Christmas words: King (pt2)

There are 3 responses to Jesus kingship in Matthew 2v1-12.  I wonder which you are?

(4-5)The Chief Priests and teachers of the law know the Bible, when Herod asks they can point him to Micah 5.  But what do they do next?  Knowing Herod is asking about the birth of Messiah, knowing the Magi are searching, knowing the prophesy might be fulfilled what do they do?  Nothing.  They go back to their safe religion, content with their scrolls and debates and answers.  What should they do?  If they took God’s word seriously they’d run from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to see the Messiah for themselves, to see if it’s finally true, the king is here.  But they don’t.  Jesus is right there but they won’t go to him.

Is that you this morning?  Maybe you like exploring religion, you like debating and discussing ideas, you like studying scriptures, but you never act on them.  You’ve heard again and again who Jesus is but you’ve never met him.  You read your bible, you can answer questions about Jesus, but you never come to the point of trusting in Jesus as your king.  In fact you quite like keeping him at arms length, as an historical figure, a good intriguing but undemanding teacher .  Never bowing the knee.  Never having to face the clash of his kingdom with yours.  Jesus clashes with these same religious leaders and those like them again and again in Matthew.  He longs to save them, to bring them peace to reconcile them to God, but they won’t come.  Is that you this morning?  You are facing a lost eternity unless you bow the knee to Jesus.

Then there’s Herod.  At least Herod reacts.  He hates the idea of another King and he lashes out.  He won’t have a rival to his rule.  So he tries to eradicate every possibility.  Is that you this morning?  You like your life how it is and how dare I tell you that you need Jesus.  How dare I tell you that you can’t make yourself right with God!

Can I ask you one question this morning; what is your plan when you stand face to face with God?  Because that day is coming, it is fixed.  What will you say?

Lastly there’s the magi, what do they do?  They diligently seeking Jesus, they let nothing get in the way of finding him and when they do find him what do they do?  (11)“On coming to the house, they aw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.”  The right response to Jesus as King is seeking him and worshipping him.  Worship seen in bowing to him as King, and in everyday faithfulness to his word, as they go back another way.

Sometimes we can get confused about what worship is.  We think it’s about big grand gestures; the promise to go, the recommitment, the week serving on camp, or full time Christian ministry.  Christmas reminds us that the right response to Jesus is everyday worship.  It’s seen in the wise men’s journey to see Jesus, that’s an act of worship, clearing space, taking time, to pursue Jesus, to meet with him.  Prioritising him over other things.

But worship is also seen in their listening to God’s word when the religious leaders tell them of Micah’s prophesy and going to Bethlehem, and in going back avoiding Herod when told to in a dream.  That everyday obedience in the small things is worship.  And it is one of the emphases of Christmas, it’s not just the Wise Men who worship via everyday faithfulness and obedience.  Think of Joseph in Ch1, pondering quietly divorcing Mary, but when the angel appears in a dream and tells him to marry her because the child is God’s King, waking and doing what the angel commanded(1v24-25).  It’s seen in Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt when told to.

Everyday worship is seen in Luke’s Christmas account in Mary’s worship as she says “I am the Lord’s Servant… May your word to me be fulfilled.”  When told of her pregnancy, even when that will make her the subject of shame and gossip, when it makes her the bad girl in her society.  It’s seen in Mary and Joseph’s everyday faithfulness to the law in having Jesus circumcised, and performing the purification rites in Luke 2, and in naming the boy Jesus as the angel said.

Every one of those small acts of obedient faithfulness is an act of worship.

Worshipping Jesus as King, seeking his kingdom isn’t just about the big grand gesture but about a hundred daily moments of seeking God, listening to him, praying and obeying his word, it’s about an everyday faithfulness in all of life.  It is about entrusting yourself totally to God’s shepherd King, a trust seen in everyday faithfulness to him.

Let’s come back to those three questions:

1. What have you learned about following Jesus this year?
2. What has helped you love and follow Jesus more?  What has hindered you doing so?
3. What will help you grow in your trust in and love for Jesus this year?

Christmas Words: King (pt1)

This week between Christmas and New Year always feels a bit odd doesn’t it?  It’s the no-mans land between celebrations.  But it’s also a time for reflection and goal setting.  When we look back on the last year and look forward to the next.  So let me ask you three questions this morning:

1. What have you learned about following Jesus this year?
2. What has helped you love and follow Jesus more?  What has hindered you doing so?
3. What will help you grow in your trust in and love for Jesus this year?

