Matthew Blewett - Heaven and Earth - Class 3 - Symbolic Synergy

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day three of the 2024 Ottawa Bible School. Our third period teacher is Brother Matthew Blewett. His general topic is Heaven and Earth and today’s topic is Symbolic Synergy. Brother Matthew. Well good morning everyone, good to be back with you all here for the third session. Again, I don’t think I’ll be needing physio like John, but I certainly was taught a lesson with my wife on the pickleball court yesterday.

2. 0:30

   So yeah, I think I got off just before the physio would have been required. But great to enjoy some sporting activities yesterday. So we’re going to be continuing our series on heaven and earth and trying to reveal this pattern and specifically in this particular session, talk about symbols and how this relates to symbols, how we use symbols in our worship and how symbols actually appear all around us in the world that we live in if we are activated.

3. 1:01

   And so to a large extent, I guess what we’ve been talking about up to now might seem quite theoretical. We’re establishing some principles. We’ve been talking about the the overriding purpose and pattern which is found in Genesis one verse one very simple answer to the purpose and meaning and mission of all creation being the joining together of heaven and earth.

4. 1:26

   And that that pattern is designed into all reality, both what we discover as we’ll see over and over again in the word of God and what we see in the world around us. And I think this is really important. And what I really want to get to is that even though the ultimate macrocosm fulfilment of heaven and earth is the Kingdom is Revelation 21 verse one, this purpose is real and present and it’s happening all the time around us if we are aware to it and we can actually participate in the joining of heaven and earth. And so that’s what I mean.

5. 2:00

   And hopefully I’ll be able to give some pragmatic examples this morning about becoming activated disciples. And we’re going to focus on on three words that we’ll mention hopefully a few times. And that is becoming more intentional in. Our worship intentional in our discipleship, becoming more present and becoming more curious. So those are three principles, I think that are very helpful in terms of becoming activated in the way our discipleship plays itself at.

6. 2:33

   So we ended yesterday by really trying to, to, to open up the pattern of heaven and earth to show that you have in these 3 words, a whole bunch of ideas associated with heaven that have to do with idea, that has to do with word, light, meaning, order, understanding, name. And then you have earth, which has to do with concreteness, materiality, chaos, to a certain extent, darkness. These are the words that we associated with, but also fruitfulness and, and those kind of ideas. And we show that in between there is this joining word vav and that when heaven and earth are joined, which is the ultimate purpose.

7. 3:16

   But whenever they are joined, this is when the real transformation takes place. This is when something really important is going on because this is the design of all reality. So what we’re going to start with this morning is to demonstrate that pattern that we’ve identified in Genesis one, verse one. And now that we understand it perhaps a bit more broadly, I want to show how it plays itself out.

8. 3:42

   If you haven’t seen throughout the rest of the creation record, we’ve said that heaven and earth is the mother of all dualities. In other words, we use that word duality, the pair and, and that from that, all of these other pairs or dualities that you see throughout Scripture are actually an example or a repetition of that pattern. And there’s no better place to actually demonstrate that to you than actually in Genesis 1, because I’m sure you’ve noticed when.

9. 4:10

   You’re reading the. Creation record. The creation is actually presented to us with dualities. So if you haven’t, hopefully you will see it right now. So there’s a slide and if you’re sitting at the back that does not abide by the 34 point principle. So you might find it difficult to see. But hopefully you are able to see that quite busy slide.

10. 4:30

    And I want to just take you through a part of that slide so that you can get this idea of the repeating pattern of heaven and earth and it. Helps really for us to begin to understand how. First of all, how intrinsic this pattern is to the Scripture and then also help us to understand why it’s useful in terms of the lens that we look at Scripture and then the lens that we look at the whole world.

11. 4:52

    So obviously on the left hand side, we’ve got Genesis one verse one establishes the original duality, heaven and earth. And then we see that for each day there is this, this, this sort of flowing out, as I said, of duality. So for day one, the key duality is represented in light and dark, in day and night.

12. 5:12

    And so we have this, this understanding that you had the earth which was without. Form. And void and you know, it’s this idea of, of chaos, this idea of nothingness. But but but it isn’t really that. What we’re going to see from creation is that which looks like it’s dark and nothing has potential if it can meet with heaven.

13. 5:37

    And so that’s what’s going on in day one. You’ve got the light of heaven meeting with the darkness, the chaos of earth. And so you have in that meeting, day one, a meeting of heaven and earth. And again, it’s, it’s teaching us about how this operates in our daily lives. We we, we can find ourselves in times where in our earthly realm, in our earthly experiences, things feel chaotic.

