 Jesus came to restore the brokenness that we find in this world. Matthew presents Him as the promised King by recounting an entire history of brokenness. Starting with Abraham and moving forward each person in Jesus’ line brings in their own failures. Each new generation added new areas of brokenness to the family that would eventually produce the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. The history of Jesus’ family is much like the history of the world. Man goes from one failure to another. We as a people tend to break rather than heal. But Jesus changed all that. He was born into a line of kings that seemed broken without remedy. There seemed to be no hope left for the once proud line of David the king. But then Jesus was born and a new kind of king began to reign. A king whose kingdom is not of this world. A king who brings with Him all the promises of God and gives them to His people. A king who does not fail. A king who is not driven by ambition or greed or any of the motivations it seems that human kings and leaders are driven by. Jesus came not to take but to give. Not to be served but to serve. When Jesus was born, the broken hope of all the world was broken no more. He brought healing to the nations and light for those who lived in darkness. He came to redeem people just like the ones in this list of His family. People like you, people like me. He wants to heal your brokenness today and use you to restore the hopes of those who are in your life, would you allow Him to work through you?
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What is your favorite Christmas carol? I love to sing Christmas songs, they are full of hope and joy that point us to our Savior. Luke must have loved a good Christmas song as well because the first two chapters of his gospel contain three of them. Mary sings the first song here, Zechariah follows close after and then you have the angels singing to the shepherds later on. I think part of the reason we love to sing Christmas songs is, like these who sang the very first Christmas carols show us, when you think much about the birth of Jesus, and what it means you are so filled with joy, you can’t help but sing out to the Lord in happiness.
Mary teaches us the only sensible response to the birth of our Savior, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” The next line says, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Christmas is a time where we should indeed magnify and rejoice in our Savior who has come to make all the sad things come untrue. As you read down through her song that is exactly what she sings about. Mary is singing about turning the world upside down and setting it right side up. God gives strength to the weak. He gives hope to the hopeless. He fills the empty. He helps the helpless. He gives mercy to the guilty. On the flip side, God removes the arrogance of the proud. He brings down those who have risen on the back of their fellow man. He empties out the treasuries of the greedy. Mary’s song is telling us that Jesus restores the proper order to the world. We already experience much of what Mary sings about in our world where the gospel is properly lived out. Those who know Jesus take care of the weak and poor. Followers of Christ protect the innocent and helpless. Christians give without reason simply because Christ has given them so much. Generosity, mercy, grace, care and concern for our fellow man, these are ideas that flow out of a biblical understanding of Christmas. One day we will see a perfect world without the troubles we now experience, but until then, we have the songs of Christmas, to sing in joyful hopefulness, of how our Savior changed and is changing the world forever. Let us take time to magnify the Lord through our words and deeds and even our songs today. If you are looking for some good Christmas music to sing I encourage you to check out our family’s favorite Christmas album. Below is a link to the album and below that is one of our favorites off that album. sovereigngracemusic.org/music/albums/prepare-him-room/  Christmas reminds us that our understanding of God’s power is limited in scope. The virgin birth points to the fact that God can create life where no life exists. If He can cause a baby to be born of a virgin, He can cause a dead heart to live!
Ephesians 2:1-3, explains that before we come to know Christ, our hearts are dead. We do not have spiritual life within us, but when we trust on Christ we are born again. Where there was no love for God and no will to truly change, The Holy Spirit, comes to live within us to bring transformation from the inside out. Gabriel explains to Mary that there is not one thing that God cannot do. With Him all things are possible, her response in, Luke 1:38, is the proper response of all disciples. When Mary is faced with the true power of God, she simply says OK, whatever you want to do Lord, I will humbly obey. She is yet another example of strong godly women, throughout Scripture, that God used to change the world. Think of Sarah the wife of Abraham, Rahab in Jericho, Hannah the mother of Samuel the prophet, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and now Mary the mother of God. God displays His faithfulness through faithful women who simply say, yes Lord I am your servant. God will do things we thought were impossible if we will simply trust and obey. I pray God gives us the grace to trust Him and go out today to do the impossible in His name.  Do you ever respond and then immediately regret your words? I find myself more often than I’d like to admit in a situation where I began speaking and halfway through my sentence I realize I did not fully understand the meaning of the other person. How many less than enjoyable conversations could be avoided if we spent a moment in reflection, attempting to discern the other’s meaning before we blurt out our objection or affirmation? Mary the mother of our Lord takes a lot of time to reflect on her situation. Her uncle, Zechariah could have taken a few lessons from this rather mature teenage young lady.
