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December 20, 2009
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph”
Matthew 1: 18-25
Sunday, December 20, 2009
As many of you know, my wife has a collection of Nativity sets that we admire during the Christmas season. They have come from many different places in many different countries. Some have been molded, some have been carved, some are of porcelain, some of wood, some of stone, some of fabric. Some have shepherds and sheep, some have wisemen and camels, some have angels, but in all of the nativities there are three central characters. They all have the baby Jesus, His mother Mary and her husband Joseph. These are the three most important characters of the stories of the birth of Jesus. Matthew begins his account of the birth of Jesus with these three people in the paragraph I just read for all of you.
It has been said that Luke in his nativity accounts gives the woman’s point of view with the song of Mary and a statement of Elizabeth, and Matthew gives the story from the point of view of Joseph. While it may be true that this is the story from the point of view of Joseph, I think that it is important to notice the order in which the characters are mentioned.
To that end, I want to read for you the first 21 words of this passage. “The birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,…” The order of mention is Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Jesus is mentioned first because this is his story. This is a Gospel, an account of the Good News about Jesus. This part of the story may be from Joseph’s point of view, but the story is about Jesus. As we approach Christmas I want to look at what Matthew says about Him. First he uses the name Jesus. Jesus was the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. Yehosua or Yehosea means God Saves. There is a much earlier fellow mentioned in the bible with this name: Joshua the son of Nun. He was the one who led the Jews across the Jordan into the promised land after Moses died. He is the one who led the Jews in conquering the Caananites and settling in the land.
Jesus will lead his people into a new promised land. He is not sent to conquer peoples or nations. He is sent to conquer sin. In verse 21 Joseph is told “You are to name Him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” As Joshua was sent to deliver the OT people of God from and through the raging Jordan River and into the promised land, so Jesus is to deliver us through and from our sins and into His eternal kingdom.
It is interesting that the Greek word translated “Sins” here means “to miss the mark”. We have all missed the goal or mark that God has set for us. We have all failed to do those things that God commanded, and we have done those things that God commanded us not to do. We have missed the mark. And Jesus came to save us from the severe results of us having not fulfilled God’s commands.
In those first few words of this passage Matthew informs us that this Jesus, the savior, was also the Messiah. Messiah was a Jewish term for the one whom God would send to lead and rescue his people. In fact the Greek word Messiah is actually a transliteration of the Hebrew word Messiah which means the Anointed One.
This Anointed one was described in many different ways in the Old Testament. He is described in the Psalms and other places as the mighty King, the descendant of David. In Isaiah he is described as the Suffering Servant. In Daniel he is described as a glorious being who looked like a Son of Man.
Jesus came to fulfill all these prophecies and to be all these things. But the OT prophecy that Matthew relates to Jesus in verse 23 is a little more obscure and a little more difficult. In verses 22 & 23 Matthew wrote: “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’ which means, ‘God is with us.’”
Now the difficulty in all this is that the original prophecy of Isaiah which Dave read for us as our first reading (Isaiah 7: 10-17) does not specify a virgin, it specifies a young woman, and it says that she was already with child. The original child called Emmanuel seems to have been a child who was to be born a few months after the prophecy was uttered and the prophecy was about the changes that would occur in Judea before that child was fully grown.
The reason that Matthew used the word Virgin was that he was not quoting from the Hebrew OT but from the Septuagint which was the Greek translation of the OT. In that translation the Greek word for Virgin was used to translate the Hebrew word “Almah” which means Young Woman.
But the fact that the original prophecy does not specify a virgin does not really matter. Matthew is clearly describing a virgin birth. In this passage he twice writes that Mary was with Child “From the Holy Spirit”.
The reason he quotes from the Isaiah passage was that it had been revealed to him that Jesus was more than the sum of the Messianic prophecies and expectations. He was Emmanuel, God with us. He was God sent from God by God.
Regardless of the original intent of the prophecy of Isaiah about a boy named Emmanuel, Jesus was Emmanuel in a much greater sense, and he was born of a virgin.
And that brings us to the second person in our story, the Virgin Mary. Regardless of what some “Christian Scholars” might tell you, it is and always has been an important truth of Christianity that Jesus was born of a virgin. He was the child of Mary and the son of God. He was Human and Divine.
