“Confessions of Christmas – Simeon” – Luke 2:21-35

I want you to go back in history with me for a few minutes.  I want you to think back through time to a very dark age; a time where political officials were corrupt, morals were almost non-existent, people seemed to have no regard for how their actions might impact other people and everybody was out to do what seemed right for them and had no care for others.  It was a time many years ago where selfishness and pride ruled men’s hearts and it seemed like God was almost silent as His Laws were trampled and He was deaf to the cries of His people.

 

How do you carry on?  How do you remain Godly in an ungodly world?  When violence and immorality are the norm, where do you, as a believer turn for consolation?  In fact, who or what could possibly console you at such a time? 

 

We are going to see the answer to that in the book of Luke this morning because while you may have thought I was talking about the dark days of just last week here in the United States, I was actually referring to the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Approximately 400 years go by after the last writings and prophesies of the Old Testament and before the time of Jesus when the New Testament was written. 

 

It was a dark and difficult time for someone to be a believer in the one, true God, especially for a Jew in Israel.  The once great and powerful nation had been conquered and had a new king who was not in the line of David and their national pride had to be at an all-time low.  But when things were at their worst and it seemed as if a Jew had no where to turn for consolation, there comes, as it says, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

 

Turn to Luke chapter 2 and we will continue with the 3^rd in our series of “Confessions of Christmas” and this week we hear the confession of a man named Simeon in Luke 2:21-35 (page 725). 

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.²² When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. ³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.” ³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

It has been a good week for me.  I battled a cold or something for a while but it wasn’t a big deal.  The last several weeks I have been encouraged by our worship time.  We have had some real good Bible studies on Wednesday and great times of worship Thursdays at the biker church.  Even the weather has seemed normal and right for December. 

But it’s easy to start to think about friends and loved ones we have lost; some right around Christmas and others this will be the first Christmas without them.  I watched the news about how the Republicans and the Democrats can’t see eye to eye and now we are all going to pay for it.  Thousands of innocent people in the Middle East are being killed every day.  Some guy in China slashed 22 kids with a knife and lawmakers in Chicago want to give you 6 months in jail for feeding the pigeons!  This place is crazy!  And it is enough to make you crazy!

But then I read this passage over again.  And while it doesn’t make this nasty old world any easier to understand, I, like Simeon, found consolation.  I, like Simeon, found peace.  And I, like Simeon, owe it all to Jesus!  And that is my confession as we continue our look at the confessions of Christmas and we see that Simeon here makes actually 4 confessions surrounding the baby Jesus.  If you have a bulletin you should have an insert with an outline that shows those 4 confessions.  Let’s look at the first confession of Simeon that there was a promise.

To understand this promise, you first need to understand a little about Simeon; and that is all you are going to know is a little because that is all we are told.  But what we do know is that he was “righteous and devout”.  Evidently, his behavior with respect to men and God was the object of God’s approval.  We assume that Simeon was an elderly man, although it doesn’t say it.  It would just seem strange for a young man to say, “I can die in peace now.”

The other thing about Simeon that was remarkable was that he had been given a very rare and special blessing.  In some manner, even now before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rested on him and he was constantly influenced by it.  That same Comforter had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  What a blessing that was to have a promise like that!

And there in verse 29 Simeon confesses that promise had been fulfilled.  We have talked before about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and we have talked about all the ways that Spirit, also known as the Comforter or Guide helps us.  We know that because of our relationship with God the Father, through His Son Jesus, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, to guide us and give us wisdom and to prompt us to do God’s will.  John 14:26 promises us that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and remind us of what Jesus said. And that would be good enough if that was all the promise we were ever made was to receive the Holy Spirit to guide us here on this earth.

But we are promised so much more.  For starters, we, like Simeon, are promised, as believers, that we will someday see the Messiah!  I Thessalonians 4:13-18 says, “¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

How are you not encouraged by those words?!  If that doesn’t do it then how about from the mouth of Jesus Himself in John chapter 14 where he tells us that He is going to prepare a place for us and that He is going to come back and take us to be with Him.  That’s a promise that we, like Simeon, can claim.  The Bible is full of God’s promises and while that one in John is tops, let me read just a couple of others.

2 Peter 1:4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

The second verse of the old Hymn “Standing on the Promises” goes like this:

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

I could have just preached on the promises of God this morning.  There are many more and like the song implies and that last verse I read from John says, those promises bring peace.  Don’t they?  I want you to say it.  “Because of God’s promises I have peace.”  Simeon knew it and he confesses it also in verse 29.

