A couple of months ago, Francis asked me if I would be willing to preach again. My first sermon was such an incredible experience for me that I knew I had to do it, so I jumped on the chance. I even had some topics in mind. Then he told me he already had a topic. And my first thought was “Oh no, what did he pick?” I was afraid he’d pick something touchy feely, something experiential, something I was not comfortable with. His next sentence confirmed that fear: “I want you to preach on the selflessness of Jesus.” I Thought: “What am I supposed to do with that?” Of course, I had already said yes, so I was stuck, not that I really would have changed my mind anyways. So, with that I was left to my own devices to try and figure out how to preach on the “Selflessness of Jesus”. I knew I didn’t want to preach on any of the stories of Jesus in the bible, especially on His death. I wanted to tackle something new. After a week of doing some serious and active not thinking about it, the thought came to me:

What Would It Be Like To Be God?

• How can God know everything and be everywhere?

• How can God have a relationship with everyone individually?

• How does God decide who goes to heaven, is a single repentance enough to put aside a life of sin?

• Why did Jesus not know when the world was going to end?

• Why did Jesus say He couldn’t do anything by himself if He’s God?

What would it be like to be God? So, we’re going to start there and see where it takes us. Along the way, we’re going to try and answer some other questions that bug people about Christianity.

In The Beginning

John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

You’ve probably read or heard the verse: John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Who is this talking about? (Jesus) Good, so let’s explore this, let’s go to the beginning.

Back through the creation story. Before mankind and the animals

A bit more, before birds and fish

Before the sun and the moon

Before the plants, before the land was separated

Almost there, before the waters were split

And finally we arrive, To the separation of light from darkness Here we are: “In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth.” Now, let’s take one more step back

Here we go. Now we’re at the starting point of the universe. Nothing exists. The universe is blank and paused. Nothing moves, not an atom, not an electron, not a photon, not a neutrino, because they don’t exist yet. Now, if you can, take one more step backwards in time with me. Where are we? When are we? The universe is no longer paused, because the universe itself doesn’t exist. Time is not paused, because time doesn’t exist. There is only now: eternity. The concept of where and when have not been created. There is only God. We rarely discuss what happened pre-creation, because people don’t want to think about it, it makes our heads hurt, but we have support in the Bible to tell us God pre-exists the world, and even time itself:

Colossians 1:17

1 Corinthians 2:7

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. You have to be careful though, translations are tricky things. The word used here for “world” in Greek means eons, which is a measurement of time, not space. So, we end up with “which God ordained before the eons”, or “before time”

2 Timothy 1:9

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” Same sort of thing, but this time, the word is “chronon” (The root word is “chronos” which is where we get the words chronology, chronological, chronometer) and it means time. So, again, “before the times began”.

Titus 1:2

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Same thing again, before Time. So, we know God was busy before time began. A plan was already in place. So, back to the idea of nothing. This is a hard concept for us humans to understand, so we’re going to try it in baby steps:

First, think about being in a room. There’s nothing in the room, it’s empty. Is this nothing? No, there’s still a room. So, let’s take the ceiling away. [Click] And the walls. [Click] Is this nothing? No, we still have a floor. [Click] Ok, is this nothing? Probably not, because your probably still thinking there is air. So, try to let that go, get rid of all the air, all the dust, all the light, radio waves, anything else you might be holding on to, because we have a need to fill empty spaces. Are we at nothing yet? Still no, you’re still thinking this is an empty space. A place that can be filled by something. Nothing is not even space. The possibility of filling it doesn’t exist, because there is nothing to be filled. It’s not an empty room, It’s not an empty box. There is no box.

And this is where God exists. In nothingness. He has a concept of creation, nothing else, and now it’s time to get to work. So, what do you need before you start any project? Assuming you already have your plans. You need a workbench[Click], a prototyping board[Click], a foundation[Click], a plot of land[Click], a canvas[Click], a piece of paper[Click], sometimes you even need a computer[Click]. No matter what profession you are in, you need something on which or in which to work. You need somewhere to be creative. A space to work within.

