not searching for God.  He is simply tending a flock.  

Yet that is exactly where God meets him.

 

Exodus 3:4 …  

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  

And Moses said, “Here I am.”  

God called to Moses by name. 

The God who created the heavens and the earth knows Moses … by name.  God knows his history, every disappointment, and every regret.  God knows his mistakes and the shame that Moses likely has carried after killing the Egyptian. 

Yet God came near and called to Moses anyway. 

Exodus 3:5–6 …   

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said.  “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”  At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.   

holy ground … a reminder … for Moses … of the holiness of God … 

I am the God of your father …  God identifying Himelf … as God … speaking to a Hebrew … in person … for the first time in generations … Prior to this, there had been no appearance of God … no prophets … no miracles … nothing to indicate the presence of God ….  

I am the God of your father … of Abraham … of Isaac … of Jacob … God letting Moses know that He’s been around all along … silent, but NOT absent.   

Exodus 3:7–9 …  

⁷ The Lord said, “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.  ⁸ 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.  ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  

I have indeed seen … I have heard … I am concerned … This is God letting Moses know that even though He’d been silent … He’d not been absent.  He had seen, heard … because He had always been concerned … because He was a promise-keeping God, who was faithful to His promises to the patriarchs. 

I have come down to rescue … For generations, the people have suffered.  Their cries have risen into the air.  Their pain seemed unanswered … BUT none of it had been hidden from him … God was aware of every injustice, every cry, every sorrow … and He was “concerned” … AND, NOW … after years of planning … the time had come for Him to rescue His people. 

I come down … God could have helped from a distance, but He chose to help from among them … 

(On a personal note:  This reminds me of two things … 1) the meaning of Jordan Alexander and 2) the work of Jesus Christ.

• • Jordan ~ flowing down; descending
  • Alexander ~ defender of men; protector of mankind   
  • Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to rescue.  

Exodus 3:10 … 

“So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”  

• So now, go …  This is what God said … right after telling Moses that He (God) had come down to rescue the people.   
• I am sending you …  This shows that God works on earth through people … Notice, He is the One rescuing the people, BUT He is sending Moses to Pharaoh. 
• God is a sending God … because He has chosen to work through people … in most cases    
• What is Moses’ response to being sent?  

Exodus 3:11–12 …  

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”   

¹² And God said, “I will be with you.  And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”    

“Who am I?” …  It could be that Moses begins to doubt He can manage … He probably remembers the mistakes that drove him into exile.  In addition, He probably thinks the task is too big for him.  

I will be with you … This is how God responds to Moses’ doubt … He lets Moses know that he won’t be alone … God will be with him.  

Exodus 3:13-15 …

¹³ 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.” 

What is His name? …  God answers, “Elyeh asher Elyeh” … “I AM WHO I AM.”  (Some versions have “I will be who I will be” …  God exists in and of himself. God is not created, dependent, or derived from anything else. God profoundly, simply is and gives existence to everything. The Creator cannot be named or defined by his creation.

The God of your fathers … the God of Abraham … Isaac and … Jacob … God is grounding His identity in history and promise. 

 

 

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APPLICATION  

What can we take away?  

There are a number of things we can take away.

Indeed, there are so many that I think I need to put them in two categories: 1) Things we take away as individuals .. and 2) Things we take away as Christians.

A.  Things we can take away as Christians with personal problems  …  

1.  God is aware of our situation  … Silence doesn’t mean absence … Exodus 1:8-22 (the passage we looked at last week) tells of a king that didn’t know Joseph … who caused suffering … planned a genocide, of sorts … tells us of two midwives, who defied Pharaoh … Exodus 2:1-10 tells us of  Moses’ mother, Moses’ sister and Pharaoh’s daughter, who went against the edict of Pharaoh to kill male babies … God was at work, even though it was not obvious … we may not be in bondage in Egypt, BUT we have situations, as they did, when it seems God is not hearing our prayers

2.  He will intervene when the time is right … He may take longer than we want, BUT He will send the right response … at the right time … Exodus 2:23-25  Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. ²⁴ So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.       Galatians 4:4 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” …

3.  God works through people …  Exodus 3:8-10 ⁸ 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.  ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”    God said He’d come down to rescue His people, but then tells Moses that He’s going to send him to Pharaoh

B. Things we can take away as Christians who are on a mission …  

1.  God is aware of the problems in this world. 

2.  God has come down … in the Person of Jesus Christ.  

3.  God has been working in this world … through His Church 

4.  God has sent us (Matthew 28:19  ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit … ) 

5.  God has not sent us on our own … He has been with us all along … and He will always be with us (Matthew 28:20b … ¹⁹ Go ^[c]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.  )  

Exodus 3:4 … The same is true for us.  God knows your name and your story because God is a relational God.  God is a family that he has included us into.  The Father, his Son Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit share a perfect, harmonious relationship, each unselfishly centering and giving to the other. By the Spirit, Jesus shares the relationship he has with his Father with us!  