14. 6:02

    There, there it. Seems like things don’t have any meaning and in those times it feels like we’re in the darkness, in the valley of the shadow of death and and suddenly. We, we, we, we’re. Able to connect with the meaning. Often it may be by by by someone connecting us back to the spiritual insights that we’ve lost and the right chance.

15. 6:23

    And suddenly there is all the potential that can come out of that dark. Situation. So that is a joining of heaven and earth in that particular example. And so we come to day two again. Day two presents us with the idea of sky and earth. In fact, day two specifically says it like this.

16. 6:44

    It says there are the waters above and the waters below. Remember we said we associate heaven with above and we associate earth with below. Really interesting. So waters above, think about that waters above the waters that are are fresh, the waters that give laugh or out that provide laugh. It’s it’s because of the waters above that when we put a seed into the earth, when the waters above come down, that the potential.

17. 7:10

    Of the seed. Comes to laugh and the waters below, well again, that’s going to be used a lot as a pattern throughout scripture. The dark chaotic waters below the salt, the waters where there is like the Dead Sea as an example. So that’s the idea of chaos and used over and over again throughout the pattern of Scripture to represent that, to represent the nations, a place where there is no meaning, where there is no order.

18. 7:36

    So there. We have it coming out again. Look at day three as well. Really interesting. And you would have noticed this. We’ve mentioned this before, seed and fruit. Seed representing heaven. Why you might say, well, heaven is about identity, it is about meaning, it is about purpose, it is about a name. And from that seed, from that meaning, from that purpose, then there’s a materialization of the fruit.

19. 8:06

    And this is beginning, beginning to also. Show us that both heaven and earth are playing a role in our experience of reality, in the world that we live in, the way that God created it. We’ve mentioned this before. A part of the role that Earth is playing is it’s materializing the spiritual idea. The seed that we can hardly experience or understand becomes the fruit.

20. 8:30

    And so we have seed and fruit. Day four, sun and moon won’t go into that in detail, but you can think about that as a heaven and earth duality. Look at this one. In day five, you got birds contrasted with fish in the day five creation record. And again, if you think about this from what you know about scripture, why would I say birds heaven? Well, because they’re up above, they fly up above and then you’ve got the fish down in the chaotic sea and just think about how that rolls out.

21. 9:02

    If you think we’re we’re stretching it when the spirit is going to be. Represented as an animal in the Word of God. What have we got? A dove when we’re going to use the word of God to use an animal to represent death in the. Grave What are we going to use a big fish. I can lip read you.

22. 9:24

    Nobody said that a big fish Jonah in the in in the. Belly of the whale. So we have that same heaven and earth contrast coming up. This is the part that I always get nervous with. All right. Well, we’re not quite there. Man and animals. And remember, This is why we started by looking at the fractal patterns. You’re going to start seeing that depending on the scale or the zoom of the pattern, something when you’re looking at it as a contrast, could sometimes be actually earth in, in contrast, for example, man to God. But in this example, we’ve got man in day six being contrasted to the animals.

23. 9:59

    All right, so we’re going to see just now that man is a very special part of God’s creation. Why? Because man is given understanding, man is given the ability to name, to find meaning. That’s the essential differentiator of man. And as a result, he has that heavenly quality. Remember when we looked at the association words with heaven of authority, whereas the animals are do not have that quality.

24. 10:25

    And that’s why in in Genesis and when, when the animals are created in day six, what does God say to man? He says I want you to have authority over all of these animals. So again we see this, this division between heaven and earth, each one slightly different, teaching us something different. So this is. The one that I get a bit nervous of, male and female. All right now, it’s very important. This is not about good and bad.

25. 10:50

    If I can get that message over, you know, it can be very simple to think, oh, you’ve got heaven and you’ve got earth. The one is good and the one is bad. The meeting of heaven and earth is what it’s all about. Each is playing a. Role in the creation as God has designed it and so you might say well why is it like that one of it’s interesting even listening to to to John’s talk in the session before this how he was really starting to bring out the clear representations that then are further.

26. 11:15

    Patterns of this but but using the heaven and earth lens. Here the man is providing the seed. He’s providing the name, as it were. He is providing the authority. If you want to use that word, the woman is providing the fruit. In a sense, she takes the seed of the man and she materializes it in a womb. So now you have a child.

