Outlook Series - Week 1 - Holiness to Motivate

Not a lot of people know what the Alliance Church is. We get people that will call up, or search the internet, or walk through the door, not knowing a thing about the Alliance. I’ve had people ask if we’re a cult, or new age, or just some fringe group. The reason for this is because the Alliance, as a denomination, isn’t the biggest well known of Christian denominations. Someone hears Baptist or Assemblies of God and they have a general idea of what that means. But the Alliance is such a small denomination compared to some others, that not many people know about it. And so, when people arrive for the first time, we have the welcome bags that give some brief information about who we are. 

Which in reality is the basic doctrine that every Christian church believes. But it’s the uniqueness of the Alliance that drew me to it. A lot of denominations started over strife concerning doctrine. I call them secondary doctrines that don’t hold salvation work, but rather human interpretation. Primary doctrine that all Christians adhere to are things like, God is Creator, we are sinners, Jesus is the only Savior. Secondary doctrines are things like when’s the rapture, is it premillennial or amillennial, is it slacks or jeans, is it hymns or contemporary. Primary doctrine is what concerns clear salvation work, secondary doctrine is what concerns our interpretations of non-salvation work. 

Since the founding of the Alliance, our focus has been on the primary. An old mantra of the Alliance was “Bring back the King.” This mantra focused on the work of bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth until the return of Jesus. And so, unlike some denominations, the Alliance was birthed, not out of secondary doctrine disputes, but out of the primary desire to see men and women come to know Jesus as their Savior. 

And that’s really what it’s about. When we come to know Jesus as our Savior, eternity is opened up to us. We who know Jesus, pass from an eternity of death to an eternity of life. We pass from darkness into the light of God. We move from being children of wrath to being children of grace. From enemies of God to his adopted children. This is the great gift that is given to all those who have put their trust into Jesus as their Savior.

Yet there are countless millions who have not put their trust into Jesus as Savior. From our neighbor that we shoot the breeze with, to the African woman getting water. From the harden atheist to the communist revolutionary. There are countless people in this world that need to hear the life changing Gospel message, and God’s primary prescription for that work is you and I. It was the disciples of Jesus that were given the Great Commission of Matthew 28. Through Jesus’ authority, we are told to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything [Jesus has] commanded…”

When we come to know Jesus as our Savior, we are brought into a two part work of God. This two part work comes from Jesus response in Mark 12, “‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The first work of God in our lives is Jesus’ work on the cross, this is the Gospel. The second work is the work of the Gospel impacting the lives of people through us.

Yet the majority of the time, we tend to error on the side of the work of Jesus in our own lives. Countless devotional books line our bookcases. Sermons are focused on the three ways God can help you in your marriage or finances. The majority of our focus of the modern Church is God’s help in our lives, but when our focus is primarily on this personal work, we miss out on the greater work of God that surrounds us. The two are joined in a separable work that cannot be done one without the other. We cannot love God without loving people, and we cannot be transformed by God without being involved in Gospel work.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this link of loving God and loving people is made clear through Jesus’ example of sacrifice and dispute. In Matthew 5:23 Jesus states, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

The worship of God, and the work that God is doing between us and the people around us is inseparable. And so we must be about the work that God has called us to if we desire to be brought into a deeper relationship with the God who saves. We must have as much of an outlook focus on life as we do an inward focus. The inward focus looks to seek God on a personal level; the outward focus seeks to make God known to the world around us. The inward is our devotion and worship, the outward is the good works and proclamation of the Gospel. 

Both are needed in seeking God and as God’s people we must engage in both as we follow our Savior.

With this Outlook focus, we’re going to spend the next several weeks looking into God’s word to better understand the work that God has given us as individuals and as a church ministry to accomplish what he has given us to do. Each of us has individual ministries that we are to engage in. We have neighbors, family members, acquaintances that need to hear the Gospel and whom God has brought into our lives to do just that. 

In addition, God has brought us together in this ministry here in Quartzsite to accomplish his work in this town and to the ends of the earth. It isn’t happenstance that each of us are here today. We are here in Quartzsite for salvation purpose. We are meeting together today in the Alliance Church of Quartzsite, for Gospel work. We cannot be of the mind that I’m attending because I like the pastor, or the music, or my friends, or it’s convenient, but rather realize that God is calling us to his work together. 

And so what is that work? What is God calling us as individuals and as a ministry here in Quartzsite. 

In the opening chapters of the book of Revelation, Jesus gives seven messages to seven churches in Asia Minor, which is in the area of modern day Turkey. These seven churches have been interpreted in a lot of different ways, one of which is a part of the dispensations of biblical history, with each church representing different eras of church history. 

