This is the final sermon of the Christmas 2010 series as well as the last sermon of 2010. It is a simple message about one of the most familiar texts in Scripture: Luke 2:1-20. I told a joke to begin the sermon, but I told it so terribly that I deleted it from the audio version. So... I thought I would print it here. Hope you enjoy it.
After hearing the Christmas Story and singing "Silent Night," a Sunday School class was asked to draw what they thought the Nativity Scene might have looked like. One boy did a good likeness of Joseph, Mary, and the infant, but off to the side was a plump roly-poly figure.
The teacher, afraid that he had somehow worked Santa Claus into the scene, asked him who that was. She wasn't sure whether she was relieved or even more worried when the boy responded, "Oh, that's round John Virgin."
(The following is excerpted from my sermon for this past Sunday. There are quotes at the end which are not footnoted, but this is a sermon, not an essay. The full sermon can be downloaded at the end. Enjoy.)
The miracle of Christmas is so much more than just the miracle of the virgin birth and the coming of the Christ-child.
The miracle is that God would care enough for this fallen and corrupt creation not to abandon it, but to preserve a line of inheritance throughout the ages of man so that in the fullness of time – when the time was just right according to His perfect plan – He could give the very best that Heaven had to offer on behalf of all mankind.
So who is this Child whose birthday we celebrate every Christmas?
To the Jews He was just another noted rabbi who was confused about the workings of God.
To Islam, He is only a messenger, born of a virgin, but whose importance was transcended by Muhammad.
To the Mormons, He is referred to as Savior, but they believe that, instead of being eternal God, that Jesus was born to the god of this world who was at one time a man himself and is only one among an infinite number of gods.
To the Jehovah Witnesses, He is a kind of god. He was created by God and is neither the eternal Son of God nor part of the Trinity.
To Scientology, He is only a good man and a good teacher who Himself was a product of reincarnation and offers no hope of salvation.
To the world, He is the baby in the manger that completes the Christmas scene – lost amidst the halos of Mary, the songs of hovering angels, the sounds of a stable, and the glitter of tinsel and the decorations of the season.
But for those who know Him as Savior, He is…
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9.6)
Author and Perfecter of our Faith (Heb. 12:2)
Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End (Rev. 1:8; 22:13)
Bread of Life (John 6:35)
Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)
Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22)
Hope of Glory (Col. 1:27)
Lamb of God (John 1:29)
Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8)
Our Redemption (1 Cor. 1:30)
Son of the Most High God (Lk. 1:32)
The way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)
Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42)
King of the Ages (Rev. 15:3)
Ray Pritchard said…
If he is not God, we are fools to worship Him.
If he is, we would be fools not to.
Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most well-known names in history. He was one of the greatest military commanders of all time and was, at one time, the Emperor of the French. He controlled an empire that spanned all of Europe.
What did Napoleon say about Jesus?
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for Him.
Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me ... I search in vain in history to find anyone similar to Jesus Christ, or anything that can approach the gospel.
Dr. Philip Schaff, the famed historian, said…
Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon. (and someone else added… or Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao Tse Tung!)
C. S. Lewis said there are only three possible reactions to Christ:
You can shut Him up for a fool,
You can spit at Him and kill him as a demon, or
You can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.
But you cannot write Him off as simply a good teacher or a good man, and you certainly cannot ignore Him.
Last week's sermon did not record, but I think you will find the subject matter interesting. Another title for the sermon might be "Christmas and the Gospels" since the message deals with how each of the gospel writers viewed the story of origins or the birth of Christ.
A few weeks ago, I posted a poem I wrote about 35-40 years ago in honor of Veteran's Day. Someone asked if I had written any other poems. The answer is no, not many, unless you count the few efforts I have made for my wife in an effort to be romantic. I was looking through some old files, though, and found this one. I do not have any idea how long ago I wrote it. It is just a simple testimony of what the Gospels mean to me. Enjoy.
On the Gospels
Moving between the words of these chronicles
There is a Living Essence reaching out from Eternity
To grasp the very cords of man’s heart to create
A harmony which only the Eternal could compose
And which only the redeemed can experience
In all of its magnificence and grandeur.
