Intro:
We have looked at worship in God’s throne room and that was an awesome passage. We have looked at worshipping the Lord because He was slain for us. Praise God, our great Savior! We have looked at adoring and worshipping the Lord in prayer. So, now let’s talk about the Bible in worship. I wish to look at worship in the Psalms.
To talk about worship in the Psalms, what Psalm should we turn to? Without looking at your bulletin, take a guess? Anyone, just call out a Psalm that expressed worship.
Let’s turn to Psalm 100:
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
That is a Psalm to look at when talking about worship. When the Psalms turned over to 100 they did so calling us to SHOUT for joy to the Lord. How about another short Psalm, Psalm 150. Turn there:
Psalm 150:
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
The Psalms end on a high note. They end talking about praise, don’t they?
However, that is not the route I am going.
I once came across a powerful quote by Daniel Webster that illustrates this topic. In the presence of Professor Sanborn of Dartmouth College, Mr. Webster laid his hand on a copy of the Scriptures as he said, “This is the Book. I have read through the entire Bible many times. I now make it a practice to go through it once a year. It is the Book of all others for lawyers as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought, and of rules for his conduct. It fits man for life—it prepares him for death.” ,
With that in mind, turn back a few pages to Psalm 119. I read the following:
The anonymous psalmist who wrote this longest psalm sought refuge from his persecutors and found strength by meditating on the Word of God. This psalm, the longest chapter in the Bible, is largely a collection or anthology of prayers and thoughts about God’s Word. C. S. Lewis compared it to a piece of embroidery, done stitch by stitch in the quiet hours for the love of the subject and for the delight in leisurely, disciplined craftsmanship.
This psalm contains a reference to God’s Word in almost every verse (except verses 84, 90, 121, 122, and 132). (The Jews claimed that only one verse did not refer directly to God’s Word: verse 122.756) The psalmist used at least eight synonyms for the Word of God, each of which conveys a slightly different emphasis. However, sometimes it appears that the writer chose a synonym simply to avoid repetition.”Way” and “ways” (Heb. derek) describes the pattern of life God’s revelation marks out. It occurs 13 times in the psalm (vv. 1, 3, 5, 14, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 59, 168).
I had trouble narrowing down, but let’s read verses 9-16 because the Hebrew Bible would consider that a section, the Beth section.
The application for today is this:
We are not ready for worship without the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible is our base in worship; the Bible is our guide in worship. The Bible is Truth, how can we worship without the truths of who God is? We cannot. So, meditate on God’s Word and then we have Truth to worship God with.
Psalm 119:9-16:
How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, Lord;
teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
Think about what this passage says, Hide the Word in our heart:
“The act of ‘hiding’ God’s word is not to be limited to the memorization of individual texts or even whole passages but extends to a holistic living in devotion to the Lord (cf. Deut 6:4-9; 30:14; Jer 31:33).”
Other responses to God’s Word that the writer mentioned and that occur first in this section are “rejoicing” (vv. 14, 74, 162), “meditating” (vv. 15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148), and “delighting” (vv. 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174).
I. This is the longest chapter in the Bible and it is all about God’s Word, the Bible.
a. The Psalms have been called the Jewish Hymnbook. Interesting that the longest is all about God’s Word. We have Psalms in the book of Psalms that they would sing on their way to Jerusalem for certain feasts, called Psalms of ascent. These are Psalms 120-134. I find it interesting that these Psalms follow the masterpiece on the Bible. Therefore, I believe meditating on the Scriptures is pivotal in worship.
b. There are verses in Psalm 119 that specify praise: See verse 164: Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.
c. Consider this, the Psalmist is praising God for God’s righteous law. The Law is the Word, the Bible. In fact, terms used for the Word or what we would call the Bible are:
i. Law,
ii. Testimonies,
iii. Precepts,
iv. Statutes,
v. Commandments,
vi. Rules,
vii. Word
II. The Scriptures are our base in worship. They are our guide in worship. We must have God’s Word in our head.
a. Think of paint, the base is critical. I worked at Lowe’s and I went to a paint certification class. In painting they taught us something like 90% of painting is surface prep. Not only that, there are base paints which we used to mix paints.
i. Our surface prep for worship is being in the Bible. Reading the Bible having the Bible handy.
ii. The Bible is our base. Just like I could not mix paint without the proper base paint, we cannot worship God without the Word.
b. Think of a building’s foundation. I am not a master-builder, but I have dug holes at Alliance Mission Encounter and we are supposed to go a certain depth. Foundation is important and the Bible is the foundation in worship.
c. There was a wonderful family in my youth ministry at my last church. So, I was disappointed to see that the mother posted an article on Facebook, or, rather linked an article, that references things the author wished Christians admitted about the Scriptures. This article had a negative view of the Scriptures. However, the more I study, the more I learn, the longer I am a Christian I am realizing that every Word of the Bible has great value and great meaning. Jesus responded to the devil’s attacks with the Scriptures. (Matthew 4; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13; John 4:6-7) The Word is the only, offensive weapon against the enemy in Ephesians 6:17, the Sword of the Spirit. People have sought out to prove the Bible wrong and they become believers.
d. I believe the Bible leads us into worship.
e. How can we study the Bible, study the promises of God, and not worship the One those promises are about? I believe the Bible is written about a Big God. Tony Campolo was once confronted by an atheist who was one of his students. The young man told Campolo, “For me to believe in God, I have to have a God that I can understand.” And Campolo replied, “God refuses to be that small!”
f. In Eugene Peterson’s book called Answering God, He makes a strong case that we only pray well if we are immersed in Scripture. We learn our prayer vocabulary the way children learn their vocabulary—that is, by getting immersed in language and then speaking it back. And he said the prayer book of the Bible is the Psalms, and our prayer life would be immeasurably enriched if we were immersed in the Psalms. So that was the first step. I realized I needed to do that, but I didn’t know how.
g. I think we could apply the same idea to worship. Where do we learn our worship vocabulary, but only from the Scriptures.
h. Let’s think about words and the promises of God:
Many philosophers have said that God is a pure spirit and so it is inappropriate to talk about God speaking. 102 Yet Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matt 24: 35). Philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff and others deny the idea that God cannot and does not speak. Wolterstorff applies J. L. Austin’s speech-act theory, which points out that words are also actions. They not only say things, they accomplish things. If God exists and has power to act, then there is no reason he could not speak, because words are also actions. Also, since the Godhead contains a community of persons, and because language is intrinsic to personal relationship, there is every reason to expect that God communicates through words. Therefore, Christian prayer is not plunging into the abyss of unknowing and a state of wordless hyperconsciousness. That condition is created not by words per se but by sounds . “The techniques that prepare for [the mantra meditation state of samadhi] feature repetitive sounds, sights, or actions. Analytical thought is mesmerized to favor intuitive awareness, a relaxed state in which one’s consciousness of individual identity is suspended.” Rather, Christian prayer is fellowship with the personal God who befriends us through speech. The biblical pattern entails meditating on the words of Scripture until we respond to God with our entire being, saying, “Give me an undivided heart, that . . . I may praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart” (Ps 86: 11– 12).
Timothy Ward’s book Words of Life argues that God’s words are identical with his actions. He quotes Genesis 1:3, “‘ Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Ward observes that the passage does not say that first God spoke and then he proceeded to do what he said he would do. No, his word itself brought the light about. When God names someone, his very word also constitutes the person. When he renames Abram to be Abraham—“father of a multitude”— that word makes the aged man and his wife biologically and spiritually capable of being the progenitors of a whole race (Gen 17: 5). Psalm 29 is an entire hymn of praise of the power of God’s voice. “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars—the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert— the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh” (Ps 29: 5, 8). We see again that what God’s voice does, God does. God’s speaking and acting are equated. Isaiah 55: 10– 11 puts this theological principle most powerfully.
One writes: We humans may say, “Let there be light in this room,” but then we have to flick a switch or light a candle. Our words need deeds to back them up and can fail to achieve their purposes. God’s words, however, cannot fail their purposes because, for God, speaking and acting are the same thing. The God of the Bible is a God who “by his very nature, acts through speaking.” When the Bible talks of God’s Word, then, it is talking of “God’s active presence in the world.” To say that God’s word goes out to do something is the same as to say God has gone out to do something. To break one of God’s commands or words is to break one’s relationship with him. “Thus (we may say) God has invested himself with his words, or we could say that God has so identified himself with his words that whatever someone does to God’s words . . . they do to God himself. . . . God’s . . . verbal actions are a kind of extension of himself.”
So, we need to have the Word, the Bible, in our head, we do that by meditation.
III. Meditate is used 18 times in the N.I.V. translation of the Old Testament and 16 times in the Psalms. Meditate is used a total of 8 times in Psalm 119. Of course what does the verb mediate have to do with the Bible.
a. I’m concerned about approaches to reading the Bible that say: Read the Bible, but don’t think about theology, just let God speak to you. I’m concerned about that because God speaks to you in the Bible, after you do the good exegesis and you figure out what the text is saying. Martin Luther believed you need to take the truth that you have learned through good exegesis, and once you understand that, you need to learn how to warm your heart with it—get it into your heart. And it diminishes our prayer life that our hearts are cold when we get into prayer. Without meditation, you tend to go right into petition and supplication, and you do little adoration or confession. When your heart is warm, then you start to praise God and then you confess. When your heart is cold, which it is if you just study the Bible and then jump to prayer, you are much more likely to spend your time on your prayer list and not really engage your heart.
b. Prayer begins with worship. Prayer and worship go hand-in-hand. So, we can apply truths about the importance of Scripture in prayer to the importance of Scripture in worship.
c. The idea of meditation is not necessarily memorization, but making the Scriptures a part of us. This will lead to worship, but this will lead to God’s Word becoming a part of us. This means that we will reason differently, think differently, live differently. The promises of God, the actions of God are a part of us. Then we have the language of worship.
The application for today is this:
We are not ready for worship without the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible is our base in worship; the Bible is our guide in worship. The Bible is Truth, how can we worship without the truths of who God is? We cannot. So, meditate on God’s Word and then we have Truth to worship God with.
Let’s pray

