DECEMBER 13, 2020 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US LIVE AT 10 AM ON SUNDAYS!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
SAVE THE DATE: The 2020 Marriage Retreat is scheduled to be Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and November 8!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
Coty Miller’s own “Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
SERMON TRANSCRIPTION:
As we have been talking about silence I was thinking about all the wisdom surrounding that idea. The:
Bible says, “be slow to speak”
Culture says, “Silence is golden”
In the third grade, I was doing a DUO project and trying to make decisions with a young lady who was known as being shy and she RARELY spoke in class unless she was asked to speak. Sometimes she would be teased for it. Since we were together, I decided to ask her
“Sarah, why don’t you talk very much?” she said, “I don’t know...I only talk when I have something good to say.”
Since she answered me, I felt like I broke the ice, I followed up with like 8 rapidfire questions, she listened a minute then interrupted by SHUSHING me!
She said, “You were given two ears and one mouth so you would listen twice as much as you speak and you talk TOO much!”
I was like: “Dang! Sarah from the third grade...one of the times you do speak, and you use it to clap back on your small group buddy?
We became friends after that too!
There is LOTS of wisdom surrounding the idea of silence:
I even saw a Kermit the Frog Meme the other day that said: “My greatest accomplishment is just keeping my mouth shut with all you fools around here.”
Proverbs 29:20: “Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.”
We should WATCH what we say and be CAREFUL with the words we use, no doubt!! So this is what we are going to do for our first reflection question… consider the wisdom of being silent:
What is one of the greatest benefits to remaining silent when you want to speak?
If you have an example from your life where you remained silent and it probably worked out for the better?
Look we know “There is a time to speak out with truth in love” and there is a time to “bite your tongue.”
So far, this Advent, we have seen the theme of silence in the Christmas Story on two fronts:
First, there was 400 Years of silence between the OT and NT which was broken as a priest was given directions to participate in preparing the way for the Long Awaited Messiah to be born.
Second, Zechariah is made silent as he and Elizabeth are were made aware of their role to play in the messiahs coming because their son was going to be the forerunner to Christ!
While Zechariah did not CHOOSE his silence, today, we are going to see a DIFFERENT kind of silence.
A conscious decision is made on behalf of a group of people NOT TO SPEAK!
These WISE MEN put their lives on the line, denying information to an authority figure, for the protection of another.
Matthew 2:1-12
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them WHERE the Messiah was to be born.
Remember that King Herod is an incredibly cruel and paranoid man willing to protect his authority by any means necessary.
So, when people begin to show up at his front door looking for another King, he is disturbed!
These are IMPORTANT PEOPLE too! To be clear, they were not really Kings but high officials TO Kings, they are called “Magi” and they travelled an incredible distance to get to Jesus though they were not followers of God necessarily...they would be considered pagans.
Now, there’s lots of speculation as to why they know hebrew scripture, and even people who think they were babylonian descendants of people who studied under Daniel during his time there Exile
...in any case, Gentile religious leaders in the east were regularly exposed to Hebrew Scriptures, prophecy, and teachers.
When these men enter in HEROD’s city asking questions that point to a potential RIVAL to His throne Herod becomes concerned.
There is even a STAR - a SUPERNATURAL EVENT in the SKY - accompanying this other Kings arrival!
I heard in the news there is a planetary alignment this year - one quick note on the star that I’d like to make mention:
I want you to see, though, how Matthew’s account makes us very aware of the fact that, when God’s people are in disarray or not operating as they should, God is faithful to make sure His story moves forward.
Think about that for a moment: If God’s people will not point the world toward Him, He will operate through alternative modes:
We see him use wise men from the outside to come proclaim and worship the messiah.
He also uses creation - the stars - who open their mouths in testimony.
