Scripture Text: Ezra 4:1-5
Last week, President Obama met with the Congressional Caucus of the Republican Party, and a lively time it was. I heard that at one point the President reminded the delegates that he was working to adhere an old adage - “Keep your friends close, and meet with the Republican Caucus every now and then.” It drew a round of laughter.
The truth is that sometimes it’s difficult to know who your friends really are! Skilled opponents, in their efforts to derail your projects, may try to convince you that their help will be invaluable to your mission, and when you welcome them in, they do everything in their power to scuttle it.
I’m sure that you all know by now that I’m a political conservative, so it may shock you to know that I have a great admiration for the Democratic Party efforts in Congress during the past year. They have had their own agenda, and they have been very protective of the bills that they have developed. Many have called for bipartisanship in both houses of Congress, but they have steadfastly refused. I haven’t liked any of their bills – not one of them - not the context, not the content, not the intent - but I have to admire their dedication to keep their efforts untainted by the reasoning and desires of others.
Know who your friends are, and who they aren’t!
Read Ezra 4:1-2
Zerubbabel was the leader of the first contingent of Jews to return to the Promised Land after 70 years of exile. Once back in Israel, he continued as their leader, and as soon as the people got settled in their new homes, he erected an altar and began to rebuild the temple.
Even though they had permission from Cyrus, the king of Persia, to do this very thing, the people who had occupied the land in their absence didn’t like this idea one little bit. But they were smart. They didn’t, at least initially, directly oppose the construction, as they knew that this could fly in the face of the king’s order. They decided instead that they would work to defeat the rebuilding through deceit on the inside, not as conflict from the outside. What a novel idea! No blood, no gore, no great expense, no arms race, no uprising from your own supporters – just sow confusion, dissent and lies, and create a sense of failure among the ranks of your foes!
It just might work! And the concept of the Trojan Horse was formed – create a diversion that gets the enemy looking in a totally different direction, while the main attack comes from an unexpected quarter.
Read Ezra 4:3
But Zerubbabel and other leaders smelled a rat, and didn’t fall for the trick.
Have you ever been in a similar situation – involved in a great effort with many people wanting to be involved, but you just knew that something didn’t seem right?
A teenage boy desperately wanted to have a pet, and one day, his parents finally made a concession. They told him to decide what kind of pet he would like, and they would consider it. One day, he made his decision, and proudly announced to his folks “I’ve decided on my pet - I want a goat.” You can probably imagine Mom & Dad’s reaction, especially his Mom.
“Where will you keep this goat?”, she asked, knowing that they didn’t have any room out back to build a house and fence.
The boy replied, much to Mom’s chagrin, “In my room.”
She was horrified and cried “You can’t!”
“Why not?” the boy asked.
“The smell, son, the smell! It’s overwhelming!”
The boy answered, “Oh mama, he’ll get used to it!”
The first rule of the game is to keep the opposition off balance at all times! Make them think that your off beat suggestions and contributions are perfectly reasonable and acceptable.
And the church of today is no different. There are those who are advocating for many un-Christian concepts such as universalism, the secularizing of scripture, social and political activism that has no basis in faith, and the out and out denial of the basic tenants of Christian thought. And some of the most pointed of these attacks is coming, not from the outside, but from within.
Admittedly, Christianity, right from the moment that Christ spoke his first words in ministry, has been about taking aim at the status quo. But it wasn’t change for change’s sake! It was because the people needed to understand what God’s way is about, and why it isn’t the same as the world’s way. And the world attempted to derail the new faith by what ever means it could – the Roman emperors, the Jewish hierarchy, the Pharisees – especially Saul of Tarsus, and every other person or group who either felt threatened by or just plain didn’t like the new teachings.
And in the early 16th century when the church began to drift away from its roots, change came again from its own ranks. A priest by the name of Martin Luther began teaching against inequalities that he saw in the church, and his teaching was in direct opposition to the teaching of the established church. The Christian “protest” movement had begun and Protest continues to this very day.
So what is the difference between the liberal church of today, and the efforts of Wycliffe, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and the Wesleys? The great reformers of the past were leading the church back toward God and the scriptures and the basic tenants of our faith, and I’m not so sure that extreme liberal thought can even come close to doing this.
Dan Kimball wrote in his book, “The Emerging Church”, that Bishop Lesslie Newbigin [who had served for 38 years as a British missionary in India] found that ministry in England was now “much harder than anything I [encountered] in India. The cold contempt for the gospel is harder to face than opposition” (68).
That is where Trojan Horses lead us, and it isn’t toward the cross. As we approach Lent, which in turn prepares us for Holy week and the culmination of Christ’s great work on Easter, we need to be certain of the direction that our faith is taking us. But when the misdirections from inside come to be understood and exposed, they will not stop – they will simply change tactics.
Read Ezra 4:4-5
Threats, insults, fears, apprehensions, falsehoods, and out and out lies
were used to try to halt the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, and while it would be partially successful, while it was able to cast doubts in the minds of Judah, while it was able to slow the building process down to a crawl, it could never completely interrupt God’s plan for His faithful. And no matter what comes at the church of the 21st century, it too will survive. Doubts and frustrations may cause disruptions, frustrations and burdens may slow the church down, Trojan Horses may divert our attention from the truth of Christ, but spite of it all, God will prevail - He will never leave us, will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). His plan is set, and nothing and no one can stop them. This is a great truth of our faith, but another truth is just as important - that we can also miss our opportunity to be part of this plan.
It’s time to begin to prepare for our season of Lent. Begin to seek the Lord’s will, explore His truths, delve into His Word, be in prayer with God more than once a week(!), discover just how much He loves you and how much He wants you to love Him. Don’t wait for Easter to begin your journey – start today.
Oh, you will be interrupted, and doubts will fill you, and procrastination will slow you down, and distractions will take you away, but never give up! Christ has never given up on us – why should we give up on Him?
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
“From Out of Persecution – Faith”
Scripture text: Acts 8:26 – 40
You’ll remember from 2 weeks ago that Stephen had recently been stoned, which, in turn, lead to a great uprising against the church. The faithful had fled from Jerusalem, and to the casual observer, it might have appeared that the sect known as The Way was finished. But the truth is that it had just received the impetus to begin spreading the word of Jesus Christ beyond the borders of Judah.
Our lesson from last week focused on Philip, and where that flight from death took him. And his witness in Samaria was typical of how the message would begin to take hold in other areas of the world. But just because he had begun a great revival in Samaria, it didn’t mean that he had accomplished all that God required of him – as a matter of fact, it was just beginning.
Read Acts 8:26-29
First, the half blood nation of Samaria, and now an African from Ethiopia? Where would it all end? The authorities in Jerusalem didn’t really care, as long as it was happening outside of Judah and had ended within! But then, that was God’s plan – to evangelize the world, not just one small nation. The Lord’s plans are not miniscule - they’re grand! And to think that this migration of faith all began with hatefulness and rejection by the very people who should have embraced this new word.
Tertullian was a late second century Christian writer, who is still widely read and studied, even today. In the late 190’s, he wrote “The blood of Christians is seed. [It is] the bait that wins men to our school. We multiply whenever we are mown down by you.”
