Glory to God, Peace to Mankind - Dec 22, 2013

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SERMON:

Our great God is capable of turning the most humble substances into the most beautiful things. This fact is displayed in his creation at nearly every turn. In the earth’s mantle, under intense heat and pressure, black carbon is transformed into sparkling diamonds. When a bit of sand finds its way into a clam, it is surrounded by layer upon layer until it is transformed into a shimmering pearl. A grain of dust floating through a cloud in the winter sky is surrounded by a sheath of frozen water that gradually crystallizes into the gorgeous and intricate shapes we know as snowflakes.

When the creative power of the Lord comes into contact with the humble elements of this world, astounding and beautiful things result. 

When the glory of the Lord came down to mankind in the form of the Christ Child, the result was the same. On the first Christmas, God’s glory met our darkness, and two things happened: God was glorified, and sinful mankind received peace.

Luke 2:8-15 (NKJV)

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

¹⁴    “Glory to God in the highest,

      And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”

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In this account, Luke paints a beautiful picture of dramatic contrasts. The story of the shepherds is one on great darkness, and one of brilliant light. We’ll start with the darkness.

These were shepherds. We might imagine a kindly band of working men, maybe a boy here or there, snuggled around a fire out in the countryside. But that image is more from our idealized nativity sets and Christmas decorations than from reality. Shepherds were outcasts. They were considered among the lowest classes of society, and not to be trusted. Sure there were trustworthy men among the shepherding class, but the number of unscrupulous ones led to a harsh stereotype. At the time when these events took place, shepherds could not serve in judicial positions and they were forbidden from being witnesses in a court of law.

Reputations aside, lets take a look at why these men had to be out in the fields at all. They were tending sheep. Sheep that were easy prey for predators, thieves, or simply harsh weather. After the fall into sin, the world became an ugly place of struggle, death, and robbery. Sin’s effect on the world was what made shepherding necessary.

This is the scene as Luke paints it to begin with: Out in the night, a band of rough shepherds, guarding a flock of sheep from death and theft. That’s a pretty dark picture.

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But then into the scene enters an angel of the Lord, and with that angel, the glory of the Lord. If you search the Bible for that phrase, “the glory of the Lord” you’ll see it in the Old Testament most of all. The glory of the Lord was a brilliant light that appeared when the Lord wanted to make his presence known.

At Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, the glory of the Lord is described as being “like a devouring fire” (Exodus 24:17). This awe-inspiring sight was often accompanied by a mysterious cloud. When the prophet Ezekiel received a vision of the Lord sitting on his throne, he saw the glory of the Lord and said it was like the vivid brightness of a rainbow. When Solomon dedicated the first Temple of the Lord, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple making it impossible for the priests to enter it.

Here in the countryside outside of Bethlehem, the shepherds found themselves SURROUNDED by this brilliant and vivid glory.

And before long, that single angel of the Lord standing before them received backup. Luke says that all the sudden a multitude of the heavenly host appeared. That word, “host” is the same word used to describe an army arrayed for battle. That is to say, an angel army appeared before these shepherds, and with one unified voice they praised the God of heaven.

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This is the contrast that Luke presents. A dirty, rag-tag bunch of sinful shepherds and a brilliant and powerful band of angel messengers—accompanied by the light of God’s glory. And to add to the contrast between these two, Luke tells us that the shepherds were filled with fear, while the angels were filled with ecstatic joy. “Don’t fear!”, the first angel said, for we bring you GOOD NEWS!

If we attempted to actually put this scene on a canvas, we could start by simply putting a huge swatch of black on the bottom half, and huge swatch of light on the top of our canvas.

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And on the line between these contrasts we find the message of the Christ Child’s birth. Where the glory of God meets the darkness of sinful mankind we find God-made-Man. Human, yet sinless. Laid in a humble manger for his first crib. This was one through whom the whole universe had been created.

And in this Child, the glory of the Lord was expressed in a way that was far more glorious than the brilliant light shining on the fields and flocks and shepherds. Here in this Child the glory of the Lord was expressed in his GRACE.

What a gift was being given to mankind! This Child was to be a source of joy for all the people of the world, for he had been born for the specific purpose of being their Savior from sin. God’s promise to send salvation for sinners was being fulfilled. And the angels praised the Lord for what he was doing. They said…

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14 NKJV).  

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Now, I want to clear a little something up here about verse 14. Some English translations have the angels saying something like, “peace to those on whom his favor rests” (NIV), or “peace among those with whom he is pleased” (ESV). These translations fail to capture the meaning of the original Greek. They make it sound like the angels are saying, “peace be to SOME of mankind, namely, on those whom God is pleased with”. That’s not the meaning of the Greek.

The New King James Translation does a better job expressing what the angels said. They weren’t saying, “peace be to you humans who have made God happy”. They were saying, “peace be TO YOU MANKIND, because GOD IS SMILING ON YOU TODAY! By HIS goodwill, GOD is giving you ALL the gift of a Savior!”

When the glory of the Lord met the darkness of sinful mankind, two things happened: the Lord’s glory as the powerful and yet merciful God was shown, and peace was given to mankind.