He tells God, “you now dismiss your servant in peace.”  According to my concordance, that original Greek word for peace is “eirene” i-ray-nay. Write this down. It means to have a harmonious relationship with God and others manifested in friendliness, rest and quietness.  Friendliness, rest and quietness.  Does that describe you?  It should.  2 quotes:

I have been very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous…and very unhappy. Brigitte Bardot

I remember one day sitting at the pool and suddenly the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Why was I so unhappy? I had success. I had security. But it wasn't enough. I was exploding inside. Ingrid Bergman

How much is peace worth to you?  How much would you pay to be truthfully described using the words, “friendliness, rest and quietness”?  We spend billions of dollars every year trying to find the right product that we can consume to bring us peace and yet what happens when our circumstances are not in our favor?

Loudly* You can’t do that!  That’s not right!  I’m calling the cops.  I’m writing my congressman.  I’m calling the Better Business Bureau.

Now, think about Simeon.  Seeing the baby Jesus didn’t change his immediate circumstances one bit.  Seeing baby Jesus didn’t give him any more money or power or freedom or respect or anything we think we have to have to have peace so what was it about Jesus that brought him that i-ray-nay, that peace?  It is the same thing that brings us peace here today as we fellowship with Jesus.  It is realizing that through a harmonious relationship with God through His Son that everything is going to be ok.  Whatever that means!  It’s going to be ok.

It is having faith that God is not going to put more on you than you can handle – if you rely on Him.  It is knowing that your sins are forgiven.  It is knowing that God loves you and He hears you and He wants the best for you.  It is knowing that this nasty old place is not our home but that we will spend eternity with Him.  And how do we know those things?  Because they are God’s promises!

God promised Simeon that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.  And when that happened, Simeon knew that everything was ultimately going to be ok.  He had peace because he knew that the little baby he held in his hands would change everything.  His circumstances might stay the same for now but the outcome was going to be radically different. 

2 Tim. 1:12 says, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

Paul was going through difficult circumstances and yet he had i-ray-nay, peace - friendliness, rest and quietness.  You can too all because of that little baby born so many years ago so far away from here.  You can have peace in this nasty old world where pride and greed are the norm and it is hard to see or hear God in all of the hustle and bustle.

Because God had proven Himself trustworthy to Simeon, he had peace and because God has proven Himself trustworthy to us, we can too.

So we see that Simeon confessed a promise and he confessed peace.  We also see in verse 31 he confesses a preparation.  And what has been prepared?  Verse 30 says it is “your salvation”.  “Your salvation has been prepared in the sight of all people.”

We talked just last week about how God saves.  Remember we sang, “Our God Saves” and then we talked about what that means to us and how we understand that God saves in all different kinds of ways.  He saves us from people, places and things that would hurt us.  He even saves us from ourselves by His grace and His mercy.  He saves us from our past.  He saves us for our future.  He saves us by His mighty hand and for the sake of His Kingdom.

But how Simeon confesses salvation is the ultimate salvation of all.  Simeon sees and confesses that our eternal salvation has been prepared with the birth of this little boy.  Up until then eternal salvation was still achieved by grace and through faith just like it is today but it required lots of animals being sacrificed.  Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death and it has always been that way.  Before Jesus it was the death of animals but Jesus came to be the sacrifice; the sacrifice that should be our lives was paid with the life of Jesus.

So, in a very real way, Jesus was born to die and because He died we can have eternal salvation by just believing in Him and following Him.  God had revealed to Simeon and he confessed that this baby was prepared by God to be salvation for all the world.  So, while I doubt that Mary fully comprehended everything that would happen, we can see why he would tell Mary that a sword would pierce her soul…as only a mother could be pierced.

And that is part of the prophecy.  Simeon confessed a promise, peace and a preparation of salvation.  He also prophesied.  In verses 34 and 35 Simeon confesses what has been confessed to him by the Holy Spirit.  In verse 34 he says Jesus will be a sign that will be spoken against.  In John 14 Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except through Him.

If you think Simeon’s prophecy didn’t come true then try telling people He is the way, the truth and the life and see what happens.  It will most certainly be spoken against.  Try telling people that there is only one way to Heaven and then stand back and listen to them speak against it.  Simeon knew it.  John the Baptist knew it.  Jesus Himself knew and so should you.  They don’t want to hear it because as it says in verse 35 their thoughts will be revealed and they don’t want their thoughts revealed.  They don’t want to have to ask for forgiveness because forgiveness comes with repentance and repentance means you turn away from your sin and people don’t want to do that.  So it is easier just to speak against it and deny the prophecy, forgo the preparation, give up the peace and deny the promise.

It’s easier to go to Hell than Heaven.  Matthew 7:13 says, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”  But you don’t have to be part of the “many”.  There was a baby born 2000 something years ago just so you wouldn’t have to be part of the “many”.