Mary is to be respected and honored not because of what she was, but because she was chosen by God to be the mother of our Lord. We Protestants do not believe that she was sinless, but that she was elevated in status beyond the rest of us to be the mother of Jesus. She gave birth to him, she protected and nurtured Him and helped him to understand who he was.
We Protestants also think that Mary later gave birth to other children who were the children of Joseph. And we believe that two of them James and Jude wrote books that are in our New Testament. Mary was a great woman and mother, but she is honored above others because She was chosen by God to be the mother of the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, Emmanuel.
And that brings us to Joseph, the often neglected and sometimes ignored member of the inner circle of the nativity. It might seem from the way Joseph is introduced to us that he just kind of stumbled into this inner circle. He is introduced as the guy who was engaged to Mary who was to become the mother of Jesus. But in succeeding verses we learn much more about him.
We learn that he was righteous, that he was concerned about right and wrong and tried to do right. We learn that he was also merciful. He believed that Mary had committed an unrighteous and immoral act, but he determined to be merciful to her and break their betrothal privately.
We also learn in a round about way that he was chosen for his role every bit as much as Mary was. When he had decided to get out of the engagement to Mary and disconnect himself from her unborn child, God stopped him. God caused Joseph to have a dream as he had done to another Joseph long before. In this dream an angel appeared to Joseph and made it clear to him that it was God’s intention that he should be the surrogate father, or earthly father of God’s Son.
In the Jewish culture of the day, it was the Father’s duty to give a name to his child at the time of the dedication. When God told Joseph to name the child Jesus he was not only giving him the name, he was telling him that he was to act as the father of this child. Joseph did not fall into the inner circle of the nativity because he loved Mary. He loved Mary because God had chosen him to be the earthly father to God’s Son. And when it all got to be too much for Joseph and he was about to escape, God made it clear that God had chosen him to serve God in this special way.
The inner circle of the nativity consists of three very special people.
Joseph was the earthly father of the Son of God who raised him and taught him to be a man. The manliness of Jesus probably was taught and modeled by Joseph.
Mary was the Mother of Jesus. He is as much her son as he is God’s. She is to be recognized as the one who gave to us God’s greatest blessing.
Jesus is the one whom God sent through Mary to save us from our sins, or as Matthew wrote, he was to save us from when we missed the mark. We have all missed the mark or goal that God has set for us, we have all sinned. If Jesus is your savior you have trusted him to forgive your sins. Is He? Have you?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2009
“Zechariah and Elizabeth: Three Seasonal Thoughts”
Luke 1: 5-25
Sunday, December 13, 2009
This passage informs us of the first of several angelic visitations that occurred before the birth of Jesus. This one is technically before and about the birth of John the Baptist, but it does also mention the coming of the Lord.
There are some interesting details about the practice of the Priesthood in the time of Christ in this passage. Zechariah is introduced to us as a Priest who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. Then after introducing his wife Elizabeth and their problem of being childless, Luke tells us that “Once, when he was serving as priest before God, and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.”
Long before Zechariah, King David had divided the priests who were not of the high priestly family into 24 divisions or sections. These divisions served in the temple twice each year for one week each time. Then all the divisions served during Passover, and the day of atonement. It was during one of his regular assignments to the temple in Jerusalem that the lot fell to him to burn the incense in the Holy place in the temple. This was a rare privilege and no priest was allowed to do this more than once. He had prepared for the incense burning before. Several priests were involved in the process of taking coals from the large altar in the temple court and brining them into the Holy place and putting them on the incense altar. Other priests brought the incense into the Holy place. But when it was time to burn the incense the priests who were assisting left the room and Zechariah in this case would be all alone.
The burning of the incense was very important as it symbolized the prayers of the people and the prayers of the priests for the people going up to God as something that smelled sweet to Him.
Luke then tells us that while Zechariah was alone, an angel appeared to him next to the incense altar and nearly scared the living daylights out of him. The angel said “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.
Then the angel said some remarkable things about John, including that he would precede the Lord.
The angel said that Zechariah’s prayer had been heard. But most likely, because Zechariah and his wife were now old, he hadn’t prayed that prayer for some time. Now it was being answered and Zechariah had a hard time believing it.
