Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Recovery and Preaching
Todd Love Recovery
Doomsday Outreach Results
The Henley’s leaving
Tina's job search
Shelby's Aunt
Musical Yesterday and Today
Car Accident - Taylor
Relatives and Friends Traveling
Text – Philippians 2:1-11
Last week we looked at a topical lesson on Christmas. This week we’re going to look at an expositional lesson on how Christ’s birth (& life and death) calls us to live. We’re going to be in Philippians 2; we need to know some things about this letter before we fully understand the passage.
Who wrote Philippians? The Apostle Paul. Does anybody know where he was when he wrote Philippians? He was in prison, in Rome. Any guesses as to what his punishment may be for saying that Caesar is not God, will it be light or harsh? Paul very much expects to die in Rome for his claim that Christ is God and Caesar is not.
This letter was written near the end of his life, he’s been beaten, persecuted, hated, betrayed, and rejected for thirty years now, all for the sake of Jesus Christ, but he still loves Jesus and the church. This ought to be your first lesson, that a genuine saving faith perseveres to the end and thrives in persecution, I want to read two important verses which start and finish this thought.
Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Paul rejoiced in his sufferings, and he was able to do so because just as Christ suffered for him, he had suffered for the gospel; he is able to tell us that everything outside of Christ is the equivalent of garbage and that we set our affections on Christ and Heaven and this will produce in us fruitful and Christ-honoring lives. He wants us to live lives with Christ as our example, and that is what chapter 2 of Philippians charges us to do.
Philippians 2:1-11 if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is one of my favorite passages in scripture, it has such a humble beginning, such a perfect example, and such an amazing application that it should rock your world, it should leave you with no option but to do what it says; let’s see if this Christmas passage can do exactly what Paul hopes for it to do in the audience at Philippi.
v.1 if there is any encouragement in Christ,
If Christ’s life and sacrifice encourages us to live godly lives,
v.1 (if there is) any comfort from love,
If the great love by which Christ loved us and gave himself for us comforts us, driving out all fear,
v.1 (if there is) any participation in the Spirit,
If the Spirit dwells in you and leads you, he who is our helper and promise of Heaven and glorification, who grows in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control,
v.1 (if there is) any affection and sympathy,
If there is any love in the church and empathy towards weakness and hope of sanctification, then verse 2:
v.2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
If Christ and the Holy Spirit are true, and Paul knows from experience and scripture that they are, then he calls for the church to rally around Christ’s perfection, to abound in love, and to set their goals on glorifying Christ, preaching the Word, and seeing souls saved and discipled.
This introduction calls us to look at the great promises of love and hope that Christ has given us through his death and resurrection, and then calls us to live these out. Since Christ loved us and gave his life for us, we’re called to the same for his church. Christ doesn’t need our good works, but beloved, our friends and our neighbors do!
1 John 2:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
And this of course is not just in death, but also in life. For many people say they would die for their children or friends, but beloved, they don’t need you to die for them, they need you to live for them. The next verses tell us how to do so:
vv.3,4 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit; look not only to [your] own interests
Paul was facing a new type of false-teacher at this point in his ministry. Certain people were preaching the gospel for the sake of trying to rub it in Paul’s face that he wasn’t able to go where he wanted or preach freely because he was in prison. They wanted to be seen as super-apostles and be exalted for their preaching. It was a strange way to try to insult him, but we see in this that it is more than possible to do everything from the wrong motives, even preach the gospel.
Let’s let this be our next application, that it is possible to preach the gospel from a wrong motive, to share Christ and him crucified for the forgiveness of sins only because your pastors tell you to, or because you want to earn favor with God by sharing the gospel, or because you only want to be blessed or for others to think you’re a super-Christian for doing it. Will you receive blessings for sharing the gospel? Absolutely, it is more blessed to give than to receive, but we ought to share the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation, and because just as Christ loved us first, now we love others with the great love by which he loved us, not just to get things.
Philemon 6 I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
At Christmas we see presents given, and this can be very good, or very bad. If you only give gifts so you get presents, or only get presents and that’s all Christmas is to you, then you’re doing it wrong and you need to repent.
Proverbs 30:15 The leech has two daughters: Give and Give.
What is a leech? It’s a bloodsucking little bug, or it’s a person who only takes and never gives and is hugely greedy and lustful and covetous. It says that sort of person basically only has two offspring, twins, that just say, “Give and Give” all the time. They’re like those sea-gulls on Finding Nemo that say, “Mine, Mine, Mine” all the time. The Bible speaks disparagingly of people like that.