In the coming weeks, we’re going to step back for a moment and look at these seven churches from a different angle. Looking at the churches in the moment in which Jesus spoke to them, can tell us a lot about where the Church as a whole is today, and where God is calling us specifically to his work.

These seven churches can show us what it means to have a balanced work of God in our lives. To have both an inward relational focus, and an outward Gospel focus.

Would you turn with me to the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 1. Here, we’re going to see the basis for both works of God.

John begins his book by writing this, “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

“4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

“7 ‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him, even those who pierced him’; and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ So shall it be! Amen.

“8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’

“9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’

“12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

“17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

“19 ‘Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’”

Now there’s a lot going on in this passage. From the son of man title that connects to Daniel 7:13, to the seven lampstands representing seven churches. But through all that imagery what is the focus of the passage? What is the center point of it all? It’s Jesus. 

Its Jesus’ word that will be spoken to the churches. It’s through Jesus’ death and resurrection that this word has come. It’s by Jesus’ will that we enter into this understanding of what he is calling us to. And this is where we must begin, we have to come to a place where we realize it’s about Jesus. 

And the thing is, we know this simple truth. We know that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We know that he is the one to whom we are to conform to (Romans 8:29). We know that we are to be his disciples and it’s he that will make us fisher of men (Matthew 4:19). Yet, we try to walk this world in our own will. We know we are to say, “your kingdom come, your will be done (Matthew 6:10),” yet we more often than not seek our own will. Our devotions are about helping us. Sermons are about helping us. A lot of the modern Church is about us, rather than Jesus.

Every time we sense the need to share the Gospel and we don’t, we have followed our will and not Jesus’. Every time we have seen a need of brother or neighbor and know that God has brought them into our lives to be helped, yet we don’t, we have followed our purposes and not God’s. The reason for this, is because we are not taking seriously the work of God that is laid before us. 

Notice the reaction to Jesus that John experiences. Verse 17, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”

The prophet Isaiah had a similar experience when he encounter God on his throne. Isaiah 6:1 begins, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’

“4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’

“6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’

“8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!’”

The common factor between these two experiences of God, are the realizations of the holiness of God. John fell down as if he were dead by peering at the holiness of God. Isaiah understood his utter depravity in sin at the holiness of God. Yet, in the holiness of God, there is forgiveness. There is a calling out of sin and into the work of God. Isaiah is cleansed of sin and called to the work of God. Jesus points John to his work on the cross and resurrection, and calls him to write to the seven churches.

We must grasp the holiness of God, because when we do, the work of God becomes all consuming. When we enter into God’s holiness, his work becomes a call that we cannot deny. It’s the consuming fire of God’s holiness that motivates the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

So how do we begin to grasp this holiness? We study and meditate on the difference between us and God. We must hold in balance the understanding that Jesus is God with us from Christmas, and that Jesus is far beyond us in goodness. We must think on how much God has done for us to bring us out of sin and to himself. We are not simply tainted with sin, as if a glob of the wrong color paint got on the wall. We are cleansed from sin that permeates every cell of our being. 

Isaiah understands just how deep sin goes when he writes in his 64th chapter, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (v.6).”

The imagery of a shriveled leaf and being blown by the wind means that without the work of Jesus, every action, every purpose, every movement of our lives is dictated by sin. We must come to a realization that this is who we are without Jesus. We are not a little bit good, we are not just slightly influenced by sin, we are solely unholy and lost without Christ. He is holy, perfect, and good. So much so, that even the angels in heaven do not look upon him, because even they are not as holy as he is. 

Through pondering the holiness of God, the work of God is brought into view. The angel says to Isaiah, “‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!’”

We have been brought out of death into life. The darkness has been washed away in the light of Christ. We are no longer enemies of God but his children, so God what will you have us do? This should be our response. Because of God’s great work on behalf of this sinner, what would you have me do God? 

And this is where he is calling us. To the Outlook. What is the next work of God that there is? If we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, what work am I being called to? Who is the next person I should share with? What next project, cup of water, ministry should I support or do?

In the holiness of God, the work of God becomes vital to our very relationship with the holy God. Because we are seeking to do whatever God desires, because in his desire he saved me. The wretched person that I am apart from Jesus’ work, is made anew and now what would God have of me?

The Alliance was founded on this primary principle. Jesus saved me, now how can I be used in his salvation work?

This week I want to challenge you to study and meditate on Isaiah 64:6. Think on the holiness of God. Think on the separation between God and man because of sin. Think on the vast work of God to bring us out of sin. Think on how sin permeates every cell of our being, and how Jesus washes us clean of that sin. Then think on the work of God. From God’s holiness are you actively saying, send me? We need to struggle with this this week. We need to be asking God, what would you have me do? Who would you send me to? 

