HOLY VOCABULARY:
UNPACKING THE LANGUAGE OF FAITH
Our
words have a way of changing over time.
“At
first, I thought he was awful, but he turned out to be a nice guy.”
Think
you know what that statement means?
Consider
the original meaning of these words:
- Awful. Something full of awe and inspiring reverential wonder.
- Nice. The word originally referred to something silly or foolish, ignorant or senseless.
- Guy. This word used to refer to someone frightening or grotesque. Guy Fawkes was part of an attempt to blow up the British Parliament in 1605. Afterwards, the people would burn in effigy – a “Guy Fawkes” or a “Guy”.
Although
English vocabulary continues to grow and many words slowly change in meaning,
our understanding of some words should never change. Unfortunately, however, it
does. When our culture changes the connotations of some words, it can seriously
impact our understanding of truth.
In
this study, we’re going to recapture the meaning of six key words and phrases
in the Bible.
Holy
/ Lost / Salvation / Faith / Sanctified / Eternal Life
Click Here to Watch Series Promo
It
doesn’t matter how our culture uses these words; what matters is how God
intended for us to understand them. Their meaning makes all the difference in
the world.
THE POINT: God is distinct from and above absolutely everything else.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
“You are one of a kind!”
Depending on who says it, that statement can be a compliment or an
insult. When my nanna said it to me, it was always a good thing. She would say,
“You’re not like your brother or your mother. Boy, you are unique!” And I
always believed her.
It applies to you too. No one is exactly like you. When you put
all the pieces together—your physical makeup, your personality, your
temperament, your interests—you are truly unique. And God is big enough to put a different print on the
fingers of each individual in all of human history!
But you are also somewhat interchangeable. You can donate blood
and even certain organs that keep another person alive. Knee and hip
replacements are proof that our parts can be replaced. And because of broken
bones, many people have metal screws and plates. Many parts of our bodies are
interchangeable and replaceable.
Only One is unique and completely unlike any other being in all of
creation—the One who created all things. God is truly distinct.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Isaiah 40:25-26
25 “To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the
Holy One. 26 Look up and see! Who created these? He brings out the stars by
number; he calls all of them by name. Because of his great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.
When my kids were young, they loved playing with Play-Doh®.
Molding and shaping that squishy stuff, they would form it into the weirdest of shapes and
come up with the most extravagant names for their creations. What I thought was
just a blue stick or a yellow ball would end up as a main character in their
make-believe story; each one had a name, a job, and a role to play in their narrative.
And then they would ask me to play. “Daddy, make something with us.” The only thing
my finite brain could come up with was a ball and bat.
I could never come up with things as imaginative as they could. My
creative juices flowed more like clumpy old motor oil. But my kids always came
up with wildly original things. On an infinitely larger scale, the things we
“create” are nothing compared with what God creates. Our God is so creative and
unique that He is totally unlike and far above anything we could ever think to
make. Through the prophet Isaiah, God asked two foundational questions: (1) Who
is like me? and (2) Who is equal to me? If we attempt to answer those rhetorical
questions with anything but the obvious answer “no one,” then we have not set
apart God as holy. We have erroneously set as equals two distinctly differing
beings.
Question 2:
In what settings
do you find yourself in awe of God?
Consider
who is asking these questions: “the Holy One.” The word holy describes
someone or something that is devoted or set apart. For example, at the end of
creation, God declared the seventh day holy, meaning it was set apart and
different from the other six days (Gen. 2:2-3). “Holy” certainly applies to
God, because He is totally separate and unique from anyone and anything else.
Our
God is so holy and set apart that Jewish people will not pronounce the
covenantal name God told Moses: Yahweh (Ex. 3:13-14), which essentially
means I AM. Instead, they will substitute Adonai, which means Lord. Even
in most English translations, “Yahweh” is replaced with the word Lord in caps
(or lower caps). (See Isa. 40:27.)