Persecution of the church had been nearly constant for 200 years, and the church continued to grow and spread to other nations. Of course, people didn’t flock to Christianity because of martyrdom. They came in spite of the persecution that the world threw at the faithful. Until Jesus came, the nations pretty much tolerated the beliefs of others – “You worship yours and I’ll worship mine” seemed to be the generally accepted mantra. But the Christian Church took a different tact – it became a contrast between Truth and lies, right and wrong, good and evil. “Tolerance” took on a new mantle – it became an embrace of people instead of their beliefs.
How else could Philip and Peter and John have witnessed to the glory of Jesus Christ to a nation of people who they were supposed to hate? It’s because they embraced the people of Samaria, not their failure so many years before to obey the commandment not to intermarry with people from other beliefs.
And now, Philip meets a man who is in service to the Ethiopian royal court. And here is an example of tolerance for other faiths – the eunuch had been in Jerusalem to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! This wasn’t his God, but he was interested in knowing more about him. But Philip wasn’t called to his side to affirm his interest – Philip was there to teach him the “truths” of God, to lead him beyond interest and into understanding.
Read Acts 8:30-34
Years later, the apostle Paul would write similar thoughts in his letter to the Romans (Read Romans 10:12-15). Word recognition is fairly easy and with some effort, we can learn a new language by ourselves. But when we are attempting to understand the context and concepts that words are telling us, our own ability is nearly always inadequate. We need the assistance of others – whether it is a teacher in school, or the group in a Bible study, we need the guidance of others in our efforts to learn.
The Ethiopian needed Philip with his understanding of the fulfilling of the prophesy surrounding Christ. Think about it. If you had read this passage, without knowing anything about Jesus and His sacrifice, would you have understood it? Of course not! He needed a wisdom other than what he had if he was to put these words into the proper context.
Philip had been forced out of Jerusalem and into Samaria, once again, in fear for his life, so that he could share his understanding of the Christ with those people, and then was lead in the opposite direction, without gaining any personal glory in Samaria or even seeing the final outcome, so he could share Christ with this man.
Think for just a moment, about how and where God is leading you. Have you ever wondered why you feel the need to spend time with that certain person who makes you so uncomfortable? Or why you just took a turn off the highway that you hadn’t planned to take? Or why that stranger just sat down next to you in the diner when there were lots of other empty seats?
Philip didn’t have a clue either as to why he was heading for Samaria – he just knew that he had to head out in that direction, and that when he got there that he was to share the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone who would take a minute to listen! He didn’t have a clue as to why he was to walk many miles to the south while Peter and John finished up the work he had begun in Samaria. And why was he supposed to walk near the chariot that was obviously owned by a very wealthy man from Africa? And even after all was said and done, he still only had some of the answers!
And what does God expect to accomplish if, by some remote chance, I do follow His lead? What does the hatred and meanness of others have to do with it? Why can’t they be nice to me? Why do I have to stop in the middle of the job, and why are others coming along to see it through to completion? Why can’t I finish it? Why can’t God just let me work in a comfortable place? Why must I go to Haiti or Guatemala or Libya or India, or that prison in Pennsylvania? Don’t I get a say in any of this?
These are all good questions, and there is only one good answer for all of them – It’s God’s plan, his way, his message, and his need. It has nothing to do with us, other than it is our response to His great gifts to us.
Don’t we trust him? Don’t we believe in His message? Don’t we want to be an intimate part of His ministry? What great blessing might be waiting for our faithful obedience, only to be missed because of our reluctance, our fear, to follow!
U.S.News & World Report published an article on why the ongoing repression of Christians worldwide receives scant notice. Why the indifference of Christians to Christian persecution? Nina Shea, of Freedom House, says it's secular myopia. Dorian Friedman says, There's a view that someone who stands before Army tanks in Tiananmen is a hero, while someone willing to lay down his life for his religious faith must be a zealot.
-- Sharing the Lessons, U.S.News & World Report, March 31, 1997, 15.
Are we letting the world dictate our response to Christ?
Read Acts 8:35-40
If Philip had doubted, if he had hesitated, if he had questioned the Lord’s call, could these 6 verses have ever been written? Hesitation could have put them well beyond the water before the Ethiopian understood, and he might never have asked to be baptized. If he had missed out on his baptism, the unbridled joy that came into his life would have been missed. If Philip had failed in his obedience, what would have happened to the continued ministry that was to come his way?
Once again, what great blessing might be waiting for our faithful obedience? Will it be missed because of our reluctance, our fear, our failure to follow?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be that fearful servant who buried his talent instead of using it to glorify the Master! We are never given a task, that with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, can’t be completed! It is only in our own limited view of life that we are limited, never in the vision of God.
My friends, let him take you to heights greater than any you have ever known. Claim him totally as Lord, give him you trust and praise, give him your life to use as he knows best, and give up on any hope or reward that this life may offer you - it’s nothing when compared to that which awaits those who wait and serve upon the Lord!
Will we hear the word of God as recorded in Psalm 19:4 - “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”, or will Isaiah 65:2 ring out as our condemnation - “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Persecution isn’t a pleasant experience, I’ll admit. But in Christ, the evil that is brought against us can be turned into glory – not by our will, but by the Lord’s. And in our fight against submitting to the hatred of others, we just might discover a greater faith in Christ. Philip discovered that truth, and so can we. Choose well the course that you take.
You’ll remember from 2 weeks ago that Stephen had recently been stoned, which, in turn, lead to a great uprising against the church. The faithful had fled from Jerusalem, and to the casual observer, it might have appeared that the sect known as The Way was finished. But the truth is that it had just received the impetus to begin spreading the word of Jesus Christ beyond the borders of Judah.
Our lesson from last week focused on Philip, and where that flight from death took him. And his witness in Samaria was typical of how the message would begin to take hold in other areas of the world. But just because he had begun a great revival in Samaria, it didn’t mean that he had accomplished all that God required of him – as a matter of fact, it was just beginning.
Read Acts 8:26-29
First, the half blood nation of Samaria, and now an African from Ethiopia? Where would it all end? The authorities in Jerusalem didn’t really care, as long as it was happening outside of Judah and had ended within! But then, that was God’s plan – to evangelize the world, not just one small nation. The Lord’s plans are not miniscule - they’re grand! And to think that this migration of faith all began with hatefulness and rejection by the very people who should have embraced this new word.
Tertullian was a late second century Christian writer, who is still widely read and studied, even today. In the late 190’s, he wrote “The blood of Christians is seed. [It is] the bait that wins men to our school. We multiply whenever we are mown down by you.”
Persecution of the church had been nearly constant for 200 years, and the church continued to grow and spread to other nations. Of course, people didn’t flock to Christianity because of martyrdom. They came in spite of the persecution that the world threw at the faithful. Until Jesus came, the nations pretty much tolerated the beliefs of others – “You worship yours and I’ll worship mine” seemed to be the generally accepted mantra. But the Christian Church took a different tact – it became a contrast between Truth and lies, right and wrong, good and evil. “Tolerance” took on a new mantle – it became an embrace of people instead of their beliefs.
How else could Philip and Peter and John have witnessed to the glory of Jesus Christ to a nation of people who they were supposed to hate? It’s because they embraced the people of Samaria, not their failure so many years before to obey the commandment not to intermarry with people from other beliefs.