There are so many ministries that are vying for our attention, we need to step back and say, ok God, what would you have me do? In your holy work, where shall I go, send me.

Let us be a people who seek to understand the holiness of God, and who are willing to be used by God in whatever capacity he deems necessary. Amen.

Third Light of Christmas - Ramifications

  As a child, making your lists for all the things you want, gets you ecstatic for Christmas Day. Then waking on that morning to rush out and find what presents are under the tree, it’s what your last few months has led up to. Then the moment comes and the opening begins. That lasts only a few moments, but the play that comes later, lasts the rest of the day. The aftermath is just as important to the build-up and event. It’s the payoff, the what happens when this great thing finally happens. And God’s payoff, his aftermath of Christmas is greater than any other payoff. 

This brings us back to our final week in our Christmas series, where we’ll be looking at the third light of Christmas, the light of Ramifications. 

In the first two lights we looked at both the build-up to the event of Christmas and the Christmas event itself. In our first week we looked at three groups of prophecies. First we looked at the prophecies surrounding who the child would be and his mother. Then we looked at the prophecies surrounding the kingly visitors who came to see the child. And finally, we looked at the prophecies that concerned the family lineage that the child must come from. All of these were the build-up to the Christmas event, and were are our first light, the light of Prophecy. 

Then last week we took some time and looked at the whole of the Christmas event, which was the candle we called the light of Revealing. As best we could, we looked at the whole story of Christmas by putting it into a rough timeline. In that whole event we saw several people who were called to meet the child at his revealing. These were the Magi, the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and Simeon and Anna. And as we saw those who were called to the child’s birth, we saw how those that should have been there were not. How the religious people, though they knew of the Messiah’s birthplace, decided not to come to meet him. We saw how they were disturbed by Jesus’ coming and therefore didn’t go and see him. It was here that we talked about how Jesus should disturb us because he is perfect and we are not. Jesus should disturb us in our sin, because he calls us out of the darkness that our sin creates around us. And it’s okay to be disturbed, if we pursue Jesus, if we go to Bethlehem and see. What isn’t good, is if we are disturbed and not seek Jesus on his own terms.

As we’ve looked at the build-up to and the moment of Christmas, we now turn our attention to the aftermath, or as we’ll call it today, our third light, the light of Ramifications.

See a lot of the time, we don’t realize just what Jesus has done for us. From the change of human morality, to how society works, to history itself, Jesus’ arrival radically changed how the world worked. This should be only natural because if God came to earth, the earth should not be the same, and as we’ll see, it isn’t.

In fact, we’re going to take a look at three areas in which Jesus’ coming changed the trajectory of the world.

We’ll start with morality. Something that doesn’t get taken seriously today, is where we get the morality we use in the western world. A lot of people claim that we are a product of the Greco-Roman world in how we do things, yet this isn’t the case. In a previous series we talked about how the Greco-Roman world treated children as throwaway materials. In an article concerning the Spartan treatment of children Evan Andrews writes, “Infanticide was a disturbingly common act in the ancient world, but in Sparta this practice was organized and managed by the state. All Spartan infants were brought before a council of inspectors and examined for physical defects, and those who weren’t up to standards were left to die…If a Spartan baby was judged to be unfit for its future duty as a soldier, it was most likely abandoned on a nearby hillside (https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-it-wasnt-easy-being-spartan)." 

Yet, as we have talked about before, Jesus completely changes this idea. And as the disciples spread the good news of Jesus coming, death, and resurrection, God’s morality took root in society. Psalm 82:3 calls God’s people to, “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”

This carries down to day, where children are seen as precious and valuable, not as commodities. And it’s why Andres says, that “Infanticide was a disturbingly common act in the ancient world…” Yet as we move away from biblical morals, we see children again used as throwaway materials.

The second ramification from Jesus’ revealing, deals with social structures. One of the things that has been brought up a lot in the last several years is the ramifications of slavery. But let’s be honest, slavery still exists. Sex slaves are couriered across this world and though nations try to stamp it out, it is still an industry in Asian, Africa and the Middle East. Even in the western world there are underground funnels for this type of slavery. But why would it even be a problem? I mean, in the Greco-Roman world is was a common practice. Mark Cartwright states that 1 in 5 people were in some form of slavery in the ancient world. Cartwright even says that, “upon this foundation of forced labour was built the entire edifice of the Roman state (https://www.worldhistory.org/article/629/slavery-in-the-roman-world/).” 