Christmas reminds us that Jesus coming brings peace, joy, hope and love.  But often that can seem in short supply the rest of the year.  As life gets busy, things change or don’t change, problems press in, success or blessing distracts us, or sorrow and suffering threatens to submerge us.  It’s easy for following Jesus to be replaced by occasional nods to Jesus, for worship to become a good, but heartless, habit.

This morning we want to ask why follow Jesus?

Why follow the King?

Matthew provides us with a stark compare and contrast of kings.  He introduces us to them (1-2)“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, during the time of king Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?”

As provocations go that’s right up there with nipping to North Korea for a visit and asking the Supreme Leader where the real ruler of the country is?  Do you see the two kings?  One is Herod, the current king, he’s half-Jewish, a political appointment by the Romans.  He rules by brute force, ruthlessly eliminating any threats to his crown both real or imagined, even from within his immediate family.

We see his ruthlessness and barbarity here.  He’ll do absolutely anything to maintain his rule.  When he’s told about the prophecy of the Messiah he’s no interest in God’s promises or plans, he tries to co-opt the Magi into being his unwitting sleeper agents, who’ll enable him to terminate a threat to his rule.  And when God thwarts his plan via a dream he’s furious and in a paroxysm of rage gives orders to kill every boy under 2 in Bethlehem and it’s surrounding area.

Herod is a king who doesn’t care for his people only for maintaining his power and rule.  He’ll leave families and towns grieving and terrified if it maintains his rule.  His people are sheep to consume not people to love and serve.

But look at the other king in this passage.  (2)The Magi ask “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?”  Jesus isn’t a political appointee, he’s not a pawn of the powerful, he’s not waiting to be enthroned.  He is born God’s promised King, born King of the Jews.

And his birth is so significant that a celestial event announces it to Magi miles away who travel hundreds of miles seeking him.  And when Herod asks the chief priests and teachers of the law about the Messiah we see the kind of king Jesus is:

“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler,

who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Matthew splices two halves of two verses together here.  But for the Jews reading Matthew this would have brought to mind all of the verses.  In Micah 5v2-4  Micah is prophesying hope for the nation of Israel after the exile.

God promises that a ruler will come.  This king has pedigree, he’s from Bethlehem, David’s town.  But he’ll rule over all Israel.  And his origins are from of ancient times – in other words God is going to keep the promises he made to David and before that to Israel through Balaam in Numbers, of a new king.  And (4)tells us that this son will be like David, a shepherd King, who rules in God’s strength and in God’s name, who will bring security and rest to those he rules over.  And whose greatness reaches to the ends of the ends of the earth.

Jesus is a different kind of King to Herod.  He is God’s king, ruling as God would, shepherding God’s people as God himself would with compassion and love and tenderness, just as God promised.  Ruling with God’s unbreakable strength, but wielding his strength and majesty not egotistically for his own glory but with gentleness, strength under control and used for others good and in love.  And his greatness reaches to the ends of the earth, that’s what the magi give us a teaser trailer for – the ends of the earth worshipping God’s shepherd king.

Jesus is the king you want to live under.  He isn’t selfish, he doesn’t consume his people, he doesn’t use them, he leads, and guides, and cares, and provides, and serves and lays down his life for them because he loves.  And under his rule his people find security.  Even when life is hard, he doesn’t leave us, but leads us in love with a greater purpose.

This last year hasn’t been a great one for leadership has it.  U-turns, bickering, failing to lead by example, a lack of integrity and honesty at a national level.  Then there’s been the Sarah Everard case that has damaged trust in the police force and repeated instances of sexual harassment that have shown men again and again using their power to abuse women not care and protect and honour them.  And then in the church the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast has graphically opened our eyes to an abusive culture of toxic leadership in the church, alongside more stories of abuse by leaders in various churches and ministries.

And all of it can make us distrustful of leaders.  As we see more and more Herod like leaders who consume and take and fewer leaders like Jesus who serve and lay down their lives.  The effect is to make us cynical and untrusting, determined to go it alone.  The biggest danger is that we fail to trust Jesus, failing to see how totally different his kingship is.  Can you see that danger in yourself?  An unwillingness to entrust yourself to Jesus, to bow to his word and his way because you just aren’t sure you can trust him?

