This Sermon was preached in a Marshall church in December of 2006.
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 42: 1-9
1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”
5 Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “ I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
I am the LORD, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 1: 18-24
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”[d] which is translated, “God with us.”
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.[e] And he called His name JESUS.
THE SERMON
In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia, there is a statement that I think is appropriate for our topic this morning. In chapter 4, verse 4, he says
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
That whole chapter is very interesting and we might, at some future date explore it further, however, at this time I want to concentrate on just this one idea in this verse, that idea being: “. . . when the fullness of the time had come . . .”
Paul indicates that when time passed, and a precise mix of world events took place--certain nations rose to power and others fell into oblivion and rulers gained power and rulers lost power. Political ideologies and philosophical viewpoints shaped leader’s thoughts and ambitions. Infrastructure was designed and built. Language changed. Armies and military might conquer and then maintained the status quo—all of this and then the time was right. The time was full. In the fullness of time—God stepped upon the stage of the world He created and intervened in the affairs of mankind.
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born a little human baby, born a Jew, at a time when the Law of Moses was in effect, when the temple sacrifices and the Judaic law were still binding on the Jews…God sent His son, to redeem those who were under the law, so that now, we might receive the adoption as sons. When world events were at just a certain point, God sent his son, so that God could be the Father, and we, as believers, could become family members.
The actual point in history, as we now count time was some where between four and one BC, which may be confusing to some since the designation BC refers to a moment in time, before Christ. However, since Gregory made a miscalculation in the forth Century, we can conclude that the Christ was born before the time that Gregory had determined for the event. The actual time--figured by those who spend their days figuring such on such things--is determined by the actual date of the death of Herod the Great, remember he’s the guy who talked to the wise men and had all the male babies in Bethlehem, two years and under killed in a fearful and desperate attempt to snuff out the threat of this new king on the scene.
Anyway, God determined that the fullness of time had come at that point, the point of Jesus’ birth into the physical realm.
It may help our understanding of this idea if we go back a bit in history. We are probably all familiar with the Hebrew history to this point, Abraham, the promise that all nations would be blessed through his lineage, the twelve tribes, the 430 years in Egypt, Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua and the conquering of the promised land, the formation and growth of a great nation known as Israel, the kings, the rent of the kingdom with 10 going north and Judah and Benjamin becoming Judea, thus, the Jews and Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the captivity of 70 years in Babylonia, the return and the rebuilding of the temple and then about 400 years of time we call the inter-testament period where there were writings not considered canonical. During this time, Judea was acquired by Rome and ruled by a puppet King, Herod, whom we have already mentioned.
The Roman Empire had been in existence for 500 years and had, by the time of Jesus’ birth, gained control of most of the known world. Much of this expansion had been accomplished by a man by the name of Octavian a nephew of Julius Caesar.
Forty years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar had been given the title of perpetual dictator of the empire. However, things were going bad and there was a lot of infighting and scrambling for power—a lot like today.
Thanks to an English playwright named Shakespeare, you all know the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar and about Mark Anthony and Brutus. So, by the time the body of Julius with nineteen stab wounds was put on display at his funeral, his will was read. He had appointed his nephew Octavian, as his successor, as well as posthumously adopted him as his son, giving him the title of Caesar.
This, of course, did not sit well with some of the higher ups, but after several years and lots of blood being shed, Octavious as Caesar Augustus was in charge of the empire. He had already annexed Egypt and a lot of other territory so that the Roman government controlled most of the known world at that time.
Thus by the time of Jesus’ birth, Rome ruled the earth. Caesar Augustus was very ambitions and not only had he conquered lands, countries and territories, but he had built roads to everywhere and had his soldiers garrisoned in every place. Greek was the official language of the empire, so communication world wide was possible.
Looking at the map in four BC, Rome ruled from northern Africa, Egypt, all of what we call the mid-east today, up to Greece and into what is now known as the Balkans and Italy and up into the European continent, and Spain.
So, there was a vast territory, there was an available a police force and military for keeping things peaceful. Every body was familiar with the Greek language, even if some spoke in their own regional dialects, business was conducted in Greek. Travel was relatively safe with the military presence and good roads.
If we think about it, never in the history of the world had these conditions existed. If we think about it, that particular phenomenon has not existed since either.
Add to all this, in almost the center of this Roman Empire was the little nation of Judea, ruled by Herod the Great, a puppet for Rome.
Part of Caesar’s plan was to determine just how many citizens he had to deal with, for taxing purposes. The Gospel of Luke’s second chapter begins: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
4 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, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,[a] who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
This was the fullness of time. The time for the event of all time to take place. The precise moment in history when all the elements were in place for the entrance of the Son of God into the world, the precise moment for the introduction of the Good News, the Savior is here! God Loves! God is merciful. God’s great grace is abundant Shout the message of the Gospel, “go ye unto all the world and preach this good news!”
Now, let’s look for a moment at our Old Testament scripture for today. 700 years before the birth of the promised Christ, Isaiah, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us these words from the mouth of God, himself: “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!”
I think God must be talking about Jesus here. He goes on: “I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.”
Note that the reference to the “Gentiles” is a reference to folks who are not Jews, it’s a reference to the “all nations” who would be blessed in the promise to Abraham in Genesis fifteen. I believe that’s us!