And this is the primary attribute of God for which we are called to worship: But, first, we’re going to take a little break and take a side trip.

Who Created God? Where Did God Come From?

Every finite and contingent being has a cause.

A causal loop cannot exist.

A causal chain cannot be of infinite length.

Therefore, a First Cause (or something that is not an effect) must exist.

Have you ever wondered who Created God? Or Where Did God Come From? Or as Ahnikha asked this week: When was God born? We’re going to discuss, for a second, what’s called the “Cosmological Argument” It is a logical proof to explain the necessity of a creator. It basically goes like this:[Click] 1) Every finite and contingent being has a cause. [Click] 2) A causal loop cannot exist. [Click] 3) A causal chain cannot be of infinite length. [Click] 4) Therefore, a First Cause (or something that is not an effect) must exist.

Cosmological Argument

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

The Universe began to exist.

Therefore, the Universe had a cause.

Or it can be stated like this:[Click] Whatever begins to exist has a cause. [Click] The Universe began to exist. [Click] Therefore, the Universe had a cause. For example: Gary Poplawski creates circuits, and I’ve been told he’s quite good at it. So, we’ll call him a creator. But Gary doesn’t just create out of nothing. He starts with a prototyping board. That’s his workbench of sorts. But Gary didn’t make the prototyping board, someone else did, well, probably a machine. But someone designed that machine on a computer most likely, and someone else designed the computer, and made the parts for it. You see, it seems to stretch on indefinitely; everything is a result of something else. Atheists will try to use this as a proof that there can’t be God, because he would need to have a cause, something must have come before Him. But they miss the contingency that the item in question (God) must have a beginning to require a cause. God has no beginning, and thus does not require a cause. Not only does He not require a cause, by definition, He cannot have a cause, as that would be projecting the rules of a time-constrained universe onto a being that exists outside of time. Thus we get the return argument of “First Cause”, that is, “Yes, everything that begins must have a cause, and God is the ultimate cause, it stops/starts with Him”.

So, back to space-time: God needed somewhere to work. Remember, at this point, we don’t even have a universe. There isn’t even an empty space yet to be filled. There is only nothing. So, before God starts filling the universe with “stuff”, He must create the workbench that the universe is made on. We call this space-time.[Click] Euclidean space perceptions, which is what most of us are aware of, even if we don’t know what it’s called, dictate a 3+1 dimensional model. That is, height, width, length, and time as a half a dimension, since we can only travel forward. This is the world we live in, day in and day out.

Alternatively, string theory predicts 11 full dimensions. Life gets weird beyond 3+1 dimensions. This is a tetrahedron in 4 dimensions. It’s sort of like an MC Escher painting, you can’t follow the lines, they don’t make sense in 3D, and even less sense when we project it into a 2 dimensional wall.

Here is a cube in 4 dimensions, called a hypercube.

And I’m not sure what this shape is called, but it’s cool to watch. We have trouble understanding things outside of our 3+1 Dimensional construct, but interesting things occur when you start working with new dimensions. With the addition of other dimensions, space can fold, it can twist. Teleportation becomes possible, wormholes, time travel, a vast majority of the stuff you saw in star trek is based on actual working theories. This is important, because God stopped creating on day 6 of the universe. After that, He was done. This is why the theology of God winding up the clock and letting it go is so prevalent, because there is some truth to it. So, how does He manage to do all these miracles we read about in the Bible? Well, He must be manipulating the universe using methods that already exist. We even have examples of teleportation and folding space in the Bible. Jesus jumped across lakes. He moved a boat instantly to shore after Peter walked on water. Philip transported instantaneously 30 miles from where he baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. These so called myths of sci-fi exist, the possibilities are built into the universe we inhabit. The reason we can’t use them or see them is because we lack the perspective, we are trapped in our 3+1 dimensions.