27. 11:39

    And so she is, as it were, hosting the seed. That’s what the earth does it. It hosts the meaning it. Hosts the seed of heaven and that’s exactly what’s happening with a man, a male and a female as we have in day six. And then just really interesting just to really. Like try and and and and give you as many examples of it.

28. 11:59

    We also have that really interesting contrast. I’m sure you’ve noticed it in day six where it keeps talking about cattle and wild animals. Cattle. And you think, well, you know, you know, why not just say you just created all the animals? Well, because there’s a distinction here, isn’t there? Like there’s a distinction between cattle that are domesticated and wild animals.

29. 12:17

    I can tell you I’ve come from from Africa, you know, I’m quite happy to walk around with a couple of sheep and donkeys. But I’m not too keen to walk around with lions and leopards and elephants because those guys are wild, they’re chaotic. I don’t know what they’re going to do next. So again, can you see the heaven on earth split in that duality?

30. 12:35

    The cattle is domesticating. We’ve been able to to create some order around, we’ve been able to understand it. There’s there’s a level of understanding whilst the wild animal, well, that’s that. Represents the the the chaos and the disorder that we associate with Earth. And, and I hope your minds are also now flicking and saying, well, all these got to be reconciled because heaven and earth is going to be joined and all of these get reconciled.

31. 12:58

    And now you know why when you you read certain Kingdom passages, these things are brought together. Why is it that the lion must lie down with her, the lamb? It’s the reconciliation of each of these examples. The. Fractal pattern playing itself out over and over again. So the intention of that, that’s the end of the theory. That’s just to try and like really give you lots of examples and open your mind to start seeing this in many, many other parts of Scripture because this is all over Scripture. It’s just that Genesis 1 thankfully gives us a really good starting point just to practice. So The thing is, because God created reality like this. And This is why, you know, this moves from just being something we learn and we understand, but to something very pragmatic because, you know, I don’t know, this is just something that I experience.

32. 13:49

    There’s always the risk that we, we kind of reduce our discipleship and we reduce the spiritual to a bunch of ideas and concepts. It becomes something academic. And I know that we’re as a community often criticized that that’s where we end up. The reality is that the true transformation actually happens in the meeting of.

33. 14:14

    The spiritual and the earthly. And the reason that’s true is because the spiritual is not just an idea. It’s Paul who says the Kingdom of God is not words alone, but. Power and a part of experiencing that power and understanding it is through our participation in the real world, through the earthly things that we practice and do and the world that we encounter. It is not like we’re being called to some sort of ethereal religion where we just got to have a whole bunch of ideas flying around in our minds.

34. 14:48

    That’s not the way it’s been designed. So let’s see how we see this in the real world. Well, here’s the thing. Like as we saw in the creation, we have this beautiful idea that that we are seeing examples of heaven and earth all the time. So there it was in Genesis in the in the first day that the light came and and it brought this beautiful potential out of the dark and and, and void of the earth. But, but think about this every single day. God twice a day is giving the world a demonstration of when heaven kisses earth.

35. 15:28

    And we see this so beautifully as an example, at sunset and sunrise and, and, and So what happens at sunrise? If you think about it, it’s nighttime and we know what it’s like at nighttime. Everything changes. You know, nothing quite looks the same. It gets a bit confusing. We trip over things if we don’t have our, our, our lights. And then as the sun rises as, as it were, the light of heaven rises every morning.

36. 15:52

    It begins first of all to reveal the. Forms. And still we can’t make out everything. There isn’t quite all the understanding and the meaning. But as the sun completely rises, suddenly things start to take shape and meaning and understanding. And so we have as a demonstration of the meeting of heaven and earth, sunrise and sunset. But but that’s not all that’s happening. That’s the idea of heaven giving out the potential or anointing, as it were, the earth with potential, with meaning. But also at the same time, the earth is responding to the, to, to, to, to the, the, the heaven it is. It is in a way multiplying.

37. 16:32

    It is helping us to see that light in a way that we may not have been able to perceive it. And you know, this is true because if you go and watch a beautiful sunset, what makes it really beautiful is when there are many elements of the earth that are refracting the light. So, for example, clouds, or maybe you’re looking over a mountainscape.

38. 16:54

    You can imagine the picture. And what’s happening is that light is, is, is in a sense being multiplied. It’s becoming abundant. And we’re able to to perceive it in a way that maybe we couldn’t see it before. Can you see the exchange that’s happening between heaven and earth? And you know, it’s so interesting because it, even if you don’t have any, any spiritual bone in your body, if you’ve got a friend who’s secular, you take them to a beautiful sunset, you sit them down with you and you watch that sunset and everybody goes quiet.