So how do we not be those people?
vv.3-4 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
We count others as more significant that ourselves, looking after the interests of others. How can we do that? Paul here is speaking of sin and godliness and worth, not of learning or gifts. For example, Jimmy shouldn’t esteem me as a better musician than himself and let me sing this morning, neither should Leon count one of the sixth graders as better at Greek than himself, or anybody count Tyler as a better driver than them.
But we shouldn’t look at anybody and say, “They are such a sinner, or such a poor Christian, and I myself am so much more deserving of spiritual blessings and honor than them.” No, we ought to always consider others as more significant and more graceful than ourselves, not abandoning them for their sin, but looking after them and loving them as though they were ourselves. Let’s see if Paul follows through with this,
1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Ephesians 3:8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Beloved, I am the chief of sinners, but I have become the least of saints. We all ought to say as much, knowing our own hearts better than anyone else and being amazed that Christ would die to save sinners such as us anyways.
Now we’ve looked at the fact that we should live lives of love and holiness, esteeming others as worth more than ourselves, now we’ll look at our great example:
v.5-7 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Christ is our greatest example, he has replaced our sinful hearts which cared only for ourselves, and given us a heart that seeks after godliness that loves others, one just like his. For though he certainly was worth more than all of his creation combined, he did not make that excuse not to come. He made himself nothing, he emptied himself of any pride (which he had every right to have), and took on the body of a man, even a body with no majesty or beauty, being born into abject poverty, and was born not as a prince in a palace, but as a pauper in a stable. Instead of being laid in a golden crib, he was laid in a wooden feeding trough.
2 Corinthians 8:9 You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Christmas time is a great reminder of the humility we are called to for the sake of Christ, that even if we are the greatest king, wisest counselor, most talented painter or architect, that we must empty ourselves of all pride to realize the will of God. Let me boast briefly in Jesus Christ; I haven’t done nearly so much homeless ministry as I probably should, but I’ve done a decent amount. Beloved, in all reality these men and women have made very poor choices in their lives, loved their sin to the point that it has destroyed them, become addicted to all sorts of drugs and alcohol, and rejected all sorts of offers of help. In all reality the world would tell me that I have no business or call to help them, but truthfully Jesus Christ found me in a very similar spiritual state, that if it weren’t for the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, his restraining grace, then any one of us could quickly and easily end up in the receiving line of the homeless ministry rather than the serving line. When I leave those places, drenched in an indescribable odor, it reminds me of my sinful, yet redeemed, state.
If you feel you are of a certain estate above that of your classmates and/or other sinners, or that you are a great saint among lesser saints, then beloved, I encourage you to meditate on the statement of John Bradford, who said so beautifully, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Christ’s emptying of himself culminated in his death on the cross, which is Paul’s next point:
v.8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I can’t say this any better than Paul says it in Romans, it is utterly amazing the humility Christ showed in dying, not to save good people who were afflicted or righteous people who were in peril, for the well have no need of a physician, but dying for the sick and sinful, for the Son of Man come to seek and save the lost.
Romans 5:7-8 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And not only did Christ die for a people who didn’t ask for it, could never repay him, and would constantly need chastening, but he did so by dying on a cross. Beloved, this is the most heinous of execution methods, it was specifically formulated to take days to die on, to cause agony at every opportunity, to be utterly humiliating. And yet Christ endured it, forsaken by men and God, so that we who are in Christ will never face such hellish pain, shame, and abandonment.
Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
And this calls us to hate sin and love Christ, one of my favorite verses, and I bet some of your favorite verses is in Hebrews 12:
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
We see two things that pertain to us especially in this passage, but I wanted to read the whole thing. First of all, it says he despised the shame. He hated the spitting and the pulling out of his beard, that no-one recognized him as the King of the Universe, that they crucified him because he claimed to be God. But beloved, this was due to show that he is a gracious Creator, an impeccable Man, and a perfect Saviour.
The next thing I want you to see is where it says that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Christ was laying down his life for many reasons, to save his saints, to defeat the devil, to crush death underfoot in his resurrection, but the main reason he endured the cross was for the joy of accomplishing his Father’s will, for proving that his Father is both the perfect Judge and the Loving God, that he will not overlook sin, but is also gracious to provide a substitute. This is where Philippians 2:1-11 wraps up.
v.9-11 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
For his obedience and humility Christ has received a glorious reward, the name that is above every name. That on that final day, both sinners and saints will cease their sinning and fall to their knees in recognition that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour, that he was dead but he is yet alive, that he is holy sinless and undefiled, that he is Lord of all.
