The Antioch Church Witnesses to Gentiles (Acts 11:19–26)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 12, 2025

Think back for a minute to your days in school. What happens when there is a school bully? Okay, so there is a school bully, and there might be a few options; one option is that everyone will fight him and take him down. Everyone knows that he is the bully, so you all agree that at such and such a day, it is time to say no more, and everyone can take him out. But you know what too often might happen? No one will make the first move, right?

I love history. I love reading historical literature. One reason Rome could win so many battles was not because their army was better trained but because they could toughen things out longer. In ancient warfare, the battles were fought in hand-to-hand combat, so the battles were fought until one army fled. The Roman army was tougher. Okay, what am I getting at, you ask? Am I looking for another excuse to talk about William Wallace? No. I want to talk about Christian persecution.

Here we are in Acts 11:19-26, and it seems to be one of Luke’s common summary passages. He is referring to what has happened since Stephen’s stoning. Now, in the last chapter and the beginning of this chapter, God has opened Peter and some of the Jews in Jerusalem up to Gentiles.

Let’s read Acts 11:19-26.

My theme: the Antioch church witnesses to the Gentiles.

The application: Verses 23 and 24, stay True to the Lord, and may it be said of us like it was of Barnabas.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 11:19-26:

Acts 11:19–26 (ESV)

¹⁹ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. ²² The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, ²⁴ for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. ²⁵ So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶ and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

1. The church begins to grow in the city of Antioch (Acts 11:19-21).
   1. Those who were scattered because of the persecution. Now, you must wonder, “What persecution is he writing about?” We must look back to Stephen’s stoning, which was in Acts 8:1 and 4, and that was when Saul was breathing murderous threats upon the church. At that time, there were wolves after the church. Everyone fled, everyone fled, except… except who?
   2. I heard about this excellent illustration recently. Someone comes to the house with a gun, so everyone will run except who? The kids may flee, the neighbors or friends can flee, but the dad will not flee. The dad is there to protect his children and his wife.
   3. In this case, this was true. The early believers all flee, except the apostles. The apostles stay in Jerusalem and protect the church.
   4. Wolves were on the attack, but they knew the Lord was in control.
   5. In verse 19, they made it through different cities and then to Antioch. Antioch was a very large city. Antioch was the third largest urban city of antiquity behind Rome and Alexandria. Interesting that this is where God will launch the mission to the Gentiles. That is so awesome!
   6. But at this point, the mission is only to Jews.
   7. Then there were some, we find in verse 20, who also started preaching to Gentiles: Praise God! Galatians 3:28!
   8. A large number who believed turned to the Lord. These people trusted the message of Jesus and repented, which is what it means to turn their lives over to Jesus.
2. Barnabas comes to Antioch to encourage the believers (Acts 11:22-26).
   1. Once again, in verse 22, we see that the Jerusalem church is still the home base. They hear something is going on, so they send Barnabas.
   2. In verse 23, what does he do? He rejoices.
   3. What do you do when you hear God does something amazing?
   4. What do I do when I hear God does something amazing?
   5. Do we rejoice?
   6. We become spiritual introverts instead of extroverts; we must outspokenly praise God!
   7. He encouraged them: this means that he brought them aid. He encouraged them to remain true to the Lord.
   8. That is an application for all of us. Remain True to the Lord— don’t fall away—stay true.
   9. Barnabas saw all these new believers.
   10. He is saying, “Remain faithful.”
   11. Look at the description of Barnabas in verse 24:
       1. He was a good man (that is only given by Luke about Joseph of Arimathea in Luke 23:50);
       2. Full of the Holy Spirit;
       3. Full of faith.

1. People were saved

That is something to praise God about.

Barnabas needed help. What did he do?

He went for Saul, and he searched for him. Now, it has been about nine years since Saul has become a believer, and verse 25 describes it as though it was hard to find him, but Barnabas finds him. Saul and Barnabas teach the people for a year. They taught great numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

Saul may have been an outcast from his family by now for his Christianity. Also, Luke is setting this up for Acts 13 and Saul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey.

Notice something about the word “Christians”:

“It contains Jewish thought as the equivalent of the Messiah, the Anointed. (ii) It shows the Greek language in the substantive—’Christ.’ (iii) It also includes the Latin language in the adjectival ending ‘ians’ (Latin, iani). This universality is a reminder of the language of the title on the Cross.”

Something else, the “ians” means that we identify with Christ.

Close:

Swindoll shares:

Do you recall what David did after he killed Goliath? God had already appointed the young shepherd as the next king of Israel. Most young conquerors would have located the nearest Macy’s and tried on crowns. Not David. He went right back to the Judean hills to keep his father’s sheep—a true shepherd with a servant’s heart.

Paul kept a similar vigil in Tarsus. He waited patiently until Barnabas tapped him on the shoulder. Only then did he step into that critical, highly visible role of leadership. I find nothing more attractive in a gifted and competent leader than authentic humility. Paul’s giftedness was framed in the crucible of solitude where he had been honed and retooled by the living Christ.

The evangelist Dwight L. Moody, although unschooled, was a gifted man of God preaching in Birmingham, England, far back in 1875. A noted congregational minister and well-respected theologian, Dr. R. W. Dale, cooperated in that enormously successful campaign. After watching and listening to Moody preach and witnessing the incredible results of the ministry of that simple man, Dr. Dale wrote in his denominational magazine, “I told Mr. Moody that the work was most plainly of God, for I could see no real relation between him and what he had done. Moody laughed cheerily and said, ‘I should be very sorry if it were otherwise.'” No defensiveness, no feeling of being put upon, no embarrassing uneasiness. Moody was the most surprised of anyone that God chose to use him so mightily.

That was Paul. No wonder Barnabas wanted Paul to lead the program in Antioch. What a duet they sang! For an entire year these two men served side by side, and God was greatly glorified.

I love Warren Wiersbe’s succinct definition of ministry: “Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.” Paul and Barnabas could have sat for that portrait. Why did Paul and Barnabas experience such pleasure in serving together? No competition. No battle of egos. No one threatened by the other’s gifts. No hidden agendas. No unresolved conflicts. Their single-minded goal was to magnify Christ. It didn’t matter if the crowds multiplied to thousands or shrank to only a few. All that mattered was that Christ be proclaimed and worshipped.

Praise God for the power of two![1]

The application for us is in verses 23 and 24: stay true to the Lord, and may it be said of us like it was of Barnabas. He was a good man, full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. So, can we pursue being full of the Holy Spirit? Can we pursue being a good man or woman? Can we pursue being full of faith?

Do you identify with Christ? Are you a Christ-“ian”? If so, go and make disciples as they did in this passage.

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 (Genesis 4-Malachi 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

[1] Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

https://www.insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/the-power-of-two1

Special topic: Knowing God In the Details (John 17:3; Gal. 5:22-23)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 5, 2025

Pastor J. D. Greear writes:

I once heard the story of a man named Steve who, when he was 2 years old, became deaf after contracting spinal meningitis. For the next 58 years of his life, he lived in total silence—no music, no laughter, no voices of his loved ones. His life was full and happy enough, especially since he couldn’t remember much of the time before he lost his hearing. He had resigned himself, for better or worse, to life without sound.

Then, in 2001, his doctor proposed a procedure that could change Steve’s life forever.

This new surgical procedure would implant a sound wave detection device that could bypass the nonfunctioning part of Steve’s ear. Essentially, the device would transmit the audio signals directly to the auditory nerve in the brain. It wasn’t a dangerous procedure, so Steve happily decided to try it. But there was an annoying catch: They wouldn’t know if the surgery had been successful for six weeks. (What must those six weeks have been like?)

Finally, the day arrived. Steve and his wife came back to the audiologist’s office, nervous and excited. The audiologist programmed the cochlear implant on his device, held his finger over the final key, and looked to Steve to ask him if he was ready. Steve gave the go-ahead, and the audiologist pressed the button.

Then, the audiologist turned to Steve’s wife and gave a silent signal, prompting her to say something. She leaned toward Steve and gently said, “I love you.” Steve’s face broke into a bright smile. Not only could he hear again, but the first sounds he’d heard in six decades were words of personal love. Both he and his wife wept as they held each other, chattering away for the first time ever.[1]

I love that story!

What does it mean to know someone? Do you ever think about how profound it is to be able to say, ‘“My’ wife,” or ‘“My’ son,” or ‘“My’ daughter,” or ‘“My’ mom.” Putting that possessive pronoun, “my,” in front of the noun changes things. It is personal. It shows intimacy. It shows a personal connection. When I married Meagan, she became ‘“my’ wife.” She is not “your” wife. She is not someone else’s wife. She is “My” wife. There is a proper personal connection there.

Likewise, is Jesus “your” Savior? Is Jesus “your” friend? Do you have a relationship with Jesus?

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

¹⁷       The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

                  he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

                  he will exult over you with loud singing.

Today, is a special topic Sunday. Next week, we will return to Acts.

My theme is:

Knowing Jesus in the details

1. How do we know Him?
   1. John 17:3 (ESV) ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
   2. This verse is part of Jesus’s high priestly prayer.
   3. Jesus is spending time in prayer prior to the crucifixion.
   4. Jesus knew that the time had come (John 17:1) and now He is praying.
   5. Jesus talks about Himself in the second and third person. Glorify “Your” Son (John 17:1). Then, in verses 2-3 Jesus referred to Himself in the third person.
   6. In this prayer, Jesus shares how we receive eternal life.
   7. We must “know” the only true God. We must know Jesus Christ, whom He sent.
   8. Do we know Him?
   9. Do we know the real Jesus. Tim Keller shares about Heb 1:3:

      You know the average person sees … Here’s a book written to people in a setting just like ours, and it will not compromise. It starts right out saying what it says, and surely there are people today who say, “We’re never going to have global peace like this until everyone in their religion is willing to admit that all religions are equal, until everyone stops claiming, ‘My religion is the best one,’ or “My religion is the superior one.’ ”

      They say, “As long as people say things like this, we’re not going to have peace. Until everyone admits all religions are equally valid, we’re never going to have global peace.” I want to say in response to that, that is by no means the way to get global peace in the slightest. Here’s why. The only way all religions could be equally valid is if you assume either there is no God or there is a God who doesn’t hold people accountable for what they believe. Of course, that God is different than the God of all other religions.

      But do you hear what you’re saying? When you say all religions are equally valid, you are assuming a very particular view of God which you’re saying is better than what everyone else believes. Therefore, when you say, “Stop making exclusive claims! Religions have to stop making exclusive claims,” that is the most exclusive possible claim.

      Yet you won’t admit what you’re doing. What you’re saying is, “My white, Western, relativistic take on objectivity and subjectivity is the right one. Religions are subjectively true, but objectively they’re all basically the same.” You’re taking your view and putting it on top of everybody else’s.

      When another religion, when any religion says, “My religion is the best one. Convert!” there’s integrity there. There’s openness there. There’s self-knowledge there. There’s consistency there. But when you say, “All religions are equal. No religion should claim to be the superior one,” you’re making your spiritual view of reality the superior one. That’s hypocrisy. It’s infuriating to all the adherents of all other religions, and it will never lead to global peace.

      Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

   10. This is not referring to a one-time prayer.
   11. Dallas Willard shares: Accordingly, the only description of eternal life found in the words we have from Jesus is “This is eternal life, that they [his disciples] may know you, the only real God, and Jesus the anointed, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This may sound to us like “mere head knowledge.” But the biblical “know” always refers to an intimate, personal, interactive relationship.[2]
   12. Do we have an intimate, personal, interactive relationship with God?
   13. First, have we “Firmly made the decision to be with Him”?
   14. Have you decided that you want to live with Him? That would mean having a relationship with Him.
   15. Have you decided “to become like Him”?
   16. Have you decided “to learn and do all that He says”?
   17. Have you decided “to arrange your affairs around Him”?
   18. If you have done that and are striving for it, then I think you know God.
   19. This assumes confessing we are a sinner in need of a Savior. That means repenting.
   20. This assumes believing in Jesus as the One and only Savior.
   21. John 14:6
   22. John 3:16
   23. This assumes trusting in Him and committing to Him (Luke 9:23).