While I was writing this sermon, one of our church members visited me in my office for a few moments. Among other subjects we discussed briefly was: Why did God send Jesus when he did? Why not earlier or later? I explained that some of the scriptures say that it was in the fullness of time. In other words, the time was just right.
But Jews had been praying for the coming of the Messiah for hundreds of years, especially during the captivity. Many of them died thinking that their prayers were unanswered. And after their death, for some, hundreds of years after their death, their prayers were answered.
Zechariah thought that the time for his prayer for a son to be answered was past. But he was wrong. Do you have any prayers that are to date unanswered? Don’t give up. Maybe their time is coming. Christmas is a reminder that God does answer prayers but he does it in his time frame, not ours.
Zechariah had a difficult time believing that his prayer would finally be answered and that his son would be the one to announce the coming of the Messiah. He said “How will I know that this is so. For I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.”
I really love this part of the passage. Think about the situation for a minute. Zechariah is in God’s temple. God’s Archangel appears before in some glory and tells him something and Zechariah wants to know if it is really going to happen.
I like to think that Gabriel was almost speechless. It is obvious that Gabriel was not used to having his word doubted. He said “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.” In other words, Gabriel says, “Look at who you are talking to! This message I have given you comes directly from the throne and voice of God! How dare you doubt it!”
It is easy for us to think poorly of Zechariah for doubting Gabriel at first. But if we are honest, we need to admit that we all have doubts. Sometimes, in the midst of all the Christmas decorations while we are reading the Christmas passages of the bible, we might hear an inner voice asking “Is this for real? Did God really become a human and die for our sins?”
To answer that I would remind you that when Mark, Luke and Matthew wrote their Gospels some were still alive who had met and talked to Jesus. When Paul wrote I Corinthians he said that after Jesus died and rose again he appeared to over 500 people, some of whom were still alive at that time and could testify that He arose. Jesus’ resurrection was the proof that all the rest of this really happened: that angelic appearances, the birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem, all of it. God lived on earth for 30 or so years and there were plenty of people who met him and knew who he was.
Sometimes our Christmas celebrations get a little out of hand, but the reality of what we celebrate is verified. The baby Jesus in Bethlehem was the Son of God!
After Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was informed of the angelic announcement of her pregnancy and after she became pregnant she said “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”
The disgrace she was referring to was her inability to have a baby. But what she said is true of all of us in the light of the birth of Jesus. When God sent first John then and especially Jesus, he took away our disgrace. We all have some disgraceful episodes in our lives. We all have sinned and sometimes been disrespected because of what we have done. Sometimes we were disgraced because of what others had done to us or our ancestors.
God sent Jesus to remove that disgrace from us. He came to forgive our sins. When you feel unworthy of being loved or unworthy of living this life or unworthy of the accolades you receive, You need to remember who you are. You are one for whom God sent his son to live and die on this earth. Christmas should remind us of how much God loves us and of how valuable He thinks we are. He has removed our disgrace through Jesus.
So as you prepare to celebrate the birth of the Son of God into this world, remember:
Just as it took years for God to answer the prayers of the Jews, so it might take God years to answer some of your prayers, but He will.
We are not asked to believe in the birth and resurrection of Jesus without any proof. There were eyewitnesses of these events and some of their accounts are written down in our Scriptures.
Jesus came into this world to remove our disgrace: All of it. And having done that, he came to prepare us for eternal life in his eternal kingdom.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2009
“What Kind of a Christmas Is This?”
Malachi 3: 1-5 & 4: 5-6
December 6, 2009
These passages constitute some of the final words of one of the last prophets of the Old Testament. Next week we will see that some of these words were quoted by the Angel Gabriel on his visit to Zechariah as he announced the birth of John the Baptist and the coming of the Lord.
But I wanted to look at these words in their original context during our communion service this morning because they have a bit of a cutting edge to them. They announce the coming of the Messiah and the forerunner of the Messiah, but they predict that the advent of those two will not be all that the people had been looking for.
Some 400 years before the birth of Jesus, the Jews were hoping that God would come and sit in judgment on their enemies. The Jews had about a hundred years before reentered the holy land after their captivity in Babylon and had been rebuilding their towns, cities, Jerusalem, and the Temple. But they had been receiving a lot of opposition from the other peoples who had been settled into and around the Holy land while they were in exile in Babylon. The historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe some of the events of this period. Malachi was a prophet during this period.