Two weeks ago we looked at worship in the throne room of God. At that time we talked about worshipping the Lord because He is worthy. Last week Meagan talked to you about worshipping the Lord because Christ was slain for us. Today, let’s look at a prayer in Scripture.
A few months ago I was listening to Max Lucado talk about his new book on prayer. He gave a short prayer based off of all the prayers in the Bible.
‘”Father, you are good. I need help. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”’ This prayer, Lucado says, is a template for beginners to pray their balanced prayers rather than simply offering up a list of demands.”
I notice how Lucado begins this prayer with “You are good.” He analyzed many prayers in the Bible and tried to study all of them and realized this prayer. I see that prayer begins with worship in “You are good.”
Max Lucado said that he is not good at prayer. I would have to say that I am not good at prayer either. So, I have been reading Tim Keller’s book on prayer. Tim Keller spends time in worship in our prayer life. He writes:
There are three basic kinds of prayer to God. There is “upward” prayer— praise and thanksgiving that focuses on God himself. We could call this the “prayer of awe.” Then there is “inward” prayer —self-examination and confession that bring a deeper sense of sin and, in return, a higher experience of grace and assurance of love. That is the prayer of intimacy. Finally, there is “outward” prayer— supplication and intercession that focuses on our needs and the needs of others in the world.
Following that Keller spends a chapter on upward prayer. He shares:
Years ago I was preaching on the Lord’s Prayer and commented— rather offhandedly— that since adoration comes before asking for “daily bread,” we need to spend time thanking and praising God for who he is before we go to our prayer list of needs. One woman in my congregation took this to heart and a couple of weeks later related what a difference the advice had made. “Before,” she said, “I would run right to my prayer list and the more I went through all the problems and needs, the more anxious and burdened I would get. Now I’ve started spending time thinking about how good and wise he is, and how many prayers he’s answered of mine in the past. And when I get to my own needs— now I find I can put them in his hands and I feel the burden coming off me rather than on me.” I never forgot her testimony, because she had taken a principle I barely understood myself and had appropriated it in her life.
He writes:
Eugene Peterson believes that, just as all prayer is framed by praise, in the end, all prayer should and will end in praise. He writes: All [true ] prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise. Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry and fearful the experiences it traverses, ends up in praise. It does not always get there quickly or easily— the trip can take a lifetime— but the end is always praise. . . . There are intimations of this throughout the Psalms. Not infrequently, even in the middle of a terrible lament, defying logic and without transition, praise erupts. . . . Psalm 150 does not stand alone ; four more hallelujah psalms are inserted in front of it so that it becomes the fifth of five psalms that conclude the Psalter. These five hallelujah psalms are extraordinarily robust. . . . [ This means] no matter how much we suffer, no matter our doubts, no matter how angry we get, no matter how many times we have asked in desperation “How long?,” prayer develops finally into praise. Everything finds its way to the doorstep of praise. This is not to say that other prayers are inferior to praise, only that all prayer pursued far enough, becomes praise. . . . Don’t rush it. It may take years, decades even, before certain prayers arrive at the hallelujahs, at Psalms 146– 150. Not every prayer is capped off with praise. In fact, most prayers, if the Psalter is a true guide, are not. But prayer is always reaching toward praise and will finally arrive there. So . . . our lives fill out in goodness. Earth and heaven meet in an extraordinary conjunction. Clashing cymbals announce the glory. Blessing. Amen. Hallelujah.
C. S. Lewis says that a lack of praise of God is a lack of reality, and praising him helps us enter the real world and enjoy him more fully.
So, today let’s look at an example prayer. I want to go to the Old Testament and look at one of King David’s prayers as well as one of Daniel’s prayers. I also want to look at the Lord’s prayer. We will simply skim over these and see what we can learn from him. What is my point? My point, the great idea is that we are to pray in adoration and praise with an attitude of humility.
Read with me 2 Samuel 7:18-29:
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
“Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign LORD, is for a mere human!
20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, SovereignLORD. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.
22 “How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, LORD, have become their God.
25 “And now, LORD God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great forever. Then people will say, ‘The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight.
27 “LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
I. We are to pray in worship, let’s look at Matthew 6:9-11:
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

a. Jesus, who is a descendent of King David, gave us instructions in prayer and at the very beginning of those instructions He tells us to begin prayer: Our who is in Heaven. Hallowed or Holy is Your name. In prayer we understand that God is Holy and that God is in Heaven. In prayer we say Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
b. So, Jesus instructs us to begin prayer in worship. By what Jesus instructs we do not have a choice. We do not begin prayer about ourselves but about God. Before we ask for any request we give glory to God. So, in reality, our prayer is not to be about us but giving God the glory due His name.
c. Tim Keller writes: In Jesus’ instruction on prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, praise comes first. In what ways is praise primary? Praise motivates the other kinds of prayer. The more we attend to God’s perfect holiness and justice, the more readily we will see our own flaws and confess them. Seeing God’s greatness also leads to supplication. The more we sense his majesty and the more we realize our dependence on him, the more readily we will go to him for every need. We could say that awe-filled adoration of God corrects the other forms of prayer.
d. I love that last phrase: awe-filled adoration of God corrects the other forms of prayer.
e. Now we are ready to look at David prayer once again.
II. In David’s prayer, David prays in praise and adoration with an attitude of humility.
a. Let me set the context first.
b. Prior to this passage, the Ark of the Covenant was moved into Jerusalem, David was wanting to build a Temple for the Lord and then Nathan the prophet came to David telling him that God did not want him to build a temple, but for his descendant will build the temple. Prior to this passage there is an amazing passage in which God declares His covenant with David that David’s throne shall last forever. This is an amazing Messianic prophesy.
c. In this prayer we see that ten times David called Himself the Lord’s Servant and eight times David referred to the Lord as the Lord Most High.
d. Let me just outline the prayer.
e. David begins prayer with thanksgiving, which I would say is a kind of praise in verses 18-21.
f. Then David gives praise for what God has done in the past in verses 22-24.
g. Notice verse 22: How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
h. Then we have a petition for God to fulfill His promises in verses 25-29. Notice that his request is still more of an addendum. One writes: David included humility (v. 18), gratitude (v. 19), praise (v. 22), remembrance (vv. 23-24), and acknowledgment (vv. 25-29), as ingredients in this prayer. Normally Israelites stood or kneeled to pray. Perhaps David “sat” back on his heels to pray in a kneeling position because he was a king.
i. David, even in asking his request does so with worship. In verse 28 David says that the Lord’s words are true. Jesus said the same thing in John 17:17.
j. So, we see this as a model of prayer in worship and humility.
III. Allow me to site another example: turn to Daniel 9:3-5.
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.
a. Just notice that Daniel began this prayer with worship. Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
b. Following this there is great humility: we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.
c. So, there we see another example of prayer in Scripture, yet there are countless examples of worship in prayer in the Scripture.
Tim Keller writes about adoring God in prayer:
Adoring God, God is transcendently and infinitely bright, blessed, and beautiful. He is self-existent— depending on nothing for his being. Instead, all things are dependent on him. He is an infinite and eternal Spirit, the only perfect One, the God of absolute glory and importance. God’s perfections are matchless and without comparison. Those perfections include his eternal and unchanging character; his presence everywhere; his perfect knowledge of all things; his perfect, unsearchable wisdom; his absolute, irresistible power and sovereignty over all that happens; his unspotted moral purity, beauty, and holiness; and his justice— his inexorable judgment that will ultimately put all things right. God is a Creator God, the maker, protector, sustainer, and ruler of all creation. He is a God of truth, a speaking God with whom we may have a personal relationship. He is the covenant God, who is faithful to his promises, who has bound himself to us that we might bind ourselves to him. He is the triune God, one and yet three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not only our King but our Friend and Spouse. Our hearts were made for him to be our only joy.
Lastly, he continues:
We must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God— drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression, our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds. The Scotch catechism says : “a man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But we shall then know that these are the same thing . Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.
You know what? In David’s prayer, verses 27 is Thy Kingdom come and the thrust of verse 28 is Thy will be done.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)
Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)
Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)
Let’s pray

Attitude and attitude in worship:

I want to think about our attitude when we come to worship God. Listen to what Chuck Swindoll says about attitude:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Now, let’s start talking about worship. What is our attitude when we come to worship? Who do we think we are? Really? I remember hearing that Joni Eareckson Tada said something about when she gets to Heaven she is going to kneel on her new legs and worship God. Now, what you must know is that she has been a quadriplegic for decades. What does she want to do? She wants to worship God.

Please, reflect on your attitude as we look at this passage and as we talk about worship. Let’s read Revelation 4:1-11 and the application is that we humbly worship God because He is worthy. We are not worthy.

Please turn in your Bibles and let’s read Revelation 4:1-11:

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

I. I have one application. I am going to walk through this passage in order to show that God is worthy to be worshipped.
1. In order to do this I need to explain where we are at in the Bible. I think it would be wrong of me to simply start us a quarter of the way through Revelation and not give more detail about this book.
2. Actually, context is always important.
3. This is Revelation chapter 4 and John, the writer of Revelation is taken into the throne room of God. Imagine this. Have you ever seen something absolutely amazing? Have you ever seen something that compelled you to realize how awesome our God is? Have you seen something that reminds you of how little you are?
1. When I was a kid my parents took me to see Mount Rushmore and I really was not that amazed or that shocked. It was a cloudy day and it just did not strike me.
2. A few years later my parents took me to see the Grand Canyon and wow! That is all I can see. The Grand Canyon is amazing! I went there a few years later and it was the same reaction on my part. When I see the Grand Canyon, I am reminded of how little I am and how Great God is.
3. But, even before that, I was going into third grade and we went to Myrtle Beach and I saw the ocean for the first time. I love, absolutely love looking out on the ocean. The ocean reminded me of how great God is and how big the world is.
4. I remember being a child going into a planetarium at the Dayton Museum of Natural History. “Radical” was an adjective that I recently had learned. The person leading the show was showing us all the galaxies and where earth is and I said, “Radical” in a way that everyone could hear. Then the man leading the show said, “Is that the word these days?” “Radical” is a good word, but “awesome” is the best word. Seeing how big outer space is shows our awesome creator.
5. We are little, God is not just big, but amazing.
4. In this text John is trying to describe the indescribable.
5. Some studies show that children’s memories do not necessarily begin at age two or three. The problem is that before that age they do not have the words to retain, or process or explain what they have experienced. Therefore, there is no way for them to store these experiences in their memory. Think about that with this passage, and really most of Revelation. John’s vocabulary is not great enough, diverse enough to describe what he is about to see. How does that work? Neither would my vocabulary be exhaustive enough to describe this nor would yours. But what he does describe is absolutely amazing.
6. Verse 1 is the beginning of this vision. John says that there was a door and a voice like a trumpet said “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.” The first two words and last two words of verse 1 are “after this” that means what is in between is called an inclusio. Sometimes in the Bible there are inclusios which cover a few chapters. It is like a parentheses.
7. In verse 2 John is “immediately” “in the Spirit.” This could mean that he was in the Holy Spirit, or Spirit just is a spiritual state.
8. Now, this is not the first time John has written about being in the Spirit. In Chapter 1:10 John wrote that he was “In the ‘Spirit’ on the Lord’s Day…” So, something we must understand with the book of Revelation is that there are all kinds of things happening around John all at once. John likely describes things as he can, using the terminology that he can, but also he seems to repeat things, but he really is not. He is simply describing the same thing again in order to describe something else related to it. I heard this described as a cyclorama. Those are 360 degree pictures that depict an event. There is one at Gettysburg. This shows the war all around you. What John is experiencing is all around him and it is outside of time. John is describing these things in a temporal way. We are looking for chronology but there is none.
9. So, it appears what he is describing in this passage is similar to Revelation 21:9 so it is possible that John is seeing the New Jerusalem right here and then he particularizes the New Jerusalem in chapter 21.
10. So, he describes a beautiful throne room with all kinds of jewels. Then he describes 24 thrones with elders on the thrones. The elders had crowns. I like the belief that the elders are reflecting all believers. For example, in Rev. 3:11 Jesus said not to let them take your crown. In Rev. 1:6 we are called a Kingdom of Priests. In the Old Testament there were 24 priests. 24 was an important number in Judaism. 1 Chronicles 24 we have a listing of the 24 orders of priests. The beginning of Luke’s Gospel we see Zechariah’s vision and we see Abijah was one of the 24 priests.
11. Verse 5 references flashes of lightning and thunder. These are always signs of God’s presence. God is in the middle of this throne room. Remember what I said, John is trying to describe the indescribable. There is more in here but let’s skip to verses 8-11.
12. There are four living creatures that never rest. They are constantly worshipping the Lord.“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”
13. Up until now we have talked about the setting and Who was at the setting and that is God. God’s presence was with them. Now, the response to the setting is worship.
14. Let’s think about worship. Remember I talked about attitude. When you come here to worship is your focus and attitude on God? Who are we worshipping? Are we sacrificing ourselves? I am not talking about money, I am talking about surrender. Are we surrendered. Don’t say, “I don’t have the right attitude so I might as well stay home.” No, we must prayerfully seek the Lord and ask that He corrects our attitude.
15. I must confess, my attitude is not perfect, some of you may have better attitudes than mine. I must ask God to work on me. We must ask God to work on us.
16. We are going to get into this now and I want it stated that I am not preparing to say what style of worship is best or what songs are best or right or wrong (and there are some songs that are not about God, but us), I want to show you that when we are with God we respond in worship. I want to focus on attitude. Look at this.
17. Look they say “Holy” how many times. Anyone, share how many times we see the adjective “Holy.” Three times. In Jewish language they could not say “holiest” so they would say something three times and that meant “most holy.” They are saying that God is most holy. He is the holiest. He Is Lord, He is God, He is most powerful or almighty.
18. He is eternal.
19. Then, whenever they gave glory, honor and thanks to God, the elders would throw themselves down. Wow!
20. That is humility. Dr. Mulholland of Asbury Theological Seminary shared:
1. We are not a bowing culture. When Dr. Mulholland enters the room the students do not bow to him, but when he taught in Korea when he came in they would bow and if a student came in late they would bow. Bowing acknowledges God as God.
2. Worship is allowing God to be God. Not just praising God and saying God you are God, but allowing God to be God.
21. I am not asking that you bow, but maybe we should. How do we know that our attitude is one of humility?
22. I do not know that answer, I am asking you. I have pride in my heart like I am sure you do and maybe in bowing or falling on the ground we are forced to remember our station before God. Is our attitude one of humility in worship.
23. It used to be common to pray on our knees, maybe we should get back to that. I had a preaching professor who talked about studying on His knees.
24. In the Old Testament Moses would fall prostrate before God in repentance.
25. We see this sort of humility all throughout the Bible.
26. Where are we?
27. Let’s pray and repent of our attitude of pride and lack of reverence before we move on. I am sure I am not alone, but if you feel you don’t have to repent then as I pray you don’t have to or you can pray, “Father God thank you that my attitude is correct…”
28. Next, these elders did not simply fall down. They offer their crowns before the throne. This is surrender. They cast their crowns. The crown represents role, authority. The Elders, who represent us, are surrendering their rule of their relationship to God, to God. Are we allowing God to be God on His terms or our terms. Casting crowns allows God to be God on His terms. John uses the present tense, they “are casting.” They are continually casting crowns. Our relationship with God is a love relationship which means we are free to say “no.” This means that we continually offer our authority and power before God and surrender and say, “You are Lord and I am not.”
1. Cast (βάλλουσιν). Read βαλοῦσιν shall cast. The casting of the crowns is an act of submission and homage. Cicero relates that when Tigranes the king of the Armenians was brought to Pompey’s camp as a captive, prostrating himself abjectly, Pompey “raised him up, and replaced on his head the diadem which he had thrown down” (Oration “Pro Sestio,” xxvii.). Tacitus gives an account of the public homage paid by the Parthian Tiridates to the statue of Nero. “A tribunal placed in the centre, supported a chair of state on which the statue of Nero rested. Tiridates approached, and having immolated the victims in due form, he lifted the diadem from his head and laid it at the feet of the statue, while every heart throbbed with intense emotion” (“Annals,” xv., 29).
29. Lastly, they worship as well.“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
30. Who is worthy to be worshipped? God.
31. Who created all things? God.
32. John is seeing who we are and who all creation is, what all creation is.
33. John is seeing that we existed in the heart of God’s love before we were created.
34. Ephesians 1:3: Paul notes that our lives are immersed in blessings. Verse 4: God chose us before the foundation of the world. “Chose” this means to speak forth. Genesis 1: God spoke forth creation. We were in the heart of God before we were created, before anything created. There was no emergency in Heaven when we were conceived, maybe in our mother’s life.
35. Psalm 139
36. By God’s hand we existed and were created.
37. We are not accidents.
38. The only response is self sacrificial worship. The only response is worship in humility.
39. The only response is to join the elders, which we may be in that group anyways and say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.”

When I was a child my dad would rebuke me and say, “You need an attitude adjustment.” I wonder where our attitudes are at when we come to worship, or, why limit it to worshipping with the body of believers? Why allow our attitude to be a mess throughout the week. Maybe we simply must ask the Lord to work on our attitude.

Fijian Government Silences Singing at Conference
In Fiji, singing hymns can get you in trouble. About one million Methodists live in the south Pacific island country, and each summer 20,000 to 50,000 of them gather for a conference. Before the conference begins, they have a massive choral contest. About 10,000 people participate. They sing hymns. That’s it. Hymns. But in July 2009, the government shut them down. “No choral contest this year,” the government said. There is a lot of turmoil in Fiji, and the government feared that the big crowd might get out of hand. According to news reports, “Church officials said the government fears the conference and singing contest will lead to further political instability.” Nothing like singing Methodists to make a government nervous!
They are on to something there, though. Christians worshiping the Lord really are dangerous—although perhaps not as those officials feared. Worshiping God in Christ upsets world systems. It is revolutionary, subversive. It brings another kingdom into view.
Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: Kim Cain, “Fiji Bans Massive Methodist Hymn-Sing,” Religion News Service (7-31-09)

Let’s pray.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)
Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)
Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Christmas is now over and so is New Year’s.

We have been talking about prophesies fulfilled by Jesus, listen to what Tim Keller shared:
during his 2007 talk at the Gospel Coalition National Conference:
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

What do you most like and not like about Christmas? People were asked that question in 2013 and this is what they said:
Stats on What We Like/Dislike about Christmas
A 2013 Pew Research poll asked people what they like or dislike the most about the Christmas holiday season. Here’s a list of what people most look forward to at Christmas time:
1. 68 percent said spending time with family and friends
2. 11 percent mentioned religious services or religious reflection
3. 11 percent look forward to the Christmas “spirit” of joy and good will
4. 5 percent said music, decorations, and shopping
5. 4 percent look forward to the end of the Christmas season
Here’s what the poll said we most dislike about the Christmas season:
1. 33 percent—the commercialism and materialism
2. 22 percent—the money and expense
3. 10 percent—the shopping and crowds
4. 5 percent—the hectic pace and bad moods of people
5. 2 percent—the pressure to go to church
Note: For the purpose of this illustration, some of the categories in the original survey have been renamed and combined into one category.
Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, “Celebrating Christmas, Then and Now,” (12-18-13)

Regardless of what you most like and most dislike, there was a lot of worship during the first Christmas and the days afterwards. Jesus was born and then in Luke 2:13-14 and verse 20 there was worship. The angels worship and the shepherds worshipped.
Listen to what one scholar wrote:
What a paradox that a babe in a manger should be called mighty! Yet even as a baby, Jesus Christ revealed power. His birth affected the heavens as that star appeared. The star affected the Magi, and they left their homes and made that long journey to Jerusalem. Their announcement shook King Herod and his court. Jesus’ birth brought angels from heaven and simple shepherds from their flocks on the hillside. Midnight became midday as the glory of the Lord appeared to men.
Warren W. Wiersbe in His Name is Wonderful. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 18.

I planned that I would start a sermon series on worship next week. However, I started studying for this sermon and I thought, this is really the beginning of the series on worship. Next week we will get into the more nitty gritty. Today, we look at how the magi worshipped Jesus.

The great idea and application today is that Jesus, the light of the world is worshipped by the magi and so must we worship Jesus.

Turn in your Bibles and read with me Matthew 2:1-12:

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 in the east 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 Christc was to be born. 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 be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
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 make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the easte 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 and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

I. Notice, in verse 2 the wise men are traveling to worship Jesus. I notice right here that worship involved sacrifice.
1. So, here is this baby, about two years old being worshipped.
2. The wise men are traveling from the East to Jerusalem. The E.S.V. Study Bible makes a note.The wise men likely traveled with a large number of attendants and guards for the long journey, which would have taken several weeks. For example, if they had come from Babylon by the main trade route of about 800 miles (1,288 km), averaging 20 miles (32 km) per day, the trip would have taken about 40 days.
3. We can read the next several verses about their travels and even in verse 12 they traveled out of their way to worship Jesus.
4. An application for us all: Do we desire to worship God and will we sacrifice in order to worship God?
5. We, actually, may not desire to worship God, but does that mean we should not? They traveled to worship?
6. We have talked about the prophesies fulfilled in Jesus and we see in verse 6 a quote from Micah 5:2 regarding Bethlehem and these wise men or magi likely knew the Old Testament writings which helped them know where to go in order to worship.
7. How important is it for us to worship?
II. In verse 8 Herod says that he wished to worship Jesus. I notice that in this case Herod lied.
1. Herod did not wish to worship Jesus. He wished to kill Jesus. In fact, in verses 16-18 we see what is called the slaughter of the innocense in which, rather than worship Jesus, Herod kills all the children under age two in hopes that Jesus will be killed. Wow!
2. By the way, verse 18 is another prophesy fulfilled, this time from Jeremiah 31:15. In verse 15 there is a prophesy fulfilled from Hosea 11:1.
3. Do we ever lie to ourselves or others about worship?
4. No, I don’t think any of us lie like Herod did. We likely, don’t even mean to lie. We may not realize that our motives our impure. But they are.
1. Why are we here?
2. Am I here to worship Christ or because of a job?
3. Are you here to worship Christ or to fulfill a duty, maybe to feel good.
4. Are we here to see friends or to worship?
1. Seeing friends is not bad. Fellowship is important as well but worship must be a priority as well.
2. I knew of someone who said that he came to church for business connections. The church is not Kiwanis.
3. I knew of someone that said we come for our children.
5. Are you here to worship Christ or because you have nothing better to do?
6. Of course it is equally as bad to say, “My heart is not in it so I will skip worship.” No, pray that God gets your heart right. Get up early and pray so that you are eager to worship Christ. Change something so that you can eagerly worship Christ. Don’t sin by skipping out on worshipping Christ Jesus.
7. These three words used for worship are verbs that means action. What is the action? Humility.
III. In verse 11, in humility, the wise men worship Jesus.
1. The bowed down.
2. The N.E.T. Bible has a note that reads: “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
3. Are we here to worshipping God in reverence?
4. Listen, I also have no problem with hand raising in worship but know what that means. What does that mean? It means surrender. We are surrender to Jesus and we raise our hands surrendering and exalting Jesus.
5. These wise men, or magi were wealthy, very wealthy and very wise and they surrendered and bowed down to a toddler.
6. My toddler wants me to surrender to her, but Jesus was and is worthy.
7. Whether we bow down or not, are we surrendering?
8. Are we metaphorically bowing down when we sing songs to God? What about when we pray to God?