Do you see Jesus kingship this morning?  You can trust Jesus.  He is the shepherd king.  So for his people that he comes, he lives, he lays down his life for his sheep.  Wielding his great strength with gentleness, strength under control, for the good of his people.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t challenge us, he does but always for our good.  It doesn’t mean he doesn’t confront us and call us to repent, he does but always in love.  It doesn’t mean we will always like what he says to us, where he leads, we won’t but we can always trust his faithfulness and leading.  It doesn’t mean the world will applaud us, it won’t, but Jesus is the good King whose people are secure for eternity.

The side issue is that we lose trust in all human leaders, even those who try, however imperfectly, to lead like Jesus, with gentleness and humility.  It’s why the Bible is so clear on the nature of leadership, leaders in the church are to serve humbly, they are to point to Jesus so he becomes greater and they become less.  They exercise their influence and strength with gentleness, not wimpily, not failing to challenge or teach us or stand for truth, but with their strength under control and used always to point us to Jesus and help us become formed into his image not their image.  We need to pray for our leaders who do that and we need to pray for a multiplication of leaders who lead like that. Will you make Jesus your king?  Will you seek his kingdom this year?  Will you make it a priority?

Christmas Words: Peace (pt3)

There are some huge implications for us as his people.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace and that peace changes everything for us.

We enjoy peace with God.  Romans 5v1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we now stand.”  If we’re trusting Jesus for our salvation by faith we are at peace with God.  We’re totally reconciled to him, the relationship broken by sin is restored.  Jesus doesn’t paper over the cracks like we might do with wall paper, he hasn’t done the best he can with superglue, but if you catch it in the right light you can still see the cracks.  No, Jesus has made whole our relationship with God, we’re at peace with him and that means we’re welcomed as his children. 

And that standing doesn’t fluctuate day-by-day depending on our performance.  By grace through faith in Jesus this morning if you trust him you’re at peace with God – not an uneasy truce until we screw up again, but reconciled, loved, welcomed, right with God.  We can pray, God waits and wants to hear from us.  And we hear from him as we read his word.  Isn’t that amazing?  What a privilege to be saved by the Prince of peace.

Secondly that vertical peace with God translates into horizontal peace, it breaks down barriers and divisions.  Paul explains what it means to be the people of the Prince of peace in Ephesians 2v14 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…”  Jesus peace reconciles enemies, it brings Jew and Gentile together as the people of the Prince of peace.  The church is an outpost of the kingdom; a small-scale imperfect model that gives the watching world a glimpse of the peace the gospel brings, peace with God but also peace with one another.  Not in it’s perfection or pretence of perfection but in applying gospel in the complexity of our relationships, in our struggles to bear with one another, in pursuing peace, being reconciled to one another across societies divides again and again and again.  There’s no room for racism or sexism or classism or any other division in the church as we follow the Prince of Peace. 

It’s not automatic.  It’s not easy.  But we’re called to be people of peace, to put the gospel to work, applying it where there’s tension and conflict and division to bring peace.

Lastly we live awaiting the kingdom of peace.  I’d love to see peace in our time.  A society without divisions.  Where refugees are welcomed and loved.  Where there was no terrorism, or racism, or hate crimes, or violence against women.  Where there was compassion for those in need and integrity in those who lead.  But no government of any stripe will ever achieve that no matter what they promise.

But one day Jesus will.  The Prince of peace will be given rule over his kingdom when he returns.  That means as a people, as a church we live with the tension, the kingdom has come and we know peace, we’re at peace, we’re striving with the Spirit to live at peace and yet we long for peace to be finally and fully realised.  And that tension creates an aching longing in us.  But it should do more than just that.

Jesus calls his people to be peacemakers, those who spread his peace.  Who look to bring wholeness.  Who aim for restoration and reconciliation.  Who show his compassion and zeal for justice.  But who do so knowing it won’t be fully realised now, so that even as we serve we do so with a sense of longing for his return and aware that ultimately only Jesus can bring peace.

That means practically we must be involved in bringing peace as we serve in the world as light in the darkness.  But it also means we must speak peace.  And that begins by helping people see they need Jesus.  He is the Prince of Peace.  He is the answer to every restless longing, he alone can restore and reconcile because he alone can deal with sin.  Do we believe that?  That people’s greatest need is Jesus?

