The Only One to Finish His Work Before His Work Began | Max Lucado | The Only One | Oak Hills Church

41:53 whether you're participating in the sanctuary or worshiping from someplace online. We're so grateful. I think we would like to begin with a prayer, if you'll pray with me. Gracious Father in heaven, this week was marked by anger and violence, the shedding of blood, the loss of life. ever since Cain killed Abel, we have seemed to be bent on hurting one another. One of the many consequences of falling away from you. And we return to you now, Father, to beg your mercy, to beg your mercy upon our families, our country, our leaders and our future we declare that you're the prince of peace would you please be prince of our hearts gracious Lord forgive our speaker you know that his sins are many and help us to see Christ just Christ through Jesus we pray and all who agreed with the prayer said well his name was Sam or maybe Sammy or Samantha I don't recall I was only eight years old when I named the turtle it's been decades and I don't even remember if it was a he or a she what I do recall is that turtle cost me 50 cents at a dime store called TGNY you're really old if you've ever been to a TGNY and I paid for Sam or Sammy Samantha whatever I paid for the turtle out of my own allowance that was the deal offered to me by the cub scouts acquire a pet create a space where the pet can

44:05 live take care of the pet feed it clean it have your parents sign a statement that you mastered the skill of pet maintenance and in exchange take home a circular shaped embroidered merit batch so I did and as part of the requirements I created turtle town we took a we took an empty gallon milk jug and we cut the lower third and then we filled the milk jug with everything a tiny turtle would want a tree some soil I'm very confident that we must have put some water in there although I don't recall how we did and then I took that 50 cent turtle and took my mother's fingernail polish and I painted the name of the turtle on the shell why did I do it I have no clue but I did but I still can't remember the name I bet it wasn't Samantha because that's there's not enough room maybe it was Sam. Regardless, I guess I thought if that turtle ever went to a turtle convention and didn't have a name tag, now everyone would know the turtle's name. And then I put the turtle in the turtle house. Oh, the tree fell. And then, oh, the tree. We had better trees back in those Thanks.

45:58 I took the turtle house and I put it by my bed and went to sleep next to the turtle, awoke next to the turtle, said goodbye to the turtle when I went to school, said hello to the turtle when I came back. The turtle never said anything to me. I thought it was rude, maybe a bit shy. So I began trying to tell the turtle about life outside of the turtle cage. talked to the turtle about galaxies about little league baseball about a girl named Donna upon whom I had a crush in the third grade still no reply it was a one-way relationship that's when it dawned on me the poor little thing simply has not the mental capacity to comprehend what's going on out here in our world.

46:58 Does that sound familiar? I'm not saying that you're a turtle, though some of you are a bit slow. and we don't live in a turtle house but compared to god this world this universe as glorious as it is is a refurbished milk jug and our brains i'm so sorry to tell you they have the capacity when it comes to comprehending God they have the capacity of a turtle noggin that's not to say we shouldn't try and as we seek to understand the unique characteristics of jesus we find our brains exploding in a good way you really don't want a jesus you can comprehend you want a jesus whose story whose ministry is far greater than your ability to understand and never is that so true as when we grapple with what we're going to consider today and that is the fact that jesus is timeless timeless and since he is eternal in essence then he is the only one to finish his work before his work began the story of jesus does not begin in bethlehem not in nazareth nowhere in israel the story of jesus emerges not from the promises of abraham or the prophecies of Isaiah.

