Contemplation Meets Resurrection – Sermon – Pastor Dave Page

From Doing for God to Being With God

We’ve spent the last few weeks exploring the name of God, Yahweh, and what that name reveals about His heart. This passage has helped us dig into words like: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. But today, we turn from talking about God to being with God.

• From theology to encounter.
• From description to experience.

Because the truth is, we can know all the right things about God and still miss His presence.

That’s what this week is all about, seeing Yahweh fully alive, not as an idea we admire from a distance, but as a living presence who invites us close. John Mark Comer puts it beautifully in God Has a Name:

“You become like what you behold. Spend time gazing at the God of compassion and grace, and before long, that same character begins to grow in you.”

That’s a great way to explain what contemplation is, not spacing out or escaping from life, but slowing down enough to really see the God who’s already here, and I think we need that, maybe now more than ever.

We live in a world addicted to hurry. We measure our worth by our productivity. We rush from one thing to the next, emails, notifications, deadlines, even ministry, and somewhere along the way, we lose sight of God’s gentle presence.

But what if we could recover the rhythm that Jesus Himself lived by, a rhythm of slowing, of solitude, of simply being with the Father? That’s what this morning is about.

Contemplation Begins with Slowing Down (Exodus 34:5–7)

Let’s go back to Exodus 34 for a moment. Moses climbs the mountain, stands before God, and Scripture says:

“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord.”

That’s it.

No fireworks. No productivity. No strategy.

Just presence.

God reveals His heart, compassionate, gracious, faithful, and Moses simply stands there. He listens. He beholds. That’s the foundation of contemplation, learning to be still long enough to let God’s character soak into our souls.

And I love how this story ends: Moses comes down the mountain radiant.

His face shines because he’s been in the presence of God. He doesn’t try to shine, it just happens. He reflects what he’s been gazing at.

Again, John Mark Comer writes,

“Contemplation isn’t about trying to get something from God. It’s about learning to be with the God who’s already given Himself to you.”

When we slow down and sit in His presence, we begin to radiate something different too, peace instead of pressure, compassion instead of competition, gratitude instead of exhaustion.

Application:

This week, take five minutes a day to stop and be still. No agenda. No list. No phone. Just breathe and whisper His name: Yahweh. Let yourself rest in the awareness that He is with you, compassionate, patient, and faithful.

Jesus Modelled a Life of Contemplation and Solitude (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:15–16)

If anyone could have justified never stopping, it was Jesus. Crowds followed Him everywhere.

• The sick needed healing.
• The disciples needed teaching.
• The religious leaders wanted debating.

And yet, over and over, we read that Jesus withdrew to be alone with the Father.

Mark 1:35 says:

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.”

And Luke 5:15–16 adds:

“Yet the news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Notice that the busier Jesus became, the more He withdrew. The more demands people placed on Him, the more time He spent in solitude.

Why?

Because being with the Father wasn’t optional, it was essential. It was the source of His clarity, compassion, and strength. Contemplation is not passivity it’s preparation. It’s not a break from life it’s where life is renewed.

Illustration – Corrie ten Boom: Finding Stillness in the Storm

Corrie ten Boom knew what it meant to live under pressure. During World War II, she and her family hid Jewish refugees in their home, risking everything to protect innocent lives. After being arrested, Corrie was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, a place of unimaginable suffering.

And yet, even there, she sought the presence of God.

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie described how she and her sister Betsie would gather with the other women in the barracks, reading Scripture from a small, smuggled Bible. In the middle of exhaustion, hunger, and fear, that quiet time with God became their lifeline.

Corrie later wrote:

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”

Even surrounded by darkness, Corrie found light by turning inward to God’s presence. Those moments of stillness didn’t remove the suffering they renewed her strength to face it. And after the war, when she traveled the world sharing her story, Corrie often spoke about the importance of solitude and prayer.

She said,

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”

Corrie learned the same truth Jesus lived: the busier and harder life becomes, the more we need to withdraw, not to escape, but to reconnect. Solitude became her strength, not her retreat.

That’s what Jesus modelled for us. Contemplation isn’t just for quiet days and peaceful lives, it’s for the moments when everything feels too heavy to carry. Like Corrie, we find that when we step away and rest in God’s presence, we return to the world renewed, ready to love again, to serve again, and to trust again.

Jesus’ secret wasn’t that He had more hours in a day than we do; it’s that He ordered His heart around the Father’s presence. He knew what needed to come first to be able to do the rest.

Application:

When life feels overwhelming, when the noise gets loud, take Jesus’ example seriously. Step away. Find your quiet place, your car before work, a chair by the window, a walk in the woods. And let that space become your mountain, your place of meeting with God.

Contemplation Forms Our Identity in Resurrection Life (2 Corinthians 3:16–18)

Paul describes what happens when we live like this:

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory.”

Transformation happens not through striving, but through seeing.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus, the resurrected Lord, His life begins to shape ours. This is the heart of resurrection spirituality: We don’t just believe in Jesus’ resurrection, we participate in it. His life flows into ours. His presence defines who we are. We stop asking, “Am I doing enough?” and start resting in the truth: “He is enough.” When we let that truth sink in, our lives begin to radiate resurrection peace, the kind of calm that isn’t dependent on circumstances, but anchored in presence.

Guided Moment of Contemplative Prayer

Let’s take a moment to practice this together.

(Invite people to sit comfortably, close their eyes, and breathe.)

“Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, let the noise of the week fade away. Repeat this breath 3 or 4 times.

Picture yourself like Jesus, slipping away before dawn, standing in the quiet presence of the Father. Hear God’s name spoken over you: ‘Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’ Let those words wash over you: ‘Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’ As you breathe, whisper quietly in your heart: ‘Be still, my soul. God is here.’

Rest there for a moment ‘Be still, my soul. God is here.’ Now, thank Him for His nearness, for His love that meets you here, not because you’ve earned it, but because He delights to be with you.”

When you are ready, open your eyes and join us here.

Call to Action: From Contemplation to Resurrection Living

Contemplation doesn’t end in stillness, it begins there. It’s the place where the love of God fills us so deeply that it begins to spill out. When Jesus came down from the mountain, He always moved toward people, toward healing, teaching, restoring.

The time alone wasn’t an escape; it was the wellspring of compassion. And that’s the invitation for us: To live from presence, not pressure. To move from silence into service, but service shaped by solitude with our Lord.

So, this week, here’s your call to action:

• Make space for stillness each day, even five minutes.
• Let God’s character re-shape your pace.
• Then go out and let that stillness ripple into your relationships, your work, your witness.

Closing Reflection: Living from the Stillness

As we draw this time to a close, I want to leave you with this thought: contemplation isn’t something we visit once and then move on from. It’s a way of life. The same stillness you experienced here, that quiet awareness of God’s nearness, is available to you tomorrow morning, in the middle of a busy workday, or while you’re making dinner for your family.

The goal isn’t to escape the world, but to learn to walk through it anchored in the presence of God.

That’s what Jesus modelled, moving from moments of solitude into a world that desperately needed His compassion. And that’s what we’re invited into too. So, this week, I want to challenge you: Find a few minutes each day to stop. Breathe. Whisper His name; Yahweh. Let your heart settle into His goodness and faithfulness. Because when we make space for stillness, we begin to see Him more clearly, and when we see Him clearly, we start to live differently.