Tag Archives: messiah

Heaven Invaded Earth!

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HEAVEN INVADED EARTH!

“There were sheepherders camping in the neighbourhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody worldwide. A Saviour has just been born in David’s town, a Saviour who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.’

“At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises.

‘Glory to God in the heavenly heights,

Peace to all men and women on earth who please Him.'” Luke 2:8-14 (The Message).

Why these shepherds? Why not Herod in his palace? Why not the ubiquitous Pharisees?

Why did the angel choir not rouse these important people from their sleep to tell them the marvellous news? After all, weren’t the religious people eagerly awaiting their Messiah? Why not the whole city of Jerusalem?

Imagine the front page article in the morning Jerusalem Herald? “Alien being announces birth of a Messiah! Last night an alien appeared to a group of shepherds on the hills outside Bethlehem with the story that a special child has been born in the town. Apparently this child, according to the angel, is alleged to be the long-awaited Messiah. A vast crowd of similar beings appeared to confirm the story with an eerie song in praise to God; so reported the shepherds.”

In keeping with the baby’s birth in a kitchen cum animal shelter, the only people to witness the angelic announcement were shepherds, men who did the most menial and despised job in Israel. Why? Think of it this way: Had the announcement been made to the wealthiest and most important people in Israel, everyone else would have been excluded. Tell the shepherds and, automatically, every class and level of society would be in.

Who else witnessed this other-worldly even? Apparently no one at this stage. No one else went running to the “maternity ward” to have a look at this new-born. In the middle of the night, while everyone else in Bethlehem was asleep, a group of shepherds and a young couple gazed in amazement at the sleeping child and wondered what the future held.

That’s how God works. The angels couldn’t keep their mouths shut in that holy moment. They exploded in an anthem of celebration, but only the shepherds witnessed the outburst. Then everything went quiet again. The little family was left to get on with the business of daily living and the parents the task of raising this boy to be an ordinary Jewish boy who had to grow up and learn like every other Jewish boy.

Luke doesn’t mention the drama of the visit of Persian astrologers who read the story in the star, and the subsequent escape to Egypt two years later. That was left for Matthew to fill in according to his purpose for his writing his story.

A strange mixture of the natural and supernatural in this amazing event! A pregnant woman goes into labour far from home and gives birth to a baby boy in a borrowed shelter.  An invasion of angelic messengers announces the birth to an unlikely audience, a group of sleepy shepherds accompanying their sheep on a nearby hillside.

Their story? ‘This ordinary child is no ordinary child! He’s actually God’s Son. How can you be sure? Check it out for yourself. You’ll find Him in the downstairs room of the hostel in Bethlehem, not in the maternity ward at the local hospital. He doesn’t even have baby clothes on. All they had to wrap Him in was a blanket. The crib Joseph made for Him is back home in Nazareth, so they put Him in the feed trough.’

That’s how heaven invaded earth!

 

Nothing Is Impossible

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NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

“He will be called great,
be called ‘Son of the Highest’.
The Lord God will give Him
the throne of His father David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever —
no end, ever, to His kingdom.”

“Mary said to the angel, ‘But how? I’ve never slept with a man.’

The angel answered,

‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you;
the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
will be called Holy, Son of God.’

“‘And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth, conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”

“And Mary said,

‘Yes, I see it all now:
I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me
just as you say.’

“Then the angel left her.” Luke 1:32-38 (The Message).

Unlike Zachariah, Mary did not have a problem with unbelief. She just didn’t know how she could conceive a child without a husband. A simple explanation satisfied her and she quickly submitted to the Lord’s will.

Did she understand what this calling would cost her? In the mercy of God she, like us, lived her life one day at a time.

If her fiancé, Joseph, had not been the godly man that he was, and a man who truly loved her, she might have lost him and the opportunity of having a husband and a normal family.

She had no idea of the stigma that she and her son would carry because of His virgin birth. And what of the pain of a son who appeared to have lost His mind so that He needed protection from Himself, and the worst of all, losing Him to death at the hands of His enemies! How would she handle the transition of being the mother of Jesus to being a disciple of the Son of God?

