Category: Sermons

The Advent Candle Of Love

Matthew 1:18-21

Pastor Barry Kerner

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and we have been working our way around the various candles of the Advent Wreath. We saw earlier in this series that the four candles around the outside of the Advent Wreath correspond to the first four fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience ….” (Galatians 5:22) The four candles around the outside of the wreath stand for hope, peace, joy and love. Hope and patience relate to each other, and so as we work our way around the Advent Wreath at Christmas, it’s good to know we are also working our way backwards through the first four fruit of the Spirit.

Love comes first in the fruit of the Spirit because love is the primary fruit of the Spirit. It is the most important fruit of the Spirit and encompasses all the rest. Love comes last in the four candles around the outside of the Advent Wreath, because love is also the most important of these, and in Advent we are working our way towards the most important aspect of Christmas, which is God’s love for us in Christ.

We will be looking at a number of Scriptures this morning relating to love at Christmas, but we will start with this passage from Matthew 1 verse 18-21.

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.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him 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.”

As we have seen, hope is an important part of the Christmas story. Peace is an important part of the Christmas story. Joy is an important part of the Christmas story. But now we come to love, and love is the most important of all.

The Christmas story is all about love, and so we are going to look at four aspects of love at Christmas this morning. We will look at 1) Joseph’s love for Mary, 2) Mary’s love for Jesus, 3) God’s love for sinners, and 4) our love for one another. There would be no Christmas without love, and all four of these are important parts of the Christmas story

We’ll begin with Joseph’s love for Mary, an incredibly important part of the Christmas story. You might say, “Well of course he loved Mary. They were engaged!” And yes, they were engaged to be married, but that didn’t necessarily mean that Joseph loved her. In that day and time people often got married for reasons other than love. Marriages were typically arranged by the spouses’ parents. Many times marriage was viewed more as a social or economic relationship rather than romantically based.

So how do we know Joseph loved Mary? We know because of his response when Mary was found to be pregnant during the engagement, before they were married, before they had come together as husband and wife. As far as Joseph knew, Mary had been unfaithful to him and slept with another man. Joseph must have felt completely betrayed by this and would have every right to be angry and upset with her.

Now Joseph had several options here. He could go ahead and marry her anyways, knowing that the child wasn’t his own. However, that would have gone against his convictions as a man committed to God and God’s ways. No matter how much he loved Mary, he needed to put his relationship with God first.

He could have dragged her before the tribunal and had her tried for adultery. This would have been a vindictive move. At the very least Mary would be publicly disgraced, or even worse, she could be sentenced to death by stoning.

But what did Joseph do instead? We read in Matthew 1:18-19: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Joseph chose a third option. Instead of marrying her in defiance of God’s commands, instead of bringing her before the judges in an act of revenge, he thought about what was best for Mary in this situation. And so he decided rather than expose her to public disgrace, he would divorce her quietly. Sure people would still know and talk about her. That was unavoidable. But at least she wouldn’t go through the public humiliation of a trial.

Joseph had several options open to him, and he chose the way of love. He chose the way that would bring the least amount of shame and attention to Mary. As 1 Corinthians 13:7 tells us, Love always protects. Joseph chose to protect Mary, even when he thought she had been unfaithful to him. Joseph’s love for Mary is our first example of love at Christmas.

And then secondly, we have Mary’s love for Jesus. We read in Luke 2: “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  This, of course, is the center of the Christmas story, the actual birth of Christ that first Christmas Eve. Mary gives birth to her firstborn, a son. She tenderly wraps him in swaddling cloths and lays him in the manger.

There is a natural love between every mother and the child she bears. The child has been inside her for months. She has given life to this child. For nine months she has nourished the child with her own body. She has felt every move, every kick, every turn. She has dreamed and imagined what this child would look like. She has gone through the long months of pregnancy, the hard sacrifice of labor, the excruciating pain of childbirth, and now she holds her newborn child in her arms. How could she not love this beautiful new human being who has come from her own body?

Mary’s love for Jesus is also indicated in other ways by Scripture. For example, after the shepherds visited Joseph and Mary and then went into the town spreading the word about Jesus, we read in Luke 2:19 that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

The word translated “treasured” in verse 19 is a word that means “to preserve” or “to keep in mind” or even “to keep thinking about something so that you won’t forget it.” The word translated “pondered” is a word that means “to bring together” or “to think deeply or reflect on something.” Together these words tell us that Mary didn’t want to lose a single memory of all that happened that night. She kept running through the events over and over again in her mind so she wouldn’t forget. She thought deeply about these happenings, bringing all the individual memories together and wondering what it all could mean. Mary’s love for Jesus was reflected in her very thoughts about him. Her thoughts were captive to Christ, and she made every effort to remember every detail as she sought to understand the meaning of his birth.

Her love for Jesus is also revealed by the words Simeon spoke over Jesus and Mary in the temple. We’ve met Simeon before in this Advent series. Remember Simeon? God had promised Simeon that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. God’s Spirit moved Simeon to enter the temple courts just as Joseph and Mary were bringing Jesus into the temple to present him to the Lord. Simeon took Jesus into his arms and prophesied over him, and we looked at that prophecy earlier in this series.

But then Simeon also spoke to Mary. We read about this in Luke 2:34-35. “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’”

In effect Simeon told Mary that there were difficult days ahead for her son, Jesus. Mary didn’t know how difficult at the time, but Simeon gave her forewarning when he told her that a sword would pierce her own soul, too.

True to this word of prophecy, Mary suffered greatly as Jesus grew to be a man. Jesus was no ordinary son. He belonged first to his heavenly Father – as he reminded Mary in the temple when he was twelve years’ old found in Luke 2:49-50. He operated on his own time table, not hers – as he made clear to her at the wedding in Cana found in John 2:4. When Jesus’ ministry attracted such great numbers that he and his disciples could not even eat, his family thought he was out of his mind and went to take charge of him. And when it came time for Jesus to die, Mary was there at the cross. In John 19:25, John tells us she was near the cross as she watched her son suffer and die there in shame.

So yes, Simeon’s words were absolutely and brutally true. A sword would pierce Mary’s own soul, too. Why? Because her son was destined to suffer and die, and she loved her son deeply. That’s the second aspect of love that is part of the Christmas story – Mary’s love for Jesus.

This brings us now to the third aspect of love at Christmas – God’s love for sinners. And this is really the heart of the Christmas story. The Christmas story is all about love. Joseph’s love for Mary and Mary’s love for Jesus are both important parts of that story, but they are not the most important. The central message of love at Christmas is God’s love for sinners.

This is evident from the angel’s words to Joseph about Mary in Matthew 1:21, “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.”  Why was Jesus born into our world at Christmas? It’s all in his name! The name Jesus means “Savior” or “salvation,” and Jesus was born into our world to save his people from their sins.