39. 17:28

    It’s just that inner sense of awe. It’s like it’s it’s designed into us that this is a moment when all of the the design and purpose of creation is being demonstrated. As the as the as heaven kisses earth, as I like to describe it. And you know, there are many other examples of this that we get to experience in nature.

40. 17:49

    Here’s a great example. That picture’s actually taken from the town in which I live, which we’ll talk about for a few minutes this evening. The town of Franchuk, which most of you will battle to pronounce. But here’s this beautiful. Idea that we know that when light comes onto the earth, when there’s that moment at which the light of heaven touches earth at just the right angle, really interesting 42° and and with everything just at the right positioning in terms of the rain that has been showering upon the land, suddenly the light is amplified. So here’s the earth materializing, as it were, the spiritual idea and, and, and, and I like to call it, it’s the, the harvest of the light, the rainbow. That’s what it is.

41. 18:33

    It’s showing you all the different elements of the spiritual truth. And and it’s another example of when heaven meets earth and you know, so, so cool because when the rainbow was actually put into heaven by God after the flood. These are the words. If you want to, maybe it’s better just to look it up.

42. 18:55

    Genesis Chapter 9 and we’re at the record of Noah and at verse. We’ll just read the one verse because I think now that you’ve got your heaven and earth lenses on. You’ll see how this is the language of heaven and earth. So Genesis 9, verse 13, I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. So this is the meeting point.

43. 19:25

    So I’m showing you, I’m showing you that this pattern will not ever end, that we are going to have a union between heaven and earth. And this this beautiful meeting that you’re seeing in the. Harvest of Light is a covenant is a token is a symbol to show you that this is being fulfilled now and will be fulfilled continuously until it’s ultimately fulfilled in the macrocosm of the purpose of all creation. Well, other examples.

44. 19:58

    Well, let’s bring it closer to home. The creation, arguably of the the most important being or creature that was created by God in Genesis 2 verse seven reads like this and the Lord God. Formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. And so we can now see that absolutely we as the unique creation of.

45. 20:29

    God are the. Union of heaven and earth that breath that that Ruach that spirit is put into the clay, the soil. And this is this unique, unique position that we were put into by God so that like he joined heaven and earth and has as his purpose to continue to join heaven and earth. We were designed with a unique ability to do that. That spirit, that thing that makes us in the image of God, that word that’s implanted in every one of you, that actually allows you to sit in this room and hopefully make some sense of what I’m saying.

46. 21:09

    Because you can, you can, you can understand, you can see meaning and purpose, which separates you from the rest of everything else out there. And that’s why you can walk around and join heaven and earth. And this is in our very construction of who we are as living beings. And then of course, perhaps the ultimate example of the joining of heaven and earth in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have these words in Luke one and the Angel said to Mary. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the. Power of the highest will over shadow you. Therefore also the Holy One who is born will be called the Son of God.

47. 21:53

    Beautiful. Just think of the imagery, the Spirit of God. Coming down into the womb of the woman, the idea of heaven and earth meeting in this man in a way like it had never happened before in a macro version of the Adamic creation with the second Adam. As a meeting of heaven and earth.

48. 22:11

    And that’s why John, you know, he just pulls all these ideas together. He says, look, I mean you, you know that, that the Genesis record, Genesis 1 teaches you that it was all made with words and and spiritual ideas. And he says that in the beginning was the word. So that’s that’s, that’s the seed.

49. 22:30

    It’s all wisdom, everything in this dense seed of word. There it all. Is meaning, purpose, understanding all in in the word and then what happens? Well, we know verse 14 and the word became flesh. The word meets the earth. The heaven meets the earth and dwelled among us and what happens? What happens when heaven meets earth?

50. 22:54

    Why do we want to see it today and why are we hoping to see it in the future? Well, that’s the. Moment of transformation. Choose your word. Beauty, glory, these these very high level words, that’s what happens. And that’s why he says in John one, when flesh word became flesh and dwelt among us, we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only.

51. 23:19

    And so that’s what. Happened. Jesus hosted the purpose, he hosted the word, everything that God ever intended, and he was able to manifest and live it out. And for us, it is through his life that we gain a better understanding of that word. Without it, we’re all the worse because we can, we can get into his life. We, we, we, we think, you know, I can tell you that God is love. Or you can can enter in as best you can, into the story of a man who’s pulled up on a cross, whose hands are nailed to it with a crown of thorns thrust upon his head. And it’s full of physical reality. And he’s sweating and the blood is pouring from his brow. And the barbaric soldiers are hurling insults at him, and there’s pain in his face and there’s dust. And in the midst of all of it.