And now, Philip meets a man who is in service to the Ethiopian royal court. And here is an example of tolerance for other faiths – the eunuch had been in Jerusalem to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! This wasn’t his God, but he was interested in knowing more about him. But Philip wasn’t called to his side to affirm his interest – Philip was there to teach him the “truths” of God, to lead him beyond interest and into understanding.
Read Acts 8:30-34
Years later, the apostle Paul would write similar thoughts in his letter to the Romans (Read Romans 10:12-15). Word recognition is fairly easy and with some effort, we can learn a new language by ourselves. But when we are attempting to understand the context and concepts that words are telling us, our own ability is nearly always inadequate. We need the assistance of others – whether it is a teacher in school, or the group in a Bible study, we need the guidance of others in our efforts to learn.
The Ethiopian needed Philip with his understanding of the fulfilling of the prophesy surrounding Christ. Think about it. If you had read this passage, without knowing anything about Jesus and His sacrifice, would you have understood it? Of course not! He needed a wisdom other than what he had if he was to put these words into the proper context.
Philip had been forced out of Jerusalem and into Samaria, once again, in fear for his life, so that he could share his understanding of the Christ with those people, and then was lead in the opposite direction, without gaining any personal glory in Samaria or even seeing the final outcome, so he could share Christ with this man.
Think for just a moment, about how and where God is leading you. Have you ever wondered why you feel the need to spend time with that certain person who makes you so uncomfortable? Or why you just took a turn off the highway that you hadn’t planned to take? Or why that stranger just sat down next to you in the diner when there were lots of other empty seats?
Philip didn’t have a clue either as to why he was heading for Samaria – he just knew that he had to head out in that direction, and that when he got there that he was to share the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone who would take a minute to listen! He didn’t have a clue as to why he was to walk many miles to the south while Peter and John finished up the work he had begun in Samaria. And why was he supposed to walk near the chariot that was obviously owned by a very wealthy man from Africa? And even after all was said and done, he still only had some of the answers!
And what does God expect to accomplish if, by some remote chance, I do follow His lead? What does the hatred and meanness of others have to do with it? Why can’t they be nice to me? Why do I have to stop in the middle of the job, and why are others coming along to see it through to completion? Why can’t I finish it? Why can’t God just let me work in a comfortable place? Why must I go to Haiti or Guatemala or Libya or India, or that prison in Pennsylvania? Don’t I get a say in any of this?
These are all good questions, and there is only one good answer for all of them – It’s God’s plan, his way, his message, and his need. It has nothing to do with us, other than it is our response to His great gifts to us.
Don’t we trust him? Don’t we believe in His message? Don’t we want to be an intimate part of His ministry? What great blessing might be waiting for our faithful obedience, only to be missed because of our reluctance, our fear, to follow!
U.S.News & World Report published an article on why the ongoing repression of Christians worldwide receives scant notice. Why the indifference of Christians to Christian persecution? Nina Shea, of Freedom House, says it's secular myopia. Dorian Friedman says, There's a view that someone who stands before Army tanks in Tiananmen is a hero, while someone willing to lay down his life for his religious faith must be a zealot.
-- Sharing the Lessons, U.S.News & World Report, March 31, 1997, 15.
Are we letting the world dictate our response to Christ?
Read Acts 8:35-40
If Philip had doubted, if he had hesitated, if he had questioned the Lord’s call, could these 6 verses have ever been written? Hesitation could have put them well beyond the water before the Ethiopian understood, and he might never have asked to be baptized. If he had missed out on his baptism, the unbridled joy that came into his life would have been missed. If Philip had failed in his obedience, what would have happened to the continued ministry that was to come his way?
Once again, what great blessing might be waiting for our faithful obedience? Will it be missed because of our reluctance, our fear, our failure to follow?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be that fearful servant who buried his talent instead of using it to glorify the Master! We are never given a task, that with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, can’t be completed! It is only in our own limited view of life that we are limited, never in the vision of God.
My friends, let him take you to heights greater than any you have ever known. Claim him totally as Lord, give him you trust and praise, give him your life to use as he knows best, and give up on any hope or reward that this life may offer you - it’s nothing when compared to that which awaits those who wait and serve upon the Lord!
Will we hear the word of God as recorded in Psalm 19:4 - “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”, or will Isaiah 65:2 ring out as our condemnation - “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Persecution isn’t a pleasant experience, I’ll admit. But in Christ, the evil that is brought against us can be turned into glory – not by our will, but by the Lord’s. And in our fight against submitting to the hatred of others, we just might discover a greater faith in Christ. Philip discovered that truth, and so can we. Choose well the course that you take.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
“The Best That Money Can NOT Buy”
Scripture text: Acts 8:14-25
Remember Simon the Sorcerer from last week? He had been so taken by Philip’s preaching and the sign’s and miracles that he saw coming through the evangelist that he accepted Christ and was baptized. The man had been held in very high esteem by the people of Samaria, as he was able to perform magic and sorcery and all kinds of amazing things. But now, he is beginning to realize that his powers were nothing when compared to that which was so apparent in Philip.
But even though he now believes in Christ, and had been baptized into the church, the old ways were still influencing, and maybe even controlling, his life. Money and power and prestige were still of foremost importance to Simon.
Former US Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine) gave a speech in the fall of 1994 in which he denounced the current campaign finance system and the way it undermines public confidence in elected officials. (Sound familiar??)
In his speech, he said “The fact of the matter is ... [that] every senator knows this system stinks. Every senator who participates in it knows this system stinks. And the American people are right when they mistrust this system, where what matters most in seeking public office is not integrity, not ability, not judgment, not reason, not responsibility, not experience, not intelligence, but money. Money dominates this system. Money infuses this system. Money is the system.”
--As excerpted in Washington Spectator 20 (1 November 1994), 2.
Read Acts 8:14-17
For Simon, the old, former self was still his “system” – he hadn’t taken that full step in faith yet. And when Peter and John arrived to expand the ministry that Philip had begun, poor Simon was even more amazed at what he saw. He witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit, and the old self suddenly kicked in. The power and prestige, and probably a lot of the money, had dried up, and he missed the attention that others had so readily been giving to him. He had been able to buy whatever he wanted in life, people had always come to him in recognition of his great powers, he had been honored by the great and not so great for many years, and now his ego was beginning to strain against the boundaries, the goads if you will, that his new found faith had brought.
The beaten path that had once lead the masses to his door was beginning to grow back in, the good life that he had so enjoyed was becoming a little more Spartan, the prestige in his life was drying up, and his former job as a sorcerer was no longer available to him. He needed to get back on top, and the invoking of the Holy Spirit that he saw with these two new evangelists seemed to be just the thing that he needed.
Read Acts 8:18-19
Have you ever know people in the church who thought that their money or position or name could get them whatever they wanted? Whether it was chair of one of the “better” or more influential committees, or having the ear of the pastor whenever they wanted it, or the ability to control the happenings in worship or fellowship or fund raising, or even what projects and expenditures could be approved. No matter what the issue, they had the control and influence to shape it, and they loved being in the driver’s seat – or at least they loved it until someone else came along and was able to wrest control from them and changed the way that everything was done. They feel lost and insignificant, no one listens to them anymore, no one seeks their opinion or advice, or permission, no one honors them the way they were used to being honored. They just had to regain that old sense of control, one way or another. And the church suffered in the process.