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And then the light was gone. The angels went away from the shepherds, back into the realm of heaven, back to the Lord who had sent them.

And the shepherds who had seen the brilliant light that was the glory of the Lord, agreed that they should go and see the other glory of the Lord. The one that was wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger.

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As we approach the manger this Christmas, let’s remember the details of this account. God sent his glorious angel messengers to dirty, sinful shepherds because this Savior was for them. No matter what sins stain your past, this Savior is also for you. The first angel made it clear enough even for the uneducated shepherds to understand—

“…Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to ALL PEOPLE. For there is born TO YOU this day in the city of David A SAVIOR, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11 NKJV).

And the angel army repeated the message—

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth PEACE, goodwill TOWARD MEN!” (Luke 2:14 NKJV).

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The creativity and power of God is revealed in nature in a million different and breathtaking ways. But in the birth of our Savior, God’s glory is revealed in a way that far exceeds the diamond or the pearl or the snowflake. For these things may make us stare in awe or smile with joy, but the forgiveness that comes to us through the Christ Child gives us PEACE WITH GOD.

This is what Christmas is all about. Glory and praise being given to God from all his creatures, because peace has been given to us, from our all gracious King.

Prayer: Father in heaven, strip away from our hearts and minds all the second rate tinsel that the world litters around Christmas. Help us to see the glory of your forgiving grace when we see the Christ Child again. This Christmas drown out the darkness of our guilt and shame with the light of your Son, and fill us with the unshakable peace that his forgiveness brings. Amen.

The Lord Will Provide - Dec 15, 2013

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SERMON:

Ever since that fateful day in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and sinned against God, fear has been part of mankind’s daily experience.

We fear what others may think. We fear what tomorrow will bring. We worry about our jobs, our friends, our children, our debts. We fear what the economy will do. We fear wars abroad and violence on our own soil. We fear pain, and sickness, and disease. We fear sadness, depression, and mental illness.

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the Bible tells us that they heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And what did they do? Did they run to their Creator and seek his help for what they had just done? No. They hid from God. And when the Lord called out to Adam, saying, “Where are you?”, Adam replied,

“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid,” (Genesis 3:10a ESV).

Our fears are often wrapped up in uncertainty. We don’t know what is going to happen, and this fills us with anxiety. But today, the Lord will dispell our fears by saying, “Do not be afraid. I will provide for you.”

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In the days and months before the birth of our Savior, Joseph found himself in a fearful and heavy situation. And yet, through the miraculous appearance of an angel, God provided answers for Joseph, and lifted up his heavy heart.

And in doing so, God was also fulfilling his promise to provide a Savior, a Hero to rescue sinners like us from sin, hell, and fear.

Matthew 1:18-24 (ESV)

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³     “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

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To fully understand what was going on here, it’s helpful to be familiar with Jewish marriage customs. Jewish betrothal was not the same thing as American engagement. When a Jewish couple got betrothed, that was a legal binding. They were married. But they didn’t start living together right away. The wife would continue to live with her parents, or wherever she was living, and the husband would prepare their new home.

After a period of time, sometimes a year, the husband would go on a special “marriage walk” to the home of his wife. Then they would walk together, with joyful friends and family, to their new home where a special marriage celebration would take place.

At the beginning of our sermon reading, Joseph and Mary were already betrothed. But the “marriage walk” had not yet taken place. And so it came as quite a surprise to Joseph that his young wife was pregnant. It must have all been very confusing and distressing to him. He knew Mary’s character. She was no promiscuous girl. And he knew that they had not shared a bed. It was not his child growing in her belly. Matthew informs us that this child was from the Holy Spirit, but Joseph didn’t have this information as of yet. And so anxiety gripped him. What was to be done?

It appeared that his wife had already been unfaithful. It appeared that all his work to prepare a home for them had been wasted. With a heavy heart Joseph decided to divorce his wife, though quietly. He had no wish to drag Mary through the mud and subject her to public disgrace. Back then there was a way to go about securing a divorce that required only two witnesses be in attendance, and which required only the vaguest reason to be submitted by the husband. This was the path that Joseph decided to take.

Joseph had a grief-filled problem. But he had arrived at a solution. And though that solution would still be grief-filled, it was all he could think to do. And it was at this point that the Lord stepped in to provide a better solution.

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In the dark of night, an angel was dispatched by the Lord to go once again to the city of Nazareth. But this time, this angel was to go to Joseph. The angel pushed through Joseph’s restless turnings and troubled dreams, and appeared to speak on behalf of God.

Is it surprising that the angel’s first words to Joseph were, “do not fear?” It shouldn’t be. This has been the Lord’s message to sinners since the very beginning: Don’t be afraid, I, the Lord will provide.

And all of Joseph’s fears and anxieties were laid to rest in the short and simple message of the Lord’s angel.

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21 ESV).

Joseph’s crisis was averted. Mary’s Child was not conceived as a product of her unfaithfulness. Instead this Child was the product of God’s faithfulness. Through the life of this Child God would keep the promise he had made to Adam and Eve—to send a Savior to rescue the world of sinners from hell.

