Missions Paul

Advent – finding the Truth.

Acts 13: 28

“Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.”

At long last the people of Jerusalem and their rulers searched after Jesus. But it was not the search for personal transformation but rather to condemn. They lived in Jerusalem and were the spiritual rulers of the people, they knew the Scriptures and yet they didn’t truly know them. As a result the people followed their example. They searched to condemn but couldn’t find anything to pin on him, so they asked Pilate to sentence him.

Maybe they were the same people that were around at his birth. Very likely they were, but older now, yet nothing had changed. You see at the slightest rumour that a Saviour had been born you would have thought that the scribes, rulers and Pharisees would have been the first to be there, to check it out if nothing else. There are many who ought to be the first but because of familiarity and cynicism or anger and feelings of injustice, are last. They were not there at the birth but they were there at the death of Jesus.

John 6:24 “Once the crowd realised that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus”. And why? Well, Jesus wasn’t fooled. He told them it wasn’t a genuine search for him. It was just because they had been fed miracle food at the feeding of the 5,000. They were searching in order to fulfil their appetite for more. So we come back to the verse today. We realise we can search for all the wrong reasons.

In 2015 a scientist in Jerusalem claimed he had ‘virtually unequivocal evidence’ that could help explain the whereabouts of Christ’s remains. Yes, I know, the sentence doesn’t make sense and in fact it was virtual that was the problem for him! He had found a tomb with inscriptions on the sides. Apparently that is all that was needed. Anyway I think he is still searching.

From his birth the shepherds then later the magi searched. They wanted to find the Christ and they did. It is not easy in the English language to grasp the urgency that the shepherds had once the angels had left them. The Living Bible is probably the best at trying to convey the meaning of a 2-letter Greek word which means, “Come on! Let’s go!” It is not easy searching for Jesus. It must have been difficult and perhaps sacrificial to travel from their homes to the house where Jesus was born.

Let me encourage you to find something new in Jesus this advent. You do not know it all. Even the advent story, you may think you do, but there are still gems to unearth.

This Christmas:

Don’t let yourself become so judgmental that it leaves you disappointed and angry.

Don’t let familiarity stop you finding truth.

Don’t let your own wish-list be the focus of what you try to find.

Don’t let your intelligence make you a virtual fool.

Don’t let apathy or any difficulty slow you down from the urgency of finding Jesus.

Find the Truth and the Truth will never disappoint.

Advent – the unrecognisable God

Acts 13:27

“The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.”

I am away from home at the moment and where I am I haven’t seen many Christmas trees or tinsel. I am looking forward to all that when I return. This is how we celebrate his birth and we love it. I do think God could have done the birth of Jesus on a grander scale. There was always that danger that people would not recognise Him, that He be missed. He was. Isaiah says there was no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Did God do this on purpose I wonder?

I love a carol service. There are many going on during this week. The Churches this year have done amazingly well with reports of record crowds around the world with some creative and attractive ways of presenting the story. We work hard to try and get people to recognise Him. But God seemed to want not to be recognised. Jesus looked human, too human, ‘isn’t this Mary’s boy?!”

The big question is where will His church be this advent? God is not always in the earthquake, the wind and the fire, but the quiet whisper. God was to be found in the humanness of pain, of the spit and dirt of life. That is where He was and is. Where is the church? Can we become vulnerable to the core and humbled by brokenness. Can we be known as one who smells because we sit with those who smell?

Maybe many will not recognise Jesus again this advent. Maybe they will sing the carols without thinking about the words. But for some they will find a new life, a light will dawn in their life. They will realise that the baby born in Bethlehem is now the risen and exalted Son of God who came for them, to die and to rise again. They will recognise him perhaps because the Church has not been afraid to become dirty, stripped of its glitter, meek, innocent, vulnerable and surrendered.

Maybe at the first advent God had to be unrecognisable. He had to hide himself from the glory and the glitter. The apostle Paul thinks so. The unrecognisable God in Jesus was condemned and thus fulfilled the prophecy of salvation by way of His death. In His mercy He came to die and with justice He made sure His world could live.

“Justice now revokes the sentence,

Mercy calls you; break your chains”

(Lyrics found within the carol, Angels from the Realms of Glory)

Today our task is not to keep Jesus unrecognisable, it is not to paint a Christmas which is only full of tinsel, it is not a holiday it is a Holy Day.

The world needs to recognise that Jesus came unrecognisable for them.

There was no other way.

This is the mission.

Advent: the God-child

Acts 13: 26

“Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.”

