Via Church

Hope is the confident expectation of future blessings. Hope is having in your heart a confident expectation that the best things in your life are ahead. As a follower of Jesus Christ, it might mean that the best things of life ahead aren’t here – they may be in eternity. For those that trust Jesus the best things are most definitely ahead. Our future is as bright as the promises of God. Today our text speaks of the angelic announcement to Mary foretelling the birth of Christ. It was a message of hope to Mary. We all need fresh hope stirred in our heart about our lives, our situations, and our futures. Here are some truths from this scripture that translate hope into our experience.

Today the Christian church celebrates the beginning of the Advent season. The word Advent simply means “coming” or “arrival”. As followers of Christ, we celebrate the coming of Christ both past, present, and future. Over the next four weeks of Advent we’re going to talk about the events surrounding the first Christmas. Every humble detail that Luke writes, regarding the birth of Christ, points to God’s plan of redemption in the world. God has a history of asking His children to do things that don’t make a ton of sense. Mary, a teenager, receives one of God’s “crazy” requests and Luke (this physician & historian) records the very human and understandable response of Mary.

Last week we looked at Mary’s faith in the God of the impossible. Today we are going to look at the little town of Bethlehem. The town of Bethlehem is in itself an example of God’s redemption. In Luke 2 we read that Joseph and Mary go from Nazareth up to the town of Bethlehem, where Joseph is from, to register for a census. This trip was an 85 mile mountainous trip for Mary who was nine months pregnant and most likely riding on a donkey. Why was this happening? God wanted this child to be born in Bethlehem; a city that was so insignificant it wasn’t even listed in Joshua 15 when the land of Israel was divided among the tribes. Let’s look at the story of Ruth. It is one of the most intimate stories of human rescue and it took place in Bethlehem many hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. I want to share with you seven key thoughts from the story of Ruth that will be helpful to you as you think about the Christmas story.

The anchor theme of this third Sunday of advent is love. Jesus is our Shepherd of love. When we wander away from Him, he brings us back to the fold to protect us from danger. In our text - Luke 2:8-10 - we read of how an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds that were watching their flocks. What must have been going on in the minds of those shepherds? The fact that this news was first announced to shepherds is in itself a picture of God’s grace. This was for everyone regardless of his or her station on life.

We have been learning about the humble beginnings that first Christmas that brought about the most gracious gift of Jesus - bringing to you and me the fullness of Hope, peace, love and joy. Today we focus on the good tidings of joy that were sent by the angels. This joy would be the hope of redeeming grace for every person. Our preconceived ideas of what the angels might have looked like are probably off. They were terrifying. Angels do protect and may guard people, but our focus should be on what they’re doing for God to bring Him glory. Think about the Christmas story without angels...

There are so many things that can get under our skin, that can cause us to grumble or complain. It seems to be the human condition as you walk around and listen to people or even look to your own tendencies. Yet, we are told by Paul here in verse 14 to “do all things without grumbling or disputing.” We are to continue to work out our salvation, to live a godly life, and we are to do this without grumbling or complaining about the circumstances that God has placed in our lives. Paul even goes on to say later in this letter to “rejoice always, and again I say rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). We are to be content in everything.

Last October we began a verse-by-verse series going through book of James. We paused this series for advent and are now picking up where we left off. Today’s text hits us all right between the eyes. With sobering lavish metaphors James hits a topic that we can all relate to. Our tongues, our words, our speech, the things we say have more power than we can imagine. Not only are our relationships at stake, but so is our faith. Let’s just put it out there...WE ARE ALL GUILTY! Our words are difficult for us to control. As Christians, our speech should always be seasoned with love and grace, always be positive, encouraging, and glorifying to the one who brings us the wisdom to call people to love and repentance.

In our text, James once again gives some practical advice - turning back to the topic of wisdom. He is again using a metaphor of sowing - planting seeds. The list of the seeds that we sow into relationships is long. We must understand James’ strong implication here. We will inevitably reap what we sow in our relationships. James refers to those who make peace. This should cause us to ask some questions... How can I plant seeds of peace? How can I be a peacemaker? How can I have peaceful relationships? How can we have peace in our marriages, homes, workplace, schools, neighborhoods, and church family?

When we take God up on His grace offered to us through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we become citizens of another kingdom. As such, our attitudes, actions, relationships, and very lives should reflect the values of God’s kingdom rather than the world’s. When our goal is status in the world’s system and we are willing to do whatever it takes to get people’s approval – our lives and faith will be headed in opposite directions. This will dilute the unbiased love that Christ followers are to have for all people regardless of what they can or cannot do for us. James states that this puts us in a position opposed to God. He tells us that we have two choices: follow the ways of earth or follow the ways of Jesus’ Kingdom in heaven.

Americans have always been a forward-looking people. Sometimes it feels that we are obsessed with the future. As followers of Jesus, what should be our viewpoint toward the future? How should do we look forward to things ahead? It’s not wrong or sinful to plan. The Bible talks a lot about planning. It’s not even wrong or sinful to strive for the greatest possible achievement. The Bible doesn’t condemn making a profit. What tears us from Christ-centered priorities is not looking to God for our path, but again, looking to ourselves for the wisdom of where we should go. Today’s scripture reminds us that without Godly wisdom from His Word, the Spirit, and others, our plans are useless and hopeless.