In a world in darkness will we point people to the light?  In a world in chaos and confusion will we point people to the Prince who brings peace?

I’ve been blown away by this familiar idea of peace, we see it so often on our Christmas Cards, and yet it’s what our world needs.  I’ve been convicted that sometimes I can say that, but I don’t really apply it to those around me.  They need this peace desperately, they live walking on the jagged shards of a world broken by sin, with its chaos and injustice and futility and brokenness.  And only Jesus can bring the restoration and reconciliation they need and long for.  I’m particularly praying for my neighbours this advent.  And we’re thinking about how we share the gospel with them.  How we bless them.  How we can witness to them.  How we can bring them peace, and ultimately bring them to know the Prince of Peace.

If we believe this is what the world needs, then like Isaiah it will fire our hearts and we will tell people.  Who this Christmas will you pray for opportunities to share this good news with?  Who will you pray comes to know Jesus and step from the darkness into the light?  How can you show them peace?

What would you say to Mary and Ezra?  What hope can you and I offer them?  What about to the very real people you live, learn, work, walk alongside?

Christmas Words: Peace (pt2)

It’s into the darkness and distress(Isaiah 8v22), the complexity and chaos, of Judah that Isaiah speaks God’s words of hope.  Words that coalesce around a child who will be born. A Son given(6).  Someone who will take on the mantel of government, who’ll be wise in what he does, who will be powerful and compassionate, who will be like God himself.  Who will be the Prince of Peace.  And (7)“Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”

But what does that mean?  What is the peace this prince will bring?  We sing the word in our carols, we hear it in our Christmas readings, we see it on the cards hung on the ribbons.  But what is the peace Jesus brings?

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom.  And it’s so much bigger than bringing an end to conflict, though(5) tells us Jesus will do that too on a global scale.  Shalom is more than just peace and quiet.  To bring Shalom, to be the Prince of Shalom is to restore what was broken, to make whole what isn’t, to complete the incomplete.  In God’s world it is to bring total restoration of everything ti what God intended it to be.

Life is complex, relationships break down, societies easily become disordered, and chaos readily creeps in.  It’s into just such a society that Isaiah speaks these words of hope.  One is coming, sent from God, who will restore his people to wholeness, who will govern for the good of all, who will (4)shatter yokes, lift burdens, and bring joy and rejoicing.  He will reign and bring justice and righteousness forever(7).

The peace Christmas speaks of is so much better than we think.  It’s the peace we all long for.  Of society at one, a kingdom united, governed justly with compassion and integrity.  It’s a kingdom where enemies aren’t just forced to make and uneasy truce but where they’re reconciled so they now work together for a common goal.  It’s communities transformed with love and compassion so that everyone is cared for by everyone.

In a society riven by division, torn and broken by injustice and selfishness this is what the people longed for, and says Isaiah it’s coming because he’s coming, and he will bring a peace that never ends.

It’s no wonder that first Christmas echoes with excited exclamations of peace is it?  Zechariah can’t help himself and breaks into song because God is sending light into the darkness and “to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  Awed angels sing to the Shepherds “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

But we might think it’s just too good to be true.  We’ve all been burned by false promises haven’t we?  Political manifesto’s that promise much and deliver little.  Office restructuring that never quite delivers and always seems to benefit the boss or shareholder.  PR spin and manipulation to make a worsening reality look like success.  We can become jaded and cynical even as we read God’s promise.

But the proof is in living.  In the gospels we see the Prince of peace come.  And what does Jesus do?  He brings peace; forgiving sin, restoring people to relationship with God.  Washing away the root of all the chaos and selfishness and brokenness.  And he creates a new people who are at peace with God, restored to a whole relationship with him, and are reconciled to one another. across societies divides and barriers.  And people rejoice when they hear him and accept him and receive his peace.  Jesus is righteous and just, and brings peace.

The root of all the darkness, the chaos, the divisions, the injustice, is sin.  It’s us taking God’s stuff but wanting it for ourselves without him, his presence, his word, his wisdom.  It’s us saying God I know best!  Look around at the world.  Look at our society.  Look at your family and neighbourhood.  Do we?  Doesn’t what we see echo Isaiah’s day?

