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There are hymns and choruses we sing
-- in praise of God's Son, our king There's a message that we bring and share -- to all weary from sin and care Because Jesus came as Savior, name and purpose one, -- sin is forgiven and temptations overcome Daily life is changed -- darkness flees, light glows -- doubt diminishes, faith flourishes -- despair vanishes, hope burgeons -- our priorities re-arranged Because Jesus CAME: -- we can lift up our hearts and rejoice -- we can fill our minds with Christ and be sure and confident and fearless Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, Hebrews 13:8 we're never alone -- we're never alone Because Jesus conquered -- we share his conquest Because Jesus sacrificed his life -- God casts our sins away, never to be remembered Because Jesus rose from the dead -- we never again fear LIFE, DYING or DEATH Because Jesus Returns in Glory -- all believers inherit new bodies and minds, God's new world and city -- we know our future life infinitely excels even our present life in Christ Thank you, God, for sending Jesus. That you, Jesus, for coming. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for living in us to insure God's work is done. In 1811-1812 powerful earthquakes along the New Madrid, Missouri Fault heaved the earth like children's shovels of dirt. Some of the tremors reached 7.7 in tectonic destruction. The tremors so terrified residents of the lower Mississippi Valley that church attendance boomed. When the tremors quieted and ceased, and danger passed, church attendance bottomed.
Religious leaders sarcastically labelled those people earthquake Christians. Deservedly so. A warning to all of us: believing in God only when trouble comes is like fastening your seat belt at the instant of CRASH! It's like laboring to build a house piece-by-piece-by-hand only to have a tornado rip it apart. GOD is NECESSARY—don't bother putting a time limit on it—PURELY, EVERLASTINGLY NECESSARY. Bless every incident or experience that enlarges our understanding of that FACT. Mourn every one that diminishes it. In the aftermath of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, survivors found themselves strangely courteous to, patient with and generous in personal relationships. Critics hardened in the city's usual sybaritic lifestyle scornfully called the new behavior Earthquake Love. If true, bring on more earthquakes! Societies absolutely need the benefits God's love provided Israel in the Law of Moses. Even more dramatically God's love expressed in sending Jesus, and his in COMING. Our recent Christmas season once again spread cheer—and not the alcoholic kind; good-will—seen in efforts to alleviate the sufferings of others; and peace in families, churches and cities—but lasting only in the lives of those in "whom God's favor rests" Luke 2:14. If, in celebrating Christ as an infant, spiritual graces budded and blossomed in society, celebrating his manhood teachings, compassion and forgiveness should inspire perpetual concern, patience and love among us. If infant Emmanuel merely by being born has so profound an effect, how massively greater should the God/Man living among us, changing our perspectives, reducing our self-centeredness, increasing our awareness of others. Many think John the Baptist and Jesus remained strangers until the day Jesus stood before John seeking baptism.
Is that possible, given:
John's residence in the desert would no more prevent him from traveling to Jerusalem than Christ from his Nazareth home. And, for all John's ascetic ways, Jewish males in fact had to attend three Festivals yearly. In reality, then, when Jesus walked 60 miles from Galilee to the Baptist's baptizing location, John hesitated to perform the rite for Jesus. Not only because the Nazarene's entire persona overwhelmed John, but because Jesus didn't fit John's profile of men needing repentance and baptism: spiritual vipers, mentally plastered-over traditionalists, irreverent egotists or fanatical revolutionists! John's ready obedience when Jesus said he needed baptism to "fulfill all righteousness" 3:15, contrasts with Simon Peter's stubborn outburst against Christ's effort to wash his feet in the Upper Room. "No...you shall never wash my feet" John 13:8. No reluctance in John drew a sharp rebuke from Jesus. But he issued a direct threat of exclusion to Simon. Only enforced obedience motivated Simon's usual emotional outburst. The question confronts us; why would we think Christ's threat doesn't remain intact if we refuse:
If Simon Peter had no authority to put his opinion above Christ's word, why would we think we have the right? Why would Jesus starkly threaten Simon's place in the Twelve if disobeyed, but not our place in discipleship if refusing obedience? Think about it. While God appointed immersion in water to forgive repentant mortals, Mark 1:4, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-4, Jesus walked 60 miles to be immersed in order "to fulfill all righteousness" Matthew 3:15. John 1:29-34 reveals the meaning of "all righteousness", as completed in Christ.
With Jesus absent for some seven weeks after the baptism resisting and overcoming Satan's temptations, the Baptist's awareness of Christ's nature grew like a rumor. The Holy Spirit's descent on the baptized Nazarene, coupled with God's VOICE applauding Jesus as his SON, coupled with John's recent description of Christ as God's Lamb taking away the sin of the world, 1:29, clarified Christ's identity in the Baptist's mind. Jesus wasn't merely a good man—like Moses or Elijah—exempt from baptism. Jesus embodied God's Presence as God's Son and God's Lamb: the Son who ruled even as he as God's Lamb sacrificed himself to overcome sin Revelation 5:5-14. He symbolized all the GLORY that resulted. And how does all that reveal God's righteousness to us? Consider: God's Righteousness—his rightness, perfection, holiness, purity—cannot accept, and will not tolerate, any mistake, imperfection or fault, and certainly not any obvious sin that occurs naturally in humanity—Galatians 5;19-21, Ephesians 2:1-3, Colossians 3:5-9 mere samples of all the ways unsaved and saved humanity still offend God. But...far from being the Vengeful "God of righteousness", the God of Sinai—the usual Hollywood portrayal of righteousness—God's righteousness has compassion for sinners, as Isaiah 45:21 states: "a righteous God and a Savior." Far from being negative, his righteousness is positive. Far from using our every fault against us, it uses all his patience finding ways to forgive. Far from sending Jesus to condemn us, he sent him to FORGIVE us John 3:17. We should delight in and embrace his righteousness then, not fear and flee it. Christ's baptism forecast that Righteousness in himself. He spent his entire ministry compassionately CARING for sinners. Far from seeing God's righteousness as the Reason God destroyed sinners, Christ proved God's pleasure in forgiving every sinner who sought it. Read Ephesians 2:4-10 for a similar explanation of God's righteousness. The apostle Paul wrote, in I Corinthians 1:18-31, of the blessings coming to "poor in spirit" people. Jesus as God's wisdom teaches us and as God's righteousness, (holiness, redemption) saves us; that is, makes it possible for us to be righteous. The very message Jesus taught in other words, John 5:24-30. God's righteousness remains a challenge for Christians. We can't embody it as Jesus did. Our discipleship can incrementally increase in his righteousness, giving people a REASON to accept Christ, not an EXCUSE to remain outside Christ. |
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