If
anyone wants to know what makes Him unique, the Holy One says: look and see for
yourself. No one but God can bring out the stars, number them, and call them
all by name. No
other being could have named and known each star. And certainly no one could
have made a
single star, yet God made each one! God stands alone in this, highlighting just
how holy He is. His holiness cannot be undone by anyone or anything.
God’s
declaration really puts our own fallible and finite nature into perspective.
Our own attempts
to be creative look like preschool Play-Doh games alongside God’s creative power.
In fact, God created the very elements in the Play-Doh we used to make our childish
creations!
He is
the Creator. We are the created. If we can keep that in perspective, then we
set Him apart in our hearts as holy and acknowledge Him as Master and Creator.
Isaiah 40:27-28
27 Jacob, why do you say, and, Israel, why do you assert: “My way
is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28 Do you not
know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the
whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding.
God used Isaiah to speak these words of comfort to the Jews. The
cause of their murmurings may have been when the Assyrian army was at the door
threatening to attack. They didn’t know what to do.
We also know times when we don’t know what to do. It is easy for
us to complain when we’re scared or don’t know what the future holds. We
grumble in our uncertainty and search for answers—but we do so with no clear
direction of where to look for the right answer. Too often we have more than
enough voices offering us an answer, but we lack the wisdom to hear the correct
response above all their noise.
We have only one voice worth listening to: God. God is set apart
from all other voices because He is the only One who knows all things and has
wisdom about the right course of action. He is holy in His wisdom. His
knowledge is unmatched in all the world.
If God has the wisdom to create the whole earth, the wisdom to
create an ecosystem that keeps nature in balance, and the wisdom to create the
human body with all its intricacies, He certainly can handle all of our
questions and concerns. We need to be more like toddlers, asking questions
freely and constantly. Instead, we’re too often like teenagers, no longer asking
anything because they think they know it all.
How can God know all that is going on in my life and the direction
my life is heading? When such questions arise in our minds, we’re doing what
the Jews did when they wondered if God had forgotten about them or had no
direction for them. Even when we are experiencing those “dry seasons” when we
wonder if God has forgotten about us or has any direction for us, God is
present, He knows us, and He knows what we need. That is why He is God and we
are not. We cannot even begin to fathom His understanding. He never tires or
grows weary of our question and needs. God is without equal in His knowledge,
and His infinite wisdom points to His holiness.
Question 3:
When have you felt that God was unaware or uninvolved in your
circumstances?
Isaiah 40:29-31
29 He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless.
30 Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31 but
those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings
like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.
Facing our weaknesses is not just about physical limitations. We
can struggle spiritually. We can feel weak when it comes to maintaining good
relationships, struggling with temptation, or enduring difficulties at home or
work. We may want to do the right thing, but we can’t stand on our own. Thankfully,
God can sustain us. In fact, God is the only One who can sustain us. To sustain
means to strengthen or support mentally or physically. And we all need to be
strengthened and supported, even when we are young. No one can sustain himself nonstop;
we all have limits.
But we don’t have to remain held down by our limitations. We can
renew our strength when we confidently look to God and His Word to fill us. We
can rest in the truth that God is all we need. “He gives strength to the faint
and strengthens the powerless” (v. 29).
Verse 31 gives the meat to the promise of God’s sustaining power:
“Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.” The Hebrew word qavah,
translated “trust,” is a rich word. It captures the idea of a sure confidence
that what God says will happen. Trust is a confident and eager expectation that
God will come through. Trust is fully leaning on His Word.
So when we trust God to sustain us, we not only renew our
strength, but we rise to new heights! We “will soar on wings like eagles.” We don’t
just survive in this life; we thrive. All this happens because of the God we
serve. God is holy in that He is the only One who can sustain us and provide
what we need at just the right time and in just the right measure. He truly is
without equal, and we can stand when we rest in His holiness.
Question 4:
When have you felt
especially sustained or supported by God?
Question 5:
How can God use
our group to help us soar, run, and walk in our
spiritual journey?
Engage
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
In the space below, draw a picture that captures what you see when
you think of God’s holiness. Then write a prayer of praise to the One who alone
is holy.