Yet, though slavery has been around since the dawn of human history and continues today, it is through the teachings of Jesus that in the western world, the abolition of slavery has long been sought. In his letter to Philemon, Paul writes concerning a slave. Onesimus was a slave to Philemon who had run away. Onesimus met up with Paul and became a believer like Philemon was. So, Paul writes a letter to Philemon and returns Onesimus to him. Paul writes this, basing his thoughts on the Word of God and Jesus in particular,, “12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. (Philemon 1:12-16).”

In Paul’s letter there is a heavy emphasis on Philemon releasing Onesimus of being a slave, because of the Philemon’s own relationship with Jesus. The freedom that is found in Jesus became the basis for the social structure of slavery to be looked down upon and eventually eradicated in places that took seriously the Word of God and Jesus’ coming.

The final ramification that comes from Jesus’ revealing, deals with the historical ramifications. In particulate, us here today. If you live in the United States, or long to come here and taste it’s freedom, you have Jesus to thank for it. I’ve heard it said that we got out governmental style from the Greeks and Romans who also had governments similar to ours. People say we have the Greeks to thank for their view on giving the people power through democracy. Others say, we have the Romans to thank for the idea of a republic.

Yet, though we do have these civilizations to thank for the ideas, it’s the execution of the US experiment that has its foundation on Jesus. In his 1801 inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson hints that a true democracy would take away the rights of the minority when he states, “though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression (https://www.ushistory.org/us/20b.asp).”

It was this understanding of how Greco democracy worked that the founders came up with a constitutional republic. A form of government that sought to recognize and protect the rights of all people. It was because of this understanding of rights that do not come from people, that we have the famous words of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/declaration-of-independence?gclid=CjwKCAiAh_GNBhAHEiwAjOh3ZFojmErsdmLP2nIxwIXczxNxj_dj8qFw941jQW2BBDK9_0ss6oabJRoCtakQAvD_BwE).” Following these rights, the Bill of Rights outlines in deeper detail the rights of the people.

These freedoms are based on such passages as Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” and James 1:25, “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

John Adams recognized the role in which God’s Word and the reveling of Jesus has on the forming of the nation of the United States and wrote, “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

These are just some examples of the ramifications of Jesus’ revealing to the world. Our morality has been changed, our social structures have been changed, and our history has been changed. Without Jesus, the world would not have been changed in this and other areas. We can see in other parts of the world, how children are still scene as commodities, how slavery is still practiced, and how no other countries in the world codifies the rights of people as being beyond the gifting of a government. 

But it isn’t just in the these things of the world that Jesus has changed. Countless people’s lives have been changed because of the cross and resurrection. This is the biggest change. Moving humanity out of sin and into God’s life. Jesus’ apostles experienced persecution and death for following him because they trusted in him as their Savior. Today, the Bible is banned in a lot of countries because it points to freedom in Christ. And those who would dare read the Bible, could find themselves in prison, or worse. In the US we experience the fruits of a society based on God’s Word, but all around the world, people cry out for freedom, and believers are on the forefront of persecution for their beliefs. Because to follow Christ, is to follow in a different flow than the rest of the world. To follow Christ is to reject sin, where as the path of the world is to embrace sin.

This is how we continue to feel the ramifications of Christmas, even though we might not realize it. Every moment of our day, we press against the ramifications of Christmas, and God desires that we realize what has happened through Jesus’ revealing that Christmas morning. 

My challenge this week is to finish up reading John chapters 1-14, and to light the third candle on our paper Advent wreath, the Light of Ramifications. The build-up to, the event itself, and the results of that event all weigh heavily. If we are serious about our own life, we must wrestle with the life of Jesus. Because he is unique among all others when he claims to be the only way. If he is, then Christmas is a pivotal point in every person’s life, because it calls us to encounter the only Savior of the world, and to bow down at his feet.

So when you light that third candle, the light of Ramifications, take some time and praise God for the world that changed that Christmas night. And if you would be even bolder, do some research on the Greco-Roman world and how our world today is vastly different than what would have been if there was no Jesus.

Let us be people who bow willingly at Jesus feet, because willingly or forcibly, all will bow to Jesus. So let us bow willingly and excitedly, because he is good and gracious to all. Christmas is the first coming of Jesus, and on the horizon is his second. Let us rejoice in the past works of God and look forward to his future work. Amen.

