Unto Us A Child Is Born, Unto Us A Son is Given

Isaiah 9:2

    The people who walked in darkness

    Have seen a great light;

    Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

    Upon them a light has shined.

Isaiah 9:6-7

    For unto us a Child is born,

    Unto us a Son is given;

    And the government will be upon His shoulder.

    And His name will be called

    Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

    [7] Of the increase of His government and peace

    There will be no end,

    Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

    To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

    From that time forward, even forever.

    The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. The definition of zeal is ”an intense desire to possess”.  That word was never better used than it is here in Isaiah 9:7.  Because of God’s intense desire to possess you and me, He sent His Son to save us from our sins.

I was listening to a verse recently from the song Away in the Manger:  “Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care and fit us for heaven to live with Thee there."  Jesus fit Himself in the womb of Mary, so He could fit us for heaven to live with Him.  I wonder what is the bigger miracle!

Merry Christmas to each of you, precious ones.

   

Do You Smell Like Jesus?

Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The reward?  The reward for suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake is the kingdom of heaven – amplified in verse 12 – great rewards in heaven.  How does that sit with you? 

All of the other beatitudes promised earthly and heavenly rewards – this one focuses primarily on the heavenly.  Look at the last part of verse 12: for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  What would those prophets say to you and me?

Hebrews 11 tells us about those prophets who were before us.  How did the writer of Hebrews describe their persecutions?  They were tortured, not accepting deliverance, they were mocked and scourged, chained and imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, tempted, slain with the sword, destitute, afflicted, tormented. 

Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

They didn’t see the payoff in this life. The payoff in this life wasn’t what motivated them.   Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The next chapter in Hebrews begins with these words – some of my very favorite words to teach on - Hebrews 12:1-2  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What do these witnesses cry out to us?  What do these who were so persecuted say to us?

They say the same as Jesus said in Matthew 5:10-12  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,  For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.[11] "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. [12] Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.   

They say – we’ve been there; we’ve suffered greatly for righteousness’ sake.  It’s worth it.  Run!  Run for Jesus. The great rewards in heaven far exceed any suffering we experienced while we were on the earth. 

I pray that you have been challenged by the beatitudes.  I certainly have.  If you and I are truly living in these beatitudes, it will be visible to others; it will affect others -

    2 Cor. 2:15-16 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. [16] To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

Those who live godly, those who live these beatitudes will smell – to some we will smell really sweet, to others we will be a stench.  Our place is to live in a way that our lives produce the fragrance of Christ – how we smell is up to others.  But, “if” we smell is up to us.  The religious, pious Jews, put the perfume on from the bottle, from the outside – Jesus is calling us to allow His fragrance to exude from our insides – If we do, we will not only be blessed and experiencing the wonders of the kingdom of God right here and right now, but we will be inviting others to join us.

    

Safety or Obedience?

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:10-12


Let’s stop for a minute and define persecution. It is this.  It comes from the root word “to follow” and means to follow or go after someone to do them harm. That means to harm someone physically or harm emotionally.

We live in a country that, to this date, does not allow physical persecution of Christians.  However, more and more, we are seeing Christians verbally persecuted and shunned – at least those who would live godly.   Christians in many countries can’t avoid persecution – not if they are willing to admit they belong to Jesus.  But, here we can.  But, that’s not the challenge that Jesus would put before us today.  It’s not, “can we”, but “should we”?

 

More than 100 years after the New Testament times, a man came to Tertullian, one of the early church fathers.  The man had a great dilemma about living out his Christianity.  He thought it almost impossible when considering the very real possibility of persecution. He ended his pleadings with Tertullian by saying, “What can I do, I must live”.  Do you know what Tertullian’s response was?  It was this:  “must you?”.  Many believers would think that a strange answer.  For what he was saying was “If you die of starvation or die burning at the stake, it’s better than if you compromise”.  You and I don’t face that kind of dilemma.  I’m sure it’s going to get rougher for us, but it’s not like that today.  All we face today is the possibility of rejection and people not liking us; maybe people shunning us or saying bad things about us.  Yet, too often, we guard our favor with others like this man guarded his life.

Look at Jesus’ further description of persecution in verse 11 – people reviling against you and saying all kinds of evil against you falsely.  Words, words designed to cause harm can be persecution.  Now, before you jump on the “I’m so persecuted wagon” note the qualifying words of verses 10 and 11.  These are persecuted for righteousness sake, for Jesus’ sake.  They are persecuted for doing righteousness, or as Paul said to Timothy – living godly. 

2 Tim. 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Will you choose to live godly or choose to be safe?  I heard a quote from Elizabeth Elliot this summer.  It was something like this:  Safety is not your concern.  Obedience is your concern.  And it is God’s responsibility to take care of the consequences of your obedience. 

If you were honest, what determines your behavior?  Safety or obedience?  Your answer will quite possibly determine whether you will be persecuted or not. 

"We Were Taking Our Lives in Our Own Hands"

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:10-12


“We knew we were taking our lives in our own hands”.  That was a comment I heard someone declare on the Today Show recently.  I found myself just staring at the television.  How could anyone so boldly say that? It made me shutter, just to hear it.  These people were recounting a recent shipwreck that they barely survived.