Let’s us move on down to verse five: “Thus says God the LORD” It would be pretty hard to misunderstand this statement. Here are the words of God, himself. And He goes on to further identify himself as the ONE WHO: “…created the heavens and stretched them out, …spread forth the earth and that which comes from it . . . .gives breath to the people on it. . . .And (who also gives) spirit to those who walk on it”
Is there a possibility that you and I could be included somehow in this, being people who breathe air and walk on the earth?
Next, God speaks to Jesus. He states that He has called Jesus in righteousness. This righteousness is in contrast to the sinful folks who breathe and walk upon the earth, those Gentiles.
Next He says that He is going to “. .. . hold the hand (of Jesus) and He is going to “give (Jesus) as a covenant to the people (who breathe air and walk upon the earth).”
The next verses, to paraphrase: the covenant will be as a light to the Gentiles, and it will open their (our?) blind eyes and release them (us?) from prison, captivity, bondage of sin and death. I read somewhere, that if the Christ sets us free, we will be free indeed! Jesus is going to be able to turn on the light and free those in bondage. And then, in verse nine, God is telling us these new things, even before they occur--seven hundred years before they occur! There is a lot more to that passage, however, we must press on.
In the New Testament, only the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke give us any information about the birth of Jesus.
Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were engaged and Mary became with child by the power of the Holy Spirit and the baby was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Somehow a star led some wise men, or magi from somewhere in the east to seek for a king. They stopped by to see the local King (Herod) to find out just where this King might be born. After some research in the scriptures, they were directed to the city of Bethlehem.
They gave some expensive gifts to the new king, who was in a house, in Bethlehem, being by now, a small child, as opposed to an infant. We can see this since after Herod was not told where Jesus was by the magi, I can imagine he went into a rage and ordered all male children two years old and under, who lived in and near Bethlehem, slain, the two years old statement being significant in this argument.
The new family was advised by angelic messengers to seek safety in Egypt. Remember that Caesar Augustus had annexed Egypt earlier, so it was not like they went to a foreign country, and it was just down the road from Bethlehem. They came back up that way after Herod had died, but decided to go on to Nazareth.
Luke gives us some more details. Luke was written somewhat later and if we look at tradition as to where these different people finally settled, Luke, a companion of Paul could very well have had contact with Mary, the mother of Jesus and could have gotten much of his detail from her. Anyway, the words came by divine inspiration, so however God saw fit to inform Luke for his gospel, so be it.
Luke establishes the relationship between the families of John the Baptist and Jesus, tells of the census ordered by the emperor, Caesar Augustus, bringing the family down from Nazareth to Bethlehem, giving us the no-room-in-the-inn story and the shepherds-watching-their-flocks story.
So, if we put the two accounts together, we get them coming from their original home in Nazareth, going to Bethlehem to be counted, staying in a manger, the baby being born, shepherds coming by, moving into a house, going to the temple on the twelfth day, staying in Bethlehem for some time, the magi coming by, fleeing to Egypt and then returning to Nazareth some two years later.
I know it is a nitpicking thing, but most nativity scenes put those wise men and the shepherds and the cows and sheep and the manger all in the barn at the very same time. And we all know that it really did not happen that way. But, I guess it doesn’t really make that much difference. We like our nativity scenes.
As we have said before, not a lot of emphasis is placed on the birth of the Lord in the scriptures. However, I believe it is important to know that he was born a human being, just like any other baby that has ever come into this world. He was fully human. However it is also important to know that his conception was not normal.
Somehow, the Holy Spirit caused the baby to be formed in the womb without the benefit of the normal human process. The result was a child born into the world, but a child born without the Adamic sin attached, a child born in pure righteousness with no sin whatsoever. I admit to you that I do not understand it, or how it happened, but I believe it did happen. And that’s enough.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent His son into the earth, born of woman, sinless, perfect and fully human.
I like to think about that the angelic choir, singing to the shepherds watching over their flocks by night, probably all the angels in heaven singing “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Those angels were singing about heaven’s joy, as if the deed was already done, the ministry, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension and the King of Kings with work accomplished, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven. They were singing that the deed was done, and all they really had at that moment was a tiny baby in a manger. But, know this. When God speaks, worlds move, things change and what He says, He will, in fact, do.
It is kind of like that time when Elijah was praying for it to rain and he asked his servant if he saw any clouds and the servant said, he saw a small cloud, as big a man’s hand. And Elijah said, “That’s big enough!” and it rained and rained that day.
They had a tiny new-born boy wrapped in swaddling clothes, but that was enough, the fullness of time had come and that day they had a regime change.
And from that day on, the Devil, Satan, that old serpent . . . never had a chance.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Christmas Story according to John
This sermon was given in a church in Marshall, Texas in December, 2006
OLD TESTAMENT READING Isaiah 9: 6-7
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
NEW TESTAMENT READING John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.”
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
THE SERMON
There was once a man who did not believe in either the virgin birth of Christ nor the spiritual meaning behind it, and was skeptical even about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in the faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her belief and mocked her religious observances.
"It's all nonsense -- why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It's such a ridiculous story," he said.
One snowy day, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had departed, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.
Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window... And, still another thump. He looked outside but could not see anything. So he ventured outside for a better view. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese. They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but they had been caught in the snowstorm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles. He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, the barn would be a great place for them to stay. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he opened the barn doors for them.