All Joseph’s work to prepare a home for them was not wasted. He would not only gain a blessing from God in Mary, his wife, but he would also become the step-father of the Son of God. His dream of a family had not been crushed. His family would be unique among all the families the world had ever known.

And as for Joseph’s grief-stricken decision to divorce Mary—well that plan no longer needed to be carried out. All the puzzling happenings of late had now been revealed as the mysterious workings of the Lord.

And though it was still all very strange and miraculous to Joseph, answer enough had been provided for Joseph’s anxious uncertainty.

May the Lord help us to remember how the Lord works when we find ourselves in heavy and distressing situations. In the same way that the Lord provides food and drink, and clothing and shelter, he will also provide the answers that we need if we but wait for him to do so.

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Through the words of the angel, God not only provided answers for Joseph, he also provides insight for us today. He reveals that the Savior of the world was born to a virgin. And this doctrine of the virgin birth is incredibly important in the history of our salvation.

In the book of Genesis we’re told that God created living creatures in “kinds”. That is, when cats get together, they have more cats. When dogs get together, they have more dogs. And the same is true of human beings. When sinful human beings have children, those children are also sinful human beings. Think about it as “spiritual genetics” if that helps.

But the Savior of the world would need to be holy—sinless and pure. Only a sinless sacrifice could be accepted by God to free sinners from their fate. And so the Savior of the world would need to be born differently than all other human children. And so the Christ Child was conceived in the womb of Mary, but was holy, being the Son of no human father, but the Son of the Holy God. Only God could provide this needed quality in our Savior, and he did through the virgin birth.

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The virgin birth also happened as the fulfillment of long standing prophecy. Isaiah had written…

“…the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 ESV).

And now at least two people understood exactly what God had meant by having Isaiah pen those words. Mary knew, and now Joseph knew too.

And by revealing this to Joseph God was continuing to provide for his people. In later years both Mary and Joseph could witness to the fact that Jesus had been miraculously conceived, just like the prophesy had foretold.

And here, God also provided for poor young Mary. Just imagine what it was like to be her. There weren’t many who could understood the things that were going on in her life right now. But now her husband was one of them. Now he could support her like no one else.

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As sinners living in a sinful world, we have many problems, fears, and anxieties. But through the Bible we have come to know that we also have a great God who provides the answers to all of these. And this powerful promise of peace is encapsulated for us in the name that Isaiah gave the Savior—Immanuel.

Matthew explains that in the Hebrew that title simply means, “God with us”. And how comforting it is to know that we have a God who is not distant and unfeeling to our anxious fears. We have a God who came down from heaven to be one of us. To live like us. To suffer like us, and far beyond. To die like us. And in doing so, to erase the record of our sins and open the door to heaven.

King David once wrote,

“¹    The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

       The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1 ESV).

Paul later wrote,

“If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32 ESV).

And today we rejoice with the same certainty. Through the virgin birth the world received a perfect, holy, sinless Child—God himself made human to be the perfect sacrifice for all our sins. Indeed! If God is with us like this, what is there to fear?

With a heart of repentance over our sins and a heart of faith toward our saving God, WHAT IS THERE TO FEAR?

Take those words of the angel to Joseph today and personalize them for yourself. They were spoken TO Joseph, but they were preserved FOR you. “Dear Christian, do not fear, for that which was conceived in Mary was from the Holy Spirit. The Son she bore was Jesus—the one who saves you from all your sins. Don’t be afraid, the Lord has provided, and will continue to provide, for you.”

Amen. 

The Miracle is the Mercy - Dec 8, 2013

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SERMON:

What do you think of when you think of Santa Claus? Perhaps a fat, jolly, bearded man dressed in red? Maybe you think of his sleigh, with its eight reindeer and Rudolph at the front.

If you trace the legend back into the ages, you’ll find more than just a photo-op at the mall, or an explanation for that rustling on the roof. If you trace the legend back you find a humble Christian with a compassionate heart.

Saint Nicholas was born in the third century in what is now the southern coast of Turkey. Though wealthy, Nicholas didn’t seek to hoard his gold. Instead, he used it to bless other people in his village. 

Legend says that there was one family in particular that Nicholas’ heart went out to. That family had three daughters. Sadly, their father was so poor that he couldn’t afford their weddings.

When the eldest daughter approached the time of marriage, Nicholas secretly left a bag of gold on the family’s doorstep.

When it came time for the middle daughter to be married, Nicholas threw another bag of gold down the family’s chimney.

When the youngest daughter was to be married, Nicholas threw one last bag of gold through an open window, where curiously, it landed in a stocking hung by the fireplace to dry.

Compassionate Nicolas was not seeking to build a legend around himself. He was simply putting into practice what his Savior taught in Matthew 6…

“³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4 ESV).

In Saint Nicholas we find a lesson in Christian giving.

In today’s sermon reading we learn how God gives, and we see the proper way to receive the gift of God’s mercy.

Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

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Six months before the angel Gabriel had been sent to deliver a message to a certain priest named Zacharias. When Gabriel appeared to him, he was in the city of God, Jerusalem. Furthermore, Zacharias was at the Lord’s Temple. Better still, this priest was actually standing in the first room of the sanctuary burning incense to the LORD.  

