"Houston
We've Had a Problem" December 8th 2013 Isaiah 9:6-9
The Apollo spacecraft was made
up of two independent spacecraft joined by a tunnel: orbiter Odyssey, and
lander Aquarius. April 13, when the crew
was 200,000 miles from Earth and closing in on the moon- Mission Control
received a low pressure warning on one of the Odyssey’s hydrogen tanks. The routine was to warm the gas and stir it
within the tank to settle it. When
Swigert flipped the switch, an explosion happened and the oxygen levels
bottomed out on the space craft and the power went out. There is a famous line that was uttered by
Swigert, “HOUSTON, WE’VE HAD A PROBLEM…”
We often misquote this when something bad happens, we say “Houston, we
have a problem…” They were up the creek,
200K miles away from the earth and no power to even propel their craft into a
“return to earth” pattern. A highly
anticipated mission was in danger of leaving three astronauts stranded in
space. The mission was going well until
this little setback.
While this seems bad, between
the astronauts and the men and women working at Mission Control, the crew was
returned to earth unharmed. THERE WAS A
PLAN IN PLACE TO ENSURE THAT THE CREW WAS RETURNED SAFELY IN SPITE OF THE
PROBLEMS THAT THE MISSION ENCOUNTERED.
Isaiah 9:6,7 is GOD’S ANSWER TO
THE IN-FLIGHT PROBLEMS! Through human
eyes, when we look at this scripture we see that God has always had a
plan! 1Peter 1:20 “He was foreknown
before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for
the sake of you …” Ephesians 3:8-10
speaks of the manifold wisdom of God revealing the mystery of Christ and God’s
eternal purpose of salvation being carried out in Christ
Satan tried his best to upset
the plan but God prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that the “seed” of the woman would
bruise the head of Satan! The Seed of the
woman is Jesus! God told Abraham that
all nations would be blessed through his “Seed”- that seed is singular and it
refers to the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ!
BEFORE THE “SEED” COULD BE
BORN, A LOT HAD TO HAPPEN. THE PROBLEMS
WITH THE MISSION STARTED IMMEDIATELY!
Adam in the Garden, the father of the human race…sinned from the very
beginning and introduced death to the planet!
“HOUSTON, WE’VE HAD A PROBLEM…”
King Jehoiakim of the Solomonic
line caused the biggest issue. Jeremiah
dictated a prophecy to his scribe Baruch, Baruch read it in the temple and then
before the elders in the palace…the elders took the scroll to Jehoiakim
concerning the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar but the king cut the scroll with a
knife and threw it into the fire! Because
of his insubordination and his trust in man, God told him that a he would never
have a descendant on the throne of David!
“Houston, we’ve had a problem…”
We are in a quandary here! Matthew 1:11 says that Jeconiah is in the
line of Jesus. Jeconiah is the son of
Jehoiakim. God promised Jehoiakim that
he would never have a descendant on the throne of David. God promised David (in 2 Samuel 7:12,13) one
of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. Here is the real issue: Joseph is in the line
of Jeconiah which is a cursed lineage!
Houston, we’ve had a problem!
Or do we?? God’s plan for salvation would not be
interrupted by glitches caused by the human condition! Satan could not overthrow God’s plan by
intervening in human affairs and leading men into sin!
Isaiah says to us a child is born- unto Mary, was
Jesus born. Joseph, whose line was
cursed, could not be the biological father of Jesus but there was NO problem
with Mary being the biological mother!
God did a miracle and impregnated a virgin with His Son, Jesus! The power of the Holy Spirit overshadowed
Mary and God implanted the Seed, the Savior of the world, the Great I AM, the
bright and morning star into the womb of this teenaged girl from
Bethlehem! The child was born BUT the
Son had to be given!
God would not go back on his
word so God allowed Jesus (God in the flesh) to be BORN to Mary, who is from
the proper lineage- she is in David’s line through Nathan. BY Joseph, Jesus was the LEGAL heir to the
throne of David (through adoption) but BECAUSE of Mary, the He was exempt from
the curse of Jehoiakim!
The child was born to us…but
the Son was given to us! The Son, the
Word made flesh, the Alpha and the Omega is God condescending, God coming to
live among man, God the Father saying that there is no other alternative except
to send God the Son to do what no one else can do, to live the life that no one
else could live and to DIE THE DEATH THAT NO ONE ELSE COULD DIE.
BOTTOM
LINE: Regardless of the issues with the
humans in Christ's lineage, God had a way to send the Son into the world
without breaking His word! He also
displayed His grace in that those whom he chose to work through were sinners
and yet he still chose them and used them to do miraculous things!
"Picking
up the Pieces" December 15th 2013
Imagine if you would, a vase:
Very costly, very rare. This vase has
the handprints of the Master Potter of the universe, God Almighty, all over
it. It was turned on the Potter’s wheel,
formed and shaped in His hand; in His image and likeness. It was fired and heated and finally, from the
dust of the earth, it was created! The
vase was referred to as “Very good” when the Potter saw the work of His
hands. God was pleased with His perfect
work.
This vase was created with the entirety of
heaven watching. Some were not happy and
had a plan to destroy it. There was one
in particular, who took the form of a serpent and was determined to break the
vase.
After some time, that serpent
caused the vase to be shattered! It lay
strewn in millions of pieces. In the
mind of the serpent, there was no hope of the vase being put back
together. But in the mind of God, there
was not only hope, there was a plan.
In case you are wondering, the
vase is symbolic of mankind. We were
created in the image of God…but the image was marred by sin; the shattered vase
is sinful, fallen man. The fellowship
between God and man was disrupted.
Because of man’s collusion with the serpent, the vase was shattered.
