This is our third week looking at the cornerstones of Biblical inner peace.  Two weeks ago, we saw that worship was the first cornerstone to having a inner peace.  We are able through worship to give of ourselves to God and to receive from Him the transforming grace of His word.  Last week, we saw that prayers offered with thanksgiving for all that God has done, returns to us with a peace that surpasses all understanding.  Today, I would like to look at the third cornerstone which called fellowship.  And I would like to begin our time looking at this cornerstone with a short story about my childhood.

I come from a family of four children.  I was the youngest of the four.  The oldest of the four children was my sister Marie.  She was fourteen years older than me.  One of the earliest memories I have of my sister, Marie, was her sitting at the kitchen table with a group of her friends.  It was not uncommon for Marie to have friends over at our house to enjoy some time together but there was something about their gathering this time that was different.

          What struck me the most about this gathering was that they all had Bibles in front of them and they were reading them.  We were raised Roman Catholic.  This was the mid-1960’s and one of the things Roman Catholics in the mid-1960’s did not do was read the Bible.  We were never encouraged to read the Bible, and, in fact, I had a sense we were discouraged from reading the Bible.  At this gathering, it appeared to me that my sister, Marie, was leading the conversation. I do not recall what they were talking about, but I knew it was from the Bible.  I was probably 5 or 6 at this time.  Having never seen this before I asked my mother whether what Marie and her friends were doing was allowed.  My mother said it was fine.  Satisfied with my mother’s assurances, I probably grew bored of watching my sister and her friends and went to find something else to do.  It seems like a silly story to me now, but it was a very uncommon experience in the mid-1960’s.

          We might think for a moment that what I witness that day was my sister and her friends engaged in Bible study.  That was true.  But the more I have thought about that moment, what I did not realize then, but now I understand is that in watching my sister and her friends at the kitchen table, I had witnessed the Bible playing out in front of me.  I witnessed something more than a Bible study, what I witnessed was what the New Testament writers called, in Greek, koinonia, which is often translated into English as fellowship.  Too often, in church settings, we associate the idea of fellowship to simply being the sharing of a meal after a worship service.  Certainly, sharing a meal after worship is a facet of fellowship but doing just that, sharing a meal, would leave us short of what God’s Word intends for us to understand in the practice of koinonia. Why does it matter that we understand koinonia?  It matters because koinonia is one of the pillars of Biblical inner peace.

          The first time the word koinonia was used in the New Testament was in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Luke was writing about the formation of the early Christian church, in and around Jerusalem.  Luke described the early church this way, “42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47).

          The early Christian church had begun, and the church began with some very unexpected developments. Let’s focus on the beginning of Luke’s description.  Luke wrote, ““42 They [The church] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42-47).  We see here that there were four things emphasized in the early church and all of them were undertaken with a sense of devotion, that is a sense of unforced priority.

          First, the early church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching.  The apostles were not religious scholars.  The apostles were fishermen and at least one tax collector. The apostles, as well as the members of the early church, would have been thought of as common people, ordinary people, nothing special.  And yet, the apostles were able to teach with authority not found among the professional teachers of the Scriptures.  How were these common people transformed into uncommon teachers?  There could be only one explanation.  The transformation occurred by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told the apostles this would happen.  In the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, Jesus told his apostles, “26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).  And so, we see that the Holy Spirit was involved in the empowerment of the apostles to become teachers of God’s Word and to remind the apostles of what Jesus had said and taught.  The people were devoted to hear more of what the apostles had to say because the more they heard the more peaceful their lives became.

          Second, the early church was devoted to fellowship.  We will cover what that meant in a moment.

          Third, the early church was devoted to breaking the bread.  The use of the term “breaking the bread” carried with it two obvious meanings. The first is sharing a meal.  The second being to share in the Lord’s Supper. Here, though I believe breaking the bread is most likely related to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Biblical scholars believe that one of the teachings from the earliest days of the Christian church was recorded and shared by the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  In that letter, Paul said to the Corinthian church, “23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).  This teaching is believed to have originated immediately after Jesus’ ascension into heaven and was carried forward to each new group of Christians, all the way up to and including us.  Devotion to the celebration of the breaking of the bread is an act of worship of God through Jesus’ Christ.  It is both solemn in the sense of the moment of Christ’s sacrifice and it is hopeful in the establishment of a new covenant.  And people devoted themselves to the breaking of the bread because it too brought them peace.

          Fourth, the early church was devoted to prayer.  We spoke about prayer last week and saw the power there is in prayer to bring God’s peace into our lives.  Prayer was fundamental to the early church because the strong connection prayer makes between believers and God.  Prayer is an interesting thing to contemplate.  Prayer is the only thing we will ever create that here on earth that we will be found in heaven.  The Book of Revelation speaks of the twenty-four elders in heaven, “Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (Revelation 5:8b).  So, when we pray those prayers do not disappear.  They have left the bonds of earth and are received in heaven.  And so, prayer brought peace to the people.

          This leaves us with the topic of fellowship.  Let’s go back to that second devotion of the early church, namely fellowship coming from the Greek word koinonia.  What is koinonia?  It is not entirely clear from the way Luke used the word here and it is, for me, somewhat surprisingly, Luke never uses the word koinonia again.  Our primary source of understanding then comes from the Apostles Paul and John.  And the principal way Paul and John used the word koinonia was to represent a deep spiritual connection between a believer and God through Jesus Christ and between believers in Jesus Christ.  Let’s look at just a couple of examples.

• “9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship [koinonia] with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).  Paul was emphasizing the koinonia means a strong connection to Christ.
• “14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship [koinonia] of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).  Paul ended his second letter to the Corinthians encouraging them to keep and enjoy their deep spiritual connection with the Holy Spirit.
• “And our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3b).  John emphasized again that the deep spiritual connection with Father through the Son.
• “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship [koinonia] with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).  John was emphasizing that koinonia a deep spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ that is empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit naturally leads to a coupling and connection with other believers.

So, koinonia has very little to do with the physical world, very little to do with casseroles and potato salad, but has everything to do with spiritual relationships with God through Jesus Christ and between believers. And Luke said the early church devoted itself to such divine and believers’ fellowship.  The idea here is that believers intentionally sought out each other and because there was an excitement of finding and being in the presence of another believer.  The sense of the power of the Holy Spirit and the sense of connectedness to Christ, to God, grows when believers encounter each other.

          Let me illustrate that point in a couple of ways.  When I worked for the federal government, I would travel frequently by air by myself. Onboard the aircraft, you would always be meeting someone new.  In my experience, whenever I was seated next to a believer, the time passed quickly and was refreshing as we shared in each other’s life.  There was fellowship at 30,000 feet because it was the interaction of two beings each possessing the Holy Spirit.

          In ancient times of the early Christian church, the primary symbol of Christians was not the cross but the fish, the ichthys, (ick’-thy-us).  According to one ancient story, when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, completing the image of the fish, both believers knew they were in good company.  The company of believers was something that early Christians sought at every opportunity because it brought about the sense of greater empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

          So, koinonia, fellowship as we might translate it, has to do with the ever-greater experience of togetherness with Christ and believers possessing the Holy Spirit. The early church devoted themselves to this drawing of themselves together bask in the sense of spiritual unity. This is what I now believe I saw back when I was a child observing my sister, Marie, and her friends surrounding the kitchen table.  It was perhaps the first time I had seen believers gather in an unforced manner and basking in a sense of spiritual unity, koinonia.  Researchers tell us that our earliest memories become our earliest memories because there was a strong sense of emotion associated with that recalled event.  In my case, this every early childhood memory is recalled because of the strong sense of spiritual unity and a sense of peace.

          Our life should be at peace.  We were not designed for turmoil.  Medical professionals will tell you the more chaos and turmoil you experienced as a child, the more illness prone and the shorter your life will be.  We were not designed for turmoil.  We were designed for peace.