It is amazing where is says these things will happen, both in Heaven, and on earth, and under the earth: Hell. Beloved, on that final day Christ will receive all honor and power and glory, and he will receive it willingly from those who bow in submission and love for him, or he will receive it by force as those who will not bow willingly are put on their faces by innumerable angels.
If we have this mind in ourselves, counting others as worth more than ourselves, pouring out our pride and esteeming our neighbor as in great need of salvation, living for them, dying for them if need be, then we have such a great promise that just as Christ has been elevated, so too will be elevated, for God exalts the humble, but he casts the prideful to the ground.
2 Corinthians 10:17-18 "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
And Paul concludes this thought in Philippians calling us to work out our salvation, making sure we’re trusting in Christ’s finished work in his death and resurrection, not trusting in our deeds, knowing that anything we do that is good has been worked in us from God. Let us do these things more and more throughout our lives, starting just as Jesus did, at Christmas.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
December 12th - A Survey of Christmas History
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Recovery and Preaching
Todd Love Recovery
Doomsday Outreach (December 17th!)
The Head family in the loss of Phyllis
Charles Wilder last few weeks
The Henley’s leaving
K.Sharpe's root canal
Friend of the Sharpes - Car Accident
Shelby's Aunt and Song
Kids Christmas tonight
Text – Various Christmas
I started to give you a history of Christmas, a look at dates and stuff and beloved I’ll tell you the truth, it bored me to death. It made me almost hate Christmas…there is so much drama and bickering and legalism surrounding this holiday that by the time I was finished researching I just wanted to throw my hands in the air and quit Christmas forever. But then I remembered that I really like Christmas, so I started over and looked at it rather at the lessons we can learn instead of just a survey of the history.
First of all, Christmas is not a celebration in the New Testament. In fact, the only festival we are told to celebrate is Passover. Why would we celebrate Passover? What’s another name for Passover? Easter. We celebrate because it was the day our Saviour died, the day our sin was atoned for; and we are able to celebrate it because Christ defeated death afterwards.
So because Christmas is not a celebration in the New Testament, does that mean we now can’t celebrate Christmas? No, quite the contrary,
Romans 14:5-6 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.
The New Testament tells us to know why we’re doing things, and the why is to honor Christ in our celebration. Therefore Christmas can be very sinful or very good, it’s going to be our goal today to make it very good. Now, I don’t know of any Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas, but if you ever run into one that doesn’t, the same rule applies to them. For example, Lutherans celebrate Ephiphany on January 6th, if they know why they are doing it and they’re doing it for the right reasons, then great, but it seems many do it just because they’ve always done it.
So, Christmas, first of all, check out the date, December 25th. We really don’t know when Jesus was born, and for two centuries the church didn’t write about it. Around the time of Jesus’ birth, it was thought very arrogant to celebrate your birthday and so most people didn’t do it, so it seems they didn’t even consider it until about ~AD200. It has seemed to be pretty universally accepted that Christ was conceived in March, so add 9 months to March and get December, so I really have no problem saying that December 25th is as good a guess as any. Our Romans verse says one day is as good as another, as long as we observe it in honor of the Lord.
Other dates range all over December and into January, and some are all over the calendar. Let’s stick to December 25th. Recently is has been popular to say that the church chose this date to combat pagan celebrations. The earliest date we have saying that the church did things like that is in the 600’s, and not for Christmas, but for “saint’s days” which really aren’t Christian anyways. It wasn’t until the 1200’s that anyone even mentioned that maybe the 25th was selected to do away with pagan holidays. I believe the 25th was chosen for veracity and not polemics.
It is only a recent thing that our calendars are uniform in different cultures, and on the Roman Julian Calendar, the Winter Solstice was on December 25th, where-as on the Gregorian Calendar we use today, the Solstice is when? December 21st or 22nd, this year it is as midnight on the 21st.
So Jesus was born according to this good guess, on the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. Many Christian leaders in the third and fourth century saw this as theologically important, and saw a direct parallel to Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, that Christ, though crucified and killed, defeated death and lives forever more.
The first celebrations of Christ’s birth started in the early 200’s, December 25th was the generally agreed upon date by 274, and by the early 300’s it was the official date.
Let’s look at some people who celebrated Christ’s birth. First is the wise men who visited Christ soon after his birth,
Matthew 2:11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
These were likely Persians, Magi and Zoroastrians, remembering the prophesy of Daniel some 600 years earlier, seeking the God of Daniel. They give gifts to this King, any idea why they chose these three gifts? What could gold represent? Wealth? How about frankincense? It’s in the name, frank-incense; incense frequently represents prayer and worship. And Myrr? Literally this word can mean suffering, and it’s a spice and preservative that is used both in cooking and in burial. So these wise men did a very wise thing, they gave to the King Christ all of their possessions, worship, and sin and suffering; let us do likewise.
