Sermon: The Death of Divine Absence (Good Friday 2025)

The Death of Divine Absence Friday, April 18th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Prayer

Father, we thank for you Good Friday, for this day of special remembrance of Christ’s passion, and the innumerable graces that you bestow upon your people through the death of Christ. Furnish us anew by the power of your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Have you ever walked into a house that was completely empty? No pictures on the walls. No couch in the living room. No place to sit. No table or chairs in the dining room. No beds in the bedroom.

• If you intend on buying an empty house, well for starters you are going to need a lot of money, but if you want to make it a beautiful and pleasant place to live (a home), what else will you need?
  • You’ll need some imagination, a vision and a plan. You need some good aesthetic sense for how a room flows, what colors coordinate, so that you know what furniture to buy, what carpet or rugs to get, and how to match those with the curtains.
  • If you are a man, you need a woman’s touch. She comes in and starts putting plants and flowers and pretty things everywhere. If we had it our way, the whole house becomes a man cave. Or in my case, the house whole becomes a library.
    • The Greek scholar Erasmus once said, “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” We all have our different priorities.
• The theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (who was himself a walking library) says, “Homes are not beautiful if they are empty. Things are beautiful by the presence of God.”
  • He said this while reflecting upon Psalm 26:8, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells.”
  • Where does God’s glory most desire to dwell? Within you. Within His people. Already the heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the sky above his handywork (Ps. 19:1), and so how much more those who are made in His image?
  • It says in Psalm 84:1, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” What are those tabernacles (plural!) that the Psalmist is referring to? The people of God. The saints, the holy ones, the living sanctuaries in which God’s glory dwells.
• And so just as a home is not beautiful unless it is adorned and furnished with good things, just so a soul is not beautiful, unless it has been enlightened and furnished and is inhabited by the holy presence of God.
• And so tonight, I want to set before the eyes of your soul that which can make it beautiful. I want to offer you a piece of spiritual furniture from which you can derive strength and healing, courage and hope, grace to help in your time of need.
  • That image is none other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. If your soul is a house, you must make the cross of Christ the centerpiece. That which everything else gets organized around.
• And so the outline of my sermon is very simple.
  • First, I will tell you how Christ dwells within His people,
  • And then Second, I will paint for you a mental portrait to take within your soul.

How Does Christ Dwell Within Us? – A Gloss of Galatians 2:20

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