The Garden of Eden was peaceful and balanced.  Sin changed all that.  But time and time again, God has called us out of the world of turmoil that we have created and brought us back into peace.  Jesus came to bring us peace.  Jesus came to love us.  Jesus came to reconcile us from the turmoil of sin to the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.  Jesus gave believers the Holy Spirit to enable them to do the things He called believers to do and to bind believers together.  That binding together of believers to Christ and to each other is koinonia. Be devoted then to koinonia and let us be together brothers and sisters in Christ.  Amen and Amen.          

          Amazon, as many of us know, is an amazing place to shop for just about anything you need or want. One of the products sold by Amazon is the Kindle, a device used for reading electronic books.  Each Kindle can hold hundreds of books.  The Kindle allows you to highlight sentences or paragraphs that you found especially interesting so that you can refer to it later.

          Of all the electronic books sold and downloaded to Kindles worldwide, the Bible is the book that users have highlighted more than any other electronic book ever sold.  There is much in the Bible that people want to refer to and think about.  If we did a top five listing of the passages highlighted from Bible in Kindle, we would find the fifth most frequently highlighted passage is Galatians 5:22-23, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Coming in at number 4 would be, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”  The number 3 position goes to Matthew 6:33-34, “33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  The second most frequently highlighted passage goes to the ever-popular verse, John 3:16, “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  And the most frequently highlighted Bible verses on Kindles across the world is Philippians 4:6-7, “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

          The Holy Spirit of God inspired the Apostle Paul to write those words to his friends at the church in Philippi.  Paul, at the time he wrote this letter, was in prison and his counsel to the church was “do not be anxious.”  Several years ago, my wife and I did some prison visits.  We submitted to the search process and then were allowed to enter the prison through a series of prison doors and gates leading to the visitors’ center.  Each door and gate made a loud metal bang as it locked behind us.  It was difficult not to feel somewhat anxious just visiting a prison, let alone being confined to a prison.  And yet Paul was giving counsel to the church not to be anxious.

          Anxiousness is the number one emotional/mental health issue in the United States with nearly 20% of all American adults, 1 out of every 5 people, reporting in 2024 that anxiety was adversely impacting their life.  That means one in every 5 people you know is being robbed of inner peace because of anxious circumstances.  And yet God desires for us to have peace, a deep inner peace, that helps us even when things of life get troubling.  The fact that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write about anxiousness among the members of the church at Philippi suggests that anxiety was a problem for them as much as it may be for us.  Paul wanted the people of the church to have peace not anxiety and so do we. What then is the antidote to anxiety?

          Let’s see how Paul introduces us to the antidote.  We begin by looking in Chapter 3 of Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  Paul said, “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless” (Philippians 3:4-6). Paul was saying here that he had achieved much in his life through his own efforts.  In fact, he had achieved more religious things than most people. He was circumcised, he was an Israelite, supremely Hebrew in his behaviors, a Pharisees, he followed the law without fault, and, at one time, persecuted Christians as an act of support for God with greater energy than anyone else.  Paul was accomplished in religious observance more than most everyone else. 

But then Paul said this, “7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. [What I once held dear, I now count as loss.] 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:7-9).  And that, “15 All of us, then, who are mature [in faith] should take such a view of things” (Philippians 3:15).

Paul was making the point that everything, anything that he or others could point to as an accomplishment in Paul’s life, Paul now considered garbage, something of absolutely no worth whatsoever.  It was all trash that had been exchanged for one excellent thing, knowing Jesus as his Savior and Lord.  Having Christ was all Paul needed, and Paul knew that Christ could never be taken away from him.

Perhaps the way we would have to look at this is to take an inventory of everything we have accomplished and everything we possess. We would have to list educational degrees, business and work accomplishments, roles we accomplished in church, and things we own and be willing to say none of it matters when we compare it being saved by Christ.  Said another way, we would not be willing to retain any of our stuff if it meant not having eternal life.  Paul was saying start your thinking here and recognize that all these things, these accomplishments, and these possessions are temporary.  They all disappear to you when you die.  The only thing that will matter now and for all time is whether you know Christ and he knows you.  If the answer is, Christ knows you and you know him, then you will be in glory forever! If this is the case, Paul says, then don’t be concerned about these trifles on earth such as things and accomplishments.  They are temporary and rubbish.

Paul then reiterated what he had shared with the church when he was present with them along these lines, “18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:18-20a).  Paul’s point here was that those who live for this world live to eat and live to brag about their accomplishments.  These are their gods and thus are enemies of the cross.  But, Paul says, we who love and have accepted Christ are already citizens of heaven.  We are here awaiting the time for Jesus to return or for us to go to Him.  “1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!” (Philippians 4:1).  Paul’s point was the believer has a fundamentally different way of looking at circumstances of life because of the great confidence a believer has in the eternal nature of their life.  If a believer keeps focused on Christ and the joy of being in Christ, then things of earth are clearly secondary.  However, if we lack that confidence in Christ, or if we deny Christ, then everything earthly becomes very important and we become anxious about losing them. 

Augustine, a 4th century Christian theologian explained it this way.  “The good things that people think essential to happiness are so easily lost. Whatever we think will make us happy ends up making us unhappy, because we fear we might lose it.”  Augustine went on to say, “Happiness must meet two conditions.  First, it [whatever brings us happiness] would have to be a good that is higher and more complete than any other.  Second, this good would have to be something that cannot be lost.  The only good thing that fits this description is our relationship to God through Christ.  Nothing is greater than our relationship to God and it cannot be taken from us.”

Paul continued that when we realize the true value of the gift we have in being with God and his salvation then we should, “4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”  (Philippians 4:4).  And because our posture begins with joy in the Lord, we should then, “5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).  The predisposition of maturity as a Christian is to have an inner joy because of Christ and we should have an outward presentation of gentleness because Christ is near to us.

We should pause for a moment and think about what Paul was saying. When we woke up this morning, did we think or say to ourselves as mature Christians, “Thank you Lord for being near to me and giving me joy to start this new day!”  Or did we say, “Ooh!  It is too early, too dark, too cold, I’m too tired to get up.  I’ve got so much to do but I just want to roll over and go back to bed!”  Our starting point makes a difference.  Paul was saying because our highest desire is God, we can start the day saying, “Rejoice! The Lord is near!  I say again, Rejoice!”  I believe this was Paul’s posture even though Paul was imprisoned.

Now the Apostle Paul was no stranger to the hardships of life. Paul had been beaten with iron rods, stoned, and whipped.  He had gone without food.  He had been shipwrecked.  And now, Paul was imprisoned.  There were plenty of reasons for Paul to feel anxious, depressed, angry, fearful, helpless, and overwhelmed.  So, what was Paul’s antidote for such poisonous feelings?  Paul said, “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).  Paul’s remedy was simple.  First, when life’s troubles come pouring in, resist the natural tendency to become anxious. Instead, for each situation that might make you anxious, and will make those without Christ anxious, turn instead to God and pray.  But pray, in a particular manner.  Paul said “pray with thanksgiving.”  Don’t pray with anxiousness built into the prayer.  Don’t pray, “Lord you know how overwhelmed and depressed I get when I don’t feel well or when the car does not run well.”  Paul said pray with thanksgiving.  “Lord, I thank you that you are near and that you are my greatest joy now and forever.  I rejoice in your presence and I turn over to you the illness I feel this morning so that it does not rob me of my joy and the gentleness I seek to present to others. Thank you, Lord, for the peace you have given me and will preserve within me.  In Christ’s name, Amen.”  Prayer that is focused on the goodness and nearness of Christ and the joy and thanksgiving that brings into life while preserve and protect the inner peace that we have as citizens of heaven.  Prayers that focus and dwell on what could make us anxious are only inclined to draw our thoughts towards anxiousness.  Paul said, “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).  And the promise is, “7 And [then] the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).  God’s peace comes to us from prayers offered in thanksgiving to God.  Prayers that remind us that God is the highest, the best presence in our life are answered by God with a protection established around our hearts and minds helping to push back our natural tendency to become anxious. The song, All I Once Held Dear, gives us the lyrics from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, “Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you; there is no greater thing.  You’re my all, you’re the best, you’re my joy, my righteousness and I love you, Lord.”  We pray with thanksgiving and God answers us with protection.  We are granted an inner calmness that surpasses all understanding because to others our circumstances would suggest we should be panicked. 

Last year, when my wife was severely ill.  We prayed.  You prayed for us.  And the sense we had and shared with others was “no matter how things turn out, we will be OK.”  Becky’s illness was serious, but it could not separate her or me from our highest joy, our greatest gift, Jesus Christ.  And in response to those prayers, our hearts were guarded and our minds were protected against the disability of anxiousness.  Prayer, a cornerstone of inner peace, had been granted to us and protects us from being robbed of the joy of life itself.

“4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).  Amen and Amen.

          Have you ever been to a sporting event?  Perhaps you went to a football game, a hockey game, baseball game, soccer game, boxing match, wrestling match, or basketball game?  Why did you go?  Most people go because they have some interest in one of the teams or individuals involved in the contest and they want to cheer that team or person on to victory. And so, we go and sit in the bleachers or a seat and together with other people we may or may not know, we cheer on contestants. 

Now why don’t we just sit there quietly, watch the game, and then go home?  Why do we spontaneously cheer and yell words from the stands to the players in the contest? We cheer at a sporting event because we want to help create a sense of excitement and energy in the stadium, with the belief that we can positively impact the team's performance.  Cheering is a way for us to show support for the team and encourage them to play their best.  Cheering is the way we show our admiration and joy for the performance of the athletes in the contest, and we hope that if we all cheer loud enough then our cheering will help elevate the athletes to great feats.  We cheer in the hope that doing so will change the performance to be greater than ever.  We cheer to change the outcome.

          Now let’s change the setting a little bit.  Instead of going to a sports stadium for an athletic contest, we go to church.  Now that is quite a switch, isn’t it?  But here you are in church instead of a sporting event, so my example is not that farfetched.  You have taken your seat near some people you know and near some people you may not know, just as you would have done had you gone to a sports stadium. 

In gathering today, we began our time together at church standing and reciting words together toward God our intended listener.  We got louder together with some music, and we sang couple of songs, again toward God our intended listener.  Why did we use our voices by reciting words and song, our church cheering, if you will?  Our church cheering today is not that different from our cheering at sporting events. Now, at a sporting event we cheer in the hopes of encouraging the athletes to change a bit and do better. Do we use our voices at church in the same way, in the hopes of encouraging God to change a bit and to do better?

          Since God is perfect, the “try to do better” option does not exist for God.  And we are told in Scripture that God does not change, “For I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6).  And neither does Jesus Christ change, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrew 13:8).  Augustine, a fourth century Christian writer and scholar, spoke of nature of God this way:

What then is my God?...Supreme, best, most mighty, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, most hidden and most immediately present, loveliest, strongest, steadfast and impossible to grasp, unchanging and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making all things new; driving the proud into decay of old age though they know it not; ever in act, ever at rest, gathering up and never in need, bearing and filling and sheltering, creating and nourishing, bringing to perfection, seeking, though nothing are you in want.  You love, but you do not burn with passion; you are jealous for what is yours, though you are secure in your possession; you regret, though you do not grieve; you grow angry, though you are at peace; you alter your works but not your counsel; you take up what you find though you never lost it. (Confessions, Book 1, Chapter 4).

God is unchangeable.  He is never in need.  And so, our words and songs, our church cheering, is different from our cheers at a sporting event because our words and songs at church will not encourage or inspire our listener, God, to change, or do better. 

But it would be a mistake to believe that our church cheering does not lead to encouragement or to change.  Because it does.  Our words and songs to God are rightly and appropriately directed toward God as our form of worship, but instead of encouraging and changing God, our words and songs are part of encouraging us and preparing us to be changed by God, through our worship.  Our words and songs help us to come out of the world to worship God by expressing our appreciation and gratitude to God’s blessings.  Our cheering in church is part of our worship of God and it helps us break up the hardness we experienced in the past week.  Our church cheering done together, with those we know and those we do not know, helps those who are here today who cannot cheer today because the burdens and hurts that they feel are so severe that they do not have the strength to speak the words or sing the songs.  And so, we speak, and we sing for them to help prepare them to receive healing from God.  And someday, these people who cannot engage in church cheering today, will speak and sing for us when we lack the strength to do so.

          And so, you might ask, “Well Pastor we have spoken words and sung our songs of praise and gratitude to God as part of worshipping God, how then will God change us?”  God will change us through the hearing of His word in response to our cheering.  “12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).  When we meditate on and interact with the Bible as part of worship, God's Word can change our hearts and our thinking.  God's Word can set us apart as pure and holy.  God’s Word brings us peace.  Jesus said, “27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

          Today because of our worship of God, we are in our prepared state to receive from God.  And I want us to look at some challenging words from God, given to us by Jesus in what we now call the Sermon on the Mount recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew.  I want to begin with the words from Chapter 5, verse 23 and 24.  Jesus said, “23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

          What is going on in this short passage?  Jesus set the scene that someone skipped going to an athletic event and went to the synagogue or Temple to worship, just like you and I have done today.  After some prayers and hymns, one of the worshipper was ready, prepared, to make an offering to the Lord as an act of further worship.  But something interrupted the anticipated next step.  The worshipper had been changed.  The hardness of worshipper’s heart, the difficulties of the week, had softened and the worshipper heard God’s Word causing the worshipper to change. The worshipper remembered, or could no longer hide from themselves, that they had a falling out with someone close to them, a brother or a sister.  They had not loved their neighbor as themselves.  And so here is that worshipper who because they had been prepared by the words and songs they and others had sung had received the Word of God and now realized they need to reconcile with a brother or a sister.  This story all takes place within the setting of worship.  Do you see how worship works to change us? 

What is this worshipper supposed to do?  Jesus said, “First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:24).  The first step was the worshipper to act and reconcile with brother or sister.”  In our context, if you are in church, prepared by worship, and God’s Word comes to you, “Love your neighbor,” and you realized that you have done something to offend a brother or sister, here meaning another believer, and that person is not there with you in that moment, Jesus says, leave the church now and make things right.  You can come to church again, but you may not be able to reconcile with that person again. Wow!  Think about the change that has come over that worshipper.  God was moving that worshipper to a place of greater inner peace and more into the image of His own Son.  Because of worship of God, God changed the worshipper from a peacebreaker to a peacemaker.

          Even if we do not find ourselves in the circumstance of that worshipper who has been called to become a peacemaker, we now rightly understand the change God wants in our life.  We now see through this worship experience we read about that God wants us to always be peacemakers.  Jesus said as much a little earlier in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  And so because we are in worship of God today, God has already been able to use this moment to take our prepared hearts and minds to breath His word into us to charge us all to be peacemakers in a world that is breaking apart.  If we do as God has instructed, Jesus says, then you and I are not only changed but we are truly children of God.

          Seeing how worship of God prepares us to be changed by God’s Word, let’s look at one more example from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus said, “21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). Jesus was saying, “I know you have been taught that you shall not murder, that is number six of the top ten list of commandments, ‘Thou shall not murder.’”  You know that Jesus said then said my favorite theological word, “but.”  This is an important word because that word signals the unknown thing that must be known is coming.  “22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ [Stupid! Idiot! Dummy! Moron!] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:22).  Jesus was not abolishing the law but instead was enlightening his audience and us that righteousness in the kingdom of heaven demands that we neither murder a person’s body nor their reputation.  Righteousness lived out means that we do not choose to be angry toward another person, because anger is a choice, and we do not choose to have contempt for another person.  There are two ways we should consider Jesus’ teaching here. 

First, I think is the most obvious.  We shall not kill outright, that’s murder the body, nor are we to kill someone softly, that is murder of their reputation or spirit.  To kill outright is to take someone’s life.  As Jesus said, “You have heard that said to people long ago.”  To kill softly is to abuse another person. When we abuse another person, we kill them, only we do it softly, often without injury to their body itself.  But abuse can be physical, emotional, psychological, sexual, and spiritual.  If you have been abused or if you have a friend or family member who has been abused, you know what it means to be killed softly.  The body may not have died but permanent damage to the person, to their spirit, has been done.  And so, Jesus was saying any form of abuse violates the righteousness underpinning the commandment not to murder and such behavior must not be found in the life of a righteous person.  As so Jesus was saying that not only must we be peacemakers, but first and foremost, we must be peacekeepers. 

And we know this to be true because we came here today to worship God.  In our expressions of gratitude and praise to God, our hearts and minds became prepared to receive this truth from God.  And as part of worship, God sent His Word and He has changed each of us.  We must not be peacebreakers, but peacemakers.  And more than just making peace after it has been broken, we ourselves must allow God’s spirit to work through us to be peacekeepers, saying and doing nothing that would cause harm to begin with.

Now in a few moments, we will sing songs to God again and partake of the Lord’s Supper as a continuation and conclusion of our worship today.  We continue to worship after the receipt of God’s Word as a symbolic way of surrounding God’s Word with praise as one would surround something precious and treasured.  We have come to worship God and He has honored our worship by changing us into the image of His Son and granting us a peaceful spirit.  Praise be to God.  Amen and Amen.

In the 1950’s, television anchorman, Walter Cronkite, hosted an educational program that presented a reenactment of a historical moment. Cronkite would begin the program with the program title, “You are there!”  At the end of the thirty-minute reenactment, Cronkite would conclude with the words, "What sort of day was it?  A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and you were there."

Every time we pick up the Bible, that moment can become a “You are there!” moment.  When we read Scripture, we are stepping out of our life and entering the lives of people whom we have never met.  We are entering their world and their times.  Why do the stories of these other people exist for us to read at all?  They exist because God who created all that there is and ever will be wanted their stories preserved because he was using their stories to reveal something about Himself.  So, yes every time we pick up the Bible we are stepping out of our life and into the life of other people but we are doing so to discover something about God who made us and made the people of the stories.

But here is the thing we need to ask ourselves as we choose to pick up the Bible and read it.  Why am I reading the Bible?  Am I reading the Bible simply to learn more about God?  That is true but is the purpose of our reading the Bible simply more knowledge of God?  It seems like a shallow reason that could easily give way to doing something else. Or is what I am learning about God ultimately being used by God to make more out of me?  Said another way, the only one God can change by me reading Scripture is me.  And so, we should embrace those “You are there!” moments to read Scripture and allow God to change us in the most we ever could be.  And what is the most we ever could be?  To be like his Son, Jesus.

Today, our “You were there!” moment occurs shortly after Jesus’ birth. In this scene, Joseph and Mary were traveling to the Jerusalem Temple to present Jesus to God, an act that the Law of Moses required be done for first born male children.  As we hear these words, we recognize that we are stepping into a culture and practices that are not like our own.  We have entered other people’s lives, and we are trying to visualize these movements.  Jesus is perhaps 40 days old at this point and Joseph and Mary are walking from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, about 7 miles.  Today, the task of walking from Bethlehem to Jerusalem would be extremely difficult.  Jerusalem is in Israel and Bethlehem is in the Palestinian West Bank.  There are substantial walls and multiple military checkpoints between the two locations making the retracing of these steps nearly impossible.

About the time Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are arriving at the Temple, Luke introduces us to another character, a man named Simeon.  “25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:25-26). Simeon is a deeply religious Jewish man who was patiently and confidently awaiting the coming of the Messiah. For Simeon, the coming of the Messiah was not an occasional thought or passing hope, it was very much the focus of his prayer life with God.  God had heard Simeon’s prayers and sent the Holy Spirit to Simeon to assure him the Messiah would come in his lifetime.  As a result of this revelation, Luke said Simeon was confident in his beliefs.  Simeon went about his life with a mixture of humility and confidence.  Simeon was humble before God and confident before others that God would keep his long ago promise.

In the Gospel of Luke, this is the second devout and righteous man we encounter.  The first was an old priest named Zechariah, who while serving in the Temple, encountered an angel who revealed that Zechariah’s long-ago prayer for a son would be soon answered.  The difference between the two men, however, was that Zechariah received the news of the angel with skepticism asking the angel, “How can know what you are saying is true since I and my wife are very old?”  Zechariah was humble before God, but Zechariah lacked the confidence in God that Luke pointed out was present in Simeon.  One might conclude that Luke was showing that the presence of the Holy Spirit gives confidence to the believer.

After these introductions, Luke brings Simeon together with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus this way.  “27 Moved by the Spirit, he [Simeon] went into the temple courts. When the parents [Joseph and Mary] brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him [Jesus] in his arms and praised God” (Luke 2:27-28).  The Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go to the Temple, not just every day or anytime, but at the precise moment Jesus was brought to the Temple for presentation to God.  Simeon took Jesus into his arms and Simeon praised God.

Luke presents to us that Simeon needed to only look at Jesus to know he was the Messiah.  There was story from Mary about the visitation of an angel and virgin birth.  There was no story about how her cousin Elizabeth became pregnant in her old age to bear a son who would announce the coming Messiah.  There was no story of shepherds coming to stable.  There was instead the enabling of Simeon by the Holy Spirit to know with confidence that the baby before him was the Messiah.

Many years later, Jesus would expand our understanding of the confidence given to believers.  Matthew recorded for us, “13 Jesus came into the country of Caesarea Philippi. He [Jesus] asked His followers, “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 They [Jesus’ followers] said, “Some say You are John the Baptist and some say Elijah and others say Jeremiah or one of the early preachers.”  15 He [Jesus] said to them [his followers], “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17).  The revelation that Jesus is the Son of God is a sign that God through His Holy Spirit has enabled someone to receive a revelation.  Such conviction is not from the teachings of another person. 

And so, Simeon was confident and had a conviction about him that Jesus was the Messiah because Simeon had been blessed by God to receive that revelation.  In response to the revelation, Simeon gave these words to those present:  29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.  30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

Simeon was thus at complete peace. God kept his personal promise to Simeon but more importantly, God kept his promise to the nation of Israel to bring forth the Messiah who would bring glory to Israel and would be a light attracting the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations.  Simeon did not need to see all the events of the Messiah play out in his lifetime, it was sufficient that Simeon knew the events had begun.  Luke said, “33 The child’s father and mother [Joseph and Mary] marveled at what was said about him [Jesus]” (Luke 2:33).

And as Walter Cronkite used to say, “What sort of day was it?  A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and you were there."  And so you and I were there.  What did God reveal about Himself that He intends for us to know and use to change us into the most that we can be?  I think there are three things for us to consider.

First, what sort of day was it?  A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our life.  Simeon was a righteous and devout man upon who the Holy Spirit resided.  That meant that every day had the potential to be an extraordinary day to alter Simeon’s life.  Simeon allowed himself to be moved by the Holy Spirit to go to the Temple on a particular day and at a particular time.  In doing so, Simeon met and embraced the person he longed for more than any other person, God’s Messiah.  To embrace the will of the Holy Spirit is to allow all the days of your life to be used to alter your life.

Second, if you have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is God’s Messiah, then you have received that belief as a revelation from God through his Holy Spirit.  If you are a believer, then the same Holy Spirit that was upon Simeon and moved him into the Temple that day is upon you for the same purpose of moving you into places God desires you to be.  The blessing of the Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus and has been given to enable believers to move in accordance with God’s will.  Simeon was a confident man in his faith because of the presence of the Holy Spirit within him and at the same time he was righteous and devout, meaning Simeon was a humble man before God.  As believers, we should be humble before God accepting His will and the movement of His Holy Spirit in our lives and knowing that when we do so we can be confident we are doing the very thing God wants us to do even if we feel uncomfortable in doing so or we don’t know how all the details will fall into place. Simeon did not know ahead of time why he was being moved to the Temple on that day at that time.  He may have had other plans for that moment.  Perhaps Simeon was uncomfortable going in that moment, we are not told.  What we are told was that Simeon was confident in his going because he believed he was going at the direction of the Holy Spirit.  To become the most we can be, we must allow the Holy Spirit to move us at God’s timing and to the destinations God chooses.  The humbler before God we are, the more confident we are in our steps of faith.

That brings us to our third and final point.  Luke preserved for us this story between just four people Joseph, Mary, Simeon, and baby Jesus.  There was no other audience identified.  By all appearances, Simeon’s words were spoken so that only Joseph and Mary could hear them.  We never hear about Simeon again.  So why do we have this story and Simeon’s words?  The simplest answer is we have these words because God wanted us to have these words, this story.  For in the story, we meet Simeon whose life was guided, and his steps were measured, by his devotion to God and confidence in God’s promises.  Simeon did not stay at home waiting for Jesus to come knocking on his door.  Simeon did not sit idle waiting for someone else to come along and invite them to go to a worship service or religious celebration.  Simeon was a confident and active believer willing to invest his life into a God that had invested in him.  Simeon was living his life with purpose to whatever extent his physical limitations allowed.  And Luke placed this story just days after Jesus’ birth.  We are now just days after celebrating Jesus’ birth.  Perhaps we need to each look at our lives and ask ourselves, “How am I investing in God who has invested in me?  Am I living my life with a purpose that reflects the movement of the Holy Spirit?  Am I allowing God to make me into best of who I can be?  Am I being humble before God and confident in my faith?”  If our answers to those questions is “No,” then perhaps we should ask ourselves one more question.  “If not now, then when?”  I would suggest that the Simeon story exists so that we see the need for us to be motivated and moved by the Holy Spirit now because now is just the right moment.

What sort of day is today?  It is a day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and you are here.  Let’s allow God to make the most of it and the best of us.  Amen and Amen.

Christmas Eve is such a moment of excitement mixed with traditions.  The younger you are the more excited you are by the gifts that await.  When I was a young child, we could open one present on Christmas Eve; that was our family tradition.  My wife’s family had a tradition of going to the midnight candlelight worship service. When they returned home, they would have a sandwich made with Italian sliced meats.  Christmas Eve is just a wonderful time of anticipating the next day, Christmas Day.

Did you ever wonder why we have Christmas Eve at all?  For that matter, did you ever wonder why we have Christmas Day at all? How did it come to be that either of these days are part of what excites us and has become such an incredibly significant part of our lives?  What is the source of such excitement, wonder, and celebration?

Now, you might be sitting there thinking to yourself, “Pastor, isn’t it obvious that we have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day because these are the days we celebrate Jesus’ birth?”  And my reply to that question would be, “No.  Not really.”  The origin of celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is quite different and is rather simple.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day exist only because Jesus died and then arose from the dead.  You see, without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there would be no story about his birth.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “14 If Christ has never been raised, then the message we tell is worth nothing. And your faith is worth nothing. 15 And we will also be guilty of lying about God, because we have told people about him [God], saying that he [God] raised Christ from death… 17 And if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins. 18 And those in Christ who have already died are lost. 19 If our hope in Christ is only for this life here on earth, then people should feel more sorry for us than for anyone else” (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).

You see friends, without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we would never have even heard of Jesus, and so we would not be here this evening.  Without Christ, life would not have changed from the way it was in ancient time.  Life was cheap and expendable, and without Christ it still would be so.  Babies, especially girls, were routinely abandoned, and the same would happen now without Christ.  Women were property.  Slavery was everywhere and was considered acceptable.  Charities and charitable hospitals would not exist. The strong would dominate the weak. Democracies would not likely exist. And these are just some of the cultural issues we would face.  Worse still is that we would have no hope in this life or for the next.  Everything would be quite bleak.  And all this bleakness began to change because Jesus died and was raised from the dead.  Once that happened, then the disciples were excited and energized to share the testimony of Jesus and compile the gospels including how Jesus was born. No one was recording Jesus’ life as he lived it; the record of Jesus was only created after his resurrection.  And Paul told us why that was the case.  Paul said, ““14 If Christ has never been raised, then the message we tell is worth nothing” (1 Corinthians 15:14).  The story of Jesus, absent his resurrection, would never have been told at all.

And so, the story of Jesus birth, the real reason any of us is here today, begins at the end.  We are here because Jesus died and arose again.

The Gospel of Matthew introduces us to the coming birth of Christ but does so by highlighting to us the grave risk that Jesus faced death before he was even born. Jesus was almost not born at all. Matthew wrote, “18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:18-19).  The Law of Moses required that virgins engaged to be married who became pregnant should be put to death along with the man who impregnated her.  Joseph was faced with publicly showing Mary was pregnant, though she was not married.  This could well mean death for Mary and the unborn child she carried.  But an angel spoke to Joseph, assuring him the baby was from the Holy Spirit and that Joseph should not fear bringing Mary into his home. Joseph obeyed the angel’s command. Instead of the death of the unborn Jesus there would be life.  This was the first instance in which death was reversed to life.

Not long after Jesus’ birth, wisemen came from the east seeking Jesus one born the king of the Jews.  After being led to Bethlehem the wisemen found and worshipped the baby Jesus.  “13 When they [the wisemen] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he [the angel] said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  14 So he [Joseph] got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt…16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (Matthew 2:13-14, 16).  Instead of the death of the child Jesus, there would be life.  This was the second reversal of death to life.

After Jesus had called his disciples and they began traveling together. “23 Jesus got into a boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him [Jesus], saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”  26 He [Jesus] replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm” (Matthew 8:23-26).  Instead of the death of those in the boat, there would be life.

The leader of a synagogue approached Jesus one day saying, ““My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him” (Matthew 9:18-19a)… 23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up” (Matthew 9:23-25).  Instead of the death of a little girl, there was life.

          Finally, “38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left” (Matthew 27:38)…45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.  47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”  48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”  50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:45-50).  Death came to Jesus.  Death upon the cross.  Jesus’ body was buried in a tomb.

          “1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the [Jesus’] tomb…5 An angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen…8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him” (Matthew 28:1, 5-6, 8-9).  Instead of death, there was life.  The resurrected life of Jesus.  The stories of Christmas and Easter are inescapably linked.  One story informs the other.  And what those two stories teach us is that we should have hope. For in the coming of Jesus, is for us the great reversal of death to life. 

The resurrection of Jesus, later celebrated as Easter, so overwhelmed the lives of Jesus’ followers that with the leading of the Holy Spirit, they began to then chronicle Jesus’ life.  Two men, Matthew and Luke, sought to retrace the circumstances of Jesus’ life back to his birth giving us the nativity or Christmas stories.  The resurrection of Jesus led to the story of his birth.

In those two stories, we would find in each a Roman ruler, a king named Herod, Chief Priests, the upset city of Jerusalem, angels, men named Joseph, a cave, new life, cloths, spices, a woman named Mary, and of course, Jesus.  These are just some of the obvious links between the stories of Christmas and Easter.

          As we look at the Christmas story, we see the Roman ruler, Caesar Augustus, directing the movement of people through a census.  We find the Jewish King Herod the Great and so too the city of Jerusalem upset at talk of a Messiah.  We find the Chief Priests of the Jews providing religious instruction about the Messiah in ways that benefit them.  In the Easter story, we see Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, directing people. We find Herod Antipas and the city of Jerusalem upset at talk of a Messiah.  And, of course, we still find the Chief Priests providing the moral instruction to governing officials.  These people, the Romans, kings, and priests, in both the Christmas and Easter stories represented themselves as the elite, the proud, and the very best people of political and religious society.  They lived expecting all things to happen through their will.  They would determine the course of human events.  But the story these people might expect to play out was changed when God decided to act. 

We see in the Christmas and Easter stories that God acted and sent angels as His messengers to the humble people of the land, not to the elite, to announce His decision to change the course of human history.  God was not then and is not now interested in using the proud to make Himself known for the proud are not interested in knowing God. 

For the Christmas story, God sent an angel who said “Fear not, I bring you good news a child, a son, is born, a Savior, for all the people.  His name shall be Jesus.”  A man named Joseph became responsible to protect Jesus’ body and he would do so within a stable, a cave carved into the rock.  The angel invited those hearing this announcement to find the baby wrapped in cloths.  Some of those seeking Jesus, brought with them spices including myrrh. 

For Easter, we see in death, another man named Joseph became responsible to protect Jesus’ body and Joseph of Arimathea would do so in a cave carved into the rock.  In Easter, we see the angel returned and said, “Fear not, I bring you good news, the savior has been resurrected.”   The angel invited those hearing this announcement to find where Jesus once laid wrapped in cloths.  Some of those seeking Jesus, brought with them spices including myrrh.  New life, however, was not found among the dead but he who had risen was moving among the living.  For the Messiah had come just as God had promised and nothing on earth then and nothing on earth today can change God’s plan.  The humble then and now are overwhelmed by the good news of Christ but that same news humbles the proud.  Let’s us be humbled by what God has done.

Finally, the Christmas and Easter stories are linked because they record that only one person was present for both.  That person’s name was Mary.  Mary, Jesus’ mother, would be the sole witness to the entirety of Jesus’ conception, birth, life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.  Let that sink in for a moment.  No other human had been granted such favor by God.  In the Gospel of Luke, we have a song from Mary placed chronologically prior to Jesus’ birth.  Knowing Mary’s role in the Christmas and Easter stories, her song seems just as appropriate upon Jesus’ resurrection as it does upon his birth.  Listen to Mary’s words:  

“My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.  From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name.  His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.  He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:46-55, Selected)

The stories of Easter and Christmas are inescapably linked.  One story informs the other.  Christmas exists only because of Easter.  Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there would be no story about Jesus’ birth.  This Christmas let us remember that God was the agent behind all the characters and all the movements in the Christmas and Easter stories.  His motivation was simple: He wanted to show the world, to show you and me, how much He loved us and wanted us to be free from sin.  That is His gift to each person who love his son. It is the gift that changes your life, if you open it.  This Christmas be humble in heart and receive not only the joy found in the birth of Jesus in the stable but more so find joy in the rebirth of Jesus from the tomb. Amen and Amen.

          One of the most beloved characters of the Bible are angels.  People love angels and many of us have shown our love for angels over the years by purchasing angel merchandise.  There are collectable figures of angels, costumes with wings, t-shirts, greeting cards, jewelry, and more.  There are movies and television series about angels.  There is even a major league baseball team using the angel’s theme.  There is a field of study called angelology, that is a branch of theology that explores the nature, existence, and role of angels in religion.  We try to soften the shock of someone’s death by saying things like, “I guess God needed another angel,” suggesting that when someone dies, they are taken to heaven to become an angel.

          People’s fascination with angels is not entirely new.  Ancient people, including the Pharisees that we read so much about in the gospels, believed in angels.  The Sadducees did not believe in angels.  The Dead Sea Scrolls teach us that the Jewish people of Qumran, called the Essenes, were also believers in angels.  An so Judaism, at the time of Christ’s birth, had a rich and some conflicted history of beliefs in angels.

Last year, we did a six-week Bible study on angels.  Today, I will spare you the details about how much of our beloved understanding of angels conflicts with what the Bible says about angels.  Instead, I will share with you the conclusion of our study that an angel is a heavenly being created by God who can interact with humans on earth.  Angels’ purpose is to carry out the expressed will of God. And just before Jesus’ birth angels had several interactions with humans, and then after Jesus’ birth the angels became silent.  What is the significance of angels in the story of Jesus’ birth and what is the significance of their absence in the gospel story itself?  What relevance do angels have to our life today as Christians? Let’s begin looking at these questions with the first angelic appearance in the birth of Jesus.  And our principal guide today will be the gospel writer Luke.

          Luke began the announcement of Jesus’ coming with a visit by the angel Gabriel to an old priest named Zachariah.  The visitation came about while Zachariah was performing priestly duties alone in the Temple. “12 When Zechariah saw him [the angel], he [Zachariah] was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth” (Luke 1:12-14a).  A bit later in their encounter, “18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”  19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news” (Luke 1:18-19).  And from this exchange we see that an angel came to reveal to Zachariah the coming birth of Zachariah’s son, John.  This exchange affirmed that Gabriel stood in the presence of God and was sent by God to speak and tell Zachariah some good news.  The angel was a messenger sent specifically at the will of God. This encounter shows that an angel-human encounter sets up a three-step procession.  First, God sends an angel.  Second, the angel performs.  And third, the person benefits.  This is the role of the angel.  God sends. The angel performs.  A person benefits.

          Luke gave us another exchange with the angel and the young woman, Mary.  “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you…31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. ” (Luke 1:26b-28, 31-32).  34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35).  Again, we see the three step procession of an angel-human encounter. God sends the angel. The angel then performs.  And finally, the person benefits.

          But here, in this encounter, Luke revealed to us an important distinction and that was that there are angels and there is the Holy Spirit.  And that there is a substantive difference between an angel and the Holy Spirit.  With Mary the angel reveals good news to Mary that she has found favor with God and that Mary will bear a son who will be called the Son of God.  Mary asked how this will happen since she is a virgin. Here the angel revealed that something as miraculous as a virgin birth is beyond the will of God for an angel. Such a miracle required God’s Holy Spirit.  This reveals to us that a Holy Spirit-human encounter is different from the angel-human encounter because instead of three steps in the procession, a Holy Spirit-human encounter sets up a four-step procession.  First, God sends his Holy Spirit, as he does with an angel.  But in the second step, the Holy Spirit enables the person to perform.  Third, the person performs.  And fourth, the person benefits.  Unlike an angel, the Holy Spirit empowers people to act in accordance with the will of God.

          Luke has revealed something important for us here.  An angel is sent to tell us something.  But the Holy Spirit is sent to enable, to empower us, to do something.  And this emphasis on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit was prominent in the gospel message of Luke itself where the enabling power of the Holy Spirit is recorded 12 times, and the announcing activity of an angel appears only twice.  While the presence of angels cannot be dismissed, it is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us and gives us strength.

          Finally, Luke gives us one more angel-human encounter in the story of Jesus’ birth.  “8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them [the shepherds], and the glory of the Lord shone around them [the shepherds], and they [shepherds] were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host [an army of angels] appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:8-14).  Here again, we see the three-step procession of an angel-human encounter.  God sends. The angels perform.  The people benefit.

          The announcement this final time was that the Christ born.  And it was such a dramatic announcement.  The glory of God, a brilliant dazingly white light shown in the darkness and enveloped the shepherds.  Multitudes of angels, a literal army of angels, appeared in the sky shouting and singing as in one voice, “Glory to God in the highest heaven!” It was a shock and awe moment of sight and sound.  Oh, what a heavenly powerful moment in the history of the world.  And then, the silence and darkness returned to the shepherds.  The angels as unexpectedly as they had arrived, just as suddenly left and went to heaven.  The mission of the angels was completed, and they were gone. 

From this point of Jesus’ birth story until Jesus’ resurrection, there would be no more angel-human encounters.  There is never a story of an angel telling anyone about Jesus in the Gospel or in the New Testament letters.  Immediately after the birth Christ, revelations about Jesus shifts from angelic telling to Holy Spirit enabling.  Let’s look at the first example Luke provides for us.

The baby Jesus was only a few days old and “Joseph and Mary took him [Jesus] to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22b).  “25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He [Simeon] was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him [Simeon] by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he [Simeon] went into the temple courts” (Luke 2:25-27a).  It was there in the Temple; Simeon saw Jesus and was enabled by the Holy Spirit to know that Jesus was the Messiah.  There were no angels here telling Simeon, there was the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

Other than a brief story of Jesus at the Temple at age 12, Luke shared nothing of Jesus’ life from just days after birth until Jesus was 30 years old.  There was nothing.  No angels came to remind people of Jesus.  Why is that?  Because the role of announcing Jesus was given to John who was enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to preach and proclaim the truth of the coming Messiah. John baptized people who wanted to repent of their sins.  Luke wrote,” 21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he [Jesus] was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22).  Luke was showing here again that the message of Jesus Christ was one of the highest order involving the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Luke then recorded for us that, ”1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1). The movement of the story was now under the purview of the divine spirt of God, not angels, and the first thing that was to happen before Jesus’ public ministry was a spiritual battle with an angel, a fallen angel, named Lucifer or Satan.  Three times this fallen angel tempted Jesus, and three times Jesus refuted the enticement of the angel with the word of God.  What then was being revealed here?  Once again, an angel can only perform or inform but cannot enable. Satan enticed Jesus toward sin but lacked the power to enable Jesus to sin.  Jesus being divine himself and empowered by the Holy Spirit was thus enabled to withstand the temptation of Satan.  As much as we love angels in our culture, angels cannot enable us to follow the will of God.  That can only be done by the truly divine, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When the temptation of Jesus was completed, Luke wrote, “14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14).  When Jesus arrived at Nazareth, his hometown, where he preached this message, “18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).  Again, there is no mention of angels, there is only the divine power of God himself, his Son, and his Spirit who can inform and enable.

          The story of the gospel of Luke continued that Jesus went through Judea and Galilee shared the good news, taught with authority that amazed the people, cured illnesses, and drove out demons who had to shriek out, “You are the Son of God!” (Luke 4:41). And all these activities were intended to enable the people to see and know that Jesus was the Son of God.  This continued until Jesus the Messiah was taken into custody and executed by cruel men who refused to acknowledge what had been clearly revealed to them.

          Then surprising to all, God raised Jesus from the dead.  And now it was time for the angels to return.  Luke wrote that women had gone to Jesus’ tomb early in the morning and found the stone rolled away from the entrance and the tomb empty.  “4 While they [the women] were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning [angels] stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they [the women] remembered his [Jesus] words.”  (Luke 24:4-8a).  What is important here is that the angels offered nothing new to the testimony about Jesus or the gospel message.  The angels only reminded the women of the words of Jesus.  They did not add or take away from the testimony of Jesus.

          What then do we make of angels and their role in the birth of Christ?  I think there are two things we should consider.

First, the angels served as God’s messengers that Christ was coming but they were not greater than Christ himself.  No one worshipped the angels and neither should we.  Christ is superior to the angels and our worship should be given only to him.

Second, angels are important instruments of God’s plan.  Of this, there can be no doubt.  However, people are important instruments of God’s plan as well.  And when people have been enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to do God’s will, wonderful things can happen.  You and I are important parts of God’s plan to share the good news of Christ.  And God has seen fit to send us out as his messengers enabled by the Holy Spirit to do so.  Jesus said to his disciples, who now include you and me, “25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

You and I are instruments of God enabled by the Holy Spirit to proclaim without fear the words of Jesus, the Son.  This is why the angels are silent.  Let us then be the messengers of the our Lord and the Lord of the angels themselves.  Amen and Amen.

Think for a moment about the stories you have been told about your own birth.  Are there any stories about your birth that explained why you were born that year and not at another time?  Are there any stories about your birth that explain why you were born in the town, city, and country of your birth and not somewhere else?  Are there    stories that explain the political circumstances of your family at the time you were born?  The answer to these questions is probably not.  The circumstances, setting, and location of our births are not remarkable except for our immediate families.  There was no global or political significance to when we were born or where we were born.

Now think about the stories you have been told about the birth of Jesus.  Are there stories about the timing of his birth, the location of his birth, the political circumstances when he was born, the global significance of his birth? The answer is yes to all those questions as well as many others.  There has been no one else in the history of the world where the circumstances, setting, and location of their birth mattered like it did in the case of Jesus’ birth.

Two weeks ago, we spoke about how a baby, named John, was born to a very old priest, Zechariah, and his equally old wife, Elizabeth.  And John was born for the purpose of announcing the coming of Jesus.  No one else was born before us to announce our coming and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  Last week, we spoke about how a man named Joseph, learned that his wife to be, a virgin, was pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit with a child, and Joseph was to name that baby, Jesus.  None of us were born of the power of the Holy Spirit and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  This week we will speak about how the acts of kings and emperors were used to set the circumstances, setting, and place of a Jesus’ birth.  No king did anything about our birth and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  Next week we will speak about how angels filled the sky to announce the birth of Jesus. Again, there were no angels in the sky when we were born and that did not happen to anyone else, ever. 

So, this week, what then was it about Jesus’ birth that dealt with kings and emperors, the heads of government?  And how did the way those powerful people were dealt with signaled the way Jesus would handle all kings.  Two gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, painted the backdrop of Jesus’ birth for us with imagery of one king and one emperor.  Let’s deal first with the emperor, Caesar Augustus.

  Luke began the story of Jesus’ birth by putting Jesus’ birth on the global stage. Luke wrote, “1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.  4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child” (Luke 2:1-5).

Caesar Augustus was the first person named emperor of Rome and was the leader of the world’s first superpower.  Augustus’ empire stretched over some 2 million square miles across the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.  With a world population then estimated at 300 million, 45 million inhabitants, 15% of the world’s population, lived in Augustus’ empire.  But only 4 million inhabitants were citizens with rights.  Augustus had several titles and proclamations of interest to us today.  Augustus was called “the Son of God,” “The Savior of the World,” and that Augustus’ birth was said to bring forth “glad tidings” to all mankind.  It was Caesar Augustus who ordered a census, a counting of the inhabitants of the empire. And this census caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem to be counted, just at the time Mary was about to deliver her first born child, Jesus.  An angel had already told Mary that Jesus will be called “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).  We would read a bit later in Luke that an angel told shepherds that this Jesus was ‘born a Savior,” and that Jesus’ coming would bring glad tidings that will cause great joy for all the people (Luke 2:10-11).  Right way, we see that Jesus’ birth is a confrontation to the glory heaped upon or demanded by Augustus, the most man in the world.

Secondly, and curiously, Luke seemed to bring an unnecessary level of detail to the circumstances and setting of the story of Jesus’ birth by saying the census and birth happened when Quirinius was governor of Syria. That seems like an odd and very specific detail.  What is contributed here by that information?  On a global scale, Luke’s detail offers nothing.  However, to Luke’s original readers in Israel, that little detail about the census and Quirinius meant everything.  The census occurring when Quirinus was governor of Syria happened near the end of the life and rule in Israel by King Herod the Great.  Not long after the birth of Jesus, Herod died, and Herod’s son, assumed control over Judea, while other sons of Herod controlled Galilee.  Not long thereafter, Herod’s son was stripped of his rule over Judea.  Instead of being Judea being ruled by a Jewish king, Judea would be ruled directly by a Roman governor.  The rule of Judea directly by Romans was humiliating to the Jews and viewed as an affront to the sovereignty of God.  As a result, direct Roman rule fostered great anger and a rebellious spirit within Judea that continued throughout Jesus’ ministry and his death at the hand of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.  Luke was reminding his readers that Jesus came just prior to the humiliation of the Jews by Rome.  Luke was laying the groundwork that the coming of Jesus was very much about the battle of empires and kingdoms.

Now for his part, Matthew brought to view of his readers the ending days of King Herod, the King of the Jewish lands.  Matthew wrote, “1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3).

At this time, Herod was king of Judea because Caesar Augustus appointed him king.  Herod was not Jewish by birth but had converted to Judaism when his father did so. Herod was severely paranoid and was suspicious that everyone was trying to remove him from the throne.  In his paranoid state, just within his own family, Herod murdered his brother-in-law, his wife, and three of his sons.  Now the magi, people from the east, people from the lands of Abraham’s origin, come to Herod seeking the one born the king of the Jews.  Herod was greatly disturbed and so was everyone else who had any sense.  Why these details in this story of Jesus’ birth necessary?  I believe these circumstances, settings, and time were told by Matthew to remind his readers of the difference between a corrupt earthly king and the kingship and kingdom of Jesus.

Unlike our own personal birth stories, the birth stories of Jesus Christ were recounted in a way to bring emphasis to the life story, ministry, and mission of a new king, Jesus, and to show that circumstances, setting, and timing of Jesus’ birth were not random or of no consequence.  Everything about the birth stories of Jesus has consequence to it.  So let’s complete our look then at the consequences, the so what, of Jesus’ birth as it relates to kings and kingdoms.

One of the features common in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is that each records that some of Jesus’ earliest words dealt with kingdoms. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.  There Jesus fasted and was then tempted by the devil.  At one point, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  The devil then said, “9 All this I will give you,” he [the devil] said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  10 Jesus said to him [the devil], “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’” (Matthew 4:9-10 & Luke 4:6-8).  The incitement of Satan to Jesus was worldly, all its kingdoms, but taught the following the will of God alone would allow entry into the greatest of all kingdoms. 

“17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17).  Jesus had begun proclaiming a message about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God was close at hand, meaning it would come into existence in their lifetime.

It was dangerous for Jesus, a Jew, to speak about a new kingdom, a new king, while in the lands of Judea that were no longer under a Jewish king but under a Roman governor.  There were people seeking to stir people up to rebel against the Romans and bring into power a Jewish king. In fact, one time, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 people, a great crowd came toward Jesus seeking to make Jesus king by force (John 6:15).

Historians tell us the rebellious people of Judea believed paying taxes to the Roman authorities was an act against God.  And so, these rebellious people would attack other Jews who paid taxes to the Romans.  The rebels would steal the wealth of the tax paying Jews and destroy their property. The religious leaders themselves hoped the issue of paying taxes would help rid them of Jesus.  Luke wrote, “21 So the spies [of the religious leaders] questioned him [Jesus]: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 23 He [Jesus] saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied. 25 He [Jesus] said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s. and to God what is God’s” (Luke 20:20-25).  In trying to trap Jesus with the Romans or with the rebels, Jesus escaped both and highlighted again there were two kingdoms.  One kingdom was earthly and the other was spiritual and eternal.

  That kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, was a very different sort of kingdom.  It was not a kingdom that existed by conquest of its citizens.  Its citizens had to choose to enter the kingdom.  The kingdom of heaven that Jesus proclaimed was kingdom for the poor, the humble, the righteous, the afflicted, not a kingdom of the wealthy, proud, and self-sufficient (Matthew 5:3, 10).  The kingdom was for those who served their brothers and sisters who could not repay them (Matthew 5:19).  To enter the kingdom of God one must do the will of God, otherwise they would be denied entry (Matthew 7:21).  The kingdom of heaven was not new because those who would be found in the kingdom included Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11).

People wanted to know what this kingdom of God was like?  To what shall it be compared to?  Jesus said, “21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Luke 13:21).  Just a touch, a small presence of the kingdom of God, would change for good and for the better everything it touched just like a small amount of yeast changes for good and for the better a large measure of flour.  The kingdom of God was one that could not be measured by square miles of territory or by number of inhabitants divided between those with rights and those without rights.  It was an eternal kingdom lived for a short time here on earth following the will of God and then lived eternally in God’s presence.  It is a kingdom one could not be born into through their mother and father. It was a kingdom in which one must choose to be born again by the spirit and the word (John 3).

What do we make of this confluence of events surrounding the birth of Jesus into the global stage of kings and emperors and different types of kingdoms.  We could say that three individuals lived at the same time.  Two were adults and one was a baby.  Two were politically powerful and one was not.  The politically powerful were named Augustus and Herod.  Both have been largely forgotten and their kingdoms no longer exist.  One, the baby, Jesus, is known on all seven continents and changed the world and continues to change the world daily through the people, the men and women, of his living and eternal kingdom. 

Jesus said this would be the case.  Jesus was confronted the face of political power in Judea in a man named Pontius Pilate from the Roman kingdom.  Jesus stood before Pilate just days after people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with songs declaring that Jesus was the king of the Jews.  Now, the Jews religious leader had turned the song of the people into a murderous accusation against Jesus before Pilate.  The leaders screamed out, “He says he is the king of the Jews, but we have no king but Caesar.”  Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”  35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”  36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”  37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:33b-37).

Jesus came into the world and was born into a time of upheaval and passions over earthly kingdoms.  He was born at a time to correct the notion that any human could be the Savior of the World or that one could take upon themselves the title of the Son of God.  For the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is not of this world.  And the truth, the good news, is that Jesus came to lead us into that kingdom, by coming to believe and follow the truth, that Jesus is the only Son of God and that he died to cleanse us of all unrighteousness that could keep us from entering the kingdom. 

Jesus said, “Every on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37b).  So let me ask you a question about your relationship to Jesus and his kingdom.  Here is the question, “If I died right now, my level of confidence that I would be in the kingdom of heaven is?”  Got the question?  Now choose the number that reflects the level of confidence you have for your answer. Choose any number from 0 to 10, where 0 means “I know I will not be in the kingdom of heaven” and 10 means “I know I will be in the kingdom of heaven.”  And you can choose a number from 1 to 9 as an expression of confidence if you’re not sure if you will be in the kingdom.  Got your number?

          Here is the thing about this pop quiz.  Even though there are eleven numbers we could choose as an answer: 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10.  There are actually only two answers to this question.  There is 10, meaning, “If I die right now, I will be in kingdom of heaven” and every other number that says, “If I die right now, I am not entirely sure I will be in the kingdom heaven.”  Every other number, other than the number 10, expresses some doubt about your destiny. Friends, Jesus did not come that we might doubt less about our salvation and destiny.  Jesus came that we would know.  The gospel writers were not inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell us the good news that we might doubt less about our salvation and destiny.  The gospel writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit that we would know.  The Apostle John summed it up this way, “13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).  We want to know that we are saved and that our eternal destiny with God in his kingdom is assured.  We want to live every day with the answer 10 resounding in our minds, “I know my Savior, He knows me, and that He will never leave me nor forsake me!  And I know my place is with Him in his kingdom.”  You are not here to learn how to be a citizen of this country.  You are here because Jesus wants you to choose to live his kingdom under his kingship. Please, open your hearts and enter his kingdom.  Amen and Amen.