That was where Simon found himself on that day when he saw Peter and John so easily and effectively bestowing the Spirit on the people. That was who he used to be, and he wanted to be that man again. Maybe he could buy that power away from the disciples, and regain his former position in the community.
Read Acts 8:20-23
What Simon had failed to grasp was that the gifts of faith were just that – gifts that were freely given to those who honored God, and who never claimed the power and prestige for themselves. Now, we might think that Peter’s reprimand to Simon was a bit harsh, but was it? This man was like so many others who think that they can keep a foot in both worlds – 1 in the old, earthly life, and 1 in the new, Christ-centered life. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus warns us about this very thing – “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Simon was trying to serve two masters, and Peter was intentionally and very deliberately teaching him that he couldn’t.
Some time ago, an Amish woman from Minnesota, Mary Lambright, was killed when a truck hit her horse-drawn buggy. The modern society she and her people shunned had taken her life. Her husband, Mahlon, now a widower, was a 43-year-old carpenter with 11 children to raise.
Yet, when he was offered $212,000 from the truck driver’s insurance company as a wrongful-death settlement, he turned it down, saying that he was concerned that the money would threaten his family's way of life, would cause more problems than it was worth, and that other members of the Amish community would feel bad if he took the money.
-- Jonathan Kramer and Diane Dunaway Kramer, Losing the Weight of the World: A Spiritual Diet to Nourish the Soul (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 139-40.
That certainly wasn’t Simon speaking, was it? And it isn’t at all a common thread for most people’s lives!
Read Acts 8:24-25
And as the 2 disciples begin their journey back to Jerusalem, there is no indication as to what condition Simon is left in. The truth is that we just might be Simon, and that his story is actually ours.
- Did Simon, and do we, truly understand that the old attitudes and ways must be laid down and left far behind? Our new walk with Christ can never be fueled by the “oldness” of our life.
- Was Simon, and are we, ready to be a Micah kind of man or woman – completely in and of and for Christ – Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you ... what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” New ways for the new Way. Was Simon, and are we, ready to let go of the honors and prestige and power and authority and influence and wealth that the world promises? Are we prepared to simply walk in personal humility with the Christ?
Had Simon, and will we, come to the realization that the idols of the world and the majesty of God can never be served together?
We don’t know what happened to Simon, but we can take his lesson to heart – that the strengths and powers that come from the world can never be used to gain the benefits of the Lord! And the grace that comes to us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ is a gift given freely. Money can’t buy it. Prestige can’t influence it. Power can’t claim it. Worldliness can’t control it.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Filled - not because we deserve it, not because we have earned it, not because we have purchased it – but simply because we have emptied ourselves in preparation to receive it. Freely offered. Gratefully received. Amen.
Remember Simon the Sorcerer from last week? He had been so taken by Philip’s preaching and the sign’s and miracles that he saw coming through the evangelist that he accepted Christ and was baptized. The man had been held in very high esteem by the people of Samaria, as he was able to perform magic and sorcery and all kinds of amazing things. But now, he is beginning to realize that his powers were nothing when compared to that which was so apparent in Philip.
But even though he now believes in Christ, and had been baptized into the church, the old ways were still influencing, and maybe even controlling, his life. Money and power and prestige were still of foremost importance to Simon.
Former US Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine) gave a speech in the fall of 1994 in which he denounced the current campaign finance system and the way it undermines public confidence in elected officials. (Sound familiar??)
In his speech, he said “The fact of the matter is ... [that] every senator knows this system stinks. Every senator who participates in it knows this system stinks. And the American people are right when they mistrust this system, where what matters most in seeking public office is not integrity, not ability, not judgment, not reason, not responsibility, not experience, not intelligence, but money. Money dominates this system. Money infuses this system. Money is the system.”
--As excerpted in Washington Spectator 20 (1 November 1994), 2.
Read Acts 8:14-17
For Simon, the old, former self was still his “system” – he hadn’t taken that full step in faith yet. And when Peter and John arrived to expand the ministry that Philip had begun, poor Simon was even more amazed at what he saw. He witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit, and the old self suddenly kicked in. The power and prestige, and probably a lot of the money, had dried up, and he missed the attention that others had so readily been giving to him. He had been able to buy whatever he wanted in life, people had always come to him in recognition of his great powers, he had been honored by the great and not so great for many years, and now his ego was beginning to strain against the boundaries, the goads if you will, that his new found faith had brought.
The beaten path that had once lead the masses to his door was beginning to grow back in, the good life that he had so enjoyed was becoming a little more Spartan, the prestige in his life was drying up, and his former job as a sorcerer was no longer available to him. He needed to get back on top, and the invoking of the Holy Spirit that he saw with these two new evangelists seemed to be just the thing that he needed.
Read Acts 8:18-19
Have you ever know people in the church who thought that their money or position or name could get them whatever they wanted? Whether it was chair of one of the “better” or more influential committees, or having the ear of the pastor whenever they wanted it, or the ability to control the happenings in worship or fellowship or fund raising, or even what projects and expenditures could be approved. No matter what the issue, they had the control and influence to shape it, and they loved being in the driver’s seat – or at least they loved it until someone else came along and was able to wrest control from them and changed the way that everything was done. They feel lost and insignificant, no one listens to them anymore, no one seeks their opinion or advice, or permission, no one honors them the way they were used to being honored. They just had to regain that old sense of control, one way or another. And the church suffered in the process.
That was where Simon found himself on that day when he saw Peter and John so easily and effectively bestowing the Spirit on the people. That was who he used to be, and he wanted to be that man again. Maybe he could buy that power away from the disciples, and regain his former position in the community.
Read Acts 8:20-23
What Simon had failed to grasp was that the gifts of faith were just that – gifts that were freely given to those who honored God, and who never claimed the power and prestige for themselves. Now, we might think that Peter’s reprimand to Simon was a bit harsh, but was it? This man was like so many others who think that they can keep a foot in both worlds – 1 in the old, earthly life, and 1 in the new, Christ-centered life. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus warns us about this very thing – “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Simon was trying to serve two masters, and Peter was intentionally and very deliberately teaching him that he couldn’t.
Some time ago, an Amish woman from Minnesota, Mary Lambright, was killed when a truck hit her horse-drawn buggy. The modern society she and her people shunned had taken her life. Her husband, Mahlon, now a widower, was a 43-year-old carpenter with 11 children to raise.
Yet, when he was offered $212,000 from the truck driver’s insurance company as a wrongful-death settlement, he turned it down, saying that he was concerned that the money would threaten his family's way of life, would cause more problems than it was worth, and that other members of the Amish community would feel bad if he took the money.
-- Jonathan Kramer and Diane Dunaway Kramer, Losing the Weight of the World: A Spiritual Diet to Nourish the Soul (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 139-40.
That certainly wasn’t Simon speaking, was it? And it isn’t at all a common thread for most people’s lives!
Read Acts 8:24-25
And as the 2 disciples begin their journey back to Jerusalem, there is no indication as to what condition Simon is left in. The truth is that we just might be Simon, and that his story is actually ours.
