The Lord Will Provide - Dec 15, 2013

To  DOWNLOAD an MP3 of this message, first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as". Older audio is removed to conserve server space, but is available by request.

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.”

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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

To  DOWNLOAD an MP3 of this message, first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as". Older audio is removed to conserve server space, but is available by request.

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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.”

▬

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.

▬

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.  

▬

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.

▬

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.

▬

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

To  DOWNLOAD an MP3 of this message, first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as". Older audio is removed to conserve server space, but is available by request.

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.

▬

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.”

▬

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.

▬

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.”

▬

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.

▬

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.”

▬

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.

▬

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.”

▬

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.

Expressions of a Thankful Heart - Nov 28, 2013

To  DOWNLOAD an MP3 of this message, first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as". Older audio is removed to conserve server space, but is available by request.

SERMON:

Thanksgiving has been celebrated in our country ever since 1863. During that year, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation to the citizens of America. They were to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November, as the day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens.”

Of course, that wasn’t the first time thankfulness had ever been expressed. People have been thanking God, and thanking each other since the beginning of the world. In the book of Genesis we read about how Cain and Abel offered the first-fruits of farm and herd on an altar, as an expression of gratitude to God. Down through the ages people have expressed their gratitude to each other by giving gifts, sending cards, making speeches, and in countless other ways.

When we thank someone, we’re not trying to pay someone back for the good they’ve done. We’re simply saying, “I value you.”

Different cultures go about thanking people in different ways. In Japanese culture, when a person gives a gift they often denigrate their gift. They say how terrible and pathetic their gift really is. They apologize for giving such a substandard gift. In America we do the opposite. We often talk the gift up, describing how it’s the newest and the best. Interestingly, both cultures are  trying to say the same thing.

The Japanese gift giver denigrates their gift as a way of saying, “There is nothing that I could possibly give you that would come close to matching how valuable you are.” The American gift giver brags up their gift as a way of saying, “You’re so valuable, I would only dare give you the best there is.” Isn’t that funny? Both cultures are trying to say the same thing, they’re just going about it from different angles.

So, what is the best way to say, “I value you.” I suppose there are as many ways to say thank you, as there are people to thank. 

Today, to help us learn how to thank “our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens”,  we’ll see how King David and the leaders of Israel expressed their thankfulness to God. May the Holy Spirit use these words to teach our hearts. Amen.

1 Chronicles 29:10-14 (ESV)

¹⁰ Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. ¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. ¹² Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. ¹³ And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

¹⁴ “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

▬

King David and the leaders of the Tribes of Israel were thankful to the LORD for all that he had done for them. If it weren’t for the LORD’s actions year ago, their people would probably still be slaves in Egypt. But the LORD had led them out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Then came their forty-year wandering in the wilderness. The LORD had watched over them there, even though they were a rebellious and unthankful people. He sustained them with bread from heaven, and brought them to the borders of a rich new land.

They wouldn’t have had the power, or the courage to take this new land for themselves. But the LORD gave them victory after victory until the land was theirs. It was God’s gift to them.

And in the following years, when the nations around Israel rose up to raid their land, the LORD caused great heroes to come forward from the people to beat back the invaders.

And throughout all of this he had blessed their land each year with harvest after harvest, with children and grandchildren, with blessing after blessing. And in recent years he had granted them their wish—to have a king. And David was now that good king.

▬

For all these things, David and the leaders of Israel were thankful. And their thanks is expressed in a number of ways here in our text.

First of all, we see their thankfulness to God displayed in David’s prayer. This was a public prayer. The people were gathered and heard David’s words. In his prayer David recognizes God’s great glory, his ownership of all things, and his rule over all people.

Furthermore, David also recognizes the LORD as the source of all riches and honor given to man. David and his fellow leaders of Israel would not have had the wealth and honor they did if it weren’t for the LORD, and they knew it. God had given their nation its greatness and strength, and David says as much in his prayer.

When it comes to thanking the LORD, praising God with our words is one of the best ways. We do this when we pause during the day to send our inner prayers to God. Prayers of gratitude for the many daily joys he sends us. Thankful prayers for the food he sets before us. Thankful prayers for the special people the LORD has placed in our lives.

We praise God with our words at church too, when we sing hymns together. When we confess our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, or some other expression trust in God’s Word. We praise God when we lift up our hearts to him in prayer as one people.

Whenever we speak about the LORD to others we are performing an act of worship. When we let the Word of God govern what we say and how we say it, then also we are praising God. Honoring him with our lips.

