Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Movements of God

Luke 2.1-20

God is on His Throne. That facts show us that in the first few verses.

Ezekiel saw it with wheels. Ezekiel 1

The Early Church:

The Book of Acts can be summed up  in these statements.

The LORD went up.

The Holy Spirit came down.

The disciples went out.

The people came in.

The people went out and lived the gospel.
Preach the Gospel always and when necessary use words.

To form the Church, God sent His Son.
Jesus said I will build My Church.
Paul wrote, "Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."


That night in Bethlehem
The LORD sent the Angels to tell the shepherds.
My friend Gayle Erwin: Gig of the Century... the skies open and there are a few 
shepherds out on a hill.

1. The LORD often Shares Spiritual Truths and Has Spiritual Treasures Entrusted to Very Unlikely People. vs.8-20

Sometimes the least likely! As if the stable wasn’t unsanitary enough, the LORD brings in a bunch who didn’t get to bathe very often… only when their journeys brought them to bodies of water in secluded places. 

Christmas Pageants are kind to the shepherds. They have them dressed in bathrobes which are clean and smelling of fabric softener! When I was a kid there was a family of kids who came to the church who were not the neatest around. One of the boys played a shepherd in the church Christmas play. I was Joseph. My mom had me give her my bathrobe and washed it out well, then ironed it. After all I was going to be in front of the whole church! 
This poor kid showed up in his bathrobe which looked like it never had washed and wore it. He was closer to the actual shepherds than we knew. 22 years later I was in Israel for the first time. I wanted my picture taken with a shepherd. Trouble is they are still out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks. We found one and when I asked to stop our bus for this purpose, the guide was amazed. He asked, “Why would you want a picture taken with one of them?” Why would you want to be next to someone who hasn't bathed in weeks? But he obliged and everyone waited while I got off and some took my camera and I had my picture with a shepherd. But no one else got off to get one!

The shepherds set the tone. The LORD has had since that time of His birth shepherds who again few would have seen as shepherds but God anointed them. Martin Luther and Charles Haddon Spurgeon struggles with depression.
Billy Graham struggles with his health a good share of his life.
Many of the hymn writers suffered horrific things, watching loved ones die in front of their eyes, depression, and blindness. All unlikely but used by God to share the Good News.


2. The Shepherds went to Bethlehem to see.
I love this. They had no command to go. They had spiritual curiosity. They wanted to know more.

As you search the scriptures for More About Jesus

How is your spiritual thirst these days... your spiritual hunger? He Satisfies our souls and at the same time makes want to know Him better. This is one of the paradoxes of following Jesus. He creates a thirst while at the same time satisfying us. I thank the LORD for the spiritual hunger and thirst He has given me! I am filled but it continues.

God was calling the shepherds to come to Bethlehem by His Word, by the demonstration in the sky and what they were told was happening that night in His Kingdom.
Girl Scout Troops filling suitcases for Haiti trip- pray!


3. The Shepherds went out and made it widely known.

to publish abroad, make known thoroughly

They hadn't even had a class on how to do it! These men serve as examples. They were the first to see, other than Mary and Joseph, the LORD's Christ. They were eyewitnesses of Jesus' birth.

They came to Bethlehem. As we look back at the manger there and see Christ Jesus, the little LORD Jesus, we see shepherds worshiping and then spreading the news which is exactly the pattern we ought to be in today this morning. We are here to worship. After we leave we are entering into a world that does not know Christ and we are to tell the news around wherever we go.

Their telling raised Messianic hopes. When John the Baptist came 29 1/2 years later, preparing the way, the Shepherds had prepared the way for him! Shepherds are close to the heart of God.

The Story of Silent Night...
The Candle at the Christmas Eve Service.
My friend Jerry Bonfiglio
4 Doctorates as candidates before him, while he was an interim there.


In a few days all the Christmas decorations will be taken down and put away until next December. The Christmas lights will come down and no longer shine. Not so with you. You be like the shepherds. Go tell the Good News. The celebration continues in a different way now. We celebrate by serving. We take joy and receive so much by giving back to the LORD. He is in you Let His Spirit out. Share His love. Let Him breathe His will and desires through you.

