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.

          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.

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.

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.

            The announcement of the coming birth of Christ for a person, a man named Joseph, initially came with suspicion, disappointment, a sense of betrayal, and the dread of a violent and very public death of the child’s mother, Mary. We know the story well, do we not? The story of Joseph and Mary?  Perhaps we do and perhaps there are some parts of it that we do not but need to know.

          The story of this announcement and subsequent birth of Jesus is found in the Gospel of Matthew. The story consists of just eight verses. The story comes after 17 verses detailing the genealogy of Joseph beginning with Abraham.  The story of the birth of Jesus is remarkable because of what it says and because of what the story does not say.  We will look deeper into what it says but let’s consider for a moment what this story does not say.  The story does not tell us anything about a Roman census causing Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem.  The story does not contain anything about an innkeeper, stable, manger, and there are no shepherds. In fact, the only person in the story is Joseph.  Mary is mentioned but she has no part in the story.  And the same is true for Jesus, mentioned but he has no part in the story. In the story, Joseph, the only person in the story, says nothing.  He only sleeps.  An angel speaks to Joseph while Joseph sleeps but the angel is not seen.  If the children’s Christmas pageant was based solely on this story, we would only need one child and a narrator.  The only acting the child would need to do would be to pretend to take a nap.  Yet, despite the lack of characters, changes scenery changes, and the absence of dialogue, the eight verses Matthew wrote about the announcement and birth of Jesus are packed with human drama of suspicion, disappointment, a sense of betrayal, the dread of a violent and very public death of Mary, and spiritual insight into the work of God. In fact, the absence of all the other elements was purposeful.  Matthew wanted to strip everything else from the scene so as to focus the story to be on the conflicts that Joseph faced.  For it would be in the conflicts that Matthew would foretell the nature of the full gospel story about the Messiah, named Jesus.

          Let’s look at what Matthew said happened.  “18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph” (Matthew 1:18a). Joseph and Mary’s father had met and discussed Mary becoming Joseph’s wife.  The two had entered into a formal contract to make Joseph and Mary a married couple.  At that point, the Joseph and Mary were legally bound together, and that contract could only be broken by divorce or death.  At that moment, the couple could not live together until Mary and her family had completed her preparations for the wedding and Joseph had secured a suitable place for the couple to live.  Until the formal wedding ceremony, Mary would live with her father and there was to be no sexual contact between Joseph and Mary.

          But.  There is always a but.  “But before they (Joseph and Mary) came together, she (Mary) was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18b).  We have quickly entered a crisis in the story.  Mary, pledged to Joseph, was now pregnant.  This should not be so.  The narrator, Matthew, tells us that the pregnancy occurred through the power of the Holy Spirit, but there is no indication that Joseph understood that was the case.  The pregnancy of a woman pledged to marriage was a very serious situation.  There was, of course, the natural response of suspicion, disappointment, and a sense of betrayal.  But in this case, the Law of Moses carried with it a death penalty for Mary. The Law stated, “23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 22:22-23).  Joseph, not knowing of the intervention of the Holy Spirit, would be required under the Law to make a very public spectacle of Mary and that Mary could be killed along with the baby she was carrying.

          Matthew then shifted our focus from the crisis to the nature of Joseph, who had to make the decision on Mary’s fate and the fate of her unborn child.  “19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he [Joseph] had in mind to divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19).  Joseph knew what the Law required, Mary’s death, and Joseph feared disobeying the Law as well as obeying the Law.  Joseph being a righteous man struggled to expose Mary to death because the words of the Law also said that God had placed before him death and life and that he should choose life.  How then could Joseph choose life and yet uphold the Law?  And so, Joseph thought that divorcing Mary as quietly as possible might accomplish something of under the Law while also saving Mary’s life and the life of her baby.  Joseph thought he had solved his dilemma.

          But.  There is always a but.  “20 But after he [Joseph] had considered this [a quiet divorce], an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20). God had revealed to Joseph that Mary’s baby was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and not by some other man. This should resolve Joseph’s suspicion, disappointment, and sense of betrayal.  Moreover, the angel said Joseph should lay aside his fears and take Mary as his wife.  Joseph was not to publicly accuse Mary.  Joseph was to publicly affirm Mary.  There was to be no divorce.  There was to be a wedding ceremony.  There was to be no death of mother and child, there was to be the birth of a child and Joseph, acting as the child’s father, was to name the child, Jesus.  Joseph, a righteous man, was to learn that righteousness sometimes was more costly than following the legalisms of the Law.  For in righteousness, there may be persecution and accusations, but there will be no fear of God.  Proverbs 28:1 says, “The righteous are as bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).  Joseph was being called to be incredibly brave.

Matthew wrote, “24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).  Joseph emboldened by God’s message, fearlessly took Mary home to be his wife and she gave birth to a son whom Joseph named, Jesus.

          And there we have a very short story about the birth of Jesus, told entirely from the perspective of Joseph, who would appear, slept through most of the story.  What was Matthew focused on in this story?  In a word, Matthew was focused on righteousness. Matthew wanted his readers to know that he would share in the remaining gospel account that righteousness and not legalism was at the heart of the relationship with God.  Righteousness speaks to the inner being of the person and is valued over the outward appearance of meeting the letter of the Law.

          How did that idea of righteousness play out balance of the Gospel of Matthew?  First, Jesus inaugurated his ministry by being baptized by John.  When Jesus approached John for baptism, John paused and said he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus.  But Jesus said, ““Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented” (Matthew 3:15).  Jesus was setting the example for his followers to choose to be publicly baptized as a sign of inner renewal and commitment to follow the pathway of God.

          Jesus then began his active ministry with the Sermon on the Mount.  There Jesus said, “6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).  If people desire the righteousness of the Lord as strongly and as often that they desire to eat and drink, then God will bless them with hearts able to receive and display righteous thoughts, words, and actions.  And that God would bless those who were persecuted for acting righteously.  For Jesus said, “10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

          Jesus affirmed that righteousness was the heart of his message when he said, “20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).  Jesus again confirmed that righteousness was the pathway of life.  Jesus said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33a).  Again, in Matthew 13:43, Jesus said, “Then the righteous will shine line the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matthew 13:43).  And again, “This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous” (Matthew 13:49).  Finally, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).  Matthew would provide us a gospel about righteousness from the announcement of Jesus’ coming to the climax of his death upon the cross.

          The time, setting, and circumstances of the birth announcement of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew through the story of a righteous man named Joseph, told with all other elements removed, brought immense attention to the thrust of gospel message. Jesus came to call the sinner into righteousness that they could have eternal life.  What then does it mean to be righteous?

          We might think of righteousness this way.  Righteousness is being in the state as you ought to be.  There is a correctness of thinking, your emotions, your words, and your deeds.  You are authentic to the way you are supposed to be, and you have integrity because the ways you think, speak, and act are consistent.  You do not think one way, speak a different way, and act, perhaps differently than you speak or think.  In righteousness, you are as you ought to be.  But there is always a but.  But who determines how you ought to be?  As Jesus used the term righteous, he, of course, was referring to God’s view of how you ought to be.  God made humanity right.  We were made free, fearless, unashamed, content, happy to be in fellowship with God, and happy in fellowship with others.  We were in the state as we ought to be because we were right with God. Righteousness, the way one ought to be with God was not to be found in temple or other religious practices.  And it is still not to be found in church or religious practices.  Righteousness is following the commands of God without needed to do it in some legalist manner but in a manner that shows a deep understanding of the purpose of those commands.

Jesus was sent to earth that we would choose life. Jesus came that he could lead us into righteousness, transforming us into the people we ought to be, the people God always intended us to be.  The gospel of Mark tells us what Jesus did.  The Gospel of Luke tells us how Jesus felt.  The gospel of John told us who Jesus was.  But the Gospel of Matthew told us what Jesus said, and Jesus had a lot to say about what it means to live a righteous life.  Let’s give ourselves a gift this Christmas season and read the words that Jesus said that we could come to know life as it ought to be – lived in the righteousness of God.  Amen and Amen.

We are entering the time of reflection on the birth of Jesus. We will sing of peace on earth, joy to the world, and good will toward men.  But those positive feelings of peace, joy, and goodwill were not part of the earliest story of Jesus’ birth.  The story of Jesus’ birth, told in the Gospels, is one often presented as one of conflict, suspicion, and heartache.  The less positive feelings with the story of Jesus’ birth came about because Jesus’ birth involves the overturning of human thought about religion, the Law, world order, and human understanding of the heavenly realm.  I want us to begin looking at the challenging story of Jesus’ birth with the overturning of human thought about religion.  And to begin that conversation we start with the story of a priest found in the earliest gospel story about the birth of Jesus.

The story of the priest, a man called to represent the people to God, is found in the Gospel of Luke.  The story of this priest began with some intimate information about the priest’s wife, and the priest’s duties in the Jerusalem Temple.  Luke’s opening words have much to do with the entirety of his gospel including how the gospel story ends. 

How did Luke begin?  Luke began this way with the briefest description of the priest.  “5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old” (Luke 1:5-7).  Like any good storyteller, Luke invited his readers to step out of their personal life and to enter the lives of other people. Here Luke has invited us into the life of the priest, Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.  And Luke began by telling us that Zechariah and Elizabeth are very old, and they have experienced a lifelong conflict.  Elizabeth has not been able to conceive a child, something both Zechariah and Elizabeth have desired since the beginning of their marriage. Quickly we know something intimate about this couple and, while we know it is present, Luke concealed from us the couple’s private pain of being childless.  We know too that despite their private pain, the couple remained publicly blameless and devoted in observing all the religious commands.

Our storyteller Luke then shifted perspective a bit and instead of telling us further information, Luke invited us to look through a window and to see a scene from the couple’s life as it played out.  “8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.  11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Zechariah], standing at the right side of the altar of incense.  12 When Zechariah saw him [the angel], he [Zechariah] was startled and was gripped with fear.” (Luke 1:8-12).  We now see Zechariah not just as a husband to his wife, Elizabeth, but as an active priest, dressed in appropriate robes and head covering.  We observe Zechariah going through the precise steps of the priesthood, being chosen by lot, entering the Temple at just the right time of the day, doing a precise religious tradition of burn an incense composed of a precise formula of ingredients. Zechariah was at the altar of the Lord in a holy space immediately adjacent to the Holy of Holies, a place only the high priest was permitted to enter once a year.  The two holy spaces were separated by a heavy curtain of precise fabrication.  At this very same moment Zechariah was igniting the incense, worshippers were gathered to offer specific memorized prayers to God.  As Zechariah burned the incense and the smoke arose from the altar, we have a visual representation to the prayers of the people rising toward heaven.  This scene was repeated twice a day, every day. Luke has brought us into a religious experience.

As the smoke of the incense ascended toward heaven, Luke showed us something unexpected, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven into the Temple of the Lord and appeared precisely at the righthand side of the altar in full view of Zechariah.  The appearance of anyone else in this holy place, let alone an angel, brought out a natural human response from Zechariah, one of overwhelming fear.  In great fear, we will either flee from the scene, fight that which causes us to be fearful, or we will freeze in place.  Zechariah was frozen in place unable to move.

Luke has taken us from coming to know this very old couple, resigned to their lifelong private pain of childlessness, and brought us to the grandeur of the Temple, the very heart of religious life, and now has brought into our view a majestic heavenly being, an angel of the Lord.  We are drawn into the story seeking to understand why these elements have been brought together.  Why Zechariah and Elizabeth?  Why the Temple at time of burning of incense?  Why an angel?

The angel wasted none of our time.  “13 But the angel said to him [Zechariah]: “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” (Luke 1:13).  The angel’s words are a shocking reversal of Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s lifelong private pain.  The tension we felt in the opening of the story has been released, Elizabeth will be barren no longer.  But we wonder, why was it necessary for God to resolve such a private pain, to give an answer such a private prayer, in the Temple itself, while Zechariah engaged in priestly duties?  There must be some greater significance to time, place, and circumstances of the announcement than an answer to a private personal prayer.  And there was.

The angel said to Zechariah, “14 He [John, your son] will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he [John] will be great in the sight of the Lord. He [John] is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he [John] will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He [John] will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he [John] will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:14-17).  The announcement by the angel to Zechariah now was much more than the joy of happy parenthood.  The child of Zechariah and Elizabeth would become a joy for many. The message was the fulfilment of promise of God to do two things.  We talked about these things last week with the promised made by God 400 years earlier as revealed by the prophet Malachi.  First, there was the promise to bring forward a messenger who would announce that the Lord Himself was coming to his own Temple.  And second promise was that the Lord would come. Zechariah’s son, John, was the messenger who would turn the minds, changed the mental state of the people from what they believed, to now knowing the truth.  And while John would usher in a change of heart of the people, John was to be a preparer and not the object of hope.  That role, the bringer of hope, would be filled by another, the Lord himself.

The promise of God through Malachi to send a messenger and to come Himself to the Temple was made on a backdrop of a priesthood that had become corrupt.  It was a priesthood of beliefs in their own traditions, not the commands and revelations of God.  It was a priesthood of immoral behaviors, not one built upon righteousness.  And Zechariah, while one of the best priests because he was blameless and devout, lacked an understanding of God.  “18 Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this [the birth of my son]? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years’” (Luke 1:18).  Zechariah, the priest, was asking “How can I be sure that what you are saying is true?” The doubting about God, about the messenger, about the Messiah had begun by the priesthood with the first words uttered following the announcement God was now fulfilling his promise.  Even Zechariah, as publicly blameless and devout a priest as there could be, was nevertheless an unbeliever.  Zechariah was looking for some sort of “sign” that would authenticate what the angel has told him is truth and not a lie.

The first announcement of the coming Messiah being made to a priest, while performing priestly duties at the altar in the Jerusalem Temple now makes sense.  It makes sense because the time, place, and circumstance of the announcement set the stage for a much broader story than a childless couple becoming pregnant.  The story Luke foreshadowed through Zechariah was one of unbelief and conflict by the priests.  It was a story of demands for signs not just from the angel but later from the Messiah to authenticate the truth.  It was a coming story about the human desire to place emphasis on the traditions of religious practices over the commands and love of God.  It was a coming story of the love of the Temple over the God whose Temple it was.  It was a coming story of the frustration of heaven that those of earth would be so unbelieving.  We see this last point made in response to Zechariah’s demand for a sign from the angel. The angel said to Zechariah, “19 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. 20 And now you will be silent…because you did not believe my words...” (Luke 1:19-20).

The conflict begun at the altar in the Temple with a priests would continue throughout the Gospel of Luke.  The Messiah, Jesus, God Himself, would tell his followers, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9:22).  We would read about the near relentless assault by an unbelieving priesthood against Jesus:

• “19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him [Jesus] immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them” (Luke 20:19).
• “2 And the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus” (Luke 22:2)
• “54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest” (Luke 22:54)
• “10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there [before Pilate], vehemently accusing him [Jesus]” (Luke 23:10).
• “20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him [Jesus] over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him [Jesus]” (Luke 24:20).

Luke’s announcement to a priest, Zechariah, was foretelling that the unbelief of the priesthood which began with the first announcement of coming Messiah and would continue until priests had managed to killed the Messiah.

And then there was the Temple, the pride and joy of the priesthood. This was the place of the announcement and the place of unbelief.  Luke would later tell us about the battles waged within the temple:

• “9 The devil led him [Jesus] to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here’” (Luke 4:9).
• “45 When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling” (Luke 19:45).
• “47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him” (Luke 19:47). 
• “5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down’” (Luke 21:5-6)

Luke’s announcement in the Temple was foretelling that the unbelief would turn the Temple into a place of spiritual battle.  And that that battle would rage from the first announcement of coming Messiah and until the death of the Messiah.

But then at what seemed to be a defeat of the Messiah by the priests with Jesus’ crucifixion, Luke foretold the true, good news ending of the story.  Luke wrote that on that dreadful day of Jesus’ crucifixion, “44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last” (Luke 23:44-46). “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.”  The curtain that separated Zechariah in the holy place of the altar of the Lord from the Holy of Holies, the place of the announcement of the coming Messiah, that same curtain, was torn in two.  With the death of the Messiah, the curtain was torn open.  The priests had their sign.  The story was not over.  It was not even close to being over.  The tearing of the temple curtain was a sign that the death of the Messiah opened the pathway of the people to the eternal living giving God bypassing the human priesthood and bypassing the practices of men in the Temple.  The people would have but one priest, Jesus Christ.  The people would no longer have need of a temple for God could be freely worshipped through his son, Jesus Christ, anywhere, anytime.

How do we know the significance of the curtain being torn?  Because Jesus, the Messiah, arose from the dead and spoke to his disciples and “45 Opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He (Jesus) told them (his disciples), “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45-47).  The living Messiah had done it all.  He was superior to the priesthood and the Temple itself.  His death and resurrection is for all nations a signal that ultimate conflict with sin had been won and the forgiveness of sins was now offered to all who would believe.

This is the good news of the first announcement of the coming Messiah.  We have a new high priest, Jesus Christ, who will intercede for us at that throne of God. Amen and Amen.