She is met with the same angel as Zechariah, but where he responds immediately in doubt, she is troubled but holds her tongue. It is interesting that she is troubled at Gabriel’s greeting, but not his appearance. Mary teaches us something here, that we are likely to miss as we run to quickly speak on the many extremely important, doctrines contained in this passage. She teaches us to take a moment and discern what the Lord has said and what the Lord is doing in and around us. The angel Gabriel, tells her to not fear that the Lord is with her, that she will conceive and bear a Son who will be King forever and truly Great! Any one of these statements deserve our discernment and reflection on how they impact our lives and the lives of those God has given us. Mary’s wisdom in comparison to her few years is really amazing. Take some time this morning to reflect on God’s great truths and grace that we got experience yesterday. Ask the Lord to help you discern what you should be focused on this week. Then pray for the wisdom by God’s grace to apply His truth to your situation. I am sure that we will all be much better off if we allow time for the Lord to guide our steps prior to forging ahead to face this week.  How are your gift giving skills? I’ll be honest, I’m terrible. I can’t tell you what I would want; much less what someone else might enjoy. To be clear, it’s not for lack of effort, it’s just not a gift I have ever been accused of possessing. It might in fact be a disorder, I would be embarrassed to admit the amount of time I’ve wasted just standing in front of the gift card tree, in the store, frozen with indecision, I can’t even pick out a gift card for people! But even with my lame gifts, I do not remember anyone ever looking at me and refusing one of my gifts. Yet that is where this promise we find in 2 Samuel comes from, out of God refusing to accept a gift, from the hand of David, the King after His own heart.
David had made it, so to speak. God had given victory and prosperity. The poor shepherd boy had gone from poor kid from the unknown family to the most successful, powerful, king the nation had ever and would ever know. He had the big house, he had the pool out back, the big theater room, basketball courts….well he would have if it were today, he had it all. But something was wrong, here David was living in luxury and the Ark of God, the symbol of God’s presence, was still housed in the Tabernacle, a tent. David, like any good child is apt to do, when he makes good, decides to buy His Father a new big house. He calls up Nathan the prophet and tells him he wants to build God a Temple. Nathan like any good preacher, knows a good offer when he hears one, he is like man I don’t even need to pray about this one, go ahead and start writing the check I’ll call the contractor. The King went to bed happy, believing he was finally going to be able to pay God back a little bit for all the Lord had done for Him. When David got up the next morning though, Nathan was there to see him. Nathan told David they’d jumped the gun, and that God didn’t want his gift. God did not need David to do something nice for Him. God reminded David that he had not made it because of himself, but that the Lord had given him everything he had. In other words, David was trying to buy God’s gift with God’s money. The Lord tells David No! Imagine being told no by the Lord when you are trying to give Him a massive offering. That is exactly what David heard from the Lord. The surprise gets even bigger though, God doesn’t just say no to David’s gift. He turns around and says, instead of you building me a house, I am going to build you one, one that will last forever (2 Samuel 7:11). Which gets us to our promise for this Friday morning. God tells David that after he is gone that the Lord will raise up a king after him that will rule forever. That this, Son of David, will have a kingdom that never ends. That this promised One, will build a house for the Lord’s name and be established forever. The title, Son of David, became the promise Israel was looking for when she looked for her messiah. Matthew records the hope of the people as they ask the question, “can this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:23) followed later, by the crowds praising the Lord, for sending them, "the Son of David" (Matthew 21:9), as Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus has come to be our promised King, He is the Son of David who will rule righteously for all eternity and give His people a house that will never end. This promise was in response to God saying no to a prayer request, a request that anyone who was guessing would have said, the Lord will say yes. David asked the Lord to allow him to give God a house and God said no! Instead God gave David an eternal home, and in turn gave everyone who trusts in Jesus an eternal home as well. Has God told you no? Accept His no and realize that His plan is eternally better than any plan you could have come up with. He is the best gift giver in the universe, He knows what you will want and need far better than you. When God says no, it is for good reason. Trust His wisdom today. He knows what He is doing and His no is eternally better than anyone else’s yes.  Never underestimate the ability of something that seems insignificant to make an overwhelming impact. Anyone who has ever stepped on their child’s Lego block left in the floor knows the difference something small and otherwise unnoticed can make in your life. In fact it can almost seem to be a life and death situation depending on how hard you step on it! Big changes can come from small otherwise unknown sources. Think of all the people who have altered the course of world events that have come from seemingly insignificant places. What about Shawnee OK, they produced a small time actor called Brad Pitt, or Kosciusko, Miss, we can thank them for Oprah. Sam Walton, the man responsible for Walmart was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Of course you see my point if you know our passage for today. The promise made in Micha 5:2 and repeated to the Magi in Matthew 2 says that the Messiah would be born in the little town of Bethlehem.