There is within these records more than the story
Of a man rejected by the nation which gave Him birth
And reviled by those for whom He died
Of a Man denied by His followers
And denuded by His foes
For the words have power within themselves,
There is even more so a pulse of Life
Like the essence of cut flowers which fills the room
With fragrance and stifles the repulsive
That quickens the soul from corruptible to incorruptible
I have heard many teachers and preachers explain how and why believers were first called Christians at Antioch. In this article, based on my sermon from this past Sunday, I would like to give my own opinion about this subject. This is not doctrine – just me expressing my thoughts in print.
If you are interested in reading about how others think the name Christian came to be applied to the believers, you can click here to read a very interesting though technical article on the subject.
The Bible says in Acts 11:25-26 that Barnabas and Saul fulfilled the Great Commission in Antioch – they lived among the people for one year teaching a great many people the truth of Christ.
On an earlier occasion, Jesus said to His disciples, “… everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6.40)
The disciple who is true to his lessons and models himself after his teacher will soon begin to think and to believe and to act as his teacher.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “You should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor. 11.1, NLT)
Barnabas and Saul were disciples of Christ. They taught and modeled the life of Christ among these new believers in Antioch until the believers themselves began to think and to believe and to act just as they did – just like Christ.
In fact, Barnabas and Saul were so successful in disciple making – in teaching believers to follow Christ – that the city soon began to refer to the believers as “Christians” because their actions were so much like those of the Christ they professed.
The implication from this lesson is that believers were not called Christians until they had grown to look and to live like Christ among their community. They were not called Christians because they believed in Christ, but because they behaved like Christ. They were “little Christs” to those who observed them.
Wouldn’t it be grand if today people called us Christians, not because of our culture or our religious affiliation or even because of what we professed, but because we allowed Christ to live His life in us to the extent that those around us would see Christ in our everyday lives.
At DaySpring Church, we are in the final stages of our study of David Platt’s book, Radical. The last chapter of the book calls for readers to accept a challenge called “The Radical Experiment.” Over the next year, readers are asked to make a commitment to…
1.Pray for the entire world
2.Read through the entire Word
3.Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
4.Spend your time in another context
5.Commit your life to a multiplying community
If you accept the challenge, you can visit the Radical Experiment site at the web site for Brook Hills for resources that will help – at least for the remainder of 2010. I am not sure they will be there in 2011.
If you prefer your own material for praying for the world, you can purchase Operation World by Jason Mandryk, a terrific tool for carrying out this project. Through the church they are $16.00 each. Contact the church office if you are interested in a copy. Or you can visit www.operationworld.com and accomplish the same challenge.
If you accept the challenge to read through the entire Word in one year, you can visit the Radical Experiment site. Or, if you prefer, here are some web pages where you can download reading plans.
You may also like to listen to someone else read while you follow along (especially in light of the challenging names and words in the OT). Here are web sites where you can download or listen to the Bible being read. If you need help with this, contact Pastor Dan or the church office.
I recently read an article concerning how we should recognize that the Bible is not a series of stories, but actually one story concerning the gospel message. It contained this passage that really goes along with our emphasis on living the call to missions. “…the church is essential to the gospel. That is, Jesus did not make provision for the communication of the good news through history and in every culture until the end of the story by writing a book as did Mohammed. Rather he formed a community to be the bearer of this good news. Their identity is bound up in their being sent by Jesus to make known the good news of the kingdom. The story of the Bible is their life.” (Goheen, Michael W., “Reading the Bible as One Story,” Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C., Canada)
Muslims revere the Quran as Christians do Christ. It is the word of God. They see it as the infallible messenger – revered almost to the point of worship. When it is read in its original language of Arabic, it is not like reading the words of God – it is reading the very words of God. For Muslims, Jesus was simply a messenger in a long line of messengers. Muhammad was the last and greatest messenger. They have no concept of a personal Savior. For them, salvation is “in the book” and in the works it prescribes for those who would join God in eternal bliss.
The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10.17) So we assume that all one has to do is hear or read the Bible. If we print a gazillion Bibles and ship them all over the world, then we don’t have anything to do but wait for it to work its magic and the world will be saved, relieving Christians of the tedious task of “going.”
