What Kind of Child Is This?

Luke 1:59-80

The Jewish people have an identifying characteristic in their male children: circumcision.

God gave Abraham instruction about the circumcision of all the males of the tribes of the nation of Israel before the tribes or the nation existed. (Gen 17:10)

It is the way God operates. Well in advance.

God foresaw and foretold a day when it would be necessary for His people to stand out and apart from all the other peoples on the face of the earth. There would be a physical mark on God’s children which would exemplify God’s mark upon their heart. And when the men were so-marked the women were covered.

The tradition continues as the miracle son of Zacharias and Elizabeth is presented before the Lord to be circumcised.

It is quite normal to think - at the presentation of a newborn child - about what kind of child this will be and what will take place in this child’s life. Life is such a precious thing, and is of such value. There is such anticipation and joy surrounding a new life born.

How much more when the child is born to parents who are well past child-bearing age? How much more when the conception and birth of the child is announced to his father by the angel Gabriel in the Holy Place in the Temple at Jerusalem? How much more when the father is rendered deaf and dumb by his own expression of unbelief over what the angel Gabriel has told him? How much more when Elizabeth does in fact conceive and bear this promised child? How much more when his father is suddenly able to speak and to hear upon the pronouncement of the name of his child by faith according to what the angel Gabriel had declared?

What kind of child will this be? Now ALL were asking…

Has God not marked all this out well in advance? Has not God declared in Isaiah and Malachi what is about to happen? Is not God drawing profound undeniable attention to what is about to take place in Israel?

-Pastor Bill

The Mother of John’s Day

Luke 1:57-80

Consider Elizabeth.

We know she was a great woman in the eyes of the Lord. She was blameless, and she walked in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord. According to the words of the Holy Spirit authored by Luke, she was righteous. (Luke 1:6.)

Her character was of primary importance to God in His selection of Elizabeth to be the mother of the forerunner of His only begotten Son, Jesus, the Christ.

In a sense, as John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, Elizabeth was the forerunner of Mary. An example to her. An encourager of her.

While we all understand the importance of the role of Mary in the history of the world, and even for our salvation – Elizabeth’s role is very significant as well.

She was an example to Mary of how to endure the quiet pain of life. (The pain of others thinking you are less than what you appear to be.) As a barren woman, Elizabeth had borne the pain of not only being childless – when the Bible tells us her and her husband’s prayer had been for a child – but also of the thoughts of others that there MUST be a reason God had cursed her with barrenness. What was that reason? Surely there was unrighteousness in her life.

Mary would have to endure the turbulence of what others thought of her as well. Only she would bear the pain of the quiet assertions and assumptions of unwed motherhood – which is the only form of motherhood looked down upon by society.

Elizabeth’s example shows us not only her fitness for motherhood, but her fitness to be an example of quietly maintaining relationship and right-standing with her Lord no matter whether others thought her cursed of God or not. She knew in her heart of her love for God and God’s love for her. It had to be enough for her for many long decades, with no thought of any change to her condition – or how people thought of her.

This is a woman admirable to God in the content of her character, and it made her fit for the monumentally important responsibility of raising the forerunner of Jesus Christ on behalf of the whole world. A world that shuns those considered righteous by God.

-Pastor Bill

Seeing God’s Plan

Luke 1:39-59

When we encounter something greater than ourselves, we are often driven to share the experience we have had with someone else.

Now if we can even begin to imagine having a conversation with the angel Gabriel, perhaps we can also understand a need to share that experience with someone who has also had a conversation with the angel Gabriel.

This, I think, best explains Mary’s travel to visit her relative (probably her aunt) Elizabeth immediately upon hearing the news that she would be with Child of the Holy Spirit. The news is so great and so overwhelming she naturally seeks another one she knows can in some way relate to her experience with Gabriel. How wonderful Gabriel shared with Mary the news about Elizabeth also being miraculously pregnant. (News she could not possibly have known had Gabriel not shared it with her.)

Now that Mary IS pregnant with Child by the Holy Spirit, she escapes to the security of those who will be inclined to believe along with her for the plan of God.

Sometimes it is of great comfort to not only hear from God ourselves, but also to find refuge in those who have likewise heard.

And Elizabeth and Zacharias are SUCH encouraging witnesses to Mary for God’s plan. How can this be? They all seemed to have the answer to their questions together, and Elizabeth’s divine sense of encouragement from the Lord played a very important part in the understanding and excitement for God’s plan that strengthened Mary for our eternal life story – and for hers.

I can imagine Mary approaching Zacharias’ and Elizabeth’s house, wondering all along the way about how to explain the news she has heard from Gabriel and how she is now pregnant even though she has never known a man. Do you think she was nervous or fearful of attempting to explain this news to them?

Imagine her joy upon arrival of finding Elizabeth already knows, the baby she is carrying in her womb knows, and Zacharias knows. This IS God’s plan, and it is marvelous to see!

-Pastor Bill

Let It Be

Luke 1:26-56

Now that God has spoken to Zacharias at Jerusalem by the angel Gabriel, His 400 year silence has been broken. God is once again speaking to His people.

But only Zacharias knows this, and he is presently mute, so no one else knows what Zacharias knows. (Save for Elizabeth, his wife.)

Six months into the miraculous pregnancy of John the Baptist, God speaks again, for from Jerusalem, at Nazareth.

Mary’s story is quite fascinating. Again God has searched and found one whose heart is loyal to Him, in whom He may prove Himself strong. In Mary? Basically a young peasant girl growing up in a backwater town of no reputation for greatness.

Wouldn’t the mother of the long-promised Messiah be the most famous, the most special, THE most glorious of all women who ever lived in the nation of Israel? Hadn’t every girl who ever grew up in Israel longed to become the mother of the Messiah?