Tim Keller shares:

Jean-Paul Sartre in his work Being and Nothingness, where he has this very famous illustration. He says imagine yourself in a room, and you see a keyhole, and you see light through the keyhole. When you get down and look through the keyhole, you see people doing things, and they don’t know you’re watching.

Wow. There’s nothing more empowering and satisfying than to be the unviewed viewer, to be able to see everything and they don’t know you’re watching. You can see them; they can’t see you. One-way mirror. You can see them; they can’t see you. Now you have power. You’re in the driver’s seat.

Suddenly, in this illustration, as you’re looking through the keyhole and feeling really good, you hear a noise and you look behind you. You see another keyhole, and you see a little eye through that keyhole. You realize your unviewed viewing is being viewed by an unviewed viewer. You are now the object, not the subject. You’re dehumanized, and it’s unbearable. Why?

What Sartre says is there’s nothing more dehumanizing than to be out of control with what people see of you. We need to control how people see us. We need to control what people see. For someone to have access, for it to be uncovered, for someone to have complete access to what you’re thinking and what you’re doing and how you’re living without you knowing it or being in control of it is utterly dehumanizing. We cannot bear it. Why?

That’s an interesting illustration, isn’t it? Of course, Sartre is an existentialist. Sartre of course does not believe in moral absolutes. Of course he doesn’t believe we’re supposed to live up to somebody else’s standards for us. Of course not. Yet he says it is absolutely endemic to every human being to desperately want to be covered. We do not want people to see who we are. We don’t want people to see what we do, how we think. Why?

What Sartre is saying is if anybody has that kind of access to us, they will see things of which we are ashamed. We will do things, we will say things, we will think things of which we are deeply ashamed, and we cannot bear to have other people looking at it, to be able to look inside, to catch us. Why would that be? It’s stupid, frankly. It’s stupid to say, “Well, you traditional people have problems with guilt and shame, but you see, we create our own standards.”

What Sartre is pointing out is we don’t live up to our own standards either. Sure, here’s a traditional society, and they say, “The meaning in life is to live according to the given standards.” Here is our modern Western society, and they say, “The meaning in life is for you to work out your own standards,” but you don’t live up to your own standards either. You’re never the person you say you want to be. You’re never the person you aspire to be. You’re never the person you claim to be. Never.

That means everybody has a problem with guilt and shame. Everybody desperately needs to be covered. Everybody desperately wants to be covered, has to be covered, has to keep people from seeing who we really are. When we are exposed, we’re filled with guilt and shame. That’s true no matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what your century. It doesn’t matter what your culture. That’s why Franz Kafka says about modern people today … He was talking about the twentieth century, but it’s also true of the twenty-first century.

He says, “The state we find ourselves in today is we feel sinful quite independent of guilt.” That’s in his diaries. All of the commentators say … It was a brilliant thing. What he’s saying is we don’t have the concept of guilt. We’re sophisticated. We laugh at this whole idea of guilt, yet we still sense there’s something wrong with us. You may laugh. “I don’t believe in heaven or hell or the moral law. I don’t believe in sin.” Yet you know in yourself, your own heart, there’s a voice that’s always there calling you an idiot, calling you a fool, calling you a failure.^[3]

We need to be covered. We need forgiveness. We know that inside. We can only get that in Jesus.

2. Firmly making the decision to be with Him gives you eternal life.

1. 1. Eternal life means that we are alive spiritually.
   2. Are you alive spiritually?
   3. Tim Keller shares:
   4. Christianity is not defined in terms of intellect or morality. It’s not defined in terms of quantity, but in terms of essence and quality, and a change of essence, and a new constitution engrafted into your being.^[4]
   5. Keller defines it more. Plant life versus animal life, versus human life.
   6. But, we are dead spiritually without Jesus. Eternal life makes us alive spiritually. This means we know Jesus now.
   7. A person who gets eternal life says, “I was as uncomprehending of holiness, of love, of eternal life, of the righteousness God gives, of adoption into his family, of the gift of salvation, of heaven and hell … I was as uncomprehending of those things as an animal is uncomprehending of beauty and ugliness, of justice and tragedy.”^[5]
   8. What happens without eternal life is the concepts of holiness and of righteousness, of heaven and hell, spiritual truths, spiritual realities either are nonsense to a person without eternal life or they are simple abstractions, but they are not solidities, they’re not realities. They don’t affect you; they don’t control you. You never act as if they’re there. All the difference in the world … A person who becomes a Christian, a person who has received eternal life says, “Suddenly, there is a whole new part of reality I never saw. It never affected me. Those realities were never there. It’s like night and day.”
   9. A Christian is somebody to whom these realities have become realities indeed. They’ve become no longer abstractions. They’re not philosophical or academic things. They are realities. They are at the center of the being. They make a difference.
   10. The truth becomes alive. Spiritual truths become alive.^[6]
   11. Are you alive spiritually? Do you know Jesus?

• Knowing Him in the details?
  1. When we know Jesus, we have a relationship with Him.
  2. Oftentimes, I have talked about this with spiritual disciplines. I have talked about prayer, Bible study, fasting, silence, etc.
  3. But, do we care about the fruit?
  4. If an apple tree did not produce apples, but tomatoes it would have serious problems.
  5. Do we pray—“Lord, help me to have the fruit of a relationship with You.”?
  6. Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)
  7. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
  8. I call that knowing God in the details.

Dallas Willard shares:

Our problem is that we don’t truly see the greatness of Christ. In his book Your God Is Too Small, J. B. Phillips laid his finger on the chronic problem of failing to grasp how big God is and our failure to understand the greatness of Christ. When Christians talk about Jesus, they struggle because they have a tiny Christ, a puny Christ who doesn’t compare well with others.

My University of Southern California students have occasionally asked, “Why are you a disciple of Jesus?” My answer has been to ask, “Who else did you have in mind?” And I mean this seriously. They’ve wanted to talk about Buddha, Gandhi, or even their favorite musician or politician, but none of them compare to Christ on close examination.

The reality is that everyone is following somebody. But people are typically not thinking about what is guiding their lives. Good questions for each of us to ask are, Who am I really following? Who do I look up to? Who are my role models? No matter who that might be, that person’s goodness is finite and even limited. But the goodness of God available through following Jesus is so unfathomable you will never see the end of it.[1]

A lot of folks sitting in range of the kingdom are not there for the purpose of discipleship. Often it’s because they haven’t been challenged or even taught how to be a disciple. Other times, they’ve had it explained and have turned away. Even in the Western world, many people have never heard anything about life in the kingdom of God. They think the church is the building on the corner instead of a people who are infiltrating the whole world. This will continue until people realize the solution to human problems is not a human solution. It is learning to live in the kingdom of God through apprenticeship to Jesus Christ and increasingly becoming like him and of his kingdom.[2]

 Firmly make the decision to be with Him.

In order to become like Him, to learn and do all that He says, and to arrange your affairs around Him.

Prayer

[1] Willard, Dallas. The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God (pp. 83-84). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2] Willard, Dallas. The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God (pp. 96-97). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[1] J. D. Greear: blog on 11.19.2024

https://jdgreear.com/the-first-sounds-we-hear-are-words-of-personal-love/

[2] From The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. Copyright © 1997 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

^[3] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

This Will Be a Sign Unto You… (Luke 2:8-14)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on December 24, 2024

I like to watch BBC television shows. More specifically, I like to watch shows about the royal line throughout the history of England. One thing I realized is that when the political climate shifted it was better off to be far away from the king. It was better to be ordinary. In Luke’s Gospel, the angels appeared to ordinary people. They came to common, ordinary people to tell about the Savior’s birth.

The shepherds were ordinary, but the angels came to them—let’s re-read the passage:

Luke 2:8–14 (ESV)

⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

         ¹⁴       “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

1. The extraordinary took on the ordinary.
   1. Timothy Keller quotes C.S. Lewis:
   2. S. Lewis, listen carefully. Listen very carefully to this one.
   3. He says, “… the power of the Higher, just in so far as it is truly Higher, to come down … to include the less. Thus solid bodies exemplify many truths of plane geometry, but plane figures no truths of solid geometry … Montaigne became kittenish with his kitten but she never talked philosophy to him. Everywhere the great enters the little—its power to do so is almost the test of its greatness.”
   4. Thus when I’m at peace and joy, I can enter into the hurt of someone who is angry and despondent. But when I’m angry and despondent, I cannot enter into joy and peace. Why? Because joy and peace are higher, greater. That’s why, I can add, Lincoln can understand Hitler, but Hitler will never be able to understand Lincoln. Why? Because Lincoln is greater.
   5. He is saying how do you know, therefore, something is really high and really great? Because it can come down. It can enter into the lesser. It can sympathize. It can humble itself. You’re strong enough to be weak. You’re secure enough to be vulnerable.[1]
   6. Why did the angels come to these shepherds?
   7. They announce the Savior has been born. They worship the Lord.
   8. The shepherds go to see the Lord.
   9. Why?
   10. Because we have a problem.
   11. God is holy and our sin violates His holiness.
   12. Jesus came to restore our relationship with Him.
   13. The whole Old Testament was pointing to a time when God would unite us with Him.
   14. So, in a nutshell Christmas is all about Jesus’ birth. God became a human being so that He could die for our sins. God brought events involving kings, common people, and shepherds in order to bring His Son into the world. Jesus lived among us for 33 years and then died in our place. He died for our sins.
   15. Do you believe that?
   16. In a talk Tim Keller gave on J.R.R. Tolkien back when The Lord of the Rings movies were new, he spoke about the uniqueness of the gospel story. I’ll recount what he said as it makes clear how we should see Christ entering the world to save us as the ultimate story.
   17. Tolkien and Lewis were having a conversation as they made their way around Addison’s Walk in Oxford. This is a paraphrase, but it captures accurately the essence of what Tim said:
   18. Tolkien asks:What moves you most? What gives your life meaning? 
   19. Lewis replies:The stories I love. When I’m done with a story I love, it inspires me. I’m ready to be better. They inspire me and move me. They give me meaning in life.
   20. Tolkien says:The reason that stories move you is they get in touch with some underlying reality. 
   21. Then Tim explained:All the good stories that move you … like Beauty and the Beast — love really can change people — point to an underlying reality. Even though the story isn’t true, it gets at some kind of underlying reality we identify with. 
   22. But here’s what I want you to know [and what Tolkien said to Lewis], the gospel story — the story of Jesus Christ being born in a manger, living his life here on earth, dying and being resurrected — is not one more story pointing to an underlying reality. The gospel story is the reality to which all the other stories point.
   23. Tolkien goes on to say to Lewis that the gospel story isn’t that good will triumph over evil. The gospel story is that the underlying reality came into this world to save us. It’s the ultimate story where victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. Tolkien even coined a word for it: eucatastrophe. All good stories have elements of the gospel story woven into them if they end with eucatastrophe.[2]
2. Respond
   1. You cannot be indifferent to Jesus.
   2. Have you come to a point in your life where you have accepted Jesus into your heart for forgiveness of your sins. Jesus didn’t come to earth just to live with us; He came to instruct us and to die in our place.
   3. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The Bible says that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The Bible says that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). The Bible says that God will not let the guilty go unpunished (2 Thess 1:8-9). Yet, the Bible teaches that God loves the people of the world (John 3:16). That is a dilemma. God can’t tell a lie, or He wouldn’t be God (Numbers 23:19). God doesn’t change His mind (1 Sam 15:29). That is why God sent Jesus. The guilty must go punished. Jesus took our punishment on the cross. The penalty of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life.
   4. One of the most exciting things that you can do while celebrating Jesus’ birthday is to make it your spiritual birthday as well. You can accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation right now.

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

Prayer

[1] ¹  Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] Gospel In Life email. December 17, 2024

From Nazareth to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on December 22, 2024

I love this story from Swindoll:

I think it was my barber who told me several years ago what they used to do when their kids were small. He said, “We had the most curious kids in the world. And we knew no matter what we did, they would find the gifts. So we had a deal with our neighbors. We would keep all the neighbors’ presents in our closet, and we would give all of our gifts to the neighbors. Naturally the kids would peek, but we acted like we didn’t know about it. And then Christmas Eve, when all the kids were asleep, we would swap and wrap all the gifts.” And he said, “You should have seen my kids when they looked out in the street and saw bicycles being ridden they thought they were gonna get for their Christmas!”[1] [1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 81–82.