He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. Nevertheless, they did not notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear.
He went into the house and came back with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still did not catch on.
Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety, and shelter. Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?"
He thought for a moment and realized that they just would not follow a human. He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them. Then I could save them. They would follow me and I would lead them to safety."
At that moment, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: If only I could become like one of them, then I could save them. Then, at last, he understood God's heart towards mankind... and he fell on his knees in the snow.
Prayer for guidance and understanding
Our Old Testament reading this morning is one of over 300 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled as Jesus was born into the world.
These predictions included:
1) the time of His birth being before the Jewish people lost their sovereign power to first Century Rome when Archelaus (Herod the Great’s son) took the throne in Israel;
2) Bethlehem, a small insignificant town, being the place of His birth;
3) and that He would be born of a virgin.
All of these prophecies show up in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint versions of the Jewish scriptures, which have been established by secular sources as predating Jesus Christ by between 100 and 250 years. It is amazing to note that when Israel's religious elite cried, "Woe to us, for the scepter has been removed and the Messiah has not come!" (as quoted in the Babylon Talmud, Sanhedrin), Jesus had already been born and He was growing as a young boy in Galilee.
It was also predicted in these prophesies that this Messiah would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5,6), that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), would die a dreadful, yet substitutionary death (Isaiah 53) by crucifixion (Psalm 22:14-17), a form of death not even known at the time of the psalm's composition, and that he would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16:9f). And, of course many passages in our New Testament, as well as secular historians of the period are indicative that these events did, in fact, occur.
There is no room for doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (in Hebrew), the Christ (in Greek), Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of God, or as he preferred to call himself, the Son of Man, was born in Bethlehem, of Judea sometime in the years of 4 BC to 1 BC. Early writings in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Church Fathers give dates of May, April, March and even January for the month of the birth of Jesus. There is little agreement as to the actual date, or even the year. Aside from the passage we are reading today in John and about four chapters in Matthew and Luke there is little evidence that the 1st century church was concerned with his birth enough to celebrate it.
Some time during the 4th century, we can see evidences that there begins to be celebrations designated as celebrations of the birth date, which came to be December 25th.
After that, lots of practices and festive kinds of things, like hanging evergreens, the story of St. Nicolas, which evolved into the idea of Santa Claus, and the use of mistletoe and holly branches along with the encouragement to give gifts by mass merchandisers and even Hollywood movie plots, got all mixed up in it, and here we are today, on countdown for December 25th.
So be it. Praise God. I thank the Lord for arranging to be born and living on this earth and dying on that cross, so that we may have a way out, so that we may have hope, so that we can chose life, instead of death.
As I promised in the sermon title today, we are going to take a look at how the Apostle John in his gospel, handles the Christmas Story. John, according to those who study such things, wrote his gospel last, probably as late as 90 AD. He had been preaching his gospel for over 50 years. John was one of the twelve, and one of the inner circle as well. So, he knew intimate details of the earth-walk of Jesus because he lived through it. He was an eyewitness! Also he must have had conversations with the other eyewitnesses from time to time, comparing notes. In addition to his gospel, he wrote several letters to the churches and one rather lengthy report about a vision he had. This was when he was exiled by the Roman government, because of his religious views on an island called Patmos. He says in that work that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and told him to write it down. We call the book, The Revelation letter.
John’s emphasis in his gospel is the deity of Jesus. He paints a God-inspired picture, of Jesus as the incarnated Son of God. John’s gospel begins by giving us a glimpse of activities in Heaven, who was there and what did they do. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And he goes on to say that this Logos, the Greek term, here translated “word” literally the “Word of the Father” or we could think of like this: the “Word” as a personage with a message, with a revelation about things in Heaven, about the Father of all, and about life as opposed to death and about light, as opposed to darkness.
John further declares that this Word was the creator the earth, the universe and all things big and small. John’s words: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Sounds to me like This Logos had a major part in creation, all of it. In fact, it sounds like this Logos, is who the Jews called Yahweh, or in some translations, Jehovah. Most translations just use the term the LORD. So, the LORD gave Abraham a promise that ALL nations would some day be blessed, and actually cut a covenant with himself. You can read about it in Genesis the fifteenth chapter, beginning with verse six.
John says that this Word, became flesh, or human. So, evidently, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, manifest himself in the earth and was born in a human body. His mother was Mary and his Father, the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin, in a perfect body and there was something different about him from the beginning. He is the only human being ever begotten by God, thus the title, the “only begotten” son. And his name was called Jesus.
We can get more details about those events in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which we will look at next Sunday.
John says then, that God, was born into the world, became a human being by the name of Jesus and walked among the folks, his chosen people and they did not know it, they would not believe it and he finally allowed them to kill him and become the substitute sacrifice for all mankind once and for all, thus fulfilling his prophesy to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through the seed of Abraham. And even though Abraham was old and Sarah was old, a child, Isaac was born to them in their old age, who begat Jacob, who begat the twelve tribes called Israel. And the tribe which was Jesus’ linage was Judah, from which we get the term Jews. King David was in that line 800 years before, and his city was Bethlehem, where the child was born. No wonder Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that salvation was of the Jews!