Bethlehem was less than important. Joshua 15:20-63 lists out 115 cities that would be given to Judah, Bethlehem was so small it was not even listed. When he refers to it as being too small to be among the clans of Judah he is referring to a military term that is literally thousands, talking about the basic unit in Israel’s army, Bethlehem was not big enough to raise even the most basic of fighting forces in Israel. He adds the word Ephrathah to make sure people knew which Bethlehem he was talking about because there was another one in Zebulon, if you say, I am going to New York, no one says, which one? This city was not important, but then again it was. God works like this, He takes what people say is the least important and does the most amazing things. It all depends on whether or not He is in it. He is the difference maker. One of my favorite things about this passage are the words, “whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem had been a long time coming. His plans for this little town began when He said, “let there be light.” Think about it, who or what could stop this amazing promise? No one and nothing! There is no one who can stand against God’s Will and Word. Not even a crazy king who orders all the children in that town murdered! His promises are all Yes in the Lord in the Lord Jesus and that includes His promise this little city whose name means, “house of bread,” where the bread of lift entered our World. God’s plans for you are no different. You are created to do the good works He planned for you before the foundation of the World just like Paul says over in, Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (NLT) He has a job for you today. You might feel like it is unimportant and insignificant, but ask yourself, why that little town of Bethlehem was important? What did that town do? Nothing, it was important not because of something about that town but because of who was in it! The savior of the World. If you have place your faith in Jesus guess who is living in you? The same one that made that little town mean so much. God has kept His Word, Jesus was indeed born in the town that Micah said he would be born in some 700 years before His birth. After Jesus was born, He died to give you life and a new heart with which to serve Him. When you trusted on Him, He came to make His home within you.o not forget today, that you are every bit as important as that little town because the Savior lives in you and wants to use you to change the World.  God’s Presence: Greatest of All Presents
Do you have a gift that springs to mind when you think of all the presents you have recieved over the years? Maybe every time you see that gift, it takes you back to the moment you opened the package or saw the smile on the person’s face who gave it to you. I would wager that monetary value has little to do with that gift that you find so special. It seems that most gifts that we find special remind us of the person who gave it to us. You can probably even remember the details of how it was wrapped, where you received it and the people present when you recieved this present. The best gifts seem to be this way, they remind us of someone’s love for us, or our love for them. Christmas is a yearly reminder of a daily, eternal truth, God wants to be present with His people. The most heartbreaking effect of the curse of sin in Genesis 3 is the loss of God’s presence with us. Mankind was sent out of the garden away from the presence of God. The relationship that was intended to have no interruptions or distractions was irreparably broken. This is what sin does, it puts a wall between us and God. We can understand this, even in our human relationships. When there is a great wrong between us and someone else, regardless of how deep our feelings run for that person, that wrong has to be removed before we can continue in any real relationship with them. Even if that wrong is removed through our forgiveness of that person. Immanuel, “God with us,” is a name given to Jesus that shows just how bad God wants to be in fellowship with His people. When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the fact that God, despite our sins and rebellion, repaired the relationship between us and Him by sending His own Son to die in our place. Jesus removes the obstacle between us and Him by paying the price we could never pay. He gives us back what we lost in the garden through our sin. I encourage you this morning to respond to God’s present by spending time in HIs presence. Even if it’s just a couple of minutes, put aside all your activity and take a few moments to soak up His glorious presence, the greatest gift you will ever receive.  Even if Monday did not work out so well for you, today is a new day! You do not have to experience the same defeat you did yesterday. Victory is yours in Christ Jesus! We often think of Easter as the time we celebrate new beginnings, but really Christmas is as much about a new start as anything else. When Jesus was born, it was in answer to God’s promises down through the centuries to make all things new.