Most of us do not consider ourselves to be rich. But by world standards owning a car or having more than one change of clothes means you're wealthy. If you own a home, you're in the top 5% of the world. By world standards, by the very fact that we live in America, we're wealthy. I'm not saying this to load on a bunch of guilt. I think we need to be aware of the fact that God has blessed us. Knowing that, today’s passage is not one that we can simply overlook or direct to someone else. This message is for us! It should cause us to ask some tough soul-searching questions: Are we working our jobs and gaining profits in a way that is glorifying to God? Are we working with integrity? How are we using the gifts, talents, resources and time that God has entrusted to us? Are we hoarding our resources solely to our individual glory? Are recognizing that everything in this world belongs to Him and Him alone?

This week, as we continue to think in terms of our global mission, we will be reflecting on the words of Jesus earlier on during his earthly ministry. In the Gospel of Matthew, our account for today centers around a confrontation that Jesus had with the religious leaders of his day. This was toward the end of his three years of public ministry here on the earth. During this particular day, Jesus had come to the temple and the religious leaders began asking him who gave him the authority to do what he was doing. Jesus doesn’t answer their questions but instead tells them about the wickedness and unbelief of their hearts by sharing three parables (stories with a point). As we think about our global responsibility to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples, we have to consider not only our commission as a church, but the commandment of God that centers our thinking concerning our mission.

Stanislaw J. Lec, a famous Polish poet, once said, “You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.” I wonder how many of us would agree with that statement. When we stop and consider it, it does seem that those who are patient have large doses of it to begin with? But can that really be true? The best tests of our faith in Christ always take place in the midst of life events. It’s when we are in grocery store lines, busy restaurants, driving in traffic, plumbing calls...all places where delays, setbacks, and hindrances happen, that’s where genuine faith is proven. So here we have James, writing to the churches he oversees, trying to help them develop a faith that really works.

James had a reputation of being a man of prayer. His nickname was "Camel Knees" because he had such big knots on his knees from spending hours and hours in prayer. He makes it clear that it’s only when we have a deep, intimate, loving, and open communication and relationship with Christ that we can truly be satisfied and content. Summarizing many of his arguments, James implores us to call upon our God with a deep yearning for all of our needs. What prayer can do is what God can do. Anything that God can do can be done through prayer. In John 14:12-14, Jesus said, "whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do". How do you do greater works than Jesus? Jesus made it clear that it is by prayer, so lets ask a few questions about prayer and allow James to answer.

This week we begin a verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter study through the book of Ephesians. We titled it “Made New to Live New.” What God has done in you is made you new, so you could live this to the world around you. Paul is writing this to a young church who needs to know who they are. And he is calling them to Christian maturity. His letter to the Ephesians carries such amazing truth about our new identity in Christ and our special calling to live new. As we get right into this book, beginning in chapter 1, verse 1, our text allows us to discover the context of this life-changing letter written over 2000 years ago.

During Paul’s third missionary journey (Acts 19:23-34), he stayed in Ephesus for three years preaching the Gospel. The spiritual forces that were at work in Ephesus had been deceiving the people of the city for generations. When the Gospel came, the truth of God shed light on this deception and it caused friction to exist between the society in Ephesus and the church in Ephesus. You can imagine the importance of this letter to the church in Ephesus. There were certain things that the church in that region of the world needed to understand with crystal clarity. They needed to know the strength and awesome power of God, who is not a mute idol, but rather the one true God, worthy of their worship. In the face of a society bend against them, they needed to be prepared to be God’s people, for the sake of their city...

You might wonder if you are in Christ. In verse 15 Paul gives us two indications that will be evidence that we are in Christ, faith in the Lord Jesus and a love for the saints. If you trust anything other than Christ for your life here and your life after death, it is not adequate and the life that is truly rooted in Jesus Christ always has, as its fruit, love for other Christians. If these things are true of you - your future is bright and you possess The Great Hope! Hope comes to us because we are victors through the work of Christ on the cross. We need to live like victors. This hope must go from our heads to our hearts.

We are just a couple of weeks into a verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter study through the New Testament book of Ephesians. To a young church needing a fuller knowledge of Christ, the author, Paul, sent a call to Christian maturity. His letter to the Ephesians carries priceless truths about our new identity in Christ and our special calling to live new. Today’s text will stretch us in two directions. It will hurt a bit. It will seem out of reach. It will not be comfortable. Our tendency is to suppress the truth about ourselves. During the first part of this teaching, some of you may fall into the trap of thinking better of yourself than you ought. Let’s make a commitment to trust the text more than our own thoughts.

Our text today gives us encouragement to work hard together in ministry. The Church is a living picture of redeemed humanity working together. The mystery of God - the redemption of mankind through Jesus - has been revealed to us and we are now called to make it known to others. Our text carries the same tensions of Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) that Paul clearly laid out in previous verses. Paul, a Jew, was called by God to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles. He describes it as a mystery. Ministry can be tough in many ways. Serving others can be all demanding at times. In the following verses Paul shares what sustained him when ministry was tough.

The book of Ephesians is stretching us. Last week we learned how sinful we are. That we are born spiritually dead and there is nothing we can do to fix ourselves or bring ourselves back into a relationship with God. But even though we deserve God’s wrath for our sins, we have become the most blessed beings in the universe because of God’s love for us through Jesus. Today’s text tells us that Jesus not only brings us back into relationship with God, but also restores our broken relationships with one another. Like before and after diet pictures, Paul talks about what we were before Christ and tells us the reality of our lives now that we have become a part of His people.