Keep your eyes open to all the opportunities all around you They are insurmountable.

Let your light shine. Preach the Gospel always and when necessary use words.
Cultivate that walk with the LORD and let your ministry flow out of the fruit of His Spirit. 

"The early Christians did not say in despair, "Look what the world as come to." Rather in delight, "Look What has come to the world!!!" - E. Stanley Jones
Joy To The World The LORD Has Come!
Go Tell It On A Mountain!

For Audio Version:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/167379759957148/permalink/945480288813754/

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Truth About Jesus Christ


John 1.1-2

Jesus Christ's Name is used profanely by those who do not believe. I have never heard anyone take Buddha's name or Mohammed's Name in vain. But I have heard a wide array of unbelievers use Jesus' Name in a wrong way. I never heard my name used profanely. Of course neither Buddha or Mohammed or I are God.

I was in the city on Friday and I heard the profanity, along with a street evangelist proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only way to heaven and a group of carolers on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral singing about His Birth in Bethlehem. People who do not believe and those who do use His Name. 

Jesus was born unlike any child has been born. "We were all were born in the hospital" as the kids in our nursery school told me this week as I spoke to them in chapel.

John,the Apostle of Love wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He had been with Jesus as an apostle from the beginning. He stood beside the cross and witnessed the ascension. He took care of Mary until she died. He lived to see the Destruction of Jerusalem and was given the Revelation, things that are yet to happen.

The opening of this Gospel are among the most profound words ever penned by a man.


1. He is God. v.1
 God's Son

He is the visible expression of the invisible God.
His Name will be called Mighty God.


2. He was with God in the beginning. v.1-2

He created the heavens and the earth. v.3
Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed Heir of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds; 

Ephesians 3:9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 

Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power; 
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.” 

Coexistent with God. He is God. He is the Creator. He is God's Son.



3. He was the Lamb Slain from the Foundations of the World. Revelation 13.8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

He came down.

The Light shone in darkness
 He is the Light of men. Not just material but spiritual.
John 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 

Fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy:
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined. 

2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

He came unto His own.  Israel-Judah-Galilee-Nazareth
They knew Him as the son of Joseph (which he really wasn't) but not as the Son of God, Who He is. Strife came when He told them Who He was.
Luke 4.16-30

The Word became flesh. v.14
He is the expression of God, so much that He said if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.
And dwelt among us. Unlike the brief visitation of angels, He voluntarily became part of the human family as a baby born in Bethlehem that night.
We have beheld His glory.

That night Bethlehem was filled with a lot of angry people having been forced to make the trip due to the census. To add insult to injury they were in the city of David, their most beloved king and they were descendants of his!
It wasn't a holy or silent night for them. There was a lot of pent up anger and a longing for a Messiah who would free Israel.
So it was then, so it is today...
In the city on Friday, the choir of High School Students singing on the steps of St. Patrick's with horns blasting on Fifth Avenue.
At the Post Office yesterday afternoon, shoppers in the parking lot beeping horns, trying to maneuver. I went in to drop some cards off inside. Wished everyone in line a Merry Christmas and said the folks out there need some Joy To The World!
This is the world into which the Savior was born and the world which He is building His church in today.

He was called the Lamb of God by John v.29
He was slain for our sins. He died to make us holy. The one who made the world can remake human souls.

It was a lamb for a house. Now it is the Lamb for the world.


4. He is Seated now at The Right Hand of God, the Father. Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

He does not condemn us.
He died in our place.
He rose again defeating death.
He ascended to the right hand of God.
He makes intercession for us.


5. He is coming Again. John 14.3 
John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

Revelation 22:6-7, 12-13, 20-21 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 


He is the Way, the Truth and the Life
He is the Word, the Life, the Light and the Son.
He is the Reason We celebrate today!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Audio Version of God's Sovereign Hand

https://www.facebook.com/groups/167379759957148/permalink/936643196364130/

God's Sovereign Hand


Luke 2:1-5 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 


Things are not always as they appear.
Jesus said John 7:24 "Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”  So the truth is often beneath the surface or above what we see.