52. 24:21

    He says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, and heaven meets earth. And now we know that when Paul says in Romans, it is only when we perceive love through the Lord Jesus Christ, through the reality of that meeting, that we can begin to comprehend the length and the width and the heart and the breadth of this thing that is incomprehensible other than through experiences such as this that we can enter into. So those are some really clear examples and. What I’d like to do now is to, like a university lecturer, give you a.

53. 24:58

    Worked example. I think there’s no better, more pragmatic way to show the the the joining of heaven and earth together and some of the ideas related to that than the story of Jacob’s letter. So if you’d like to go there. It’s in Genesis 28 and we’re just going to spend a few minutes in this well known story.

54. 25:18

    You know it well, but I’m going to try and pick out a few points there that. Just maybe you haven’t seen it through this lens, because this is a classic joining of heaven and earth, Verse 10 of Genesis 28. Now, Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Heyro. And by the way, every detail. Yeah, man, we could spend a whole day on this. Just very briefly, when Jacob has caused trouble and there’s chaos because his brother now wants to kill him and he’s got to run.

55. 25:47

    It’s very interesting that his mother points him to family, points them to identity, points them, as it were, in brackets. Even though we might say, well, going away from Israel, you’re going now to Heiran. All right, That doesn’t look like he’s going in the right direction. But in that sense, it was the right direction.

56. 26:03

    He’s got to go back from chaos to find his identity, to find his purpose. And that’s why she sends them to to Laban. He came in verse 11 to a certain place. I love the way the Scripture does that because, you know, it’s kind of like this is just some random place, some arbitrary place suddenly looks pretty good. I can spend the night.

57. 26:21

    In fact, the text kind of implies that he, he had to rush to make a decision because the sun was setting and he doesn’t want to be out in the dark. He was obviously in a big rush because he decides to use a stone as a pillow. So things are happening here. And of course, we know what happens. He, he has a, a decent night’s sleep, it appears. But then he has a dream and there’s a ladder. And look at the detail with the heaven and earth lens set up on earth and its top reaches to heaven. And the angels of God are ascending and descending on it. Oh wow, this is Genesis one verse one heaven and earth connected.

58. 26:57

    That’s what he’s having revealed to him. This is what it’s about Jacob. And behold, the Lord stood above it. Look at what the Lord says to him. What’s heaven going to offer him? So you might think we’re stretching all these associations. What’s heaven going to offer him? This is what it’s going to offer him.

59. 27:12

    I am the Lord God of your father, Abraham, the God of Isaac. The land in which I will give you, I will give to you and your descendants. Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the West, to the east, to the north and the South. And you, you, and in all your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

60. 27:28

    Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and we’ll bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I’ve done what I’ve spoken to you. He gives him identity, He gives him purpose. He says here’s promises, here’s direction, here’s a name and and here’s a seed. And as a result, you are going to be fruitful. You’re going to host this, you’re going to have and you see how he describes the the families of the earth as the dust.

61. 27:58

    Of the earth. That’s not that’s not just used as a metaphor, that’s absolutely in keeping with the pattern. Your families will be as the dust of the earth. You see Jacob heaven and earth will be connected and here is an example of that pattern and Jacob gets it says verse 16, he woke up from his sleep. He said surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.

62. 28:25

    He was afraid and said how awesome is this place? This is None. Other than the. House of God, this is the gate of heaven. So this is this is where the rubber hits the sand because you know. The place that he came to, we were told a bit later on, was named Laz.

63. 28:40

    You all know that. And he renames it Bethel, the House of God. Now the word Laz actually comes from the, the, the origin is an almond tree or, or a similar type of, of nut tree. And really the, the etymology of the word is the idea of those trees that were twisted. So in a, in a sense, you’ve got this place that was twisted.

64. 29:01

    Maybe the idea is a little bit to do with chaotic. Maybe I’m stretching it. And then he says but. Now I’ve discovered this is the House of God. This is the place of the ladder, the place of connection. And why? Because He had a moment where he was intentional, He was present and he.

65. 29:22

    Was able to realize that connection between heaven and earth. And so the question is, you know, how many times, how many places, how many spaces do we go to that are just certain places? And we miss the opportunity for the House of God. We miss the opportunity to make that place a place where heaven and earth meet.

66. 29:44

    And what’s really interesting just to bring this together is, I mean, whether Jacob got all of this. The point is that the patent plays it out itself out over and over again. But Jacob actually does two things in response to this dream that he has. And they both really interesting because they haven’t really happened before. The first is he does something which I’ve always thought is rather crazy.

