We will not be getting together at Mountain View Academy to worship God this Sunday. Instead, we’ll be getting together in our LTGs (small groups) to hang out, watch the Super Bowl, and eat food together. Invite friends and have a good time. If you’re not part of an LTG, use this as an opportunity to check one out. Check out the LTG page for details and more information about each of the LTGs that are currently running.
Our passage for this morning is a really familiar one: Luke 2:1-7, the birth of Jesus Christ. There are a few things about it that I think are easy to skip over because we’re so familiar with it.
The first is that this Jesus is Joseph and Mary’s first born child. For those of you who have kids, think about the time when you were having your first born. Recall the feelings. All that anticipation. All that excitement. And yet, at the same time, all that fear. All that anxiety. Joseph and Mary were likely an emotional mess.
The second is that the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that trip that they took late in Mary’s third trimester was an 85 mile trip through some steep inclines. And if you’ve ever ridden an animal, you know that that’s still a physical exhausting mode of transportation. Think of the time when you were late in your third trimester. How far were you able to walk? Jospeh and Mary were physically exhausted. They were running on fumes.
And lastly, Bethlehem was Joseph’s “own city”, verse 3. Though it’s unclear whether Joseph’s parents were still alive, it’s almost certain that Joseph still had close relatives in Bethlehem. And considering Middle Eastern hospitality, it would’ve been inconceivable for Joseph and his new family to stay the night in some random barn as it’s portrayed in many of our Christmas pageants and plays.
Joseph and Mary likely stayed in one of his relatives’ home as did many of his other relatives, hence, why there wasn’t enough room for their entire family to sleep. With everybody coming back to their hometown to be registered for the census, there was likely a family reunion in the house where Joseph and Mary stayed. There’s music, dancing, massive amounts of food, laughter, and hugging. Jesus is getting passed around the room from family member to family member. And at the end of the day, after the party’s subsided well into the night, Joseph and Mary lay him down in a manger, a step below the living area but under the same roof.
There is very little that’s silent about this night. Very little is calm. And there’s little sleeping in heavenly peace.
If anything it’s a chaotic night. They’re emotionally and physically exhausted before they even get to Bethlehem. And when they do get there, they’re greeted by Joseph’s extended family who are excited to see the new addition to their family.
But Jesus is there with them. And for that reason, one of the lines from Silent Night rings true. It was a “holy night”. Being holy isn’t about being composed and calm, about having it all together with your sins properly managed. Being holy is about being with Jesus, abiding in Him.
I know that many of you are in a place right now where you feel like life is too chaotic to be connected to Jesus. Well, our relationship with Jesus is a two-way street. Jesus reaches out to us as well. Jesus loves you.
But will you notice? Will you notice Jesus loving you in the midst of the chaos of your life?
To notice, consider group life, being part of an LTG. When we live life alone, in seclusion it’s all too easy not to notice Jesus. Our spiritual vision gets near-sighted as we just live through the routines of our lives. But as we share about our lives, chaos and all, others in our LTGs can speak into them revealing Jesus at work in it. And as we pray together through the chaos of our lives, we can tangibly feel Jesus ministering to us through His body, the Church.
Discussion Questions:
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
Hi BayLight. I’m back from India and looking forward to journeying through the above with you. Just to recap from the last time when I introduced the subject, I thought I would summarize and post my slide from then.
The King [Jesus] conquered the enemy and passed out gifts strategically and purposefully to the church. Jesus gave gifts to each and every person. What are these gifs/giftings? This is how Paul put it in Ephesians 4:11-12:
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
What do these gifts do?
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
Notice how the church is not an organization or institution. Building or no building, denomination or no denomination, if it lacks life and lack connection to the head, it is not the body of Christ. The church here is a living, growing entity in connection with its leader (literally “head”), Jesus. Listen to the relational and organic language here in v.16:
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Everything is connected. Everything is working well and properly. Life is active. This is a sign of maturity for the apostle Paul. And the key to this is the equipping of the church through the five-fold ministry giftings.
Here’s my summary of them that we will explore over the next month.
– apostles – those who connect us to the mission of Jesus in all its scope.
For those gifted in this way, it’s about multiplication and new foundations.
– prophets – those who connect us to the voice of the Spirit in all its authority.
For those gifted in this way, it’s about hearing and obeying
– evangelists – those who connect us to the heart of God for his lost children in all its urgency.
For those gifted in this way, it’s about people: lost people coming to Jesus.
– shepherds – those who connect us to the heart of God for all his children in all its strength.
For those gifted in this way, it’s about people period: loving them with the love of Jesus.
– teachers – those who connect us to the word of God in all its richness.
Hey all, a group of us are heading out to the Tenderloin this Saturday morning to offer prayer, a cup of coffee, and some warm clothes to people on the streets. Just another way of following Jesus and participating in God’s mission to bring a small token to bless others. We’re meeting at my place at 8am. If you’re interested, zap me an email. Shalom!
This Sunday we walked through a powerful section of the Scriptures in Isaiah 43 that spoke to the idea of living based out of our essence rather than for appearance.
Appearance - “external show”
Essence - “the most significant aspect or quality of a person”
Even just looking at those two dictionary definitions, doesn’t it make sense to live out of our essence, who we are as people, rather than just for an external show? Here’s another example: When you go to a party or social gathering and meet someone new, how does the conversation usually go?
“Hi, my name is Jason, what’s yours?”
“John.”
“Nice to meet you John. What do you do?”
You know what I’m talking about. All too often we equate what a person is with what a person does. Or, instead of that, we evaluate someone based on who they know. Isn’t that so much of what election or product endorsements are all about? So and so has spoken his blessing on this person or this product, and therefore it must be good. Or, to use another example, isn’t it nice to see how many friends you have on facebook or myspace?
Friends, while our job function and our relationships are extremely important, and deserve our best efforts, they do not form the essence of who we are. God tells us otherwise.
Isaiah 43:4, the center part of the passage we walked through on Sunday says this:
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.
Regardless of our position or accomplishments or any other characteristic we would attach externally to us, that does not constitute who we are intrinsically. In our pursuit to live as kingdom people, we must always remember who’s in charge – the King, and His name is Jesus. He’s who we follow, He’s who we derive our fundamental worth from, because He is the King.
Everything else flows out of our relationship with the King, and that enables us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, when we seek Jesus.
Isaiah 43:7 depicts a beautiful illustration of the King seeking us out, drawing us to Himself, and then reminding us of this fact: We were created for His glory. And the beauty of it is that followers of Christ are supernaturally reenabled to fulfill this purpose through the promised Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14 says:
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Regardless of where you’ve been or how you value yourself now, you are of tremendous worth to God. No matter how far away you think you are from Him, if you’ve turned your back on Him, or walked away from what He wanted you to do, He is not far away. God, the King, loves you because He created you, and you are precious in His sight by no consequence of your own doing, but because of your inherent worth as a child of God.
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