When Mary made her commitment to the angel that she was willing to be God’s handmaiden, although she knew nothing of what lay ahead of her, she was ready to entrust her body and her life to the God whom she loved and served. Whatever He asked of her, she was willing to give and she never reneged on her promise.

She trusted the God of her fathers and she trusted the son He had placed in her care for thirty years. With the angel’s reassurance ringing in her ears, ‘Nothing is impossible with God,’ she gave herself to her calling to bear this child, no matter what pain it brought into her life, because God had asked her to do it.

Stumbling Block

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STUMBLING BLOCK

“When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was able to give all his time to preaching and teaching, doing everything he could to persuade the Jews that Jesus was in fact God’s Messiah. But no such luck. All they did was argue contentiously and contradict him at every turn. Totally exasperated, Paul had finally had it with them and gave it up as a bad job. ‘Have it your way, then,’ he said. ‘You’ve made your bed, now lie on it. From now on I’m spending my time with the other nations.’

“He walked out and went to the home of Titius Justus, a God-fearing man who lived right next to the Jews’ meeting place. But Paul’s efforts with the Jews weren’t a total loss, for Crispus, the meeting place president, put his trust in the Master. His entire family believed with him.” Acts 18:5-8 (The Message).

Paul’s ministry to the Jews was like trying to wring blood out of a stone. The same stubborn resistance and unbelief that frustrated God through their entire history was still in them. It seemed that there were few Jews who responded, wherever Paul went, until he was forced to shake the dust off his feet and turn to those who welcomed him and received his message with enthusiasm. I guess, had Paul not had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus that shook him out of his stubborn unbelief, he might not have been where he was, doing what he was doing.

How did God weave this wholesale rejection into His plan for the salvation of the nations? Would these Jewish missionaries have so readily gone to the Gentiles had the Jews responded in greater numbers? As difficult as it was for Paul to accept the persecution he experienced at the hands of his fellow-countrymen, it was all in the plan of God to make Himself known to the nations to the ends of the earth.

Try as he might, as he went from city to city, he could not persuade the Jews that Jesus was their Messiah. What was the stumbling block? The cross! The very reason why God could invite His people into His presence, apart from the rituals that they had so come to trust, was the reason why they rejected Him in the end. They could not accept a crucified “criminal” as their Messiah, resurrection or no resurrection.

Paul understood this and he also understood that God in His sovereignty used this very rejection to open the door for Gentiles to hear the same saving message.

“Again I ask; Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious…Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” Romans 11:11-12; 22 (NIV).

Did God make the Jews rebellious and unbelieving? No, it was their choice. But God, in His sovereignty, used what they were to fulfil His purpose for the world. At the same time, He didn’t cast them off as rejects. In spite of those who believe and propagate that God is finished with the Jews, that is not what the Bible says.

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

“Just as you who were one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so now they too have become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.” Romans 11:28-32 (NIV).

A Dream Kid Alright

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A DREAM KID ALRIGHT!
“‘He’ll drink neither wine nor beer. He’ll be filled with the Holy Spiriit from the moment he leaves his mother’s womb. He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God. He will herald God’s arrival in the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics — he’ll get the people ready for God.'” Luke 1:15b-17 (The Message).

What went through Zachariah’s mind while he was listening to this prophetic word from Gabriel? What would you think?
Not only was the angel telling him that he and Elizabeth would have a son after all these childless years, and Elizabeth long past menopause, but he was also telling him what kind of a son he would be; a Nazarite, Spirit-filled from birth, a powerfully effective prophet when all the others had failed — Israel had never fully returned to the Lord to be the nation he wanted them to be — healing family rifts and successfully reuniting God’s people with himself. They were going to have a dream kid alright!

He would be a Nazarite according to Numbers 6:1-21. taking vow of separation and dedication to the Lord and indicating his vow by drinking no wine or fermented drink, eating nothing from the vine, not cutting his hair. and not going near a dead body which would make him unclean.

