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.
Building off of last week’s sermon where we asked, “Who’s going to be the head of the church”, this week we looked into how we could rediscover Christ as the head of the church. And for direction there, we take our cues from our Protestant Roots.
Last week, I mentioned the Protestant Reformation, the time when the Protestant Church emerged. I also mentioned how the people of the Protestant Reformation believed that all people could access and understand Scripture and in the process have a direct relationship with God. We still believe this, but we often have a hard time putting it into practice. With our unique mediator-less situation at Baylight, we have the opportunity to honestly pursue a direct relationship with the Lord.
Our basic challenge is this: We must connect directly to Christ through the Scriptures. And to accomplish this, we’re asking you to join us in reading the Bible in two years.
In tandem with this challenge, we’re laying out five tools which may be helpful for your journey through the Bible.
1. A Bible reading plan. Starting Feb. 8, 2010, we’ll start a chronological reading of the Bible. That is, the ord.er you read the Bible will be dictated by the likely chronological sequence of events (ex. Job will be read before Gen 12 because it is believed that Job lived before Abram). You can find a google doc of the first 6 months of the reading plan here.
2. The internet. Starting Feb. 8, 2010, the daily reading will be posted on the Baylight Church website. There you can then leave your thoughts, observations, and questions in the comment box. You can also have the daily reading sent directly to your email inbox by leaving a comment here, contacting Kenneth, or physically signing up during a Sunday gathering.
3. Sermons. Sermons will follow the reading plan, capping the previous week’s reading. The hope is that they’ll serve as a celebration of the last week’s reading and as an encouragement for the next week’s reading as well.
4. Accelerated one year accountability groups. These groups will gather once a month and be for those people who want read at a faster clip and want an added accountability component as well.
5. Deep-dive study group. These groups will gather once a month and be for those people who want to stay on the two year plan but also want to take some time to look in-depth into a small portion of Scripture using exegetical tools (i.e. original languages, historical context, history of interpretation, sentence structure analysis, etc.).
I look forward to journeying with you in rediscovering Christ as the head.
P.S. One thing I didn’t mention this morning is that this is by no means a Baylight restricted thing. If you know someone who may be interested in joining us in this journey, let them know what we’re doing. All of the gatherings and resources are and will be open. Thanks T for the suggestion.
Earlier this month, Alinn@’s parents asked me this question when they found out about the Kims’ departure for Globe: Who’s going to be the head of the church?
When they asked me the question, the Lord reminded me of Ephesians 4:15. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
And though we would all agree that Christ is the head of the church, we have the hardest time putting it into practice. This isn’t a problem that’s unique to the present day. This has been true of God’s people for a few millenia.
When the nation of Israel took hold of the land of Canaan, God was king over them. But later, the people of Israel demanded a king and in so doing, rejected God as their king and having direct rule over their lives. 1 Samuel 8:6-7.
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Later, Joel wrote about a “Day of the Lord”, a day in the future when God’s Kingdom would be made manifest on Earth and the Lord would once again rule over His people. Joel 2:28.
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Pentecost, as recorded in the book of Acts was the fulfillment of this prophecy in Joel. The Lord’s Spirit was poured out on all people, not just the king or a priest. And the early church believed this, though they also had a hard time putting it into practice. It didn’t take long before the church established the office of the pope to clarify and unify doctrine, and unify and lead the church. He wasn’t a king, but the pope still served as a mediator between God and His people.
The Protestant Reformation revolted against the establishment of this mediator and believed that all people could access and understand Scripture and in the process access God. But again, the Protestant church had a hard time putting this into practice. We erected our own seminaries to produce doctrinally correct graduates to teach and lead the rest of the church how to properly handle a relationship with the Lord. We call our mediators pastors.
And now, with the Kims’ departure, we’re mediator-less… but we’re not headless. Our head, Jesus Christ remains the same. And so, we now have an incredible opportunity to recapture the Lord’s design for us, His people. We have an incredible opportunity to see that we do not need a mediator to stand between us and the Lord. The Spirit’s been poured out to all people. We can have a direct relationship with Him. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to open ourselves up to the possibility that we can connect directly to Christ and thus, have Him as our head.
This is just a reminder that we will not be gathering together this Sunday the 3rd so that we can have the flexibility to create relational space in our lives.
For the time being, we will continue doing this on the first Sunday of every other month (i.e. January, March, May, etc.).
Happy New Year!
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