The Rest of the Christmas Story

Luke 2:25-38

INTRODUCTION

You’re familiar with the story about Jesus in the manger with Mary and Joseph and the shepherds gathered around, and the angels hovering above.

Today I’m going to tell you about something that happened just a few weeks later that is also an important part of the Christmas story.

Six weeks after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph set out to walk to Jerusalem.

Let’s use our imaginations and watch them as they trudge along the dusty, rocky road through the hills. Baby Jesus is probably sucking his thumb. He is a real, human baby.

Mary and Joseph have gotten early start because Jerusalem is five miles from Bethlehem. It would have taken three hours, at least. They would want to be home by evening.

Mary is carrying her baby but not in her arms. That would have been too risky for such a journey. Like other mothers in ancient times—and many today—she carries her precious baby in a sling against her chest or on her back.

Joseph is walking beside her carrying the lunch, some diapers—the Bible calls them “swaddling bands”—and a little basket with a lid. I’ll tell you about that later.

Perhaps, during the long walk, they stop beside the road to nurse the baby and change his diaper.

Finally they come within sight of Jerusalem. Above the city they see the beautiful Temple. From a distance it looks like the Temple Mount is snow-capped—the white limestone of the temple gleaming in the sun.

It was said that you don’t know what beauty is until you’ve seen the Jerusalem Temple.

King Herod’s builders have flattened the top of the mount and buttressed it with huge stones to make a great flat area as large as 20 football fields.

The Temple itself was in the middle of this courtyard.

There are two ways into the temple courtyard. One is via a great viaduct that extends over the street beneath and is mounted by many steps.

The other way in is via underground passages with steps that come out into the courtyard. These passages are lit by lamps.

The courtyard the Holy Family enter is called the Court of the Gentiles. Anyone, even foreigners could come this far.

In this courtyard they see souvenir vendors, money changers, and people selling sheep and oxen and pigeons for offerings.

People would be standing around praying—out loud, holding up their hands to heaven.

Around the great courtyard were beautiful cloisters, or porticos, roofed porches behind rows of beautiful columns.

One was called the “Royal Portico”; another was “Solomon’s Portico.” It was under the roofs of these porches that the rabbis taught--and where, later, Jesus would teach.

Mary and Joseph see priests clothed with white robes moving around among the people assisting them with their offerings.

Mary and Joseph are here today with their child because they are Jews and serious about their faith.

They are careful to keep all the requirements of their law, according to scripture.

On the eighth day after the baby was born, he was circumcised and given his name—the name “Jesus,” the name the angel had given Joseph.

Now they are at the Temple to fulfill two more requirements of the Old Testament Law.

The first was to pay the five shekel offering, as required for every firstborn boy baby. This was in remembrance of the escape from death in Egypt, when God said that the firstborn son belonged to God and must be redeemed by an offering.

The second, and more important responsibility was the ritual of the purification of the mother. This must be done 40 days after the baby boy’s birth. I don’t know exactly the reason for this, but it appears that life forces involved in the birth of a child were so awesome that the law required a special ritual before the mother could be free to go on with ordinary life and mix with people again.

The law, as recorded in Leviticus, required a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering. But provision was made for a family too poor to afford a lamb. In this case, another pigeon or dove could be substituted. This was the offering Joseph and Mary brings because they are poor.

Joseph buys the two young pigeons from a vendor in the temple court, puts them in his basket and closes its lid.

They go to the steps to a gate leading into another walled courtyard.

This is the “Court of the Women.” All Israelites could come into this area but it was called “The Court of the Women” because this was as far as the women could come.

Here they might have seen choirs of Levites playing their instruments and singing psalms.

There may have been dancing.

Here were the boxes were for the offerings. You remember that once Jesus sat here and watched people putting in their offerings.

I suppose it was now that Joseph turns over the two pigeons to a priest to make the offering for Mary.

The priest takes the offerings into another courtyard, up more steps to the great altar where the animals are being sacrificed. Joseph could follow into this courtyard, called “The Court of Israel,” but Mary, being a woman, could not enter this courtyard.

I. But of all this we read nothing. What we read about is something that happened that was quite unexpected. We don’t know at which point this unexpected event occurred. It may have been on the way in, or it may have been after the offerings had been made.

A. Suddenly an old man appeared. He took the baby into his arms and began to speak. I will read it to you in the words of scripture:

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles

and for glory to your people Israel.”

B. Luke tells us that this man’s name is Simeon.

Simeon was a righteous and devout man.