Again from Swindoll:

If news networks had been invented in 1809, they would’ve covered one story: Napoleon sweeping across Austria like a wildfire. Napoleon was the talk of the world, on the move from Trafalgar to Waterloo. Everything was about Napoleon.

Now, at the same time, babies were being born, but who cared? Someone should have! Whole cadres of world-changers took their first breaths in 1809. Let’s take a trip back and see for ourselves.

Our first stop: Liverpool, where Baby William is meeting the world. No one has a clue he’s destined to become Great Britain’s Prime Minister—not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. William Gladstone, 1809.

Cross the Atlantic to Cambridge, and you’ll hear the cry of another baby named Oliver. A prodigy, Oliver enters Harvard at 16, graduates before 20, gets his medical degree, practices medicine, and begins teaching at Dartmouth and Harvard. Today, his legacy includes a long list of still-respected books. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809.

Travel up and cross the Charles River until you get to Boston, where another baby, Edgar, is being born. Edgar’s father quickly abandons him; soon after, his mother dies. A family named Allan take Edgar in, and he takes their last name as his middle. He becomes the father of the American short story. Edgar Allan Poe, 1809.

Back across the pond, journey to Shropshire, where a family welcomes their fifth child, a boy. Soon, they realize they have a young scientist on their hands. Before he dies, he’s spread his theory of evolution around the world. Charles Darwin, 1809.

Over in Lincolnshire, Baby Alfred takes his first breath. Before he’s buried, he becomes the poet laureate of Ireland and Great Britain, still among the most admired and prolific poets. Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809.

We can’t leave out a one-room log cabin in Kentucky, where Thomas and Nancy are thrilled to welcome their second child, whom they name after his grandfather. They can little imagine their baby will lead the nation through civil war. Abraham Lincoln, 1809.

All these men born in 1809 . . . but who cared? Few historical buffs could name one of Napoleon’s campaigns! What seemed super-significant proved, ultimately, no more exciting than a Sunday-afternoon nap. What seemed totally insignificant was, in fact, the genesis of an era.

Let’s go back farther, to the first century. Rome captivated the world. Bordered by the Atlantic, the Euphrates, the Danube and the Rhine, and the burning sands of the Sahara, the Roman Empire was vast and vicious. Political intrigue, racial tension, rampant immorality, and enormous military might occupied everyone’s attention. All eyes were on Augustus—the Caesar who demanded a census.

No one cared about a couple making the 90-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. What could be more important than Caesar’s decisions in Rome?

Yet, mighty Augustus had unintentionally become a mere errand boy for the fulfillment of Micah’s prediction. While Rome was busy making history, God arrived. He pitched His fleshly tent on straw in a humble Bethlehem stable. Reeling from the wake of the Greats—Alexander, Herod, and Augustus—the world overlooked Jesus.

It still does. Many believers do too.

Our times aren’t altogether different than 1809 or even the first century. That list of Roman distractions sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Political intrigue. Racial tension. Rampant immorality. Enormous military might. To enhance our tunnel vision, we DO have news networks. Most of us have smartphones that alert us to every new development in (and friend’s opinion about) the “it” story. It’s easy to get sucked into the fear and anxiety.

Don’t misread me. The events flashing across our news channels matter. Some of them have deeply impacted you. They are not trivial. But make no mistake—Satan wants to distract you from the message of Christmas. It’s a message we need today as much as those who lived under the crushing weight of Rome’s heavy boot.

So, here it is: Immanuel—God with Us.

Christmas is about God’s coming down to live in this weary world with us. The long-awaited Messiah finally letting out His first cry. The Savior, the only Hope for a world that drowns Him out. The conquering King of Kings, who is coming again to make wrong right once and for all.

That King is OUR King!

As life rages around you, please pause. Feel the truth of God’s drawing near to you. Let His Word drive out your fear and let His hope bind your heart. Fix your eyes on Him and receive your King! [Dec. 5, 2017 article]

Another time and another place, I was visiting with one of our senior saints. I was talking about Christmas, and she said, “I don’t know how they had babies back then.” I said something like, “Yes, and to be traveling during the ninth month of pregnancy!” We continued our conversation, and I parted ways, but I have to imagine the travel for the first Christmas was very difficult.

But think about Christmas today. Our difficulty and even our busyness is of our own doing.

What do you have to get done for Christmas?

Shout some things out:

Bake cookies

More shopping

More decorating

Wrap gifts

Travel

Groceries

Etc.

These are all great things, but they are nothing compared to what Mary and Joseph went through. I do not mean to criticize anyone here, either.

Now, switch gears and think about a difficult time that ended okay… Maybe you did not know God would use it for good until later. Perhaps you were laid off for a while, but God gave you a better job. Maybe you were laid off but realized you didn’t need the job. Perhaps something else was taken from you…

I also believe that God can use our hard times.

We will look at Luke 2:1-7 and mainly focus on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

When we think about Mary and Joseph traveling, it was not in a car; they had no CD player or any other modern luxuries.

Think about it: they are traveling; Mary is in her ninth month of pregnancy. Mary could not have been enjoying this as a sightseeing journey. But God used this arduous journey to bring the Savior into the world.

Let me say right now that I greatly benefited in ideas as well as cultural and geographical information from Adam Hamilton’s book, The Journey.[1]

Theme:

Mary and Joseph had a difficult journey heading into Jesus’s birth. God was going to use this for the good.

Application:

Let God use difficult things you go through for His glory and purposes.

Let’s read the passage:

Luke 2:1–7 (ESV)

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

1. Let’s start by talking about what led up to the journey.
   1. It is likely that while Mary was visiting her relative, Elizabeth, she went to see Joseph and tell him she was pregnant. During that time, she would have been in Ein Karem, which is close to Bethlehem, where Joseph is from. Of course, Joseph was likely upset, but then God spoke to him in a dream (Matthew 1:20-23), and he decided to stay by her.
   2. Following that, they likely talked to her parents and planned a wedding. We could call it eloping if we want. It is likely that they got married when she was about five months pregnant with our Lord.
   3. There could have been people questioning things; likely, there were.
   4. Likely, they traveled the 70-some miles back to Nazareth for the wedding.
   5. It was common in that day that there would be a formal engagement. Following the formal engagement, a husband would build a room in his father’s house. About a year later, he would marry the bride-to-be, and they would live at the father of the groom’s house until they could afford their own house and land.
   6. In this case, things are different. Maybe they planned to live at Joseph’s parents’ house after baby Jesus was born. However, they were in Nazareth before the census. It seems that they were planning to give birth in Nazareth. Nazareth would allow Mary to be close to her parents and maybe a midwife she would know.
   7. But then the census comes. The census meant that they would have to travel to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was Joseph’s hometown, and since Mary married him, she would have to register with him in Bethlehem.
   8. So, now they must travel.
   9. Mary is likely nine months pregnant; do you think she was excited to travel? What do you think?
   10. I think she might have been thinking, “This is not how it was supposed to be. Why am I going through this?” She likely was having a hard time.
   11. Sometimes, we are also in difficult situations, and we may be asking questions of the Lord. We may be going through cancer, the loss of a loved one, being out of work, or dealing with difficult children. We can be sure that God is with us. We can be sure that God can also use what we are going through for His glory and will.

• Let’s think about the travel.
  1. There is no mention of a donkey, though Joseph likely would have procured an animal for her to ride on. The apocryphal Gospel of James does mention a donkey.
  2. They would have a descent from the hills into the Jezreel Valley. This would have been the easiest part of the journey and may have taken the first two days.
  3. The Jezreel Valley was the location of so many of the ancient battles that it became synonymous with war and bloodshed. The writer of Revelation saw the final, apocalyptic battle between good and evil—the battle of Armageddon— taking place here (Armageddon means “hill of Megiddo,” with Megiddo being a city built upon a hill along the Jezreel Valley— see Revelation 16:16.).
  4. The child in Mary’s womb would be called the Prince of Peace, yet someday will return on a white horse to wage war against evil and ultimately to triumph over it (Rev. 19:11-16).
  5. The journey would become more difficult after several days, as it followed the ancient road, which curved back and forth as it ascended and descended the hills and mountains of central Israel.
  6. Mary and Joseph would have traveled up higher and higher hills.
  7. From Jerusalem, it would only be a few hour’s walk to Bethlehem across several miles of arid desert and some hills.
  8. Then they arrive at Bethlehem.

• But think about Jesus’s birth. If Joseph is from Bethlehem, why is there no place to stay?
  1. Think about a first-century home:
  2. Central room that served as a kitchen and living area,
  3. Sleeping quarters where parents slept,
  4. The guest room where children slept and yielded to guests when there was company,
  5. The children slept with their parents or in the living area when there were guests.
  6. There was also a stable or small barn either behind the home or, in the case of homes built around caves, beneath the home. The stable protected the animals from predators or animals at night.
  7. Assuming Joseph’s family was of modest income, they would have had one guest room. The guest room might hold bed mats for six people sleeping side by side. The main living room and kitchen could hold several more.
  8. How many of Joseph’s extended family were in Bethlehem because of the census?
  9. If Joseph had four or five siblings, each of them had family, it is easy to see why the guest room would have had no room.
  10. Imagine her sitting on the birthing stool, between contractions, choking back the tears, thinking this is not how it was supposed to be.

1. Some final applications:
   1. This was not a silent night.
   2. All was not calm and bright.
   3. It was a disappointing and depressing night. It was hard.
   4. He was born not in a hospital or guest room but in a stable.
   5. We all have difficult journeys:
   6. Jacob’s son, Joseph, was sold into slavery (Gen. 37).
   7. David fled Saul to the Philistines for a few years (1 Samuel 19ff and chapter 27) and wrote Psalms asking, “Why do You allow my enemies to prosper?” “When are You going to save me?” That was not the end of the story.
   8. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego were told to bow down and worship the king’s image, but they didn’t (Daniel 3). That was not the end of the story.
   9. The people of Israel were exiled for 400 years, but that was not the end.
   10. Now, the child born in a stable would walk to Calvary, but that was not the end of the story.

All of us take difficult journeys but God walks with us. God redeems the journeys, and that is not the end of the story.

Mary could not see that the angels would be rejoicing. She could not see that we would be reading the story two thousand years later.  However, we are.

R. C. Sproul shares:

Every time I hear the prohibition “Don’t be afraid,” I think of my days teaching nineteenth-century philosophy and teaching the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, the existential nihilist. Nietzsche said that there is no meaning to life, that everything is an exercise in futility. All there is at the end of the day is nothingness. At the same time, Nietzsche called for the superman, the Übermensch, to demonstrate what he called “dialectical courage.” He said: “The superman is the man who builds his house on the slope of Vesuvius. He sends his ship into uncharted seas.” He’s afraid of nothing. He’s defiant. He challenges this meaningless world in “which he lives, and he lives his life with a spirit of courage.

What is dialectical courage? What Nietzsche meant is contradictory courage, irrational courage. He called on people to be courageous, even though their courage is equally meaningless. That is, he could give no sound reason for calling anyone to be courageous or to be fearless. In the New Testament, Jesus says to His followers, “Take heart,” and He gives a reason for that command. “Take heart,” Jesus says. “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Years before, the angel said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (vv. 10–11).

The shepherds likely understood that the word Christ was the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, or “anointed one,” and this was an announcement that the long-awaited Savior had come into the world.[1]

[1] Excerpt From. Luke. R.C. Sproul
https://books.apple.com/us/book/luke/id1534659946
This material may be protected by copyright.

Prayer

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

Our sin separated us from God (Gen. 3).

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

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

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

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

[1] Rev 2:20-23

Hamilton, Adam (2011-09-01). The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

The American storyteller Garrison Keillor recently claimed that you don’t have to believe in Jesus to have a great Christmas. Keillor said,

Although you may decide that instead of Christmas carols you are going to hold hands and breathe in unison, Christmas will still live deep in the cockles of your heart—or actually in your neo-cortex, stored as zillions of neuron impulses … It’s [your brain] that sends tears to your eyes when you smell the saffron cookies that your grandma used to make or you sing Silent Night. So Christmas is: number one lights, number two food, number three song, number four being with people you like. You need no more.