Gifts during Christmas have been a highly debated idea. During the dark-ages gift giving was forbidden, it wasn’t until the early 1800’s when it became really popular. Again, you must do everything you do with the right motives, if Christmas just means getting presents, then you’re doing it wrong and you need to repent.
When Christmas was becoming a popular idea, so was a great heresy by a dude named Arius. This guy was a punk, he claimed Jesus was just the Son of God, not actually God. In AD 323 there was a council called to discussed this, they met in Nicaea in Turkey. Arius preached his false jesus and claimed he was true, the bishop of Myra was so incensed that he rose, approached Arius, and walloped him. The bishops name was Nicolas, and later the Catholic Church officially sainted him, though every true Christian is a saint, and today we know him as Saint Nicolas. By all accounts he was a very loving man with a great desire to spread the gospel and give of himself and out of his abundance.
In German his name is SinterNicholaus, or shortened to SinterKlaus. Martin Luther didn’t like devoting a day to a man, so made efforts on Christmas to celebrate Kristkindle, the Christ Child, but through some weird language error Kriskringle became just another name for Santa Claus.
Even though Arius was officially labeled a heretic, his teaching continued to grow in small groups, and a man named Ambrose in the mid to late 300’s wrote a beautiful Christmas hymn to celebrate Christ as the God who was born as a man; largely to combat Arianism.
O come, Redeemer of the earth,
and manifest thy virgin-birth.
Let every age in wonder fall:
such birth befits the God of all.
Begotten of no human will
but of the Spirit, Thou art still
the Word of God in flesh arrayed,
the promised fruit to man displayed.
All praise, eternal Son, to Thee,
whose advent sets Thy people free,
whom, with the Father, we adore,
and Holy Ghost, for evermore.
In the 700’s a man named Boniface went to Germany as a missionary. Germany at this time was totally pagan, worshipping nature and the gods Thor and Odin. Boniface just so happened in his first visit to find the center of Thor worship, and an oak tree dedicated to him. Boniface announced to the town that he was going to cut their god down, that if Thor was God, he should stop him, but if Christ was God, the tree would fall. The whole town turned out to watch, waiting for Thor, the god of thunder, to strike Boniface down. Legend tells that something supernatural happened and the tree fell. Whether it was totally Boniface cutting it down, or God’s interceding as well, the tree fell, and Boniface preached Christ from the stump, and the first church in Germany was built out of that tree.
A few years later Boniface was in another part of Germany and a young boy ran to find him, crying, “Boniface, Boniface, they’re going to sacrifice my sister!” Boniface leaped to his feat, asking the boy to lead him to his sister. The boy led him into a specially prepared thicket of trees, an altar to Odin and nature, and the 15 year old girl on an altar with a priest hovering over her with a knife ready to cut her heart out in sacrifice. With no time for negotiation, Boniface shoved the priest into the nearest tree, knocking him out cold. He helped the girl off the altar, then climbed up himself in order to preach to the astonished crowd. He proclaimed, “Why are you sacrificing?! Do you not know that Christ was sacrificed once for all, the just for the unjust? These trees are not your brothers, they are not your sisters, they are not your mothers! They are trees! Cut them down and warm your homes with them, homes that at the center should be the Lord Jesus Christ.” And that they did, they cut down this forest cathedral and burned the logs; and from here we get the Yule Log tradition which has been celebrated on and off ever since.
The early Yule Tide festival seems to be the equivalent to a Christmas Celebration; some try to say that Yule predates Christianity in Germany, but there is no evidence of that. Have you ever watched a Yule Log on TV? In 1966 a television station in New York put it on during prime time for three hours. Until 1989 it was commonplace, then was canceled until 2001. In 2001 it was the most watched program on Christmas Day.
The term Christmaesse, or Christ Festival, wasn’t used until 1038, prior to that it had names like Nativity, Navidad, Advent, and Noel, all basically meaning birth or coming.
In the 1500’s the Christmas tree became more popular. The origins are obscured in mystery. Some say that Boniface rejected the oak and pointed to the evergreen tree as representing eternal life. There is no clear teaching on this, and it may be that it was best to cut the tree in remembrance that the tree is not god. If trees had souls, could we say that fir is murder?
There was definitely a similar thing going on 600 years before Christ, though this practice was definitely connected with some idea that that tree had some magical or mystical powers, something I don’t believe anyone thinks the Christmas tree has.