But to believe this is to ignore context. The same text (Romans 10.13-15) also says, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?”
It isn’t the word of God (the Bible) that saves, but the Word of God (Christ). And the only effective method of communicating the gospel of Christ is for those who know Him personally to “live and move and have our being” among those whose lives we seek to affect.
I'm not sure when I wrote this poem. I believe it was sometime before I was married (1974). It was published in the Wayne County Press-Sentinel (Jesup, GA), so the date could be verified if someone wanted to take the trouble.
It was written at a time when it seemed that our nation had turned its back on patriotism – when the veterans of the war in Vietnam were treated with so much disrespect by the press and the culture in general. I did not go to war, but that did not make me less the patriot and it did not diminish my respect for those who did go and for those who died or suffered wounds, both physical and psychological.
Now, about 40 years later, I have two sons who are veterans, having served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Both experienced combat and had their vehicles blown up while they were riding in them, yet both came home with no physical harm.
Just knowing that they were in harm's way makes November 11 mean so much more now, because it's personal. The poem was written during a time of patriotic passion in a young man. It now is simply the memorial from a maturing father to those who served, including those of my own blood.
Concerning the reason that God created man, here is an interesting thought.
Sin did not come into existence because of the rebellion of man, but because of the rebellion of Lucifer against God. It did not begin in time, but in eternity.
The plan of Redemption was founded before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1.18-20). It was determined before man was ever created that Christ would die and shed His blood for reconciliation.
We tend to believe that this plan of reconciliation is only about the relationship between God and man, but Scripture seems to indicate that the reconciliation was about much more than that.
Eph. 1:9-10 (God made) known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Col. 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
In other words, the death of Christ not only re-established God's sovereign reign in the earth but also in all of eternity. The plan of redemption was about so much more than just making a way for men to be forgiven.
It restored the balance of the Universe set in disarray by the rebellion of Lucifer.
This creation is the method by which the Son became flesh so that He could die for the purpose of reconciliation. God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that this was the only method by which such a reconciliation and restoration of balance could be secured for eternity.
Yet God has not left man out of this equation. He goes on to say that He created men for the purpose of "bringing many sons to glory" (Heb. 2.10). Why would He do that?
Eph. 2:5-7 Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
To whom will God show us? That is a mystery, but maybe it is safe to assume that He would show us to Satan and his followers just before sealing them in hell for eternity, just to prove that He is, in fact, the God of mercy, grace, and love.
Why did God create man? It was for oh so much more than fellowship. By way of the creation of the earth and of man, God instituted His plan of redemption which made way for the Son of God to become flesh and who, by His death and resurrection reconciled, not just the world, but all of eternity to the Father.
Though I have been a Christian for twelve years, I was raised in church all of my life. Even before I confessed Jesus as Lord of my life I knew the answers to many of the basic questions of Christianity. I even had firm beliefs about some controversial issues, mostly based on what I was taught by my elders and with little reliance on personal study of the Bible.
Since I was saved in 1998, I have endeavored to understand what I believe – or what I ought to believe – by studying the Scriptures first, then reaching a point of belief. It is interesting the things that I have taken for granted for much of my life that are not completely accurate.
For example…
I was taught – and have actually taught others – that God not only forgives our sins; He also forgets them. This was based on an interpretation of particular scripture references (such as Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 43:25, Jeremiah 31:34, Jeremiah 50:20, Micah 7:19, Hebrews 8:12, and Hebrews 10:17). However, these references do not say that God will forget our sins, but that He will "remember them no more." (Let your mouse hover over each reference to read them.)
The word that is translated as "remember" in verses like Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 is used over twenty times in the New Testament (KJV). In almost every case, it is translated as remember, but in other places it is translated as "being mindful" (2 Tim. 1:4, 2 Peter 3.2) and "make mention" (Heb. 11.22). Strong's Concordance defines the word as "to be recalled or to return to one's mind."