We read in John 3:16-17,  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The greatest gift ever given at Christmas was the gift of God’s own Son. God gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus did not merely come into the world. He was sent into the world. God the Father sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

If you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at his Son, Jesus. Look at Jesus the child born into the world as a baby at Christmas. Look at Jesus the man, teaching the people, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing diseases and sicknesses among the people. Look at Jesus the Savior, suffering and dying on the cross for your sins to bring you to God. Look at Jesus the King, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, coming back for you to take you to be with him that you also may be where he is forever.

Nothing can ever separate you from God’s love for you in Christ. As Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Christmas story is all about love, but the most important part of the story is God’s love for sinners. God so loved the world, he gave us his Son so that we would not perish but have eternal life.

We’ve looked at Joseph’s love for Mary, Mary’s love for Jesus, and God’s love for sinners. But there is one more aspect of love at Christmas that we do not want to leave out. And that is our love for one another.

The Bible makes a clear and unbreakable connection between God’s love for us and our love for each other. We read in 1 John 4:10-11: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Notice God’s love comes first. God’s love always comes first. God’s love in creating the world; God’s love in promising a Savior; God’s love in sending his Son into the world; God’s love in Jesus dying on the cross for your sins. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God’s love always comes first. But then our love should follow. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) Our love for others should follow, not merely as an obligation, but as a natural outflow of God’s love for us. If God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you, how can you not love others in return? And if God loved others so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for them, how can you not love them as well?

And so Christmas is not only a reminder of how much God loves you, but also how much you should love other people. Is there someone you need to help this Christmas? Is there someone you need to reach out to this Christmas? Is there someone you need to forgive this Christmas?

God showed his love for us at Christmas by sending his Son into the world as a sacrifice for our sins. How will you show your love to others this Christmas?

The Advent Candle Of Joy

Luke 2:8-12

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, and we are working our way around the various candles of the Advent Wreath. We have seen that the first candle represents hope, and the second candle represents peace. Today we come to the third candle on the wreath.

Now you may have noticed that one of the outside candles is a different color from the other three. There are three purple candles around the outside of the wreath and one pink candle. The pink candle is the third candle of advent which represents joy.

The traditional reading for the third Sunday of Advent comes from Philippians 4:4 which says: “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again, rejoice!” As a result, the third Sunday of Advent was set aside as a special Sunday, often called Gaudete Sunday after the Latin word for “rejoice.”

We will be looking at a number of Scriptures this morning relating to Christmas and joy, but we will begin with these verses from Luke 2:8-12

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, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “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.”

One of the things people love about Christmas is that it truly is a joyful season. All season long we celebrate with music and song and lights and decorations. We celebrate by getting together with family and friends and by exchanging gifts. It is a joyful time of year.

But I can’t help feeling that sometimes the world hijacks their joy in the season from the true joy at the center of Christmas. Because when you come right down to it, the real joy at Christmas comes not from the lights and the decorations and the music but from the meaning of Christmas.

At the heart of Christmas is the astoundingly good news that Jesus Christ was born as a Savior into this world. From beginning to end the Christmas story is punctuated with various outbursts and moments of joy, and they all center around the birth of Christ. You can’t get away from it. You can’t get around it. You can’t spell Christmas without Christ, and you can’t enter into the true joy of the season without Jesus.

This morning I want us to consider three truths about joy at Christmas. 1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. 3) Joy leads to praise. All three of these truths are found right in the very Scripture passages which tell us the Christmas story, and so all three of these truths together capture the true meaning of joy at Christmas.

First, Jesus brings the joy of salvation

First of all, Jesus brings the joy of salvation. Now Jesus brings joy in so many areas of life, but the joy that is especially associated with Christ’s birth is the joy of salvation. We already saw last week that Jesus’ very name means salvation, and this week I want us to see the connection that the Bible makes between salvation and joy.

For example, we read David’s prayer to the Lord in Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”  David wrote this Psalm after committing adultery with Bathsheba. David had sinned greatly against God, but he still understood the connection between salvation and joy. He repented of his sin. He asked God’s forgiveness and asked God to restore to him the joy of his salvation.

We find the same connection between salvation and joy in Isaiah 12:3 where Isaiah writes: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”  What a beautiful image! In this passage Isaiah is prophesying about the second coming of Christ, which as we have seen is a large part of the focus of the Advent season. Advent not only reminds us of Christ’s first coming, but also helps us as we anticipate Christ’s second coming.

Last week we looked at Isaiah 11 where we saw that when Christ returns he will bring peace on earth, a peace that includes not only peace among the nations but extends even to nature and the animal kingdom. Now Isaiah follows that up with Isaiah 12 by speaking of God’s salvation and the joy that accompanies his salvation.

There is no true joy without salvation, and there is no true salvation without joy. The two go together, and they especially go together in those Scriptures which tell us the Christmas story.

For example, we read in the gospel of Luke how when Mary was pregnant with Jesus she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was also pregnant at this time with John the Baptist.

We read in Luke 1, “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

I love this scene. Mary enters the house, and John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, starts jumping for joy! Why? Because as Elizabeth put it, Mary was the mother of her Lord! Jesus is Lord, Mary was Jesus’ mother, and John was in close proximity with Jesus who had come to bring salvation for his people. And so John begins jumping with joy in his mother’s womb.

And you might wonder, how is that possible? Well, it’s because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You have two of the members of the Trinity here in one house. You have God the Spirit filling John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb and God the Son growing as a child in Mary’s womb.

Now the Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify Jesus as Savior. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit’s job is to get excited about Jesus! And so when Jesus enters the house in Mary’s womb, John the Baptist who is filled with the Holy Spirit gets excited about Jesus because the Savior has come.

Another great example of Jesus bringing the joy of salvation is the wise men in the gospel of Matthew. They traveled a great distance just to see the Messiah and to worship him. They had seen his star in the east, but they didn’t know exactly where he was to be born, so they stopped in Jerusalem along the way to ask King Herod for additional information.

We read in Matthew 2, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”

Once again they rejoiced to find the place where Jesus was born. Why? Because Jesus was the Messiah who had come to bring salvation to his people.

Salvation and joy belong together, and joy and Christmas belong together, because Jesus came at Christmas to bring us joy, especially the joy of salvation. So that’s our first point this morning. Jesus brings the joy of salvation.

Second, Joy leads to proclamation

Joy leads to proclamation. Jesus brings the joy of salvation, and that joy leads us to share the good news of Jesus with others. We find this truth demonstrated for us in the story of the angels and the shepherds.

For example, we read in Luke 2, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Notice the news about Jesus’ birth is not only news, it is good news! And it is not only good news, it is good news of joy! And it is not only good news of joy, it is good news of great joy! And it is not only good news of great joy, it is good news of great joy for all the people! But how will all the people know about this good news of great joy unless we share it with them?

We share good news with each other all the time. When something good happens, we talk about it with our friends at work or at school. We post it on Facebook. When the good news is the birth of a baby, we especially share it with others, don’t we? We take pictures and send out birth announcements. We are filled with joy at the birth of a child, and that joy naturally leads to proclamation. We want everyone to know and share in our joy.