Jeremiah 10:2-5 Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
So look at this, the Christmas tree can be very bad, or if used rightly it can be very good. Again, your motive drives everything. If you remember that your tree is a creation of God, that it is useful to decorate and warm your home, that it has no power to bless you, that it doesn’t draw you closer to nature, then it can be used for good. People that don’t know why they have a tree I believe are in just as much danger as those who thought their tree was god.
By the mid-1700’s the Americans were rejecting Christmas as a British holiday. You’ll remember that on Christmas 1776 George Washington crossed the Delaware and captured a whole Hessian regiment in Trenton? We make a big deal that it was Christmas, but the Americans wouldn’t have been celebrating anyways if they hadn’t known that the Hessians, Germans, would be drunk and unprepared for an attack.
Interest in Christmas continued to wane and by the early and mid 1800’s it was feared that it might vanish altogether. Efforts were put in place to revive it. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 to focus on the spirit of Christmas, utterly leaving Christ out of the holiday and overemphasizing family and presents. It was from this book that the phrase “Merry Christmas” became popular.
From 1832-48 the Christmas tree became more popular, overemphasized by Queen Victoria of England. By the 1850’s people were complaining that Christmas had become a shopping spree and that Christ was forgotten.
By 1860 Christmas was a legal holiday in most states, and in 1870 it was officially recognized as a federal holiday.
As Christmas became a secular event with presents, Jews feared their children being lured into Christianity merely for the presents, and in the late 1800’s Hanukah, a good and pure festival in the New Testament, was subjected to the same commercial fate as Christmas.
A song that I particularly like sums up why we should really be celebrating Christmas, it is by Sovereign Grace Music, and it’s called Son of God Came Down:
The Son of God came down and laid aside His crown
Born without great renown, this Sovereign One
All holiness and might, all glory shining bright
Have come to earth this night in Mary’s son
O come, let us adore
O Christ the Lord, our hope and Savior
Son of God yet made like us
O Christ the Lord, our King adored
Born a child, our Lord Jesus
Messiah born so small, asleep in cattle stall
Come to redeem our fall, nailed to a tree
This tiny, helpless child
Through death would reconcile
The holy God and vile, His grace so free
O come, let us adore
Pastor Aaron Recovery and Preaching
Todd Love Recovery
Doomsday Outreach (December 17th!)
The Head family in the loss of Phyllis
Charles Wilder last few weeks
The Henley’s leaving
K.Sharpe's root canal
Friend of the Sharpes - Car Accident
Shelby's Aunt and Song
Kids Christmas tonight
Text – Various Christmas
I started to give you a history of Christmas, a look at dates and stuff and beloved I’ll tell you the truth, it bored me to death. It made me almost hate Christmas…there is so much drama and bickering and legalism surrounding this holiday that by the time I was finished researching I just wanted to throw my hands in the air and quit Christmas forever. But then I remembered that I really like Christmas, so I started over and looked at it rather at the lessons we can learn instead of just a survey of the history.
First of all, Christmas is not a celebration in the New Testament. In fact, the only festival we are told to celebrate is Passover. Why would we celebrate Passover? What’s another name for Passover? Easter. We celebrate because it was the day our Saviour died, the day our sin was atoned for; and we are able to celebrate it because Christ defeated death afterwards.
So because Christmas is not a celebration in the New Testament, does that mean we now can’t celebrate Christmas? No, quite the contrary,
Romans 14:5-6 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.
The New Testament tells us to know why we’re doing things, and the why is to honor Christ in our celebration. Therefore Christmas can be very sinful or very good, it’s going to be our goal today to make it very good. Now, I don’t know of any Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas, but if you ever run into one that doesn’t, the same rule applies to them. For example, Lutherans celebrate Ephiphany on January 6th, if they know why they are doing it and they’re doing it for the right reasons, then great, but it seems many do it just because they’ve always done it.
So, Christmas, first of all, check out the date, December 25th. We really don’t know when Jesus was born, and for two centuries the church didn’t write about it. Around the time of Jesus’ birth, it was thought very arrogant to celebrate your birthday and so most people didn’t do it, so it seems they didn’t even consider it until about ~AD200. It has seemed to be pretty universally accepted that Christ was conceived in March, so add 9 months to March and get December, so I really have no problem saying that December 25th is as good a guess as any. Our Romans verse says one day is as good as another, as long as we observe it in honor of the Lord.