He would be Spirit-filled from birth. That does not guarantee that he would be sinless. He would still have the potential to sin like everyone else but he would also have the privilege of the Holy Spirit’s inward ministry of grace and power to overcome temptation, and the boldness to carry out his ministry fearlessly — and how he would need that when he confronted Herod and Herodias, and those indomitable Pharisees!
His ministry would be powerful and successful. God’s faithful prophets of the Old Testament never enjoyed that reassurance or experienced the blessing of permanent fruit. On the contrary, many of them, knowing that they would achieve nothing but antagonism, opposition and persecution, laboured with the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet”. He was hated, hounded and bullied by both king and people, but he stuck to his calling anyway.

The final prophetic words of Malachi 4:5,6 pointed to this day, after 400 years of divine silence, when God would send His last prophet before Messiah to herald the day of permanent transformation: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

How desperately we need John’s message of reconciliation between fathers and children to offset the destruction that is happening in families and to our youth. How many children have fathers in their homes who are not fathers? Fatherless children are a disaster and a hazard, and yet fathers have not learned to father because they themselves were not fathered.

It takes a courageous man to take his fathering role seriously when he had never experienced a father’s love. There is no better role model than the Father of all fathers. He is willing to be the perfect Father to anyone who will come to Him and submit to His embrace. He will teach you the love of a Father and how to be a true son.

The Apostolic Message

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THE APOSTOLIC MESSAGE

“On the Sabbath they went to the meeting place and took their places. After the reading of the Scriptures — God’s Law and the Prophets — the president of the meeting asked them, ‘Friends, do you have anything you want to say? A word of encouragement, perhaps?’

“Paul stood up, paused and took a deep breath, then said, ‘Fellow Israelites and friends of God, listen. God took a special interest in our ancestors, pulled our people who were beaten down in Egyptian exile to their feet and led them out of there in grand style. He took good care of them for nearly forty years in that godforsaken wilderness and then, having wiped out seven enemies who stood in their way, gave them the land of Canaan for their very own — a span in all of about four hundred and fifty years.'” Acts 13:14-20 (The Message).

What would you have said had you been Paul, given the opportunity of a lifetime to share the gospel message on foreign soil in a Jewish synagogue for the first time? What was his aim? Surely it was to present Jesus to the Jews and Gentile God-fearers as the fulfilment of their Scriptures.

It was not a “come to Jesus to have your sins forgiven so that you can go to heaven” message. It was a “this is the one God promised through the prophets from ancient times and now He commands you to repent and believe in Him” story. Paul anchored his presentation of the truth firmly in historical fact and in the familiar history of his hearers.

“‘Up to the time of Samuel the prophet, God provided judges to lead them. But then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, out of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul had ruled forty years, God removed him from office and put King David in his place with this commendation: ‘I’ve searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse. He’s a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.'” Acts 13:20-22 (The Message).

God was at work, guiding His people towards the moment when David would appear on the scene. Was Israelite’s demand for king premature? It was God’s plan from before the foundation of the world that His Son be a descendant of the royal line of David. As he spoke a blessing over his sons on his deathbed, Jacob prophesied that it would be from the tribe of Judah that the ruler would come (Genesis 49:8-12).

Why was Saul chosen to be Israel’s first king, from the tribe of Benjamin, God knowing full well that he would fail and be disqualified? According to Deuteronomy 23:2, no one born out of wedlock was permitted to hold public office in Israel up to the tenth generation. David was the tenth generation from Perez, the illegitimate son of Judah but he was too young to take office as king when the leaders of Israel made their demand of Samuel.

Had Saul been a godly king, his son, Jonathan, would have inherited the throne. David would not have been in the picture at all. Since God gave in to their demands, He put a loser on the throne to mark time until David was ready to reign in Israel.

It was up to Paul’s hearers to listen carefully and reach their own conclusions regarding the startling message he was bringing. It was important that he lay a solid foundation of fact so that they could make an informed decision regarding the identity of their Messiah.

This the beauty of God’s story — not some philosophical thumb-suck but verifiable historical facts of the God of heaven interacting with human beings in a series of miraculous events that have no natural explanation. God did intervene in human history to prepare a nation to be the cradle of His son and their Messiah.