Bob Pawson and I in Shop Rite yesterday morning with the cashier named Joseph. He never heard of Mary and Joseph and Jesus being born.

In this scripture we are given a number insights into the World and Local Political Situation that Jesus was born into. It was not pretty. In fact the whole landscape politically, spiritually, economically that Jesus was born into was in great need of a Redeemer.

One of the things I pray you will see this morning is that God was ruling, overruling and working through the situation of the world at the time of Christ's birth. This is one of His Ways. His Ways are above our ways.

He works in our lives in a similar way. So often we look for escapes, for solutions and He desires to bring us through it and actually accomplish His Will through the things that are against us. He is God. He can do that. He does that. Jesus' death is the greatest example of surrender to the Will of the Father. His birth also had that element of surrender, especially for Mary and Joseph.

We look at the less than perfect or adverse situations in our lives and ask God to improve the circumstances or to change them, when often He rides out His purposes upon them! I love this verse: Galatians 4:4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 
The time and circumstances were just what God wanted. 

Not the best circumstances for this young couple humanly speaking but nevertheless God's perfect will for them and the world! Think about that in regards to your own life today. Your importunity is God's opportunity to show Himself Mighty on your behalf by riding out His purposes in your life on the very thing that is against you. 

We know about this Census.
Caesar Augustus: the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar.

While the empire enjoyed peace under his rule it was an empire. Citizens had rights. Occupied territories such as Israel had little rights and they were subject to taxes which is part of what this census was all about for them. We also know now that it was used by the LORD to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so Jesus would be born there to fulfill the scriptures and God's purposes.
But for Joseph and Mary especially this trip was a hardship. It was also God's will. 2 Timothy 4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...

God will work through hardships to accomplish His Will and make you more like Jesus. Think about how Christmas affected Him.

That first Christmas was glorious but for Mary and Joseph it was difficult to say the least! And that 80 mile trek on foot was for the purpose of registering to pay taxes... or was it? The immediate often does not give the whole story. Take a few steps back, let some time pass and we see God's purposes and even if we still do not see them we have His peace. Often the very things against us are tools God uses to accomplish His purposes. 

Fanny Crosby's view on her blindness:
"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."
If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind...for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour."

And talking about this Christmas season:  there was a poor pastor in New York City named Clement Moore.   He didn’t have any money for presents for his little girls.  And because he didn’t have any money, he wrote them a poem, and that was their Christmas present. In 1823 he wrote it for his daughters.  And that poem is, “Twas the Night Before Christmas, and All Through the House.”

Then there was a church in a little  village in the Austrian Alps. 
The organ broke down before the Christmas Eve Service.
The assistant  Pastor Joseph Mohr had written a poem and decided those words might make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. The one problem was that he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz  Gruber. 
Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a musical setting for the poem. It no longer mattered to Mohr and Gruber that their church organ was inoperable. They now had a Christmas carol that could be sung without that organ.
     
On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.

     Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived in Oberndorf to fix the organ in St. Nicholas church. When Mauracher finished, he stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took copies of the music and words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers — the Rainers and the Strassers — heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire.

It soon spread all over Europe and then around the world.

Today it has been translated into 300 languages and will be sung in Christmas Gatherings all over the globe.

And it was because she was poor and didn’t have any nice bed for her little Boy, and she didn’t have any clothes for Him, but she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger [Luke 2:12-16].  And that’s why the Bible says, “We have a great High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” [Hebrews 4:15].  Anybody comes to a stable.  Anybody bow at a manger.  Anybody look on this Christ Child.  “Draw near with boldness that you may receive grace to help in time of need” [Hebrews 4:16]—the hand of God back of the providences of life.

There were enemies of Jesus...
And what good can we say about that scoundrel Herod? Under the pretense of worshiping Christ he has a plan to kill Him. When he is outwitted by the Wise Men he goes on an infanticide rage and kills all the baby boys 2 years of age and under in Bethlehem and the vicinity. Horrible! Beyond words/ beyond comfort...