Charles Spurgeon says it like this:
“if it should ever be that men should fail to preach the gospel, God can conduct souls to his Son by a star. Ah! say not only by a star, but by a stone, a bird, a blade of grass, a drop of dew. “Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.” ...sad though it be to see the lamps of the sanctuary put out, yet God is not dependent upon human lights, he is the Shekinah light of his own holy place. Mortal tongues, if they refuse to preach his word, shall have their places supplied by books in the running brooks and sermons in stones...When chief priests and scribes have all gone out of the way, the Lord puts stars into commission, and once more in very deed the heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament is showing his handiwork. Sooner than lack speakers for the incarnate God, mountains and hills shall learn eloquence and break forth into testimony. Jehovah’s message shall be made known to the utmost ends of the earth.”
God would put a desire in us to faithfully proclaim the Good News story of Jesus...that we would not need to be replaced by the in-animate objects of creation but be inspired by the light of stars to ever proclaim Him more!
To HEROD, the star is not a welcome voice proclaiming salvation to the world, it indicates the birth of an opponent and the text says that not only was Herod DISTURBED...but “ALL Jerusalem with them.”
So, it seems the city’s residents, who KNEW of Herod’s violence, were frightened at the prospect of this sparking his malevolent nature.
At the end of todays text, we see that their fear is justified.
THIS is why Herod wants to know where the child is and, as his paranoia takes hold, he calls in “all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law” as advisors who utilize Jewish prophecy to give him an answer in verse 5...
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘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.’ ”
They paraphrase Micah 5:2 to give the King the answer he is looking for.
The sentiment of the scripture is that Bethlehem, which was not known for is size, stature, production, or influence would gain it’s importance from its connection to David.
Bethlehem was important b/c it is where King David was born and
….if you reach waaay back into our Gospel Story Series because it completes TWO connections we learned from David’s life!
1. That the messiah would come from the line of David &
2. That the Messiah would be LIKE DAVID.
What do we mean by that? Well, in:
David’s selection, he was the least of the brothers and his dad barely remembered him out on the hills with his sheep.
David wasn’t the obvious King, Saul was!
JESUS then is born in the same tiny, insignificant shepherding village,
He is born in a manger to a working class family amongst those considered “the least of these…”
Jesus wasn’t the obvious King Herod was!!
Second, He would be a true “Shepherd King” that would rule in a way that reflects Psalm 23 leading his people to quiet waters, correcting them if necessary, pasturing them in green fields, and - like a shepherd - who lives amongst his sheep - Jesus became incarnate and DWELT among His people…THIS is EXACTLY what he was doing when He came to earth!
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem isn’t just a quick nod to David’s hometown, it is a birthplace of PROPHETIC importance!
What we know now is that Herod has learned the PLACE of the Messiah’s birth BUT he also needs the TIME and he presses his investigation even further in verse 7,
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
From the text,
we don’t know why Herod was “secretive” other than he is just “up-to-no-good-Herod.”
We aren’t sure if they Magi were aware of Herod’s reputation After all, given the distance they have travelled, it’s possible they didn’t much about the King who summoned them.
And, at this point, we are left with no indication that the Magi would not do as Herod had asked of them.
This is what happens...verse 9:
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
What I LOVE about these verses and what stuck out to me this year as I studied was the immediacy and intensity with which they worship Jesus! It says, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him!!” Now, it’s possible they don’t even know the significance of His divine nature but we see them engage quickly! They go from standing to FACES ON THE GROUND WORSHIP!!
They don’t need to:
warm up to moment or
Make sure their instruments tuned
They aren’t waiting for
their favorite worship song
Led by their favorite worship leader
in their favorite musical style
Guitar led or piano led
Imale vocalist or female vocalist
....to get their heads into a space of worship.
They JUST
SEE JESUS!
They ENCOUNTERED Jesus AND there was a level of awe and wonder present - pure and unfiltered in a raw moment of worship, they go FACEDOWN!!
Maybe a little too raw cuz it’s possible Mary had to change the child’s diapers at some point in the visit.