John, the Apostle, the gospel writer, introduces a relative of Jesus, you can find out about that in Luks’s account. This relative, a cousin, was John the Baptist, a kind of a prophet, who after the manner of Elijah, preached repentance and baptized folks in the river Jordan. The gospel writer thus introduces Jesus by telling how John recognized the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years old when this event happened.
So, John dispenses with a lot of details about the birth of Jesus and focuses on his preexistence, just giving a line or two to the actual entry into the earth by birth, by saying that the Logos became flesh, or human. As I said before, the early church did not dwell too much on the birth, but were more concerned with the cross and the resurrection.
Let’s summarize. God made all things, including man. Man messed up. God wanted a way to bring man back to him. God made a covenant with himself, and as well as a promise to a man named Abraham, who is known as the father of the Jews. God entered the earth as a human baby named Jesus. That baby grew up and preached in Galliee and Jerusalem where God allowed himself to be slain on a Roman cross as a one-time sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
It may be an umpopular, politically incorrect statement to make these days, but I believe the evidence in scripture, prayfully examined will state unequivocally that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and that there is only one way to life, to light, to heaven where God lives. John summed it up: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The only way is by believing and trusting our very existence to this Jesus, who’s birthday we are going to celebrate in a few days.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Isaiah 9: 6-7
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
NEW TESTAMENT READING John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.”
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
THE SERMON
There was once a man who did not believe in either the virgin birth of Christ nor the spiritual meaning behind it, and was skeptical even about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in the faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her belief and mocked her religious observances.
"It's all nonsense -- why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It's such a ridiculous story," he said.
One snowy day, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had departed, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.
Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window... And, still another thump. He looked outside but could not see anything. So he ventured outside for a better view. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese. They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but they had been caught in the snowstorm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles. He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, the barn would be a great place for them to stay. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he opened the barn doors for them.
He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. Nevertheless, they did not notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear.
He went into the house and came back with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still did not catch on.
Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety, and shelter. Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?"
He thought for a moment and realized that they just would not follow a human. He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them. Then I could save them. They would follow me and I would lead them to safety."
At that moment, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: If only I could become like one of them, then I could save them. Then, at last, he understood God's heart towards mankind... and he fell on his knees in the snow.
Prayer for guidance and understanding
Our Old Testament reading this morning is one of over 300 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled as Jesus was born into the world.
These predictions included:
1) the time of His birth being before the Jewish people lost their sovereign power to first Century Rome when Archelaus (Herod the Great’s son) took the throne in Israel;
2) Bethlehem, a small insignificant town, being the place of His birth;
3) and that He would be born of a virgin.
All of these prophecies show up in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint versions of the Jewish scriptures, which have been established by secular sources as predating Jesus Christ by between 100 and 250 years. It is amazing to note that when Israel's religious elite cried, "Woe to us, for the scepter has been removed and the Messiah has not come!" (as quoted in the Babylon Talmud, Sanhedrin), Jesus had already been born and He was growing as a young boy in Galilee.
It was also predicted in these prophesies that this Messiah would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5,6), that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), would die a dreadful, yet substitutionary death (Isaiah 53) by crucifixion (Psalm 22:14-17), a form of death not even known at the time of the psalm's composition, and that he would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16:9f). And, of course many passages in our New Testament, as well as secular historians of the period are indicative that these events did, in fact, occur.
There is no room for doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (in Hebrew), the Christ (in Greek), Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of God, or as he preferred to call himself, the Son of Man, was born in Bethlehem, of Judea sometime in the years of 4 BC to 1 BC. Early writings in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Church Fathers give dates of May, April, March and even January for the month of the birth of Jesus. There is little agreement as to the actual date, or even the year. Aside from the passage we are reading today in John and about four chapters in Matthew and Luke there is little evidence that the 1st century church was concerned with his birth enough to celebrate it.
Some time during the 4th century, we can see evidences that there begins to be celebrations designated as celebrations of the birth date, which came to be December 25th.
After that, lots of practices and festive kinds of things, like hanging evergreens, the story of St. Nicolas, which evolved into the idea of Santa Claus, and the use of mistletoe and holly branches along with the encouragement to give gifts by mass merchandisers and even Hollywood movie plots, got all mixed up in it, and here we are today, on countdown for December 25th.
So be it. Praise God. I thank the Lord for arranging to be born and living on this earth and dying on that cross, so that we may have a way out, so that we may have hope, so that we can chose life, instead of death.
As I promised in the sermon title today, we are going to take a look at how the Apostle John in his gospel, handles the Christmas Story. John, according to those who study such things, wrote his gospel last, probably as late as 90 AD. He had been preaching his gospel for over 50 years. John was one of the twelve, and one of the inner circle as well. So, he knew intimate details of the earth-walk of Jesus because he lived through it. He was an eyewitness! Also he must have had conversations with the other eyewitnesses from time to time, comparing notes. In addition to his gospel, he wrote several letters to the churches and one rather lengthy report about a vision he had. This was when he was exiled by the Roman government, because of his religious views on an island called Patmos. He says in that work that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and told him to write it down. We call the book, The Revelation letter.
John’s emphasis in his gospel is the deity of Jesus. He paints a God-inspired picture, of Jesus as the incarnated Son of God. John’s gospel begins by giving us a glimpse of activities in Heaven, who was there and what did they do. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And he goes on to say that this Logos, the Greek term, here translated “word” literally the “Word of the Father” or we could think of like this: the “Word” as a personage with a message, with a revelation about things in Heaven, about the Father of all, and about life as opposed to death and about light, as opposed to darkness.