Jesus – the Prince of peace – comes and offers you wholeness, completeness in the complexity, calm and rest from the chaos.  Because he comes to deal with the root cause of it all, with sin.  All our restlessness, all our burdens, all our searching and striving, all our dissatisfaction and division is because we were made for something more, something bigger.  We were made to know God and live enjoying him and trusting his word.

Jesus comes to restore that relationship, to reconcile us to God.  He does it ultimately as he dies as one cut off from God so we can have his peace with God.  Here’s a ruler who doesn’t just wear a mask or pass laws to protect you, who doesn’t cower behind the lines, or govern for the good of himself and his friends.  But who leaves safety and security and enters our world, who suffers with us, and gives his life, bears our hell, and reconciles us to God when there is no way we could do that.

We all need a Saviour, this Prince who will bring us peace because we’re not at peace with God. 

But in Isaiah’s day not everyone was excited about it, not everyone wanted it.  Some thought they’d manage just fine on their own and made treaties and deals, and worked harder, but it all failed.  Some people looked to worldly leaders but were disappointed.  Isn’t that what history teaches us, the answer isn’t inside of us, in our world, we’ve tried and tried and tried.  Aren’t you tired of that?

What will bring you peace?  What will bring our society peace?  What would heal the world one heart at a time?  God’s diagnosis is that the world is incomplete, made chaotic in its complexity by sin, it’s a world broken, divided, full of internal and external conflict, and we cannot save ourselves.  We can’t repair it or reconcile it or create peace.  But he offers Jesus the Prince of peace, who gives a right relationship with God if we will accept our need of a Saviour, ask him to forgive our sin and follow him.  Will you?  Have you?

Christmas Words: Peace (pt1)

Ezra sat down wearily and put his head in his hands.  Looks like they’d struggle for another week, his powerlessness to provide for his family made worse by a boss who had everything and still accumulated more and more.  While paying his workers next to nothing and sacking them if they complained.  It wasn’t supposed to be like this, so many struggling and left behind, whilst a few got richer and richer.  Where was the sense of community?  Where was justice?  Where was government for the people not just the wealthy?

Mary fought back the angry tears as her frustration threatened to swamp her again.  She’d had enough of struggling in a broken society, never feeling safe, always looking over her shoulder, seeing threats everywhere.  Broken promises about a better future, a safer future, a more prosperous future littered their recent past.  But every promise turned to ashes.  She no longer had any faith in their leaders, whether political or religious.  Society was broken, injustice rife, corruption everywhere, selfishness ruled, and who suffered the most?  The vulnerable, the weak and the needy.  There was no hope.

What hope would you offer to Mary and Ezra?  What would you say to them?  That was the situation, not in Britain in 2021, but in Israel as God calls Isaiah to speak his word to his people.  It was a nation divided between the haves and have-nots.  Where God’s word was ignored and society was a swamp of immorality, greed, idolatry, and self-interest.  Rotten to its core.  It had fallen fast and hard from it’s heyday when leaders from round the world came to marvel at it’s public works, and care for the poor as it followed God’s plan for the good life.  But now thinking back to those days only sharpened the pain at what had been lost.

It’s into that situation that Isaiah speaks God’s word.  To a people like Mary and Ezra governed by the corrupt for the corrupt.  Where religious and political institutions are cesspits of self-interest.  Where society doesn’t care, or provide, for the refugee, the widow, the orphan, the vulnerable.  Where compassion, justice, and humble service are only found in wistful conversations about the past.  What hope can Isaiah offer them?  What hope do we have to offer in a world that eerily echoes Isaiah’s?

Christmas is full of big words isn’t it?  Just think about the Christmas Cards or the carols: hope, joy, love, peace.  Really?  What is the good news behind those headlines?  What’s the reality when you click on them?

Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash

Christmas Words: Love (pt4)

It’s one thing to hear that we are loved like that.  But there’s a bigger question, a more important question, but also a more personal question, what will you do with it?

Like any gift we have to decide what we’ll do with God’s loving gift of his Son.  Maybe you’re thinking I don’t need it, I’m fine on my own.  But, if the problem is so severe that giving his Son is the only solution, to refuse such a gift is the greatest sin, it is rejecting God’s love shown for you in Jesus coming and dying for you, won’t you think again?