Tim Keller comments on Keillor’s quote:

Keillor is saying that it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not. You can still hold hands, you can still breathe in unison. All the good feelings of Christmas are just a reaction in our brain. But here’s why that doesn’t work. I know enough about Garrison Keillor to know that he is very upset with cruelty and prejudice. But if it’s really true that there is no God, if there is no supernatural or miracles, and if everything is a function of natural causes—if that is all true, then it is also true that love, and joy, and even cruelty and prejudice are just all chemical reactions stored in our brain. Keillor is against cruelty and prejudice, but if it’s true that everything is just chemistry, then how in the world can you say there’s a moral difference between love and cruelty, between kissing someone or killing someone? They’re both nothing but neuro-chemical responses. So if there is no God, and if Christmas is all about lights, songs, and being with nice people and your neo-cortex going crazy about it, then I don’t see how Keillor can stand up and say that there is something wrong with cruelty and prejudice. He can’t do it. Without the theology behind Christmas, you lose the core meaning of Christmas.[1]

So, as we move towards Christmas, remember the importance of what is happening. Remember the reality and the truth of what is happening. Next, we see specific values in Mary’s Magnificat to get closer to today’s message. We see particular values addressed. The Magnificat is addressing injustice. We’ll look at that briefly, but let’s look at the bigger picture. The Gospel is addressing injustice. Somehow, we know and believe in morality. Somehow, we think certain things are wrong, and others are right. Somehow, we believe in love. We believe in joy. We get these values somewhere. The Bible teaches that we get these values from God (Romans 1:18-19; 2:15). Even more than that, we believe that certain things are wrong. If we believe certain things are wrong, like murder, stealing, telling lies, and just being mean, which the Bible calls sin, how do we make it right? Jesus’s death and resurrection take care of our sins.

So, Mary is pregnant with Jesus. She is likely a little bit down. She doesn’t know how she is going to handle everything coming her way, but her relative, Elizabeth, encourages her. Have you ever been encouraged?

Have you ever thought you had more coming your way than you could handle?

Who encouraged you?

Who motivated you?

Let’s look at the passage.

Let’s read Luke 1:39-45:

Luke 1:39–45 (ESV)

³⁹ In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, ⁴⁰ and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, ⁴² and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Theme: Mary visits Elizabeth, and she is encouraged.

Applications: Kneel before Jesus as Lord and be used by God to encourage others.

1. Kneel before Jesus as Lord.
   1. We need to notice who the first person to call Jesus Lord was. If you look at this passage, you will see that it was Elizabeth.
   2. Let me put this in context. The angel Gabriel visits Mary and tells her she will be pregnant with the Messiah. That happens in Luke 1:26-38. That passage ends with Mary saying, “I am the Lord’s servant…” Then Mary leaves and goes to visit her relative, Elizabeth. This was likely an 8–9-day journey through mountains and rough land. She is going from Nazareth to Ein Karem, which is the traditional location of Elizabeth and Zachariah’s home.
   3. Adam Hamilton believes that another reason for Mary to visit Elizabeth would be the proximity of her home to the home of Joseph. Tradition says that her home would have been in Ein Karem just about an hour walk and a few miles from the Temple mount in Jerusalem. Ein Karem is mentioned in Jeremiah 6:1 and Nehemiah 3:14 as “Beth-Haccherem” Ein Karem is 80 miles from Mary’s home in Nazareth. This may have taken 8-9 days and she would not have traveled alone. Mary stayed with Elizabeth until the end of the pregnancy.[2]
   4. Mary enters Elizabeth’s house and says, “Elizabeth, it’s me!” Then the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptizer, leaped in her womb. Verse 41 says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Understand that is a fantastic statement. In the Old Testament, only prophets and certain kings received the Holy Spirit. So, in Psalm 51:11, King David laments: “Take not the Holy Spirit from me.” There was a fear of losing the Holy Spirit.
   5. It was once said, “I wonder what it was like for Moses to talk to God as he did.” Yet Moses could have thought, “What is it like to have God with you?” We receive the Holy Spirit when we commit to Christ (John 14-17). We have God with us. (2 Cor. 6:16) Don’t take this lightly.
   6. Now, having the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth encourages Mary.
   7. She says in verse 42: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child that you bear.”
   8. Imagine Mary being down and struggling with this task and now her relative is saying, “You are blessed.” “You are really blessed.”
   9. But verse 43: “But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
   10. Catch this: Elizabeth is ordinary, and God calls her to do something extraordinary. She is bearing John the Baptizer. She is encouraging Mary. She is saying, “Who am I?” But then she calls Jesus “Lord.”
   11. How would she know? She is filled with the Holy Spirit and is the first to call Jesus Lord.
   12. In verses 39-45, 3 times, the word “blessed” is used. Twice, it refers to Mary and once to Jesus.
2. Be an encourager.
   1. Mary is likely 10 days pregnant at this point. She has not been pregnant long.
   2. She needs encouragement, and Elizabeth gave her that encouragement.
   3. Everyone needs an encourager. Let me jump to mentors. Elizabeth is an older woman, not Mary’s mom, who can voice wisdom in her life. I have often heard that everyone should have a mentor, be mentoring someone else, and have a peer they can connect with. How are you doing in this area?
   4. I heard about a church that decided to take this mentoring seriously, so on all of their committees; they chose to have one-third of the participants be fifty-five and older, one-third is to be thirty-five through fifty-five years old-, and one-third of the members are to be thirty-five and younger. What an excellent idea for mentoring.
3. The Gospel is counter-cultural, let’s look at the Magnificat.
   56. Mary’s Magnificat is in verses 46-56.
   57. Magnificat comes from the Latin: “magnify” or “praise.” This is based on how Mary began her Psalm: “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46).
   58. Mary was from a small town that could barely be a dot on a map. Joseph was a carpenter whose net worth could fit in a toolbox.
   59. He scatters the proud and pulls down the mighty from their thrones (verses 51-52).
   60. Compare this with what Jesus will later say:
   61. Jesus had said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16)
   62. Jesus said, “If you really want to be great, you will be the servant of others” (Matthew 20:26)
   63. Jesus said, “If you are invited to a wedding banquet, take the lower seat” (Luke 14:8).
   64. Jesus said through James, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:10).
   65. In Mary’s Magnificat, we find a picture of a God who is for the underdog and is for people who have been made to feel like nobodies. Those are the ones He lifts. That is the character of the God proclaimed in the Scriptures. That is the character of His Son.
   66. The Magnificat says that “He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed” (verse 53).
   67. This is an opportunity for the rich to humble themselves and be used of God.
   68. The Magnificat is counter cultural. The Magnificat is about how God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things.

So, review:

Mary and Elizabeth are two ordinary people who God used to do the extraordinary.

Theme: Mary visits Elizabeth, and she is encouraged.

Applications: Kneel before Jesus as Lord and be used by God to encourage others.

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

[1] Adapted from Tim Keller, “God with Us: Conversations with Tim Keller about Christmas”

[2] Hamilton, Adam (2011-09-01). The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

Okay, let’s have a Christmas pageant. Let’s just pretend for a moment:

Who wants to be the innkeeper? Raise your hand

Who wants to be Joseph? Raise your hand; someone is Joseph.

Who wants to be the camel? Ha, come on, someone play a camel.

Who wants to be the wise man? Raise your hand.

Who else do we need? Who wants to be shepherds? We need several raise your hands.

Who wants to be the doctor? The doctor? She was having a baby; do you think there was a doctor there? No, there was not. Who wants to be the nurse? Who wants to be the mother of Mary?

No nurse.

No doctor.

No Mother.

Who wants to be Mary? Someone raise your hand.

Do you think Mary wanted to be Mary?

Have you ever been asked to do a difficult, honorable, or noble task, but you did not know that you could do it? Have you been there?

That is what Mary felt. Mary was a world changer. She changed the world as the mother of Jesus. We would not be here if it were not for Mary. Think about this: We have a mission statement from Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This could not have happened without Mary. Mary gave birth to the One who gave that commission.

Let’s look at Mary’s commissioning:

Luke 1:26–38 (ESV)

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Theme:

Mary was highly favored for a difficult task, which she humbly accepted.

Application:

Sometimes, God’s call is not easy. Accept the call as Mary did.

1. I want to focus on one word: “Highly Favored.”
   1. This word is the word for “grace.”
   2. It is only used in this way in Ephesians 1:6 having to do with God giving us His grace.
   3. This verse is saying that Mary has received God’s grace or God’s favor.
   4. This is Gabriel’s greeting to Mary. Gabriel says, “The Lord is with you.”
   5. She is twice told that she has received grace or favor, in verse 28 and verse 30: ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
   6. As one writes about grace: Grace is at the center of what God was doing in Christmas. The child to be born of Mary would embody and incarnate grace. His message would be a message of grace. His life would demonstrate grace to sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes. They had been taught that there was no place for them in the synagogue, that God’s judgment and wrath was upon them; Jesus devoted his life to showing them that it was God’s love, mercy, and kindness that were offered to them. Jesus showed them grace.[1]
   7. Do we realize who she would be the mother to?
   8. Those who wrote the great hymns of Christmas know it.  They’ve always known it.  Our carols celebrate it.  “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”  “Yea, Lord, we great Thee, born this happy morning,” “Come adore on bended knee Christ the Lord,” “Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord,” “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the Incarnate Deity.”  “Jesus, our Immanuel.”  “Yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light.”  “Oh come with us, abide with us, our Lord, Immanuel.”  The carol says, “Jesus, Lord at Thy birth,” “Incense owns a Deity nigh,” “The virgin’s sweet boy is the Lord of the earth,”  “Word of the Father now in flesh appearing,”  “How that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name,”  “God with man is now residing, suddenly the Lord descending.”  The carol says, “Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown when Thou camest to earth for me.”  “And the Father gave His Son, gave His own beloved One.”  Son of the Most High, Son of God, God in human flesh; this amazing child is God come down. Grace has power. When you show kindness, compassion, goodness, or love to someone who does not deserve it, the act of grace has the power to change hearts, to heal broken relationships, and to reconcile people and even nations. Grace changes the one who receives it, but it also changes the one who gives it.[2]
   9. She certainly is the mother of God; she raised Jesus.
   10. Do you think she was happy for this task?
2. Let’s talk more about Mary.
   1. Mary was from a tiny town called Nazareth.
   2. Nazareth would not even make it on a list of cities. It was just a tiny little village.
   3. We would think if God were going to send His Son into the world, He would pick a woman from Rome or Jerusalem, but He didn’t.
   4. I believe God wanted to show that He chooses the nobodies.
   5. Mary was likely 13 years old. Think about that.
   6. She was from humble beginnings.
   7. She was likely uneducated.
   8. She was likely raised to be very devoted to God.
   9. Mary is told how things will happen. The power of God, the Most High, will overshadow her. Mary is not told exactly what is going to happen, but if God did not cause her to conceive, then Jesus would be a clone of her. People have lacked faith in the virgin birth in the past, but with all of the science these days and how we can artificially inseminate, do we need to doubt God?
   10. So, Mary is told precisely what will happen.
   11. Again, I return to the question: Do you think Mary wanted to be Mary?
   12. Do you think Mary wanted to go and tell Joseph she was pregnant? Do you think Mary was scared? Do you think Mary was concerned to talk to her parents? Having a baby was scary back then, but all these responsibilities and the great humility also.
   13. As a brief aside think of how confounding it is that God became a man.
   14. Look at verses 34-35:
   15. Luke 1:34–35 (ESV)
   16. ³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
   17. ³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
   18. God became a man!
   19. This comes from Timothy Keller:
   20. For example, all relationships (certainly marriages but all relationships) … Certainly parent and child, all of this always happens. Sometimes you get into conversations that go roughly like this:
   21. “You’re to blame.”
   22. “Oh, no. You’re to blame.”
   23. “Oh, no, no. It’s you.”
   24. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not me. It’s you.”
   25. “No, it’s you.”
   26. “No, it’s you.”