John further declares that this Word was the creator the earth, the universe and all things big and small. John’s words: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Sounds to me like This Logos had a major part in creation, all of it. In fact, it sounds like this Logos, is who the Jews called Yahweh, or in some translations, Jehovah. Most translations just use the term the LORD. So, the LORD gave Abraham a promise that ALL nations would some day be blessed, and actually cut a covenant with himself. You can read about it in Genesis the fifteenth chapter, beginning with verse six.
John says that this Word, became flesh, or human. So, evidently, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, manifest himself in the earth and was born in a human body. His mother was Mary and his Father, the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin, in a perfect body and there was something different about him from the beginning. He is the only human being ever begotten by God, thus the title, the “only begotten” son. And his name was called Jesus.
We can get more details about those events in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which we will look at next Sunday.
John says then, that God, was born into the world, became a human being by the name of Jesus and walked among the folks, his chosen people and they did not know it, they would not believe it and he finally allowed them to kill him and become the substitute sacrifice for all mankind once and for all, thus fulfilling his prophesy to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through the seed of Abraham. And even though Abraham was old and Sarah was old, a child, Isaac was born to them in their old age, who begat Jacob, who begat the twelve tribes called Israel. And the tribe which was Jesus’ linage was Judah, from which we get the term Jews. King David was in that line 800 years before, and his city was Bethlehem, where the child was born. No wonder Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that salvation was of the Jews!
John, the Apostle, the gospel writer, introduces a relative of Jesus, you can find out about that in Luks’s account. This relative, a cousin, was John the Baptist, a kind of a prophet, who after the manner of Elijah, preached repentance and baptized folks in the river Jordan. The gospel writer thus introduces Jesus by telling how John recognized the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years old when this event happened.
So, John dispenses with a lot of details about the birth of Jesus and focuses on his preexistence, just giving a line or two to the actual entry into the earth by birth, by saying that the Logos became flesh, or human. As I said before, the early church did not dwell too much on the birth, but were more concerned with the cross and the resurrection.
Let’s summarize. God made all things, including man. Man messed up. God wanted a way to bring man back to him. God made a covenant with himself, and as well as a promise to a man named Abraham, who is known as the father of the Jews. God entered the earth as a human baby named Jesus. That baby grew up and preached in Galliee and Jerusalem where God allowed himself to be slain on a Roman cross as a one-time sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
It may be an umpopular, politically incorrect statement to make these days, but I believe the evidence in scripture, prayfully examined will state unequivocally that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and that there is only one way to life, to light, to heaven where God lives. John summed it up: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The only way is by believing and trusting our very existence to this Jesus, who’s birthday we are going to celebrate in a few days.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
The Word of God, what, or who, is it?
I preached this sermon in October, 2005 in a church in Marshall, TX
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Joshua 8: 30-35
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.”[a] And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.
NEW TESTAMENT READING
Hebrews 4:12-16
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
John 6:37-40
Matthew 13
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
The Sermon
As our topic listed in your order of service implies, we are going to attempt to find out something about the Word of God this morning. What is the Word of God? Where can we find the Word of God? How do we know when it is the Word of God, or something else? Maybe we can get to all these questions in our allotted time.
In our Old Testament reading this morning there is a picture of a new nation, gathering for a big joint worship service, to dedicate a monument, a place of remembrance of the things God was doing for them at the time. They had not been long from the wilderness wanderings, eating manna every day. Now, they were growing as a nation and Joshua, notice how similar the name Joshua and Jesus, was there leader, appointed by Moses before he died. There is some similarity between Joshua and Jesus, both are deliverers. Joshua had led them successfully through two big battles already and now was a time to regroup and remember the statutes. Now was time to hear read the Word of the Lord. Note that the words that were read to the people were the words of Moses, and if you look back in the book of Genesis you will find that God, Himself had dictated these words to Moses. So, what Joshua was reading to the people was truly the Word of God.
We had two scriptures in our New Testament readings, one in Hebrews four and one in Matthew 13, the interpretation of the parable or story or illustration of the sower sowing seed on different kinds of soil. In the sower story, there is a whole sermon, but we will just look at it briefly today. As Jesus explains the story to his disciples, he lets us in on some information about His Kingdom, which is not of this world, but is spiritual and is spiritually discerned. A sower, a preacher, an individual witnessing to another individual, sows, teaches, reads, to his or her audience. The thing taught or sown Jesus calls the Word. This word as it gets internalized in an individual’s mind, becomes something of a reality, a belief, something to be embraced and lived out in a life, begins to be the catalyst for, for lack of a better term, spiritual warfare. So, in this case, the Word of God must be more than a passage of scripture, it must somehow have some power, power to change one’s life.
As we look at the battle field, we see that there are several things that appear to be in opposition to the individual being able to understand and act on the received message. There is a spiritual actor that comes into the play, called by name, Satan, or the Evil One. Cares of the world, persecution, tribulation and deceitfulness of trusting in money and riches are all part of the Devil’s kit of tricks to get the new convert derailed before they get started. Thus, once one gets a hold of this Word, this gospel, this good news, this idea of salivation and trusting God, it may well become difficult to continue, unless one has on the proper armor. Remember in Ephesians six, about the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit and the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel? There is a lot more here, but lets press on to the Hebrews passage.