- Did Simon, and do we, truly understand that the old attitudes and ways must be laid down and left far behind? Our new walk with Christ can never be fueled by the “oldness” of our life.
- Was Simon, and are we, ready to be a Micah kind of man or woman – completely in and of and for Christ – Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you ... what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” New ways for the new Way. Was Simon, and are we, ready to let go of the honors and prestige and power and authority and influence and wealth that the world promises? Are we prepared to simply walk in personal humility with the Christ?
Had Simon, and will we, come to the realization that the idols of the world and the majesty of God can never be served together?
We don’t know what happened to Simon, but we can take his lesson to heart – that the strengths and powers that come from the world can never be used to gain the benefits of the Lord! And the grace that comes to us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ is a gift given freely. Money can’t buy it. Prestige can’t influence it. Power can’t claim it. Worldliness can’t control it.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Filled - not because we deserve it, not because we have earned it, not because we have purchased it – but simply because we have emptied ourselves in preparation to receive it. Freely offered. Gratefully received. Amen.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
“The Glory of Persecution”
“The Glory of Persecution”
Scripture text: Acts 8:1-13
(The first of a series on Acts 8)
Persecution of the Christian Church seems to have become a mark of our faith. It began during Christ’s lifetime, and has continued, nearly unabated, throughout the centuries, and is still very active, very pervasive, even today. And why not? Our Lord and Master suffered persecution in all of its many forms, so why shouldn’t we? In Mark’s gospel, the 8th chapter, we find Jesus telling his disciples about future events that they would see as extremely unpleasant, to say the least! And when my good friend Peter tries to get the Lord to tone down the rhetoric, he tells every follower within hearing distance “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
And there are many other passages that should be preparing us for discrimination and maltreatment by the world, but how many should we need? If we don’t listen to one, will we believe any of others?
Read Acts 8:1-3
Saul had just witnessed the stoning of Stephen, and it had inspired him to start his own vendetta against the fledgling sect that followed the Way of Christ. And was he ever inspired! Believers were dragged off to prison to face interrogation, torture, and even death, simply because they steadfastly refused to give up their new found faith. He started in Jerusalem, and quickly spread his brand of purification to the surrounding countryside.
And the hysteria that surrounded these attacks was based on lies and half truths and unsubstantiated rumors. If the people had known the reality of Christ’s Way, there would have been far more conversions and far fewer attacks.
Wayne Rice tells a story from the early church in the years before Constantine. Roman officials were ignorant of the actual teachings and practices of true Christians, and often acted out of bigotry, fear and misinformation. They assumed that the growing Christian church operated along the same lines as the pagan religions.
One emperor, coveting the wealth these Christians must surely possess, summoned the archbishop to his palace and ordered him to produce “the treasures of the church.”
The bishop protested that the church had no gold, jewels or other valuables (which was true at this point in history). But the emperor brushed aside his objection, and demanded that the riches of the church be brought to him in the morning.
The next day the bishop dutifully appeared at the palace doorway, empty-handed. “I told you to bring me the treasures of the church!” raged the emperor.
The bishop then invited the emperor to look out at the palace steps. Gathered together, peering sheepishly at the great doors of the royal palace rising above them, was a mass of common people including ragged beggars, cripples, slaves, and outcasts.
With a sweep of his arm, the bishop said, “These are the treasures of the church.”
—Harry W. Hughes, “Laborers for the harvest,” January 12, 2003, Lewes Presbyterian Church Web Site, lewestoday.com.
- Homeletics
Few have ever learned that lesson – not then and not now. They prefer to believe the lies, and live out their lives hating and fighting against the Church, and they miss discovering the “treasure” of God.
Read Acts 8:4-8
And what does it accomplish? In this particular instance, the church scattered, but went undeterred! They were no longer contained in a small, easy to control area – now they had begun spread out to Samaria – fertile ground for the new faith, and eventually the faithful would carry the message of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth! They still had to deal with the Romans, it’s true, but they saw great opportunities where others might only see road blocks.
The faithful preached the truth of Christ wherever they went, and didn’t worry about secular authority. They didn’t try to get Rome, or the Jewish authorities for that matter, to endorse them or to tolerate them. They didn’t water down the gospel to make it more palatable and politically correct. They didn’t pray for calmer days (or at least we never hear of anyone offering such a prayer!), and they never tried to avoid the angry crowds. These were opportunities to share the gospel.
As late as the eve of the American Revolution, Leo Pfeffer writes, Baptist preachers in Virginia were whipped, arrested, fined, and imprisoned on bread and water for preaching a theology deviating from that of established Anglicanism (God, Caesar and the Constitution [Boston: Beacon Press, 1975]), 9).
Virginia Baptist itinerant John Leland was one of those persecuted, so he was writing from first-hand experience when he said:
“Persecution, like a lion, tears the saints to death, but leaves Christianity pure; state establishment of religion, like a bear, hugs the saints, but corrupts Christianity.”
- Homeletics
We need more of John’s kind in the church today. We must not be concerned with our personal safety if it could possibly lead to perversion of the faith. The church today is, unfortunately, far too concerned with preservation of the status quo, and no where near excited enough about sharing the gospel with everyone they meet! The pot of secular society needs a good stirring! And I believe this because we have recently been told that America is no longer a Christian nation (even though polls reveal that up to 70% of the country identifies with Christianity), but that we just might be a Muslim state.
Does everyone have a big stirring spoon with them? If not, get one!
Read Acts 8:9-13
Philip was a stirrer! He wasn’t preaching from hearsay, he wasn’t reading someone else’s prepared text, he wasn’t witnessing by rote, and he definitely didn’t water down the message. Philip was ministering to the people with what he knew was certain – that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that no one else is the truth of God.
Years ago, in a central European town, or so the story goes, the older townspeople could be seen making the sign of the cross as they passed by a certain ordinary- looking wall. When a visitor asked why they were doing this, no one knew.
The visitor's curiosity led him to begin chipping away at the layers of whitewash and dirt covering the wall until, underneath, he discovered a beautiful mural of Mary and the child Jesus. Generations before, the townspeople had had a reason for making the sign of the cross, but succeeding generations had only learned the ritual. They continued to go through the motions without knowing the reason.
This is the danger we face every Christmas and every Easter and every Sunday morning, going through the motions without ever knowing why.
- Homeletics
We can’t fear the ignorant responses of others. We can’t avoid the hateful rhetoric that beats down the faithful every day someplace in the world. We can’t take our faith for granted. Hatred and pain and disappointment and failure and even death in this life will end, but the Lord’s judgment that awaits us in the next will be eternal and will never end. And we must never compromise our belief in Jesus Christ just because someone else thinks we have deviated from some line, some arbitrary point of political correctness.
Will we rejoice in the glory of the world’s persecution, or will we try to hedge our bets, looking for an easier time now and hoping for a merciful sentence later?
Will you decide to save your life now, only to loose it later, or will you make the decision that this life is only temporary, and place your entire hope in the eternity of Christ Jesus?
My friends, Philip, and many others throughout the ages, never hesitated and never compromised. They never saw the world’s persecution as a final sentence – only as a feeble attempt to delay God’s Glory, and each one of them chose the glory. May it be so with us.