It was gracious of the Lord to send an angel messenger to speak with Zacharias. But it probably wasn’t too shocking to Gabriel to go to God’s Temple and speak with one of God’s faithful priests. Gabriel’s next assignment, however, might have ruffled his feathers a bit.

You can almost imagine Gabriel looking quizzically down at his mission papers. Nazareth? Seriously? Nazareth?

Nazareth had the distinct honor of being mentioned in the Old Testament a grand total of ZERO times. Nothing great, or even notable, had ever happened there. When the apostle Philip later told his friend Nathanael that they had discovered who the Christ was, and that he was from Nazareth, Nathanael sarcastically replied,

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46 NASB).

And yet, Gabriel’s assignment was no mistake. He was to go to a poor young girl and tell her that she was to be the mother of the Savior of the world.

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The destination of Nazareth, and the person of poor, young Mary should be enough to erase any doubts we have about God being kind and merciful. In these humble details we see that the Son of God was coming to save each and every soul. From the highest, to the humblest—God’s gift of forgiveness in Christ is intended for every sinner.

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In verse 27 Luke takes care to record that Mary was a virgin, and that she was betrothed to a man named Joseph who was a descendant of David. Incidentally, Mary could also trace her lineage back to King David. But that mighty house was now a rotting stump compared to what it had been.

It had been almost a thousand years since David had ruled in Jerusalem, and since then the mighty cedar of his family had been cut down. Mary and Joseph were descendants of David, to be sure, but that didn’t mean all that much anymore. They were just another poor couple scraping out a living in backwater Nazareth.

That’s what that prophecy in Isaiah 11 was all about.

“11 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:1-3 NIV).

Just when it seemed like God’s promise to grant one of David’s descendants an eternal throne was going to go unfulfilled, Gabriel showed up at Mary’s door with a most remarkable gift. It was to be her Son. From the stump of David’s family a glorious shoot was soon to grow forth. The Messiah himself was coming.

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I want to take just a moment to clear up a little phrase here. In verse 30, Gabriel tells Mary not to be afraid, because she has “found favor with God.” Now, in the English this sounds like Mary had done something to get God’s attention. Something that warranted a blessing from the Lord. But this is only how the English phrase sounds. The Greek phrase actually means something more like, “you have been given a gift from God.”

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This gift was the Child that Mary would bear. A Child whose name was to be “Jesus.” Now, this name is notable for two reasons. First of all, it meant, “Yahweh Saves.” A fitting name for the Savior of sinners. But the second reason this name is notable is that it was a common name in Jewish circles. Many other boys had been given this name. God’s selection of this name serves as one more expression of God’s desire to save ALL people.

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Gifts, gifts, and more gifts. That’s what Gabriel was sent to announce to Mary. It’s no surprise that gift giving has become such an important part of celebrating our Savior’s birth. But what is the right way to receive a gift of this magnitude?

When a person unexpectedly receives a valuable gift, their response is often to try and give the gift back, or to refuse it on the grounds that it is “too much.”

Mary teaches us a different way. Though just a young girl, Mary was a faithful follower of the Lord. And yet when Gabriel greets her, she doesn’t know how to react. Luke says that she was “greatly troubled” and tried to figure out what Gabriel’s greeting could mean. SHE was to be given a gift? HER? The LORD was with HER? This is how the heart of a believer responds to the Lord’s gift of mercy. We wonder why the almighty God wants anything to do with us.

Mary teaches us how to receive God’s gift of mercy, when she helps us remember our lowly position. We are all sinners who don’t deserve even the littlest of God’s blessings. We are certainly unworthy to receive full and free forgiveness. It was crazy that an angel of God would visit Mary in Nazareth. It’s equally crazy that God would reach out to each one of us with the gift of forgiveness. We must remember this, and never take this gift for granted.  

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Even though Mary knows she isn’t worthy of the honor God was giving her, she doesn’t try to give that gift back. She accepts it and wants to know more. In verse 34 Mary asks Gabriel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin.” With these words Mary isn’t questioning the validity of Gabriel’s claim. Instead, she’s showing her faith in what he said. She wants to know just how this is going to come about. She wants to know the details.

In this also, Mary teaches us how to receive God’s gift of mercy. Not with doubt, but with excitement and an eagerness to learn just how this all works. You’ve erased the record of my sin, Lord? Wow. Just how did you make that happen? Tell me more.

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Because Mary’s question wasn’t a question of doubt, but a question of eagerness to learn, Gabriel explained to Mary how she would become pregnant while still a virgin. The same Holy Spirit who brooded over the waters in the very beginning would overshadow her. The same Holy Spirit who breathes life into all creatures on earth, would cause life to spark into being in Mary’s womb. And the holy, human, Son of God would begin growing in her belly.

This was quite a lot for Mary to take in, and Gabriel knew it. So he gave Mary’s faith a little boost. He told her a little secret. There was another miracle from God that had already taken place. And Mary could go see it. Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, who was supposed to be barren, and who was well beyond child bearing age, was right now six months pregnant. As Gabriel said, “nothing will be impossible with God.”