If you get curious, you might chew on about a chapter and a half before the quote to try to see what that “rest” the writer is talking about has to do with the Word of God, but I will leave that for another day. The Word of God is living. It is not a dead letter! When you get this point, you will find yourself reading along and all of a sudden, a line or a few words, or a whole concept just jumps right off the page in into your mind and you stop and say wow!, I didn’t know that. I choose to believe that when this happens, the Holy Spirit is doing His best work, teaching, pointing out, helping me to understand.
The word of God is powerful. The Greek word is similar to our word “energy”, it is dynamic not static, it is able to move things, like the heart, like habits, behaviors, it can be a change agent. The word of God causes things to move, to change for the better.
The Word is the sword of the spirit, remember? Not only is it a sword, but it is a two edged sword, can cut both ways and is sharper than the most sophisticated surgical knife in existence today, because it can cut right through our thoughts!
The word of God works like an x-ray machine, with His Word, God can see all! We can have no secrets with Him. We might be able to hide from each other, but not from God.
Thus, it looks like the Word of God is more than a printed page. It is the information represented by the printed words, it is the concepts behind and described by the words. The words are merely the vehicle that God’s precepts and ideas and principles ride in.
So, what exactly is the Word of God?
We hold up this imitation leather-bound book, a compilation of two distinct sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, 66 books in all. We are not really sure who wrote some of the books, or exactly when. But, we believe, because of the book’s antiquity and the fact that it has survived the test of time and because of archeological discoveries and the discovery of ancient parchments and text fragments, that what we have here is a faithful record of writings, some over 4,000 years old that tell of a God who created this universe and this earth and every thing on it, including us humans, writings that tell the story of a people and of a Savior and of a mighty church, the called-out body of God’s Christ, His Anointed One, a church without spot or blemish a church of the redeemed!
So, many of the words in this book are, in fact, words spoken in time past by God and are thus the Words of God. We have read some of these words this morning. So, the Bible contains the words of God, the story of God and the stories of God’s people. When we read from this book, we usually ask for God to bless, or to make effective the reading of His Word. So, we refer to this Bible as the Word of God, and it is. We believe that God somehow caused the writers to write the things He wants us to know by what we call inspiration—Divine Inspiration.
We believe this because the Bible tells us that “ . . . .all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3: 16-17). So, looking at all the evidence, I am convinced in my heart of hearts that the words contained in this book are very words of God. So, when I want to know something about God, when I want to know how to act, how to live, how to have that kind of peace of mind that is beyond human understanding—I go to the Word.
All this being said, I submit to you this morning that the Word of the Lord cannot be contained between these imitation leather-bound pages of 9-point type. For our God is alive, He is dynamic, He is present right here in this room right now. God is real. God dearly wants to be a Father to us today. God wants to be close to you this morning. The Father has sent His Son to redeem you and me. He sent His Son to light the way.
And in these leather-bound pages we find words that give meaning to life, words that reveal what the Apostle Paul calls a mystery, the mystery that was hidden for ages and is now revealed. The glorious good news what we call the gospel, is that God loves us and has made a way for us to be holy and redeemed and made righteous, not from within our own selves and our own efforts, but from the fact that Jesus, God’s Christ, His Anointed One went to a Roman cross and poured out His precious blood, his actual, real red blood.
John was there and he recorded it, describing how the soldier thrust the spear into Jesus’ side and out flowed both blood and water, right out on the ground. The Bible says that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” The life is in the blood. Paul, says in Hebrews nine that Jesus actually took His shed blood, as our High Priest up to the real Holy of Holies in Heaven and there offered it, sprinkled it as a sacrifice, once and for all, for all of mankind, all those who lived before and those who lived then and all those who lived ever after, right down to our own age, in 2006.
And the Bible says--the Word of God says--that if we believe that Jesus was truly a human being, who really died on that cross and really got up after three days in that tomb and really talked to His disciples and really went up to Heaven with his sacrificial blood—if we can get our prideful human intellect around that concept—understanding that we are without God, outside the fold, walking in absolute darkness mired in sin and disobedience, with no hope whatsoever--until we fall on our face and acknowledge that we are, like Isaiah of old, Unclean and in desperate need of a savior, and then looking up to Jesus, say yes Lord, I believe!.....come be the Lord of my life.
What, exactly, is the Word of God? Maybe it is impossible to exactly define the term, because the word of God is an individual thing. God speaks to each of us in our own language, according to our own experiences and mindset. He knows us that well. But there are some common threads that come down to all of us. We can be a cohesive group, we can be members of the Family of God, the Church of God, the Church of the Christ, the Anointed One which is described also as the Bride of Christ. We can all have the same spiritual Father and all drink living water from that same spiritual rock, that rock is Christ.
The Apostle John says that in the beginning the Word was, and that Word became flesh and that Word was Jesus. Jesus, the name that is above every name, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. The Son of God. There is no other name whereby we can have salvation. Like Paul said in the first chapter of first Corinthians, I preach Christ, and him crucified. That is the gospel, that’s the power of God unto salvation, that’s the Word of God.