Maybe you’re searching for love like this.  A love that sees even the worst you’ve done, those things you’d be too ashamed to show or tell anyone else, and forgives you for them and rescues you from them.  If you want to know this love that doesn’t change based on our performance, but loves us and rescues us, then why not pray this morning, acknowledge your sin, your rejection of God, your longing for love like this, and ask Jesus to forgive you and be your saviour and Lord.

Maybe you want that but you want to know more, why not speak to someone about it this morning.  Or after Christmas we’re going to be looking at Matthew’s gospel on Sunday mornings where we’ll be seeing more of Jesus, we’d love you to come week by week and join us and learn with us about God’s love and Jesus’ rescue.

If we’ve tasted God’s love, if we’ve put our trust in Jesus, then “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  That’s how John applies it to the church, he writes to.  Being loved like this isn’t something we keep to ourselves, it changes us.  Being loved so extravagantly and in such an undeserved way causes us to love God in return, and to love our neighbour (that’s those you like) and love even our enemies.

What is really going on at Christmas?  God showed his love among us and we need to keep on coming and reminding ourselves of that love. Love is not just for Christmas!

Christmas Words: Love (pt3)

So how can we know that God is love? How does God prove to us that he is love? Where do we look if we’re doubting his love? God proves his love at Christmas

That’s quite mind blowing isn’t it, it feels like it’s too good to be true.  But look at the next verse in 1 John, it’s as if John anticipates the church, and us, saying prove it; “This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”  That’s a staggering display of love isn’t it.  How do you tell someone you love them?  Maybe it’s words, flowers, a cuddle, a text, or FaceTime call, or a card.  But God sent his only begotten Son.  That’s amazing.

Especially when you think about what it involved.  God the Son who has always existed in a delight filled loving relationship with Father and Spirit leaves the joy of heaven and comes to earth. Not to a castle or palace but to an ordinary home.  He isn’t born to wealthy significant parents but to a poor family shrouded with shame over an illegitimate birth.  He doesn’t arrive like some dignitary rubbing shoulders with the riff raff for a few hours, protected by bodyguards, before being whisked back to safety, no, he comes among us.  God loved enough to send his Son, the Son loved enough to come and be among us.  Jesus, God the Son, made man, enters a world that’s rejected God again and again.  He comes to experience pain and joy, sorrow and laughter, and grief and glory.

The proof that God is love John says is in the historical events surrounding the manger, in the real birth of the real Son of God made real flesh.  And in his purpose “that we might live through him.”  Jesus doesn’t just come and live among us so he can say he knows what life is like.  That wouldn’t help us at all.  He comes to bring us life?  But what does that mean?

In John 17v3 Jesus says this “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  We have a problem with the idea of eternal life, we think of it mechanistically.  So this is real life now, what I can touch and feel and smell and taste, and when we die there is some kind of spirity, vapoury, not real existence that maybe comes afterwards.  That’s in part why we fear death so much – we don’t want that!  Who would?

But that’s not the Bible’s idea of life.  Real life is what Jesus describes.  It is life lived in joy and peace that’s flows from knowing, loving and being known and loved by God.  That’s what we were made for.  And that’s what we’re searching for; we look for it everywhere, because we’ve lost that love and the security, joy and rest being loved by God brings.  When Adam and Eve sinned they were exiled from God’s presence, they died.  Not physically not yet, but spiritually, they lost eternal life and joy in God.

Think of it like a Christmas tree.  A Christmas Tree is a beautiful living thing while it’s connected to its roots in the forest.  But at Christmas millions of people go and buy a tree that’s been cut off from its life, savagely hacked away from it’s life giving roots.  We prettify it and hoover up the needles so we can pretend, but it’s final death is certain because we’ve severed it from its life giving root.

That’s us.  Cut of from God, severed from his love and life and the joy we find in him, we face only separation not eternal life.  But God “showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”  Jesus comes to reconnect us to God, to show us God’s love.  You see it again and again in the gospels, the accounts of Jesus life.  A woman searching for love in relationships, Nicodemus searching for love in academic success and religion, Zacchaeus trying for fill his longing for love with that poor substitute wealth.  And Jesus connects all of them with the source of love, with the love they were made to know, the love of God as he gives them eternal life that begins now.