Our passage today was written to a people who destroyed their lives through their rebellion against the Lord. By the time everything was said and done all that was left of Israel was a stump where a mighty tree once grew. The destruction caused by Israel’s sin left nothing but a stump but that is all the Lord needed to grow an eternal Kingdom. The unexpected nature of the Messiah is pointed at by Isaiah’s word picture here. No one expects much out the stump of a tree, yet that is exactly where God will grow His eternal Kingdom. He will grow this Kingdom through the Messiah who will seem as insignificant as a little shoot that pops up out of an old dead stump. Jesus is the shoot and the root of Jesse. He is both His source of life and savoir of His soul. Isaiah of course is speaking here of David’s father, Jesse. Jesus seems to reference this passage when, in Revelation 22:16, He says, “I am the root and the descendant of David.” He is the One who makes and remakes us into His image. Jesus is the One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests (Matthew 3:16). The Lord knows our hearts, not just what we want others to see, He judges with more than His eyes and His ears (Isaiah 11:3). We live in a world where appearances seem so important, but the new world that Jesus brings will judge rightly and fairly as Isaiah 11:4 promises. Think about the opening to the Sermon on Mount, (Matthew 5:3). It can be frustrating when others believe lies about us based on what they see and here, but our Savior will set the record straight. And on that day, when the Lord judges based on who we really are, we are all in trouble. Unless of course we have trusted on the Lord to forgive and save us. Isaiah 11:5 tells us that the Messiah will prepare for battle with a belt of righteousness and faithfulness. Later on, in Isaiah 59:17, this righteousness is also called His breastplate. Paul tells us over in Ephesians 6:14 to put on the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness that the Lord Jesus has given us. When Jesus came, He paid for our sins and took our shame, in exchange for our sin and shame, He gave back to us faithfulness and righteousness to wear as spiritual armor, His personal armor! If you have put your faith in Him, He has taken away your guilt and made you spotless before Him. All God needed was an old stump to restore an entire nation that had rebelled against Him for centuries. If that is true of Israel, then how much more so is that true for you! Do not live in yesterday, it is a new day. Jesus wants to make you new, wear His righteousness today as a shield from all the accusations of Satan. Trust in His faithfulness today as you find yourself faithless. Do not continue on in your defeat, live in the victory the Lord has given to you.  Isaiah 9:1-7 I love Christmas time. It is a time to pause and reflect and give thanks for the most amazing gift in all of history. The Son of God. We get to take some time to take a break from worrying over normal life and enjoy one another as we celebrate the truths of the Gospel. Sure, there is much that we worry about in today’s world. Much that needs to be done. Much that should be done and much to do about nothing and everything in between, but resist the urge to be hurried this Christmas season, allow yourself some time to enjoy being in the moment, celebrating Christ. Last night, at Pine Level Missionary Baptist Church, we had a wonderful time doing just that, as we came together as a church family, to simply celebrate Jesus. It was so very encouraging to me, as I tried to be in the moment, and take in the joy of seeing our church family share their talents with one another and point our focus back to Jesus. Afterward as people sat and laughed, and ate and took their time getting ready to leave my heart was full. I cannot imagine what else Christmas could mean if not this right here. A time to take a moment and be happy together with the people that Christ has made whole and new. When I got home it struck me that God often uses these times to not just encourage our hearts but energize us for sharing the gospel. We may not even realize it, but when we really truly love being with the people that we worship Jesus with, then we tell other people about how much we really truly love Jesus and His people. Guess what they call that, evangelism. The purest truest form, where our sharing comes out of the overflow of what God is doing in our lives and hearts. This seems to be what Jesus means at, least in part, in John 13:34-35, when He tells His disciples that all men will know that we are His disciples when we love each other with the same love that He has loved us. Our greatest tool for evangelism is our love for Christ and His people, the Church. My prayer is that all the time we spend together this Christmas season will build that love amongst our congregation. And that in turn we would take that light and shine it so brightly for all to see! Paul tells us that this is how we grow as believers and as a church in Ephesians 4:15-16, "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." The amount of preparation and planning that goes into these events is considerable and they are indeed acts of love on behalf of those who plan and execute our special Christmas events but, I am so very thankful that God calls those who serve in these ways to serve His body. This is just one of the many ways that Christ causes His light to shine in a dark world. We shine the brightest when we are