I asked some questions at the beginning about living in the dark time between the Old and New Testaments.  I asked, “How do you carry on?  How do you remain Godly in an ungodly world?  When violence and immorality are the norm, where do you, as a believer turn for consolation?  In fact, who or what could possibly console you at such a time?”

 

I confess that the answer was and still is Jesus.  How about you?

“Confessions of Christmas – Elizabeth” – Luke 1:39-45

Last week we started by talking about stupid criminals. This week, let me start by giving another example. Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa, Florida, committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery while on his way home from a late-night drinking session. A very inebriated Mr. Prendergast forced his way into the house through an open upstairs window, filling a suitcase with cash and valuables before setting the living room on fire to cover his tracks. He then escaped through the back door and made his way home, chuckling all the way. Only as he turned the corner into his own street, however, and discovered three fire engines outside his house, did he realize that in his drunkenness he had, in fact, burgled and ignited his own property. His comment: "I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions."

Now while there is some humor involved with this, it’s also sad. It’s sad because in his drunkenness, he lost all of his stuff but it’s also sad because it took losing all of his stuff to realize how valuable it all was and how he had been blessed. “I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions.” What he is really saying is, “I had no idea how blessed I am.”

Do you think God blesses crazy old drunks? I think it’s safe to say that God blesses all of us in spite of our sin and shortcomings. I can vouch for that. You probably can too. And what a perfect opportunity, right here at the busiest shopping time of the year to think about how blessed we are and how much more stuff do we really need to make us happy?

How many more cd’s and sweaters and electronic gadgets that start with a lower-case “i” do you really need before you are happy? There is nothing wrong with having stuff. That’s not the point of this message. I just hope to encourage you to think about and appreciate all the ways you have been blessed this Christmas and hopefully you will be a blessing to others out of your abundance as well.

We are going to look this morning at someone in Luke chapter 1 who was blessed. I love to go to family reunions. When I see my relatives, it makes me happy. Well, most of them make me happy. But while they seem to enjoy seeing me and always greet me warmly, I have never gotten a greeting quite like Mary gets from her relative Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45. My relatives and I are happy to see each other but we will see the difference here between happy and blessed.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth .⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

If you were here last week, you remember we looked at the previous passage where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and confesses to her that she is about to be the mother of the Messiah. In that same visit Gabriel confesses to her that her relative (we think she was a cousin) Elizabeth was also going to give birth and was in her 6^th month. Here we see that Mary has gone to visit Elizabeth but we are not told exactly why. Any of us might guess why. It could have been that Mary didn’t want to be around when word got out that this young woman who was not yet married had become pregnant.

Maybe she just wanted to be around another woman who was pregnant. Maybe she just wanted to tell somebody she saw an angel. Maybe it doesn’t matter why and so the Bible doesn’t say. And that’s ok. There are still a couple of things I want us to see in this passage.

As we continue talking about the confessions of Christmas, I want you to see in this passage Elizabeth’s confession of blessing and her confession of promise.

Have you ever been so excited for somebody else that you couldn’t help but holler? A friend of mine at the biker church got a new trike the other day. I saw it outside and knew it was his and I practically ran inside and then ran up to him and hugged him and realized I was almost hollering as I told him how pretty it was and how glad I was for him. I think I almost scared him but I couldn’t help it. I saw that he had been blessed.

See, blessed or bless-ed means more than just “happy”. “Happy” indicates how a person feels. “Blessed” is what he is. A person is blessed when God’s favor rests on him, when the Lord delights in him. And when Mary came through her door, Elizabeth knew that she was blessed and she said so in a loud voice! In verse 42, she says, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear.”

This is the same thing that Gabriel told Mary in verse 28. “You are highly favored and the Lord is with you!” I’m sure that made Mary happy to hear both of them say that but happiness is a feeling that can fade. Blessed is a fact. And I’m sure it was a fact that Mary needed to hear.

Now there are 3 things about Elizabeth’s confession of blessing to Mary that I want to elaborate on real quickly. As a blessed people we need to say it, hear it and realize it.

When we see other people have been blessed we need to say it. I love the fact that Elizabeth was so excited for Mary. There was no jealousy. There was no envy. She was truly excited for Mary. Even though she knew through the Holy Spirit that Mary was going to be the mother of the Messiah, Elizabeth was nothing but happy for her and not envious at all. You know why? I Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love does not envy”.Love doesn’t envy.

Elizabeth loved Mary so much she was glad for her and wanted the best for her. Here at Christmas time it is easy for somebody else to unwrap a present or get a great gift and for us to be envious. “Her sweater has two snowmen on it and mine only has one.” When somebody else has been blessed it is important that we not compare and just be glad for that person and to tell them that they have been blessed.