How?  The next verse in 1 John 4 tells us.  Here’s the Christmas story Spoiler alert Jesus dies “as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  Jesus comes to love us in his birth, his life and his death that pays for our rebellion and rejection of God, our searching for love in all the wrong things, and to reconnect us to God so we can have eternal life.  Isn’t that staggering love?

Christmas Words: Love (pt2)

Christmas tells us lots of things, but one of the things the first Christmas declares loudly is: You are loved like you wouldn’t believe

John in his letter provides us with a thermal imaging view of Christmas, he sees through the nativity scene, the busyness of travel to Bethlehem, the chaos of the magi’s visit, through what might distract us to the beating heart of Christmas.  He writes to a church that’s struggling to love one another, because they’ve been wounded, and hurt in the past, because they’re a bit unsure of how loveable they are and what love looks like so he takes them behind the clutter of Christmas to see the heart behind it.

I want you to finish this sentence; God is…?  What would you say?  Maybe you’d say ‘distant’ or ‘confusing’ or simply ‘big’.  Or ‘uncertain’, or ‘unimportant to me’.  John writes “God is love”.  That’s not everything the Bible has to say about God, God is also holy, and light, and just and so much more.  But it’s important for us to grasp God is love. Everything he does is because of love. But what does that mean?

The word used is very specific, it’s different to romantic love or family love or any other love we naturally experience.  It’s describes the love of God within the Trinity; the love God the Father has for the Son and the Spirit, and the love the Son has for the Father and the Spirit, and the love the Spirit has for the Father and the Son.  It’s a perfect love without mixed motives, without selfishness, that simply delights and rejoices in praising and seeing the other honoured and glorified – hard to imagine I know.  But here’s the amazing thing, it’s also the love that God; Father, Son and Spirit, has for his people.  It is determined, faithful, decisive, active, just, committed, gracious, merciful, holy, righteous, forgiving and unfailing.

It’s described in that great chapter that gets wheeled out at weddings from 1 Corinthians 13, that it isn’t describing romantic love but God’s love for his people and his people’s love for God and one another.

If we wouldn’t describe God as loving, quite simply the Bible tells us we don’t really know God.  We’ve just listened to second or third hand descriptions of him rather than meeting him for ourselves and getting to know him and making up our own minds.  God loves, he has always loved, he creates because he desires to share his love.  Everything he does is because of love.  Maybe you’re thinking prove it God! Just wait until tomorrow.

Christmas Words: Love (pt1)

Have you ever found yourself in a situation and wondering what on earth is going on?  Christmas creates situations like that can’t it?  The first time you go to another families house for Christmas dinner and they don’t have Turkey, or pigs-in-blankets or something else that just is a staple of Christmas dinner.  Or maybe it’s the timings of everything, I was hearing this week of a family who weren’t allowed to open their presents until after the Christmas Morning service – talk about torture, I bet for the kids that felt like the longest sermon ever, and you’d certainly want to make sure mum or dad didn’t get waylaid by that person who never stops talking on the way to the car.  Or may be it’s when a guest insists on watching the Queens speech no matter where you are in Christmas dinner or how cold it gets!

All of those situations are slightly funny, but also a bit awkward aren’t they?  You just don’t know what’s really going on.  Sometimes we think we know what’s going to happen, and then suddenly we really don’t.

What’s really going on at Christmas?  When you clear away the star, the angels, Shepherds, Bethlehem, the virgin birth, the Magi, Herod and so on what is it we’re celebrating?  There’ve been millions of births, hundreds of significant royal births, since so why do we celebrate this one?

The Bible gives us lots of words that help us understand Christmas, we’ve looked at a few over the last few weeks; peace, joy, hope.  But this morning we’re looking at the word love. 

There’s nothing worse than feeling unloved.  You know what it’s like, when a relationship ends, even if they say ‘it’s not you it’s me’, there’s that feeling ‘I am unlovely’.  We can struggle with it in families, something happens; an argument, a telling off, and we feel unloved or we have sneaking suspicion that someone else is more loved.  We can feel unloved through neglect by a spouse, parent or partner who’s too busy or too distracted to notice us, or who just takes us for granted.  Then there’s feeling unloved because of grief and loss.  Feeling unloved is behind so much loneliness in the UK, it’s also the root cause of so much suffering.

We want to feel loved.  We need to feel loved.  But what is love?