And what a special verse that is to hold onto. For our own salvation is impossible apart from God. You and I cannot do a single thing to erase the long and sordid record of our sins against each other, and against God. But God can, and he did. He sent his one-and-only Son into the human race to be the sacrifice which obliterates the record of our sins, and pronounces us holy before the eternal God.

One last time, Mary teaches us how to receive this gift of mercy. Mary’s final words to Gabriel were…

“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ESV).

This might have shocked Gabriel a little bit, if angels are capable of being shocked. “Behold” is a strong word! “Look here” it means, “Note this carefully.” And this was coming from a tender young virgin from Nazareth to a mighty angel of God! Behold! I am the servant of the Lord, and to what you say, I respond—AMEN!

This was the response of simple faith. And this is how Mary would counsel us to respond to the gift of God’s mercy that is found in Jesus Christ. You say I’m forgiven because of your Son God? Mark it well, I believe you! Let it be so, according to your promise.

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Think of that old legend about Saint Nicholas again for a moment. Wouldn’t it have been a sad, sad ending if the pride of that family of girls had made them return Nicholas’ gift? That would have been sad indeed. For the proper response to a great gift is to simply receive it with joy and thanksgiving.

And that’s the right response to God’s gift of mercy too. When we hear God’s gift of full forgiveness speak out to us in the Christmas story, and in countless other passages in the Bible, how sad it would be if we tried to return that gift. Wait God, wait. Let me clean a few things up in my life first. Then I can accept your gift and be worthy of it. Oh, how foolish our hearts can be. Better to follow Mary’s example, and simply receive God’s mercy with a heart of awe, with a mind which eagerly wants to know more, and with a mouth which gladly says, “Amen Lord! Let it be to me, according to your word.”

May the Holy Spirit bless us this Christmas, so that we receive the Christ Child, and all the blessings that come with him, with a simple faith and a thankful heart.

Amen.

God's Miraculous Plan of Salvation - Dec 1, 2013

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SERMON:

If you’ve ever seen a fireworks display put on by a large city you know how it works. The pyrotechnics that begin the show don’t come close to matching those that erupt at the finally. But, if you watch those early explosions closely you’ll be able to gauge how big the finally will be. The colors, the size of the blasts, the shapes of the blasts, and the height of the detonations—all foreshadow what’s coming.

The same is true of the events preceding the birth of Jesus Christ. The birth of Christ was an unprecedented event. God had never been human before. When the Son of God was born in a stable in the outskirts of Bethlehem, it was a miracle to rival all miracles.

And to prepare the world for the birth of its Savior, God arranged a succession of lesser miraculous to occur. These miraculous events have been recorded for us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This year, as we go about making all of our outward preparations to celebrate Christmas, we’ll also pause to prepare our hearts as well by reading about the miracles that preceded our Savior’s birth.

Each of the miracles we’ll be examining is marked by the appearance of an angel of God. These messengers were sent from heaven to give people details about how God was carrying out his plan to save mankind from sin and hell.

Today’s angel appears to an old priest named Zacharias.

Luke 1:5-12 (NASB)

    5   In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

    6   They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

    7   But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

    8   Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division,

    9   according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

  10   And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.

  11   And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

  12   Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

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We’ll pause there for now.

Luke has just given us the background on which to see a miracle take place. The time is around 6 B.C. King Herod is reigning. The place is Judea. Jerusalem to be exact, where the temple of the Lord stood.

Luke introduces two characters in this drama—Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. A priest and his wife. Luke describes these people as “righteous in the sight of God”. That is to say, they were true followers of the God of the Bible. They trusted in him and ordered their lives according to his word as well, as any sinful human couple can.

Interestingly, Luke includes the fact that they had no children because Elizabeth was unable to bear children. And while there might have been hope for children earlier in their lives, now that hope was gone—for they were now well beyond their childbearing years.

Have you figured out what miracle God is about to do? Luke is pretty much telegraphing what’s going to happen. And in a way, so is God. You can almost imagine God’s train of thought…

“Hmm. I’m going to need someone to get the people ready to meet their Savior. I know!  I’ll have this someone born to parents who couldn’t have a child without a miracle happening. That’ll get the people’s attention. That’ll help them see MY hand is at work here. That’ll warm prepare them for the even more miraculous birth of my Son.”

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After painting the background, Luke sets out the scene for Zacharias’ meeting with one of God’s angels.

Luke says that Zacharias was part of the priestly division of Abijah. There were a lot of things to take care of at the Lord’s temple. People came to worship and offer sacrifices to God on a daily basis. So, a lot of priests were needed. The different divisions of priests were essentially “worship teams” who took turns serving at the Lord’s temple.

One of the great honors for a priest was to be selected as the one who got to go into the Holy Place of the temple to burn incense to the Lord. Zacharias was chosen at random for this task. This was a pretty exciting thing for Zacharias. This might happen once in a priest’s life.