Close:
So:
1. The wise men, or magi, sacrificed to worship Jesus. Sacrifice to worship Jesus this week.
2. Herod lied about worship, pray for pure motives.
3. The wise men, or magi, bowed down in humble surrender to worship Jesus. I pray we do the same.

Christians that were in Russia anytime during the 1950s to about 1990 were familiar with the voice of Nick Leonovich. For decades before the Iron Curtain came down, Nick had been faithfully broadcasting the gospel in Russian to his people. When the doors began to open, and Nick would travel through Russia and meet those Russian believers finally, a lot of them would stop him and they’d say, “Hey, I know your voice! You led me to Christ.” Wow!
Well, I’ve got to tell you, Nick wasn’t always working for the Lord. That took a miracle. Nick was living as a teenager in Passaic, New Jersey, and his older brother, Alex, was pioneering Christian broadcasts in Russian for a company and ministry in Ecuador. And when he would ask Nick about his relationship with Christ, Nick kind of waved him off and said, “Hey, that’s my business.” It was an August day in 1945 when older brother Alex was driving to the radio station in Ecuador, and he heard the breaking news. He threw out his planned message and he spoke spontaneously from what he had just heard on the news. Nick happened to be listening on shortwave in New Jersey. He would never be the same.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I was to have A Word With You today about “Unconditional Surrender.”
The news that day? The unconditional surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces. Japan had expressed earlier interest in a surrender with specific conditions. But that day in 1945, they surrendered without condition. Alex Leonovich spoke on the subject Unconditional Surrender to Jesus Christ. Nick heard it in New Jersey, and he went to his knees. He said, “Lord, I’ve been a Christian but on my terms. Now I want to surrender to You with no terms. I unconditionally surrender.” Well, I’ll tell you, the lid came off his life from that day on.

Surrender to Jesus and worship.

Do you know Jesus?
God created us to be with Him
Our sins separate us from God
Sins cannot be removed by good works
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again
Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life
Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever

pray

Introduction:

Show video clip from the beginning of “A Christmas Story”

A Christmas Story: In the very beginning Ralphy (spelling) was waiting for Christmas, waiting for the BB Gun. In this case God has timing worked out and in the Old Testament they were waiting for the Messiah.

All throughout the Old Testament they were waiting for the Messiah. They were waiting.

We have been focusing on our Christmas theme which is “God provides the Light.” We have seen this played out in the Old Testament and then we have seen that John the Baptizer prepared the way. Now today we get to Jesus. The Light came into our neighborhood. This is called the incranation.

Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer once said “The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person.” The theological word for all of that is incarnation, meaning “in the flesh.” Jesus was the incarnation of God. Jesus was the way that God sent His “idea” to humanity; there was and is no better way!

Like the little girl who said, “Some people couldn’t hear God’s inside whisper and so He sent Jesus to tell them out loud.”

From Stephen Sheane’s Sermon “God With Us”

(Below is adapted from an illustration I read from John MacArthur)

I notice people sending fewer and fewer Christmas cards. Meagan and I will send a Christmas letter. Are you having that experience? The ones that they do send are two kinds, pictures of their kids, pictures of family, which are great and wonderful, and pictures of shepherds and wise men and mangers and stars and angels and all of that, right? I mean, that’s pretty much…we could separate them, the people go over here, the manger scenes go over here and that seems to be the current theme. And you might even wonder if the Christmas story could even be told without those very familiar elements. Would…what would the Christmas story be with no stable, no manger, no Joseph, no Mary, no Bethlehem, no shepherds, no angels, no star, no wise men and no baby? What would the Christmas story be?

It would be John’s account of the Christmas story. Fourteen verses, no Joseph, no Mary, no Bethlehem, no manger, no stable, no shepherds, no wise men, no star, no angels and no baby. But this is not any less the story. And if you think you can’t tell the story without those features, you’re wrong because that’s exactly what John does here.

One line from the text that I read you stands out and I want us to look at that line, it’s in the last verse, verse 14, and here is the story in four words…four words in English, four words in Greek, “The Word Became Flesh.” The Word became flesh. That is the most profound truth of all truth. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Not because of the physical features of a stable and a manger and a star and a young couple and shepherds and wise men, they all participate, of course, in the physical historical features of the birth of Christ. But the real story is the Word became Flesh. The Word became Flesh.

Who is the Word? Verse 1 says, “The Word was with God and the Word was God. And this Word became flesh, verse 14 says, and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.” The Word became flesh, dwelt among us without giving up any of His glory. This is the story of Christmas.

But the most concise statement in all the Bible on the incarnation, God becoming man, are the four words in verse 14, “The Word became Flesh,” God became a man.” The infinite became finite. The eternal one entered time. The invisible became visible.

That is exactly the theme today. God dwells with us.

Let’s read: John 1:1-14:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1. Notice that verses 1-5 are specific about Jesus specifically beginning with His eternal past.

   1. I just want to skim over these verses. I like what John MacArthur says about verse 1:

      1. Was is an imperfect tense verb, eimi, a form of eimi. Eimi is the verb to be. And it describes continuous existence. The imperfect tense describes continuous reality. Ami is the verb to be, continuous existence before the beginning of everything. When the beginning began, He already was. John doesn’t use ginomai, he doesn’t say, “In the beginning the Word came into existence.” He uses ami, “In the beginning the Word already existed.” There never was a point when He came into existence. And that is why the testimony of Scripture is that He is before all things. That is why He says in John 8, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He was in the beginning already existing.

      1. John begins the Gospel going back to eternal past. He begins this Gospel going outside of time.

      2. By the way, “Word” is the Greek noun Logos and it meant all reason and reality. The Greeks and the Jews would have known John is writing about God, so we will not go deeper here right now. I would love to talk with you later regarding this. Actually, we do have a small group at my house at 6:00 and we could talk about it there. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament has about fourty or more pages devoted to the background of this Greek noun.

      3. I recently heard how C.S. Lewis wrote about the crazy things that we say. People say “time flies.” That is a weird phrase, it is like a fish saying the water is wet. That is weird unless fish were not meant to live inw ater but on land. Well, the point Lewis was making is that maybe we are so perplexed by how fast time goes because we were meant for the eternal. (I heard this from Ravi Zacharius on Just Thinking podcast, also on a White Horse Inn podcast)

      4. So, here we are in eternity past, outside of time and Jesus is with God.

      5. Jesus created everything.

      6. Then the Bible says that in Him, or Jesus was life and then the noun “light” comes into play. Life come into play:

      7. Dr. Constable “. . . we move on from creation in general to the creation of life, the most significant element in creation. Life is one of John’s characteristic concepts: he uses the word 36 times, whereas no other New Testament writing has it more than 17 times (Revelation; next come Romans with 14 times and 1 John with 13 times). Thus more than a quarter of all the New Testament references to life occur in this one writing.”¹

      8. We have been talking about “light” haven’t we?

      9. The “light” shines into the darkness. There is a contrast between light and dark in John’s Gospel.

   2. That noun is used 73 times in 62 verses in the New Testament. It is used 6 times in verses 4-9; 23 times in John’s Gospel; 6 times in 1 John; 4 times in Revelation. It is used 33 times by John, almost half of its uses. At its root, as it is used here, it means “light.” It can be used to mean:

      1. radiant or shining

      2. enlighten, give light to

   3. dawn, draw near

   4. star, splendor, radiance

   5. enligtenment, light

   6. radiance, morning star

      1. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996)

      2. Light does shine into darkness. Light does light up the path. Why do we care so much for light? Why do we need light so much? But this is metaphorical. The Light is Jesus. The darkness is the world.

2. Notice verses 6-8 are about John the baptizer preparing the way for the Light of the world.

   1. So we stay with this theme of Light. John is preparing the way.

   2. By the way, I do not know that we switched from the idea of Logos. John simply changed nouns describing Jesus. Jesus is the Logos, Jesus is the Light of the World.

3. Notice verses 9-14 are back to Jesus, ending in the present. Jesus took on flesh.

   1. Now, John tells us that Jesus comes to His own but they will not comprehend Him. His own are the Jews.

   2. There is heavy irony in those verses. In Jesus comes into the world and the world rejects Him. Jesus created the world (verses 1-3), but the world rejects her creator.

   3. Yet, verses 12 and 13, all who believe in Him. This is not a causual belief but a heavy trust. Confessing sins, believing, trusting and committing to Him.

   4. God gives the right to be children of God. Again, notice the irony. Jesus has created us. Jesus shines His light upon us and then He adopts us as childen of God.

   5. Verse 13 is key. Born not from human lineage but of God. This is full adoption, full children. And who does the saving? John tells us: The will of God. The text says, not of human decision.

   6. Remember this Advent I have stressed that God provides the light. Salvation is from God.

   7. So, verse 14: The Word became flesh.

   8. Literally, He pitched His tent amongst us. We are to the present.

   9. For the rest of John’s Gospel, He is not called the Word, but Jesus of Nazareth.

   10. How did He take on flesh?

   11. He was born of a woman in a stable or a cave. The Light of the World.

Now, that is a different Christmas story. That is different than the cards with the manger scenes, but it is full and in the Bible.

Let’s pray.

So, have you believed in Him? Have you accepted salvation?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

A man is rushed to the hospital where a doctor examines him and informs him that he is critically ill. The patient is told that he will die unless he gets proper treatment. The physician then prescribes medicine for the sick man and says, “If you will take this, I can assure you with absolute certainty that you will get well.” Now, what should the man do? Should he just lie there on his sickbed and believe that the doctor knows his business, that he has diagnosed his illness correctly, and that the prescription will surely make him well? No, that is not enough. If that is all he does, he will die. To live, he must take the medicine.

When a person offers you a gift that has cost him or her much, it does not become yours until you receive it from that person. The beautifully wrapped package in the outstretched hand of the giver will do the receiver no good until he or she reaches out and takes it. Likewise, reception of God’s gracious gift of eternal life is necessary before a person can benefit from it. Receiving a gift from someone else does not constitute a meritorious act or good work, and the Bible never regards it as a work. It is simply a response to the work of another.

Let’s pray

ON A RATHER INSIGNIFICANT SPHERE

A senior angel is showing a very young angel around the splendors of the universe. They view whirling galaxies and blazing suns, and then flit across the infinite distances of space until at last they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars.

As the two of them draw near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis ball to the angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.
“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.
“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What’s special about that one?”

To the little angel, earth did not seem so impressive. He listened in stunned disbelief as the senior angel told him that this planet, small and insignificant and not overly clean, was the renowned Visited Planet.

“Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince … went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?” …
The little angel’s face wrinkled in disgust. “Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?”
“I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.”
The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.

(SOURCE: From Phillip Yancey, “The Jesus I Never Knew,” p. 43-44, quoting JB Phillips.)

We have been focusing on God sending the Light. We have been focusing on how God provides the sacrifice for our sins. Over the past few weeks we have looked at how way back in Genesis 3:15 God prophesied that He, being Jesus, will strike a fatal blow to the devil. This shows that when humanity first sinned, God was already declaring redemption. Salvation comes from the Lord. Then, last week we looked at Genesis 22 and how God provided a sacrifice for Abraham. This shows that God will also provide a sacrifice for us. In this we see the prophesies of old fulfilled in the New Testament that God would become a man to die for our sins. God loves us that much.