Scripture text: Acts 8:1-13
(The first of a series on Acts 8)
Persecution of the Christian Church seems to have become a mark of our faith. It began during Christ’s lifetime, and has continued, nearly unabated, throughout the centuries, and is still very active, very pervasive, even today. And why not? Our Lord and Master suffered persecution in all of its many forms, so why shouldn’t we? In Mark’s gospel, the 8th chapter, we find Jesus telling his disciples about future events that they would see as extremely unpleasant, to say the least! And when my good friend Peter tries to get the Lord to tone down the rhetoric, he tells every follower within hearing distance “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
And there are many other passages that should be preparing us for discrimination and maltreatment by the world, but how many should we need? If we don’t listen to one, will we believe any of others?
Read Acts 8:1-3
Saul had just witnessed the stoning of Stephen, and it had inspired him to start his own vendetta against the fledgling sect that followed the Way of Christ. And was he ever inspired! Believers were dragged off to prison to face interrogation, torture, and even death, simply because they steadfastly refused to give up their new found faith. He started in Jerusalem, and quickly spread his brand of purification to the surrounding countryside.
And the hysteria that surrounded these attacks was based on lies and half truths and unsubstantiated rumors. If the people had known the reality of Christ’s Way, there would have been far more conversions and far fewer attacks.
Wayne Rice tells a story from the early church in the years before Constantine. Roman officials were ignorant of the actual teachings and practices of true Christians, and often acted out of bigotry, fear and misinformation. They assumed that the growing Christian church operated along the same lines as the pagan religions.
One emperor, coveting the wealth these Christians must surely possess, summoned the archbishop to his palace and ordered him to produce “the treasures of the church.”
The bishop protested that the church had no gold, jewels or other valuables (which was true at this point in history). But the emperor brushed aside his objection, and demanded that the riches of the church be brought to him in the morning.
The next day the bishop dutifully appeared at the palace doorway, empty-handed. “I told you to bring me the treasures of the church!” raged the emperor.
The bishop then invited the emperor to look out at the palace steps. Gathered together, peering sheepishly at the great doors of the royal palace rising above them, was a mass of common people including ragged beggars, cripples, slaves, and outcasts.
With a sweep of his arm, the bishop said, “These are the treasures of the church.”
—Harry W. Hughes, “Laborers for the harvest,” January 12, 2003, Lewes Presbyterian Church Web Site, lewestoday.com.
- Homeletics
Few have ever learned that lesson – not then and not now. They prefer to believe the lies, and live out their lives hating and fighting against the Church, and they miss discovering the “treasure” of God.
Read Acts 8:4-8
And what does it accomplish? In this particular instance, the church scattered, but went undeterred! They were no longer contained in a small, easy to control area – now they had begun spread out to Samaria – fertile ground for the new faith, and eventually the faithful would carry the message of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth! They still had to deal with the Romans, it’s true, but they saw great opportunities where others might only see road blocks.
The faithful preached the truth of Christ wherever they went, and didn’t worry about secular authority. They didn’t try to get Rome, or the Jewish authorities for that matter, to endorse them or to tolerate them. They didn’t water down the gospel to make it more palatable and politically correct. They didn’t pray for calmer days (or at least we never hear of anyone offering such a prayer!), and they never tried to avoid the angry crowds. These were opportunities to share the gospel.
As late as the eve of the American Revolution, Leo Pfeffer writes, Baptist preachers in Virginia were whipped, arrested, fined, and imprisoned on bread and water for preaching a theology deviating from that of established Anglicanism (God, Caesar and the Constitution [Boston: Beacon Press, 1975]), 9).
Virginia Baptist itinerant John Leland was one of those persecuted, so he was writing from first-hand experience when he said:
“Persecution, like a lion, tears the saints to death, but leaves Christianity pure; state establishment of religion, like a bear, hugs the saints, but corrupts Christianity.”
- Homeletics
We need more of John’s kind in the church today. We must not be concerned with our personal safety if it could possibly lead to perversion of the faith. The church today is, unfortunately, far too concerned with preservation of the status quo, and no where near excited enough about sharing the gospel with everyone they meet! The pot of secular society needs a good stirring! And I believe this because we have recently been told that America is no longer a Christian nation (even though polls reveal that up to 70% of the country identifies with Christianity), but that we just might be a Muslim state.
Does everyone have a big stirring spoon with them? If not, get one!
Read Acts 8:9-13
Philip was a stirrer! He wasn’t preaching from hearsay, he wasn’t reading someone else’s prepared text, he wasn’t witnessing by rote, and he definitely didn’t water down the message. Philip was ministering to the people with what he knew was certain – that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that no one else is the truth of God.
Years ago, in a central European town, or so the story goes, the older townspeople could be seen making the sign of the cross as they passed by a certain ordinary- looking wall. When a visitor asked why they were doing this, no one knew.
The visitor's curiosity led him to begin chipping away at the layers of whitewash and dirt covering the wall until, underneath, he discovered a beautiful mural of Mary and the child Jesus. Generations before, the townspeople had had a reason for making the sign of the cross, but succeeding generations had only learned the ritual. They continued to go through the motions without knowing the reason.
This is the danger we face every Christmas and every Easter and every Sunday morning, going through the motions without ever knowing why.
- Homeletics
We can’t fear the ignorant responses of others. We can’t avoid the hateful rhetoric that beats down the faithful every day someplace in the world. We can’t take our faith for granted. Hatred and pain and disappointment and failure and even death in this life will end, but the Lord’s judgment that awaits us in the next will be eternal and will never end. And we must never compromise our belief in Jesus Christ just because someone else thinks we have deviated from some line, some arbitrary point of political correctness.
Will we rejoice in the glory of the world’s persecution, or will we try to hedge our bets, looking for an easier time now and hoping for a merciful sentence later?
Will you decide to save your life now, only to loose it later, or will you make the decision that this life is only temporary, and place your entire hope in the eternity of Christ Jesus?
My friends, Philip, and many others throughout the ages, never hesitated and never compromised. They never saw the world’s persecution as a final sentence – only as a feeble attempt to delay God’s Glory, and each one of them chose the glory. May it be so with us.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
“The Wise Will Come to Him”
Scripture text: Matthew 2:1-12
Today is the Sunday that we know as Epiphany – the day when, traditionally, the Magi arrived from the east to worship the Christ Child.
Read Matthew 2:1-2
These men are historically known as the 3 Wise Men, even though there is no evidence that there were only 3 – only that there were 3 gifts, and the word Magi is a reference to the priestly class of men, probably from the Medo-Persia region, which typically would be the learned class of any nation.
These were foreigners – they were not Jews. They may very well have know a lot about Israel as a nation and a people, but I doubt that they had ever taken a trip to visit these folks to the west. But they found their way there without maps, directions, GPS, or any other aid, except for a star that had guided them every step of the way. Human aids can be misleading, and take us in the wrong direction at times, but God’s star? Never.
Did you hear about the couple who, following their GPS, wound up in a remote place, trapped for 3 days over Christmas? We think of the new trend of electronics as nearly as infallible as anything possibly could. But a star? Navy story – there are all kinds of navigational aids on ships today, but navigators still shoot the stars every once in a while, just to verify that the electronics are correct! You just can’t trust human devices or human directions!