And so up the stairs he went, bearing the incense and the fire, and in through the door of the temple. This wasn’t a public event. Only priests were allowed into the temple proper. Everyone else had to wait outside. And when the incense was offered, only the selected priest was there. It must have been quite a sobering and awe inspiring experience for Zacharias.

And though he did not know it, Zacharias had already been touched by the miracle working hand of God. It wasn’t mere luck which had caused Zacharias to be born into the family of Aaron, the only family allowed to be priests in Israel. It hadn’t been mere chance which had brought the division of Abijah to serve during this week of the year. It wasn’t just the “luck of the draw” that caused Zacharias to be chosen at random to offer incense on this day. The Lord had wanted Zacharias here, in this empty room, on this day. He had an important message to give him.

In the book of Psalms David wrote…

“...all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalms 139:16 NIV).

God did not create the universe just to yield it up to time and chance. He is active in his creation. With purpose and a plan he drops opportunities into our lives and moves us from one place to another. In the same way that God brought Zacharias to that altar of incense, he has also brought us to this place of worship today. Through his guiding of our lives, and through his powerful Word, the Lord intends to bless and effect us.

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So much for the little miracles of time and place in the life of Zacharias. Let’s get to the bigger, more obvious miracles. Verse 11…

Luke 1:11-13 (NASB)

  11   And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

  12   Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

  13   But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.

  14   “You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.

  15   “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.

  16   “And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.

  17   “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

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If you were to ask Zacharias if he had ever experienced a miracle, he’d probably mention that one time when he got a visit from one of the Lord’s angels. But there’s more miracles going on here than just that. When the angel opened his mouth to speak, a flood of prophecies came out. Prophesies that would later come true.

First of all, his old wife was going to have a child! The angel said that his prayer had been heard and would soon be answered with a resounding, “Yes.” How long ago had Zacharias prayed for that blessing? We have no way of knowing. But we can guess it wasn’t just yesterday! We ought to remember the flabbergasted Zacharias when we feel like God isn’t listening to our prayers. He marks each and every request from his followers. And he answers in his own time, according to his own plan, and in the way that his supreme wisdom deems best.

Not only would Zacharias have a son of his own, the angel told him that his son would be “filled with the Holy Spirit” right from his beginning. This was a miracle in itself. The Spirit of God would be with this child! Endowed with God’s power and presence, he was to serve the Lord.

And this child would perform miracles of his own. He would “turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.” Human beings are born into this world as sinful creatures. Creatures infected with sin, whose hearts are set against their creator. But John would turn sinners back to God through the stern preaching of God’s Law, and the joyful preaching of God’s forgiveness which comes through the Christ.

And while many prophets of the Lord had performed this task through Israel’s long history, John would be special. He was to be the “forerunner” of the Savior. He would get the people ready for the Lord’s arrival in the flesh.

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In years to come, people would look back on all these prophesies and see that they came to pass just as the angel had said. And this fact would strengthen their trust in the God of their salvation.

Today, this story moves OUR hearts to trust more fully in God’s plan of salvation. What God says, he does! Through prophecy and fulfillment in the past, God encourages us to trust him to keep his promises about our future. Through his faithfulness he penetrates our hearts and changes the way we look at the world. If he says something is sinful and damaging, we ought to believe him. If he says that our sins have been forgiven through the sacrifice of his Son, we ought to believe him.

But the hearts of mankind are hard and unfeeling when it comes to spiritual truth. And that much is seen here in Zacharias. For in the face of all these joyful and miraculous promises, Zacharias could only see the impossible. Verse 18…

Luke 1:18-20 (NASB)

  18   Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

  19   The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

  20   “And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

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There he stood, chosen to offer the incense at the Lord’s temple for what would probably been the only time in his life. There before him stood an angel of God, again, for what would probably be the only time in his earthly life. God promised him that he would have a son in his old age. Moreover, that son would be a servant of God and would precede the Savior’s entrance into the world. And yet among all these miraculous promises Zacharias seizes on one thing: the physical impossibility of his barren wife conceiving and giving birth to a child.

In the presence of God’s promises, doubt is an ugly thing.

I’m not sure if angels feel distain for human doubt. But you can at least sense a tone of unbelieving rebuke in the angel’s response to Zacharias.

“I’m sorry, maybe you don’t understand who I am, or who I come from. So let me make it clear. I AM GABRIEL. I spend most of my time next to the throne of GOD. But now I’m here because the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE has dispatched me with a bit of GOOD NEWS for you.”

Perhaps it was at this time that the needle on Zacharias’ “fear meter” started to redline. But it was too late. What was said, was said. And now he would receive a firm, but gentle, rebuke from God’s messenger. He would be unable to speak until the things Gabriel foretold had taken place.

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Did you see what happened to God’s plan when Zacharias threw his “doubt” grenade? Nothing.

God had promised Adam and Eve that he would send a Savior to erase the fate their sins had attached to them. But God wasn’t about to back out on his promise because of some doubting Judean priest. Like Gabriel said, all these things would be “fulfilled in their proper time.”

And we can take a lesson from this. God’s miraculous plan of salvation was not stopped by human doubt, because God’s plan of salvation doesn’t depend on us. It’s a promise God made, and God fulfilled.