Second Light of Christmas - Revealing

  It’s always important to get the whole story right? When investigating anything, from two siblings arguing to a crime that has been committed, when talking to witnesses a large part are their stories. The who, what, when, where, and how are all important. And when compiling a timeline of events of the situation, the overlap and dissimilarities are what help figure out what exactly happen. No two people see the same situation from the same vantage point, so there is going to be differences in the retelling, but it’s in the retelling with the differences that we can put the pieces together to see how events unfolded. That’s what we must do with the Christmas story, because when we do, something interesting pops out. So let’s do that today, look at the whole Christmas story to see something key in its two accounts.

But before we do, let’s bring ourselves up to speed on where we are in our Christmas series. Last week we began our series by looking at the build-up to the Christmas event. In this build-up, we took some time to look at some of the prophecies that were written hundreds of years before Jesus’ brith and how they were fulfilled in the events that surrounded that monumental occasion. We looked at the Who and the to Whom prophecies of Isaiah. Seeing the baby boy Jesus and his virgin mother, Mary. We then looked at the Kingly visitor prophecies that surrounded the arrival of the Magi. Finally we looked at the lineage prophecies that pointed to Jesus’ specific people and family. All this was to recognize that God had worked through the centuries preparing for the arrival of himself to earth. That Jesus’ birth wasn’t something that just happened, but it was seeded and awaited for, for centuries leading up to the moment it happened. This was the first light of Christmas, the light of Prophecy, where God told of the events to come and he was true to his word.

It’s here that we turn to the second light of Christmas, the light of Revealing. Whereas our first light looked to the build-up that led to Christmas, this second light looks to the moment in time that it happened. Now, when we talk about the Christmas story, what we’re actually talking about is roughly two years of events. Taking all the events in order, our timeline would be something along the lines of this.

Roughly two years before Jesus is born, a group of Magi in eastern lands see a star rising in the sky in the west. They interpret this star through the Hebrew Scriptures as being a star of a king that would be born to the Jewish people. They then prepare and leave for their journey. 

Within this two years, Mary, a young girl who is already betrothed to be married, is visited by the angel Gabriel and told that she has been chosen to carry the Messiah, this king that would be born. Mary agrees to being the mother of the Savior even though she is a virgin and would be ostracized by her soon to be husband and community. 

When her husband Jospeh finds out about the pregnancy several months down the road, he decides to end the marriage before it begins. But he is a righteous man and doesn’t want to throw her to the community to possibly be killed with stones, so he decides to quietly end the marriage. That’s when he too is visited by an angel. The angel tells him to take Mary as his wife, because she is carrying the Savior of the world. Joseph does just that. He takes her as his wife, but does not consummate the marriage while she is with child. 

That’s when Rome calls for a census of the land to be taken and though Joseph and Mary live in Nazareth in the northern area of Israel, they have to go south to a town called Bethlehem because that is Joseph’s ancestral home. They make the trip while Mary is very close to giving brith. They arrive in Bethlehem, but there is no room in any home and so they make their way to a stable with the animals. 

In that stable Mary gives birth. As she does, an angel appears in the night to shepherds who were attending their flocks in the fields. The shepherds were frighten, but the angel speaks comforting words of the Messiah, the Savior of the world, being born that night in Bethlehem. More angels arrive to sing the praise of God and the Savior, and they speak blessings and peace to the world that night. The shepherds are terrified but are excited to see the Messiah themselves and they rush to find the stable. They find it and see Jesus, then they leave to tell others, and later return to praise and glorify God for the brith of the Savior.

Eight days later Joseph and Mary take their new born son to the temple to have the purification rituals performed and have Jesus dedicated to God as every first born Jewish son should be. It’s at the temple that the family meet a man named Simeon. Simeon was a man to whom God told that he would see the coming of the Messiah. As Jesus is brought into the temple, Simeon takes the boy in his hands and starts to praise God for the deliverance of the world. Simeon saw in Jesus the salvation that humanity needed and he praised God and blessed the family. Then a woman name Anna, who was a prophetess at eight-four years old, saw Jesus and began praising God and telling others about this boy who is the Messiah.

After this day, Jospeh, Mary, and Jesus returned to Bethlehem. They moved out of the stable and into a home, unknown to them what was to arrive in Jerusalem. Sometime after, the Magi, with their caravan arrive in Jerusalem and make their way to Herod, the ruler of the Judean province. The Magi had followed the star to Israel, coming to worship the king of the Jews, but they did not not where to find him. Herod did not know either, so he called the scribes, those that knew the Hebrew Scriptures inside and out, for the location in which it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born. The scribes told Herod that Bethlehem was the town, the home of the Davidic dynasty. Herod sent the Magi off to the town, and urged them to return so that he may follow after them to worship the Messiah. This was a ploy to kill the child, because this new born king was a threat to Herod and his dynasty. 