Did you happen to notice as we read our text this morning, the very next verses in that Hebrews passage? Verse 14 says “…Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Greek word translated confession, and it may be translated profession in your Bible, has to do with what we believe and what we say we believe, subsequently influencing how we act, or behave. So, Paul is admonishing us to hold on to our belief, to watch our behavior, to be careful what we say, to live our lives in such a way, so that we can come right on up to our Father when we need help, mercy and grace, when we are tempted, when we find ourselves weak, KNOW that Jesus is there, know that he wants us to succeed, know that he loves us, and gave his very life for us, know that Jesus understands what its like to live on this earth, know that he has himself experienced temptations and persecutions and all sorts of opposition. He knows how hard it can be.
You know, I had been in the church for years. I have even preached and led music in the church from my youth, but I did not get this message until later in life.
There are a lot of things that we don’t understand when we start out. We grow, and sometimes just get knocked right off our horse, like Paul did, on the road to Damascus. At that point, it’s time to do something about it.
I do not know what goes on in your head, only God knows that. But if you need to get some things straight in your life, now would be a good time to do it, today is the day of salvation. I am declaring the alter open, and we are going to sing a hymn to give the invitation to come and lay your burdens on Him. He said his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he has promised to never leave you or forsake you, no matter what.
Let’s pray.
Father, send now your Holy Spirit upon this place, upon these hearts, speak to us now, let us know that You are God, that Your love for us is great, that you want to take us in your loving arms and shield us and keep us and protect us and give us strength, and health and see us as righteous, because of Jesus and his work on the cross.
These things I ask in the powerful and the precious name of Jesus, Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Joshua 8: 30-35
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.”[a] And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.
NEW TESTAMENT READING
Hebrews 4:12-16
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
John 6:37-40
Matthew 13
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
The Sermon
As our topic listed in your order of service implies, we are going to attempt to find out something about the Word of God this morning. What is the Word of God? Where can we find the Word of God? How do we know when it is the Word of God, or something else? Maybe we can get to all these questions in our allotted time.
In our Old Testament reading this morning there is a picture of a new nation, gathering for a big joint worship service, to dedicate a monument, a place of remembrance of the things God was doing for them at the time. They had not been long from the wilderness wanderings, eating manna every day. Now, they were growing as a nation and Joshua, notice how similar the name Joshua and Jesus, was there leader, appointed by Moses before he died. There is some similarity between Joshua and Jesus, both are deliverers. Joshua had led them successfully through two big battles already and now was a time to regroup and remember the statutes. Now was time to hear read the Word of the Lord. Note that the words that were read to the people were the words of Moses, and if you look back in the book of Genesis you will find that God, Himself had dictated these words to Moses. So, what Joshua was reading to the people was truly the Word of God.
We had two scriptures in our New Testament readings, one in Hebrews four and one in Matthew 13, the interpretation of the parable or story or illustration of the sower sowing seed on different kinds of soil. In the sower story, there is a whole sermon, but we will just look at it briefly today. As Jesus explains the story to his disciples, he lets us in on some information about His Kingdom, which is not of this world, but is spiritual and is spiritually discerned. A sower, a preacher, an individual witnessing to another individual, sows, teaches, reads, to his or her audience. The thing taught or sown Jesus calls the Word. This word as it gets internalized in an individual’s mind, becomes something of a reality, a belief, something to be embraced and lived out in a life, begins to be the catalyst for, for lack of a better term, spiritual warfare. So, in this case, the Word of God must be more than a passage of scripture, it must somehow have some power, power to change one’s life.
As we look at the battle field, we see that there are several things that appear to be in opposition to the individual being able to understand and act on the received message. There is a spiritual actor that comes into the play, called by name, Satan, or the Evil One. Cares of the world, persecution, tribulation and deceitfulness of trusting in money and riches are all part of the Devil’s kit of tricks to get the new convert derailed before they get started. Thus, once one gets a hold of this Word, this gospel, this good news, this idea of salivation and trusting God, it may well become difficult to continue, unless one has on the proper armor. Remember in Ephesians six, about the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit and the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel? There is a lot more here, but lets press on to the Hebrews passage.
If you get curious, you might chew on about a chapter and a half before the quote to try to see what that “rest” the writer is talking about has to do with the Word of God, but I will leave that for another day. The Word of God is living. It is not a dead letter! When you get this point, you will find yourself reading along and all of a sudden, a line or a few words, or a whole concept just jumps right off the page in into your mind and you stop and say wow!, I didn’t know that. I choose to believe that when this happens, the Holy Spirit is doing His best work, teaching, pointing out, helping me to understand.
The word of God is powerful. The Greek word is similar to our word “energy”, it is dynamic not static, it is able to move things, like the heart, like habits, behaviors, it can be a change agent. The word of God causes things to move, to change for the better.
The Word is the sword of the spirit, remember? Not only is it a sword, but it is a two edged sword, can cut both ways and is sharper than the most sophisticated surgical knife in existence today, because it can cut right through our thoughts!
The word of God works like an x-ray machine, with His Word, God can see all! We can have no secrets with Him. We might be able to hide from each other, but not from God.
Thus, it looks like the Word of God is more than a printed page. It is the information represented by the printed words, it is the concepts behind and described by the words. The words are merely the vehicle that God’s precepts and ideas and principles ride in.
So, what exactly is the Word of God?