Defining love is hard because we use the same word to mean so many different things.  We say I’d love a pizza, and we love our family, we love our team or favourite film or box set and we love our spouse or partner.  Hopefully we love them differently or we’re in for some serious relationship problems. In order to understand love at Christmas we need to ask what is this love?  What does it do?

Photo by Michael Fenton on Unsplash

Christmas Words: Joy (pt3)

Do you remember the old RSPCA adverts; a dog is for life not just for Christmas?  It’s the same with our joy, but lets be honest our joy leaks too.  Can we be full of joy even in the world we live in?  How is that possible?

Joy in salvation not circumstances – In Luke 10 the disciples are sent out on mission and return full of joy because even the demons submit to them in Jesus name.  They’re buzzing with the power and with the success of a mission well done.  And Jesus doesn’t rebuke them but he does redirect them; “do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  And full of joy Jesus then praises God for revealing salvation to the disciples.  Our constant danger is that we just rejoice in our circumstances, in God’s blessings and gifts.  But as disciples we have a greater joy, a joy that can’t be lost – we’re saved by Jesus, loved by God, he delights in us and have an eternal hope.

Jesus does the same thing when he has risen from the dead, he rises and the disciples are amazed by the experience, but every time he meets them he further fuels their lifelong joy by teaching them scripture, showing them that this all fulfils God’s plan so that even after he has ascended they can still know that joy.

It’s a vital lesson for us to get.  We can rejoice when God gives us blessing to enjoy, it’s right that we find joy in food, sport, family, music, friendship, in Christmas, things that a joy giving God gives us to point to him.  But we mustn’t reduce our joy to our blessings and circumstances.  Our greatest joy is knowing God through faith in Jesus. 

We see an example of this in Acts 13 as Paul and Barnabas preach and the people receive Jesus with rejoicing, even when Paul and Barnabas are driven out of the city we read the disciples were “filled with…”  what would you expect?  Sorrow, fear, grief, because their teachers had gone.  No they were “filled with joy” because they had salvation – they were reconciled to God and full of joy in the Spirit.

Where is our joy anchored?  Are we joy-full, joy-lite, or joy-less?  Is it because we’re looking for joy in our circumstances not in our Saviour?  Maybe this morning an immediate application of this is that you need to pray Psalm 51v12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation…”  Why not make that your prayer this week and read through some of those promise passages we’ve looked at?

Joy in Jesus even in suffering – Some of us may well have been thinking how can I have joy when life sucks, when I’m suffering?  Joy doesn’t mean suppressing sorrow, that’s unhealthy, and actually ungodly.  In 2 Corinthians 6v10 Paul describes servants of God as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.  Believers aren’t immune from sorrow, grief, pain, suffering but we can rejoice in all that is ours in Christ even amidst the sorrow.  It’s not stiff upper lip.  It’s not pretending.  It’s not a fixed smile, it’s rejoicing in our salvation and hope even as we walk with God through hardships and suffering.  It’s why Paul and Silas can sing in a Philippian prison, and why he can write his letter full of joy to that church and encourages them to rejoice again I say rejoice.

Christian joy isn’t a feeling, it’s a decision of faith that fixes its hope in the power and life and love of Jesus and all that means is credited to us no matter what suffering we face.  It’s what we as a church family are to encourage each other in, as we mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.

Joy in other’s salvation and growth – Luke often connects joy and salvation in his gospel, he does so in the 3 lost stories he tells in Luke 15, the lost sheep, lost coin and lost sons.  And his point in those stories is that there is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who is saved, and so there must be rejoicing on earth.  We find joy in others coming to know Jesus.  But there’s more than just that.  Disciples find joy in others growing in their faith and following Jesus.  Jesus joyfully celebrates his disciples faith and following him.  The writers of the letters continually give thanks for the progress of the churches they write to, they tie their joy to the progress of those congregations.  As we look round our church family, how can we fuel one anothers joy in Jesus?

How is your joy this morning?  The angels invite us to look again, to fix our eyes and our hopes on Jesus.  To know God and delight in him and trust that in Jesus he delights in you and to make that the immovable anchor of your joy.

What is Christmas all about?  It is good news of great joy for all people that a Saviour has come and we can be right with God.

Joy to the world, a Christmas message with the word Joy formed of tiny snowflakes on a dark bqckground