Other dates range all over December and into January, and some are all over the calendar. Let’s stick to December 25th. Recently is has been popular to say that the church chose this date to combat pagan celebrations. The earliest date we have saying that the church did things like that is in the 600’s, and not for Christmas, but for “saint’s days” which really aren’t Christian anyways. It wasn’t until the 1200’s that anyone even mentioned that maybe the 25th was selected to do away with pagan holidays. I believe the 25th was chosen for veracity and not polemics.
It is only a recent thing that our calendars are uniform in different cultures, and on the Roman Julian Calendar, the Winter Solstice was on December 25th, where-as on the Gregorian Calendar we use today, the Solstice is when? December 21st or 22nd, this year it is as midnight on the 21st.
So Jesus was born according to this good guess, on the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. Many Christian leaders in the third and fourth century saw this as theologically important, and saw a direct parallel to Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, that Christ, though crucified and killed, defeated death and lives forever more.
The first celebrations of Christ’s birth started in the early 200’s, December 25th was the generally agreed upon date by 274, and by the early 300’s it was the official date.
Let’s look at some people who celebrated Christ’s birth. First is the wise men who visited Christ soon after his birth,
Matthew 2:11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
These were likely Persians, Magi and Zoroastrians, remembering the prophesy of Daniel some 600 years earlier, seeking the God of Daniel. They give gifts to this King, any idea why they chose these three gifts? What could gold represent? Wealth? How about frankincense? It’s in the name, frank-incense; incense frequently represents prayer and worship. And Myrr? Literally this word can mean suffering, and it’s a spice and preservative that is used both in cooking and in burial. So these wise men did a very wise thing, they gave to the King Christ all of their possessions, worship, and sin and suffering; let us do likewise.
Gifts during Christmas have been a highly debated idea. During the dark-ages gift giving was forbidden, it wasn’t until the early 1800’s when it became really popular. Again, you must do everything you do with the right motives, if Christmas just means getting presents, then you’re doing it wrong and you need to repent.
When Christmas was becoming a popular idea, so was a great heresy by a dude named Arius. This guy was a punk, he claimed Jesus was just the Son of God, not actually God. In AD 323 there was a council called to discussed this, they met in Nicaea in Turkey. Arius preached his false jesus and claimed he was true, the bishop of Myra was so incensed that he rose, approached Arius, and walloped him. The bishops name was Nicolas, and later the Catholic Church officially sainted him, though every true Christian is a saint, and today we know him as Saint Nicolas. By all accounts he was a very loving man with a great desire to spread the gospel and give of himself and out of his abundance.
In German his name is SinterNicholaus, or shortened to SinterKlaus. Martin Luther didn’t like devoting a day to a man, so made efforts on Christmas to celebrate Kristkindle, the Christ Child, but through some weird language error Kriskringle became just another name for Santa Claus.
Even though Arius was officially labeled a heretic, his teaching continued to grow in small groups, and a man named Ambrose in the mid to late 300’s wrote a beautiful Christmas hymn to celebrate Christ as the God who was born as a man; largely to combat Arianism.
O come, Redeemer of the earth,
and manifest thy virgin-birth.
Let every age in wonder fall:
such birth befits the God of all.
Begotten of no human will
but of the Spirit, Thou art still
the Word of God in flesh arrayed,
the promised fruit to man displayed.
All praise, eternal Son, to Thee,
whose advent sets Thy people free,
whom, with the Father, we adore,
and Holy Ghost, for evermore.
In the 700’s a man named Boniface went to Germany as a missionary. Germany at this time was totally pagan, worshipping nature and the gods Thor and Odin. Boniface just so happened in his first visit to find the center of Thor worship, and an oak tree dedicated to him. Boniface announced to the town that he was going to cut their god down, that if Thor was God, he should stop him, but if Christ was God, the tree would fall. The whole town turned out to watch, waiting for Thor, the god of thunder, to strike Boniface down. Legend tells that something supernatural happened and the tree fell. Whether it was totally Boniface cutting it down, or God’s interceding as well, the tree fell, and Boniface preached Christ from the stump, and the first church in Germany was built out of that tree.
A few years later Boniface was in another part of Germany and a young boy ran to find him, crying, “Boniface, Boniface, they’re going to sacrifice my sister!” Boniface leaped to his feat, asking the boy to lead him to his sister. The boy led him into a specially prepared thicket of trees, an altar to Odin and nature, and the 15 year old girl on an altar with a priest hovering over her with a knife ready to cut her heart out in sacrifice. With no time for negotiation, Boniface shoved the priest into the nearest tree, knocking him out cold. He helped the girl off the altar, then climbed up himself in order to preach to the astonished crowd. He proclaimed, “Why are you sacrificing?! Do you not know that Christ was sacrificed once for all, the just for the unjust? These trees are not your brothers, they are not your sisters, they are not your mothers! They are trees! Cut them down and warm your homes with them, homes that at the center should be the Lord Jesus Christ.” And that they did, they cut down this forest cathedral and burned the logs; and from here we get the Yule Log tradition which has been celebrated on and off ever since.