It was also important to Mary that she hear that from Elizabeth and from Gabriel. I’m sure that some people back then were already talking behind Mary’s back about how she was about to be an unwed mother. Rumors were surely flying around about this great scandal and who in her neighborhood was really going to believe the truth at this point? What an encouragement it was to Mary to have a friend who believed and understood and was excited for her!

Sometimes God blesses us in a way that can be hard to understand. It’s easy to see that God has blessed us when we get a new Corvette ZR1 in Velocity Yellow. But other times when God is blessing us with patience or when He blesses us with an affliction that makes us more like Jesus it is hard to believe that it is a blessing at all. Sometimes being reminded that we have been blessed is a blessing itself.

And that helps us with the next thing and that is realizing that we have been blessed. We need to say it, hear it and realize that we have been blessed. As a good parent, do you give your children everything that they want? I hope not. For the same reason you don’t give your 4 year old a new BB gun for Christmas, sometimes God doesn’t give us everything we want.

Oh, I’m sure your 4 year old is mature for his age and he has been begging and pleading and can’t understand why you don’t just buy it. Isaiah 55:8 says His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. And while God is able and ready to give you blessings pressed down and running over He doesn’t always give us what we think we want or need and we need to realize that is a blessing. When we truly realize that everything that comes into our lives is being allowed by God for our good and the good of His kingdom, then we realize how much God loves us and we realize that we are blessed.

Elizabeth makes another confession to Mary in verse 45. She confesses a promise. Verse 45 says, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” The promise is that what God said will be accomplished and what God said was that she would be the mother of the Messiah. But the blessing comes with belief.

I talk a lot about BOOCOD – the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience but there is also BOBCOD – the blessings of belief and the consequences of disbelief. Elizabeth knew this well. Her husband Zechariah was given similar news to what Mary received and did not believe Gabriel when he told him. We see this in verse 20 of the same chapter where Gabriel tells Zechariah, “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

Elizabeth understood the importance of belief. And while some women would think it was a blessing that their husband couldn’t talk for a while, she knew that when God says something you better believe Him. Malcolm Mugridge - "Our 20th century is one of the most credulous in all of history. It is not that people believe in nothing, which would be bad enough, but that they believe in anything, which is really terrible.” 


So, how do we know that the things that God says will, as Gabriel said, “…come true at their proper time”? Well, there are 3 things related to belief that we need to understand. First we need to know it, then we need to trust it and third, we need to live it.

If we are to begin with knowing what God says, then how do we do that? Well, we all know that we need to spend time in His word and in conversational prayer with Him but let’s use Elizabeth as our model. How did she know that God had told Mary she would be pregnant? Look at verse 41. “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” How does the Holy Spirit work like that?

Let me give you an illustration. A friend of mine, not me but a friend, cheated on a test one time in high school. And it wasn’t even my, I mean his fault. The guy behind him knew that my friend had not studied and was not smart enough to pass the test so he just whispered into my, his ear the right answer. That is sort of how the Holy Spirit works. You know, without the cheating.

The Greek word for HS is “paraclete”which means “one who stands beside” or“counselor”. Think of Him as an attorney highly invested in His client. So, if we are going to believe what God says then we have to know what God says and how we know it is through Bible study, prayer and, like Elizabeth, through the HS. And you receive the Holy Spirit only by having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. It’s a package deal. So, if you are not hearing from the HS then you better check your relationship. This doesn’t mean God will reveal everything all at once, of course, but John 14:26 says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

So, once we know what God says, the next step is to trust it. This is where the real blessing starts to really kick in. John 20:29 says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So, how do we really trust what God says? One word: history. In your own life, has God ever let you down?

Has He ever told you something that wasn’t true? Now, I could refer you to the Old Testament and to the prophesies that have all come true but I want you to see it for yourself.

And when I ask if God has ever let you down maybe you are not sure about the answer. Maybe there have been times in your history when you wondered if God had let you down. There was a time like that in my own life as a young adult. I was having a hard time believing that everything God said was true and right and so you know what I did? I looked to other people’s history. I made a concerted effort to look at the lives of the wisest people I knew – not necessarily the smartest but the wisest - to see what they thought. In their history, had God ever let them down? I think you know.

So, to wrap all of this up, if we are to be blessed then we need to believe. And if we are to believe then we need to know what God says through His Holy Spirit. We need to trust Him because history shows that He can be trusted. And since He can be trusted, we need to live like it.

This is my last point. And for all of these points I have tried to illustrate it or give a verse to agree with it but for this point I am going to let you practice what I have been preaching. I want us to bow our heads and close our eyes and just let the Holy Spirit whisper to you what this last point means to you personally. What does it mean for you to live out your beliefs? What has God told you lately that you are not fully embracing because you have not acted on it; you haven’t lived it out?