It is to us! Wow! What an incredible revelation when you know that the Saviour was sent for you. Since my early childhood I remember preachers declaring that if I was the only person in the world Jesus would have come and died for me. A bit dramatic and a touch of fantasy but true nonetheless.

When I read this verse this morning then these words just leapt from the page. “It is to us!” I am overwhelmed by these 4 words. They speak volumes of the Christmas story…

700 years before the event Isaiah prophesies “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6)

700 years later and angel Gabriel confirms to the shepherds: “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

A few years later (!) and in the summer of 1741 a composer who only 4 years previously had suffered a stroke which made it impossible for him to play a musical instrument or even conduct, had come to the end of himself. Paralysed in his right arm and he being a right handed man, with blurred vision, badly in debt, the man was suffering depression.

Prior to the summer he had come across a libretto (the text written with the intention it be used in an opera). This libretto was entirely composed of Bible verses. The man at his lowest ebb that he had ever been decided he would make one last effort. He would write an oratorio (a large musical work for an orchestra and singers).

This musical piece was going to be the turning point of his life.

His music is today known all around the world, especially at Christmas.

Set almost central to part one of the work, is the Chorus:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

His assistant heard him say whilst writing, “I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God”.

I am of course speaking of George Frideric Handel.

This suffering and in debt, depressed man saw heaven open!

That’s what happens when we understand For to us a child is born. It is to Isaiah. It is to the Shepherds. It is to the world. It is to Handel. It is to us.

So I sit here overwhelmed.by these 4 words, ‘it is to us’; ‘it is to me’. It doesn’t matter how bad it gets, the God-child has come for me. He has stooped down into the mud and mire of my humanity, carnality, hopelessness and loneliness. If He can grow from a humble, vulnerable baby to be able to carry governments on His shoulders then I too can rise from any position I find myself in. I follow this God-child into my destiny.

To you a child is born. Let this truth change you today.

Advent – searching for God.

Acts 13:25

As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’

John the Baptist knew who he wasn’t. He wasn’t the Messiah. That is who they were searching for and John certainly possessed remarkable qualities but he wasn’t the One and he knew it more than anyone.

I am not the healer.

I am not the Saviour.

So who was?

The one that is coming after me, John would say.

John says ‘keep searching’. Jesus says the one who seeks finds. Paul quotes Isaiah who says God was found by those who didn’t seek Him, so that is encouraging! The writer of Hebrews says for those who earnestly seek Him they will be rewarded.

The Christmas story tells us that not everyone who searches for Jesus are to be honoured. For example, cruel Herod searched but thankfully he didn’t find. But it also shows that every character is involved in searching at some point within that story.

This reminds me of the strangest of carols that I love to sing but for most of my life I hadn’t a clue what it was about and as a result it rarely made the Church carol service. Written in 1666:

I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day in the morning.

And what was in those ships all three, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day? And what was in those ships all three, On Christmas Day in the morning?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; The Virgin Mary and Christ were there, On Christmas Day in the morning.

O they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; O they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas Day in the morning.

Big question: How can 3 ships come sailing into Bethlehem?

This was written in the age of exploration and discovering new lands. I think this carol symbolically reveals the joy of discovering the Christ-child has been born which is similar to ships coming into land having searched for it.

So here’s my point:

Have you stopped searching?

Have you found all that you are looking for? Is there nothing left to learn and discover?

You may have found the star of David or the Angel for the top of the Christmas tree, it took an effort but you found them. Can you make that same effort this year amidst all the demands upon you to go looking for Him who came for you?

Are you looking at a man (or a woman) and not discovering Christ? Even if they have dazzling gifts and seem so Christ-like that’s all they are, Christ-like.

Is it possible that this Advent you can begin a fresh search for Jesus?

Advent is exactly that: the opportunity to search.

Advent – the God of the Before

Acts 13:24

“Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel.”

Paul is carefully but briefly plotting out the preparation that God was doing for the coming of His Son. He shows how John the Baptist born just a few months before Jesus was given the purpose of fore-runner, setting the scene for the ministry of Jesus.

Things were happening before the coming of Jesus that was necessary for that advent. Today is a product of yesterday. God was working in and for your life even before you knew Him. Even when it looked like God was silent, He wasn’t.

It was perhaps a couple of years after the birth of Jesus. The Magi had been and gone. Joseph and Mary are left alone with the Christ-child. But in their room are expensive and substantial gifts. This was a high time for Joseph and Mary. They were overcome with such provision – what are we going to do with all this, this is too much?

Within hours they would realise that God had provided at just the right time for them. They would need the gifts from the Magi to get them through the next period of time, on the journey and staying in a foreign country, Egypt.