The early Yule Tide festival seems to be the equivalent to a Christmas Celebration; some try to say that Yule predates Christianity in Germany, but there is no evidence of that. Have you ever watched a Yule Log on TV? In 1966 a television station in New York put it on during prime time for three hours. Until 1989 it was commonplace, then was canceled until 2001. In 2001 it was the most watched program on Christmas Day.
The term Christmaesse, or Christ Festival, wasn’t used until 1038, prior to that it had names like Nativity, Navidad, Advent, and Noel, all basically meaning birth or coming.
In the 1500’s the Christmas tree became more popular. The origins are obscured in mystery. Some say that Boniface rejected the oak and pointed to the evergreen tree as representing eternal life. There is no clear teaching on this, and it may be that it was best to cut the tree in remembrance that the tree is not god. If trees had souls, could we say that fir is murder?
There was definitely a similar thing going on 600 years before Christ, though this practice was definitely connected with some idea that that tree had some magical or mystical powers, something I don’t believe anyone thinks the Christmas tree has.
Jeremiah 10:2-5 Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
So look at this, the Christmas tree can be very bad, or if used rightly it can be very good. Again, your motive drives everything. If you remember that your tree is a creation of God, that it is useful to decorate and warm your home, that it has no power to bless you, that it doesn’t draw you closer to nature, then it can be used for good. People that don’t know why they have a tree I believe are in just as much danger as those who thought their tree was god.
By the mid-1700’s the Americans were rejecting Christmas as a British holiday. You’ll remember that on Christmas 1776 George Washington crossed the Delaware and captured a whole Hessian regiment in Trenton? We make a big deal that it was Christmas, but the Americans wouldn’t have been celebrating anyways if they hadn’t known that the Hessians, Germans, would be drunk and unprepared for an attack.
Interest in Christmas continued to wane and by the early and mid 1800’s it was feared that it might vanish altogether. Efforts were put in place to revive it. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 to focus on the spirit of Christmas, utterly leaving Christ out of the holiday and overemphasizing family and presents. It was from this book that the phrase “Merry Christmas” became popular.
From 1832-48 the Christmas tree became more popular, overemphasized by Queen Victoria of England. By the 1850’s people were complaining that Christmas had become a shopping spree and that Christ was forgotten.
By 1860 Christmas was a legal holiday in most states, and in 1870 it was officially recognized as a federal holiday.
As Christmas became a secular event with presents, Jews feared their children being lured into Christianity merely for the presents, and in the late 1800’s Hanukah, a good and pure festival in the New Testament, was subjected to the same commercial fate as Christmas.
A song that I particularly like sums up why we should really be celebrating Christmas, it is by Sovereign Grace Music, and it’s called Son of God Came Down:
The Son of God came down and laid aside His crown
Born without great renown, this Sovereign One
All holiness and might, all glory shining bright
Have come to earth this night in Mary’s son
O come, let us adore
O Christ the Lord, our hope and Savior
Son of God yet made like us
O Christ the Lord, our King adored
Born a child, our Lord Jesus
Messiah born so small, asleep in cattle stall
Come to redeem our fall, nailed to a tree
This tiny, helpless child
Through death would reconcile
The holy God and vile, His grace so free
O come, let us adore
Sunday, December 5, 2010
December 5th - The Good Shepherd
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Surgery
Todd Love Recovery
Tamara Slack Recovery
Kennesaw Christmas Parade Preaching
Doomsday Outreach (December 17th!)
Christmas Concerts (James, Hannah, Bethany, Etc.)
Text – Zechariah 10
Zechariah 10 is a NEAT chapter, it tells us all sorts of great things about God, that he is the God of nature, he is the God who strengthens armies in righteousness, he is the God from whom all good things flow, he is the God who will win a complete victory at the end of time, and he is the Good Shepherd. The first thing I want to look at though, which is certainly not the main thrust of Zechariah’s message, but which is hugely important for your life is a tangential lesson from verse 1.
Zechariah 10:1 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.