Maybe He has revealed some great secret to you about yourself and yet you have refused to change it. Maybe He has revealed to you that somebody else needs to hear a word of blessing from you and you have yet to do it. Or maybe God just wants to encourage you with a blessing this morning because He loves you so very much. Use this time to just allow yourself to humbly, yet boldly go into the throne room of the King and seek His face. What a blessing it is to be able to do just that!

"Confessions of Christmas - Gabriel" - Luke 1:26-38

Most folks enjoy reading or hearing about stupid criminals.  You know, the guy who robs a bank with a note written on the back of his own deposit slip; or the guy who robs a convenience store with a gun and sets the gun on the counter to grab the money and the clerk grabs the gun.  Those always appeal to us.  That's just funny.

 

But sometimes the bad guy pulls one over on the cops and it makes for a funny story as well.  Authorities in Florida said that 30 year old Patrick Townsend was busted last week with a large amount of meth and was taken to jail.  There he confessed to the crime.  He said he normally deals in a much larger amount than what he had on him that day so he just confessed.  The funny part is that after he confessed on tape to a detective, Townsend asked to go to the bathroom.  When he did he grabbed the tape recorder without the detective noticing and went to the bathroom and flushed the whole thing.

 

I understand he was still convicted and even sentenced for tampering with evidence but I bet the detective felt pretty dumb and doesn't let that happen again.  Sometimes we confess things that we wish we hadn't and sometimes we don't confess and wish we had.  But confession doesn't always mean you did something wrong.  The definition includes giving a word of affirmation, truth or significance.  You may confess that God is good or confess that Jesus is coming back soon.

 

I Tim. 6:13 says that Jesus made the good confession before Pilate.  And that confession that Jesus made was that His Kingdom was not of this world.  He was confessing to be God.  For December, we are going to be looking at some confessions of Christmas; confessions that Jesus is coming, that He is going to be a blessing, how to find Him and what it means for us today.

 

Today we are going to look at the confession of the angel Gabriel in Luke chapter 1.  Gabriel is mentioned in the Bible a few times.  He is mentioned in the Old Testament in Daniel as the man Gabriel who came to tell Daniel he was highly favored.  Then in the New Testament he is mentioned in the passage just before the one we are going to read today when he chastises Zechariah for not having enough faith in what he was telling him about the coming Christ.

 

In chapter 1 verses 26-38, Gabriel comes to Mary with some incredible news.  It is basically the same news he gives Zechariah but he tells Mary that not only is the Messiah coming, but she is going to be the mother.  Let's read in Luke 1:26-38.

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Note in verse 26 that Gabriel is "sent".  That word "sent" is the same root word we use for the word "apostle" or "one sent with a message".  And the message he is sent with is very similar in its beginning as the one he gave Daniel many years before.  "You are highly favored!"  Now, I don't care how favored I am, if Gabriel appears to me, I'm afraid the "fight or flight" reaction is going to kick in but Mary; young, sweet, innocent little Mary, who was probably not much more than a child is only "greatly troubled".  I'm sure that was very true.  I would be greatly troubled if an angel appeared to me and said anything.

But Gabriel continued on with his message and actually confessed to Mary 6 different things about the baby.

 

1.  The first thing he confessed was in verse 31 that she would name Him Jesus.  This is the same thing that Joseph was told in the dream recorded in Matthew: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

 

2. “He will be great” (v. 32.) This concerns His significance. No doubt, He is the most significant personality in human and divine history.  After all, He is God, come in the flesh!   And the work He was to perform, the Atonement, would be the most meaningful in the history of humanity.

 

3. “He . . . will be called the Son of the Highest” (v. 32). Recall that Psalm 2:7–8 tells us, “The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the end of the earth for your possession.” What David wrote about in the Psalms, Gabriel announced to Mary!

 

4. “The Lord God will give Him the the throne of His father David” (v. 32). This looks back to the prophetic word from Isaiah, “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” (9:7).

 

5. “He will reign over the house of Jacob” (v. 33). In short, Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah! They need not look for, nor expect, another!

 

6. “Of His kingdom there will be no end” (v. 33). Many kingdoms over the course of human history will come and go, but Christ’s kingdom will have no end. Going back to the book of Daniel in chapter 7:13, 14 it says, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

So, those are the 6 confessions of Gabriel to Mary in the book of Luke.  I hope that is helpful in understanding Who Jesus is.  We will now be dismissed and go have some lunch at Dos Chiles to start our celebration of Christmas.

But now wait just a second.  Before we start celebrating Christmas, maybe we should figure out what this passage means for us today.  If we are truly going to celebrate the real "reason for the season" maybe we should think about how the advent of Jesus should affect our lives some 2000-plus years later.  I don't exactly have to give a "spoiler alert" when I tell you that everything Gabriel said absolutely came true.  We all know that so how should this affect us today?