Well, if we tell everyone about the birth of our own babies, how much more should we proclaim the birth of God’s Son! Good news is for sharing, and there is no better news than the news the angels shared with the shepherds that first Christmas Eve: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

So what did the shepherds do after they received this good news of great joy that was for all the people? Let’s find out! Picking up the story in Luke 2:15:

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

When the shepherds heard this good news of great joy that was for all the people, first they checked it out for themselves and found everything just as the angel had told them. And after they had checked it out for themselves, what did they do? They spread the word to others. Why? Because good news is for sharing! This was good news of great joy for all the people, and it would have been wrong for them to keep it to themselves. Joy leads to proclamation.

Third,  Joy leads to praise

1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. And then thirdly: 3) Joy leads to praise. We find this truth demonstrated for us in two examples from the Christmas story. The first example is Mary after she hears the words of prophecy from Elizabeth that we looked at earlier in the message. Mary was filled with joy and wonder as her cousin Elizabeth spoke words of blessing and favor over her and the child she carried in her womb. Her joy could not be contained, and so then she burst out in a song of praise.

And Mary said: “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.”

We often call this “Mary’s Song” or “The Magnificat,” as Mary magnifies or glorifies the Lord for choosing her to be the mother of Jesus. And notice that this joy still has to do with salvation. Mary rejoices in God her Savior. She is filled with joy at God’s goodness to her, and her joy bubbles over into praise.

And then we find this same pattern also with the shepherds when they returned from sharing the good news of Jesus with the people in the town. We read in Luke 2:20, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Joy leads to proclamation, so they went out and spread the word about Jesus and his birth. But joy also leads to praise, and so they returned glorifying and praising God. God chose them to be eyewitnesses to the birth of Christ, and they would never forget the things they had heard and seen that night, which were just as they had been told.

I’d like to close with these thoughts. The third candle, the pink candle, the advent candle of joy reminds us of these three important aspects of joy relating to Christmas. 1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. 3) Joy leads to praise. And these three aspects of joy at Christmas also become three application points for us as we respond to the message this morning.

First of all, Jesus brings the joy of salvation. Do you know Christ as your Savior? Do you know the joy that comes from having Christ as your friend and having your sins forgiven? Do you know the joy of being restored to right relationship with God through Christ the Savior? The message that the angel gave to the shepherds that first Christmas night is just as applicable to you two thousand years later, right here, right now: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) There is no true joy without salvation, and there is no true salvation without joy. Jesus is the reason for the season, and if you have never trusted Jesus as your Savior, then you are missing out on the true joy of Christmas.

Secondly, joy leads to proclamation. If you do know Jesus as your Savior, then you need to spread the word! How many people have you told about Jesus this Christmas season? You don’t need to be a trained theologian to share Christ with others. Just tell them that Christmas is all about the birth of Christ who came to be our Savior. Tell them Jesus died on the cross for their sins so they could be forgiven. Tell them Jesus rose from the dead and that he is alive today. Tell them Jesus is coming back to bring peace on earth. That’s all very good news, and remember, good news is for sharing. If you know Jesus as your Savior, then you know the joy of salvation, and joy leads to proclamation.

And then finally joy leads to praise. Praise God every day for your salvation. Praise him for his amazing grace. Praise him for his great love in sending his Son, Jesus, to be your Savior. Praise him for his goodness and kindness in forgiving your sins. Praise him for the miracle of the incarnation at Christmas, that God the Son took on human flesh and was born into our world as a little baby. Remember Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

 And so let me encourage you this morning, with great joy draw great buckets of praise from the great reservoir of blessings that God has given you in your salvation.

Are you filled with joy this Christmas season? You should be! Because God is good, Christ has come, and salvation is yours for the asking. Christmas is all about joy, because joy comes from Jesus, and Christmas is all about him.

The Advent Candle Of Peace

Luke 2:1-14

Pastor Barry Kerner

This is the second week in our Advent Wreath series. Last week we looked at the Advent Candle of Hope. Today we will look at the Advent Candle of Peace. Peace is one of the nine fruit of the Spirit that we find listed in Galatians 5:22 where it tells us that,  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience ….”

Now I want you to notice something here. The order of the advent candles is the same order as the first four fruit of the Spirit, only in reverse. The first four fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace and patience. The advent candles when you reverse the order are love, joy, peace and hope.

We saw last week that hope has to do with patience and waiting. For example we read in Romans 8: “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” And so as we go through the order of the advent candles this season, understand that we are also working our way backwards through the fruit of the Spirit to the primary fruit of the Spirit, which is love.

But today is the second Sunday of Advent, and so today we are looking at the candle of peace. And what better place to begin than the angel’s pronouncement of peace to the shepherds on that first Christmas Eve.

Let us read Luke 2:13-14, 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[a] 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. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

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, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “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 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.”

One of the things I love about Christmas is the nativity scenes. And one of the things I love about nativity scenes is that they are so peaceful. It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful looking scene than Joseph and Mary with their newborn child surrounded by sheep and shepherds under the midnight sky. We even sing about it one of the most peaceful Christmas carols ever written: “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and Child, Holy Infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.”

We all long for peace in our lives, and yet peace is sadly lacking in our world. People are full of worry and anxiety. Relationships are full of conflict and stress. The world is full of conflict and wars.

But that’s where Jesus comes in. Because Jesus is not only our hope at Christmas, he is also our peace. And it is only in Christ that we will ever truly obtain peace on earth.

As someone said: “There will never be agreement at the peace tables of the world or rest in the individual heart until the Prince of Peace reigns supreme in the hearts of men.”

So that is what the Advent Candle of Peace is all about today. Part of the Christmas story, part of the Christmas message is that Jesus brings us peace. We will be looking at four aspects of the peace that Jesus brings this morning. 1) Jesus brings peace with God. 2) Jesus brings peace with self. 3) Jesus brings peace with others. And 4) Jesus will bring peace on earth.

First, Jesus brings peace with God

We’ll start with the first one – Jesus brings peace with God. We read in Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 Notice that we are not naturally at peace with God. The Bible tells us our sins have separated us from God, and it is only through Jesus and faith in him that we are brought into a relationship of peace with our God and Creator.

When God first sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, he sent Gabriel with a message of peace. We read in Luke 1:26-30: “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.’”

Mary was troubled at the angel’s greeting, but the angel spoke words of peace and assurance to her, telling her not to be afraid because God was with her and she had found favor with God. You might wonder how did Mary find favor with God? The only way any of us find favor with God. She had faith in God and in his promise of the Messiah to come. Like so many Old Testament believers before her, she had faith in Christ before Christ even came. And now God had chosen her to be the vessel through which his Son would enter the world.

God also sent an angel to Joseph, Mary’s husband-to-be. And the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21: “She [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name “Jesus” actually means “salvation.” Jesus was given this name because he was the promised Savior who came to bring us peace with God by saving us from our sins.