Today, let’s talk about John the Baptizer preparing the way for the Messiah, for Jesus. Today, we look at the New Testament.

Today’s Great Idea is that John the Baptizer Prepares the Way for the Light of the World. Today’s application is because Jesus Is the Light, we do not walk in darkness. So, walk in the Light. (Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:4-8)

Let’s read Mark 1:1-8:
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
4And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

I. Mark 1:1-8 is about John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus.
1. This passage actually quotes from the Old Testament, specifically, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 about the one who prepares the way.
2. Since we are in the Chritmas season, how do you prepare for Christmas morning?
1. Okay, let’s pretend that you have people coming over for dinner, or lunch or a Christmas get together, how do you prepare? Do you have to get things ready in the house?
2. Less than a few months ago many of you hosted a few Judson University students for the night. How did you prepare? Did you get their beds ready? Did you clean the house? Did you get a camper out and get it ready? Then, when they came over did you drive them home and give them something to eat?
3. Prior to your Christmas celebratin do you decorate? Do you think, “I am having my grandchildren over and I want things to be right? So, you bake some cookies, you set up the Christmas tree, maybe you light a fire in the fireplace, maybe you light some candles. You are preparing the place for your family Christmas get together. When you do this you are preparing everything for the important people, your family.
3. Way back in the Old Testament God declared that someone will prepare the way for Jesus. Someone will prepare the way for the Light of the World.
4. John the Baptist was the forerunner. This passage is about John and his ministry.
5. However, I want to look at another prophetic passage.
II. In Luke 1:67-79 we see John the Baptizer’s father prophesy about John. Let’s read that passage as well.
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant,
73the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
1. So, we see an amazing prophesy and I only want to talk about a couple of verses.
2. First, in context John the Baptizer has just been born and they name him John. If you read the beginning of the chapter, verses 5-25 you can read about the angel of the Lord visiting Zecheriah to share that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will have a child in their old age.
3. Verse 67 says that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Wow! Understand that there has not been a prophet in 400 years. They have not seen anything like this.
4. In verses 67-75 are prophesies concerning Jesus.
5. As I look at these I see that they all are in a worshipful way. Verse 68: Praise the Lord, God of Israel because He has come to His people and redeemed them.
6. This is worship of God. Amen!
7. Realize that Zechariah and his wife are likely older than sixty years and they just had a child.
1. Raise your hand if you are under sixty years old.
2. Understand that the parents of John the Baptizer were older than you are, maybe older than your parents and they conceived and gave birth.
3. Now, raise your hand if you are over sixty years old.
4. Understand that Zechariah and Elizabeth might have been your age as new parents.
5. I have been a new parent and I am not eager to have that responsibility, pressure and time commitment in my sixties.
6. I do not want to miss stating that some of you take on great responsibilities for children when you are over sixty and praise God for your commitment.
8. Verses 76-80 are about John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus, the Light of the world.
9. Verse 76: John will be called a prophet of the most High. Do you know that Jesus said that no one born of women was greater than John the baptizer? (Matthew 11:11) Verse 76 also says that John will prepare His ways.
10. Verse 77: John will give people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.
1. John went out and preached that people need to repent. (Matthew 3:1-11; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:2-16; John 1:19-39; 3:22-36)
2. In John 1:23 John said that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. John recognized that he was fulfilling prophesies from the Old Testament. He knew the prophesies in Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 which he fulfilled. He knew who he was.
3. What is really awesome is that here when he was just born his father prophesies this ministry regarding his son. We must be careful of this. But this was accrurate.
The eighteenth-century Anglican clergyman George Whitefield was one of the spearheads of the Great Awakening, a period of massive renewal of interest in Christianity across Western societies and a time of significant church growth. Whitefield was a riveting orator and is considered one of the greatest preachers in church history. In late 1743 his first child, a son, was born to he and his wife, Elizabeth. Whitefield had a strong impression that God was telling him the child would grow up to also be a “preacher of the everlasting Gospel.” In view of this divine assurance, he gave his son the name John, after John the Baptist, whose mother was also named Elizabeth. When John Whitefield was born, George baptized his son before a large crowd and preached a sermon on the great works that God would do through his son. He knew that cynics were sneering at his prophecies, but he ignored them. Then, at just four months old, his son died suddenly of a seizure. The Whitefields were of course grief-stricken, but George was particularly convicted about how wrong he had been to count his inward impulses and intuitions as being essentially equal to God’s Word. He realized he had led his congregation into the same disillusioning mistake . Whitefield had interpreted his own feelings— his understandable and powerful fatherly pride and joy in his son, and his hopes for him—as God speaking to his heart. Not long afterward, he wrote a wrenching prayer for himself, that God would “render this mistaken parent more cautious, more sober-minded, more experienced in Satan’s devices, and consequently more useful in his future labors to the church of God.” The lesson here is not that God never guides our thoughts or prompts us to choose wise courses of action, but that we cannot be sure he is speaking to us unless we read it in the Scripture.
Keller, Timothy (2014-11-04). Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (p. 63). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
4. So, that is today, but Zechariah was letting God speak through him, how do we know? One way is that this was fulfilled.
11. In verse 79: Zechariah prophesies that John will: to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
1. Another translation says that he will give light to those who sit in darkness.
2. Would you be in darkness without Jesus?
3. Whether we realize it or not, we would be in darkness without Jesus.
4. In John 8:12 Jesus is speaking and He says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
5. So, where you at? Do you have the Light of the world?
6. Ephesians 5:8-11: turn there with me:
7. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord. 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
8. Isaiah 60:1: Arise Shine for your Light has come.
9. Jesus has come and He was and is the Light of the world. John the baptizer prepared the way for Jesus, the Light of the World. Now, what is so awesome is that this verse has been fulfilled on multiple levels:
1. John the baptizer grew up as verse 80 says and he prepared the way for the Lord who would shine the light on those that walk in darkness.
2. Then, today, Jesus has come, died on the cross for us and risen again !
3. We have heard, we have seen the Light.
4. But others still have not.
5. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we are the light of the world.
6. Go, spread your light.
On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry
by Charles Coffin, 1676-1749
Translated by John Chandler, 1806-1876 (Stanzas 1-3)
Translated by unknown author, (Stanzas 4-5)

1. On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake and listen for he brings
Glad tidings from the King of kings.

2. Let every heart be cleansed from sin
Make straight the way for God within,
And so prepare to be the home
where such a mighty guest may come.

3. For You are our Salvation, Lord,
Our Refuge, and our great Reward.
Without Your grace our we waste away
Like flowers that wither and decay.

4. To heal the sick, stretch out Your hand
And make the fallen sinner stand;
Shine out, and let Your light
restore earth’s own true loveliness once more.

5. To You, O Christ, all praises be,
Whose advent sets Your people free,
Whom, with the Father, we adore
And Holy Spirit evermore!
1. John the baptizer prepared the way. Zechariah prophesied that he would prepare the way for Jesus. You may not be a prophet like him, but you can still point people to Jesus as he did. Shine your light.
2. What better season than this season to shine your light and point people to Jesus.

Close:
Do you ever plug in your Christmas lights and only one bulb works on a strand? That would not be that pretty would it? No, the tree is pretty because of all the lights. The lights expose the darkness of that tree.

In like manner…

I am going to light a candle right now and ask that the lights will be turned off. This room can get really dark, especially at night. Just look at it. We just have the alter candles lit and this one. This does not brighten it up much. But suppose that it was just like Christmas Eve and you all had a candle, one by one this room would light up. Your candle light would expose the darkness in this room.

The Truth is, we all have the Light, if you know Jesus Christ. When you go about your daily lives you walk into rooms that are dark like this and you bring the light, which is Jesus within you.
Go be light.

Do you have the Light of the world that the Old Testament prophesied about? Do you have the Light of the world that John the Baptizer prophesies about?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)
Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)
Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)
Pray

Introduction:

The date is now December 7, so I wonder how things are coming along with your Christmas plans. Do you have all your shopping done yet? Do you have your house decorated?

Show of hands: How many of you have your Christmas tree up?

How many have two Christmas trees up?

How many have lights up outside of the house?

Have you gone out looking at Christmas lights whether driving around or a specific display?

On Saturday, November 22, I joined a group from the church to visit a Christmas Tree display at the Akron Convention Center. How beautiful it was to see all those trees decorated and lit up. How neat it was to see all the themed Christmas trees. I love walking into a room all lit up with Christmas lights.

But our lights have an effect. Do you ever look up at the stars at night? Do you notice that you cannot see as many stars in the city as you can in the country? I once saw a program that said we have to go to the middle of the Atlantic in order to truly get away from the light pollution, wow! Yet, electric lighting revolutionized the world. We were already in the industrial revolution, but when electric lighting came, wow! But we know that Thomas Edison did not invent light, just the electric light bulb. Now, we have lights everywhere. Think about night baseball games, night football games, night soccer games, indoor night basketball games at night, we have services here after dark, headlights on our cars, lights outside our houses, parking lot lights and lighthouses. Is that all because of the light bulb? I don’t think so, I think it is all because we need light. Think about it, if we did not need light, the light bulb would have been another unimportant invention. We need light.

We need light and God provided light from the beginning. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was. Later God created the sun, moon and stars. But that is not the only light which we need and needed. We needed salvation. We needed a sacrifice. God sent us the Light of the World. God sent His own sacrifice. He was prophesies about in the Old Testament.

Singer Michael Card wrote a song called The Promise, and he wrote a little Christmas devotional on this theme:
He noted:
Christianity is founded on a promise. Faith involves waiting on a promise. Our hope is based on a promise. 
Promises are made with words. … .that part of myself that goes with every promise is given to you through my words….
Our God is the great maker of promises… His word, our Bible, is a collection of the promises… most of these concern Jesus, who came to be known as “the Promised One”
Through all these promises, God was trying to give something of Himself to Adam, and to Israel, and finally to us. The Bible tells us that when the Promised One came, the Lord poured all of Himself into Him.
What a costly thing it can be to make a promise – it cost Jesus His life.

Today, we continue our Advent series of sermons. Advent means “waiting” The idea is that we are waiting on Jesus to come and make things right. In reality, we all know that He has come and this is why we are here. Today, we look at a very familiar Old Testament story. Yet, as familiar as this is, this is prophetic in looking towards the Christ Child. We see once again that God provides the Light. God provides the sacrifice needed for Abraham and for us.

Read with me Genesis 22:1-14:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

The great idea in this passage is that the Lord provides. So I want to talk about how the Lord provides the sacrifice. The Lord sends the Light. Three times in verses 1-14 we see the idea that the Lord provides.