For me, it brings great joy!  It should bring all of us great joy to know that what was prophesied so many years before in the Old Testament came true with the birth of Jesus in the New Testament.  If all of those prophesies came true then that means all of the other prophesies that are still to come will come true as well.  And in the end (here's another spoiler alert) we win!  I'm tired of this nasty old place called earth and if I thought this was all there was to life then I would be pretty depressed but I know different and it brings me great joy.

It also brings me great peace to know that baby grew up to be a sinless man and die on a cruel cross to pay for my sins.  He was then taken off that cross, a dead man buried in a tomb for 3 days but then, because He is God, He rose again and I can have a relationship with Him even today.  And in that relationship, He proves Himself to be trustworthy even when I am not.  He proves Himself loving even when I am not.  And He proves Himself worthy even when I do not.  What a mess my life would be without Him but with Him I have peace.

And lastly, I have forgiveness.  Thank you Lord for your forgiveness!  I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I need to be purified and I have an idea you do too.  And because I have been purified by the work of Jesus on the cross and not because of anything I have done, Jesus promises me a place in Heaven with Him.

Joy, peace, forgiveness and a place in heaven; man that's exciting!  That's almost a little too exciting.  I feel my blood sugar going down.  Hang on just a second.  This is the best chocolate.  It's so creamy and good.  The texture is just perfect.  Just melts in my mouth.  I think I better have a little more, you know, for my blood sugar.  Oh, wow!  That's good!  I bet you wish you had some right about now.  Should I share?

How bad do you have to hate somebody not to share the most incredible thing you have ever experienced?!  If that chocolate is the most incredible thing you have ever had in your life, don't you want somebody else to have it too?  If that chocolate changed your life and brought you joy, peace and forgiveness then wouldn't you go tell your neighbor about that goodness?  Wouldn't you tell your family and co-workers about the wonderful, dark, sugary goodness inside that foil wrapper?

But the thing is that while that chocolate is incredible tasting, it will, like everything else in this world, not last.  And people in our community are hungry and thirsty for the joy and peace that lasts for eternity.  And we have it!  It is time for all of us to start confessing it.

“Victory After Victory” - Joshua 7

We have talked many times about the cycle that is seen so often in the Bible. This cycle starts with the people being obedient and then God blesses and then what happens? Satan attacks. You see it over and over all through the Bible and we have even seen it in our own lives and in the life of this church. We are obedient to what God tells us to do, then we see God bless us but then Satan always attacks. I’ll be real honest with you and tell you that part of me is thinking it’s starting to get old.

 

I mean, I just wish that for once we could be obedient and be blessed without Satan coming around wanting to rip out our jugular vein. Why does it have to be that way? I know that realizing that there is a cycle is helpful. It helps us to be aware and not be taken off guard but Satan is very powerful and sometimes even knowing that he is about to attack doesn’t make the battle any less intense. Do you know what I mean? It seems to me that since God is more powerful than the devil that God could just allow us to enjoy being blessed for a while. In fact, maybe it means that we are doing something wrong. Maybe we have displeased God somehow and so He allows Satan to attack. Oh, wait, I know. I bet it’s because God doesn’t love us very much that He allows those attacks.

 

How could He love us as He says He does and allow us to be ravaged by Satan’s schemes? That’s just not fair! He must just be a big old meanie-head up there getting His kicks watching us struggle. Do you believe that? Don’t tell me it’s never crossed your mind. If you are honest and you have been on this planet for more than a few months you would probably admit to thinking something along those lines. “God’s not fair!” Well, let me address this real quickly with 2 thoughts. #1, God never promises that life will be fair, but #2, we can’t see the whole picture so we have a skewed version of what is fair.

 

So, why would God allow us to be tempted and seduced and attacked by Satan? Is it to punish us? Is it to make us suffer? Is He too busy to help or too powerless? The apostle Paul knew the answer to this question. He knew from experience what it was like to be attacked, to be tempted, to have Satan go for his jugular and in Ephesians 1:17 he says, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” So that you may know Him better! He wasn’t praying that they would be comfortable. He didn’t pray that for himself. In Philippians 3:10 he said, “I want to know Christ…”

 

When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, "I do not want to be like a Paul...or any mere man. I want to be like Christ...I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints...Oh, to be more like Christ!"

 

So when we go through difficult times, we know that if we continue to be obedient, if we respond correctly that it will make us godlier…but it takes time. Life comes to us in steps. We often do not move to one level until we have finished a previous one. Sometimes it takes longer to move from one level to another than we imagine.

 

Five year old Cindy was so excited to go to Kindergarten. She came home saying,“Mommy, I did it, I did it. I went to school. I’m a big girl now”. Her mother said, “That’s wonderful Honey. I’m so glad you enjoyed yourself. You’ll probably even have a more wonderful time tomorrow.” Cindy looked at her Mom with a shocked look on her face and said, “What? You mean I have to go back again?”