49:02 Any search for his beginning is fruitless. His biography has no opening chapter. His movie has no opening scene. Before time began, he had already always been. he once told his critics,

49:27 before Abraham was, I am. I am. That's the name God gave himself when he spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. Jesus here is claiming divinity. He doesn't say before Abraham was, I was. He says before Abraham was, I am. He is the I am. now the critics heard that they got that and they took up stones with which to stone him which was the prescribed penalty for blasphemy but jesus refused to keep his eternal nature a secret he declared to god please read aloud the words that are in bold he said you loved me even before the world began so something was happening in the cosmos before the world began this is the doctrine of the eternal Jesus and this doctrine is so essential think about it if Christ is not eternal then he was created just like we were created if Christ is not eternal then he is a creature not a creator he's a creature who came into existence at some point in time if on the other hand he is eternal then that means he is not reliant upon anyone or anything for his existence he is self-existent he is uncreated he as an expression of the godhead is eternal there's no end no beginning just present so it would be worth our time to dedicate a page of the notes here to considering the relationship that God has with time the relationship that God has with time stick with me you may wish you had had an extra cup of coffee on this one

51:34 the big idea is this God created time time is God's idea consequently God existed before time the clock of human history only began ticking when God determined that it was time for it to begin when God said let there be time began before he spoke there was no click of the clock because there was no clock. There was no before, no after, no prior, no successor, no year, no minute, no hour, no past, nor present, just a divine now. In the only psalm attributed to the patriarch Moses, he wrote, before the mountains were born and before you created the earth and the world, you are God.

52:36 Again, a little deft use of verbs. Before the mountains were, before you created the earth, you would think you would say you were God, but there is no were with God. You are God. Our God is a God of are. my West Texas accent has hard time with that word I'm not saying O-U-R I'm saying A-R-E our God is a God of our, of is, of now present tense, omnipresent not just in space but also in time our God is from everlasting the everlasting king absolutely incorruptible our God who alone has immortality. You more quickly count the salt in the Pacific Ocean than you'll count the years of God's existence.

53:38 Why? Because you, oh God, are the same and your years will have no end. And the number of God's years is unsearchable. trace the history of a person back to their birth trace the history of a tree or a plant back to a seed trace the creation back to the work of our creator trace God back to no one nothing not even god made god he is eternal he does not live in sequential moments laid out on a timeline one following the other his world is one moment or maybe better stated moment less timeless dateless he does not exist in time time exists in him he does not exist as we do surrounded by time he exists and time is contained within him and everything that can be said about God can be said about Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is God the expression of God on earth there was an occasion in which Jesus speaking in the last book of the Bible called himself what? The Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. He did not say the Alpha and then eventually the Omega. He is at once the Alpha and Omega. Not the Alpha and then a few millennia later, the omega.

55:28 But at one time, he is the beginning and the end. Time passes around us. Time passes within him. There's no past, no future, just present. Mind-blowing, don't you think? How do we contrast the nature of God's timeless existence with our own time-defined existence? I mean, we are hemmed in on every side by calendars and clocks. I have a watch on. I'm looking at the countdown clock on the monitor here. You're mindful that the Cowboys are going to play, and you're wondering how long Lakato's going to preach. We're always thinking about time. God, on the other hand, is above time, unaffected by time.

56:20 Never been late. Never been early. He is timeless. Consequently, his help is timely. He can come at just the right moment because he is outside of moments, and he can step in with help whenever it's appropriate. He has no lifespan, no beginning and no ending. We, by contrast, are akin to the Delonia Americana. this insect has the shortest lifespan of any being on the planet the male insect emerges before dawn in early summer mates and dies within 30 minutes the female deposits the eggs in the water and then dies five minutes later female always stronger than the male the average lifespan of of humans like you and me is is about 75 years or 35 million minutes so we live the equivalent of 7 million delonia lives Jesus lives the equivalent of how many human lives I mean if you could take our lifespan our 75 years and create a infinite lifespan Jesus who had no beginning will have no end if you could somehow place our lifespan on that we could not make the dot small enough by contrast that's how immense our savior is we are too small to measure jesus is too immeasurable for us to comprehend jesus was before was was possible in the doxology of jude this is a little one chapter

58:28 epistle verse 25 he says and repeat with me please the emboldened words to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion authority before all time and now and forever Jude got it Jesus was pre-incarnation pre-creation so to understand jesus to realize the significance to make a case for why he is the only one we do well to ponder what was going on in the mind and in the heart of the pre-creation pre-incarnate christ well we don't have to speculate he told us first of all before time before creation, Jesus shared God's glory.