1. Let’s overview this narrative.
   1. In verse 1 God talks to Abraham and notice that Abraham has no hesitation. Abraham immediately said, “Here I am.”
   2. Verse 2 has God giving Abraham instructions as to what to do. Notice how specific this is:
      1. Take your son…
      2. Your only son…
      3. whom you love…
      4. sacrifice him as a burnt offering.
   3. Realize that Abraham had another son, Ishmael, whom he sent away. He was not the son of the promise. He was not the son by Abraham and Sarah. Isaac was.
   4. This was Abraham’s only son and he loves him.
   5. Yet, God tells him to sacrifice him. What was this like for Abraham? What were his emotions?
   6. Whatever it was like for Abraham, God did this with His Son.
   7. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.
   8. Notice that Jesus, God’s one and only Son is the Son of promise. Isaac was the son of promise to Abraham. By Isaac all the world will be blessed. The lineage goes on to Jesus and in Him, through His death and resurrection all the world will be blessed.
   9. Verse 3, the next verse says that Abraham got up early in the morning and he began his trip to obey God.
      1. I heard someone say, “I wonder if he told Sarah.” That is a thought. I wonder if he just said they were going out for a bit. Do you think he could have actually told Sarah that he was going to kill her only son? No way!
      2. I bet if he told her that she would have stopped it. That is not saying that she had less faith, but this was her only son.
   10. Verse 5 shows that this is about worship. There were two servants with them. Abraham has the servants wait. Abraham says that they will worship and then they will return.
   11. Isn’t that interesting? Abraham was told to sacrifice his son, yet he tells the servants they will return. Maybe Abraham did not wish for the servants to come with him and try to restrain him from following the Lord’s command? Or, maybe Abraham thought that Isaac was the child of promise and so God would raise him up again. Maybe he thought his son, Isaac, was the Messiah. They were waiting on someone to make things right.
   12. They have the wood, the fire and the knife and they are going up to make the sacrifice. Isaac is carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. Hmm. You know that in John 19:17 it says that Jesus carried His own cross?
   13. By the way, Isaac is not a young child. He is an adult. The Jewish historian Josephus says that he is probably twenty-five years old. We never think of him that young.
   14. In verse 8: Abraham says that God will provide the lamb. Isaac knew what he would need for a sacrifice. But see that. Abraham had strong faith. God will provide.
   15. We look at this today and we are looking back and we see that God provided Jesus, our eternal lamb.
   16. Abraham places his son on the alter and pulls the knife. He is about to kill him when an angel interrupts him. The angel may have been a normal angel or he might have been Jesus in the Old Testament. Sometimes when the Bible says the Angel of the Lord it is referring to Jesus.
   17. Abraham is stopped and then they see a ram caught in the bushes by its horns.
   18. God provided the sacrifice.
   19. God provided a sacrifice for Abraham.
2. God provided a sacrifice for us and the sacrifice was His own Son.
   1. John 1:36 John the baptizer says look at the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 1 John 4:9; John 3:16 both talk about God sending His one and only Son.
   2. Isa 53:7: Jesus is like a lamb to the slaughter.
   3. Verse 14: Abraham calls that place the Lord provides.
   4. Abraham needed a sacrifice. God gave him the sacrifice.
   5. But the sacrifice for Abraham was foreshadowing the sacrifice for the rest of the world. Truly through Abraham all the world would be blessed.
   6. Close to two thousand years later a descendant of Abraham would be born and raised. He would be just over twenty-five years old at the age of thirty-three. He would be God’s Son and He would carry His own cross and this time the angel would not stop the death. This time He would die. He would die as our sacrifice. God provided the Light. But praise God He did not stay in the grave. He became the first fruits of the resurrection. (1 Cor. 15)
   7. Our Lord provides! Amen! Jehovah Jireh is how that name is translated.

Close:

Jesus came:

That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.(Hebrews 2:14–15)

But not just to die. Jesus was born to be raised from the dead (Revelation 1:18). He is the Resurrection and the Life and whoever believes in him “though he die yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem it was the dawn of death’s destruction. It made possible the fast-approaching time when,

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)

Today is the second Sunday of Advent, the season on the Christian calendar that climaxes at Christmas. “Advent” means “something’s coming, something’s about to arrive.”

It is called “Advent season” because the Christian church takes this time of the year to intentionally do what all of creation is doing. Creation is enslaved, held captive. Sin and Death hold the world in their grip, and we all feel it. Life hurts. We get depressed. Our bodies break down, or they just break.  People hurt us, reject us, people hurt themselves. Families fall apart.

In this condition, what is creation doing? It is waiting. It is expecting. A long time ago the people of God were waiting for their redeemer, the one who was promised, who would come and deliver God’s people from oppression and captivity. God sent Jesus into the world to provide salvation, to make God’s initial move to redeem the world. So we celebrate Christmas.

But we celebrate not only the singular day that commemorates the arrival of the Son of God, we participate in the entire Advent season, since we still find ourselves in a posture of waiting. We are waiting for the return of Jesus to come and save, to redeem us from oppression and save us from our brokenness and sin. We are waiting for God to come back and fix the world finally and forever.

This is the prayer from http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv1_RCL.html

I like jogging around town at night during the Christmas season. It is great seeing the Christmas lights. It makes me think back.

What are your Christmas decorations like? Do you enjoy Christmas decorating?

When I was a child we were not allowed to listen to Christmas music or watch Christmas movies or television shows until after Thanksgiving. I looked forward to Christmas in every way. I looked forward to the lights, snow, days off school, lights, Santa Claus, trains (I’ll explain that), family get togethers, and -did I say- lights and so much more.

When I was a child I remember setting up Christmas lights with my dad. I think it was every year from the time I was in first grade up until I was in sixth or the seventh grade we would set up Christmas lights the weekend after Thanksgiving. It seems that the day after Thanksgiving we would clean up from the family get together and then maybe set up some indoor Christmas decorations. We could not set up the the Christmas tree at that time, we had to wait on that. We would set up the Nativity scene on the mantel and we would string lights along the mantle as well. We would set up various other Christmas decorations around the house. I think I loved the colors of Christmas, but I loved the many colors on the lights. It seems that usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving we would hang Christmas lights all over the exterior of the house. We had a two story and my dad would use the extension ladder as we would hang lights on the top of the house as well. We had a blue spruce tree and we hung lights on there also. It was great getting the lights out of the garage attic plugging them in and watching them light up, or we hoped they would light up. Many times they wouldn’t light up. My dad could fix anything and so many times he would replace the fuses and rewire things and make them work. We stood there in the cold and watched as he did all the work! We did hold the ladder. We used the big lights, not the little lights, but they sure could blow fuses. At night it was so nice to go outside and see the house lit up. In the next few weeks we would set up the Christmas tree. The tree had snowflake lights and these bubble lights that were supposed to resemble candles. We hung so many lights on the tree, I’m sure many of you would have thought it was too cluttered. In the coming weeks we would drive around and look at Christmas lights. Sometimes we were on our way home from cub scouts or some school event and we would just drive around for awhile.

We had an old train that was probably from the 1930’s, it was a Lionel Train and we would set it up under the Christmas Tree and I remember sitting in that room with the lights off except for the tree and letting the train go around the tracks. The Train had a light on the front and the cars lit up inside.

I wonder if you have memories like this?

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpk9Fk6sR3g

Pictures and videos of Christmas lights displays.

Today, we begin our Advent theme which is Jesus is the Light. In this year’s Advent theme I intend to show you how Jesus was prophesied in the old Testament and these prophesies are fulfilled in the New Testament. I intend to show you that Jesus is the Light of the world and as people engaged Him they had enlightening experiences. You know, Jesus calls us the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14) So, let’s open our Bibles and see the very first prophesy about God providing the Light. That is my title today and that is the great idea:

God Provides the Light.

The applications are:

1. Have we trusted in the light of the world?
2. Are we encouraged that the whole Bible talks of God sending the light?
3. Notice God provides the light, salvation is of God.
4. Can we rejoice in our salvation? (Psalm 51:12)

Let’s look at a few passages about how God provides the light. Let’s start with:

1. Let’s turn in the first book of the Bible and look at: Gen. 3:15:

Genesis 3:15:

And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

1. Take note, this passage is written right after the first recorded sin. I don’t know how many years before Christ came to earth this was written, but I would think about 4,000 years and just days, weeks or months into creation. Adam and Eve had the reign of the Garden of Eden and walked with God. Then, the devil came and tempted them. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says that satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Take note that there is spiritual warfare and we see it in this passage. The devil comes all innocent and disguises himself as a snake. Next thing we know they are disobeying God.
2. Now, in verse 15 God is giving the punishment for satan and for Adam and Eve.
3. In the middle of the punishment is this prophesy.
4. Enmity: this means that there will be a barrier between the devil and Eve and her off spring and the devils. It would be easy to think this is simply talking about a fear between man and snake, but historically that is not how it was interpreted.
5. Luther commented on the nature of “the woman’s Seed”: “This means all individuals in general; and yet he is speaking of only one individual, of the seed of Mary, who is a mother without union with a male” (L^W 1.195).¹
6. One writes: The “offspring” of the woman was Cain, then all humanity at large, and then Christ and those collectively in Him. The “offspring” of the serpent includes demons and anyone serving his kingdom of darkness, those whose “father” is the devil (John 8:44). Satan would cripple mankind (you will strike at his heel), but the Seed, Christ, would deliver the fatal blow (He will crush your head).
7. Another writes: The serpent’s poison is lodged in its head; and a bruise on that part is fatal. Thus, fatal shall be the stroke which Satan shall receive from Christ, though it is probable he did not at first understand the nature and extent of his doom.²
8. Here we have the common case where an individual represents many.²⁰⁴ Eve and her adversary are the progenitors of a lifelong struggle that will persist until a climactic moment when the woman’s offspring will achieve the upper hand.³
   1. Now think about this verse and our applications. Notice that salvation comes from the Lord.
   2. Here we are in the beginning of time. Here we are and man and woman have just sinned, they have broken God’s perfect standard. But God is saying, “I am going to bring you back.” God is saying, “There is a punishment, but I will send the light.”
   3. The Bible says that we love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) The Bible says that God wants all to come to salvation. (2 Peter 3:9)
1. All throughout the Old Testament God reminds them of the Light that will come. God reminds them of the Light of the world. God continues to talk about the birth of Jesus.
   1. Isaiah 7:14:
   2. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
   3. Isaiah was written some 700 years prior to Christ and God is reminding the people that He will provide the Light.
   4. Notice that the whole Bible talks of God sending the Light, sending Jesus. Isn’t that encouraging? Do you have the Light? Do you have joy in your salvation, Psalm 51:12?
2. Listen to Isaiah 60:1 and 19-20:
   1. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
   2. Isaiah 60:19-20:
   3. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
   4. These verses are about a time still to look forward to. But notice, who provides the light? God will provide the light.
   5. Is it possible?
3. On March 9, 1979, nine satellites stationed at various points in the solar system simultaneously recorded a bizarre event deep in space. It was, in fact, the most powerful burst of energy ever recorded. Astronomers who studied the readings were in awe.

The burst of gamma radiation lasted for only one-tenth of a second . . . but in that instant it emitted as much energy as the sun does in 3000 years. If the gamma-ray burst had occurred in the Milky Way Galaxy, said one astrophysicist, it would have set our entire atmosphere aglow. If the sun had suddenly emitted the same amount of energy, our earth would have vaporized. Instantly.