How would God bring this back
together? A glimpse can be seen in
Genesis 3:21 “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and
clothed them.” The skins had to come
from somewhere. Blood had to be
shed. Hebrews 9:22 says that there is no
forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. God set a model…in order for sin to be atoned
for, blood had to be shed.
Throughout human history,
covenants with God were made, bulls and goats were slaughtered. BUT GOD ALWAYS KNEW THAT THE ONLY WAY TO
TRULY PUT EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER…HE HAD TO COME AND DO IT HIMSELF.
A pregnant Mary and a nervous
Joseph went back to Bethlehem to be counted.
Augustus thought that he was in control but it was God that orchestrated
this event. The prophet Micah prophesied
in Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David,
the “house of bread”.
The bible records that there
were shepherds in the field that were tending their flocks. Shepherds give the idea of safety. Shepherds lead their flocks to still waters
and cause them to lie down in green pastures.
When the angels appeared to them, they told of
the birth of Christ and they praised God saying: "Glory to God in the
highest and on earth, PEACE among men with whom He is pleased!" Christ’s birth is cause for rejoicing! Jesus would take the power of death away from
the devil (Hebrews 2:14) and he would take the victory away from the
grave.
The Greek word for peace is
eirene. It is not simply speaking of
relationship (although it does include that)- here, what is conveyed is a state
of peace; a state of wholeness; a state of all things coming together.
Here is the crux of the
message…JESUS CHRIST, THE PRINCE OF PEACE, IS THE ONE THAT PICKED UP THE PIECES
THAT SIN LEFT SCATTERED ALL OVER THE EARTH.
Jesus brought Jew and Gentile
back together: The unifying factor for
everything is Jesus who broke down the dividing wall and made the two into
one. The bible says in Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus brought or will bring
every prophecy and promise to fruition: 1 Corinthians 1:20 “For as many as are
the promises of God, in Him they are yes…”
Every promise that God ever made is fulfilled in Christ.
Jesus brought reconciliation:
This little baby, brought into a meager existence; into this poor family whose
earthly glory was long gone…the kings of Israel were forgotten in this new,
modern world where the Romans dominated.
Jesus would be the One that reclaimed the throne of David and He is the
one that will rule on it forever.
Further, Jesus bridged the
chasm between man and God that sin caused.
2 Cor 5:18 says that through Jesus, God has reconciled us to
Himself! He has brought near those that
were far off, He has caused us to become friends when we were once
enemies! The shepherd that God raised up
is NOW OUR PEACE!
BOTTOM
LINE: Jesus brought together what sin tore apart by bring peace to the earth
through His birth!
"Silent
Night" Matthew 2:11-12 December 22nd 2013
There is a period of time where
God is said to have gone silent. Turmoil
marked this period of history. There was
no prophetic word coming from heaven.
There was no pillar of cloud to guide the people. There was no rock to get water from. Everything dried up.
This period is known as the
inter-testamental period or the time in between the last book of the Old
Testament and the ushering in of the Messianic age. During this silent period, there was a great
struggle for power. The book of Daniel
is a key piece of scripture to help us understand this time. He says in the 7th chapter of his book that
there were four beasts- historically, these were representative of
kingdoms. The Lion was Babylon, the Bear
that defeated the Lion was Persia, the Leopard that defeated the Bear was
Greece (with its four heads representing the four generals of Alexander the
Great) and the fourth beast which was different from all of the rest,
represents the Roman empire.
Under Roman rule, Judea was one
of three provinces of Palestine (Galilee and Samaria other two). Herod the Great became governor of Galilee
and was eventually made ruler of Judea.
Herod was a cruel and brutal ruler and he was an egomaniac.
Word of the birth of Jesus had
spread all the way to Persia! But not by
mouth…the stars and planets were lining up to welcome the king! The wise men or Magi were Persian
astrologers. They studied the
stars. It is possible that they had been
waiting for this day to come! The magi’s
stop in Jerusalem naturally this ruffled the feathers of Herod. He was given the title, “king of the Jews”
and yet the Magi were asking for the one BORN king of the Jews! His ego caused some problems so he tried to
use the magi to pull an ambush on the baby Jesus. What Herod did not understand was that this
King could not be taken out! This king
was not appointed by men, He’s been king since before time began! It did not matter what Herod did, God’s
silence did not mean that God was not working!
The voice of God was about to
be heard again. The silence of God does
not mean that God is not doing anything.
Psalm 121:4 says that the God of Israel does not sleep nor slumber! This intertestamental period, this period of
silence was simply God not speaking corporately to His people. For 400 years, there was no word from
above. But God spoke to individuals in
the year leading up to the birth of Christ!
He sent Gabriel to speak to
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist- BUT Zacharias was silenced because
of his unbelief. He sent Gabriel to
speak to Mary and let her know what was about to happen- BUT she did not speak
to anyone but treasured the words of Gabrield in her heart. He spoke to Joseph in a dream that he should
stay with Mary and name the baby Jesus.
He spoke through the Holy Spirit to Anna the prophetess and Simeon the
prophet in the temple…but they remained silent until they laid eyes on Jesus.
Then
on a cold night in Bethlehem, before the shepherds showed up, before the Magi
showed up…The baby Jesus, Christ the Lord, took His first breath of earthly air
in His human body; His lungs filled with oxygen for the first time; and when He
cried out, as all newborns do, God’s silence was broken. God was again ready to speak to His people.
Hebrews 1:1,2 “God, after He
spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many
ways,in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the world.” The one that made the world was now coming
back into the world to undo the damage that sin had done! There was no more silence, now the Logos, the
Word made flesh was a reality.
BOTTOM
LINE: Christ's birth broke the silence
of the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
May God bless you this Christmas Season!
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