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Power of the Blood Sermon Series: Drawn: Intimacy with God


Drawn:  Intimacy with God

Intimacy is what we call the experience of really knowing and being known by another person. We frequently use spatial language when describing this experience like closeness or nearness. An intimate friend is someone we feel very close to; they know us at a deep level. If something happens that damages the intimacy with our friend, they feel distant from us. Or a person who doesn’t know us intimately knows us at a surface  level.

But of course intimacy is not spatial but relational. We all know what it’s like to be sitting right next to a person and be physically near but we feel distant and we can feel close to a person who is four thousand miles away.

What makes us feel intimate with another person? While there are many ingredients to intimacy and each close relationship we have has a different recipe, common to all of them is trust. We cannot be close with a person we don’t trust.

Trust is at the heart of intimacy. The more we trust someone, the closer we let them get to us. The degree to which trust is compromised in a relationship is the degree to which intimacy evaporates.

How the Word of God Talks About This Intimacy

God the Father made us in His image for Him to be near, for Him to know deeply, to walk with, from Genesis to Revelation.

In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve had sinned, The Lord wanted to be near His people. 

Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

So, they hid from intimacy, from closeness with God, because they had lost their trust.  They didn’t trust GOD, they had been tricked by the serpent into thinking that God was holding back on them, that there was knowledge that he was holding back, and it turns out it was Adam and Eve who couldn’t be trusted.  This breaking of trust breaks intimacy.

We go all the way to the end of the Bible in Revelations.  God STILL WANTS TO BE WITH HIS PEOPLE!!!

Revelations 21:1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

God’s plan in the end is to come down and be with us!  From the Garden of Eden to the End of Days… HE DESIRES CLOSENESS, TRUST, INTIMACY, AND HAS BUILT THAT INTO HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH US THROUGHOUT ALL OF TIME.

There is an amazing picture of levels of intimacy in the Old Testament all mediated by the sprinkling of blood, by animal sacrifice.  God wanted to be near His people so He dwelled in the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies, and there were all of these layers to the temple, where you had the outer court[the court of the gentiles], the Second court[the court of the Israelites], the Third Court[the Court of the Priests], the Holy Place[accessible only to priests], and the Holy of Holies[only the High Priest could do once a year on Yom Kippur[ the Day of Atonement… At-One-Ment].  The High priest would sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat and in front of the Mercy seat] all of these involved blood… and we wonder why?  God knew all along that His Son, who was with Him since the foundation of the World was going to be the ultimate sacrifice shedding His blood once and for all time so that WE could have MERCY, an intimacy with God not just once a year for one man, but for all who would accept the blood of His Son… this is what we mean when we say there is POWER IN THE BLOOD.

Hebrews 10: 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 

The Heart of Intimacy with God

Our experience of God’s nearness or distance is not a description of his actual proximity to us, but of our experience of trust with him. Scripture shows us that God is intimate with those who trust him. The more we trust God, the more intimately we come to know him. A felt distance from God is often due to a disruption in trust, such as a sin or disappointment.
As it says in Psalms: 

“But as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;

I will tell of all your deeds.

” (Psalm 73:28). 

And as James, the brother of Jesus says: 

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8). 

But, it can be hard to trust.  So, when we feel far from God, we can seek that nearness in ways that don’t produce it.  The two most common ways that Christians try to gain intimacy with God have issues.  If you do them with TRUST, they are fuel.  If you do them without TRUST, they will fail.

Intimacy Is More Than Knowledge

Wednesday night, I shared with the Men’s Ministry about my quest for spreading Bible Reading and Bible Study and my testimony of whey I am the way I am.  Why I accumulate knowledge.

One common mistake is thinking that nearness to God can be achieved through knowledge accumulation. Now, of course, to intimately know God, we must know some crucial things about God. Jesus said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32) and He pointed out to the Samaritan Woman at the Well  “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:22).  So, it is good to study the Word of God and to KNOW things about God.

But, although never in the history of the Christian church has so much theological knowledge been available to so many people as it is today. We have an abundance of Bible translations, commentaries, good books, insightful articles, recorded sermons, interviews, movies, documentaries, music, and more. And much of it is very good. It is right for us to be thankful.

But America… is not overcrowded with Enochs, saints who walk with God in a profoundly intimate way (Genesis 5:24 says: Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. And Hebrews 11:5 recalls: By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.). 

No, America seems to have many more Pharisees than Enochs.

Why? Because knowledge is not synonymous with trust. That’s why Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, the Pharisees who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture,

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39–40)

It’s hard to be more into Bible Study than I am, but hear me, Bible Study is worthless without coming to the Lord, that you may have LIFE.

Biblical knowledge is far better than gold when it fuels our trust in God, because it fuels our intimacy with God (Psalm 19:9-10
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.). 

But when biblical knowledge replaces our trust in God, it only fuels our pride (1 Corinthians 8:1: knowledge puffs up while love builds up.).

So, reading and studying your Bible without Trusting God will not lead to nearness with Him.  But, when we Trust God, reading and studying our bibles will fuel our relationship with Him.  It must start with TRUST in the blood of Jesus.

Why Emotional Experiences Fail

Another common mistake is trying to achieve intimacy with God through emotional experiences.  If we build the right environment, God will “show up.”

Throughout the past, some have pursued and some still do pursue this in highly liturgical environments, the High Church, with seriousness, designed to inspire an experience of transcendence and sacred mystery[picture the beautiful Cathedrals and the swinging of incense and the service in Latin]. 

If that fuels your trust in the Lord, then by all means, it is beautiful in it’s Reverence, it’s Grandeur, but alone, without trusting in the blood of Jesus, it is worthless… a waste of time and treasure.

Let’s go a little closer to home, others pursue it in contemporary worship events designed to inspire an experience of emotion[picture the laser-light show with fog machine]. Some chase revivals, thinking that proximity to God’s power will result in proximity to God. All of these things can fuel your relationship if trust is already there. But none of them inherently possesses the power to conjure God’s nearness to us.

Think of it like this: A candlelit dinner with romantic music may encourage a sweet moment of intimacy between a husband and wife, but only to the degree that the environment encourages and deepens their mutual trust and love. If there’s relational distance between them due to a lack of trust, the environment itself has no power to bridge the distance. Instead, the candlelit dinner becomes a trick, a hoax, a lie. Only restoring trust will lead to real intimacy.

How We Draw Near to God: So it’s not by mind and it’s not by emotions…

The secret to drawing near to God and having him draw near to us is revealed clearly in the Bible: we draw near to God through faith in the blood of Christ who alone gives us access to Him 

Read Hebrews 10 again:

Hebrews 10: 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 

God’s Invitation to Intimacy

God wants intimacy with you. Christ has done the hard part on the cross.  He wants you to trust him with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5:Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;).

Which means his invitation to you to enjoy intimacy with Him is the trials in your life that are testing your faith more than anything else. What you must trust God most for right now is where he means for you to draw closer to him.

But as you read your Bible, do not the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1:)Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Let’s agree with James and Peter that the greatest testing of faith is the path to the greatest joy (James 1:2–4;Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 1 Peter 1:8–9: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.)? 

And with Paul (Philippians 3:8:What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ; 

Romans 8:18: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.)?

Intimacy with God often occurs in the places where we must trust him most… because the way to be near to God is to trust Him.

Pray.

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