The point is that God does not forget our sins. He makes a willful decision to never call them to mind again. Under the Old Testament economy, the sins of the people were recalled on an annual basis so that the priest could make atonement for them (Heb. 10:3, Ex. 30:10). Under grace, once our sins have been forgiven – cleansed by the blood of the Lamb – God will never again call them to memory.
One way to understand this is to look at places where God said He would remember, such as Gen. 9:14-15, Lev. 26:42, and Ezekiel 16.60. God said, "I will remember my covenant with you." Certainly God had not forgotten the covenant and then searched His memory to see if possibly He could recall it. His intent was to say that He would always keep the covenant that He made with His people in the forefront of His mind. So to "remember not" would not mean to forget, but to intentionally allow our sins to pass out of His elective memory as they are forgiven.
There are a couple of other points that are important here. First, God is omniscient, meaning that He knows all things past, present, and future. There is no knowledge that He does not have – even of our past sins. Secondly, we are not able to forget our sins, so that if God did forget them, then we would have knowledge that God does not have and that is impossible.
This is not a "deal breaker." In other words, if we say that God forgets our sins or that He remembers them no more, the effect is the same. Our sins, once forgiven, will never again enter the conscious memory of God. That is grace.
It is simply a reminder that we need to be careful when interpreting the Bible and not take for granted things we were taught for truth without a thorough search of what "thus saith the Lord."
I am sorry that the links no longer work for the Radical files. I had gotten permission by phone to share the information with church groups and even to upload the files to my blog. Today, I received an email changing that status, so to stay honest, I had to take the files down. We are still able to use them in small groups at DaySpring, but not to share them elsewhere. Oh well...
We are still studying David Platt's book Radical in our small groups, both in home and on Wednesday nights. I had a request for the learning guides that I created to go along with each lesson. I have only created guides for lessons 1-5. These lessons are in a zip file that you can download by clicking on this link. I will post the new lessons as they are created.
Once again we had technical difficulties with recording the sermon this past week, so only printed copies are available. This sermon is part 2 of a study of the encounter between Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. Sermon24Oct2010Word Sermon24Oct2010 pdf
There are several items to share with everyone this week. First, here is a slideshow of pictures from Mobile Church 2010 - Orchard Hill. There were graciously provided by Jerriann P. If you would like a copy of a certain picture, click on it during the slideshow. Or you can view the entire set of photos here and select the ones you wish to print.
Next is the sermon from this past Sunday. We are continuing our study through the book of Acts. This sermon begins our look at the encounter between Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10-11.
Sermon 17Oct2010 mp3 Sermon 17Oct2010 MS Word Sermon 17Oct2010 pdf
Finally, I learned something today about blogger. If you would like to comment on any of the blog entries, you can do so. You have to click on the title of the blog. That will take you to another page with only that entry. Then you can comment at the bottom of the blog. So let me hear from you!
God is good – all the time. Lately, He has really blessed our church.
Last weekend (Oct. 2-3), we hosted our third Mobile Church event in Orchard Hill, GA. While the first two events (August 2009, June 2010) were lots of fun and very rewarding, we did not see anyone attend as a direct result of our outreach efforts.
However, this weekend, we had as many as 25-30 guests come to worship with us on Sunday morning! What a great day! Praise God for bringing those guests. We had even more who came to eat lunch with us. It was a lot of effort, but everyone who helped was greatly rewarded for their efforts.
This past weekend, we had baptism – admittedly, the first in quite a while. The whole worship service this past weekend was exciting because everyone’s heart was filled with the joy of seeing Christ at work in people’s lives.
If you are interested in the sermons from these past two weeks, you may read or download them here.
On Wednesday nights, one of our small groups is a study of cults and other religions. We are in the fourth week of the study. We are not only studying the history and beliefs of other cults and religions, but how we can witness to them as we encounter them in our lives. If you are interested in reading about other cults or religions, here is an article with some links that you can visit to learn online.
Finally, our study of Radical by David Platt continues in homes and at church. This week we postponed the study because so many people are gone for Fall Break and other reasons. Here is the study guide for Chapter 4. This study guide was made from a small group lesson guide produced by and purchased from lifebiblestudies.com.If you are interested in one of the studies you might have missed, you can download them here.