LIVE IT OUT
In
light of the holiness of God, how will you live this week?
Choose
one of the following applications:
- Thank
Him. Thank God for His uniqueness and holiness. Thank Him for
His incredible power, infinite wisdom, and gracious sustaining work in your
life.
- Trust
Him. Only God has the power and wisdom to save you, help you,
and sustain you. Consider any areas of life where you might have questioned Him
or relied more on yourself. Commit to trusting Him with all your life.
- Be
holy. God is holy, and He calls us to follow Him and be holy as
well. Commit to living a life set apart for Him. Memorize 1 Peter 1:15-16: “But
as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;
for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”
We all
have things about us that make us unique, but God is in a league all of His
own. Understanding that truth will help us live well knowing He is God and we
are not!
Hope to see everyone this Sunday as we start this new series!
In His Love,
David & Susan
Teacher Notes:
Teacher Notes:
Words
change all the time and over time. Often origins are forgotten. So, what are
some words from long ago that carry a very different meaning today?
- Hook
up. “Hook up” used to mean getting some kind
of device or service or appliance up and running, i.e. “hook up cable
television.” Today, it also means “hooking up” with someone to have sex or just
“hooking up” with someone as in meeting up.
- Bad. “Bad”
used to describe someone who’d done something wrong or something that was poor
in quality. Today, it also means “good” or “great” when used as slang. (And
“breaking bad” means to challenge conventions and defy authority.)
- Gay.
“Gay” used to mean merry or happy, i.e. “don we now our gay apparel.” Today, it
is usually associated with being homosexual as in “gay marriage.”
- Sick...
now is a good thing. “Sick” used to mean ill. Today, it also means something is
really amazing.
- Backlog
meant the biggest log in the fire during colonial times. Today, it means a
reserve or a pile of work you still need to plow through.
- Message
me! wouldn’t have made sense a few years ago... like ‘Letter me’?”
- Cell
used to mean jail! Or a tiny part of your body. Today, of course, it’s also
what you call your phone.
- Web
use to mean a network of fine threads constructed by a spider from fluid
secreted by its spinnerets, used to catch its prey. Now it refers to the
internet.
In
this study, we’re going to recapture the meaning of six key words and phrases
in the Bible.
Holy
/ Lost / Salvation / Faith / Sanctified / Eternal Life
It
doesn’t matter how our culture uses these words; what matters is how God
intended for us to understand them. Their meaning makes all the difference in
the world.
Our series opens this morning with a word that describes something
about someone that is unique and completely unlike any other in all of
creation—the word is HOLY.
What
does the word HOLY mean to you?
- Different, set apart, sacred, referenced,
hallowed, sanctified, consecrated
How
have we watered down the word HOLY?
- Not as
reverenced as it once was – God’s name, Bible, worship, prayer, Sunday.
- Do we
honor and keep the Sabbath as we should?
Why
would our lesson say that the holiness of God is the most difficult of all
God’s attributes to explain?
- Partly
because it is one of His essential attributes that is not shared, inherently,
by man. We are created in God’s image, and we can share many of His attributes,
to a much lesser extent, of course—love, mercy, faithfulness, etc. But some of
God’s attributes, such as omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, will
never be shared by created beings. Similarly, holiness is not something that we
will possess as an inherent part of our nature; we only become holy in
relationship to Christ. It is an imputed holiness. Only in Christ do we “become
the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s holiness is what
separates Him from all other beings, what makes Him separate and distinct from
everything else. God’s holiness is more than just His perfection or sinless
purity; it is the essence of His “other-ness,” His transcendence. God’s
holiness embodies the mystery of His awesomeness and causes us to gaze in
wonder at Him as we begin to comprehend just a little of His majesty.
- In the
vision Isaiah saw of God’s throne room, he heard the angel cry, “Holy, holy,
holy” (Isaiah 6:3). God, he proclaimed, is holy. “Different, different,
different.” Totally different. That’s what the
angels, then and now, want the universe to know. God is not the same as His
creation. Though He made us like Him in some respects (Gen. 1:26), and
though He calls us to rise to His level (1 Pet. 1:16) still, there will always
be a gulf between who God is and who we are (Isaiah 55:8-11). God is unique.