His word from God to them was that God would come for judgment, but that they might be the objects of God’s judgment as well as their enemies.
Verses 1 and 2 present a good news – bad news scenario. Verse 1 reads “See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. That is the good news. The bad news is in the next verse. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
Now about some of the images in this verse: silver and gold were refined by being melted in fire 7 times so all the impurities were burned or separated out. This image predicts severe judgment that will lead to purity.
A fuller was one whose occupation was to prepare new wool to be used in making garments. Fullers used a lye soap to get much of the natural oils out of the wool. Lye soap was a harsh soap made out of wood ashes. Indiana native and Big-Band leader Phil Haris helped make a song about lye soap popular in the 1950s. That song referred to a fellow named Therman and his brother Herman who had an aversion to washing their ears. Grandma washed their ears with the old Lye soap and they hadn’t heard a word in years. This song was a reminder that Lye Soap was a harsh way of getting things clean. This imagery also points to a harsh judgment leading to purity.
Those of us who like to apply systems and summaries to the contents of the Bible like to say that the first coming of Jesus was one of grace and peace, and at his second coming he will bring judgment. That is true to a point, but we ought not forget that many of the things Jesus said and did on his first coming to earth were about judgment. He often condemned the practices and teaching of the Priests and Pharisees and even his own disciples. And don’t you forget that some of the actions and attitudes he condemned are still in our lives. We do them.
In our gospel reading this morning we read that as Jesus was being taken out to be crucified, women were mourning over him and he told them to mourn for themselves because a terrible judgment was in the works for the city of Jerusalem.
Some 40 years after his death, Jerusalem was destroyed and most of its inhabitants killed.
There was and is a cutting, judging edge to Jesus at his first coming. We need to remember that as we prepare to celebrate his birth.
But we also need to remember that after he condemned many of our actions and attitudes, he took God’s judgment on himself on the cross. He died for our sins.
Today we remember the first coming of Jesus and that his life and ministry was about Judgment and grace.
As we come to his table and eat and drink the reminders of his death we acknowledge that he condemned our sins and then suffered and died to forgive them. All Praise be to God! Amen
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
“What Kind of a Christmas Is This?”
Malachi 3: 1-5 & 4: 5-6
December 6, 2009
These passages constitute some of the final words of one of the last prophets of the Old Testament. Next week we will see that some of these words were quoted by the Angel Gabriel on his visit to Zechariah as he announced the birth of John the Baptist and the coming of the Lord.
But I wanted to look at these words in their original context during our communion service this morning because they have a bit of a cutting edge to them. They announce the coming of the Messiah and the forerunner of the Messiah, but they predict that the advent of those two will not be all that the people had been looking for.
Some 400 years before the birth of Jesus, the Jews were hoping that God would come and sit in judgment on their enemies. The Jews had about a hundred years before reentered the holy land after their captivity in Babylon and had been rebuilding their towns, cities, Jerusalem, and the Temple. But they had been receiving a lot of opposition from the other peoples who had been settled into and around the Holy land while they were in exile in Babylon. The historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe some of the events of this period. Malachi was a prophet during this period.
His word from God to them was that God would come for judgment, but that they might be the objects of God’s judgment as well as their enemies.
Verses 1 and 2 present a good news – bad news scenario. Verse 1 reads “See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. That is the good news. The bad news is in the next verse. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
Now about some of the images in this verse: silver and gold were refined by being melted in fire 7 times so all the impurities were burned or separated out. This image predicts severe judgment that will lead to purity.
A fuller was one whose occupation was to prepare new wool to be used in making garments. Fullers used a lye soap to get much of the natural oils out of the wool. Lye soap was a harsh soap made out of wood ashes. Indiana native and Big-Band leader Phil Haris helped make a song about lye soap popular in the 1950s. That song referred to a fellow named Therman and his brother Herman who had an aversion to washing their ears. Grandma washed their ears with the old Lye soap and they hadn’t heard a word in years. This song was a reminder that Lye Soap was a harsh way of getting things clean. This imagery also points to a harsh judgment leading to purity.