There were challengers to Jesus
Caesar Augustus...

1. Behind What Appeared To Be An Emperor Wielding His Power Was God Accomplishing His Will.

Caesar Augustus was doing his thing and God was doing His on the actions of a power hungry emperor.  

Caesar Augustus was a piece of work. This great nephew of Julius Caesar as well as his adopted son. He was a nefarious man.

We can get depressed as we look at the rulers of this world. Crooked politicians make us sick. In the New Testament, the Caesars and Pilate and Herods were mentioned to show how God carried out His plan in spite of them and at times through them! There is no looking to these men for solutions for we are part of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is different from all others.

Today, the will of God may be happening in your life without you knowing it. He may have you right where He wants you, even though it is most uncomfortable.

The power plays of individuals in places of authority may inflict pain for a season but the trials they produce develop wonderful things in our hearts. We tend to trust the LORD more in the fire.

Today there are things God is doing through the struggles of your life that you do not understand.

Think about this Caesar Augustus - Augustus "of the gods" 
Caesar Augustus was a man attempting to be a god.
He lived in a palatial palace.
Jesus Christ is God. He became a Man.
He left heaven to come to earth so He could die on the cross.
He died and rose again and His Father has exalted Him and given Him a name that is above all names.
Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
He not only taught this. He exemplifies it.


2. Beyond What Appeared To Be A Great Inconvenience Was God Getting Mary and Joseph to Make the Trip To Bethlehem.

The census proclaimed... Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem, a trip they would not have made with her in that condition if they could get out of it. God used the decree to have Jesus born in Bethlehem.

So often we look on the surface of things. The night Jesus was born really was not a Silent Night. It was a profane night in Israel as many other. Hard working people were inconvenienced by this census and they were not happy.  A foreign government had imposed its law and edict on the people and they had to respond. 

We walk by faith not by sight. If we walk by sight in the Christian Life we will get all messed up.

Often we think of faith as God meeting our needs, answering our prayers but it is more than that. It is surrendering my will to God's will. It is believing that God is in control even of what appears to be a major inconvenience. 
context of walking by faith in II Corinthians 5 is facing death.

Learning to rest when things go awry. 
Our example is Jesus on the boat when the squall broke out.

Loll's flat in Haiti on the way to the airport.

The Sovereign Hand of God upon our lives, ruling over events in human history.
History really is His Story.

When Micah said, seven hundred fifty years before, that the Child shall be born in Bethlehem, the decree from Caesar Augustus sent the holy family from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that the word of the prophet might come to pass according to the commandment of the Lord.  All history is that history:  back of it is the moving, sovereign, Hand of Almighty God.

Jacob prophesied over Judah, his son, Genesis 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah. 
It was through the line of Judah that David was born, then Jesus. Jacob said these words 1,850 years before Jesus was born. 1,000 years before Jesus was born David was given the promise by God that his throne would last forever. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise.

3. Above What Appeared To Be A Disappointment in Finding Lodging That Night was God Having Jesus, His Son, being born in a stable and laid in a manger.

I doubt if Mary and Joseph as they did the best they could that Christmas night in Bethlehem had any idea that that scene would become something that artists would paint and churches would set up to remember how Jesus came into the world.

The sight, the sound and the smell of the manger. A filthy place.
The Creator with the Creation.

It was such a display of humility.
It was prophetic of how He would be treated.
They  were simply doing what was necessary.

Sometimes what we need to be doing is just staying the course, continuing to walk faithfully with the LORD.

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy, 
And to walk humbly with your God? 

Mary and Joseph handled the lack of a room with grace and dignity. They were a picture of submission to God's plan.

Luke 2:6-7 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 

Leaders wield their power, Inconveniences come, Disappointments take place. God is in control and is doing things we could never imagine.

Don't try and figure Him out or see His purposes right away.
Do what Mary did.

Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 

Trust in the LORD. Walk faithfully with Him and He Will Open All the Doors You Need to walk through as you journey to heaven.
T