Why would anyone want to take their life in their own hands, thus taking it out of God’s hands?  Not that they would have avoided the shipwreck.  Lives placed in the hands of God, still suffer pain and tragedies.  Consider Paul in his account of his life in 2 Corinthians 6.   He was regarded as an imposter.  He was regarded as unknown.  He experienced dying, beatings, sorrow, poverty and having nothing – all as His life was placed in the hands of God.  Paul suffered the same things that people who “take their lives in their own hands” suffer – probably worse. 

But, because Paul’s life was in God’s hands, in spite of those things, he was known by God, lived productively, rejoiced, made many rich with true riches, and possessed all things.

Now that’s kingdom living! Too many of us live, taking our lives in our own hands, thinking we can avoid the struggles.  But, sadly, in our attempt to avoid those troubles, we fail to experience the blessings that only those who place their lives in God’s hands experience.  All suffering is not due to persecution.  Let us not live our lives with the goal to avoid suffering of any kind.  Rather, may we live to please the One who longs to hold us in His hand and have His way in us and through us.

Here's a challenge:  Be watchful today as you react, as you plan, as you make decisions.  In whose hands did you place those reactions, plans and decisions?  May it be His.

Avoiding Persecution By Avoiding Conflict

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:10-12   

This beatitude confirms that peacemakers are not people that believe in a peace that keeps people happy. This beatitude appropriately follows that of peacemaking, because it is often the result of godly peacemaking – and that is persecution. That’s what Jesus experienced; that’s what the disciple’s experienced.  The result of being a godly peacemaker is not the Nobel Prize. It is not the ability to keep people from being angry at you. The result is often persecution. So, the person who lives these beatitudes will be one that behaves in a way that may provoke persecution. 2 Timothy. 3:12 teaches us: Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

What do we do with verses like Jesus taught here in these last verses of the beatitudes?  What do we do with statements like what Paul wrote to Timothy?  Do we dismiss them as only relating to the early Christians or to those in countries that are intolerant of the gospel?  Or are these words for us today – we who live in the 21^st century in the nation that claims to be under God?

Now, look at 2 Timothy 3:12 again.  What is it that provokes persecution?  Living godly.  I thought of two things that seem to rile up people to persecute God’s peacemakers. John 3:19-20  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

#1.  They love darkness and hate the light

And #2.  There are so many examples of this, I’ll just give you one.

1 Kings 22:8 So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil."…

Over and over and over again the prophets were persecuted because their message was not what people wanted to hear.  Remember the prophets (they called themselves that, but they were false prophets) – but they were the ones the people liked – why?  Because they told the people what they wanted to hear.

There’s a key to avoid persecution. These false prophets were looked upon by the people as prophets of God, just like the real ones.  But, the false prophets weren’t persecuted.  Why?  Simply this:  they avoided conflict by telling the people what they wanted to hear.

These men were appeasers, not peacemakers.  

God's Promise to Those Who Make Peace

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called sons of God.

What happens when we are peacemakers?  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:9 that we will be called the sons of God.  Now, there are two aspects of that.  People will acknowledge that we are the sons of God (anyway those who have received the peace we are declaring will) and God will declare it.

Family resemblances are interesting, aren’t they?  There are two ways we resemble family members.  One, by hanging out with them, we pick up on their characteristics.  We warn our teen-agers of that often.  It can happen so easily to each of us. Often, we don’t even notice how we have picked up on someone’s thinking or behaviors and are soon acting and behaving like they do.  In the same sense, the more time we spend with the Lord, the more we expose ourselves to Him, the more we will act like Him.  Then there is that genetic resemblance - in physical appearance, but in behaviors too.  We’ve all seen it in our children and in our grandchildren – characteristics that are so much like us, simply because we are born into the same family.

Well, Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, by the Spirit.  When that happens the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside us and begins that refining process in us to make us more like Jesus.  We begin to behave differently, respond differently, and care differently.  And you know that it’s not something you have caused. It has been caused by the work and power of the Holy Spirit.  You have begun to resemble your Father in heaven.  And people, especially people that knew you before, know you are related to someone you weren’t related to before. Somehow you are related to God.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

What did the Father call Jesus?  We see it twice in the gospels.

Matthew 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Mark 9:7 And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!"

What did Jesus call God, the Father?  Father.

Now, what does God call us?  Here’s a few references:

2 Cor. 6:18  "I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."

Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Don’t miss this – God calls you the same thing that He called Jesus – son (or daughter).  He chooses to claim you and me!

Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

And - we get to call God, Father.  And not only that – Abba, Father – Daddy!

Now, all believers get that title whether we live as peacemakers or not.  But, does that fact cause you to kick back and settle for that?  Or does it spur you on to bring the peace that God has brought to you into the lives of others?  You see, for me, yes I love thinking that God freely declares, this is My beloved daughter.  But, I want to hear the rest of that sentence too – the part that says, in whom I am well pleased – don’t you?

This Morning's Message from Pastor Dale

Let's take today and reflect on this morning's message.  I encourage you to post a comment.  I love the way the Lord is using the comments.  Please keep posting - and thank you to those of you who are obeying God's "nudging".  Your comments have been a blessing. 

Love in Jesus,

cathy