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Dear friends,
About twenty-seven years ago in London, I heard John Stott speaking about the three quests of modern man: transcendence, significance, and community. During the past few weeks, these hungers of the human heart have been the subject of my teaching at the Louisiana State Capitol and at The Gathering of Men as well as at a men’s conference at Trinity Bible Church in Lafayette. I would like to share a few thoughts about the first of these – transcendence.
Transcendence is that which is beyond – beyond the universe, beyond time and space. Every man knows that there is something beyond this world, that there must be more than that which we can see around us. We’ve always felt some kind of pull to that which is above the clouds and beyond the stars. Our souls have longed for connection to the Unseen. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “God has put eternity in their hearts.”
But Paul says in Romans 1:18-19 that apart from a work of God’s grace, we humans “suppress” what God has put in our hearts. Paul says “that which is known about God is evident within them; for God has made it evident to them.” He goes on to explain in verse 20 that “since the creation of the world” God’s “eternal power and divine nature” have been “clearly seen.” He says that all men “are without excuse.” Every man knows that God exists, and yet, Paul says, “There is none who seeks for God” (Romans 3:11b).
So what happens? God seeks men. He graciously works in their hearts, awakening a desire within us to pursue Him. It is then that, as Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” By His grace, our souls are blessed with a restlessness to discover the Transcendent One.
John Stott says that man’s quest for transcendence presents “a great challenge to the quality of our Christian worship. Does it offer people what they are instinctively looking for, which is transcendence, the reality of God? Human beings are spiritual beings, seeking for something transcendent, sacred, beyond our earthly limitations. In Christ there is a connection with the transcendent God, most acutely in the Word preached and Holy Communion of worship.”
When you (and your children and grandchildren) walk into your place of worship, and the pastor presents the invocation (the humble request for the manifestation of God’s presence), is your heart stirred to say, “God is here. The One from beyond is among us!”? Dear friends, this was the experience of the first Christ-followers as they gathered to worship in Jerusalem. Dr. Luke says, “And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe” (Acts 2:43). And in his comments on the primacy of prophesy, Paul speaks of the impact on the unbeliever who is “convicted” and “called to account” and “will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
Why will you gather with other believers this Sunday? What are you expecting to happen? Are you expecting the Transcendent One Whom you love to be “among you”? The Apostle Peter speaks of our love and of our rejoicing before Him: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). When you assemble on the Lord’s Day, are you anticipating that as you listen to the preaching of Holy Scripture, you will hear the Voice of God Himself? And as you come to the Holy Table, is your heart filled with anticipation of the moment when you behold and eat God’s “visible words” (as Augustine and later Calvin called them)? Do you and I enter the doors of our sanctuaries expecting an encounter with the Transcendent Holy Trinity? “Holy Spirit, please help us to experience this joy!”
In the Savior,
Rod and Bec