A motorist found himself lost on a back road in Alabama while trying to find his way to Montgomery. He saw an old farmer sitting on a fence, and stopped to ask for directions. The farmer looked down the road, scratched his head and then gave the motorist very explicit instructions. Half an hour later, after following the farmer's directions to a tee, the motorist found himself back at the starting point. The farmer was still sitting on the fence, in placid contemplation of the landscape.
“Hey, what's the idea?” the motorist demanded. “I did just what you told me, and look where I wound up!”
“Well, young feller,” the farmer explained, “I didn't aim to waste my time telling you how to get to Montgomery till I found out if you could follow simple directions.”
-- SourceBook of Wit and Wisdom, (Canton, Ohio: Communication Resources, Inc., 1996), 85a.
And maybe we can’t trust the human intellect, either!
Simple or not, directions are only as accurate as the person who is sharing them with us! These “wise” men found their way to Jerusalem, and following standard international protocol for that day, stopped in to pay their respects to the King of Israel and his court. And they asked where the “new” king was so they could honor and worship him! The Star had lead them across many miles, but while it lead the shepherds directly to the manger, the Magi needed to take a slight detour.
Read Matthew 2:3-8
The assistance that Herod had given them was, in itself, accurate, but there was royal subterfuge at work.
Here's some ancient wisdom that each generation discovers anew: “Don't fret about what the world wants from you. Worry about what makes you come more alive. Because what the world really needs is people who are more alive.”
-- Homeletics Online
The world was at work in these foreign visitors’ lives, but God was at work, too. Isn’t that so true? That whenever secular forces try to take control of situations, conditions, directions, decisions, that God is right there in the middle of it all. Consider some of the people of scripture who experienced this – people like:
- Esther, a Jewess who had been raised up to become Queen of the Persian Empire, presumably because of her great beauty and King Xerxes love for her, but then discovers that God had a whole different purpose, one of urgency and immanency, for her being in that position.
- Job – a righteous and very wealthy man who “feared God and shunned evil”! And then he lost it all, except for the 3 friends who kept tempting him with their worldly brand of “truth”. But God had a plan that far surpassed everything that the world – or Satan - could possibly throw at the man.
- Jonah didn’t like God’s plan, and tried to create his own, but quickly discovered that this is an impossibility. Eventually, the divine plan triumphed, and although Jonah did what he was supposed to do, he still didn’t like it.
- Even Elijah – the greatest and most revered prophet in all of Israel’s history – had his moment in the cave when he was hoping to hear God’s word in the loud and powerful, but was disappointed until the “still small voice” came to give him hope once again.
- and how could we fail to mention Saul of Tarsus in this list – he was working a plan that was anything but God’s, until God in Jesus Christ was revealed in a very dramatic and glorious way.
And the list goes on. But the common thread here is that each of these folks, as well as many more throughout the ages, were first subjected to a human and worldly “wisdom” that, when illuminated by the light of God, completely fell apart, and God eventually triumphed. For some, that revelation comes fairly swiftly – for others, it comes only after years of struggle and hardship. And true wisdom and Godly power will be for those who seek the only one who can give them.
In November of 1948, in a speech given by General Omar Bradley, he said “The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
--Omar Bradley in a speech, November 10, 1948, quoted in Christianity Today, February 9, 1998, 78.
That could almost apply today!!
Sometimes the “nuclear giants and ethical infants” of the world are allowed to take control for a short period of time and are even permitted to raise their own form of havoc in the lives of God’s people, but eventually, the faithful will – must - be raised up – not necessarily through power and might, but through the message of wisdom that is offered within the “still small voice”.
Read Matthew 2:9-12
The Magi had been given their “marching orders” by Herod, and we have to believe that without any intervention to the contrary, they would have carried out that royal command. But they were about to actually “see” that still, small voice of God. And they honored Him, and they worshipped Him, and they knew exactly who He was! And we know that by the gifts they offered, and we offered them again in our Unison Prayer this morning:
- Gold was a gift for a king – it symbolizes wealth, beauty, power.
- Incense (or Frankincense) was used nearly exclusively by the temple priests. It was always used in it purest state, and because it burned with such fragrance, it actually was seen to symbolize God. It was given for Jesus the High Priest.
- Myrrh was not only a perfume, but also an embalming agent. It symbolized the death that would come all too soon to our King and Priest.
3 gifts – one for a King, one for a Priest, and one to anoint the dead. Is there any doubt that these worshipers truly knew this Baby? They had been granted a wisdom that eluded Herod. They came before the truth of God in reverence and not in envy. They worshipped and believed in the God of Israel who they may never have knelt before in their entire lives.
Isn’t it interesting that scripture only mentions two types of visitors to the bedside of Immanuel - foreign, pagan priests, and filthy, socially inept, and ritually unclean Jewish shepherds?
Why weren’t the leaders of Israel, the major landowners, the wealthy merchant class, the priesthood – why weren’t they represented at the crude crib?
Salomon Ibn Gabirol, a Hebrew poet and philosopher who lived in the first half of the 11th century, gives us this bit of wisdom:
It was asked of the sage, he tells us: “Who are the superior; the wise or the rich?” ”The wise”, was his reply.
“But why”, objected the questioner, “are the wise more frequently at the door of the rich, than the rich at the door of the wise?”
“Because”, the sage replied, “the wise know the value of riches, but the rich do not know the value of wisdom.”
--- Salomon Ibn Gabirol (A Hebrew Poet and philosopher, who lived in the first half of the 11th century)
They weren’t kneeling at the side of the new born Christ because they didn’t know the value of Godly wisdom – they had all come to rely on earthly gifts and powers, and over the years had come to despise any word or thought that condemned their worldliness and exalted divinity!
Now, 2,000 years later, the humble still come to Him, the wounded still come to Him, foreigners still come to Him, the rejected still come to Him, sinners still come to Him, the truly wise still come to Him.
And the arrogant still reject Him, the wealthy still avoid Him, the powerful still condemn Him, and the self confident still know better than Him.
Have you been distant and remote from the Crib of God? One more character from scripture – Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, and as such, was expected by his peers to avoid any contact with the Christ, other than to ridicule and condemn. But one dark night, he found himself walking to the house where Jesus was staying, and he was welcomed, and he was given the message of being born again. And by the time of that dark day at Calvary, he would be seen, not in hiding, but in the daylight, helping Joseph of Arimathea to apply the ointments and linens to the still body of Christ, and helped to carry Him to the tomb. Wisdom!
Jesus honors us in what ever means brings us to Him – whether it is in the dark of night or in the brilliance of the day. He just wants us to come, seeking His wisdom, seeking His authority, seeking His glory.
Won’t you come to Him today?
Today is the Sunday that we know as Epiphany – the day when, traditionally, the Magi arrived from the east to worship the Christ Child.
Read Matthew 2:1-2
These men are historically known as the 3 Wise Men, even though there is no evidence that there were only 3 – only that there were 3 gifts, and the word Magi is a reference to the priestly class of men, probably from the Medo-Persia region, which typically would be the learned class of any nation.