Anyways, back to the topic: So, God creates space-time. Whether it’s 3+1 dimensions or 11 dimensions is not terribly important to this topic, and frankly, I spend days trying to think up an easy way of explaining an 11 dimensional model to everyone, but well, I had to shelve it, or I would never have gotten this sermon done. It’s too big of a topic to handle without having a prior basis in nth dimensional discussions. What is important is that God is not confined by any of these dimensions. He exists outside of the entire construct. It is his project, but it is not his home. To him, space and time do not have the same meaning that they do to us. To us they are reality, to him, they are tools, a way to measure our lives, but not his own existence. This something that isn’t taught to us, we don’t like to think about it. It gives us headaches, which I apologize for in advance. But God exists outside of space, and outside of time. And the implications of this are astounding.

Omnipresence and Omniscience

So, how can God know everything and be everywhere? The answer is: he cheats, from our perspective. Remember, space and time are not boundaries to him like they are to us. We live in a world were distances are a boundary, time is a boundary. If we want to see what’s going on at work, we have to go there, if we want to talk to someone, we need to schedule an appointment. But to God distance has no meaning. He can see and effect every piece of the universe individually, or together, all at once.

It’s like watching an ant farm. You can see from one end of the colony to the other. The distance has no meaning because you are “beside” the entire construct. You are no closer to one end than you are to the other, and if you had enough fingers, you could reach out and touch every part of their world.

Jeremiah 23: 23-24

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

1 Kings 8

But will God indeed dwell on the earth?Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain Thee: how much less this house that I have builded.

Acts 17:27

God be not far from every one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.

Prov. 15:3

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding good and evil.

[Click] Now, extend this concept to time, and then we start having problems, because there isn’t a good metaphor that I’ve found. This video was posted of a guy taking a picture every day for 8 years. This is how we see time, except sped up. You remember what he used to look like, and you know what he looks like now. But can you tell me what he will look like in 8 years? Probably not. I can, I can tell you that he shaves his head a few times, and then starts experimenting with facial hair. By the end he’s largely not wearing his glasses anymore, he has a beard and a mustache, and long hair. How do I know this? Well, I’ve seen the video before. But also, I have the ability to view the entire video frame by frame.

This is sort of how God would see it. He is aware that for us, the later pictures come last in time, and the earlier ones come first, but that’s it. To him, time has as little meaning as space. He knows this first boy [Click], just as well as he knows this last man. [Click] And he knows them simultaneously. We are stuck going one way in time. We have the ability to affect out speed through it relative to other things but very minute amounts, but that’s about it, that’s the end of our control. But God sees time as a full dimension, which means traveling forwards and backwards, and he’s not constrained by it, which means, he can be in multiple times at once. And just like space, he is at all times at once. This is what it means to be eternal. When we speak of God living forever, that’s not really accurate, because forever implies an infinite amount of time, which would get boring. But to God, there is only now. There is no future, there is no past, the only time he uses those terms is when speaking to us to help us understand. That’s why time is so messed up in the Bible.

2 Peter 3:8

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

That makes no sense to any being stuck within time. And no wonder prophecy is so hard to read, can you imagine trying to explain to a human before the discovery of quantum theory, relativity, electricity even that you view the universe in 11 dimensions. That you understand that time is an illusion, and distances have no meaning. Are you starting to comprehend just how alien God’s existence is to us?

“I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelations 22:13

“…But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” - Hebrews 1:12b, Psalm 102:27

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8

We have more support in these verses about the immutability of God. How can God exist forever and never change? The answer is that He does not exist forever. He is eternal, and those aren’t the same thing. Eternal is outside of the construct of time. The need to change no longer is there.

This also might lend a clue to an age old quandary: How do you know someone is going to heaven? If you reject God your entire life, and accept him on your deathbed, will you be accepted? What if you follow him all your life and in a fit of anger reject your creator right before you die? In Catholicism, everything is predicated on the sequence of events, this is why suicide is an unforgivable sin in Roman Catholic dogma, because your last act was one of murder. This is also why last rites are so important to them. But, I think this is missing a fundamental attribute of God: that he doesn’t perceive time the way we do. I don’t believe God looks only at our last act any more than he looks only at our first act after we’re born. Why would a God who can see our entire life limit himself to a single act on this world? I think God takes our entire existence and views it as a whole, and makes a decision based on our fundamental character, not the individual deeds, but the character of the person making the choices. To me, that makes sense, and is in line with the message of the Bible.

