John Bevere - Realizing How Awesome God Is
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Do you know something? Just a little tidbit: you will never find the word «awe» or «wonder» used anywhere in the Bible except in regard to God and His characteristics. Well, we’ve come to day seven, yep, the seventh chapter in the book, and you are still reading about the awesomeness of God. I love using that word «awesome» when it comes to God. Do you know something? Just a little tidbit: you will never find the word «awe» or «wonder» used anywhere in the Bible except in regard to God and His characteristics because «awesome» means full of awe.
Now, let’s talk about the glory of God. What is the glory of God? You know, I was playing golf with a pastor one day, and this pastor had a terrible thing happen: a building actually collapsed on him. It broke his skull open, it broke his neck, and it broke his back. The EMTs came, covered him up, and pronounced him dead. Well, as you know, I wouldn’t be playing golf with him if he stayed dead—he actually came back to life. He said that the pastor, because he was actually in another church when he saw him come back to life, went white as a ghost and he said, «I never saw him again.» But anyway, I said to him—we were at the 14th hole—and I said, «Hey, Pat, can you tell me what it was like when you saw Jesus when you died, when that building fell on you?»
Well, that pastor, who’s a really tough man, started crying on hole 14, and he cried all the way through hole 17. It wrecked his round of golf, but it greatly blessed me. He said, «John, I left my body. I didn’t feel any pain when that building fell on me.» And he said, «All of a sudden, I saw a light and I was being rapidly brought before that light.» He said, «As the light got closer, I started noticing features.» He said, «The first thing I saw were the eyes,» and he started bawling—this grown man started bawling like a baby. He said, «Those eyes—I knew that those eyes saw every cell of my being,» and he said, «I felt those eyes loved every cell of my being. I can’t describe the love. I’ve never experienced love like this.» And he said, «The closer I got, the more His presence was cleansing me.»
Then he said, «I saw His features.» He said, «John, He was so bright—it was brighter than the sun.» He said, «I don’t know how to explain it. I could look at it; it didn’t damage my eyes, but yet it was brighter than the sun.» Well, that’s exactly what Paul says: that Jesus dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see. And when he says «no man,» he’s talking about somebody in the flesh. Remember, God said, «You can’t see My glory and live.» So the reason Isaiah saw His glory is that he was in the spirit. The reason John saw His glory in the Book of Revelations and His face shone like the sun, he said, is because he was in the spirit.
So what is the glory of God? Moses said to the Lord, «Show me Your glory.» Now, when he says «glory,» he’s using the Hebrew word «kabad,» which means «majesty» and «honor.» It’s actually the weight of something, so it’s the weight of the majesty and honor. So he’s saying, «God, show me the full weight of Your presence, the full weight of Your being.» God’s response to him was, «I’ll cause all My goodness to pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord.» Now, it’s interesting: Moses asked for glory; God uses the word «goodness.»
The Hebrew word is «tov,» and that word «tov» means «good» in the widest sense. So, in essence, God says, «All that makes Me, Me, I’m going to pass before you, but I’ve got to hide you because if you look at Me, you’re dead.» And so God said the reason I’m going to proclaim the name of the Lord is that if a king walks into the throne room, and he’s got all his robes on and all of his glory, there’s a herald that proclaims his name, and then the trumpets blow and the king comes in. There’s no mistake who the king is. But if that king is walking on the streets of his country with just a polo shirt on, he’s got no assistants around him and he’s just strolling down the street, you might miss him.
That’s why the guys on the road to Emmaus were talking to Jesus after He was raised from the dead—they didn’t recognize Him. Why? Because He wasn’t in His glory. But when John saw Him in His glory, he fell down like one who was dead. Let me tell you, this is the one that when Isaiah saw Him, he’s not crying out «woe to the sinners» anymore; he’s crying out «woe is me» because he realized how awesome this God is that he is serving, and he realized who he was before this awesome God. Now, this awesome God has chosen to be our Father, but we can never lose sight of how great and how majestic He is.