59:30 On the night before his death, Jesus prayed, Now, Father, bring me into the, can you say it with me? Glory we shared before the world began. Glory is such a grand word, isn't it? When you see an eagle making circles in the sky, when you see virgin snow in the winter, When you see a cloudless night, oh, that's glory. That's glory. Something majestic. But nothing compares with the brilliant, endless glory of God. You might recall Moses, who had the opportunity to communicate with God, and he made this request. God, show me your glory. I want to see your glory. glory in the bible especially the old testament word comes from a word that means heavy or weighty or important and glory is a kind of an umbrella term used to convey all of the great characteristics and attributes of god the kindness the spectacularness the one of a kindness the blow your mineness, the uniqueness, the grandeur. So when Moses was saying, God, show me your glory, he was saying, God, just show off. Let me see you. Flex your muscles. Reveal yourself to me, which is such an amazing and wonderful prayer. Place me beneath the waterfall of your splendor and soak me and God answered that prayer he placed Moses in the cleft of a rock covered Moses with his hand and his glory passed by like a wave of the aurora borealis it passed by but God had to protect Moses because Moses a sinful person could not bear the glory of God

1:01:36 unprotected. This is the glory that Jesus was talking about. He shared God's glory in the Trinitarian community. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit relished in this untarnished delight. Again, that prayer from Jesus. He said, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. So with that in mind, that Jesus shared the glory, every beautiful attribute of God prior to creation. With that in mind, I want to take just a quick jump forward into a topic we'll jump into more seriously next month, and that is the incarnation. But we've got to point out that Jesus left that glory and entered the earth.

1:02:30 Remember what John said? The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like father, like son, generous inside and out from start to finish. Oh, what a moment. Jesus who was momentless entered a world of moments one moment he was boundless the next moment he was in wound in a tiny tummy one moment there was no time the next moment he was restricted just as we are by times and seasons and years one moment he was boundless the next he was an embryo in a dark womb he was a fetus pressing against the uterine walls of a of a teenage girl in a dusty village on the edge of nowheresville i ask it has a greater journey ever transpired than the journey of jesus becoming flesh i liked my pet but i had i been able to i never would have become a turtle i would not have entered into this world of turtle pellets and lettuce i much preferred the world of summer and swimming watermelons i would not have given up my life and entered the world of a turtle but jesus did he shared god's glory but then he exited god's glory and entered our story he exchanged the glory of heaven for a sawed-off milk jug of of grumblers and stumblers and critics and dirty roads and hot days and death by crucifixion.

1:04:34 Prior to Bethlehem, he shared God's glory, but there's more. Prior to Bethlehem, he fulfilled God's story. Jesus finished everything before he began anything. The Hebrew writer says, his works were finished, say it with me, please, from the foundation of the world. His works were finished from the foundation of the world. In other words, he completed what he came to do on earth before he came to earth to do it.

1:05:10 Paul wrote, for God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserve it, because that was his plan from, here it is, before the beginning of time. Remember, Christ does not exist in time. Time exists in Christ. In the measurable flow of history, with all the ticks of the clock and the turning of the calendar pages and the passing of the years, that's within God. That's within Christ. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. So, since the pre-incarnate Christ is unbound by time, he could do what we cannot even fathom. He could complete his mission prior to the dawn of time. And he did just that. He needed not wait to do what he came to do. He did it before he came to do it.

1:06:06 And what did he come to do? Well, at the top of the list is this. He died for our sins. He is the lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made. the horizontal beam of the cross extends before and after creation. It became visible on a hill outside of Jerusalem in 30 AD. It became effectual in the deepest of heavens, in the throne room of God, in a timeless eternity. on the cross Jesus said it is finished he could have just as easily said it is finished when he was a boy in Nazareth as he was teaching in Jerusalem because he was born crucified it was and already has and always will be finished.