He was looking for what is called “The consolation of Israel,” which meant that he was looking for the fulfillment of the promises that God had made long ago of a Messiah who would comfort his people, healing their wounds and granting them salvation and peace.

The term comes from Isaiah, in which the prophet says,

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God,

speak tenderly to Jerusalem…” (Isaiah 40:1)

C. We read that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he has come to the temple at just this time to have his this promise fulfilled—to see the one who had been promised and for whom he had been waiting so many years—the Savior who would be a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for God’s people Israel.

We read, “The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul also.’”

When Simeon said, “…and a sword will pierce your own soul also” he was looking ahead, by the Spirit of prophecy to the event that would break Mary’s heart.

This is the dark shadow over the story of Christmas.

Old Simeon saw into the destiny of the baby.

This child would be a “sign” that was spoken against.

He would be hated and reviled and condemned and crucified.

And Mary would be there watching and grieving. That was the sword that would pierce her soul. We have the story in the Gospel of John.

II. And now a second character appears, an old lady named Anna.

A. Anna was either 85 years old. And she was a prophet.

Simeon had to be prompted by God to come to the temple that day, but Anna came every day and spent her days in the Temple . The record says, “She never left the Temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.”

Imagine Anna under the colonnades of the porticos around the courtyard of the temple speaking God’s word to whoever would listen.

Israel had a tradition of women prophets. We remember Miriam, Deborah, and Hulda. In the New  Testament, Philip the Evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

B. Then we read, “At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” So Anna came and took the baby from Simeon and began to praise God and to speak about the child.

Unfortunately Luke has not given us Anna’s speech.

But I have made a speech for Anna. It is something like this she must have said to Mary,

“Yes, dear mother,

there will come a time of great sorrow,

a sword will pierce your heart.

The sun will hide its face as the Lamb of God is handed over to sinners.

But a new day will dawn.

As with a mother in labor, sorrow will turn to joy.

Welcome, welcome, Holy Child.

With you, God will establish his kingdom.

‘Justice will roll down like waters

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’”

Jesus’s parents were there because they were obeying the Law of God.

Simeon was there because he had been prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Anna was there because she was always there.

And all four of them were brought together by God to bear witness to the destiny of the holy Child.

APPLICATION

Today we are Simeon. We are Anna.

We look back to what they looked forward to.

They looked at the baby Jesus and saw his sorrow and his glory.

We look back at our Risen Lord Jesus and see that he was “Immanuel,” “God with us.”

With the eyes of faith, we look at the Holy One who came into our world as a human baby and became our Redeemer and rose from the dead and will bring us with him to glory.

What we have in common with Simeon and Anna is that we have seen the Salvation of the Lord.

Though we don’t see him with our human eyes, we see him with the eyes of faith, and we believe in him and stake our lives and our hopes on his truth.

We take him into our hearts as our companion through life.

We follow by the way of the Cross, living for Jesus, obeying, loving, trusting, and hoping to the end.

Let this Christmas be a time of renewal, a time of re-commitment to the Savior who loved us even to death.

People give gifts at Christmas time.

What will we give Jesus?

Let us give him our hearts.

Let us live every day to make his love real in the world—not only to our friends but to everyone we meet.

As the first Christmas was a new beginning for the world, let this Christmas be a new beginning for us.

Longing for Our Homeland

PHILIPPIANS 3:20 – 4:1

INTRODUCTION

Do you ever feel like you just don’t fit in?

Do you ever feel like the things that most people are passionate about are just not very important to you?

A dying woman said to her pastor: “You hear in sermons about this world being a tricky, shallow place, but you never believe it until you stand at the door and look around just before you go out.”

Let’s not wait until we are ready to exit this world before we see it as it is.

You’ve heard the old hymn that goes—

“This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through,

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,

And I can’t feel at home in this world any more.”

An American tourist visited the 19th century Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room, filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, “Rabbi, where is your furniture?”

“Where is yours?” replied the rabbi.

“Mine?” asked the puzzled American. “But I’m a visitor here. I’m only passing through.”

“So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim.

In St. Paul’s letter to his friends in the Greek town of Philippi, Paul warns his friends against the enemies of the Cross of Christ—that is, people who live lives in opposition to the gospel.

He writes of them, “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.”