When John the Baptist was born three months before Jesus, John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about John. And in his prophecy he spoke about how John would go before Jesus preparing the way for this One who would bring us peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins. Hear Zechariah’s words about John the Baptist in Luke 1:76-79,  “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins … to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

How did Jesus do this? Why is it that everyone who puts their faith in Jesus finds peace with God? It is because of what Jesus did at the cross. Jesus was born into this world to die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to a right relationship of peace with God. As we read in Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

That’s the first and most important thing the Advent candle of peace reminds us at Christmas. Jesus brings peace with God.

Secondly, Jesus brings peace with self. Sin not only separates us from God. Sin also brings separation within our own being. We are conflicted beings. We are constantly fighting anxiety and stress and inner turmoil. We desperately need inner peace, and Jesus came not only to bring peace with God but also personal peace within ourselves.

Last week we looked at a man named Simeon. God had promised Simeon that he would see the Messiah before he died, and, wouldn’t you know it, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go into the temple courts just as Joseph and Mary were bringing the infant Jesus into the temple. We read in Luke 2 that Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.”

Simeon is a wonderful example of Jesus bringing personal peace. We sometimes talk about our bucket lists, all the things we want to do or accomplish before we finish our lives here on earth. Well, apparently Simeon only had one thing on his bucket list – he wanted to see the Messiah before he died. And when he finally did, when he finally saw Jesus – that was all he needed. He praised God saying, “You now dismiss your servant in peace.” Simeon embraced Christ, and he was at peace within himself.

When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you not only receive peace with God. You also receive the peace of God to help you through the difficult circumstances of life. When you know Christ, everything can be going crazy around you, and you can still be at peace within yourself.

Philippians 4 instructs us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Notice that this wonderful peace of God is only available in and through Jesus Christ. The Bible says the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Hear these beautiful words of Jesus from John 14:27: “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.”  Jesus not only brings peace with God. He also brings peace with self.

And then thirdly, Jesus brings peace with others. We have a wonderful example of this early in the Christmas story. When Joseph first heard that Mary was pregnant, he considered breaking off the engagement. He must have been terribly hurt and confused thinking that Mary had been unfaithful to him. But then we read in Matthew 1:20,  “After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him 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.’”

If Mary was pregnant with any other child, Joseph would most likely have broken the engagement. But this wasn’t any other child. This was Jesus, and he was conceived in her from the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus, even before he was born, brought peace between Joseph and Mary and kept their marriage from coming apart.

We go through many challenges in this life, and one of the most difficult is when our relationships are in turmoil. That’s when we need to ask Jesus – the Prince of Peace – to come and bring us peace in our relationships, to intervene, to reconcile and to restore.

We read this about Jesus in Ephesians 2:14, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”  Jesus came to break down the barriers, to bridge the gaps, to bring people together and to restore peace to our damaged relationships.

As believers in Christ, we are called to follow in his footsteps. As Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Jesus truly brings peace with others.

Fourth, Jesus will bring peace on earth

1) Jesus brings peace with God. 2) Jesus brings peace with self. 3) Jesus brings peace with others. And then finally, 4) Jesus will bring peace on earth. The angels who announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds that first Christmas Eve also proclaimed the peace that Jesus would bring to our planet. We read in Luke 2: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’”

This is a peace that was prophesied back in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. We read this wonderful prophecy about Jesus back in Isaiah 2:4, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

Some people might ask, “How do we know Isaiah was talking about Jesus bringing peace and not just God in general?” Well, you flip forward a few chapters to Isaiah 9 and we find these words about who will ultimately bring peace on earth: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”

This is a clear prophecy about Jesus who was born as a child, who will be called Prince of Peace, and who will one day rule in peace over all the earth.

But it gets even better than that, because this peace on earth will not only bring an end to war among the nations. It will even extend to nature and the animal kingdom. We read in Isaiah 11:6-9, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”  Jesus truly is the Prince of Peace.

But it gets even better than that! Because the Bible tells us that Jesus will not only bring peace on earth but will bring peace to the whole universe and that he will reconcile all things to himself in heaven and on earth. We read in Colossians 1, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

I’d like to close with these thoughts. This verse in Colossians 1 brings us right back to where we started. The reason Jesus brings peace with God, peace with self, peace with others and peace on earth all goes back to the cross. Without the Jesus shedding his blood on the cross, there would be no peace. And without Jesus being born as a baby at Christmas, there would be no cross.

Do you have peace with God this morning? Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins so that you could be forgiven and restored to right relationship with God. If your faith is in Christ, then you have peace with God.

Do you have peace with your self this morning? If your faith is in Christ, then Jesus has not abandoned you but has come to live in you by his Holy Spirit. And he offers you his peace. In John 14:27 Jesus said, “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.”

Do you have peace with others this morning? If your faith is in Christ, then he has given you all the resources you need to do your part in living in peaceful relationships with those around you. And after you have done your part, you may ask Jesus in prayer to work in the other person’s heart that you may live in peace.

Do we have peace on earth this morning? Oh, how I wish we did! We do not have peace on earth yet, but we have the promise of peace on earth to come, and God has never yet broken a promise.

In Luke 2:14, the angels proclaimed to the shepherds that first Christmas Eve: “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men!” Those words of promise still ring in the air this Christmas season as we worship and adore the Lord Jesus, our Savior, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace.

Let us pray.

The Advent Candle of Hope

Matthew 1:22-23

Pastor Barry Kerner

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The Advent season comprises the four weeks before Christmas. It is an old tradition dating at least as far back as the 400’s when the early church observed a period of preparation leading up to Christmas.

Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. The word “Advent” means “to come,” and the Advent season focuses on remembering Christ’s first coming at Christmas and then also anticipating Christ’s second coming and soon return.

This Advent season we will be sharing a series of messages exploring the various themes represented by the five candles on the Advent Wreath. Although candles have been used in churches for a long time, the Advent Wreath is a fairly recent tradition in church history. The first Advent Wreath was invented by a German pastor back in 1839. He made it out of an old wheel cart he had lying around. It actually had twenty-eight candles – twenty-four small red candles around the rim interspersed with four larger white candles.

The pastor devised the wreath to satisfy the children at the mission school who would ask every day, “Is it Christmas yet?” And so they would light a new candle each day to help them count the days until Christmas. The larger candles were lit on Sundays and the smaller candles on the days in between.

As the tradition spread the smaller candles were discarded in favor of a wreath with just the four larger candles and a fifth candle in the center. Many families and churches continue to use some form of Advent Calendar to help count off the days until Christmas. The four outside candles are lit on each successive Sunday of Advent while the center candle is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. There are various interpretations of the candles but the most common scheme is where the first candle represents hope, the second candle peace, the third candle joy and the fourth candle love. The fifth and center candle, of course, represents Christ who should be the center of our lives.

Even though the Advent Wreath is a fairly new tradition in church history, these themes of hope, peace, joy and love stretch all the way back to the first Christmas and beyond. They are deeply rooted in Scripture, and so it is very appropriate that we take some time this Advent season to reflect on these various themes in light of Scripture and the Christmas story.