 

Last week we started the series entitled “Real Characters” and we looked at how Moses was obedient when God called him and what he did right. Today we continue our look at “Real Characters” with Joshua and we will see what he did wrong. As you turn to Joshua chapter 7, let me ask you a question. What has been your greatest victory in life? Has it been overcoming some disease? Maybe you won a big award. You got a certain job you had always wanted. Some of you men might think of marrying that beautiful girl next to you as your biggest and best accomplishment. You ladies may think putting up with that dufus next to you for all these years has been your big victory. Whatever it is, you know the feeling of finally overcoming the obstacles and finally reaching the goal and how good that felt.

 

You felt strong and confident, like you could take on the world. And if you are like Joshua, what came next…was huge failure. Here we go with that vicious cycle we were talking about. God told Joshua to walk around the city of Jericho 7 times and on the 7^thtrip the walls around the city came down like dominoes and they conquered the city with little resistance. High fives all around. Give God glory, throw a party, have a BBQ, crank up the tunes and let’s dance. The people were obedient. God blessed and then…failure. Satan attacked with a temptation that Achan fell into and caused huge problems.

 

But before we get into who Achan was and what he did I want us to look at this from Joshua’s eyes. Let’s read Joshua 7, starting with verse 2 and going through verse 9 remembering that Joshua and the Israelites are hot off of a huge victory of Jericho.

²Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.³ When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” ⁴ So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, ⁵ who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.⁶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. ⁷ And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! ⁸ Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? ⁹ The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name? ”

 

There are 3 things I want us to see in this passage; 3 ways that we can learn from Joshua’s mistakes and keep ourselves from similar calamity.

 

1) They overestimated themselves.

2) They overlooked their enemy.

3) They underestimated sin.

 

Go back to verse 2 and tell me what is missing from that verse. Read. That sounds like a pretty good plan. They did that just before they took Jericho. What’s missing? Well, just before they took Jericho, Joshua did something in chapter 5, verse 14 I want to read. “Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him,“What message does my Lord have for his servant?” Joshua talked with God before Jericho. There is no record of him doing that before the attack on Ai. Mistake #1.

 

And with that mistake it is easy to let pride start to creep in and it’s easy to start to think , “You know, I did pretty well out there. I’m a pretty good commander. I am a good warrior. I’m a good husband or wife. I must be quite a pastor. Look at what I did.” And you easily start to overestimate who you are and what you can do.

 

President Obama recently offended some people with something he said. I know, that’s not news. Every time any president ever opens his mouth, somebody is going to be “offended” but recently he said to people who own their own business, “You didn’t build that.” A lot of people who had built their businesses from scratch took offense to that and rightfully so but it is one thing for the president to say it. It’s another thing for God to say it. God could have told Joshua, “Hey, you didn’t do that. I did that. I made the walls around Jericho fall down. All you did was stroll around the outside.”

 

Proverbs 16:18 is so simple. Little kids quote it. Newscasters quote it. Everybody knows the verse but how true it is. “Pride goes before destruction.” I bet after the battle of Ai, Joshua put that verse up on his mirror in the bathroom where he saw it every morning. Well, he would have if it had been written…and he had a mirror…or a bathroom.

 

A preacher, a Boy Scout and a computer expert were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the cabin and said the plane was going down and there were only 3 parachutes and 4 people. The pilot added, “I should have one because I have a wife and 3 kids.” So he took one and jumped. The computer whiz said “I should have one because I’m the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me.” So he took one and jumped. The minister turned to the Boy Scout and sadly smiled and said, “You are young and I have lived a rich and fulfilling life. You take the remaining parachute and I will go down with the plane.” The Boy Scout said, “Relax preacher. The smartest man in the world just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”

 

It’s easy to overestimate ourselves especially when God has blessed us and that is one reason He allows Satan to have some access to us; to remind us of who we really are and who He really is and to make us more like Him. Even Jesus Himself realized this as He prayed in the garden, “Not My will, but Yours.” And when we learn not to overestimate ourselves and allow God to get the glory that makes us more like Jesus.

 

Now I want to talk a little about Mr. Achan. Achan was a warrior who participated in the battle for Jericho. We don’t know much about him except what is written in a few verses of chapter 7. But in reading these, I believe we will learn about the dangers of overlooking our enemy. I first want to read a couple of background verses starting in chapter 6, verses 16-19:

Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury."

That’s pretty clear. There’s not much room for any excuse right there but Achan gave in to temptation and let’s read just verse 1 from chapter 7. “But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD's anger burned against Israel.”