Those of us who like to apply systems and summaries to the contents of the Bible like to say that the first coming of Jesus was one of grace and peace, and at his second coming he will bring judgment. That is true to a point, but we ought not forget that many of the things Jesus said and did on his first coming to earth were about judgment. He often condemned the practices and teaching of the Priests and Pharisees and even his own disciples. And don’t you forget that some of the actions and attitudes he condemned are still in our lives. We do them.
In our gospel reading this morning we read that as Jesus was being taken out to be crucified, women were mourning over him and he told them to mourn for themselves because a terrible judgment was in the works for the city of Jerusalem.
Some 40 years after his death, Jerusalem was destroyed and most of its inhabitants killed.
There was and is a cutting, judging edge to Jesus at his first coming. We need to remember that as we prepare to celebrate his birth.
But we also need to remember that after he condemned many of our actions and attitudes, he took God’s judgment on himself on the cross. He died for our sins.
Today we remember the first coming of Jesus and that his life and ministry was about Judgment and grace.
As we come to his table and eat and drink the reminders of his death we acknowledge that he condemned our sins and then suffered and died to forgive them. All Praise be to God! Amen
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
“What Kind of a Christmas Is This?”
Malachi 3: 1-5 & 4: 5-6
December 6, 2009
These passages constitute some of the final words of one of the last prophets of the Old Testament. Next week we will see that some of these words were quoted by the Angel Gabriel on his visit to Zechariah as he announced the birth of John the Baptist and the coming of the Lord.
But I wanted to look at these words in their original context during our communion service this morning because they have a bit of a cutting edge to them. They announce the coming of the Messiah and the forerunner of the Messiah, but they predict that the advent of those two will not be all that the people had been looking for.
Some 400 years before the birth of Jesus, the Jews were hoping that God would come and sit in judgment on their enemies. The Jews had about a hundred years before reentered the holy land after their captivity in Babylon and had been rebuilding their towns, cities, Jerusalem, and the Temple. But they had been receiving a lot of opposition from the other peoples who had been settled into and around the Holy land while they were in exile in Babylon. The historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe some of the events of this period. Malachi was a prophet during this period.
His word from God to them was that God would come for judgment, but that they might be the objects of God’s judgment as well as their enemies.
Verses 1 and 2 present a good news – bad news scenario. Verse 1 reads “See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. That is the good news. The bad news is in the next verse. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
Now about some of the images in this verse: silver and gold were refined by being melted in fire 7 times so all the impurities were burned or separated out. This image predicts severe judgment that will lead to purity.
A fuller was one whose occupation was to prepare new wool to be used in making garments. Fullers used a lye soap to get much of the natural oils out of the wool. Lye soap was a harsh soap made out of wood ashes. Indiana native and Big-Band leader Phil Haris helped make a song about lye soap popular in the 1950s. That song referred to a fellow named Therman and his brother Herman who had an aversion to washing their ears. Grandma washed their ears with the old Lye soap and they hadn’t heard a word in years. This song was a reminder that Lye Soap was a harsh way of getting things clean. This imagery also points to a harsh judgment leading to purity.
Those of us who like to apply systems and summaries to the contents of the Bible like to say that the first coming of Jesus was one of grace and peace, and at his second coming he will bring judgment. That is true to a point, but we ought not forget that many of the things Jesus said and did on his first coming to earth were about judgment. He often condemned the practices and teaching of the Priests and Pharisees and even his own disciples. And don’t you forget that some of the actions and attitudes he condemned are still in our lives. We do them.
In our gospel reading this morning we read that as Jesus was being taken out to be crucified, women were mourning over him and he told them to mourn for themselves because a terrible judgment was in the works for the city of Jerusalem.
Some 40 years after his death, Jerusalem was destroyed and most of its inhabitants killed.
There was and is a cutting, judging edge to Jesus at his first coming. We need to remember that as we prepare to celebrate his birth.
But we also need to remember that after he condemned many of our actions and attitudes, he took God’s judgment on himself on the cross. He died for our sins.
Today we remember the first coming of Jesus and that his life and ministry was about Judgment and grace.
As we come to his table and eat and drink the reminders of his death we acknowledge that he condemned our sins and then suffered and died to forgive them. All Praise be to God! Amen
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)