The first candle represents hope, and so today we will look at how hope in Christ relates to Advent and Christmas and to our own lives today. We will be looking at a variety of Scriptures throughout the message, but we will begin with this passage of hope fulfilled from Matthew 1 verses 22 and 23.

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

The first Advent candle represents hope. Hope is an important theme relating to Christmas, and especially relating to the Advent season leading up to Christmas. Our world is in desperate need of hope. Many people today live without hope or have given up hope. But Christ came at Christmas to bring you hope, and that is what we want to see in the Scriptures this morning.

We are going to look at three aspects of hope this morning relating to Christ and Christmas.

1) Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting.

2) Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. And

3) Hope in Christ does not disappoint.

First, Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting
  

First of all, hope in Christ gets you through the waiting. The Advent season is all about waiting. It’s a time when we remember the long period of waiting that preceded the first coming of Christ, and also a time when we reflect on our own season of waiting for the second coming of Christ.

That first period of waiting stretched all the way from Genesis to Matthew, from Adam and Eve to Joseph and Mary, from the Garden of Eden to the manger of Bethlehem.

The first signal of hope during that long period of waiting came shortly after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Adam and Eve both disobeyed this command from God, bringing death not only upon themselves but upon the entire human race to come.

When God appeared in the garden pronouncing judgment on the serpent, the woman and the man, all seemed bleak – except for a word of hope tucked away in God’s judgment upon the serpent. God told the serpent in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The serpent and his offspring represent Satan and all who follow in Satan’s path. The woman and her offspring represent Eve and all those who love and follow God. And indeed there has been enmity between Satan and those who follow God ever since the garden.

And yet even in this word of judgment there was a beacon of hope for the people of God. Because even though the woman’s offspring at first seems to represent many descendants of Eve, Genesis 3:15 focuses on one specific individual descended from Eve who will triumph over Satan and the evil he has brought on mankind. Satan will strike his heel, but this special individual will crush Satan’s head, bringing an end to Satan’s rule of misery over humanity.

These signals of hope in the form of prophecies continued throughout the Old Testament period. In Genesis 12:2-3 God called Abraham and promised him: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God fulfilled this promise by bringing the nation of Israel out of Abraham, and through the nation of Israel, God continued to give promises about this special individual who would bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Through the long years of waiting the prophecies became more and more specific focusing on the Messiah who would come as prophet, priest and king to rescue his people.

Around the year 700 B.C. we come to the prophet Isaiah who told the King of Judah in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  This was the clearest prophecy yet that the promised offspring would come and deliver his people.

There were still many centuries of waiting to come, but these prophecies and others like them continued to give the people hope. These were long and difficult days for the people of Israel, and yet their hope in the Messiah, the Christ to come, helped them through the waiting.

And it’s the same for us today. We all go through periods of waiting in our lives, and we need hope to get us through the waiting. Waiting is never easy, and whatever you are waiting on today, I want you to know there is hope in Christ. Whether you are waiting on God’s direction or a job offer or an answer to prayer or a response from someone you love – whatever you are waiting for this morning, there is hope in Christ, and the candle of hope reminds us that hope in Christ will get you through the waiting.

Second, Hope in Christ helps you go the distance
  

Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting, and hope in Christ helps you go the distance. An important part of the Christmas story has to do with the Magi who traveled to see Jesus some time after he was born. The Magi were pagan magicians or astrologers who studied the stars and interpreted dreams. We find early instances of Magi in the book of Exodus with Moses in Egypt and then again in the book of Daniel. We are not told how many Magi visited Jesus, but later traditions speak of either twelve or three.

We read about the Magi in Matthew 2: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and in Mathew 2:1-2 we find them asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

The Magi are important for a number of reasons. They were a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy which spoke about nations and kings coming to Zion to worship the Lord found in Isaiah 60:3. Their coming to Christ was a foreshadowing of the gospel going out to the Gentiles and far away nations found in Matthew 28:19. And, the gifts they brought for Christ were gifts fit for a king, befitting the birth of Jesus who is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

But what I want us to focus on this morning is the distance they came to see Christ. Matthew tells us that they came from the east, so they were most likely from Babylon or Persia. Either way they had to travel a great distance, perhaps as many as one thousand miles, over difficult and dangerous terrain in order to come and see Christ. What would prompt them to make such a journey?

And the answer once again comes back to hope. They asked Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

Now you might wonder how they would connect this star with the birth of the Messiah. As Magi they would have been very interested in stars and prophecies, and of course they would have access to the Old Testament Scriptures because of the Jews who had been exiled there centuries before. Perhaps they focused on the prophecy of Numbers 24:17 which said: “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”

This prophecy connected a star with a scepter or king of Israel.

But, however they knew, the star signaled to them that the Messiah – the Christ – had been born, and it was this hope in Christ that helped them go the distance to worship the newborn king in Israel.

It is hope in Christ that helps us go the distance in life, too. We all go through trials in life, and it’s easy to get discouraged. That’s when it’s so important to remember that God is with you, that God will help you, that God has a purpose for you in your trials, and most important of all, that eternal glory awaits you in heaven.

As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart…. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” How did Paul keep going when the going got tough? He had hope for the future, and hope in Christ helps you go the distance.

Third, Hope in Christ does not disappoint
  

1) Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting.

2) Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. And

3) Hope in Christ does not disappoint.

As Romans 5:5 tells us: “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

The Christmas story is full of shining examples of people who put their hope in Christ and were not disappointed. We have already looked at the Magi who traveled such a great distance to see Christ. Imagine if they went all that distance and Jesus wasn’t even there. That would have been disappointing! But their hope was not disappointed. They found Christ in Bethlehem, just as it had been prophesied.

There are so many other examples as well. Remember that prophecy from Isaiah about the virgin who would give birth to a son? That prophecy was fulfilled when the virgin Mary gave birth to Christ that first Christmas evening. We read in the gospel of Matthew: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:22-23)

How about Mary? Mary was told by the angel that she would give birth to the Savior. Every pregnancy is a time of waiting and expectation and hope, and in this respect Mary’s pregnancy was no different. And so we read in Luke 2:5-7, “[Joseph went to Bethlehem] to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Mary had hopes for that baby when the baby was born and she held that newborn infant in her arms and wrapped him in the cloths and laid him in the manger. Mary’s hope in Christ was not disappointed.

And then there is Simeon, a man from Jerusalem who was waiting for the Messiah to come. We read in Luke 2:25-32, “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 upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

God told Simeon he would see the Messiah before he died. And at the precise moment that Joseph and Mary were bringing Jesus into the temple, the Spirit moved Simeon to go into the temple, too. Simeon put his hope in Christ, and he was not disappointed.

And then there is the prophetess Anna. We read about her in Luke 2:36-38, “There was also a prophetess, Anna…. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Anna lost her husband probably when she was still young, and she lived many years as a widow, but she put all her hope in God, and her hope was not disappointed. She also saw Christ in the temple.