And when it comes to our own doubt, God has more than enough power to overcome that ugly wart. When the world causes us to doubt the reliability of the Bible, God says, “Compare what I’ve written to what you see in the world. You’ll see that it matches perfectly.”

When the world causes us to doubt the existence of a God who is active in human history, God says, “Check out all the prophesies about my Son’s birth, life, death, and resurrection from the grave. You’ll see that they’ve all been fulfilled.”

And when the devil himself causes us to wonder if God really forgives our darkest and ugliest sins, God says, “Who you gonna trust? The one who brought sin into the world, or the God who sent his own Son to save you from hell? Are you really forgiven because of what Jesus suffered in your place? You bet you are. That’s what all these miracles I’ve been doing are meant to show you. I’m bigger than your doubt. I’m your Savior. And what I say will be, will be.”

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When you see the fireworks display for the first time as a child, there’s nothing quite like it. It dazzles your eyes and opens up a world of wonder in the sky above. And the next year you go out to see it again.

It’s the same with Christmas. We’ve seen in before. We’ve seen the fireworks that come before, and we’ve seen the finally. But don’t let that mute your amazement. Instead, as we move through these days of Advent, let’s think on how God has laid miracle after miracle before our eyes through the Scriptures. And all of them to point us to the miracle forgiveness that comes to us through his Son.

This Christmas, may God bury our all our foolish doubt with the miracle of his forgiving love, laid to rest in Bethlehem’s manger.

Amen.

John Prepares Us to Celebrate Christmas - Dec 23, 2012

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SERMON:

This Advent season we've been letting the Gospel writers prepare us for Christmas. Matthew showed us that Jesus was descended from King David, just as the prophesy foretold. Mark reminded us how repentance prepares our hearts to receive Christ. Last Sunday Luke laid out the many miracles that happened around Christ's birth and so emphasized that Christmas is not about what we can do, but about what God has done for us.

Today we turn to the last of the four Gospels, to hear from the apostle John. The first three Gospels focused our attention on events that happened in human history. But John's scope is greater. At the beginning of John's Gospel, he brings us all the way back to eternity. John begins his Gospel with these weighty words...

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1-2 ESV).                                 

Now, God uses many different names for Himself in the Bible. Names like, Yahweh, the Lord, the Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm sure you could think of half a dozen more without much trouble. To these names John adds another referring specifically to the second member of the Trinity. John calls God the Son "the Word".

And so John invites us to throw our minds back to the beginning. Before anything existed, there was God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Glorious. Eternal. Radiant with power and majesty. And then in verse 14 John writes the following. This is the main portion of our sermon reading for today.

John 1:14-18 (ESV)

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

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One of my favorite books is a series by Stephen King called, "The Dark Tower". The stories in this series are built around a quest to reach the Dark Tower. But not much is known about this tower. The people who seek it don't really even know which world it's found in. They believe the tower to be a sort of nexus holding infinite parallel universes together, binding existence together like an immense linchpin. Everything is said to be tied in to the tower.

The main character of this story is a man named Roland who wants to find the tower in order to climb its steps to the top. If possible, Roland would see what, or who, is in the tower's highest room.

Whether he intended to or not, Stephen King has written into the fabric of this story many of the questions and hopes of the whole human race. Questions about existence, about reality, questions about God.

One of the characters in the book expresses the desire to find the tower, but maybe not to enter the top room. He says that perhaps he is afraid of some sort of accounting that might come when you enter the presence of the almighty Dweller of the tower's highest level.

Every culture of mankind has longed to reach God. The religions produced by these cultures have come up with different methods to climb the stairs, but each one has had the same goal - to see, to know the Almighty Creator, the source of all things.

But John, a humble fisherman from the region of Galilee doesn't offer us one more story cut from the cloth of human longing. His story is altogether different from the concept of human beings climbing their way to the top. John says that idea is all wrong. Something else has happened which allows us to see God.

God Himself, the Word, became flesh and lived among us.

The way that John writes may make him seem a bit like a dreamer and a poet. But John had a difficult task laid on him when he began this Gospel. He had to choose his words carefully. He had to help his readers imagine what we cannot fully comprehend. Someone once said, "As the ant understands the man, so we understand God".

But even against such odds, John endeavors to make us understand what he saw when he met Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son of God.

He uses three main words to describe Jesus: glory, grace and truth. In verse 14 John says...

"...we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:1 ESV).

What do you think of when you hear the word "glory"? I'd guess a lot of people think of light. Like the way that the daytime sun shines when it's noon. Or like the way the setting sun shines differently, more condensed and powerful as it sinks below the rim of the horizon.

Perhaps light is part of what John is thinking of when he says that he saw the glory of God's Only Son. Once John saw Jesus actually radiating light from every pore of his body. On a mountain where Jesus had taken a handful of disciples to pray He was changed, and became as bright as the shining sun.

But there were other times when the glory of God shone out through Jesus in other ways. How about all the times when Jesus healed people of diseases with a touch of His hand, or with a simple word? That was God's glory radiating from Jesus as well.