1:07:13 This means that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was not some knee-jerk reaction or emergency device as a desperate attempt when everything else would not work. It was a solemn and sober decision made by God in eternity past with a complete understanding of the whole of creation. Let me try it this way. the sacrifice for sin occurred before the first sin occurred. The sacrifice, this is how sovereign our Savior is. The sacrifice for sin occurred before the first sin occurred. By the time Adam and Eve had turned away from God, God had created a way for them to return to God. he saved saints prior to saints seeking salvation and he knew who would be saved the apostle said it like this for God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his son God knew who would say yes to him before we said yes to him please let's be clear god did not choose who would say yes to him he just knew who would say yes to him a loving god would not make the choice for us a loving god would not destined some to be saved and then create others and destined them to be lost a loving god would not do that scripture says for God so loved the world and it's not his will that any perish but that all should come to eternal life however God knew before time who would say yes to him and who wouldn't he knew because he's not bound by time he sees everything simultaneously and he chose before time to enter the names of the saved into a book and that book was compiled prior to creation those who will

1:09:26 reject christ those who will be cast away from god for eternity are those whose names were not written in the book of life say it with me please before the world was made so the book was written compiled, the names were entered because God knew in advance who would say yes and who would not. God knew our choice before he made us or we made it. So Jesus experienced God's glory. He fulfilled God's story and he did it all before the creation of the earth. So where does that leave us? what does this discussion of a pre-creation Christ have to do with my Monday for my in-laws or this violent world in which we live how does it affect us you know if Jesus doesn't know us it doesn't affect us if he doesn't love us I guess it doesn't matter if he cannot remember our names then his infinite existence might prompt amazement respect maybe even an unhealthy fear but it would not change our lives but my closing question is this suppose he does love you suppose the eternal being does know your name and has his eye on you right now full of love and kindness have you seen this cryptic promise that's found in the book of revelation jesus said to everyone who wins against satan i will give a white stone i will write a new name on that stone nobody will know that name except the person who receives it this is how much jesus

1:11:40 loves you. He has given you a pet name. it's not Sam, it's not Sammy it's not Samantha it's a name only he knows and you will know might that fact make a difference? in a world where you feel marginalized or forgotten or neglected might it make a big difference to you to know that the big news of Jesus is this He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. And he was born as a man and became as a servant. Our timeless Savior entered our time-bound world to reveal to us what he had done before time began.

1:12:39 he exited glory and entered your story so that your story might culminate participating in God's glory would you open yourself up to that size of Jesus one of the great dangers we have is making Jesus small predictable understandable We need a big Jesus. Why? Because we have big problems. if your problems feel big, it's because your view of Jesus is too small. if your view of Jesus is large, then your problems will feel small because he is that mighty.

1:13:36 Gracious Lord, grant that we can understand you. Grant that our fondest and favorite thoughts would be about you. Give us a big picture, Father. Open up our minds. please lift up our eyes take over our spirits and grant us a genuine excitement about your glory and your story. Through Christ we pray and all who agreed with the prayer said Amen. I appreciate you being so attentive. I want us to pray a prayer of salvation. This is a prayer we offer in every service. Always seeking, always praying that there'll be somebody who says, oh, wait, yeah, I get it now. Oh, I want to align myself with Jesus.

1:14:35 I want to be a part of that. Something so grand that's greater than my life and greater than my struggles. And if that's you today, if you want to say yes to Jesus, we're going to say a prayer in which you can do just that. We're all going to pray together. but then we'll we'll turn the lights back up and we'll ask you to stand up and so we can applaud you so if you're coming to Jesus for the first time today or the first time in a long time we'll ask you to stand in the first service one guy stood up right in the middle of the prayer he couldn't wait I pray that there will be many who stand as they have in the earlier services let's pray together Jesus I'm not perfect for I have sinned, but I believe in you. Save me, change me, forgive me. I give you my life.

1:15:31 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Anyone saying yes to Jesus today, would you mind standing up? I would love to applaud your decision. Anyone coming back to Jesus, having been away for a while, Would you like this?