67. 30:06

    He takes some very precious oil. Didn’t didn’t look like he had much, didn’t even have a pillow, but he had some oil and he takes it and he pours it over the rock that he was sleeping on. It’s the first occasion we have anointing, so he institutes the idea of anointing. Why would you do that?

68. 30:22

    Now there’s some beautiful echoes all the way to the Messiah, to Christ, absolutely. But why would you do that? I put it to you. He’s understanding the exchange between heaven and earth. And the first is that earth will host the meaning, the meaning of heaven that this pillar comes to represent the fact that you’ve made these promises and it’s my responsibility to host it. And so in a sense that the oil is is is the. Spirit, as we will see later on in the Tabernacle, in the temple that is poured out on the earth, it’s heaven poured on earth, it makes something holy.

69. 30:57

    That’s what’s going on there. We receive. The purpose and the meaning from heaven. And then what does he do? He says what I’ll do is I’ll take the power that I have and I will make an offering. In this specific example, he says, I’ll give you a 10th of everything I’ve got. You want to understand where the basis for offering and sacrifice is.

70. 31:18

    Well, you see, once once I understand that I’m hosting a purpose, I will give up what I have towards that purpose. My life completely, that the things that I do now are oriented towards that purpose and things must be given up so that I can be refined towards that purpose. That’s the principle of sacrifice, and we know that to be true at all layers when we have a purpose.

71. 31:44

    We refine ourselves towards that purpose and those principles I hope are being demonstrated in my little picture here and and we know that just to put it all together, as we were saying yesterday, the true way in which that comes together is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one that that truly made that connection possible, certainly for us.

72. 32:05

    And so it is that Jesus says in John one in verse 51 at the very end when he’s talking to Nathaniel and he says, you think it was amazing. That I could tell you that you were sitting under the fig tree. You’re going to see greater things coming. You will see the angels going up and down the Son of Man. He pulls back from Genesis 28 and says, actually, I’m the latter.

73. 32:29

    I’m the VAV. I’m the true ultimate connector between heaven and earth. So really so many of the ideas we’re trying to share with are are in that space.

74. 32:41

    We’ve caught this section symbolic synergy, and we are there at last. So we talk a lot about symbols in our public or conversations, our spiritual conversations. But of course, symbols are are used throughout language and, and, and I want to spend a bit of time maybe just using the heaven and earth lens to show you the value that symbols can have when we approach them correctly.

75. 33:06

    So we’re specifically wanting to focus on symbols as they relate to heavenly things because symbols can be used in all sorts of areas. Although many of the principles actually that we talk about apply as well. So here’s a very sort of generic definition for a symbol. A symbol is a mark, a sign, a word or object that represents or stands for something else, typically an idea, an object, a concept or relationship. Symbols can be visual, verbal, behavioural and they often carry.

76. 33:37

    Specific meanings or convey particular messages that go beyond their literal sense. So here’s an interesting thing. If you look at that definition, we see that that’s exactly what we’re encountering with the duality of heaven and earth, that what we have in a symbol is something that is. Physical in the sense that it might be visual, it might be something we can hear, it might be a behaviour that we practice that is connected to a more important idea or message or, or concept. And when those two things come together, there is a, a power, something more than they are apart, as it were. I, I like to call that a synergy. That’s why we’re calling this symbolic synergy. And it’s really important to have that framework because, you know, sometimes you hear people saying, well, it’s only a symbol, like as if symbols don’t really matter. We, we have this idea that a symbol is just a visual aid or a metaphor.

77. 34:36

    Well, that would be a mistake. It can be both of. Those. But it’s something more than that. It’s the idea. That if we can keep the symbol and understand all of its physical attributes and can be sensitized towards them whilst at the same time joining it. With the heavenly that we can experience the true transform formation that is intended in symbols. Now as we know in the old covenant there were many more symbols that God actually put in place to help with this very thing, to help people on a constant basis to be joining heaven and earth.

78. 35:12

    And we know that what happened to a large extent is they failed. They failed to to work with the earth, the object or practice in a way that it was joining the heavenly. And so eventually you had these kind of verdicts like we have in Amos. I hate, I despise your religious festivals.

79. 35:32

    Your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the music of your hops. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream.

80. 35:53

    So what’s happened there? Well, of course. As is, is something that we’re all at risk of doing when that earthly practice or that earthly thing no longer is working together to amplify and to host the heavenly idea well, it just becomes an object. Or at worst, it becomes an idol, something that we’re addicted to, to, to being with because we think it has some value in and of itself.

81. 36:23

    When the ritual is something we’re just going through the motions and we’ve lost its connection and its ability to connect us with heaven, it just becomes a ritual In the practice. I should rather say it becomes a ritual. And so it’s no longer actually a symbol. By definition. The connection is lost. It’s a ritual.

82. 36:39

    It’s an idol, it’s an object. But when they are merged together, there is this power of symbolic synergy. So these symbols all around, and we’re going to talk about them for a moment. In the time that remains, as I’ve said, I think there’s something way more powerful than perhaps we perhaps traditionally as a community put to these symbols. And, and really it’s this idea of participating in a more activated way to being intentional, present and curious when you are working with symbols. So the new covenant, we know that many of the symbols of the old covenant are, well, you might argue removed, but certainly they are certainly not required. And I would say to you that actually the idea of any symbol being required as something you have to do for salvation. Well, that doesn’t work.

83. 37:32

    And we’ll talk a bit more about that tomorrow because we’re saved by grace. So we’re, we’re looking at it from the wrong angle, but certainly when we come to the New covenant, I want to focus on some of the symbols that we’re all familiar with and some of them you might not think of symbols. One of the.

84. 37:47

    Symbols, that is, by our definition, a symbol is the fact that we practice music and and singing as worship. You’ll see that was one of the examples given by Amos. So that’s an earthly activity, all right. You can hear the music, you hear everybody else singing. You can actually watch them singing, which is often a lot more fun. It’s a material activity, but what we do is we try and connect that with heavenly ideas and so.

85. 38:13

    It’s the right symbol when the two things come together beautifully. And of course, this has been something that’s that’s been, you know, around for a long time. The first song that we actually have recorded in the Bible is when Moses and the children of Israel go to the Red Sea and Moses comes through successfully and in Exodus. 15 We read Moses, and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord, and we’ve got all the words of the song, we just don’t have the music. Pity.

86. 38:39

    So we’ve got the first song there, and this symbol of singing and praising goes all the way through to this ultimate example we have here in Revelation. Five of this beautiful song. That we’re going to be able to participate in with a, with a choir and with musical instruments like we can’t even begin to imagine.

87. 38:59

    But the beauty is like now and later on today we are going to be able to have a moment to try and experience. It. And that’s what’s happening when we are engaging in singing and musical worship. And so when someone says to me, well, all that matters is the words, well, they don’t understand heaven and earth, then we might as well just put the music off and let someone just read the words. No, that’s not what’s going on.

88. 39:25

    Yet something else is happening. The earthly element is amplifying the message we know. This is true. You, you know that you’ve been in the circumstance in your life where suddenly there’s been some music or a song and you’re able to connect with it, meaning that perhaps because of the circumstance of your life or whatever that’s going through, you’ve never been able to do before and you will move deeply.

89. 39:46

    This is what’s going on this. Is the the, the, the power of a symbol when it’s approached in the correct way kind of running out of time, but I want to do this. You know, Handel, he wrote that beautiful Handel’s Messiah. He was actually inspired, I didn’t know this, but that passage there to write Handel’s Messiah.

90. 40:04

    So I thought he would have been an Isaiah, but that’s actually the original passage that inspired him to use music to to try and join all of these ideas together with the earth. And he wrote that, that that whole, is it called a concerto, the whole thing. What do you call that? I don’t know why I’m looking at you, but she’s got experience handles oratorio. There we go.

91. 40:27

    I knew it was something like that. He wrote the whole oratorio in 24 days. He kind of. Locked himself up. He just like he was just so moved and and I’m sure you you would be able to to remember this part of it if it works.

92. 40:57

    None. Sorry you got to hear my voice again, but like, how do we how do we activate that more? How do we participate with it? Are we just going to be passive in our music, or are we going to listen as clearly as we can to all the elements of the instruments? Are we going to be intentional when we stand up to sing?

93. 41:42

    You know, some of us don’t quite have the voices of others, but then we’ll try and make a joyful noise to the Lord. Or we’re going to activate in the hope that the more we participate in the music, in listening carefully, using all of our senses whilst at the same time. Joining it to the heavenly concepts and ideas that that’s the moment of transformation available for us.

94. 42:03

    That is how the symbol can bold the experience of our relationship with God in our lives. And that’s an example in singing. He’s going to start singing. What about another one? Here’s a symbol, baptism. Now we we know that the physical act of baptism cannot be saving us, but yet we as a community will say that you should be baptized.

95. 42:32

    Well, again, it’s because we’re practicing the idea of the power of the symbol. If there was no power in the earthly aspect of that, in other words, going down into the water, taking the first breath when you come out of the water, if there was no, no value in that, then we might as well call those who want to be baptized together, show them a picture and say, let me use this as a visual aid to show you what really you’re coming to do, which is just, you know, this is the spiritual idea that you are having your sins washed away.

96. 43:01

    That you are going to become a new creation, that you’re going to be associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Have you got it? Yes, you’ve got it. Well, that’s fine, but that’s not the way it works. We, we, we, we intrinsically believe. And I believe we are right when we look at all of this, this pattern of heaven and earth, that the participation in this symbol is incredibly valuable. So that’s baptism.

97. 43:28

    Well, let’s move it to one further step, the breaking of bread and wine. So yes, again, if I had to ask you what’s going on here, lots of spiritual ideas, lots of heavenly ideas, forgiveness, unity, sacrifice, remembering the Lord Jesus Christ, all of those are heavenly principles ideas. So again, if the symbol is just a visual aid, just put a picture up there, or maybe just put it on the front and you can look at it and that can remind you.

98. 43:59

    But we don’t do that. We want to I love the way Paul says it. Perhaps I’m I’m cheating a bit with the use of the word in this particular content, But he says is not the cup of Thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ and is not the bread that we break a participation. There’s this invitation to participate. There’s an earthly element to it. There’s, there’s the opportunity for you to raise all of your senses.

99. 44:24

    And you know, if you think about it as as a symbol that Jesus instituted, it’s very sensory. There’s the visual element of the bread and wine. There’s the texture in your mouth or in your hands. There’s the taste, there’s the smell, all of those elements of earth. And, and, and what do we do? Are we heartening those?

100. 44:48

     Are we thinking about them as we as we eat the bread and as we taste the wine and as we’re doing that and we’re heartening our physical senses, we’re joining that as much as we can with all of the ideas that are represented by it. And in that moment, there’s a moment of transformation.

101. 45:06

     You don’t need me to tell you that some of you have had 2500 opportunities or more. I was seeing a calculation to. To break bread and drink wine. But you know that there have been those moments when just everything has come together, and in the very act of the participation, something moved deep within you. And you never think to yourself, well, I’ve done it 2500 times up.

102. 45:29

     I won’t bother to do it the 2500 and first time because I know what it’s, I know what it’s like. No, we’re intentional. We’re present and we’re. Curious, we expect there to be an opportunity for something to surprise us, something to to be new to be revealed to us in a way that we haven’t seen it before and you know, sometimes I, I do get a bit concerned because, you know, we come to the breaking of bread and, and. Of course, there’s so many things going on here. Yes, yes, it’s about reminding us about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

103. 46:02

     And yes, there’s an element of the breaking of bread that says that Jesus is going to do it again with us in the Kingdom. And, and we use the term, I don’t know about you, but, but over in South Africa, we call it the memorial service. I don’t like it. I know it has some basis because Jesus said Remember Me. And so we take the word remember and we say memorial. But you know, the problem is in today’s language we have memorial services for dead people. We put up memorial plots for dead people. What is going on?

104. 46:32

     What makes this particular participation so powerful? Jesus says this is my body, this is my blood. I am your living Saviour. I’m alive and present and so as you’re participating in that, in that eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine, you’re participating in adjoining of heaven and earth in the most powerful way, the very one who is the bar, the very nail present and wanting to enter into you. You know, I heard it once controversial. He said that the most.

105. 47:08

     Useless thing we do is to break bread and drink wine. I thought I’d say that to see if anybody’s still awake. The most useless thing we do is to break bread and drink wine now you might say. Why do you say that? Well, because we use the word use to mean that we have something that has another purpose.

106. 47:26

     Like scissors are useful. I use them so that I can cut a piece of paper or do whatever I want with them. The scissors of themselves, I mean they are there for a use. The breaking of bread and the drinking of wine. Yes, it can have a lot of uses. We can come and we can learn and we can we can praise. But it is in of itself a powerful moment for the joining of heaven and earth, for your faith, for your relationship. It is in and of itself the moment that you can experience heaven and earth joining.

107. 48:02

     I’m ready. 5 minutes over. So we’ve got some exciting stuff to talk about how Jesus interacted with symbols and I don’t think I’m going to do that now. So thank you for your diligent attention and for not walking out on me.