We hold up this imitation leather-bound book, a compilation of two distinct sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, 66 books in all. We are not really sure who wrote some of the books, or exactly when. But, we believe, because of the book’s antiquity and the fact that it has survived the test of time and because of archeological discoveries and the discovery of ancient parchments and text fragments, that what we have here is a faithful record of writings, some over 4,000 years old that tell of a God who created this universe and this earth and every thing on it, including us humans, writings that tell the story of a people and of a Savior and of a mighty church, the called-out body of God’s Christ, His Anointed One, a church without spot or blemish a church of the redeemed!
So, many of the words in this book are, in fact, words spoken in time past by God and are thus the Words of God. We have read some of these words this morning. So, the Bible contains the words of God, the story of God and the stories of God’s people. When we read from this book, we usually ask for God to bless, or to make effective the reading of His Word. So, we refer to this Bible as the Word of God, and it is. We believe that God somehow caused the writers to write the things He wants us to know by what we call inspiration—Divine Inspiration.
We believe this because the Bible tells us that “ . . . .all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3: 16-17). So, looking at all the evidence, I am convinced in my heart of hearts that the words contained in this book are very words of God. So, when I want to know something about God, when I want to know how to act, how to live, how to have that kind of peace of mind that is beyond human understanding—I go to the Word.
All this being said, I submit to you this morning that the Word of the Lord cannot be contained between these imitation leather-bound pages of 9-point type. For our God is alive, He is dynamic, He is present right here in this room right now. God is real. God dearly wants to be a Father to us today. God wants to be close to you this morning. The Father has sent His Son to redeem you and me. He sent His Son to light the way.
And in these leather-bound pages we find words that give meaning to life, words that reveal what the Apostle Paul calls a mystery, the mystery that was hidden for ages and is now revealed. The glorious good news what we call the gospel, is that God loves us and has made a way for us to be holy and redeemed and made righteous, not from within our own selves and our own efforts, but from the fact that Jesus, God’s Christ, His Anointed One went to a Roman cross and poured out His precious blood, his actual, real red blood.
John was there and he recorded it, describing how the soldier thrust the spear into Jesus’ side and out flowed both blood and water, right out on the ground. The Bible says that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” The life is in the blood. Paul, says in Hebrews nine that Jesus actually took His shed blood, as our High Priest up to the real Holy of Holies in Heaven and there offered it, sprinkled it as a sacrifice, once and for all, for all of mankind, all those who lived before and those who lived then and all those who lived ever after, right down to our own age, in 2006.
And the Bible says--the Word of God says--that if we believe that Jesus was truly a human being, who really died on that cross and really got up after three days in that tomb and really talked to His disciples and really went up to Heaven with his sacrificial blood—if we can get our prideful human intellect around that concept—understanding that we are without God, outside the fold, walking in absolute darkness mired in sin and disobedience, with no hope whatsoever--until we fall on our face and acknowledge that we are, like Isaiah of old, Unclean and in desperate need of a savior, and then looking up to Jesus, say yes Lord, I believe!.....come be the Lord of my life.
What, exactly, is the Word of God? Maybe it is impossible to exactly define the term, because the word of God is an individual thing. God speaks to each of us in our own language, according to our own experiences and mindset. He knows us that well. But there are some common threads that come down to all of us. We can be a cohesive group, we can be members of the Family of God, the Church of God, the Church of the Christ, the Anointed One which is described also as the Bride of Christ. We can all have the same spiritual Father and all drink living water from that same spiritual rock, that rock is Christ.
The Apostle John says that in the beginning the Word was, and that Word became flesh and that Word was Jesus. Jesus, the name that is above every name, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. The Son of God. There is no other name whereby we can have salvation. Like Paul said in the first chapter of first Corinthians, I preach Christ, and him crucified. That is the gospel, that’s the power of God unto salvation, that’s the Word of God.
Did you happen to notice as we read our text this morning, the very next verses in that Hebrews passage? Verse 14 says “…Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Greek word translated confession, and it may be translated profession in your Bible, has to do with what we believe and what we say we believe, subsequently influencing how we act, or behave. So, Paul is admonishing us to hold on to our belief, to watch our behavior, to be careful what we say, to live our lives in such a way, so that we can come right on up to our Father when we need help, mercy and grace, when we are tempted, when we find ourselves weak, KNOW that Jesus is there, know that he wants us to succeed, know that he loves us, and gave his very life for us, know that Jesus understands what its like to live on this earth, know that he has himself experienced temptations and persecutions and all sorts of opposition. He knows how hard it can be.
You know, I had been in the church for years. I have even preached and led music in the church from my youth, but I did not get this message until later in life.
There are a lot of things that we don’t understand when we start out. We grow, and sometimes just get knocked right off our horse, like Paul did, on the road to Damascus. At that point, it’s time to do something about it.
I do not know what goes on in your head, only God knows that. But if you need to get some things straight in your life, now would be a good time to do it, today is the day of salvation. I am declaring the alter open, and we are going to sing a hymn to give the invitation to come and lay your burdens on Him. He said his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and he has promised to never leave you or forsake you, no matter what.
Let’s pray.
Father, send now your Holy Spirit upon this place, upon these hearts, speak to us now, let us know that You are God, that Your love for us is great, that you want to take us in your loving arms and shield us and keep us and protect us and give us strength, and health and see us as righteous, because of Jesus and his work on the cross.
These things I ask in the powerful and the precious name of Jesus, Amen.
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