Let’s look at the New Testament:

5. In Matt. 1:23 Joseph is having a dream and this is what the angel says: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”). This is the fulfillment of that prophesy way back in Genesis 3:15.
6. In Luke 3:29-32 Jesus as a baby was seen by a man named Simeon and this is what he says:
   1. “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.
7. One more Bible passage which shows a more direct fulfillment of that prophesy is Gal. 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.
   1. Notice how this passage says, “born of a woman” and that is alluding to Genesis 3:15: the seed or “offspring” of a woman…

2 Cor. 4:4, 6 says:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

As Christ followers, we look forward to a time when God provides all the light we need:

Rev. 22:5:

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Interesting, I remember buying Meagan an engagement ring and it sparkled and just looked amazing. But that is because of the light reflecting off of the diamond. Light makes things beautiful and amazing.

When we read about the images of Heaven and the New Jerusalem everything appears magnificent, but it would not appear that way in the dark, it does because God will dwell with us and be the Light.

God prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that He will provide the light and that happened through Jesus. That is not all the Light God provides. As Christ followers we have the light of Jesus with us all the time through the Holy Spirit and some day He will dwell with us.

Close:

[The Passion of the Christ with Jesus stepping on the snake, maybe silent only.]

This past year we took Mercedes out to see Christmas lights and she loved them, absolutely loved them! There is a mansion in Salem with lights all over the yard and just more lit up than anyone could imagine. Mercedes would say, “I want to go play in it!” Remember she was two then. When we think about the light, we remember that Jesus is the light from God. God loves us so much that from the very beginning God revealed to us that He would make a way of salvation.

We will continue with this theme of how God provides the Light and Jesus is the Light. We will be talking about this the next few weeks as we consider the prophesies of old fulfilled in Jesus.

Have we trusted in the light of the world?

Are we encouraged that the whole Bible talks of God sending the light?

Notice God provides the light, salvation is of God.

Can we rejoice in our salvation? (Psalm 51:12)

Do you have the Light? Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Introduction:

Someone gave me the following:

If Jesus showed up for dinner on Thanksgiving:

There wouldn’t be any fighting over the drumsticks,

He’d just multiply them.

He could turn water into cranberry sauce if you ran out.

The last to arrive would be the first to get served.

He’d let the little children come to Him at the big people table.

He’d make sure all the food was ready at the same time and dished up piping hot.

He’d grant everyone wishbone wishes.

There’d be enough leftovers to feed a whole multitude.

May Jesus be with you on Thanksgiving always!

Let me read a part of the list that several housewives compiled. They wrote that they were especially thankful:

“For automatic dishwashers because they make it possible for us to get out of the kitchen before the family comes back in for their after-dinner snacks.

“For husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house because they usually make them big enough to call in the professionals.

“For children who put away their things & clean up after themselves. They’re such a joy you hate to see them go home to their own parents

“For teenagers because they give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.

“For Smoke alarms because they let you know when the turkey’s done.

APPL. Now our list might not be the same as theirs, but I’m convinced that if we began to make a list, we would find that we have much more for which to be thankful than just our material possessions.

What are you thankful for?

Maybe you can better determine what you are thankful for by considering what causes you to be anxious.

I remember being in a counseling class and they talked about the rise of anxiety amongst teenagers. But we are a very anxious culture. We can get worried about anything and everything. We can be so very tense and we know we are just about ready to explode. I know of people who have been anxious over a football game. In one of those two years when the Browns went to the AFC championship I know of someone who was so nervous during the game that he went on a walk.

I must admit that I can get very anxious. It has been several years now but I have had anxiety attacks in the past. There can be a sudden fear that is hard to place that just would come over me.

Today, I wish to talk about the cure for anxiety and Jesus’ instructions on anxiety. So, let’s read Matthew 6:25-33. My big idea is to be content, trust God for your needs because He cares for you.

Let’s read Matthew 6:25-33:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you―you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

1. Let’s talk for a moment about Jesus’ instructions in this passage.
   1. In context we must know that at this point in this passage Jesus is giving instructions concerning money. In the previous verse Jesus says “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Or, “money.”
   2. Materialism always gets in the way. I find an unfortunate contradiction in my life. The “thing” that should satisfied me actually causes more anxiety. That is backwards. When I get something new I am stressed about what to do with the old, or I am stressed with learning how to use the new thing or take care of it or store it or put it together. Materialism ruins our life of simplicity. Materials easily become our God. Listen to the commercials about what we “need.” I heard recently of a young adult saying, “I love this.” [talking about an iPhone] We do not own possession, possessions own us. The more we have the more we must keep up. The saying goes the more money we make, the more money we spend. Possession are fleeting satisfactions. They satisfy us one one moment but they will come to ruin. The funny thing is long before they break, wear out, or are out of date the satisfaction the material item gives us is worn off.
   3. Know that I am in the battle to fight against materialism just like you. I am in the battle to seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness just like you. I fight temptations just like you.
   4. Last August I called Timewarner Cable in order to cut cable. As is usual they asked why and I said we did not get much for our money. We had a very basic package which they called the “starter package.” It included the locals and three cable stations. But I got off the phone with Timewarner having adding some sixty channels and faster internet for only ten dollars more a month. They got me. But I was excited. I could not wait to have those cable stations. I looked forward to Discovery Channel and Food Network and ESPN and cable news. A few days later Meagan and I were talking and we decided this was not necessary, we could save the ten dollars more a month. So, I took the girls to the park and Meagan stayed back and called Timewarner. I said, “Be careful they will get you.” It was funny. She got off the phone and I said something like, “Do we have home phone and a security system now?” She said something like, “No, but I didn’t cancel it. They gave us ten dollars off for a year.” So, we were now paying the same as we were before I ever called, yet we had 50 or so more channels and faster internet. But you know what? There was no contentment. That night I channel surfed all the channels and found nothing good on. I thought I would rather read, yet I cannot read when I am paying for all these channels. I looked forward to the channels, I wanted satisfaction in a materialism thing. But there was none. The following Monday I called Timewarner again to cancel everything but Internet. This time they did not let me cancel everything, but we did get back to where we started but twenty dollars cheaper a month than we were paying.
   5. So, things will not satisfy.
   6. We cannot serve God and money, things, stuff. Things cause anxiety.
   7. In the next few verses Jesus says that even the things we need will cause anxiety. So, we must not be anxious about even the things we need. Interesting that we are usually anxious about things we do not even need.
   8. So, three times in verses 25-34 Jesus uses the verb “anxious.” It is sometimes translated “worry” but this means “excessive worry.” Verses 25, 31 and 34 say not to be anxious.
   9. Jesus uses a “greater to the lesser” argument or “how much more” argument for why not to worry.
   10. We are not going to walk through it, but He says that
       1. Life is more than food,
       2. We are worth more than the birds,
       3. We are more important than the lilies and the grass.
       4. I want to park here and tell you to be encouraged. Jesus is telling us that God cares for us more than other things of creation. God cares for us more than birds, lilies and grass. I hope that encourages you as it does me.
   11. In verse 32, Jesus says that God knows we need these things. By the way, there is nothing wrong with asking God for things we need and planning. The birds do build nest, etc. but they are not anxious.
   12. What does Jesus tell us to? He tells us to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto us.
       1. What are we seeking after? Remember verse 24 about serving God and money. Am I seeking the monetary things or am I seeking God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness?
       2. Am I satisfied in Christ? I have had to think about that more and more lately. Psalm 42 says, As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
       3. I am increasingly convicted that I must pray that I search for God and that I am satisfied in Him and in Him alone.
       4. The missionary William Carey sought God.

I read about William Carey. And William Carey went to India with his wife and his children. And he found himself in a very remote part of India outside of Calcutta with no food, no shelter, no nothing, and really no money to buy anything. And never wavering in his faith, he just watched God supply and supply and supply. And first it was a little lean-to shack to live in. It was very uncomfortable and very difficult for his beloved wife and their children, one a relatively young one just born before they left. And it was about a five-month journey on a ship to get there from England.

And then things began to turn, and they began to cultivate the ground. They found a new place. And they began to grow food, and it flourished. In fact, he was so good, a botanist…he was so good at farming that villages began to arise all around his little farm on both sides of the river where he was. And then, in God’s wonderful mercy, he was offered a position of significance with a salary that was quite large, and he accepted that as the providence of God. He had lived through the testing of the lean times, and now God provided enough for his family, and enough for his ministry, and enough for translating the Word of God, which he eventually did into 11 languages.

5. Seeking God is the cure for materialism and that drastically takes down anxiety.

But let me mentioned a few other thoughts.

2. Let’s talk about a few other cures for anxiety.
   1. Phil. 4:4-9, let’s turn to this passage. Paul writes it in jail.
   2. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable―if anything is excellent or praiseworthy―think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me―put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
   3. From that passage we see the cure for anxiety is to pray and pray with Thanksgiving. We must also rejoice.
   4. 2 Cor. 10:5 says: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
   5. The cure for anxiety is our thought patterns.
   6. Lastly, seek help from prayer, journaling, counseling, friends. Don’t be afraid to seek help.

Fear, by the way, is a liar…fear is a liar. Fear tells you tomorrow is something to be afraid of. Fear tells you you’re not going to have what you need tomorrow. Fear tells you you’re not going to be up to it. Fear tells you if certain things happen, you’re never going to be able to survive it. Fear tells you that there’s terrible pain out there. Fear is a liar for the Christian because there is no thing that you’re ever going to go through, no trial, no temptation, that God will not provide sufficient grace to sustain you in.

So just shoulder the burden of today. Enjoy the grace that God gives you today. And leave the future to God. What happens happens. Don’t cripple the present by worrying about the future. You just destroy your joy, and then you lose the present. God will be there in the future. He’ll be there when it all comes crashing down. And he says, when it does, count it all…what? Joy, because God is doing a perfecting work.¹

Close:

Proverbs 30:8-9:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;

give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you

and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’

Or I may become poor and steal,

and so dishonor the name of my God.

What are you thankful for? What do you worry about? What causes anxiety?

We know for a fact that anxiety is on the rise. Remember what I started out with? We are thankful for things, but yet things make us anxious don’t they. Teenagers are on anxiety medicine in record numbers, and if you are on anxiety medicine I am not saying to stop them. I am saying to help them by seeking first God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness and being content “in Christ.”

Below is another thought:

Are you thankful for salvation?

Look at Psalm 51:12:

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Maybe that verse and its application is a first step in getting rid of anxiety. Seek First God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. Allow yourself to be satisfied in Christ.

So, as you go to your Thanksgiving dinner, seek God’s Kingdom and righteousness, be content in His provisions, trust that He will provide, give God the thanks.

On Sept 16, 1620 2 ships set sail from Plymouth Englnad, The Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell encountered much difficulty as they began their journey springing many leaks in the ship. So when the 2 ships went to Port in Plymouth England, the Speedwell decided to go no further and 42 passengers from the Speedwell joined the 60 passengers and 30 crew members aboard the Mayflower..

Of the 102 passengers on board the Mayflower the majority were devout Christians. They were coming to America to shake lose from the bonds of the church of England so they could worship God as they believed scriptures taught.