And then remember that Advent season is not just about those who waited for Christ’s first coming, It is also about us who wait for Christ’s second coming. When Christ returns he will banish all evil, he will make all things right, he will restore the earth, we will see Christ face to face, and all our hopes will be fulfilled.

As we read in Romans 8:23-25: “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

When you put your hope in Christ, you will not be disappointed. As Romans 10:11 says: “Anyone who trusts (puts their hope) in him will never be put to shame.”  If you put your trust in other things, they will disappoint you – whether you put your trust in people, or in possessions, or in future plans you have made – other things will disappoint you, but not Christ. Jesus will never disappoint you. Hope in Christ does not disappoint.

I’ll close with this thought: The Christmas season is a wonderful season for so many reasons, but one of the most important reasons is the hope that Christ brings to a lost world. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  That means he came to save you and to save me. Jesus was born into this world at Christmas so that he could grow to be a man and die on the cross for your sins and mine.

So if you are discouraged this morning – if you are tired of waiting, if you feel like giving up, if you’ve faced too many disappointments in life – then let me point you to Christ and the hope that is found in him alone.

Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting. Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. Hope in Christ does not disappoint. Put your hope in Christ today and every day.

Sunday Text Sermon for November 22 2020

Thanksgiving

The Puzzlement of Jesus

Luke 17:11-19

Pastor Barry Kerner

To visit a leper colony is a disquieting experience. Leprosy is a skin disease that begins with white splotches and then eats away at the flesh and into the bones until various parts of the body are so decayed that they fall off. If left unchecked, it eventually leads to a horrible and painful death. I made my first visit to a leper colony outside of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh used to be calls Saigon.  Several hundred people lived in this little community, isolated from the rest of the city. Almost everyone in the village suffered some disfigurement as a result of the dreaded disease. Some people were without hands, some without feet, some without ears, and some without a nose. While leprosy is rare in today’s world, it was common biblical times.

Leprosy has terrorized mankind since biblical times and was recorded as early as 600 BC in India, China, and Egypt. The phrase “leprosy” and semantic variants are mentioned 68 times in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the cases of leprosy likely involved a kind of infectious skin disease.

In biblical times, leprosy was viewed as a curse from God, often connected with sin. It was not a lethal disease, but neither did it seem to cease. Instead, it remained for years, causing the skin tissues to degenerate and disfiguring the body.

Let us read Luke 17:11-19

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

This is one of the most intriguing stories from the life and ministry of Jesus. It has to do with his healing of ten lepers. Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem when they passed through a village where they encountered ten men with leprosy. As Jesus approached scripture tells us that they “stood afar off” and cried out to him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

They stood far off because, according to Moses’ law, lepers were to be isolated from all social contacts. They were forbidden to come within six feet of a whole person; and, if the wind was blowing from their direction they were to stay fifty yards away. If a person unknowingly came too near them they were to shout a warning, “Unclean! Unclean!”

These men, mindful of the law of Moses, kept their distance and made their request known. Jesus gave an unusual response. He told them to go and show themselves to the priest. Once again, the law of Moses was specific. Before a person healed of leprosy could re-enter society they must submit to an examination by a priest and receive from him a health certificate saying they were cured.

Then they were free to return to their homes and a normal social life. In obedience to the Lord’s instructions these men turned to go to the priest. And, as they went, they were cleansed. This miracle, in contrast to most of Jesus’ healings, did not occur instantaneously. It came as they acted in obedience to his command.

One of them, who happened to be a Samaritan, turned back, fell at Jesus’ feet, and with a loud voice glorified God and gave thanks to Jesus for his healing.

Luke records the puzzlement of Jesus at this when he asks, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? None of those healed have returned to give glory to God except this one.” Then Jesus told the man to arise and go one his way because his faith had saved him. He had returned to thank the Lord for his physical healing and received something far greater in return — spiritual healing.

The failure of the other nine men to return and give thanks to God left Jesus perplexed. That they should take the blessings of God and never say “thank you” was unthinkable to him. He wanted to know where the others were. These ten lepers, I believe, are representative of most of us. And Jesus’ question, “Where are the nine?” is a question for all of us. We all have reason to be thankful to the Lord for his blessings and benefits. But, so few of us, perhaps no more than one in ten, take time to say “thank you” to him.

When we read this experience from the life of Jesus, most of us rather piously conclude that we would have been the one to return, giving thanks to God. But, taking a candid look at scripture we would probably have been one of the nine; so exuberant with the gift that we forgot the giver.

Someone has well said, “So far as thanksgiving is concerned the mass of people can be divided into two classes — those who take things for granted and those who take things with gratitude.”

The challenge of our Lord is that we keep an attitude of gratitude all our lives. Thanksgiving for the Christian should not be just one time a year during the season of Thanksgiving. It should be an attitude of the heart year round. To be thankful means that we admit that we have received more than we deserve. Gratitude comes from a sense of unworthiness.

As we think about the attitude of gratitude that should characterize all believers, I want us to use the acrostic, T-H-A-N-K-S, as a guide in our thinking about things for which we should be grateful. An acrostic is a word in which each letter represents another word. The use of the word T-H-A-N-K-S suggests six things for which we should be grateful.

T — Things

H — Helpers

A — Adversity

N — Now

K — Kindness

S — Salvation

First, we should be thankful for things. Things are not all important in life, but they are important. And, all of us, especially we Americans, have lots of things for which we should be grateful.

Years ago one of our astronauts described the planet earth from space as “an oasis in space.” If the earth is an oasis in space, the United States of America must be a paradise in a barren wasteland compared to the rest of the world.

It has been calculated that if you reduce the world’s population to a city of 1,000 inhabitants, 46 of those people would be Americans and the other 954 would represent the rest of the world’s population. Those 46 Americans would receive one half of the income of the city, and the other one-half would be divided among the remaining 954 people. The 46 Americans would have a life expectancy of 75 years, while the other 954 would live less than 40 years. The Americans would have 15 times as many possessions per person as all the rest of the people. And the Americans would eat 70 percent above the daily food requirements, while 80 percent of the rest of the people would never have what we call a good balanced meal.

The dogs and cats of American people have a better balanced diet than most people around the world. After a tour of the United States, a European was being interviewed on his impressions of our country. He had seen our gigantic cities with their skyscrapers towering into the heavens. He had inspected our great factories and seen their vast production. He had visited our great universities and seen our young people in the process of education. And when the reporter asked him what impressed him most he replied, “The size of the American garbage can.”

Our garbage cans have a tale to tell. The average American throws away ten times his average weight in rubbish every year. The average European throws away five times his weight. The average Israeli throws away about three and a half times his weight. But most of the rest of the people in the world don’t throw away anything. They need everything they have. They do not have the necessities of life much less the excesses of life. We do have lots of things. And we cannot contemplate the multitude of them without being keenly aware that we have much to give thanks for.

This was impressed upon me graphically years ago while in Vietnam to train childrens pastors. I was in a little church with plywood walls covered with black plastic, dirt floors, and a thatched roof, outside of the city of Saigon.