Exodus 3:5-6  needed reminder for us: God is intimately near to us but also holy.  Our culture often struggles to hold these two concepts together.  Some imagine God as distant, uninvolved, easily ignored.  Others imagine God as familiar, like a spiritual buddy who exists to support our goals.  The God of Exodus allows for neither.    

God is near enough to know Moses by name, yet holy enough that Moses removes his sandals. God is relational, yet not manageable. He is loving, yet not tame. The holiness of God means he is utterly unique. He is not merely a bigger version of ourselves. He is the Creator, Life, and Goodness itself. He is the Holy One.  

The remarkable thing is that this holy God draws near.  God comes down.   

Exodus 3:7-9  …  God says, “I have seen.” “I have heard.” “I am concerned.”  This is not a distant deity scrolling through our pain like a news feed.  This is the everlasting promise-keeping Lord who has bound himself to a people and refuses to look away.  

For generations, the people have suffered.  Their cries have risen into the air.  Their pain seemed unanswered.  Yet now God reveals that none of it has been hidden from him.  God is aware of every injustice, every cry, every sorrow, and he is “concerned.”  He is moved to compassion and moved to act.  

So, God has come down to rescue.  

   

Exodus 3:10 … God is a sending God.  We are “sent” people. … God sends us out into the world to participate in his mission of restoring, renewing, and redeeming creation.  

Exodus 3:11-12  “Who am I?”  We can understand Moses’ question.  How often do we feel this way?  … We may wonder why God would send us to our neighbors as signs of his kingdom … What do we have to offer or contribute?  …  God’s response to our doubt is the same he gave to Moses.  “I will be with you.” … God is with us.   

Of course, we have limitations, like Moses.  But God is with us.   Our hope is never grounded in our own ability, faithfulness, or strength.  Our hope rests in our God who comes down.  

Exodus 3:13-15 … By naming Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it’s as if God is saying, “I am the same God who made those promises to your forefathers, that covenant includes you, and I keep my promises.” …  Centuries later, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Jesus revealed that he is divine, the Son of God and the same God of the burning bush. The One who came down to rescue Israel is the One who comes down to rescue the world. … Because here’s the good news. Father, Son, and Spirit’s blessing did not stop with Israel. God promised that through Abraham’s family all nations would be blessed. The promise to Abraham always pointed toward God’s intention to bless all creation.  

And through Jesus, God has done just that.  

The Father sent his Son to be born of a human virgin. God comes down — this is the Incarnation. Fully God and fully human, Jesus lived a life without sin by the Spirit.

Jesus lived the faithful life we could not live and carried our sin to the cross. He united himself to us in his death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father. So, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension are also our death, resurrection, and ascension! And the life he shares with his Father, is also ours, by the Spirit.

This is our rescue!

God has rescued us.

God is rescuing us. Moment by moment, he shares his life with us by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us and comforts, helps, and guides us. The Spirit is God’s personal presence in us. The Spirit opens our eyes to know God and equips us to “go.” The Spirit produces his fruit in us (Galatians 5), growing us in holiness, and conforming us to the image of Christ.

God will rescue us. God’s rescue will come to completion when he comes again and there will be no more suffering. When Christ returns, he will set everything right. Evil will be judged, the dead will be raised, and creation itself will be renewed. And in that new creation, there will be no more death, pain, or sorrow, because the God who came down has come to dwell with his people forever.

We recognize God’s faithfulness most clearly when we look back or when we know the end of the story. Well, this is our ending: everything that causes suffering will be finally defeated.

The Israelites could not yet see their escape from slavery. Moses could not yet imagine himself leading the Israelites out of Egypt. But God had already set in motion their rescue.

The same is true for us. We may not yet see how God is at work. But the God revealed at the burning bush and in Jesus Christ is not absent. That is good news worth trusting.

God sees, hears, knows, and has compassion.  God rescues us.   God comes down. 

 

 

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Discussion Questions