I don’t mean that to be irreverent, I want you to see their environment was MESSY and REAL and...
it wasn’t catered to the preferences of the audience.
TOO OFTEN we want our particular preferences met when we come to worship Jesus!
It’s okay to have musical preferences but not to let it get in the way of your worship of GOD!
Picture the scene in your heads - sit there for a while - with the wise men focused on JESUS alone, they worshipped their KING!
May we not forget that this story and this entire season is about WORSHIPING JESUS…
ESV Study Bible says: “The actions of the Magi were unknowingly appropriate and wonderfully foreshadowed the worship of Jesus by all people, not just the Jewish people, but the Gentiles, and ALL nations - every tribe and tongue - would bow down and worship God!”
The Magi worship with their wealth as well bringing 3 famous gifts to Jesus.
The gifts are gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Many traditions ascribe symbolic meaning to each gift. Traditionally:
Gold - is a highly valuable cash item suitable for kings
Frankincense - shows Jesus’ priestly role because it was often used as incense in the priests duties.
Myrre - is used in the anointing of the dead pointing to the sacrificial atonement of Christ and the crucifix.
The gifts were likely used provident- ially to support them as they fled to Egypt but served as striking metaphors to communicate who Jesus was and to reveal his unique royal identity at this powerful moment of worship. Verse 12...
12 And having been warned in a dream NOT TO GO BACK to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Here is our moment of silence!
The men are “Warned in a dream”
This is one of the many times God HIMSELF interjects in the human timeline to protect Jesus and to bring about His plan for Jesus’ arrival.
They are warned “Not to go back to Herod, they returned...by another route”
Operating under the direct guidance of God, the Magi act in resistance to King Herod!
Instead of reporting back to him (who lied to them about wanting to worship the messiah) - Instead of telling him the location of the Messiah, they stay quiet.
They SHOULD be afraid of King Herod because he will, NO DOUBT, punish them if he finds them BUT the MAGI are more formed by the fear of God than the fear of man…
and they circumvent King Herod by returning home on a completely different route.
We are going to finish up today by jumping down to verse 16...
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Since he cannot pinpoint the exact whereabouts of the opposing King, Herod decides to bring about a general execution in Bethlehem:
The boys under 2 years of age (likely 10-30 boys) died in this horrific moment.
We won’t have time to cover this today but the families of these boys are given honor by Matthews association with an Old Testament lament.
Though they aren’t the point of the story, the author notes that God sees them and their mourning! So, they are given holy solidarity through the legacy of Rachel and the words of Jeremiah the prophet.
In today’s part of the Advent narrative, we get a CLEAR PICTURE and CONTRAST of two different responses to the birth of Jesus:
One is a kind of FEAR that reveres Him and places hope in Christ…
This one uses power and risks taking violence upon themselves, to protect life
AND
The other is a kind of FEAR that despises Christ competing with His arrival…
This one uses power to ENACT violence on others and to take lives away.
I want to close up with 3 simple questions:
1. How have you done with your proclamation of Jesus this season?
NOT just in word but DEEDS
NOT just in deed but WORD
Let me put it another way, “would Christ need to send another means by which to communicate himself to your neighbors because you are too discreet, afraid, or unclear with your words and deeds?”
2. Are you worshipping God for GOD this season? Are you allowing the Advent Story to penetrate your heart and mind that it causes you to get down on your face before Him in awe and wonder? Are you making sure to keep HIM as the focus in the midst of all the craziness of the season?
AND, finally,
3. Whatever measure of Power Christ has given you this day, are utilizing it to benefit yourself or leveraging it to bring life to others?
It is my prayer that we may we gain perspective from this narrative that allows us to place Jesus as the CENTER so that:
The stars, rocks, and all creation would come second to our praise and proclamation to God!
That we would be moved to worship due to Christ and nothing else!!
Fear God above all other things, living like him, and laying down ourselves for the sake of others to bring about life!
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.