 

Now, if you are paying attention, and several of you are, you may be wondering why I’m talking about Achan’s sin when I started this segment by saying we shouldn’t overlook our enemy. “Hey Todd, aren’t you supposed to be talking about Ai? That was the enemy of Israel that they overlooked, right?”

 

Do you remember back in grade school when the bully, brat, punk kid next to you would reach over and pull the hair of the girl in front of you and then move back over real quick? She would turn around and see you and slap you and no matter how much you tried you couldn’t convince her it was the other guy. That’s what is going on here. Israel’s enemy was not really Ai. It was Satan. When they went against Jericho and let God fight the fight, they hardly did anything and God gave them victory. But then Satan attacked and one of Satan’s favorite tricks is to attack and make you think it was somebody else. Just like he wanted Israel to think their enemy was Ai and to come up with a plan to defeat them, he wants you to think your enemy is something or somebody it is not and then you start to figure out a way you can defeat the wrong person.

 

Your enemy is Satan. Sweet family, our enemy is not our neighbors. It’s not even the atheists. It’s not the weird guy down the street. Our enemy is not the Democrats…well maybe…no, it’s really not. And I will tell you with emphasis that your enemy is certainly not sitting in these chairs! When that bully would pull that girl’s hair, she would turn around and slap you and that just made that bully’s day. He would laugh so hard because he hurt both of you and never got in trouble. Satan is the same way especially when you look at a member of this family as someone to do battle with. Satan wins that battle no matter what. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, remember?

 

Instead of trusting God to meet all of his needs, Achan gave in to Satan’s schemes. He overlooked his real enemy and when he gave in to temptation, he also underestimated the power of sin. We often talk about BOOCOD, the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience but we don’t always talk about how powerful the consequences are. It would be bad enough if the consequences of sin only affected us but they rarely do. And we know in our hearts that God is displeased when we sin but by the way we live our lives it is obvious that we think God is a doddering old grandpa who shakes his head and says with a sigh, “Well, kids will be kids. What are ya gonna do?”

 

We teach our kids that the definition of sin is anything that displeases God and that is a good definition but we tend to not think that God hates all sin. He hates it and therefore sin has consequences. God told Joshua that there was sin in the camp and they needed to rectify the situation ASAP. God was not going to overlook sin. He didn’t underestimate the gravity of the situation. It had already cost the lives of 36 warriors and the good name of the Israelites but the consequences didn’t end there. Read in verse 15 what God tells Joshua about the sin.

 

“He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!'"

 

Do you think God was really serious about that? Do you think He would really kill a person for stealing? Read verse 24-26.

“Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, "Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today." Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger.”

 

Man, I’m glad God has mellowed over the years aren’t you?  I’m so glad He has changed and doesn’t feel as strongly about sin as He used to.  I mean, surely He has changed.  We don’t hear about people dying from sin anymore, do we?  But if He has changed, then what do we do with all those passages saying he doesn’t change.  Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17 all say that God has never changed and never will so evidently God still hates sin.  So why was God so harsh with Achan? 

 

Was that just His Old Testament wrath?  Well, no.  Annanias and Sapphira also met the same fate.  So, how do we explain it?  I would say that nothing, least of all God, has changed.  Instant death for sin was never the standard, not in the Old or New Testaments.  Neither is death the standard for today but it does happen; just maybe not in as dramatic of a fashion as Achan. 

 

Even today you hear about somebody taking drugs for the first time and od’ing.  It’s not unheard of for a kid to get drunk for the first time on prom night and not ever make it home.  Some people have sex outside of marriage just once and contract AIDS.  The point is that sin has consequences.  Not just for the sinner.  Achan’s whole family, his wife, kids, animals, and all his stuff was lost forever because of what we might consider a small sin.  But that small sin put Jesus on the cross. 

 

That little thing you do that you think nobody knows about and nobody cares…that put Jesus on the cross.  That little bad habit, that peccadillo, that thing that the guys at work laugh about, Jesus died a cruel death so you could be forgiven of that and He did that for you because the wages of sin is death.  Not just the big sins, not just a whole bunch of sins, but one sin. 

 

And God hates that one sin so bad that He sent His only Son to die for you so that you wouldn’t have to.  Every temptation we have is an opportunity to grow.  Every attack of Satan is a chance for us to overcome and when we overcome, it makes us more like Jesus.  That’s our goal. 

 

Knowing that helps to make sense of a passage like James 1:2 that says to consider it all pure joy when trials come.  So, instead of complaining that Satan is always attacking, just welcome that attack.  God gives us the armor we need to withstand it, per Ephesians 6.  We know that God will never leave us nor forsake us, per Deut. 31 and we know that all things work for our good, per Romans 8 –if we don’t overestimate ourselves, overlook our enemy or underestimate sin.