And another thing: Have you ever wondered how God has time to listen to all your prayers? How He could possible give you enough thought to not only pay attention, but also contemplate, choose a path and answer your prayers? Making sure it all fits into the grand “cosmic scheme” of His will? The God we believe in and serve is a God of relationships. How can He have a relationship with each and every one of us, whether we acknowledge that relationship or not? There are currently 7 billion people in the world, and at any given point, at least 2 billion of those people are awake. This is the same answer as all the others, I hope your seeing the pattern. Every time you take 5 seconds to talk to God, he has an eternity to spend with you, and only you. And he can do that for every person, because, well, eternity is timeless, unlike forever. Eternity is only one moment, there is no flow of time, there is no where, there is no when. It just is. And within that eternity, God has the perspective to not only focus on you for that 5 seconds you need help, but he can also see you in what we call the future, and the past. And also all the myriad of potential choices you might make, and others around you might make. The breadth of information is staggering.

What Is It Like To Be God

• God Pre-Exists Space and Time

– First Cause

• God Exists Outside of Space-Time

– Omniscience

– Omnipresence

– Judgement

– Listen To Prayer/Maintain Relationships

What Is It Like To Be Jesus

• You can see everything

• You have the ability to have relationships with everyone who ever existed

• You know everything

• You were there at the birth of creation, even participated

• You understand 11th dimensional mechanics, and as such can manipulate space and time to your will.

John 1:14a

And the Word was made flesh

And in that instant, He gave it all up. This isn’t God setting a bush on fire, or sending an angel, He decided to step into the river that is time, and was instantly swept away in its currents. He chose to become constrained by space-time for 33 years. That’s not eternity, that’s forever to one who is God. [pause] Do you get the implications of this. What this meant?

Omniscience

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son (i.e Jesus) but only the Father” [Matthew 24:36]

He gave up his omniscience

Omnipresence

Jesus Wept – John 11:35

The most famous bible verse amongst Christian children who get to choose their own memory verse. Do you remember what the context is? Jesus is upset because he could not be by his friend as he died. While there were many reasons, if Jesus maintained the ability to be omnipresent, he would have been with him at least on some level. But, he gave that up when he stepped into our world.

Omnipotent

John 11:41-43 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, "Father, I thank you that you listened to me. I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

If Jesus has his own power, why did he pray to The Father. Why did he say he knew The Father always listened to him. It seems to me that they were constantly in contact, and God The Father was performing the miracles through Jesus. But why?

John 5:19-21

Jesus therefore answered them, "Most assuredly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.

I believe that although Jesus set aside his deity for a time, that he kept his relationship with the Father 100% intact. Their purposes were so inline with each other, that The Father did whatever Jesus asked, and visa-versa.

An Example

John 14:12-14 Most assuredly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.

One of the reasons Jesus came here was to lead a perfect example for us. He had to give up his divine powers in order to be an example to us. What kind of example would he be if he was constantly doing things we couldn’t do. I propose that Jesus never did a single thing that we as humans could not do. There are times when he displayed supernatural powers, but I believe all the miracles were done through God the Father, and I believe all his insight was provided by the Holy Spirit. This is the same power we are granted, there are people in this church who have experiences miracles. And many of us have know insight from the Holy Spirit. These are not pie in the sky promises. These are real.

John 13:15

For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

I don’t think Jesus was just talking about washing feet here. To me, the most selfless thing Jesus ever did was consent to be human. To give up omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience. To lose that eternal perspective of our reality. To be severed from the relationships God has with every individual while he was here. And to do it all while he was still God, and could have picked it all back up in an instant. You think milk, sugar, drugs or alcohol are hard to kick, trying detoxing off of deity. And he did it for us, knowing full well who we are, and what we’re capable off, the good, and especially the bad. Not only those humans who were living at the time, but every human, past present and future. It made no difference to him. Before he came down, he knew us all by name.

1 Peter 2:21

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,