• “No, it’s you.”
• What’s happening? The relationship is falling apart because neither side will budge an inch. Neither side will take any blame. Neither side will make any concession. Neither side will admit. Neither side will drop the defenses. You are defending yourself at every point where the other person is accusing you or charging you. At every point! As long as those defenses are up, your relationship is going away, and on it goes. Sometimes this happens:
• “No, no. It’s you.”
• “No, no. It’s you.”
• “No, no, no, no. It’s you.”
• “Okay, it’s me.”
• “No, no … Yeah!” Now what happens there? Sometimes it’s:
• “It’s you.”
• “No, it’s you.”
• “No, it’s you.”
• “No, it’s you.”
• “No, it’s you.”
• “Yes, it’s me.”
• “Yes, it’s you. Yes, it’s you!”
• Sometimes the piling on happens for a while, but I’ll tell you what begins to happen immediately. The relationship starts to heal. Sometimes it starts to deepen. It starts to come back. Why? Because one of you dropped defenses. I mean, certainly it goes like this. You know, even if you feel like the other person is 80 percent wrong, exaggerating, throwing in a lot of fabrications, almost always the person is at least 20 person right. You know it.
• The relationship starts to come back because you take that 20 percent, and you admit it. You say, “Yeah, it’s me. Yes, I am to blame. I am to blame here. I am willing to do that.” You make yourself vulnerable, and you drop your defenses. It can hurt! It’s very hard, because very often the other person keeps piling on for a while. In general, it won’t be long before not only the relationship is restored, but very often it’s deeper than it’s ever been before. It’s more intimate than it’s ever been before.
• Why would you do that? Because in the midst of all the yelling and all the hostility, one of you decides, in spite of how distorted that other person is right now and how distorted we are both because of our anger, “I want that person back. I want the person I love back.” The only way to do that is you take down your shield somewhere, and you let one of the verbal blows land. You say, “Yes, it’s true. It’s me. I’m wrong. I admit it.”

• It hurts, but it’s the only way. In fact, almost always it works, and the relationship begins to at least come back. At least it stops deteriorating. Later on, it might actually get better. In many, many cases, it gets deeper than it ever was before because you have done a costly act of redemption for the relationship. You let your defenses down.
• Why does that work? Do you know why that works? It works because you are made in the image of the One who gave the ultimate expression of this part of his own nature at Christmas, because at Christmas when the unassailable God, the omnipotent God, became a baby, we have the ultimate example of letting your defenses down.^[3]
• C. S. Lewis years ago very famously put it something like this: “If you want your heart to never be broken, give it no one. If you don’t want your heart to be broken, if you don’t want to be vulnerable, if you don’t want your heart to be broken, then don’t give it to anyone.” He says, in that little casket of self-centeredness, your heart will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

• Because, you see, there’s absolutely no way to have a relationship without becoming vulnerable. There’s no way to get back a relationship or deepen a relationship or get it more intimate without becoming vulnerable and hurt. Here’s what Christmas tells you. There is no other religion that even tells you this about God. No other religion even claims it. Secularism says the incarnation is a miracle. It’s impossible. Judaism and Islam say it’s impossible for God to become a baby. Eastern religions say it’s impossible.
• Only Christianity says God became breakable. God literally became breakable. God became fragile. God became breakable. God became someone we could hurt. Why? To get us back. To get you back! Jesus Christ became utterly fragile. God became utterly breakable and died on the cross to pay for our sins and to reconcile to himself anyone who was willing to admit they need that extreme a salvation.^[4]
• Martin Luther, in one of his nativity sermons, put it like this. He said are you afraid of God? He places before you a Babe with whom you may take refuge. You cannot fear a Babe, for nothing is more appealing to the human heart than a baby.
• “To me there is no greater consolation given to mankind than this, that Christ became man, a child, a babe, playing in the lap … of his most gracious mother.” You see, the consuming fire, the whirlwind, became a baby in order to become someone who could be hurt. Why? Why? To have intimacy, a relationship. He did all of that to get near us. If you know that, if this isn’t just a metaphor, this isn’t just a sweet symbol, if you know it, blessed are you if you know it was really accomplished.^[5]
• Mary would tell her relatives and Joseph. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, and then we have the Magnificat.

• Let’s look at Mary’s response.
  1. And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Verse 38).
  2. Sometimes, the Lord’s calling is difficult, but we must follow through.
  3. We must follow through like Mary did and just respond, I am the servant of the Lord…
  4. There’s a place where Martin Luther in one of his nativity sermons says something like, “Do you know what a stable smells like?” Now I’m paraphrasing, but this is Luther, and this is the way he was. He said something like, “Do you know what a stable smells like? Do you know what that family would have smelled like after the birth and they went out into the city? If they were standing next to you, how would you have felt about them? How would you have regarded them?^[6]
  5. Verse 29: ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.^[7]
  6. I like what Timothy Keller shares:
  7. Literally it says, the word wondered is the word dialogizomai, which means to logic through something, to rationally think. Dialogizomai. You can see it (logic). To think through. To furiously analyze. Then it says to furiously analyze what kind of greeting this might be. What that means is she is sitting there saying, “Is this a hallucination, or is this a dream, or is this the real thing?”
  8. She is going through categories of possibilities, and she is saying, “Am I seeing things?” Now this isn’t the way you write a legend. No, if you’re going to write a legend that’s supposed to promote the piety of the faithful, you don’t say, “And the angel appeared unto Mary and said, ‘Greetings! Hail!’ ” Then usually what happens is Mary says immediately, “I am the Lord’s servant.” Right?
  9. That’s how you write a legend, but that’s not what happens. Here’s what Luke tells you what happened. The angel appeared, and Mary sat there and said, “Am I seeing things? Are you real? What’s going on here? I can’t be seeing this. What’s the matter? This is weird.” In other words, Mary is reacting just the way you would react.
  10. There are a lot of people maybe in this room and a lot of people who would say, “Well, I’m a modern skeptical person. Back then, people were primitive. They believed in these things, but I’m different.” No, you’re not. Not at all. Don’t you dare hide behind that. Mary is reacting exactly like you would have. She is dialogizomai. She is trying to think logically through it. She is trying to figure out, “What in the world? How do I account for this? How do I account for this? Am I dreaming? Did I eat something? Is this a flashback? What is going on here?”
  11. Let me show you how it works. Let me show you. Let’s enter in here. Let me help you do the same thing. How do you account for this? That’s what she is saying. She is saying, “How do I account for this data?” See? She did not have a grid. She did not have a worldview that included angels and visions and things like that happening to her. Okay, now let’s do it with us ourselves.
  12. How do you account for the fact that Mary … or maybe let’s just say Luke … these early Christians believed God had become flesh and the one he had become, a human being, Jesus Christ, needed to be worshiped? How do you account for that? Would you think with me? Think through it. Was this a kind of development, you know, a trend out of Greek thinking? No. There was absolutely nothing about Greco-Roman thinking at the time.
  13. Everything about their worldview said, “Matter is bad. The physical is bad.” They mean nothing. Nothing! There was no trend. There was nothing in that culture that would ever lead anybody to believe the creator God would become human. Oh, okay. Eastern religions. Is this sort of a development, an extension of Eastern religions? No. Eastern religions believe matter and the physical is an illusion, that it’s going to pass away eventually.
  14. Well, the Jews. Oh, yeah. But listen. In other words, as much as we can say Eastern and Western religion and philosophy were completely against … totally against … the whole concept, there was absolutely no way this developed out of there (the concept of the incarnation). The last people in the whole world who would ever believe some human being should be worshiped would be the Jews, who didn’t even speak God’s name, don’t even write God’s name, even to this day.^[8]
  15. S. Lewis used to say something like, “The reason I believe in Christianity is because nobody is brilliant enough or crazy enough to have thought this up.”^[9]
  16. Later Mary says, “I am the Lord’s servant…”
  17. Can we respond this way? Can we respond to God’s Word and honorably say.
  18. “I am the Lord’s servant, and I will follow the rules.”
  19. “I am the Lord’s servant I will walk in integrity.”
  20. “I am the Lord’s servant and will not spread that rumor.”
  21. “I am the Lord’s servant and will not gossip on Facebook.”
  22. “I am the Lord’s servant, and I won’t look at that website.”
  23. “I am the Lord’s servant, and I will not have road rage.”
  24. “I am the Lord’s servant, and I will apologize for my behavior.”
  25. “I am the Lord’s servant, and I will treat people with respect.”
  26. “I am the Lord’s servant. I will share the Gospel with people, pray, read the Bible, work at the food pantry, help someone with a meal, and give someone grace.”
  27. I am the Lord’s servant… we must pray about it and live like Mary.

Remember grace and favor; it is such a gift. That was such a privilege for Mary. Give people grace this week. Give people favor this week.

Dorothy Sayers says, “[The incarnation] means … that for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—he [God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. […] He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself.

He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. […] He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.” So in the package, there’s a unique resource for suffering.^[10]

Timothy Keller:

If you believe in Christmas, you’re also in this unique spot. No other religion … whether it’s secularism, Greco-Roman paganism, Eastern religions, Judaism, or Islam … no religion believes God became breakable. No religion, no view, believes God suffered. Thirdly, none of them believe God has a body. Eastern religions believe the physical is an illusion. Greek and Romans at the time believed the physical was bad. Judaism and Islam don’t believe God would do such a thing.

Christianity, Christmas, teaches God is not just concerned about the spiritual because he is not just a spirit anymore. This is so outrageous. He has a body! Because he has a body, he knows what it’s like to be poor. He knows what it’s like to be a refugee running away from persecution, having to go to Egypt. He knows what it’s like to be hungry. He knows what it’s like to be beaten. He knows what it’s like to be stabbed. He knows what it’s like to be speared. He knows what it’s like to be dead. He knows what it’s like.

Therefore, if you put the doctrine of the incarnation and Christmas together with the doctrine of the resurrection … In other words, if you put Christmas and Easter together, here’s what you have. We have a God who is not just concerned about the spirit but also the body. He created body and spirit. He is going to redeem body and spirit. Christianity is the one religion (Christmas, in particular) that leads us to be able to talk about redeeming people from guilt and unbelief and creating safe streets and warm, affordable housing for the poor in the same breath.^[11]

Be encouraged. We have all received God’s grace.

So, would you want to be Mary? But remember Mary’s response; we can respond in the same way.

Pray

[1] Hamilton, Adam (2011-09-01). The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem (Kindle Locations 238-242). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

[2] http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/42-7/the-greatest-child-ever-born

^[3] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 1:29.

^[8] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[9] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[10] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[11] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Running to Win- Be Thankful, Take time to Give Thanks

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 24, 2024

A father and his son were seated at the dining room table, while the mother was finishing the final preparations on the family’s dinner. While the father and son were seated, the father asked the son if he would say the prayer for the meal. The youngster nodded his head, and said that he would pray. The mother placed the last of the meal on the table, and sat down. The boy looked around the table at the food for a moment, and began to pray. He said, “God, I’m not sure what it is. But thanks anyway. And I’ll still eat it.”

C.S. Lewis said:

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” 

Tim Keller writes:

Charles Taylor (a great Catholic philosopher) wrote a book called A Secular Age. It’s a major, major work of scholarship in which he tries to understand and analyze what it means that we’re a secular age, how that happened, what it means to say that.

One of the things that’s most interesting to me about the book is he says to be a secular age doesn’t mean we don’t believe in God at all. To be secular is not just that. He points out that in America, 80 to 90 percent of the people say they believe in God. In Europe, there’s even a majority. Even in France, more than half the people say they believe in God. He says to be secular means, though we may believe in God, we don’t believe in God the way we used to.

Here’s what he suggests. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, what arose was a philosophy called deism. You may have heard of it. Deism was very popular amongst European intellectuals, the cultural elite. What it said is, “Of course, there’s a God who created the world, but (here’s the famous illustration) he created the world the way a clockmaker creates a clock.”