“Their minds are set on earthly things.” Some of us know what it is to have our minds set on earthly things—money, possessions, career, houses and cars, television, books, whatever…

Not that earthly things are necessarily bad; earthly things have their place. We need money and homes and food and clothes. And it’s good to have the things that make life pleasurable—for me, some of those things have been books and music and gardens and travel and friends.

We can—and should—use all we have of material possessions and interests and abilities to honor God and to be useful to other people whom God loves.

I used to use my interest in gardens to make a flower garden for my church.

My son-in-law loves cars. He uses his interest in cars to help people in his church who have trouble with their cars. He helps them with repairs, and sometimes helps them find good used cars.

I have a friend who loves to take pictures. He and some friends once had a ministry of taking free pictures for people who couldn’t afford real studio pictures. They advertised their services to single moms. The women would come with their children, and they had volunteer hairdressers and make-up artists. They would make the women and their children beautiful and take their pictures. Then they would print the pictures right on the spot and hand the pictures to the happy families.

But when we set our minds on the things of earth, they become little gods for us, and they cause us to forget our destiny—which is not in this world but in the world to come.

Remember the parable about the sower and his seeds: Jesus told about how some of the seed was choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and couldn’t bear fruit.

And since we will soon depart from this world and enter the eternal one, our greatest care should be fore the things that will count in the world we will live in forever.

This leads us to the text for today:

In Philippians 3:20 Paul writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”

I. When Paul writes: “Our citizenship is in heaven,” he is contrasting himself and the believers to those whose minds are set on the things of earth. The emphasis would be on the “our.” He’s saying, “These people’s minds are set on the things of earth, but our citizenship is in heaven.”

A. Philippi was an unusual city because although it was in Greece—hundreds of miles away from Rome—it was not a Greek city. It was a colony of Rome.

The city had been re-founded by Rome after a great battle as a place where her soldiers could retire to.

So the city had Roman laws, and many of the people spoke Latin rather than Greek.

They had special privileges, such as not paying the taxes that the people in the Empire paid.

Phlippi wasn’t a big city—only about 10,000 people, less than a third the size of Marion.

But they were proud to be citizens of the greatest city in the world.

B. I want us to think about what it means that our citizenship is in heaven.

A citizen has certain responsibilities and privileges.

As citizens of our country, some  of our responsibilities are to obey the laws, vote, and pay our taxes.

And as citizens we have privileges: fire departments, hospitals, police protection, schools, water departments, and sewers.

As citizens of our heavenly homeland we also have responsibilities:

We are responsible to love and obey our Lord Jesus.

That means that we are to forgive our enemies and pray for them.

We are to be generous and holy in our lives.

We are responsible to love our neighbors and put their interests before our own.

We are to live in such a way as to bring honor to the Lord who redeemed us on the cross.

And we have privileges:

Our sins are forgiven; we are made friends with God. Jesus is our constant companion.

We have an assured future: a home in glory.

We know that whatever happens, God will always hold us tight and never let us go.

We have the privilege of prayer: we can bring to God all our concerns and be sure that he hears us and cares about us.

II. After he says that our citizenship is in heaven, Paul writes, “…and from there we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.”

A. Did you know that the Roman emperor called himself “Savior”? He was worshiped as a god, especially in Philippi because it was a Roman colony.

When Paul says, “We are expecting a Savior…” he is contrasting the Lord Jesus with the Roman emperor.

Before Jesus was born, the angel told Joseph what was to be the name of the Holy Child that was to be born to Mary. The angel said, “He shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” The name “Jesus” or in Hebrew “Joshua” was a very common boys’ name in New Testament times. And the name Jesus means “Savior,” or “the Lord is salvation.”

B. “He will transform the body of my humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.”

I didn’t always think of my body as a body of humiliation, but as I grow older and experience more and more weakness and pain and the limitations my poor body, the more that expression, “The body of my humiliation,” resonates with me.

I am ready for this “body of humiliation” to be “transformed,” as the verse says, “to the body of his glory.”

Jesus also had a body of his humiliation. That is how he became our Savior. He was born as a helpless baby. He lived in a human body, with all of its weaknesses and limitations.

And he died in that body and bore the sin of the world in that human body.

But when he rose from the dead, he had “a body of glory.”

And the verse I read tells us that we will be transformed and be conformed to Christ’s body of glory.

I don’t know exactly what that means. I don’t know whether it means that we can spirit ourselves from place to place, or whether we can walk through closed doors. But I am sure that in our new bodies of glory we will sing and dance, and we will be through with pain and sorrow, and we will be beautiful.

