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Tag: Jesus

  • Voices of Angels for Shepherds near Bethlehem

    Voices of Angels for Shepherds near Bethlehem

    He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. – Isaiah 40:11

    In case you missed part 1 of our story, you can read about the shepherds of Bethlehem here.

    The Shepherds and the Angels

    Luke 2:

    8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

    13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

    14 “Glory to God in the highest,
        and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

    15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

    16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

    20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

    An angel of the Lord approaches from the night sky with a message of good news. How will you respond?

    Fear first? Certainly! But this messenger of the Lord says, “Fear not.”

    Shepherds have never seen the king, even those those who serve the king. Heavenly beings now appear to shepherds on a hillside near Bethlehem. Why have angels come to lowly shepherds to proclaim the birth of the Messiah?

    Then the Angels tell these shepherds to see the Lord Incarnate with their own eyes!

    By their first witness, these most humble among men announce the arrival of the Most Humble Lord of Lords and King of Kings, born of a humble virgin and laid in a manger used to feed animals in this same lowly place.

    It would have been the pinnacle event of their lives to have witnessed angels, singing to the glory of God. Yet even more, the lowest proclaim first the birth of the Highest One to men not privileged to behold our newborn Savior, Jesus the Messiah, born a son of man to a virgin in lowly Bethlehem of Judea.

    “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
    for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’” – Matthew 2:6

    A lowly shepherd tells us, “I have seen the Lord.” The Messiah is born to us in a manger. How unlikely, that God should send a Son to be born and sacrificed for our sins. Yet Shepherds and Magi have witnessed the glory of angels proclaiming this moment…

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    John 1:14

    For God So Loved the World

    [ctt title=”“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” tweet=”John 3:16-17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ” coverup=”8N4eb”]

    18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

    Where is your witness this Christmas? Is your love for the Lord this same worship of the angels of heaven and redeemed lowly shepherds of this earth?

    Glory to God in the Highest and one earth peace, good will towards men, though Christ Jesus, our Lord.

    Amen.

  • and new things I now declare – 1

    What’s new?

    Certainly not Christmas, for we now trivialize a pivotal time in human history with never-ending ‘holiday’ things. “Where are our new toys,” ‘holiday season’ commercials lead us to ask?

    Most years I share a series celebrating the Advent of the joyous season of Christmas. This year’s four-part Advent series will focus on the prophecy of Isaiah, a book written about 700 years before Christ.

    Oh, by the way, you do know that B.C. is our delineation of time meaning, “Before Christ?” Go ahead and time stamp this series properly: In the year of our Lord, 2016. 

    Travel through time with us between first century Palestine, under the rule of a powerful Roman Empire and the same area of the middle east threatened years prior by a powerful Assyrian Empire and an emerging Babylonian empire. (Nothing new under the sun.)

    Historical resource: Assyria, 1365-609 BC

    About the Author

    Isaiah the Prophet

    Isaiah was a man who was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Prophet of the Lord, Isaiah, was alive during a time when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. He was a mouthpiece of God and spoke during the reign of several kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (around 765-695 B.C.). He continually wore a coarse linen or hairy overcoat of a dark color, which was typically worn by mourners.

    Source: Bible History Online

    Think back from Roman occupied Judea 700 years before Christ. For you and I, it would be like recalling the A.D. 1300’s, before European ‘civilization’ discovered and colonized this ‘new world.’ Isaiah lived long before Christ Jesus. In most generations between Isaiah and John, the voice of God’s Prophets kept a still and dark silence.

    Some scholars suggest that the later chapters of Isaiah 40-66, the point of our focus here, may have been written by disciples of Isaiah even into the sixth or fifth century B.C. Even so, would you like to accurately predict a major event in the Year of our Lord, 2500? We marvel at Isaiah’s descriptions of, among other things, the Messiah of Israel to come.

    Source: The Center for Bible Studies

    A Voice in the Wilderness

    Time: First Century A.D

    Place: desolate shores of the Jordan river valley.

    People: the Essenes, a group of conservative Jews living beyond the liberal power brokers of a less-than-pure King Herod, power-broker between Rome’s legions and various rulers of the Temple of every religious persuasion and varying belief.

    Scene: Representatives of Herod’s Temple come to confront John, asking about his authority to preach to crowds of disciples coming to be baptized.

    John 1:

    19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,

    “Who are you?”

    20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed,

    “I am not the Christ.”

    21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

    He said, “I am not.”

    “Are you the Prophet?”

    And he answered, “No.”

    Powerful religious leaders travel from Jerusalem to interrogate a new rabbi gaining disciples, an odd sort of man living on the wild plants and animals of the desolate places away from the cities of man. Even away from the capital of all religion this becomes a sort of discussion to determine where this John, popular among the people, stands politically with the constantly bickering powerbrokers of the Temple.

    Perhaps this chart from the Jewish Virtual Library will help clarify the scene. (It may be helpful for you to understand that King Herod was a Hasmonean ally of Rome.)