In all these things we are doing the same thing David did—we are saying, “LORD, I value you.”

▬

We also see the thankfulness of David and the leaders of Israel displayed in their generosity. In verse 14 David prays,

“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?” (1 Chronicles 29:14 ESV).

To understand what David is talking about you have to skip back a few paragraphs in this chapter. You see, the Temple had not yet been built. The LORD was still being worshipped in the movable “tent” that the Israelite had carried along their journeys. David had wanted to change all that. He wanted to build God a glorious Temple where the people could come to worship him properly. But God had told David that was a job set aside for David’s son Solomon.

But that didn’t prevent David from getting the temple materials ready. And so David gathered up gold, silver, bronze, wood, precious stones, and marble. But David didn’t just raid the nation’s treasury to provide all these things, David also dipped into his own personal wealth. We’re told that David gave three thousand talents of gold, and seven thousand talents of silver toward the building of the Lord’s Temple. In our measurements today, that’s about 110 tons of gold and 260 tons of silver. That’s 4.6 billion dollars worth of precious metals.

When the leaders of the Tribes of Israel found out about David’s generosity, they chipped in their own offering with 190 tons of gold, 375 tons of silver, 675 tons of bronze, and 3,750 tons of iron. That’s about 8.1 billion dollars worth. Not to overstress the point, but we’re talking about 12.7 billion dollars worth of freewill offerings to build the LORD’s Temple!

Of course, these offerings would only be true expressions of thankfulness to God if they were given as a genuine expression of devotion and not just as a way of looking good to other people. But David and company knew that all too well. And David prays in a later verse,

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you” (1 Chronicles 29:17 NIV).

Human beings are not generally inclined to give with generosity. But a thankful heart responds in this way. When we give our time, our effort, or our possessions to the LORD’s service, we are praising him. These are acts of worship when they come, as David describes, from a willing and honest heart. And when that happens, God hears what we’re saying. He hears, “LORD, I value you.”

▬

And this leads us to see the third way in which the thankfulness of David and the leaders of Israel was displayed. We see their thankfulness displayed in their humility.

In verse 14 David prays,

“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?” (1 Chronicles 29:14 ESV).

And he adds…

“For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you” (1 Chronicles 29:14 ESV).

If we really want to grow more thankful toward God, we have to start with humility. I’m not sure anyone can truly be thankful without becoming humble first. If we feel entitled to what the LORD gives, can we really be thankful to him? Or, if we feel like our blessings come to us because we’re so talented and hard-working, can we really be thankful to God? No.

David expresses the right attitude to have, “God, we don’t deserve these things. But you’ve given them to us because you’re an amazing God. And anything we happen to give back is really something we got from you already. So gracious accept our child-like gifts as an expression of this fact—we value you.”

▬

When the LORD teaches us humility, an amazing thing happens. HUMILITY toward God is like rich soil. And from this soil springs up a little sprout called GLADNESS. We look at what we have, be it little or much, and are glad to be blessed by God. And if that little sprout of gladness grows up it becomes THANKFULNESS. Thankfulness to God that expresses itself in word, deed, and attitude. And when this plant matures it becomes CONTENTMENT. And we feel that whatever we have at the moment, that is enough. God will provide what we need, when we need it. And this contentment flowers in the form of lasting PEACE. And we know that come what may, God has our back. We don’t have to scrabble around and worry about what tomorrow will bring. The great God who brought us to this day will carry us tomorrow. He knows who we are, and what we need. He knows all we are with our ugly sins and bad habits, and amazingly—he loves us anyway.

▬

God didn’t bless King David and the nation of Israel because they were such thankful and thoughtful people. He blessed them because he loved them. The thankfulness came later, as a result of God’s goodness.

And there was another reason why he watched over them from Egypt to the Promised Land and beyond. It was from these people that the Messiah would be born—the Savior of the world. When the Son of God was born as a human child, he was born in the nation of Israel.

That’s how God works. He blesses people who don’t deserve it, so that they might turn to him and see his love. And when they see that he is a gracious and loving God, then he can then show them the greatest gift that he has in store for them—forgiveness for their sins. Forgiveness that was earned when the Son of God gave HIMSELF to suffer the penalty for our sins.

▬

One hundred and fifty years ago, the people of America celebrated Thanksgiving Day for the first time. A day set aside to thank and praise our “beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.”

Today, let’s celebrate Thanksgiving right. By praising the LORD with our words, with our generosity, and with a humble heart that continually looks to the God of the Bible as OUR God, and the source of all things good.

Amen.