Or how about every time when Jesus opened up the Scriptures to the people through His teaching. Not adding new things to the Bible, but reaching into it and opening it up, helping the people to see what it had always meant, but they had failed to grasp. Each time Jesus showed His complete understanding of the Word, God's glory was shining.

Or think of how Jesus knew the minds of men. Not just the fact that He understood how people think. There were times when Jesus knew the actual thoughts of individuals and told them so. Each time Jesus revealed the thoughts of people or the events of their pasts, the glory of God glimmered in His words for just a moment.

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One of the other main words John uses to describe Jesus is "truth". John and everyone else who heard Jesus speak noticed that He didn't speak like the other religious teachers of the day. His words weren't offered as possible understandings of God. His words were offered as the only understanding of God. And this isn't just to say that Jesus spoke confidently while others spoke with reservation. When Jesus spoke the things He said were self evident. His words held the weight of "right-ness". Even if you didn't like what Jesus was saying, even if you spoke out against what He said, inside you still knew that what He said was true.

Jesus was unique. He was not merely another man teaching his own ideas. Jesus was the only Son of the Father, teaching the unshakable truth about the way things actually are. And this too, was a glimpse of God's glory.

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But John would say that above all these other flashes of glory were the moments of grace that came from Jesus. That's the most important word John uses to describe his experience with the Son of God - grace. In verse 16 John says,

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16 ESV).

The word "grace" refers to a gift given without the recipient deserving it in any way. John saw Jesus give many of these gifts. Lunch for thousands from a few loaves and a couple fish. Healings. Demons cast out. Leprosy cleansed away. Spiritual insight granted. The dead raised back to life.

But above all these "little" graces, John saw Jesus offer His own body and soul to be beaten, mocked and crucified to death. And when all was said and done, it came out that all of this was allowed by Jesus in order to save sinners from the eternal punishment that our sins deserve.

The glory of God shone out from Jesus in all the little gifts He gave people. But the glory shone most brilliantly in the dark on the cross of Calvary. There Jesus suffered hell on earth in order to do away with the eternity of hell that our sins had piled up.

In verse 17 John says...

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17 ESV).

One of the reasons John spoke so reverently of Jesus was that He saw clearly that Jesus was not just another teacher offering another method for climbing the steps to God. Those teachings all led to a dead end. Even Moses, who received the Law from God Himself on Mt. Sinai could offer nothing more than another dead end. If you take the Ten Commandments and try to use them to climb the ladder to God, you're going to be disappointed. Trying to keep the commandments as a staircase to God is a slippery route. One wrong step and you tumble down to the bottom. God's standard is perfection, and no one who has ever committed even a single sin can approach God on his own merit.

But the Word didn't become flesh to repeat the commandments. He came to give us Grace with a capital "G". The gift of gifts, the gift of freedom from what we deserve. The gift of forgiveness.

Later in his Gospel, John records the words that Jesus spoke to a religious teacher named Nicodemus. Jesus told this man...

"...God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17 ESV).

On that first Christmas day, the door at the top of the tower opened. And down those slippery steps a sure footed figure came. Down the endless flights His footsteps echoed quietly. And when He stepped out of the tower, His earthly mother laid Him in a manger - a newborn human Child.

The Scripture tells us that later He re-ascended those steps, and that all who hold His hand by faith, cannot tumble to the bottom any longer.

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Let me tell you one more story. In our country, about a hundred and fifty years ago, a slave by the name of Booker was born on a southern plantation. He was later released from slavery by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and became an important leader for African Americans in the late eighteen-hundreds. But in his early years, Booker didn't foresee greatness in his future. Listen to the following excerpts from his book, "Up From Slavery".

"From the time that I can remember having any thought about anything, I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read. I determined when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life, I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers" (Up From Slavery, page 34).

"I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books. The pleasure of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise" (Up From Slavery, page 14).

Booker longed to simply read. But nobody close to him knew how to read. He could get books if he tried hard enough, and he did, but unless a teacher could be found, it just wasn't going to happen. Without a teacher, reading would simply remain beyond his grasp.

The human condition is the same when it comes to knowing God. You can't truly know God without knowing His grace. Sure, you can learn from the creation that He is powerful. Sure, you can learn all about His rules and commandments from your heart, conscience, and from the Bible. You can learn about His stern justice from the same. But that's only part of God's character. In order to really know God, you have to know His grace. And you can only know God's grace through knowing His Son. That's why God's Son was born on the first Christmas - that we might truly know God.

In the final verse of our reading John writes...

"No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known" (John 1:18 ESV).

John invites us to the manger this Christmas with these thoughts in mind. Here lies our Teacher. Not just a teacher of kindness and good behavior. Not just another moral leader. But a Savior full of glory, truth, and above all - grace. A teacher who offers to show us all that the Bible really means. A teacher who offers to show us what the Father really looks like. A teacher who says first of all that He has erased our sins, and who then offers to hold us tightly, and introduce us to the Almighty.

May the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with wonder as we gaze down into the humble manger this year. May the Christ Child fill us with peace and with faith. And may the Father be seen in our hearts as He is, full of glory, grace with a capital "G" and truth. Amen.