When it feels like God cannot change the events of your life, take a step back, turn back the clock, it may only be for a few hours, but turn it back and you will find that He has been preparing you and providing for you in all that you will need for this period of time.

God was there before God is.

Isaiah prophesied in 7:14 of a virgin giving birth to a child whose name would mean “God with us;”

Micah prophesied in 5:2, that from Bethlehem would come a ruler whose “goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”

In at least Isaiah and Micah’s life but many more, God was. He was preparing them, revealing His plan. I am here but I am coming.

The Jews longed for the day. Simeon was looking for the ‘consolation of Israel’ (Luke 2:25) and when he saw Jesus he knew the hope of the world was fulfilled.

In 1744 Charles Wesley wrote a Christmas hymn:

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free; from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Perhaps not everyone’s favourite carol yet it reminds us of the expectation that had been growing, simply because God was preparing.

Before your today, God was working. Look around you. The King has come because the King was here.

 

Hark! the herald angels sing

“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest heaven adored;

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time behold Him come,

Offspring of the favored one.

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see;

hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Hark! the herald angels sing,

“Glory to the newborn King”

Advent – the ancestry of Christ

Acts 13: 23

“From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as he promised.”

Jesus came from the line of David, he had earthly ancestry but it was God who brought him to the world. God had sent the Saviour but worked within the human lineage. The Saviour existed before the ancestors of old.

Jesus was fully aware that He existed before this life on earth. “The one who comes from above is above all” John 3: 31

He would say things like “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” Luke 10:18

He has seen it all. He has seen all that you hold dear. He saw it all come into being.

So often we reduce Jesus to the man, to his history on earth. We even reduce Jesus to the miracle worker, to the cross, to the tomb, even to the resurrection. He is far greater than all those descriptions.

He didn’t come to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He didn’t come to be the Saviour, the Forgiver. He is the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.

In the carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, we are reminded that Jesus, being God, took on human flesh. “Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; . . . Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity.”

He is the Ancient of Days, the Creator, with the Father and nothing was made that has been made without Him.

We cannot contain Him to a time and a place and a nation. He is beyond his genealogy! We cannot hold on to Him, He is beyond our grasp, we cannot understand all that there is to know about Him, He is beyond our capability to think. He is pre-existent, before Abraham was born, I am!

The Jews saw only the historical manifestation, the ancestry and not the eternal person.

Jesus did not begin 2000 years ago, that was just when the incarnation took place. He had no beginning. He was before beginning. Because of this we can say He has seen it all and He knows it all.

There have been no accidents in your life, neither your birth, nor your death, nor anything in between. He knows the beginning and the end for each one of us.

We can invite Jesus into our existence – but there is a far greater invitation: An invitation for us to live our lives in His pre-existence.

You might not know why some things have happened or why they haven’t. But He knows. We are called to be content in that.

God has and will always know what is going on in your life. He holds out His hand for us so that we can walk through life trusting in a pre-existent Jesus who knows.

Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.

 

 

 

 

 

Advent – the God of the AFTER

Acts 13:22

^“After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.”

Paul was heading to the message of Jesus but he is giving an overview of the history leading to this perfect ‘man’ that God brought to the scene. In this verse he introduces David, a man who was also disappointing in ways but whose heart was gracious and flexible. Saul was given to them as the king of the Israel because the people had proved themselves unfaithful by asking for a king so that they could be like the other nations, instead of trusting in God. However, after 40 years God removed Him because his heart was not right. The point is, God always has a plan. He always knows the next move and what will happen. After the best and worst of times, God is. He is the God of the AFTER.

Have you ever noticed this simple truth within the Advent story?

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” He is after your decisions.

 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” He is after your poverty and fear.

“After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.” He is after the distraction.

 “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt” He is after your enemy.

“John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.” He is after you.

1. Today you may have made some important decisions, but even now, God can meet you to change it all around.

2. Today you may have nothing and you may be very afraid. But God can bring gifts of provision for you.

3. Today you may be distracted but God can attract you again along the right path.

4. Today maybe nothing significant is happening, it is simply a waiting period. Your circumstance will change and then the next thing will unfold. God will do it.

5. Today you need to know this simple but important Advent truth: God is after everything because He is before the world was created. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end!

Advent – the God of salvation

Acts 13:21

“Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.”

Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob but received the fiercest of blessings.

“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil” (Genesis 49:27).

It was the smallest of the 12 tribes but at times the cruellest of stories involve this tribe. The worst has to be the horrific death and abuse of the unnamed Levites concubine and the refusal to hand over the perpetrators meant that they were nearly annihilated by the other tribes.