There is no other like Him.
Turn with me to Isaiah:
Isaiah 40:25-26
25 “To whom will you compare me, or who
is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26
Look up and see! Who created these? He brings out the stars by number; he calls
all of them by name. Because of his great power and strength, not one of them
is missing.
In what ways is God beyond any kind of comparison?
1. God is without equal as our Creator.
- God is without equal in ability, strength, and power; hence, the
Holy One.
- If God knows the stars by name, He surely knows us who are made in
His image.
Isaiah 40:27-28
27 Jacob, why do you say, and, Israel, why do you assert: “My way
is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28 Do you not
know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the
whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding.
God used Isaiah to speak these words of comfort to the Jews. They
felt like God was unaware or uninvolved in their circumstance. It may have been
when the Assyrian army was at the door threatening to attack. They didn’t
know what to do.
When have you felt that God was unaware or uninvolved in your
circumstances?
Have you had moments that you felt God was unaware or uninvolved
in your circumstances? Ever felt like God is nowhere to be found?
2. God is without equal in His understanding.
- In moments of despair, disappointment, or distress, we may wonder
if God has forgotten us; He has not.
- God is always just and acts in our best interests, even when He
disciplines us.
- What we have experienced and learned about God in the past can
encourage us in the present and be counted on in the future.
We all have times when we don’t know what to do. We’re scared and don’t
know what the future may hold. We search for answers—but we do so with no clear
direction of where to look for the right answer. Too often we have more than
enough voices offering us an answer, but we lack the wisdom to hear the correct
response above all their noise.
How many times do we listen to the voice of reason instead of
God’s voice of promise?
Promise + Faith = Blessing
When did Abraham see the ram?
- When he looked up – many times we
can’t see how God has provided for us because we keep looking at our problem
instead of looking up.
We have only one voice worth listening to: God. God is set apart from all other voices because He is
the only One who knows all things and has wisdom about the right course of action.
He is holy in His wisdom. His understanding is unmatched in all the world.
How can God know all that is going on in my life and the direction
my life is heading?
When such questions arise in our minds, we’re doing what the Jews
did when they wondered if God had forgotten about them or had no direction for
them. Even when we are experiencing those “dry seasons” when we wonder if God has forgotten about
us or has any direction for us, God is present, He knows us, and He knows what
we need. That is why He is God and we are not. We cannot even begin to
fathom His understanding. He never tires or grows weary of our question and
needs. God is without equal in His understanding.
Someone read:
Isaiah 40:29-31
29 He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless.
30 Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31 but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become
weary, they will walk and not faint.
How would you explain the idea that God gives strength to the
faint and strengthens the powerless?
3. God is without equal as our Sustainer.
- God gives power to the weak and weary.
- Hoping in the Lord is the key to receiving God’s strength and
power.
- God strengthens us to soar to the heights of victory, but also to
walk the steady gait of daily living.
To sustain means to strengthen or support mentally or physically. And we all need to be strengthened and supported,
even when we are young. No one can sustain himself nonstop; we all have limits.
But we don’t have to remain held down by our limitations. We can
renew our strength when we confidently look to God and His Word to fill us. We
can rest in the truth that God is all we need. “He gives strength to the faint
and strengthens the powerless” (v. 29).
Verse 31 gives the meat to the promise of God’s sustaining power:
“Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.” The Hebrew word qavah,
translated “trust,” is a rich word. It captures the idea of a sure confidence
that what God says will happen. Trust is a confident and eager expectation that
God will come through. Trust is fully leaning on His Word.
So when we trust God to sustain us, we not only renew our
strength, but we rise to new heights! We “will soar on wings like eagles.” We
don’t just survive in this life; we thrive. All this happens because of the God
we serve. God is holy in that He is the only One who can sustain us and provide
what we need at just the right time and in just the right measure. He truly is
without equal, and we can stand when we rest in His holiness.