The Magi then left and the star guided them to Bethlehem and to the home in which the family stayed. There they found Jesus, presented him with expensive gifts fitting for a King, but alluding to greater work that would be accomplished through this little child. They worshiped at the feet of Jesus and then eventually took their leave and left the Messiah’s town. But instead of returning as Herod requested, an angel directed them to a different path. When Herod heard that the Magi were not returning, he decided to kill not just the one child, but every male child two years and younger based on the timeframe that the Magi had given him as to when the star was first seen. 

Jesus would have been killed if not for an angel speaking to his adoptive father Joseph. The family took the gifts of the Magi and fled to Egypt and to the large community of Jewish people in that area. Years later when Herod died, the angel spoke to Joseph again and the family returned to Nazareth, and Jesus grew to the point where he left his home to meet John the Baptist at the Jordan and begin his public ministry that would eventually lead to his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

This is the Christmas story as told by putting both Matthew and Luke’s account together. The people, the places, the events as close to being in order as we can see them in the Scripture. This is the Revealing light of Christmas, from the star that shone brightly in the Western sky, calling men from the east to follow it to Bethlehem, to angels lighting up the night in front of shepherds in a field watching their flocks by night. This is the Revealing light of Christmas.

From the angel speaking to Joseph and Mary, to the Holy Spirit speaking to Simeon, and to Jesus himself being seen by Anna, this is the Revealing light of Christmas. Everything surrounding the birth of Jesus reveals to us who this baby was. He wasn’t just a kid born to a family. No, he is the God come down, wrapped in humanity’s flesh, born to the virgin, born in the town of Bethlehem, worshiped by both shepherds and Magi, praised and blessed by the righteous and prophets of God. 

Yet we see something missing in all of it. Something briefly stated in the story, yet profoundly important. We see that the Magi were there from the east; a two year excursion for them to endure to arrive in Bethlehem. We see the family, through personal trial and out of requirement, arrive in Bethlehem. We see shepherds, minding their own business but called to the Messiah’s side in the middle of the night, to arrive in Bethlehem. We see, though they did not go to Bethlehem, Simeon and Anna waiting where God told them to wait for the revealing of the Messiah, and they waited until they saw Jesus in the temple that day.

All these did not know the time or place that the Messiah would be, but when called they answered, and followed where God brought them. So what’s missing? What is absent from the Christmas story? It’s the ones who knew where the Messiah would be born that are missing. They’re in the story, but their missing from it as well. They’re the ones that Herod called to ask the question about the birth place of the Messiah. They were the ones that new definitively that Bethlehem was his brith place. If anyone should have been at the brith of the Messiah is should have been the religious people who knew where to find him. 

But they weren’t there. The Magi and shepherds were there, Joseph and Mary were there, Simeon and Anna were where they were supposed to be, but the religious leaders were absent.

Why weren’t they there? We get our answer in the Scriptures. Matthew 2:3 states that after the Magi arrived in Jerusalem seeking the baby King, this was response,  “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” Why didn’t they go, because it disturbed them to think that the Messiah was there. They didn’t want to go because what would it mean if they had? What would have to change? What would they have to lose? What comforts, what personal victories, what ideologies, and luxuries would be lost with the Messiah’s arrival? They were disturbed, because Jesus’ arrival meant they would need to change from what they desired to what God desired. 

This is the plight of humanity at the revealing of Jesus. Just Jesus’ presence requires humanity to step back, look at themselves, and make a choice to follow or not. To be engage with Jesus is to be confronted with who he says he is. Not to be told of who he is, not by a star, not by an angel, not even by the Holy Spirit’s leading, but to be engaging with the person of Jesus demands we make a choice. 

And for most people the choice is, not to engage at all. Don’t even go to Bethlehem, because in Bethlehem you might have to meet the Savior and your life will have to change, and that probably will be disturbing. Disturbing in the sense that your life will be different. Because no one who met Jesus left unchanged by him. 

Some accepted him and followed, having their whole world changed; others rejected him, left and their world grew ever darker. 

Because Jesus says he is the light of the world (John 8:12). That means if you follow him you’ll be in the light, but if you don’t you’ll remain in darkness. Jesus says he is that he is the bread of life (John 6:35) and a true vine (John 15:1). That means that what sustains us comes from him, but if we don’t come to him for sustenance we will go hungry. Jesus says that he is the good shepherd (John 10:11). That means in a world where corrupt people want you to follow them, he is good and guides you to good things. Jesus says that he is the door for his sheep (John 10:7). That means that he is protector against the things that want to come in and devour us. Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). That means that there are no other ways, other truths, or other lives, there is only his. And Jesus says that he is the resurrection and life (John 11:25). That means that though this body dies, those who trust in Jesus will have life eternal in his love, joy, peace, and comfort. 