And with great excitement and expectations that set sail for a new land… It wasn’t long before the trip became difficult for several reasons, as noted by William Bradford an historian on the Mayflower, who would later became Governor of the colony for 33 years.. Many of the passengers became sea sick as huge waves would crash over the deck of the ship… The nights were cold, damp and dark… Remember there was no indoor plumbing or electricity. And to make matters worse one of the crew, a very large man would constantly curse and abuse those who were sick… saying he was going to throw them overboard and steal all of their possessions… Bradford records, “BUT IT PLEASED GOD BEFORE THEY CAME HALF SEAS OVER, TO SMITE THE YOUNG MAN WITH A GRIEVOUS DISEASE OF WHICH HE DIED IN A DESPERATE MANNER.. AND SO HE HIMSELF WAS THE FIRST THROWN OVERBOARD. THUS HIS CURSES LIGHT OWN HIS WON HEAD, AND IT WAS AN ASTONISHMENT TO ALL HIS FELLOWS FOR THEY NOTED IT TO BE THE JUST HAND OF GOD UPON HIM..”

But their problems were far from over yet, they encountered many fierce storms which shook the ship with tremendous force. So fierce that many times they could not even keep the sail out and the force of the wind — eventually cracked and bowed the main beams when they had just went over the half way point across the Atlantic. And although the passengers and crew wanted to turn back, Christopher Jones, the ships Master, assured all the vessel was “strong and firm under water.” He ordered the beam to be secured. It was hoisted into place by a great iron screw that, fortunately, the Pilgrims brought out of Holland. AND Upon raising the beam, they “committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to proceed.” These 100 people; cold, wet — on wooden ship in the middle of the ocean — put their hope, trust and lives into the hands of God. The battered ship finally came within sight of Cape Cod on November 19, 1620. Two had died at sea and two had given birth. The Pilgrims scanned the shoreline just to the west of them and described it as, “a goodly land wooded to the brink of the sea,” William Bradford writes, “AFTER LONG BEATINGS AT SEA THEY FELL WITH THAT LAND WHICH IS CALLED CAPE COD; AND THEY WERE NOT A LITTLE JOYFUL…”

Before going ashore they decided to write a document know as the Mayflower Compact.

At the heart of the compact lay an undisputed conviction that God must be at the center of all law and order and the law without a moral base is really no law at all.

The day the Pilgrims signed the May Flower Compact, according to William Bradford, “they came to anchor in the Bay, which was a good harbor…and they blessed the God of Heaven, who brought them over the fast and furious ocean… and a sea of trouble. And they read the following from the Geneva Bible (the Bible the Pilgrims used) “LET THEM, THEREFORE PRAISE THE LORD, BECAUSE HE IS GOOD AND HIS MERCIES ENDURE FOREVER.”

This coming thursday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day… Many will be busy cooking turkeys, making stuffing, baking pumpkin pies…. and watching football games. And that is fun stuff — it is important to get together with loved ones… But that is not what thanksgiving is really about — it’s not about food and fun… it is about giving thanks to the Lord God Almighty.

We usually picture the first thanksgiving in America, as the time when the Pilgrims and the Indians got together for a great feast (though I really don’t know how they could of eaten pumpkin pie without cool whip). But I tend to look at that time when on the sea battered Mayflower anchored in the bay at Cape Cod, a group of weary and worn men and women were on their knees praising their God in heaven for bringing them safely through the treacherous sea to this new land, as the real first thanksgiving.

First do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Introduction:

My first Christian college was Indiana Wesleyan University. One of the classes that I enrolled in at that school was Old Testament Survey. I loved that class. Professor Colter was a great teacher. In one class he shared a story about spiritual warfare. I don’t remember how it came up or how it related to our passage for the day but I do remember the story.

Professor Colter was an Old Testament professor, but he was also a pastor in a local church. One morning he received a call. One of his members said, “Pastor, can you come over something happened with my son last night.” Professor Colter left to her house and he invited a retired pastor to come along with him. The Retired pastor was a member of his church. They got to the house and spoke with a seventeen year old young man. Professor Colter asked the young man to explain what happened. The young man explained that the night before his mother was at work and he and some friends tried to raise a demonic spirit. Professor Colter asked what happened. The young man proceeded to explain that nothing happened at the time, but later on he woke up and there was some type of demonic presence at the end of his bed. The demonic presence told him to rape his girlfriend, kill her and cut her up. Professor Colter then asked the young man, “What did you do?” The young man said at that time he pulled the covers over his head. So, now it is the next day and there they are. Professor Colter and the retired pastor with him talked with the young man longer and then said, “We want to pray over you.” The young man said, “okay.” Then professor Colter said, “You have to get on your knees.” At that, the young man’s voice changed deeper as he said, “Why do I have to get on my knees?” Professor Colter explained that it is submission to Christ, but we’ll pray over you anyways. They started praying and when they mentioned Jesus, the young man fell on his knees. The following Sunday, after worship, the church elders prayed over him and he accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. They then went to his house and they found all kinds of stuff having to do with the occult in his room. They took all that stuff and had a huge bonfire in the young man’s backyard. He had gotten involved in the occult when he was twelve years old.

Today, we continue in the New Testament book of Acts. Paul is in Ephesus and he encounters false religions. Now, let’s look at this passage and see that spiritual warfare was real then and it is now as well. My title is Spiritual Warfare in Ephesus, Spiritual Warfare in America.

Let’s read the passage: Acts 19:11-20:

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

17When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

1. First, let’s look at what leads up to the spiritual warfare event.
   1. Notice in verse 11 the passage talks about all that has been going on. Many people have been healed and Paul has done miraculous things.
   2. Verse 12 tells us how far things have gotten. Now, they take handkerchiefs and aprons from Paul and if they touch other people they are healed. Also, the evil spirit would leave the person. So, this verse recognizes that this had to do with physical healing as well as demonic possession.
   3. Before we move on, understand that this is not a type of witchcraft. There are two other occasions in the Scriptures where something like this occurred. One is with Peter in Acts 5:15 the people wanted his shadow to pass before them.
   4. Another occurrence of something like this is in Luke 8:44 when a woman with an issue of blood came and touched the edge of Jesus’ cloak to be healed.
   5. In Mark 16:17 Jesus talked about the signs that will accompany them.
   6. All of these incidences bring glory to God and not to man.
   7. We’ll see that as the narrative goes on.
   8. By the way, one thought that Luke must have really enjoyed writing this one. This is filled with humor in every way.
   9. So, that is what is going on to lead up to this.
   10. They are in Ephesus and Ephesus is full of witchcraft.

   11. One writes: Ephesus was reputed as a center for magic. The famous statue of Artemis, the centerpiece of her temple, was noted for the mysterious terms engraved on the crown, girdle, and feet of the image. Referred to as the “Ephesian scripts,” this magical gibberish was considered to have great power. It was not by accident that Paul’s encounter with magic took place in Ephesus, nor is it a surprise that his converts there had been involved in such practices. Magic was part of Ephesian culture. Nor should one question the integrity of these Ephesian Christians who only now openly forsook such ways. Salvation involves a process of growth, of increasing sanctification. And after all, the Ephesian spells were not that remote from the horoscopes and board games that supposedly communicate telepathic messages with which many Christians dabble in our own day.

2. Now, in the next few verses we have imposters.

   1. Jewish people are faking and impersonate Paul.

   2. From readings it was common back then to have exorcists who went around trying to make a name and money for themselves. This case is no different. These people were fakes, they were imposters. They were not real.

   3. It is a big deal to fake who are you, right?

   4. Ny dad was a police officer before I was born. But he got to keep the uniform after quitting. My brother and I used to try to get him to put it on. My dad used to tell us that it was a big deal to impersonate a police officer and you cannot do that.

   5. Now, if it is a big deal to impersonate a police officer, what about impersonating one of Jesus’ handpicked apostles? One would thing that is a big deal.

   6. This honestly is a big deal.

   7. More than one set of men are doing this, but the Bible gives us one example.

3. In verses 14-16 we have the case study.

   1. Seven sons of Sceva. So, Sceva is their dad and he is apparently a Jewish High Priest. There was a Jewish historian named Josephus and he listed all the High priest and this guy is not one of them. But it could be that he is a pagan high priest. It could be that he was an illegitimate high priest, It could also be that he was from the high priest family. So there are different options here.

   2. Think about this though, the High Priest is the only one to enter the holy of holies. Think about that with what happens. But to his credit he may not have known what his children were doing,

   3. With him being a high priest the people might have thought there was a special type of power within him.

   4. So, his sons impersonate Paul and try to cast out demons in his name.

   5. The demons talk through the man they possessed. Then the man becomes supernaturally strong and the demon says, Jesus I know, Paul I am familiar with. You I don’t know. The demon beats them all up and send them on the street naked.

   6. Now, the translation might have missed something. The Bible says that the demon beat them all up which is all seven sons. However, that could also be translated “two” So, there could have been two or seven.

   7. They are then thrown out on the street naked. Which could mean with torn clothes.

      1. I remember being on a mission trip to a Native American Reservation when I heard about young adults who would get beat up because of what they got into. They were not beat up by friends but demons.

      2. So, that is what is happening here.

4. Now, people see this. The word spreads.

   1. First in verse 17, the Bible says that Jews and Greeks see this. Then it says, “The name of the Lord was magnified. That is what we are here for.

   2. So, now many people are saved.

   3. Verse 18 says of those who believed they now came out and confessed.

   4. What this really means is that they got rid of their occult stuff.

   5. See the next verse they take them out on the street and burn them. They have a big bonfire getting rid of stuff.

   6. Verse 20, the Word of God spreads.

      1. What do we do when we are saved or set free?

      2. Do you get rid of stiff? Do you put the past behind you?

5. Notice that spiritual warfare is real.

   1. I shared the story in the beginning of the message. I have not experienced that, but I have been called to pray through houses and talk things through with people.

   2. Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

   3. You may ask about exorcism: I have talked with people who have taken part or led exorcisms. I believe they are real and what that means is to pray over someone to remove a demon.

   4. In reality, we don’t want people to get that far do we? No, that young man I shared about, he was in the occult for five years. Don’t mess with this, you are over your head.

   5. There is a book: This Present Darkness that is fiction and about spiritual warfare as well.

   6. Now, who can exorcise a demon: I believe one must be pursuing God and not alone. There is no rite of exorcism. We must pray and seek God and grow spiritually and then you are ready to be used of God. Don’t go in alone.

   7. I read of a few other applications: One writes:Two lessons emerge from the story. For one, Christianity has nothing to do with magic. The name of Jesus is no magical incantation. The power of Jesus drives out the demonic, and his Spirit only works through those who, like Paul, confess him and are committed to him. Second, the demon did confess the power of Jesus over him, “Jesus I know.” Compare Jas 2:19, “Even the demons believe and shudder.” The people of Ephesus recognized this and extolled the powerful name of Jesus as a result (v. 17). What was true for them is still true. In the name of Jesus is all the power needed to drive out the demonic forces in every age.

Close:

I remember talking with a professor in college. He was a missionary to Nepal and I asked him about spiritual warfare. He said in Nepal they have names for the demons.

What you need to know: As a Christ follower you have Jesus within you. You are possessed by God! Also, Jesus said we are not alone. Matthew 28:20. Lastly, put on the armor of God.

Ephesians 6:10-18:

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray