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unto us a Son is given

In case you don’t know it, the famous Christmas song Handle’s Messiah written in 1742 takes most of it’s great verses directly from scripture. For instance, you probably will recognize Isaiah 9:6 as it is quoted in the song. “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

For unto us a Child is born. You know, Jesus could have come to earth with ten thousand angels, fully formed as a mature man. But the fact that He chose to come as a baby speaks not only to the humanity of Christ, but also the humility. There is nothing more humble than a baby. Jesus subjected Himself to all that a baby goes through, their utter dependence, for our sake, and also, I believe, as an example of what is required from us that would enter His kingdom.

And the government will be upon His shoulder. Jesus Christ will rule the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, two other titles that appear many times in scripture.

Jesus is Wonderful. When we really understand who He is and what He has done for us it should fill us with wonder and amazement.

Jesus is our Counselor. Jesus can help you with your problems because He was one of us and went through what we are going through. “Tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15)

Jesus is Mighty God. Equal with God in all aspects. Co author of all creation, the Lord who reigns in heaven, able to speak into being all of creation.

Jesus is the Everlasting Father: The idea in these Hebrew words is that Jesus is the source or author of all eternity, that He is the Creator Himself. “All things were made by Him…” (John 1)

Jesus is the Prince of Peace: He is the One who makes peace between God and man. When we were at enmity with God, Jesus became the arbiter of our peace.

Jesus was a common name in the first century for a Jewish male. It was the common Greek version of the Hebrew names Joshua, Jehoshua, and Jeshua. It means "The Lord (Yahweh) saves" or "The Lord "(Yahweh) is my help. He was named before He was born by the angel who was sent to Joseph. “She will bear a son; and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The word Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word for "Messiah" or "anointed one." Christ was the title given to Jesus. Therefore He was Jesus the Christ—Jesus the Messiah. “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ) (John 1:41).

There is also the title "Lord Jesus Christ." When the word "Lord" is added to Jesus Christ it means, "Yahweh (Jehovah) Jesus the Messiah. " It is speaking of His Deity as God as well as His human name and His title.

There are a number of other names for Jesus as well. The Word. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1)

The Lamb. “Behold the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Savior. (Luke 2:11)”For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

But the name I want to dwell on for a minute is the name Son. In God calling Jesus Son we see evidence of His deity, but there is another aspect that really hit me the other day. The name Son reveals something about God’s love. God loved the Son. I remember when Susie got pregnant with my son and the overwhelming love that I had for that little baby when he was born. The absolute pride and joy that having a son brings to a father is just something that has to be experienced to be understood.

And so we get a glimpse of God’s love for Jesus in the title of Son being given to Jesus. Twice the Bible recounts God’s voice bursting out of heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son!” God had all the love and pride in His Son that we have in our children.

But not only did God love the Son with this great, unfathomable love, but wonder of wonders, He loved us also. John 3:16 says, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall be saved.” Not only did God love the Son, but He loves us also and wants us to be His sons and daughters. It’s like He came to an orphanage and fell in love with you and said I love you so much I will pay whatever price is necessary to make you my child. And so He goes through all the legalities and requirements to adopt you and then gives you all the privileges of being His child.

Do you ever doubt that God loves you? Well, here is the proof of just how much God loved us when we were orphans and outcasts of heaven. He loved us so much that He watched His own Son be beaten, tortured, crucified and murdered in order that He might be able to adopt us. The price of our redemption was the death and punishment of His Son, and God gladly paid it, because His love for us was so great.

Christmas is a time for gift giving and celebration. But let’s always remember that the thing we are celebrating is that God loved us, choose to make us His sons and daughters, and Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice to purchase us for the Father, so that we might have eternal, abundant, real life with God in heaven.

cleaning house

In Matthew 21, there is the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on the colt of a donkey, being proclaimed by a huge crowd of people, possibly numbering in the many thousands as the Messiah, the son of David. His entourage, however, wasn’t exactly made up of the cream of Israeli society. It was the rabble of Galilee, the downtrodden, past prostitutes, once beggars, people who had been healed from every sort of debilitating disease which had left them lying worthless at some city gate until Jesus had come along. He was attended by the homeless, the destitute, people once afflicted by demons who had now become clean. People who previously had no value to society were the ones whom he chose to attend his coronation.

And there standing on the steps of the temple were the chief priests and scribes, the religious leaders, indignant at the cries of the people. They were the epitome of righteousness and religious fervor. Who was this man that had risen outside of their ranks, without their approval, without attending their school of divinity? They scoffed at Him, His lack of pedigree and the mob of sinners that attended Him.

Jesus was the picture of humility. Riding into town upon this little beast of burden with the rabble throwing old clothes in his path certainly didn’t meet the expectation of the religious leaders that the Messiah would over throw the yoke of bondage of Rome and vanquish the enemies of Israel. No, Jesus was more concerned with religious reform than He was with social reform. He was more concerned about slavery to self and sin than He was worried about physical enslavement to government.

And so Jesus gets off this donkey and walks into the temple and begins to clean house – literally. He kicks over tables and drives out the vendors and the money changers. The Jews had taken what was supposed to be God’s house and made it into a money making business. Jesus said, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a robber’s den.”

In just three or four days Jesus would be nailed to a cross. His anger and rebuke was the last warning to a religious system that had run amuck. I can’t help but wonder what Jesus would do if He were to ride up on his donkey to the front door of some churches today. Would He find a house of prayer? It’s noteworthy that Jesus had to remind the religious leaders that “It is written…” Would He find the church studying His word?

1Pe 4:17 says, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” Before God sends a revival to the world, He must first have a revival in the church.

Christmas Luau (click on image to enlarge)

who do you say that I am...really?

What do you think God is like… really? Most people seem to have this vague image of a beneficent, benevolent being beaming at the world like a ray of sunshine giving everyone a warm and fuzzy feeling. Others perhaps see some judgmental father figure that condemns them and makes them feel guilty. The truth is though that how we may think about God is irrelevant to the reality of God. In other words, my perception of God does not change who God really is. If He is just a figment of our imagination then it’s fine to have your own view point of what you may think God is like, or what you think He may be capable of. But if He really exists, if He really is the God of the universe, then we better figure out exactly what He is like and what He expects from us.

While the Bible says that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the creation teaches us about God, those are only signposts that point in His direction. They cannot teach us much more than that there has to be a Creator to design all this wonder. But yet we know that man has for years strived to find a way of reasoning to circumvent that obvious conclusion, and it is in fact being taught today as evolution.

The only real source of truth then about God has to be God’s word. Not man’s speculation, not man’s revelations, nor any other contrivance of man can comprehend God and declare it to man. God chose His word, and wrote it down, by which He would manifest Himself to the world.

John says in chapter one that Jesus was the Word. That the Word was with God and that the Word was God. And that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When He became 30 years of age He began a three year pilgrimage to teach the world about God and manifest Himself to the world, which culminated in a final march into Jerusalem during the Passover to offer Himself as the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

But in spite of everything He said about Himself and why He had come to earth and what the purpose of His kingdom would have, people were unable to accept the reality of His mission. They were so focused on what they wanted God to be like that they completely zoned out on the real message. They were looking for a fix for their earthly problems and He looked like He could be the guy to take care of them. But Jesus came to take care of the problem of eternity and the problem of sin. He was focused on the spiritual, and they were focused on the physical.

Unfortunately, not much has changed in the last 2000 years. We’re still focused on the physical. Jesus came to destroy the stranglehold that the ruler of this world had on mankind and to set his captives free, taking them into the kingdom of heaven. But most of us seem to have difficulty abandoning the physical and living in the spiritual. We’re trying to have the best of both kingdoms. But if you’re really a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven then you must concur with the final answer that Jesus gave Pilate just before His crucifixion. “My kingdom is not of this world.”