To engage with Jesus is to go in one of two directions either you embrace the child at Bethlehem, or you reject him, knowing that you’ve made that choice. The easiest thing to do then, is not even engage, is to not even go to Bethlehem, just like the religious people of Jerusalem did, and what most people do today. But Christmas is a yearly reminder to meet the child in Bethlehem. To encounter Jesus at his revealing. To meet the Savior, to be confronted with sin, and to accept the forgiveness of God, that this child brings to humanity through the cross. 

And so my challenge for you this week is two fold. If you haven’t engage Jesus, if you haven’t taken time to see who he says he is by reading his own words in the Bible, I want to challenge you to read the Gospel of John chapters 1-14. These chapters give you a lot of what Jesus says he is. Those chapters are a snap shot of who Jesus is. If you read one chapter a day starting today, you’ll finish on Christmas Day. See who Jesus is through his interactions with people. Engage Jesus as he would have you engage, and take seriously the child in Bethlehem.

The second part of the challenge is directed at those who have accepted Jesus as Savior. Pick up a second light for your paper advent wreath and light the candle of Revealing. Jesus was revealed to the Magi, shepherds, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, and Anna. Praise God for Jesus’ revealing this week, and be in prayer for those who have not experience that revealing in their own lives.

This Christmas season, let us rejoice that Jesus has been revealed to the world, and comes to restore humanity to a right relationship with its Creator. Amen. 

First Light Of Christmas - Prophecy

Like most holidays that we celebrate, Christmas encompasses only a brief time on our calendar. One day a year we celebrate this holiday in various forms. For some, December 25th is celebrated as a time of gift giving, or of family time, or even as a day of pagan worship. Yet, the term Christmas has at its center the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a Christ-mass, a day of worship, in which to celebrate Jesus’ birth. The day in which God was wrapped, not just in swaddling cloths, but with the flesh of humanity. December 25th isn’t the actual day of Jesus’ birth, that exact day has been lost to time, but it represents a monumental moment of history. Even the calendar that we go by today, hinges on trying to divide two eras of history on this one birth.

Yet, even though our cultural tends to lengthen Christmas’ buying season ever earlier, we tend to view Christmas as another passing day. There’s a big push up to the day, then a celebration of it, and finally the aftermath of returning to regular life, looking forward to the next holiday.

In one sense, this lead up and experience is a part of the Christmas story itself, yet the aftermath is very different than what we tend to experience. This Christmas season, we are going to look at the Christmas story’s lead up, celebration, and aftermath as it was intended by God. Three lights of the story as it were. In a lot of churches, especially what is called the high church, there is the use of what is called an Advent wreath. This year, we too are going to light our own candles. Three lights of the Christmas story that we must recognize, accept, and implement into our lives. 

The first of these lights is the light of Prophecy. Just like the ramp up to Christmas begins months in advance of the day, prophecy is the ramp up to the life of Jesus. The whole of the Bible contains about 31,102 verses; out of those, approximately 8,352 verses contain future prophetic words (J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy). That means that about 27% of the Bible concerns itself with prophecy. In other words, about 1/4 of God’s Word, speaks to future events, both already fulfilled and still yet to be fulfilled. 

Out of these roughly 1,800 future prophetic words, there are approximately 300 specific prophecies of the Jewish Messiah (All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer). 

Out of these 300, today we’re only going to concern ourselves with the lead up to Christmas. Those prophecies that were specifically about the birth of the Messiah. Some of these are going to be well known to you, some are going to interconnect, and some will build on top of each other

Let’s start with some of the most well known ones. These are the Christmas prophecies that get mentioned overtly in the Christmas story. We can call them the Who and to Whom Prophecies. 

These two prophecies are found in Isaiah. Isaiah 7:14 states, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” The second is found two chapters later in Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

These verses speak to who the Messiah will be. He will be a boy, but not just a boy, God in the flesh. He will be given many names, some of which we just read, but all will point to him being God come down to humanity. This is the Who part of the prophecies.

The to Whom part, is the person he will be born to. It will be unique, because she’ll be a young women who is a virgin. A miraculous birth for a miraculous event.
Both Matthew and Luke record these prophecies being fulfilled. Matthew 1:18-23 reads, “18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means “God with us”).”

The fulfillment in Luke 1:29-33 reads, “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.’”

Now these two prophecies may seem impossible to a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus. They can be easily dismissed as being fanciful reinterpretations of verses to fit into the Christian narrative. 