These were foreigners – they were not Jews. They may very well have know a lot about Israel as a nation and a people, but I doubt that they had ever taken a trip to visit these folks to the west. But they found their way there without maps, directions, GPS, or any other aid, except for a star that had guided them every step of the way. Human aids can be misleading, and take us in the wrong direction at times, but God’s star? Never.
Did you hear about the couple who, following their GPS, wound up in a remote place, trapped for 3 days over Christmas? We think of the new trend of electronics as nearly as infallible as anything possibly could. But a star? Navy story – there are all kinds of navigational aids on ships today, but navigators still shoot the stars every once in a while, just to verify that the electronics are correct! You just can’t trust human devices or human directions!
A motorist found himself lost on a back road in Alabama while trying to find his way to Montgomery. He saw an old farmer sitting on a fence, and stopped to ask for directions. The farmer looked down the road, scratched his head and then gave the motorist very explicit instructions. Half an hour later, after following the farmer's directions to a tee, the motorist found himself back at the starting point. The farmer was still sitting on the fence, in placid contemplation of the landscape.
“Hey, what's the idea?” the motorist demanded. “I did just what you told me, and look where I wound up!”
“Well, young feller,” the farmer explained, “I didn't aim to waste my time telling you how to get to Montgomery till I found out if you could follow simple directions.”
-- SourceBook of Wit and Wisdom, (Canton, Ohio: Communication Resources, Inc., 1996), 85a.
And maybe we can’t trust the human intellect, either!
Simple or not, directions are only as accurate as the person who is sharing them with us! These “wise” men found their way to Jerusalem, and following standard international protocol for that day, stopped in to pay their respects to the King of Israel and his court. And they asked where the “new” king was so they could honor and worship him! The Star had lead them across many miles, but while it lead the shepherds directly to the manger, the Magi needed to take a slight detour.
Read Matthew 2:3-8
The assistance that Herod had given them was, in itself, accurate, but there was royal subterfuge at work.
Here's some ancient wisdom that each generation discovers anew: “Don't fret about what the world wants from you. Worry about what makes you come more alive. Because what the world really needs is people who are more alive.”
-- Homeletics Online
The world was at work in these foreign visitors’ lives, but God was at work, too. Isn’t that so true? That whenever secular forces try to take control of situations, conditions, directions, decisions, that God is right there in the middle of it all. Consider some of the people of scripture who experienced this – people like:
- Esther, a Jewess who had been raised up to become Queen of the Persian Empire, presumably because of her great beauty and King Xerxes love for her, but then discovers that God had a whole different purpose, one of urgency and immanency, for her being in that position.
- Job – a righteous and very wealthy man who “feared God and shunned evil”! And then he lost it all, except for the 3 friends who kept tempting him with their worldly brand of “truth”. But God had a plan that far surpassed everything that the world – or Satan - could possibly throw at the man.
- Jonah didn’t like God’s plan, and tried to create his own, but quickly discovered that this is an impossibility. Eventually, the divine plan triumphed, and although Jonah did what he was supposed to do, he still didn’t like it.
- Even Elijah – the greatest and most revered prophet in all of Israel’s history – had his moment in the cave when he was hoping to hear God’s word in the loud and powerful, but was disappointed until the “still small voice” came to give him hope once again.
- and how could we fail to mention Saul of Tarsus in this list – he was working a plan that was anything but God’s, until God in Jesus Christ was revealed in a very dramatic and glorious way.
And the list goes on. But the common thread here is that each of these folks, as well as many more throughout the ages, were first subjected to a human and worldly “wisdom” that, when illuminated by the light of God, completely fell apart, and God eventually triumphed. For some, that revelation comes fairly swiftly – for others, it comes only after years of struggle and hardship. And true wisdom and Godly power will be for those who seek the only one who can give them.
In November of 1948, in a speech given by General Omar Bradley, he said “The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
--Omar Bradley in a speech, November 10, 1948, quoted in Christianity Today, February 9, 1998, 78.
That could almost apply today!!
Sometimes the “nuclear giants and ethical infants” of the world are allowed to take control for a short period of time and are even permitted to raise their own form of havoc in the lives of God’s people, but eventually, the faithful will – must - be raised up – not necessarily through power and might, but through the message of wisdom that is offered within the “still small voice”.
Read Matthew 2:9-12
The Magi had been given their “marching orders” by Herod, and we have to believe that without any intervention to the contrary, they would have carried out that royal command. But they were about to actually “see” that still, small voice of God. And they honored Him, and they worshipped Him, and they knew exactly who He was! And we know that by the gifts they offered, and we offered them again in our Unison Prayer this morning:
- Gold was a gift for a king – it symbolizes wealth, beauty, power.
- Incense (or Frankincense) was used nearly exclusively by the temple priests. It was always used in it purest state, and because it burned with such fragrance, it actually was seen to symbolize God. It was given for Jesus the High Priest.
- Myrrh was not only a perfume, but also an embalming agent. It symbolized the death that would come all too soon to our King and Priest.
3 gifts – one for a King, one for a Priest, and one to anoint the dead. Is there any doubt that these worshipers truly knew this Baby? They had been granted a wisdom that eluded Herod. They came before the truth of God in reverence and not in envy. They worshipped and believed in the God of Israel who they may never have knelt before in their entire lives.
Isn’t it interesting that scripture only mentions two types of visitors to the bedside of Immanuel - foreign, pagan priests, and filthy, socially inept, and ritually unclean Jewish shepherds?
Why weren’t the leaders of Israel, the major landowners, the wealthy merchant class, the priesthood – why weren’t they represented at the crude crib?
Salomon Ibn Gabirol, a Hebrew poet and philosopher who lived in the first half of the 11th century, gives us this bit of wisdom:
It was asked of the sage, he tells us: “Who are the superior; the wise or the rich?” ”The wise”, was his reply.
“But why”, objected the questioner, “are the wise more frequently at the door of the rich, than the rich at the door of the wise?”
“Because”, the sage replied, “the wise know the value of riches, but the rich do not know the value of wisdom.”
--- Salomon Ibn Gabirol (A Hebrew Poet and philosopher, who lived in the first half of the 11th century)
They weren’t kneeling at the side of the new born Christ because they didn’t know the value of Godly wisdom – they had all come to rely on earthly gifts and powers, and over the years had come to despise any word or thought that condemned their worldliness and exalted divinity!
Now, 2,000 years later, the humble still come to Him, the wounded still come to Him, foreigners still come to Him, the rejected still come to Him, sinners still come to Him, the truly wise still come to Him.
And the arrogant still reject Him, the wealthy still avoid Him, the powerful still condemn Him, and the self confident still know better than Him.
Have you been distant and remote from the Crib of God? One more character from scripture – Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, and as such, was expected by his peers to avoid any contact with the Christ, other than to ridicule and condemn. But one dark night, he found himself walking to the house where Jesus was staying, and he was welcomed, and he was given the message of being born again. And by the time of that dark day at Calvary, he would be seen, not in hiding, but in the daylight, helping Joseph of Arimathea to apply the ointments and linens to the still body of Christ, and helped to carry Him to the tomb. Wisdom!
Jesus honors us in what ever means brings us to Him – whether it is in the dark of night or in the brilliance of the day. He just wants us to come, seeking His wisdom, seeking His authority, seeking His glory.
Won’t you come to Him today?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