the tightest together in unity of purpose and mind. God has brightened up this gloomy world by sending us Jesus our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace, (Isaiah 9:6). And we live out that reality, as we choose to gather and make merry with His people. Then we take the blessings of His Kingdom that has no end to the world around us with hearts full of happiness in Christ. I hope you will join us here for daily reflections for the remainder of this advent season. I will try to add discussion questions for you to consider each day that will hopefully help you think through the incarnation of Christ and how it affects your life. While we may not experience the same level of gloominess as the people who Isaiah wrote about, our world can present us with days of deep worry, fear, and pain. We can feel as though we are walking through a cloud of darkness at times. Take some time and write down some things that have you upset, worried or just plain sad right now. After you have your list, I encourage you to present them before the Lord and ask Him to show you how He is removing that darkness from your life. Another way to live out this passage is by making a list of ways you can shine the Light of Christ into the lives of people around you this holiday season and then ask the Lord for His grace to carry out these actions. It is easy to forget at times that we have the promises of God through Jesus not because of our efforts but His Power and His Passion. Verse 6 tells us that the government will be on his should and in verse 7 that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. I encourage you to praise God for His gift of salvation that you have not had to earn but that was freely given to you. Write down the many blessings God has given you spiritually, you can think of of them as Christmas gifts from the Lord.   Funerals are not fun times, they are sad times. The remind us that life is not as it should be, that death interrupts our enjoyment of those we love and that we are dying, always. Funerals remind us of our frailty and that as a race, we rebelled against our creator in the garden. On the other hand, funerals of those who serve the Lord well are times of sadness, but also joy. Joy in the hope of restoration, resurrection and a new home that will never be taken from us. The book of Joshua ends with three funerals. The first funeral mentioned is for the great general who led the people into the promises of God. Joshua 24:31 is an amazing testimony to the powerful influence Joshua had on the spiritual life of Israel. So long as Joshua and the leaders who served with him were alive, the people followed the Lord God. He showed not just by his words but also by his actions what it means to be strong and very courageous to serve God. Joshua gave his whole life to serving the Lord and to serving Israel. His courage and trust in the Lord led Israel to victory over all their enemies and gave them rest from their journey. He took up the reigns of leadership and followed in the perhaps, the biggest shoes ever filled, Moses. How did he fulfill his overwhelming duty? By pointing the people ever forward to the mission they’d been given, to take the promises that God had blessed them with. Joseph the man who God used to save Israel from certain death 400 plus years before this is talked about in Joshua 24:32. Joseph was sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and ultimately promoted to the second most powerful position in the known world of his day. He stayed faithful to the Lord regardless of the trials he faced and because of this he gives us a great testimony of what it means to trust God even when we do not understand His plans for our lives. At the end of Joseph’s life, he pointed the generations who would come after him toward home. He died with the promises of God on his lips. Joseph made the people promise to carry bury his bones in his real home, the promised land. Even though he had received great material wealth, he never felt at home in Egypt. Eleazar the leader of those who led the worship of God is mentioned last and his burial in the town of his son Phinehas, a man who was zealous for the Lord when no one else was. Eleazar’s job was to point people’s gaze upward to the Lord in a land that continually drew their focus downward to the earth. Countless generations of priests trace their lineage back to Eleazer. All three of these men had their bones buried in the promised land that they helped others get to but did not get to truly enjoy themselves. They gave their lives so that others could enter into God’s blessings. Long after they were gone, God’s people enjoyed blessings because of their faithful legacy. Each of them kept the generations to come after them aimed at the city built without hands whose builder is God ( Hebrews 11:10). Heaven is a treasure worth more than all that this world has to offer and these men knew it and pointed the way forward for those who would follow after them. They were buried in the land of promise because they would accept nothing less for themselves or their children. Where are you pointing the young people who will follow after you? Are you helping them to keep focus on the promises of God and their true home? Where would they say you want your bones buried? Let us strive each day to live in such a way that those who look to us for guidance see that our priorities are the priorities of heaven not this world. |
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