For the last month or so, the "mytwocents" section of the Griffin Daily News has been regularly salted by those who are really angry with pastors they accuse of being "Calvinists." All in all, reading the things they have written has brought moments of laughter as well as amazement at the degree of anger they have expressed.
Yet, I have serious doubts that any of these who are so adamantly set against the teaching of election have ever read even one single article or book written by John Calvin himself. If they had, they would have run across several statements that Calvin made such as this: "No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief." If you would like to read what John Calvin believed in his own words, I recommend his Institutes of the Christian Religion. I will warn you that it is a lengthy read.
I am one of those whose character has been demeaned and critiqued with a great deal of savagery. Of course, I am humbled to be classed along with such distinguished theologians/preachers as John Calvin, the Puritans, Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and John MacArthur. But I have to say, some of the remarks made by these contributors border on profanity. Some of the terms these writers have used to refer to me and other pastors who teach the doctrine of election include... slinky cat burglar common thief deceitful dishonest cultist sneaky slimy hijacker arrogant wolf in sheep's clothing cold calculating immature ungracious hard-hearted without a conscience without a sense of right and wrong without intestinal fortitude coward faithless money hungry It may just be me, but those do not sound like the endearing terms that one would expect when one Christian addresses another Christian. Oh yeah, I forgot. We are the devil. One of the things I have been accused of is lying to the Pastor Search Team about my beliefs in election. I tried to defend myself, but I could not convince my accusers that I had been honest with the search team. So.... Here is the excerpt from what I gave the Pastor Search Team when we first started meeting concerned with a question related to Calvinism:
Question:What are your views of the Calvinistic Theology? My answer: Theology is the study or knowledge (-logy) of God (theo). I believe John Calvin had it right about God. God is the absolute Sovereign of the Universe. He created it and us by the simple expression of His thoughts, and by Him all things consist. He is self-determining. He does not choose to do what is right, but what He chooses to do is right. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, immutable, infinite, and eternal. He is purposeful. The fact that there is a Universe with static laws is evidence that there is design and purpose in the Creation. His purpose for Creation was so that He would receive glory. This Universe is the factory in which He is creating for himself sons – heirs to His kingdom – who will worship Him forever. The process He chose to use included the Fall of man and man’s ultimate redemption through Christ Jesus. The plan of salvation is totally His and was determined before the foundation of the world. Those who call Him Father were chosen by Him before the foundation of the world. So that salvation is His responsibility – one hundred percent. We do not seek Him – He seeks us and calls us and saves us by His own volition and by His own absolute sovereignty. At the same time, God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that the only true worship was that which came from a willingly humbled heart. Love that is forced or coerced is not love. He therefore created man with the capacity to decide. Man chose wrongly – selfishly – and, as a result, inherits the capacity to die – something that is not natural, but is the result of disobedience and judgment. The result is that every man who is approached by the Spirit of God must ultimately decide what he will do with the Lordship of Christ. To reject Him is to choose an eternity separated from the presence of God and the heavenly hosts. So that salvation is his (man’s) responsibility – one hundred percent. Man does not seek God because there is no natural facility within him to prompt him to seek that which is infinite. While it may seem thus, there is no contradiction in these parallel thoughts. We would love to be able to reconcile these two concepts that seem to be in opposition, but we cannot because we are finite – limited by time, space, and matter. To reconcile these two concepts would require knowledge that God did not see fit to reveal to us. It is a knowledge of eternity that, if we possessed it, would truly make us like God. It is a piece of the puzzle that God chose to keep from us until all is revealed at the last day.
This weekend promises to be one of our greatest challenges and one of the most rewarding times of our church. We began the Mobile Church experience over a year ago. This week, we will be in Orchard Hill, GA, in the city park with inflatables, snow cones, popcorn and lots of other stuff on Saturday. Then, on Sunday morning, we will be back at the park for worship followed by free hotdogs and hamburgers to follow. Orchard Hill is a small town, and we are a small church, but our vision is huge, and our God is huger. (I know that's not a word, but it relays the message!) Pray for God to work through us and in the lives of people who desperately need His salvation.