In Matthew 13:43 we read what Jesus says about our destiny: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

I don’t know whether that means that we will actually shine like stars, or whether he is saying in a picturesque way that we will be glorious and splendid and honored.

CONCLUSION

Years ago Charlotte and I were visiting her Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Betty.

Uncle Lloyd was very ill and not expected to live much longer. They had set up a hospital bed in the living room of their apartment.

The visiting nurse arrived, and Uncle Lloyd greeted her in a loud voice: “I want to go home!”

I thought, Oh-oh, Uncle Lloyd is out of his mind.

But the nurse knew better. She said, “No Lloyd, you can’t go home until the Lord calls you!”

I read of an African tribe that had converted to Christianity. When one of their believers died, they didn’t say, “He has departed” or “She has passed on,” they said, “He has arrived” or “She has arrived.”

A refugee from Hitler’s Europe tells of his boyhood when so many tales were told about America that he felt that all the family knew this country well. So settled was this knowledge and love of the land he had not yet seen that his mother said to him when he was leaving for America “You are going home; I am staying in a foreign land.”

A young man told his pastor: “You talk too much about heaven. We need to talk about how to make this world a better place. Talking about heaven makes people give up on this life and just wait for heaven.”

His pastor replied, “I partly agree with you. We need to live now, fully committed to loving others here on earth. But we don’t have to make a choice, because what we do now prepares us for the coming world.”

I would add to that that what makes this life so important is that the way we live this life will determine our happiness and the happiness of our neighbors for all eternity.

Every good deed anyone does in this world enriches life in the world to come.

That is what Jesus meant when he spoke of “laying up treasure in heaven.”

If we truly understand that this world is not our home but that our homeland is the world to come, we won’t just sit around; we will be useful, we will fulfill our task, we will live by heaven’s values; we will make ourselves ready by love and good works because that’s what Jesus expects of us…to be faithful until he comes.

That is why the next lines in Paul’s letter are these: “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this say, my beloved.”

Don’t give up. Don’t just sit around and wait for glory. That’s not the way to be ready for that next great event in our lives.

“Stand firm in the Lord.”

Keep on to the end of the road. Only in that way can we prepare ourselves for our new home in glory.

I read about a famous Christian man who refused to have his biography written in the days of his fame and when he was still alive. He said, “I have seen too many people fall out on the last lap of the race.”

A great saint said, “The road goes ever upward, even to the very end.”

In my hometown of Lawrence, one of the industries is the box factory.

On every truck that leaves that plant there is written across the back of it: “Jayhawk boxes—carry the load to the end of the road.”

I want that to be true of me, that I keep on to the end, still living for God, still keeping the faith when I depart this world and arrive in my True Home—The Holy City, The New Jerusalem, Paradise, The Better Land, The Father’s House.

Thankful All the Time

1 Thessalonians 5:18

INTRODUCTION

Thanksgiving is coming soon, and we will take time out to be thankful.

We’ll look back on our lives and remember the kindnesses of people to us, of their love and encouragement that gives us the strength to pursue our goals.

We’ll thank God for friends, for life, for comforts, for hope, for salvation, for the gifts of God’s grace.

But when Thanksgiving Day is over and Friday comes, will we go back to being the same people we were before? Will we forget about being thankful?

In this sermon I want to encourage you to become a permanently thankful person, a person whose life just overflows with thankfulness, not just one day in the year, but everyday.

In his letter to the Christian believers in the Greek city of Thessalonica, St. Paul wrote these words: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

I. We need to learn how to give thanks to God.

A. Every prayer we make should include thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:6: “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks giving let your requests be made known to God.”

I’ve been thinking about my prayers, and I realize that almost all of my praying is asking for things.

What would you think of a child whose talk to his or her parents was almost all asking for things?

What would you think of a husband, all of whose conversation with his wife was asking her to do things for him?

God makes gracious promises to hear our prayers and open his hands to bless us.

We’re needy people and God wants us to come to him with our needs and the needs of others.

But prayer is much more than requests.

Prayer is the way we keep connected with God.

Here’s an old preachers’ story. On a normal day in heaven the angels are bringing basketsful of prayers to God.

Most of the angels’ baskets were overflowing.

But there was one angel who always had just a few prayers in his basket.

He was the angel who was assigned to bring the prayers of thanksgiving. But there were never very many of them. Most of the prayers from earth were just more requests.

B. In the Bible God talks to us, but in one book of the Bible it is believers who talk to God.

That is why the book of Psalms is so precious to us.