The tribe was the smallest but in its history great people emerge: Ehud the warrior who delivered Israel from Moab; Mordecai and Esther rose to deliver the Jews from death; the reluctant appointment by God of Saul, the first king of Israel; and of course it is not coincidence that Paul is referring to Saul as a man holding the same name and from the same tribe as him, for he too was an apostle ‘abnormally’ chosen.

So the truth is this:

1.Benjamin was the smallest, the youngest and the most insignificant of tribes.

That could be how you describe yourself.

However, a King has come to save you.

2. Benjamin is compared to a wolf, known for devouring and dividing, preying and spoiling.

That could be who you are, that could be a reputation of you or someone you love.

However, a King has come to save you.

3. Saul was chosen reluctantly by God. Though held within his Sovereignty, Israel should never have asked for a King, God was their leader.

That could be how you feel, unimportant to God, not having His full pleasure.

However, a King has come to save you.

4. In the family there can be horrendous skeletons where the past is best forgotten but it is difficult when so many know of it.

That could be within your history.

However, a King has come to save you.

5. Greatness can emerge, it is possible. Saul symbolised Israel’s sin against God but Saul/Paul symbolised God’s grace to man, a murderer was forgiven.

This grace is available to you and to all.

A King has come to save you.

That King was not Saul, son of Kish. That King is Jesus!

The man from Benjamin also said in a later letter: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim 1:15)

Christmas is not about anything else but this:

Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins.

After explaining that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit, the angel told Joseph, “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21)

Advent is about God bringing salvation to the least and the most undeserving.

To you and me.

Advent – the giving God!

Acts 13:20

“All this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. “

God gave them the judges in the post-Joshua generation. Joshua (the Lord saves) had died and the people soon fell back into rebellion. The judges were appointed and given by God to maintain order among the Israelites and to lead them into relationship with God. Within the judges era the Israelites developed a cycle of disobedience and God continually gave them a new judge.

The Advent is the coming of the new Joshua, of Jesus (the Lord saves). Throughout the story we see a God who gives in order to bring man back to Him. Jesus, the new Joshua, is given once and for all, there is no replacement, no one else will come.

The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and confirms that Mary has conceived from the Holy Spirit.

Mary would give birth to a son.

Joseph would give that son the name Jesus.

Mary was told by Gabriel that she would conceive and then give birth to a son.

Mary was told that her son would be given the throne of his father David and he will reign and his kingdom would never end.

The angel of the Lord told Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth would bear him a son and he was to call him John.

Elizabeth gave birth to a son. He would give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins

The magi opened their treasures and presented Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gift of Christmas is connected to bringing man back to God through Jesus who came to die. The same reason that God gave the judges after Joshua had died. We worship a giving God!

 

 

Advent – the overthrowing God!

Acts 13:19

“and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance.”

God overthrows the enemy so that His people can move into their inheritance. That is what He has done. This is what He does. Let us have a closer look at those seven nations, briefly examining the meaning of their names and as we do we will see the inheritance that is ours.

God defeats fear: The Hittites were the nation that brought fear.

To Mary, Joseph and to the shepherds the message from God is, “Fear not! Do not be afraid!”

God has defeated the fear in your life. He is still proclaiming this message over your situation.

 

God proclaims peace: The Girgashites were the nation that brought strife.

The good news is the announcement of peace on earth from the angels.

Peace with God has been given to you, unearned, it has come, it is yours!

 

God speaks: The Amorites were the nation that brought the command.

But at Christmas God is giving the commands. He speaks to the prophets ahead of time. He speaks to the angels and to man. He uses words and signs.

God is communicating now, to you.

 

God rules: The Canaanites were the nation that brought subjection bringing others under its rule.

The prophet Isaiah spoke, “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”

God is your ruler and king. Let Him bring order to your life.

 

God sees: The Perizzites were the nation with un-walled villages, they were unprotected from God.

But God protects the characters of Christmas. That is seen clearly in the protection of the Magi who were warned to return by a different way because of Herod.

God is watching over you.

 

God of truth: The Hivites were deceivers, just like the meaning of their name, they were serpents.

Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

God enlightens us to the truth.

 

God within pain: The Jebusites were the nation that trampled down others.

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. The story of Christmas is told in the violent circumstance of this time. Whether the violence of Christmas or the vulgarity of the cross the gospel survives.

No matter what pain you are walking through, the good news in your life will survive.

Now revisit each one, thanking and worshipping God for His overthrowing victory.

He has done this for you. You are free today.