Who would ever consider Mary to be so favored of God? The answer: God Himself.

Consider Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, (which in essence explains ALL of what God has planned for her,) “Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.”

Of all the women who have ever lived in Israel, or in the history of the world, God has singled out Mary to carry His only begotten Son through pregnancy, and to birth Him and raise Him in this hostile world. Think about THAT role for a moment, and allow the sense of THAT responsibility settle on your shoulders...

Of THIS role Gabriel commands Mary to rejoice! Of course Mary was concerned at this news. Of course Mary was troubled over the possibility of the all the weight of this report. Of course Mary knew that she had never known a man. But, because she IS the Mary God has known from eternity past, her response to Gabriel, (and to God,) is, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

-Pastor Bill

How Shall I Know This?

Luke 1:1-25

God is a great communicator – but He hasn’t spoken to His people for 400 years.

For 400 years, God has been mute. Silent. Quiet.

Imagine living 400 years with hearing from God, without knowing His will for the nation, or for your life. 400 years would be at least 40 generations, (and that’s assuming 100 years as a generation.) (Gen 15:13-16.)

The reason God has been silent is because Israel has been ignorant. God will not continue to speak to a people that ignores what He has to say. During the last 400 years, since the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, God has let the people speak to themselves rather than Himself.

And they have. They have become VERY wise in their own eyes. Having FINALLY left idolatry behind, they have embarked on a new path of priestly direction which has seen the emergence of a ruling class of Sadducees and Pharisees and Scribes. By their accumulated ‘wisdom’ from their study of the oral traditions the people have been ruled. They have seen themselves conquered and ruled by the Greeks, under Alexander and through Antiochus Epiphanes, and they have successfully revolted, led by a passionate band of rabbis known of as the Maccabeans from 167 – 160BC, which was followed by the Hasmonean and then the Herodian dynasties under Rome. During this last century AD came the rise of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews, the repository of all knowledge. Through all of this God remained silent. The High Priest of the Jews was now appointed by Rome, not God.

(It is interesting to remember Israel had been in exile in Egypt 400 years, isn’t it?)

Now God speaks. Who does He speak through, and who does He speak to?

God speaks through an angel, (Gabriel,) to a humble priest experiencing the greatest day of his life – having been selected by lot to burn incense in the Holy Place in the Temple. All his life Zacharias had waited for a moment like this. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity most priests never experienced. Then God made the opportunity even greater by breaking His silence.

-Pastor Bill

Was It Worth It?

Mark 16

When you think of everything Jesus went through in His crucifixion – you are left with the question: Was it worth it?

All of the degradation, all of the brutality, all of the shameful scorn and torture, could anyone say – especially now that He is dead – that what He had accomplished in His ministry was worth what He had to go through in His death?

I suppose you could ask the man with the withered hand. Was the healing of your hand worth the suffering Jesus went through? Perhaps you could ask the Centurian’s servant. Was your healing from near-death worthy of Jesus’ coming?

To the widow at Nain, or the demon-possessed man at Gadara: Was what Jesus experienced on the cross worth it to you that your son may be raised from the dead, or that the demons may be driven from your body?

For the disciples, can you imagine how they must have wondered if it had been worth it all? Giving up their whole lives, family, friends, work – everything – to follow this wonderful man of God Who was God, (in their eyes and hearts?) Now He was dead. And not just dead, but shamed in death. Degraded in death. Humiliated in death to such an extent it must have also humiliated His followers. Could it be they were ashamed of His death as much as they were horrified by it?

Was it worth this to be a follower of Christ?

What could be done about His humiliation but to anoint His body, which had lain in a borrowed tomb covered by a burial cloth – one final humiliation, (though done lovingly so.)

But now imagine finding the massive stone rolled away…and an empty tomb…and the sight of the angel…and the statement: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. Go and tell His disciples.”

Your head spins at the news…which is quite overwhelming…and as you head back down the path walking slowly at first…and now running, suddenly it dawns on you as it has dawned on every single person who has seen the risen Christ. Yes! Yes! It was worth it all!

-Pastor Bill

Divine Entry

Mark 11

There is such a conflict going on when Jesus presents Himself to enter the heart of man.

Will I continue in the ways I have always known – or will I allow a new and refreshing way of life to begin?

Why the turmoil as Jesus enters Jerusalem on the Sunday prior to the Passover, the grand celebration of God rescuing the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt? How had God rescued His people from Egypt? Strangely enough, it had been by the sacrifice of a perfect lamb by each household, and by the application of the blood of that slaughtered lamb to the doorposts and lentil of each house that chose to follow God’s instruction.

How did that work? Well, all we can say for sure is it worked by faith in God’s Word. For every house marked with blood was “passed over” by God’s death angel. In every house that was not so-marked the death of the first-born in that household took place. This provided the final impetus for the pharaoh to expel the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, and into freedom – eventually resulting in their entering the Promised Land.

The same pattern is repeated every time Jesus, The Lamb of God, approaches the heart of man seeking Divine Entry. What had been collective in type is individual in acceptance. Even in the typology employed in God’s Passover, it was the individual heart being impacted rather than a nation. That so many individual hearts were impacted to obedience brought about the creation of the nation of God’s people.

It is the same with the church of God. We look at the church and we see buildings and religious practice, and we are inclined to think of the collective rather than the individual. But Jesus has taught us the temple of God resides in the heart of man – and in truth it has always been this way. The question is: What will you allow God to do in you? How much of yourself will you allow God to possess?

This is the picture played out for us by Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, just four days prior to the very Passover upon which He will be offered as a sacrifice for our sins. Will you apply His blood to the doorposts of your heart that death may pass over? Will you allow His Divine Entry?

-Pastor Bill