See, if you create a good clock, you build a good clock, then the clockmaker doesn’t have to sit there and turn the hands. If it’s a good clock, it runs on its own. Deists believe, “Oh, we believe in a God,” but they were trying to create more room for human agencies. They say, “Look. We don’t believe in miracles and God being right there in the sense of always revealing himself and us having to obey him. No, no. God creates the world, and then it’s really up to us to use our reason and our moral intuitions to understand it and to make it a good place to live.”

What Charles Taylor says is that means you had a transcendent God who wasn’t imminent. You had a God who created the world, but he is not there. He is not somebody you have to deal with every moment. He created the world for our benefit, and now it’s up to us to do something with it. What’s the difference? Enormous difference!

What’s happened is, though many people believe in God (maybe most people believe in God), in a secular age, they have a thinner view of God. That is there’s a God who is more remote, not someone you have to obey and depend on every moment. As Taylor put it, the traditional view of God is we exist for him. We exist for him to serve him every minute. The modern view of God is God actually exists for our benefit. He created the world for our benefit, and now we have to just use it and do what we can with it.^[1]

Further:

From Keller:

I found it very interesting what Charles Taylor says about the fact that most people are practical deists today. That is they don’t believe they exist for God’s benefit. They actually believe God made the world for our benefit. They don’t believe they have to rely on and obey God every minute. They believe God kind of gave us a life, and he is there. “If I live a pretty good life, my life should go pretty well.”

Christian Smith, a sociologist who has really studied in detail the religious beliefs of younger American adults, says, in particular, younger adults are practical deists, though they would never use the word because most of them haven’t heard the word. Listen. He says this is what the average younger adult believes.

Most do believe there’s a God, that he made this world, and now they do not believe they have to obey him every minute and rely on him every second for every detail of their life. No. But they do believe if they live a generally good life, it’s up to God to give them a good life. Christian Smith calls the normal worldview of younger American adults “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

“There is a God, and he exists basically for my benefit. If I live a pretty decent life (I don’t live a villainous life), I deserve a good life.” Both Charles Taylor and Christian Smith said here’s what’s happened with the thinner view of God. People can’t handle suffering. See, if you believe you exist for God, God is benefiting.^[2]

That also means we won’t be thankful…

We are concluding our sermon series on Running to Win.

My theme is: Being thankful is an important part of running to win.

Let’s read:

Ephesians 1:16 (ESV)

¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…

Ephesians 5:4–5 (ESV)

⁴ Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

1. Be thankful.
   1. We see exhortations of thankfulness all throughout the Bible.
   2. Many of them are regarding giving thanks for others. We will come back to that in a moment.
   3. We also see giving thanks for food and provision.
   4. We see giving thanks for God’s love.
   5. I encourage you to read and think about Psalm 136. It is all about giving thanks to the Lord.
   6. Can we be thankful?
   7. Can we recognize that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17)?
   8. I think we will be much happier if so.
2. Is the church worth being thankful for?
   1. In Eph. 1:16, Paul is thankful for their faith.
   2. This is one long sentence in the Greek. Verses 3-14 are a sentence and verses 15-23 are one sentence. If we look at verse 15 it says: For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…
   3. So, Paul is not just giving thanks for them in general, he is giving thanks for their faith and their love for all the people. He is giving thanks for their Christian faith.
   4. I’ll tell you, it is encouraging to serve a church that cares about people.
   5. I have to be thankful in the same way here at Bethel.
   6. I am thankful for your commitment to serve the local community.
   7. There are people that I can call at the drop of a hat, and they are ready to help people in need.
   8. I see this in your commitment to the Great-Give-a-Way, the Beatitude House, the Rescue Mission, The Pregnancy Help Center, and to each other.
   9. You have been on the receiving end and the giving end.
   10. I give thanks for the church family.
   11. Do you give thanks for the church family?
   12. In some countries, the church family is the only family someone has.
   13. When this happens, the church fills the void, being the family.
   14. It was Paul’s practice to give thanks for the church:
   15. Rom.1:8: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
   16. 1 Cor. 1:4: I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
   17. Phil. 1:3: I thank my God every time I remember you.
   18. Col. 1:3: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…
   19. 1 Thess. 1:2: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.
   20. 2 Thess. 1:3: We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,^[a]and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
   21. Are we thankful for the church?
   22. Are we thankful in general?
   23. I might have shared this before, but I think it is worth sharing again: Fable of the Porcupine
   24. It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and
       protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their
       companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive. The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person’s good qualities. The moral of the story is: Just learn to live with the pricks in your life!
   25. I know the church has problems. We have a fallen nature, so we have problems. We get stung. I realize that, but in the end, I believe the church is better off with you than without you. I think you are better off with the church than without the church.

Close:

A large family sat around the breakfast table one morning. As the custom, the father returned thanks, blessing God for the food. Immediately after, however, as was his bad habit, he began to grumble about hard times, the poor quality of the food he was forced to eat, the way it was cooked, and much more.
His little daughter interrupted him, “Dad, do you suppose God heard what you said a little while ago when you were giving thanks?”
“Certainly,” the father replied with the confident air of an instructor.
“And did he hear what you said about the bacon and the coffee?”
“Of course,” replied the father with a note of caution in his voice.”
Then his daughter asked, “Dad, which did God believe?”

WHEN ONE IS THREATENED

A Mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a Mouse-Trap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The Chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The Mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The Pig sympathized, but said, I am very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be Assured you are in my prayers.”

The Mouse turned to the Cow and said, “there is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The Cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse, I am sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The Farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake was furious and bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a severe fever.

Everyone knows that you treat a fever with a fresh chicken soup. So, the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and relatives came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The Farmer’s Wife did not get well and she died. So many people came to the funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. And, Said, “I warned them about the mouse trap but they did not take my warning into account…”

I believe thankfulness changes our perspective. When we are thankful for the church, we realize how important the church is. I ask that you are thankful.

In your bulletin we have a Bethel Friends thank you card. I encourage you this week to write in that card and send it to someone this week. It doesn’t have to be someone from this church, it could be a friend or family member, but send it to someone. Thank someone. You don’t have to thank them for doing something for you; thank them for being a friend. Wouldn’t it be neat if we all received cards this week?

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

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

Our sin separated us from God (Gen. 3).

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

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

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

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

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] http://www.todayintheword.org/titw_devotion.aspx

Running to Win- Be Accountable (Ecc. 4:9-12; Prov. 27:17)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 17, 2024

It is Sunday. This means that we are supposed to be at church, right? We are here to worship, we are here to grow, we are here to see our friends and maybe learn something and then we are done. True?

I don’t think so. We need each other through the week.

Have you ever been lonely?

I remember being in elementary school, and at that time, I had school friends and then friends at home. I did not want to cross-connect those groups. If I knew you from school and saw you outside of school, I think it was a reminder of school. As I got older, I got over that. But during that time, I was also very lonely at school. I was an extreme introvert, and that plagued me up until high school. In addition to that, when I was in kindergarten, they started taking me out of class and making me take special tests. Eventually, the specialist teacher, not my kindergarten teacher, walked me back down the hall to my kindergarten class. She sat me on the bench and said, “You may wonder why we are doing these things.” I said, “Yes.” She then explained that some people need special education or something like that in kindergarten terms.

From first grade through halfway through third grade, I would leave my normal class at specific points to join this learning disability class. That is what they called it, though to this day, I don’t really know what my actual disability was. I remember being told, “You will always have a learning disability; it will always be more difficult for you to learn things.” Well, I hated it. At least through first grade and part of second grade, I felt different. I was already a shy and introverted kid and had difficulty making friends, but it didn’t help that I was in and out of my homeroom class.

The learning disability teacher would give me a picture of a clock and say, “At this time, get up and walk out of the room and come to my class.” For a second grader, it felt like everyone looked at me when I left and came back in. I remember entering my normal class, and they had books out and were in the middle of something, and I was wondering what they were doing. I always felt behind the rest of the class, even though I was being helped. I remember that we had three recess sessions in second grade: morning, after lunch, and then afternoon. At the beginning of the school year, I went out to recess with my class. Then, my learning disability teacher came out and yelled at me as we walked into the school, telling me that I was not supposed to go to recess because I was supposed to join her class during that time. She said I was told that. Therefore, I did not have morning recess for the rest of that year. I know they meant well, and I know I was helped, but it was hard emotionally.

By third grade, I excelled; halfway through the year, I could exit the learning disability class for good. I had to go to a tutor, but I was relieved. Sometimes that catches up with me. I am still a very slow reader, though I think I learn things better now than ever, maybe because of that class.

They always reminded me how grateful I should be that I had a school with a special class like that. I remember being in an inductive Bible study class in seminary, and something hit me. It was as if the devil told me, “What are you doing? Who do you think you are looking at these Greek words? Remember those days in the learning disability class? You can’t learn this stuff.”

I don’t write all that to make you feel sympathy for me. My point is that I was lonely. I hated school. I couldn’t make friends, and that experience made my introverted self have a more difficult time making friends. I needed friends. I needed a friend my age or more friends my age at school. I needed support. Now, they came eventually, and I got through. I am here. But it was rather difficult. I remember thinking about what it would be like to be a normal kid as if there was such a thing. We need each other. We all need each other. We are not meant to be alone.

I heard someone say:

“A friend is someone who walks in when everyone is walking out.”

We are in this sermon series titled, Running to Win.

This is about breaking generational traps, finishing well, and running forward through struggles. We move forward through things that we deal with. I have said that we must be humble, approachable, and teachable. This means we need community. We need accountability.

Today, let’s talk about the church:

My theme: Running to win-accountability.

The Application: Stay connected and support each other emotionally, spiritually, and with real-felt needs.

Let’s read Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 (ESV)

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹ Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? ¹² And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

1. We must let people into our lives.
   1. I do not doubt that many of you are connected with others. But I wonder, are you REALLY connected?
   2. Do you let other people into your life? Do I let others into my life?
   3. A problem with social media is that we only allow people to see what we want them to see. Many times, I can only show the face that I want to.
   4. There are significant problems with depression because of Facebook and social media. Truly, we get online, and we see how happy these other families look; we see the vacation spots they are going to, but we don’t see their struggles.
   5. Of course, we don’t let others into our lives because of this. We are ashamed.
   6. Don’t compare everything you know about yourself with everything you don’t know about someone else.
   7. We are stronger together.
   8. We must be willing to be humble and let others in our lives.
   9. We must get rid of pride and let others in.
   10. We must get rid of envy and let others in.
   11. We must understand that they are often dealing with things we are as well.
   12. Sharing what you are going through with others will feel so good.
   13. We must let people in three ways: emotionally, spiritually, and with real felt needs.
   14. Emotionally, this isn’t always easy. It isn’t easy for me. It is hard to share emotions; they are so personal. But we aren’t meant to live alone. We need support.
   15. Spiritually: this is difficult because we have privatized religion. But we cannot be helped if we do not share with others. Listen, we can’t live the Christian life alone. We cannot discern God’s will on our own.
   16. Proverbs 27:17 (ESV) Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
   17. We must check ourselves and see why we will not share our spiritual state with others.
   18. We must check for pride. Maybe we will feel less than someone else.
   19. Often the spiritual and the emotional go together.
   20. Meet with another believer and pray about your struggles and also your desires.
   21. Are you waiting on a spouse? Pray about that with a close friend.
   22. Are you struggling with your job? Pray about that with a close friend.
   23. Are you struggling with weight and diet? Pray about that with a close friend.
   24. Are you lonely? Pray about that with a close friend.
   25. Do you have a son, daughter, or grandchild dealing with drug abuse or maybe an abusive relationship? Pray about that with a close friend.
   26. In praying with another believer, you support yourself emotionally and spiritually. You are also helping the situation.
   27. We become like rope, weaved together and strengthened.
2. Physical felt needs: This is the easiest to get help with. It is not humbling, or nearly as humbling, asking for help with a move as it is asking for emotional help.

Swindoll writes:

A certain fascinating social phenomenon occurred in American history. Understand, I wasn’t living back then, but from what I read, this actually happened. It occurred when “Go west, young man!” was the challenge of America . . . when squatter’s rights seemed the most advantageous way to pry families loose and dare them to brave the elements via the covered wagon.

Out they came, exchanging the crowded, soot-choked industrial cities back East for the open plains, clear skies, and fertile, albeit rugged, farmland of the West.