The preacher in the church was representative of his people. The only clothes he owned were those on his back. He had built his plywood hut with his own hands. He had none of the luxuries of life. The people sat on the floor of that little church while I sat on a crude homemade bench. The Vietnamese clapped in rhythm as they sang their favorite song, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning.”

They sang in their native tongue and I sang in English. In the middle of the song the pastor stopped the congregation, turned and looked at me, and, with a smile on his face said to his people, “Even our American brother can sing, ‘God provides.’” And I thought, “Of all the people on this earth who ought to be able to sing, ‘God provides,’ it ought to be the people of America.” That’s why Jesus’ question so probes our heart. Will we take for granted the things we have? Will we recognize God as the source of every good and perfect gift? Or will we take him and them for granted?

A tourist was watching some women in Mexico washing their clothes at a spot where hot and cold springs bubble side by side. They’d boil their garments in the hot springs and rinse them in the cold. The tourist said to his guide, “I suppose the people here think Mother Nature is generous to them, do they not?” “No, senor,” was the reply, “just the opposite. They are grumbling because she does not supply the soap.” The world does not owe you, or me, anything. It does not owe us a good job, perpetual good health, ample food, or a long life. These are blessings, not rights, that we can lay claim to.

John Steinbeck once wrote to Adlai Stevenson, “If I wanted to destroy a nation I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, and sick. That may be where America is right now.” We must not allow the tender plant of gratitude to go untended in our lives. We should thank God for things. We need to  give thanks for then every day

Second, we should be thankful for helpers. Someone has pointed out that every great character has had either a great friend, a great mother, a great wife, or a great teacher.

We have all had people who have helped us. And they have helped us in a thousand ways — by speaking words of encouragement, by their prayers, by gifts, by sending cards, and by calling. So important has been the contribution of people to my life that I can honestly say, “I am what I am by the grace of God and the goodness of people who have helped me.”

Several years ago I attended the funeral service of a friend Pastor Michael Lumberger. Prior to the  funeral service I reflected on the tremendous influence he had on my life. I remembered one of the last times we spoke. I had asked him where he had gotten his ordination. He pointed to heaven and said, “from God.” It struck me at that moment that  a calling is ordained from God not from man. I recalled also the many other times he had spoken into my life with words of wisdom and encouragement.

As the Christians in Corinth helped the apostle Paul through their prayers as found in 2 Corinthians 1:11, so he had helped me. It is help like that that has sustained me through life and for which I am grateful. I realize now I have not said “thank you” nearly enough to people who have helped me. And I’m determined not to make that mistake again.

So, when people do nice things for me, I try to make it a point to express my gratitude in writing. Sometimes they tell me in advance it is not necessary for me to write them. But I do it anyway. I am determined that gratitude will not die in me, and the only way to keep it alive is to express it.

I don’t want to be one of the nine that neglected to give thanks to Jesus.

Third, we should be thankful for adversity. Somebody has said, “Travel broadens you and troubles deepen you.” Given my choice, I will take travel. But, as unpleasant as it may be, adversity is good for us.

1. C. Penney, the great retailer, was once asked what the two greatest motivators were in his life. Without hesitation he said, “I can tell you in four words: Jesus Christ and adversity.” He went on to explain that adversity taught him never to give up, to always start over again, and to keep his faith strong.

Adversity in life is like temper in metal, it gives it strength. Metal that is tempered can be sharpened to an edge and made into a useful tool. There is no way to overcome adversity, no way around it. The only way out is through it. And when you go through it you discover that it is a hammer that beats out Christian character on the anvil of life. And, we discover, sometimes for the first time, God’s sustaining power.

Like Job, we don’t understand all of God’s ways, but even the Lord was not spared from suffering. I would not ask to go through a world without sorrow and suffering which increases sensitivity toward others and God. All of this is why we say with the apostle Paul that we glory in tribulation. We need to relish the moment we go through the fire.

Fourth, we should be thankful for now. We should not live our lives anchored to the past or apprehensive about the future. We should live them in appreciation and enjoyment of the present.

As Clovis Chappel said, “Today is all I need, all I can handle, and it may be all I have.” Time can’t be saved, only savored.

A long-time friend who was in fund raising said to me, “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at this job. No matter how much I do, it’s never enough. The pressure is just too great.” One week later the small plane in which he was traveling crashed and he was killed instantly. When he said that to me, neither of us would have believed he had only seven days left to live. Don’t wait until you’re sixty-five to do your thing. Do it now and be grateful for today.

Robert J. Hastings said this beautifully in a little essay he wrote entitled, “The Station.” He wrote, “Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We’re traveling by train. Out the window we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, or smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls. But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a complete jigsaw puzzle. How restless we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering, waiting, waiting, waiting for the station. “When we reach the station, that will be it!” We deceive ourselves by telling ourselves I’ll be there “When I’m eighteen!” “When I buy my new 450-SL Mercedes Benz!” “When I put the last kid through college!” “When I have paid off the mortgage!” “When I get a promotion!” “When I reach the age of retirement, I will live happily ever after.”

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us. “Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24 which tells us, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad, it’s the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today. So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough. Be Kind to Everyone

Fifth, we ought to be thankful for kindness. People have been unusually kind to me in life. Only occasionally has someone been rude, cruel, or ugly. Even when I have made mistakes, when I have failed in my duty, they have still been kind to me; and for that I am grateful.

I am reminded that very few people go through life without having at least one knock down punch — a divorce, a rebellious child, an alcoholic spouse, an untimely death, a financial reversal, or a career failure. When things like that happen to people we know we should be quick to throw ropes, not rocks.

Jeff Ray, a long-time teacher at Southwestern Seminary, used to say to his students, “Young men, be kind to everyone, because everyone is having a hard time.” I’ve tried to remember that. We need to pray like the young girl, “Dear Lord, make all the bad people good and all the good people kind.”

Sixth, we should give thanks for salvation. Through Christ, God has provided what we all need most in life — a savior.

As someone has said, “If our greatest need had been information . . . God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology . . . God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money . . . God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure . . . God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness . . . So God sent us a savior.”

When I think of where I came from, of who I ran with and what I was exposed to, I am driven to my knees in gratitude to God for his salvation. Without it I would be no different from the drug pusher, the alcoholic, or the hardened criminal. And, it was all of grace. None of merit.

The Bible says that our righteousness is “as filthy rags.” The word for “rags” in scripture represents the clothing worn by a leper. As I said earlier, lepers were outcasts, untouchables. So, my righteousness is like the disease ridden rags worn by an outcast.

But, God, through Jesus Christ, claimed me and cleansed me and clothed me in his righteousness. Jesus’ perplexity at these lepers is a challenge to us.

We must not become so enamored with the gift that we forget the giver. We must not concentrate more on the result than on the one responsible. As Israel approached the Promised Land Moses warned them, “When thou has eaten and are full, beware lest thou forget the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage and into this land” (Deuteronomy 6:12).

The Lord has been good and we should be grateful. So, this thanksgiving don’t forget to remember. As the psalmist said in Psalm 90:2, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.”.