    Disputes Among the Three Parties

    Sadducees
    Pharisees
    Essenes
    Social Class Priests, aristocrats Common people [Unknown]
    Authority Priests “Disciples of the Wise” “Teacher of Righteousness”
    Practices Emphasis on priestly obligations Application of priestly laws to non-priests “Inspired Exegesis”
    Calendar Luni-solar Luni-solar Solar
    Attitude Toward:
        Hellenism
    		 For Selective Against
        Hasmoneans
    		 Opposed usurpation of priesthood by non-Zadokites Opposed usurpation of monarchy Personally opposed to Jonathan
        Free will
    		 Yes Mostly No
        Afterlife
    		 None Resurrection Spiritual Survival
        Bible
    		 Literalist Sophisticated scholarly interpretations “Inspired Exegesis”
        Oral Torah
    		 No such thing Equal to Written Torah “Inspired Exegesis”
    Continuing in the interrogation of John the Baptist as recorded in John 1:

    22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

    John 1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

    jordan-river-today24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

    26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

    28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

    The old comfortable times have ended

    What is a Prophet like John the Baptist saying by preaching baptism and repentance from a desolate place in the wilderness?

    Actually, John preached a repentance needed now, needed in the first century and needed in the days of the Prophet Isaiah. Listen to the prediction of Isaiah 700 years before John.

     Isaiah 24:

    Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate,
    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants…

    5 The earth lies defiled
    under its inhabitants;
    for they have transgressed the laws,
    violated the statutes,
    broken the everlasting covenant.
    6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
    and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
    therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
    and few men are left.

    and new things I now declare -Advent 1 – 2016 – To be continued..

  • Some Shall Stumble Before the Finish

    The Race of our Days

    1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

    So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

    2016 Olympic Gold Medal
    2016 Olympic Gold Medal

    ‘A gold medal for the winner’ we think as we watch the Olympics. One winner, two receive more also receive a medal from only a few qualify for the final race.

    Many more have come to the great race with hopes of victory, yet most will return home in obscurity with only a brief memory of coming up short of the prize, the gold medal of victory.

    From Rome Apostle Paul wrote back to believers in Corinth, a city just 131 miles [211 km] from Olympia. The Greeks, or Hellenists as they were called for centuries after defeat and domination under Rome, understood the imagery of the race – the race of life, even the race of eternity with distance we cannot see and a finish line known only to God.

    olympia457A thousand years before Paul the powerful King Solomon of the empire of the the United Kingdom of Israel had written:

    Ecclesiastes 9:

    11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time.

    “..time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. – Ecc. 9:11b-12

    Perhaps you believe your life will be a marathon, even a marathon of drudgery or pain or defeat. Maybe you think your finish line is far distant. Perhaps. Yet think once more of what you know.

    Do you know one who raced in life’s briefest of sprints? Were you startled at their sudden finish when they were no more?

    The Race Toward Heaven

    If you believe in the Lord God Almighty; if you believe that you were created for a purpose; then you seek the Kingdom of Heaven – the finish of life which ends in eternal reward.

    Jesus was asked about about Heaven, about the course of our race of  this life. What glimpse of the finish has our Lord given us? What course has God laid before us until we breathe our last with some hope of gold?

    If you could ask the Messiah of God, Christ Jesus a question about who God is going to save for eternal life wouldn’t it probably be something like this?

    “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

    I’m not sure about you, but that’s what I think. I believe I am pretty special. (Maybe you do too.) Of course not everyone will be saved – most don’t want to be anywhere near God; but I do. You probably do too, as one of the few I believe Jesus will save.

    So the man asks about the finals thinking, ‘How do we get to heaven?’ Jesus gives us a glance at the eternal finish.

    Parable of the Narrow Door

    Luke 13:

    And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

    I would wonder: Lord, do you mean it’s a door at the end of life – a finish where I cannot see what is on the other side?

    25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

    Shocking! I ‘go to church’ and work for charities. We give money to causes. Good people like us hope Jesus will save us… And Jesus answers, ‘I do not know you?’

    26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

    27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from.

    Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’,

    I thought all the good I was doing would get me the Gold medal… Hell! Not Heaven, Hell – I have had enough of that in this life and Jesus calls me a worker of evil. How does a sinner like me escape Hell and be welcomed in Heaven?

    I have run the race…

    Did I mention that Paul, the former Saul of Tarsus was a great sinner?

    All of the Apostles including Paul preached repentance, true repentance and turning from what we were toward the sinless soul God wants us to be.

    The grace of God’s mercy overflows in forgiveness found only in Christ Jesus.

    You must be born again, sinless, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Have you had a false start in this life? Do you truly desire another chance though our Lord Christ, Living and resurrected Son of God our Father? Here the encouragement of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews:

    Hebrews 12:

    … let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.- Heb 12:1b-2

    6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

    7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

    For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. – Heb 12:11

    So the great sinner who once persecuted and murdered follower of Jesus repented. Paul sought to live his new life in Christ Jesus in purity and sinlessness to his highest ability; yet humbly acknowledged the sinful nature of his own – the sinful nature of you as well… even the most sinful tendencies from which my own flesh must turn daily.

    Paul states near the end of his life in a second letter to his successor Timothy, before being executed for his witness for Jesus Christ:

    2 Timothy 4:

    5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

    “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Tim 4:7

    8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

    The Gold Medal of Faith

    Paul is telling Timothy about the gold medal, the crown given only to one who wins the race.

    Do you stumble in the race of eternity?

    Lay all of your earthly crowns at the feet of Jesus. He IS Lord; Who IS and was and will be the keeper of the door beyond the narrow gate?

    Christ Jesus came into this world to crown sinners with grace – eternal life, His rich reward of God’s eternal love.

    Beloved of Jesus, do not stumble; for He stands at the door with His crown of righteousness.