Yet there are prophecies that are given that surround historical events that are separate from the moment of Jesus’ birth. These we can call the Kingly visitors prophecies. One of these prophecies comes, not from the Jewish people themselves, but from an outside source. This outside source are men from the east, to which the Bible refers to as Magi. These kingly men are recorded in Matthew 2:2 as saying, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

This is a prophecy, which is here interpreted by non-Jewish people, and is recorded in the book of Numbers 24:17, where it reads, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth."

The visit of the Magi also fulfills another prophecy, this one from Psalm 72:10-11, “May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts. 11 May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.”

We find this fulfillment in Matthew 2:11, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Another prophecy connected with the Magi, comes from Jeremiah 31:15, which states, “This is what the Lord says: 'A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’” Ramah is connected to the biblical figure of Rachel through her son Benjamin. Rachel died giving brith to Benjamin in the area that would later be called Bethlehem. This prophecy speaks to an event where children would be killed in and near this same place. This event is fulfilled in Matthew 2:16 and 17 where we find out, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”

These prophecies show that the build up to the Messiah’s brith would not be a closed off event, but rather it would encompass many people from all walks of life, and from distant areas. Things uncontrollable by Jesus or his family.

The final set of prophecies we’ll look at today is a prophecy that builds upon itself and spans the whole of the Old Testament. We can call these the Lineage prophecies. It starts in Genesis 12:1 with God calling Abraham “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Abraham is being called by God to become a great nation. A nation God will work with to bring about the Messiah. We then see how this great calling of a mighty nation is reduced to a specific family in 2 Samuel 7:11b, “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

This forever kingdom was spoke to David. So the Messiah must come from the line of David, but we run into a problem. In Jeremiah 22:28-30 we read, “Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know? 29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! 30 This is what the Lord says: ‘Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.’”

Why is this a problem? Because Jehoiachin is the last king to sit on the throne of Judah as an heir to David. Yet, just one chapter later, Jeremiah in chapter 23 verse 5-6 states, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’”

So how can there both be a son of David as the Messiah, and yet, through his linage they cannot be on the throne? We find out how this is done in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-31. In Matthew we find out that Jesus is adopted by Jospeh as his son. Jospeh is indeed in the linage of both David and Jehoiachin, yet Jesus is not the blood of Jehoiachin and therefore fulfills the prophecy of rejection of Jehoiachin’s line. Whereas in Luke we find out that, Joseph’s father-in-law, Mary’s father, is also in the line of David through David’s son Nathan. So, both by birth and by adoption Jesus fulfills two prophecies of the required linage of the Messiah. 

These are just a few of the prophecies made about the coming Messiah centuries before his birth. They are just some of the lead up that God granted humanity to know before Christmas came. From what his gender would be, to who his mother was, to the kingly people that would come to his brith, and his family’s linage, the build up to Jesus’ birth had been anticipated for over 1,500 years. 

As we ourselves, in our society and across the world, ramp up for Christmas this year, God wants us to realize that we are a microcosm of the waiting that others had to experience for centuries. Let us see this time as a time not just when we’ll get one more holiday out of the way and then on to the next, but rather see this time as moving us closer to the greatest event of history, Immanuel, God descending from his glorious throne to take on human flesh and walk this life with us. 

We must see and understand the work God did to prepare for Christmas. When we do, we can experience the immense impact it should have on our lives. By missing the build up that God prepared through the centuries, we miss the overwhelming call to the manger. We miss the call of the God who left his throne to be with his creation. We miss the perfect life he lived, and the underserving death he endured. That death was a self-sacrifice for us, but we will miss the salvation it has for us, and in the end, we will miss the eternity that God has for us.

I pray that we do not miss what Christmas truly means. The day when heaven met earth, so that God could bring humanity back from the precipice of sin and death, to himself. 

This week I want to challenge you to participate in a three part craft. Each week we’ll light a candle representing one light of the Christmas story, this week it’s the light of Prophecy. Take a three light paper found in your bulletin, and then on your way out, grab a flame to light one of those candles this week. The challenge that accompanies this is to spend this week in praise of the build up to Christmas that God did through his prophetic words. That the coming of Jesus didn’t just happen in a vacuum, but God had been carefully planning it through out the course of human history. And as an added challenge, seek out additional prophecies that were fulfilled in the Christmas story. Simply read through the first three chapters of both Matthew and Luke to see some of these additional prophecies. Then in response, continue to praise God for his prophetic words. 

Let us be a people who see the workings of God throughout history and realize that we are truly blessed to know the story of Christmas in its entirety. Amen.