Give Me This Mountain

Joshua 14:7-15

Pastor Barry Kerner

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson commissioned his secretary Meriweather Lewis to blaze a trail across the West. I’m not sure I’d have chosen a guy named is “Merry Weather”?

The weather was anything but merry.

But Lewis & Clark were two of the greatest explorers in history.

But when you read their journals, you realize they nearly died crossing the Rocky Mountains. At one point, they were so starved, their party ate 20 lbs of candles.

This morning I wonder what mountains you’re facing?

Fear of Covid? Fear of the economy crashing? Fear of losing your business? Or your job? Fear of the upcoming elections? The direction of our nation?

What mountain do you fear? Some mountains don’t look too intimidating from a distance.

8 or 9 months ago, many of us thought, “Surely by this time, Covid will decline and we’ll be getting back to how things used to be. Everything will be reopened. The economy will rebound. And kids will be back in school like normal.”

But now, the mountains are looming larger than ever right in front of us. Maybe they seems insurmountable.

But Jesus tells His disciples that every mountain is movable.

In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said, “ For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Does that sound crazy? A movable mountain?

As Christians we’re promised trials and tribulations. Sometime we have to tackle our mountains headlong.

Have you faced a mountain in your life and wondered if you would ever overcome it?

I receive great inspiration when I read the stories found in Book of Joshua. One of the main themes of Joshua is PROMISES.

Joshua 21:45 reminds us, “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. That reminds me of God’s PROMISES and His faithfulness.”

Joshua 24:15 tells us, “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, … But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” that reminds me of a choice  and a PROMISE I’ve made and that I have to remain faithful.”

We all face mountains in our lives and often its a struggle overcoming life’s mountains and remaining faithful to the PROMISE we made to GOD.

Right now, I’m facing the mountain of getting older. I see new gray hairs on my head and feeling aches in my body that I’ve never felt before.

It seems that I was 17 years-old just yesterday! And yet, I have a vision of aging well from the Bible.

Psalm 92 promises me that

“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

The story of Caleb in the Bible encourages me when I struggle to overcome the mountains and trials in my life.

Joshua 14:7-15

7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’10 “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country, this mountain that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” 13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.)

Then the land had rest from war.

You may recall that Caleb was one of the 12 men sent to spy out the Promised Land for Moses and report back on the conditions there.

When the men returned, 10 of the spies gave a bad report, stating all the reasons why they couldn’t conquer the land. However, Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit; they gave the people reasons why they could succeed. After all, they declared, “The Lord is with us.”

However, the people chose to believe the bad report. They disobeyed God and refused to go into the Promised Land. As a result, the Lord caused the people to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

Many name books / websites list the meaning of CALEB as “Dog” because it has a root meaning faithful. CALEB is actually a compound word in Hebrew – something that is quite common in ancient Hebrew. Col (Cuf + Lamed) = all or whole. Lev (Lamed + Vet) = heart. Therefore, CALEB (or COLEV as pronounced in Hebrew) actually means “whole hearted”.

On six separate occasions the Holy Spirit has recorded the fact that Caleb wholly followed the Lord. In a day when some who believed in God were content simply to follow, the Bible tells us that Caleb followed wholly, wholeheartedly

Numbers 14: 24 tells us, “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”

Numbers 32: 11-12 says,‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of those who were twenty years old or more when they came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob— 12 not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’

Deuteronomy 1: 36 reminds us who inherited the Promised land, “Except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”

 In Joshua 14: 8 Caleb is speaking and he says, “but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. “

In Joshua 14:9 is is said of Caleb,  So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’

and in Joshua 14:14 scriptures record, “So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. “

We are not called to be half-hearted Christians. Like Caleb, God’s desires us to wholehearted Christians-Once we accept Christ as our Savior we are to be ALL in at ALL times.

Even though Caleb had to go through the wilderness too, the Lord made him a promise found in Numbers 14:24, “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”

Caleb held on to the Lord’s promise for all those years. When they were complete had no problem speaking up. In Joshua 14:10-12, Caleb was able to stand before Joshua and declare boldly:

“And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said”

Don’t you just love that Caleb said, “give me this mountain” rather than hemming and hawing, “may I have this mountain, pretty please?”

Caleb knew what belonged to him and was willing to fight to get it.

I take away 3 things from Caleb’s story that help me to overcome mountains in my life. I pray that you will hold on to these as you face the mountains in your life.

1. BELIEVE GOD’S WORD Caleb held fast to God’s word that the land was his, even though it didn’t look like it.

While others saw only obstacles, Caleb saw the possibilities:

The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”

2. BE RESILIENT When I throw this ball down to a hard surface? What happens? It bounces back!

I am sure that Caleb experienced much disappointment when he was denied going into the Promised Land the first time – all because the other people refused to believe God and did not claim what was rightfully theirs.

Disappointment hurts. But it is a mark of Spiritual maturity when you don’t let disappointment stop you.

You accept it, you admit that it hurts, but you forge ahead anyway.

You know that quitting is the 100% way to failure.

When Caleb said, “Give me this mountain,” I see his statement in 2 ways:

• He was determined to get what belongs to him, no matter what
• He was willing to embrace and overcome whatever obstacles and setbacks stood in his way

Suffering is a part of life in this sin-filled world. We won’t truly be free of pain until we get to heaven.

Oh what a glorious day that will be! But in the meantime, God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is our Comforter and Guide.

He helps us grow stronger as we go through life’s trials.

3. BE WILLING TO FIGHT THE BATTLES Whenever you are trying to achieve something good in life, watch out!

There will be opposition.

The way to overcome is to keep the outcome for which you are believing firmly in your mind.

Proverbs 29:18 reminds us that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

You have to make God’s PROMISES bigger in your mind than any obstacle standing in the way.

Visualize those PROMISES several times a day and “see” it in your mind’s eye.

One of my favorite songs is Faithful Is Our God by Hezekiah Walker

Faithful, faithful, faithful is our God
Faithful, faithful, faithful is our God
I’m reaping the harvest God promised me
Take back what the devil stole from me
And I rejoice today, for I shall recover it all
Yes, I rejoice today, for I shall recover it all

We need to remember that our God is faithful to His promises. By the power of the Holy Spirit we can enter into the realm of Satan and reclaim all that he has taken from us.

Caleb held on to the vision that he would receive the land the Lord gave him.

He and His people were willing to fight the “giants” in the land to receive their inheritance.

He knew His enemies would not give up without a fight.

So he faced that reality, and he was willing to endure any “battle scars.” But he wasn’t willing to give up. We also need to stand on the Word of God and refuse to give in and give up.

As a result, this was Caleb’s prize as found in Joshua 14:13-14, ”Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.”

Caleb received his inheritance because he wholly followed God.

We receive our inheritance in the same way. By wholeheartedly following God!

We may get some bruises and scrapes along the way, but we remain determined to claim our mountain.

Just as in the natural, Spiritual mountains are not easy to climb. But once you get to the top, the view is spectacular!