Predictably, those early settlers built their cabins or sod huts smack dab in the middle of their homestead, acres (often miles) from the nearest family. Strong, sturdy fences marked property lines as pride of ownership became the badge of courage. Words like independence and private property were common table talk as the young were taught how to fight for survival.

But as time passed all that began to change. As it was put to the test, isolationism proved to be a far cry from ideal. When photographers returned from those lonely houses, they showed pictures of wild-eyed women, stooped, gaunt, prematurely old men, and haunted-looking children. Life was hard making it on their own, especially through bitter winters and fighting off disease and starvation.

More and more settlers learned that they had a better chance of making it if they would build their houses near each other, in the corner of their property rather than in the center. Four families could survive much easier if they loosened their grip on independence, built a gate in their fence, and relinquished their overstated emphasis on privacy. Enduring winter’s blast or a lengthy illness wasn’t nearly so frightful if you had three other families within walking distance. It proved to be much more fun coming together instead of living lonely, separate, touch-me-not lives of isolation.

From all this emerged a proverb:

“Shared joy is a double joy, shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”

Seasons of the year became more colorful, more hopeful. Farming, harvesting, canning, and slaughtering became group projects. Weddings and worship, gains and losses, births and deaths became shared experiences as mere existence was exchanged for real living . . . entering into each other’s joys as well as sorrows, neighbors becoming friends (then relatives!) . . . sharers in the many-faceted jewel called “living.”

Those old settlers learned what we seem to have forgotten today: pulling closer together is better than existing so far apart. Sharing is still to be preferred to staying aloof. The risks and periodic hassles notwithstanding, four in a corner are better than one in the middle.

A lot of us Western folk come from pioneering stock. The myth of “rugged individualism” dies a hard and bitter death. Our credo says:

“I can handle it.”
“I’ll tough it out somehow.”
“I don’t need to lean on anyone.”
“I’ll just hole up and lick my wounds; no one really cares anyway.”

That may be good Western mythology, but it’s rotten biblical theology. Chase the phrase “one another” through the last half of your New Testament and you’ll see what I mean. We really do need each other. More profoundly, more desperately than we even begin to realize. As a matter of fact, we were given to one another by the Lord of the Body—because each one of us has a unique something to contribute—a piece of the divine puzzle no one else on earth can supply (see Ephesians 4).

Where is your sod hut? Out in the middle of some lonely, windswept acres? How long has it been since you’ve had some significant, openhearted, fences-down interaction with folks in a local Body? Too long? Maybe it’s time you moved your hut to the corner of your field. Maybe it’s time you installed a gate in that high, forbidding fence. It could make a big difference in your life.

For some of you, it may even mean survival.[1]

• We must be willing to be involved in the lives of others.
  • I must be willing to sacrifice for others.
  • This goes both ways. We must be willing to listen to others and to pray with others.
  • We must be willing to be close friends.
  • Also, if someone shares their heart with you. Share something back. Share a struggle you have.
  • We grow as Christians together, and we grow stronger together. When we add tension to the rope, we weave that rope together as a Christian family.
  • I was once told that a rope machine takes more than one person to make the rope.
  • It also takes a church sharing together through the week to really be the church and really help us grow. 

Close:

The high school youth group and NJROTC changed me.

You know, I had trouble making friends through Jr. High. I was heavily bullied in Jr. High, and I fought back, which made it worse. The kids were cruel. We were the class of 2000, so many people made a big deal of that. My aunt taught our class and said she never had a class like we were. She meant we were the worst. Maybe it was all the entitlement. But high school came, and in ninth grade, I was invited to a youth group. I also made good friends at the youth group and saw them at school. Now, I had friends at school with similar interests to me. Now, at school I could talk about the Bible and Christian things with friends I knew through youth group. It was great. These new friends introduced me to other friends. I joined Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp (NJROTC). That is a high school military training group. I made more friends that way, and I came out of my shell. I also had a few part-time jobs, which helped me get out of my introverted shell. Things changed. School was not as bad. I still have friends I met in high school youth group with whom I still keep in touch. One of them is my wife, and she became my permanent roommate.

We need each other.

We need each other emotionally, spiritually, and with physical felt needs.

I encourage you to go deeper with our church family. Join a Sunday School class. Meet with one of our brothers or sisters for prayer. Meet often. Don’t just meet every other month.

We are the church through the week. God speaks through His Church. You won’t discern His will alone.

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

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)

[1] https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/hope-for-survival2

Running to Win- Be Teachable (Heb. 5:11-14; Prov. 12:1; 2 Tim. 2:23-26)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 10, 2024

Webster defines it: “The introduction of something new . . . a new idea, method, or device.” When we innovate, we change, we flex. We approach the standard operating procedure, not like a soft-footed Native American scout sneaking up on a deer by the brook, but rather like Wild Bill Hickok in a saloon with both guns blazing.

It takes guts to innovate, because it requires creative thinking. Thinking is hard enough, but creative thinking—ah, that’s work! To get the juices squirting, you have to be dissatisfied with the status quo.

Take photography, for example. For years, the same old procedure . . . which required long periods of delay. Nobody even thought about hurrying up the process. Not until a guy named Edwin Land formed a company with a funny name—Polaroid.

Sometimes innovation is forced on us. Take December 7, 1941. We got caught with our military pants down. Before American planes could get airborne, or even out of the hangar, most of them were destroyed. We were forced to ask the obvious: “How can we get the planes out of the hangars fast?”

A fellow by the name of Mitchell solved the problem in a most innovative way. He simply turned the question upside down and asked the unobvious: “How can we get the hangar away from the planes—fast?” The result (after the inevitable laughter and rejection) was a two-piece hangar. Each section was mounted on wheels with sufficient power to separate the two at thirty-five miles an hour . . . which enabled the fighter planes to take off in several different directions. Fast.

Now, you’re thinking: Land and Mitchell are geniuses. And you are ready to toss in Newton and Bell and Edison and Ford and the Wright brothers. And you’re also telling yourself that there aren’t many of those gifted people spread around. Granted, those men might very well qualify as geniuses . . . but if you ask them, they’ll tell you another story. J. C. Penney once observed, “Geniuses themselves don’t talk about the gift of genius; they just talk about hard work and long hours.” It’s the old one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration answer.

Let’s have four “greats” take the stand and testify. These are their actual words:

Michelangelo: “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery; it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.”

Thomas Carlyle: “Genius is the capacity for taking infinite pains.”

Ignancy Jan Paderewski: “A genius? Perhaps, but before I was a genius I was a drudge.”

Alexander Hamilton: “All the genius I may have is merely the fruit of labor and thought.”

Are innovative people really that rare? Not if you listen to Sheldon David, TRW’s former vice president:

The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

You know what that says to me? It says there are a whole lot more innovative people (who currently see themselves only as “drudges”) than any of us can imagine. In fact, you may very well be one of them![1]

 That may make you think that I am going to talk about learning, studying, and reading, but that is not my main point. Today, mainly, I want to talk about having an attitude of being teachable. All learners must be teachable. All of those who are teachable may not be readers, but to truly gain understanding one must be teachable. However, being teachable applies to so much more than reading.

I am in a sermon series on the idea of running to win. This is the idea of recognizing, running through, and, if possible, defeating the things we deal with. This could be depression, anxiety, anger, or something else. They can be actual sins, or they could be organic issues that may or may not lead to sin. I have emphasized that they may be thorns in the side for life, but that does not mean you won’t make steps forward. A big part of growth is being teachable.

Today, my theme is:

Being teachable will help us run to win.

1. Don’t settle for baby food.

Hebrews 5:11–14 (ESV)

¹¹ About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

1. Let’s put this passage in context:
2. Starting in Heb. 4:14, the writer transitioned to write about the High Priest. Prior to 4:14 the writer was warning the Hebrew people not to fall away. The writer gave the example of the Hebrew people in Numbers 14. This was the situation when Moses sent spies to see the land of Canaan. All but two spies, Joshua and Caleb, were scared of the people in the land. Because of their lack of faith, God punished Israel by making them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The writer was writing about Jesus as the great High Priest from 4:14 until now.
3. In Hebrews 5:6, the writer says that Jesus is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. The writer spends the next few verses (until 5:10) talking about Melchizedek.
4. Melchizedek is found in Genesis 14. He was a priest-king. He was the king of Salem. Abram gave Melchizedek a tithe, being 10 percent of his spoils from the battle he had with the kings of the east who had taken his nephew Lot. Melchizedek was a priest who was not of the priestly line, which would be the line of descent from Aaron or the Levites. Jesus is the great High Priest even though He is not from the line of Aaron or the Levites.
5. Abram submitted to Melchizedek, and since Abram was before Moses and Aaron, it should follow that Melchizedek is someone important.
6. But in this passage the writer says that he would like to give them more, but he can’t because they are stuck as babies.
7. We want, we desire, and we expect that children grow up and get stronger.
8. Sometimes we stay as babies.
9. What do babies have to do? They have to learn.
10. Now, in this passage, the writer talks about learning spiritual matters as well as growing spiritually.
11. What I am talking about is having an attitude that is willing to learn.
12. When Mercedes was born, we had to feed her all the time. Seriously, we had to feed her. But now, we do not need to do that. We had to do many things for her, but now she can do things for us. She is thirteen years old and she is now teaching me how to work my phone.
13. Last summer, I was picking up a device that had to connect to our television. I got home and was connecting it and Mercedes jumped in. A minute later she was doing it. There was an extra connection, she said, “I’ll take care of it.”
14. She had to learn to eat, walk, talk, read, write, and so much more and that all took a teachable attitude.
15. In like manner, we as Christians must grow. We must learn to feed ourselves. We must learn how to eat solid food. Sometimes, this is difficult. Sometimes we choke on the solid food. Sometimes we don’t like it, but we must take it in. We may not like vegetables, but that does not mean we do not need them. You need them. I need them. We may only like the sugary items, but you cannot only have sugars. You need meats. We need protein. In the Christian life, sugar is the feel-good message that may not take a lot of thinking or struggle. But the meat contains the deep messages and content we may struggle with. The deep things of the Christian life may not be just content. The deep things of the Christian life may be, “Where is God when life hurts?” You don’t get into the depth if you don’t learn to feed yourself.
16. That take a teachable attitude.
17. Sometimes, we get stuck on certain things because we are not teachable.
18. That is what we have been talking about, right? We have been talking about growing and getting help so that we do not repeat the same things of our past or the past of our family members. We have been talking about ways to get help with depression, anxiety, over-eating, being too passive, being critical, and many other things.
19. A key way to move forward is being teachable.
20. True story: a church got a new piano, but people would not allow them to get rid of the old piano. It was donated by someone or something like that. So, it was no good, but the church could not move it out of the sanctuary without upsetting people. They didn’t use it, but it had to stay in the sanctuary. Well, they moved that piano a few inches back every week. They had a large side aisle, and they just gradually moved that piano back until it was gone, and no one noticed. No one noticed because it gradually moved back.
21. They were stuck and so the leadership had to get creative.
22. We must be teachable.
23. This takes being humble.
24. In the passage, we just looked at an application would mean we also read, study, and participate in other means to grow. That is very important, but today, I am exhorting you to be teachable.
25. Have an attitude of humility so that we can receive truth.

1. Don’t be willfully ignorant, but be a learner.
   1. So, the negative is not to be willfully ignorant. Don’t willingly be shallow. The positive is to have the posture of a learner.
   2. Proverbs 12:1 (ESV)
   3. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
   4. but he who hates reproof is stupid.
   5. We must love discipline and knowledge.
   6. We learn through discipline.
   7. We need to be able to accept reproof. That means correction.
   8. This may first have to do with moral correction.
   9. How do we respond when we are corrected?
   10. Do we get prideful and defensive?
   11. Do we put our guard up?
   12. Or, do we accept it?
   13. Do we at least think about it?
   14. Sometimes we are stuck, and we cannot accept the truth.
   15. When we hear opposing views, we must be humble. An opposing view is saying, “They are right and you are wrong.”
   16. We must be teachable.
   17. To be teachable we must be humble.