We all
have things about us that make us unique, but God is in a league all of His
own. Understanding that truth will help us live well knowing He is God and we
are not!
THE POINT: God is distinct from and above absolutely everything else.
Question:
What
does it mean that God is holy, holy, holy?
The
phrase “holy, holy, holy” appears twice in the Bible, once in the Old Testament
(Isaiah 6:3) and once in the New (Revelation 4:8). Both times, the phrase is
spoken or sung by heavenly creatures, and both times it occurs in the vision of
a man who was transported to the throne of God: first by the prophet Isaiah and
then by the apostle John. Before addressing the three-fold repetition of God’s
holiness, it’s important to understand what exactly is meant by God’s holiness.
Isaiah
was a firsthand witness of God’s holiness in his vision described in Isaiah 6.
Even though Isaiah was a prophet of God and a righteous man, his reaction to
the vision of God’s holiness was to be aware of his own sinfulness and to
despair for his life (Isaiah 6:5). Even the angels in God’s presence, those who
were crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty,” covered their faces and
feet with four of their six wings. Covering the face and feet no doubt denotes
the reverence and awe inspired by the immediate presence of God (Exodus 3:4–5).
The seraphim stood covered, as if concealing themselves as much as possible, in
recognition of their unworthiness in the
presence of the Holy One. And if the pure and holy seraphim exhibit such
reverence in the presence of the Lord, with what profound awe should we,
polluted and sinful creatures, presume to draw near to Him! The reverence shown to God by the angels should remind us of
our own presumption when we rush thoughtlessly and irreverently into His
presence, as we often do because we do not understand His holiness.
John’s
vision of the throne of God in Revelation 4 was similar to that of Isaiah.
Again, there were living creatures around the throne crying, “Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8) in reverence and awe of the Holy
One. John goes on to describe these creatures giving glory and honor and
reverence to God continually around His throne. Interestingly, John’s reaction
to the vision of God in His throne is different from Isaiah’s. There is no
record of John falling down in terror and awareness of his own sinful state,
perhaps because John had already encountered the risen Christ at the beginning
of his vision (Revelation 1:17). Christ had placed His hand upon John and told
him not to be afraid. In the same way, we can approach the throne of grace if
we have the hand of Christ upon us in the form of His righteousness, exchanged
for our sin at the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But
why the three-fold repetition “holy, holy, holy” (called the trihagion)? The
repetition of a name or an expression three times was quite common among the
Jews. In Jeremiah 7:4, the Jews are represented by the prophet as saying, “The
temple of the Lord” three times, expressing their intense confidence in their
own worship, even though it was hypocritical and corrupt. Jeremiah 22:29,
Ezekiel 21:27, and 2 Samuel 18:33 contain similar three-fold expressions of
intensity. Therefore, when the angels around the throne call or cry to one
another, “Holy, holy, holy,” they are expressing with force and passion the truth of the supreme holiness of God, that
essential characteristic which expresses His awesome and majestic nature.
In
addition, the trihagion expresses the triune nature of
God, the three Persons of the Godhead, each equal in holiness and majesty.
Jesus Christ is the Holy One who would not “see decay” in the grave, but would
be resurrected to be exalted at the right hand of God (Acts 2:26; 13:33-35).
Jesus is the “Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14) whose death on the cross
allows us to stand before the throne of our holy God unashamed. The third
Person of the trinity—the Holy Spirit—by His very name denotes the importance
of holiness in the essence of the Godhead.
Finally,
the two visions of the angels around the throne
crying, “Holy, holy, holy,” clearly indicates that God
is the same in both testaments. Often, we think of the God of the Old
Testament as a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament as a God of love.
But Isaiah and John present a unified picture of our holy, majestic, awesome
God who does not change (Malachi 3:6), who is the same yesterday, today and
forever (Hebrews 13:8), and “with whom is no variableness nor shadow of
turning” (James 1:17). God’s holiness is eternal, just as He is eternal.