Read those prayers. Sometimes the psalmists just praise God, admire him, and speak of his wisdom, beauty, mercy, and goodness—like a lover telling his beloved how dear she is to him.

“O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is…” (Psalm 63:1).

Sometimes the psalmists complain; some psalms are cries of pain: “I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:3).

Some of the psalms are full of questions: “How long, O God, will you forget me for ever?” (Psalm 13:1), “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1).

Many psalms are simply meditations in which the psalmist bears witness to what it means to belong to God: “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble…” (Psalm 46:1). “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want…”

Some psalms are simply testimonies to God’s goodness: “Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”

Often psalmists do make requests; sometimes they beg God to help them in their troubles. Most of the psalms of complaint and questioning end with an expression of thanksgiving.

But I don’t think that there is any kind of prayer in the psalms that is expressed more frequently than the prayer of thanksgiving.

C. So every day, when you pray, try give thanks to God for something:

Thank God for people in your past who have loved you, blessed you, helped you, encouraged you, or inspired you by their example.

Thank God for opportunities you have had to serve, your successes, people you have been able to help.

Thank God, maybe, even for sorrows and troubles through which you have learned the important lessons that made you what you are.

Thank God for difficulties overcome, struggles in which you have found the strength to prove your loyalty to God.

Thank God for those who have been your mentors—parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, mentors who showed you the way to God.

I often thank God for the authors of books that have been some of my best teachers.

II. But all of our thankfulness shouldn’t be directed only to God.

A. We also have a duty to express our thanks to people in our lives.

How often to we remember to tell other people how much we appreciate them?

How often do we write letters of thanks and appreciation? A handwritten letter, in an envelope with a stamp on it is something special nowadays.

At various times in my life I’ve received letters from people expressing their appreciation for what I have meant in their lives.

When I taught school, often I would write letters to parents telling they what a pleasure it was to have their child in my class.

I’ll bet some of those letters are still kept—50-60 years later!

I have saved some of the letters of appreciation that I have received that are precious to me. I have some of them here:

A birthday card signed by all the members of my 7th grade class.

A letter from the parents of one of my students expressing appreciation for what I had done for their son.

A letter from a former student thanking me for the encouragement I had given her years before.

A letter from an inmate in the State Prison expressing appreciation for a Bible study I had conducted inside the prison.

A letter from a PTA board expressing sorrow that I was being transferred from their school.

A 4-page letter from a Japanese student who had been a member of a Bible study I led some years before in his high school in Japan.

A letter one of our daughters-in-law sent just before her marriage to our son.

Knowing how much these letters have meant to me makes me realize how much letters I may write can mean to people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

B. All the blessings in my life come from God, but most of them come through other people.

I often remind myself that almost everything good in my life has come through someone else—someone’s example, someone’s teaching, someone’s patience…

People need to know that they are appreciated.

Have you noticed how many of Paul’s letters begin with something like this: “I thank God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in all of my prayers for you…” (Philippians 1:5).

So I suggest that when Thanksgiving comes, you thank not only God but also those through whom you have experienced God’s love.

One August when I was 19, after my freshman year in college, I spent a month in a little Bible school that met over a store building in south Chicago. There were only 15 or 20 of us.

One of our teachers was a man named Dudley Sherwood.

I was inspired by Mr. Sherwood’s teaching. He made Bible doctrine come alive for me. He inspired me to learn Greek.

He always took time to answer my questions. He became my friend.

Many years later I remembered what a blessing he had been to me, and I wrote him a letter telling him so.

He wrote me back, and I will never forget one line in that letter. He wrote, “I had always thought that that summer was spent to no great profit.”

I found this in a book I am reading:

A gifted executive, looking back on his career, realized how greatly his life had been influenced as a youth by a certain teacher. He traced her through the school, found that she was retired, and wrote her of his appreciation.

He received this reply:

“I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of fall lingering behind. You will be interested to know that I taught school for fifty years and yours is the first note of appreciation I have ever received. It came to me on a blue cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has in years.”

A great psychologist and philosopher named William James wrote this: “The deepest craving of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

CONCLUSION

Let me leave you with these thoughts:

Thank God, on Thanksgiving Day and every day for life and for the blessings in your life.

Thank God for the people through whom those blessings came.

This is important, not only to the God who loves us, it is also important to you to draw you closer to God.

And don’t forget to thank also the people who are important in your life.

They need to hear what you have to tell them.

We all need to know that our lives have blessed others.