• Don’t be contentious, but be receptive.
  1. The negative is not to be argumentative or contentious. The positive is to receive the viewpoints of others well.
  2. 2 Timothy 2:23–26 (ESV)
  3. ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
  4. There is a lot there.
  5. We are not to be caught up in all the conspiracy theories and controversies.
  6. Be kind.
  7. Be able to teach (that means we must learn).
  8. Correct with… what? Gentleness.
  9. There is more there, but I will stop at that.
  10. Some can be so stuck on issues that they are not receptive.
  11. We must be teachable.
  12. This does not mean we surrender our views, no, but it means we listen well.
  13. James 1:19: be swift to hear, slow to speak…

1. How?
   1. We must be humble.
   2. I have repeatedly said this.
   3. We must transform our schedule so that we have more quiet time.
   4. Some of us are so busy that we do not have time to think.
   5. We are so busy.
   6. We need time to reflect.
   7. We need time to listen to the Lord.
   8. We need to be active in the daily offices that I spoke about a few weeks ago. We need to spend time journaling.
   9. We must spend time in prayer.
   10. We must have people holding us accountable whom we can ask, “Am I teachable?”
   11. We must be teachable to receive that instruction.

We may always deal with certain physiological things or other negative things from our past, but we can grow. We need to grow.

I encourage you to find people that you can talk with about these deep details of the Christian life and run to win.

Prayer.

[1] Excerpt taken from Come before Winter and Share My Hope by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1985, 1988, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/innovation-part-one1

Running to Win- Difficult Times (James 1:2-4)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 3, 2024

I have a quote: guess the date:

We spend our strength in arguing, bickering, contending, quarrelling, and opposing one another rather than magnifying, blessing, and praising the name of God. We are a divided people… Peace and unity have flown from us, and a spirit of contention and division has come upon us. The church is divided. The state is divided. The city is divided. The country is divided. Families are divided. Godly people are divided. Ministers almost everywhere are divided. Yes, and what heart is there at this time that is not divided within itself?

(Jeremiah Burroughs, Puritan Preacher 1646)

During the time of Jeremiah Burroughs there were Christian issues at stake.

I want to remind you of two things:

• God is sovereign:
  1. Piper writes:
  2. On the one hand, hearing the voice of God is like a frightened child who hears the voice downstairs, and realizes that daddy’s home. Whatever those other sounds were, it’s okay. Daddy’s home.
  3. On the other hand, it feels like the seasoned troops, dug in at the front line of battle, and about to be overrun by the enemy. But then they get word that a thousand impenetrable tanks are rushing to their aid. They are only one mile away. You will be saved, and the enemy will not stand.
  4. Vague generalizations about the power of God do not have the same effect as the very voice of God telling us specifically how strong he is, how pervasive his power, how universal his authority is, how unlimited his sovereignty is. And that our times are in his hands.[1]
  5. John 19:11 (ESV)
  6. ¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
  7. Isaiah 46:9–10 (ESV) ⁹ remember the former things of old;

                        for I am God, and there is no other;  I am God, and there is none like me,

            ¹⁰          declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

                        saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose’

1. Proverbs 21:1 (ESV)

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;

he turns it wherever he will.

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/plunge-your-mind-into-the-ocean-of-gods-sovereignty

When I was a child, my younger brother received a video of the Velveteen Rabbit. Regarding the book, Timothy Keller shares:

Tim Keller shares the following:

Remember The Velveteen Rabbit? “ ‘Real isn’t how you’re made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you.’ ” (These are the toys talking.) “ ‘When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’ ‘Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. ‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you’re Real, you don’t mind being hurt.’ ‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’ ”^[1]

That is a good introduction to today’s subject.

We are in a sermon series on the idea of running to win. This is the idea of recognizing, running through, and, if possible, defeating the things we deal with. This could be depression, anxiety, anger, or something else. They can be actual sins, or they could be organic issues that may or may not lead to sin.

Today, we are going to talk about difficult times.

In a minute, I want you to turn to James 1. We will talk today about James 1:2-4. These verses are explicitly written about trials and persecutions.

Theme: James challenges his audience that perseverance in trials will build them up in maturity and holiness and give them a reward in Heaven.

Now let’s read James 1:2-4:

James 1:2–4 (ESV)

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We will return to those verses in a moment.

1. First, let’s talk about realistic expectations:
   1. We will face difficult times because we live in a fallen world.
   2. Ever since sin entered the world, the world has been fallen (see Genesis 3). We must understand this.
   3. Numerous passages in the Bible talk about having troubles. See also John 16:33.
   4. Reason alone tells us we will have difficult times.
   5. Studies show that we do not grow and develop without difficult times.
   6. This passage in James tells us that.
   7. We must constantly remind ourselves that we will have trials and tribulations.
   8. We must remind ourselves that they make us stronger.
   9. We must remind ourselves that our heavenly Father is in control.
   10. He knows what to permit and what to withhold.

Swindoll:

You’ve heard them. Those all-too-familiar cries of exasperation. Maybe a couple have crossed your mind today sometime between the too-early clang of the alarm and the too-late racket of the neighbors next door.

Going from bad to worse.
Jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Between a rock and a hard place.
He said, “Cheer up, things could get worse.” So I cheered up—and sure enough, things got worse!
My mother told me there would be days like these, but she never said they would run in packs.

Tough days. We all have them. Some are worse than others. Like the one the hard-hat employee reported when he tried to be helpful. Maybe you heard about it too; the account actually appeared on a company accident form. Bruised and bandaged, the workman related this experience:

When I got to the building I found that the hurricane had knocked off some bricks around the top. So I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the damaged area, there were a lot of bricks left over. Then I went to the bottom and began releasing the line. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was much heavier than I was—and before I knew what was happening the barrel started coming down, jerking me up.

I decided to hang on since I was too far off the ground by then to jump, and halfway up I met the barrel of bricks coming down fast. I received a hard blow on my shoulder. I then continued to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my fingers pinched and jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground hard, it burst its bottom, allowing the bricks to spill out.

I was now heavier than the barrel. So I started down again at high speed. Halfway down I met the barrel coming up fast and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground, I landed on the pile of spilled bricks, getting several painful cuts and deep bruises. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind, because I let go of my grip on the line. The barrel came down fast—giving me another blow on my head and putting me in the hospital.

I respectfully request sick leave.

Yeah! I would imagine! Some days you honestly wonder why you ever crawled out from under the covers that morning . . . and later, if you will ever make it back to bed that night. Most of us have little difficulty fielding a couple or three problems during the day, but when they start coming down like hail, with no relief, rhyme, or reason, we get jumpy. More often than not we also get grumpy. Invariably there are those who love us and really want to help. But try all they like, tough days are usually solo flights.[2]

• In verses 2-4, James writes about persistence through trials.
  1. James says that you should consider it pure joy when you encounter various trials and temptations. This doesn’t make sense.
  2. Have you ever considered it joy at the time when you were going through a trial or temptation? Really, have you?
  3. Okay, think of it another way: have you ever considered it a good thing after you have gone through a trial or temptation?
  4. I bet that we all have. I bet we have all been thankful for what we learned through a trial or temptation. I know I have.
  5. Now, what type of joy is he writing about? This is not meaning mere worldly, temporal happiness, but rather spiritual, enduring, “complete joy” in the Lord who is sovereign over all things, including trials.
  6. Notice this says, “pure joy.” This is not partial joy; this is a complete joy.
  7. Now, what type of trials is he writing about?
  8. Well the text says trials of many kinds. One of my sources says that he is talking about the trials of the rich oppressing the poor. That is possibly quite likely as the rest of James has several passages dealing with the rich oppressing the poor.
  9. However, I don’t want to limit this passage to the trials of rich oppressing poor. The rich certainly did oppress the poor in this area. However, this area certainly did face persecution.
  10. The text says “many kinds of trials.”
  11. So, we also must consider it joy when we face persecution.
  12. Why?
  13. Why would we consider physical persecution pure joy?
  14. Why would we consider verbal persecution or other types of persecution as joy?
  15. Why would we consider the persecution of the rich oppressing the poor as joy?
  16. Why would we consider life’s struggles as joy?
  17. The next two verses clue us in.
  18. When our faith is tested, it develops perseverance. This perseverance carries the idea of patience or steadfast hope, expectantly waiting on Christ. But this is not all. The text continues.
  19. Verse 4 says this perseverance finishes its’ work by making you mature and complete.
  20. This completeness has the idea of holiness.
  21. Through our trials; whether verbal persecution or physical persecution, whether oppression, or other trials of health or finances; God is building us up in holiness.
  22. Don’t let them get you down.
• What do you do?
  1. Remain humble. Be humble—last week, I was trying to write something and thinking out loud. Mercedes and Abigail were in the room. I said, “How do you spell, and I said the word.” Abigail said, “I can’t believe you can’t spell that.” Mercedes said, “Abigail, remember when dad was in school, he did not get good grades like we do.”
  2. Remain approachable.
  3. Remain teachable.
  4. Be committed to your church family.
  5. Be committed to spiritual activities—journaling, prayer, fasting, worship, Bible study.
  6. Observe regular times of quiet and meditation on God’s Word.
  7. Notice the simple things in life.
  8. Notice God moments.
  9. Talk with a Christian counselor. Or, I would love to talk with and pray with you.
  10. Talk with close Christian friends and go beyond the surface.

Look, we all will continue to face trials and troubles in life. Some have trials that relate to health. Some have trials that relate to finances. Some have trials that relate to children. Some have trials that relate to verbal, physical or other forms of persecution for their faith. God never promised that these will go away but that He will support and guide us and make us stronger for going through them. Someone once said: “Are you praying for lighter burdens or a stronger back?”

We are all in process. God is crafting us.

This is awfully exotic, but one of my favorite places in all of literature is a book that’s very hard to read. It’s Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. It’s not The Lord of the Rings. In The Silmarillion, he tells you about a man named Hurin. Hurin has a good friend, Turgon. If Turgon is going to escape with his people to the hidden city, Hurin has to stand in the gap against this incredible onslaught of the enemy, and he says to Turgon, “You go. I will hyperstand. I will stay put.”

So he stands there, and everybody else gets away, and of course he just keeps fighting against the enemy. They keep coming and coming. He keeps hewing with his axe, saying, “Day will come again.” Finally they just overwhelm him. Why was he hyperstanding? He was saying, “My love for the people I’m seeking to save will endure anything. It will take anything. They can come. They can destroy my body, but I will never let go of them.”

The reason Jesus Christ stood and took hell itself, the wrath of God, was that he loved us. God poured out all of his wrath on Jesus, and Jesus didn’t let go. He stood; he hyperstood. Steadfast love. Now Jesus comes to you and says, “Look what I endured for you. Now my perseverance is the jewel of your life. You look at how I loved you no matter what, and that’s the reason you know today there’s no condemnation for you.”

Do you know how you know that Jesus loves you and will always love you? Because you know that he hyperstood against all of hell. God dropped an atom bomb on Jesus, and now you know there’s nothing you can do to get rid of him. If Jesus’ love was so great that it endured that for you, do you think that your little sins are going to scare him away or wear him out?

Jesus says, “Through my suffering, I persevered. Through my suffering, I stayed with you. Now my perseverance is the joy of your life. Now I want you to suffer for me. You’re not married, and you want to be. You’re not promoted, and you want to be. You don’t have friends, and you want to have them. You’re sick. You’re facing death. Hyperstand. Stand your ground for me.”

Don’t just say, “I can persevere because it’ll make me a better person.” Say, “I can persevere because Jesus Christ persevered for me. Jesus stood there for me. He took it all for me.” And if you consider that, you will stay put, and you’ll become a very, very, very great heart. Teresa of Avila put it this way: “From heaven the most miserable earthly life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel!”

Ivan Karamazov says it this way: “I believe … that suffering will be healed and made up for … that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened …”

What he’s saying is, “Hold on, and eventually we’ll see the enormity of what he did and the bliss that comes into our lives because we have held on for him just as he held on for us. It will make amends for all.”^[3]

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] Excerpt taken from Come before Winter and Share My Hope by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1985, 1988, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/tough-days-part-one1

^[3] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).