I love every Bible verse, but recently this has become my favorite, because it rocked my world. Look at it, when are we supposed to ask for rain from God? In the season of rain. Now, God is able to do things outside of the order in which he has decided to work, he can send rain in the middle of a desert in the dry season if he wants to, but he has structured the world in a way which we can trust and rely on a system of reliability. This is a miracle in itself,
Matthew 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
It is a miracle every time it rains, even when we’re expecting rain, this is a blessing from God. It reminded me of another verse which is really taking us on a rabbit trail, but I think it’s totally worth reading,
Hebrews 3:12-13 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
There is a season given to us for every thing we do. As long as we live in a sinful world we must be killing sin, seeking righteousness, trusting Christ, and watching our brothers and sisters to ensure they are doing the same. Someday I’d like to do a study of Ecclesiastes 3 which talks a lot more about this. But the true reason I wanted to look at this is to exhort you all towards a season which comes all too early in most people’s lives, the season of dating and marriage. At 12, 13, 14 you shouldn’t be seeking boyfriends and girlfriends; someone to love, to kiss, to be for all intents and purposes married to, because at your age you are a ways off from expressing your love in the proper marriage covenant. We ought to pray for godly husbands and wives, yes, but in the season that this is appropriate, not a moment before.
Proverbs 6:27-28 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
So please at least think on this topic, that we may have perfectly right desires which are made wrong by the timing. While this isn’t remotely Zechariah’s point here, I would like to encourage you as you pray to consider if your prayer is keeping with the will of God. Can God do miracles outside of his normal timing? Absolutely, that’s one of the ways we really recognize it’s a miracle. For example, when Lazarus died, his sister knew he would be resurrected on the final day when everyone is resurrected, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to eternal death, but Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And he raised Lazarus and showed that he is the Sovereign of history and nature; he is not subjected to history nor nature.
Song of Solomon 2:7 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, by the gazelles and the wild does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.
So all that to say, there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. I adjure you not to awaken love before its season, that you would date only for the purpose of marriage, and count every act of love as sacred within that covenant, everything from holding hands to kissing to adequately covering yourself from everyone but your future spouse. I know I speak about this fairly often, and as soon as you get the message, then I’ll talk about it less frequently.
So let’s get to Zechariah, today we’re going to look at some wicked leaders, some false shepherds, and we’ll look at our true Shepherd, who is Christ. Chapter 10 and 11 of Zechariah are one complete thought, but they teach different lessons. Really quick though, we need to know from Zechariah 11 that the so-called shepherds of Israel were only in their positions for the money, they would sell their sheep for slaughter if it meant turning a profit.
We see this rampant in Christianity today, people so greedy that they go so far as to tell their audiences to send in their last bit of money so that they can show God how strong their faith really is, when in reality the leaders really only want a new jet-airplane or house. One of the craziest things I run into is false-teachers who use the very passage against them for their gain. For example, 1 Corinthians 14 is totally against speaking in gibberish, but gibberish speakers quote it frequently to justify themselves in their deep things of Satan. Here in Zechariah it speaks of the "latter rain" and some false teachers have used this passage and others like it to say there was a first "rain" of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, then a drought, and that they are now receiving the second "rain" of the Holy Spirit today. This is utterly untrue because the Holy Spirit was promised to be with us always. These will tell you basically anything in order to get your money. This is forever one of my greatest blessings to be unpaid because it utterly removes this temptation from my life.
Zechariah 10:1-11:3 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler— all of them together. They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD. "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD. Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
We see first and foremost that God is the true God, the God of nature, the God of providence, the sustaining God. We ought to frequently realize that. We may say, “This morning the sun rose because the sun always rises.” Well really if it weren’t for God’s holding the universe together the sun wouldn’t rise. Centrifugal force would cause it to go zinging out into space and we’d never see it again.
There are many substitutes for God, but only one true God. Check out verse 2,
v.2 For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation.
Household gods are personal little figurines or methods of receiving supernatural revelation. These can be as simple as statues or as complex as astrology and horoscopes, or as seemingly innocent as a television. Zechariah didn’t have a television, but this very easily can fit into the place of a household god for us, as The View or Glee or Oprah or Glenn Beck try to form our theology into something that is radically different from true theology.
The false prophets make up revelation and present a god who really is of no account and isn’t able to save. This god won’t send people to Hell, but only because he can’t because he doesn’t exist, and he can’t save anyone for the same reason. Let me give you a controversial example, recently with all of the homosexual suicides several politically and financially successful homosexuals put out public statements that life for homosexuals is getting better and therefore troubled homosexuals should hold on. This seems like consolation, until we look at the fact that it is still a horrendous sin against humanity and God and that it is judged both temporally and eternally as hugely unhealthy for a person’s body and soul. True consolation is found in reconciliation to God, sanctification in the Spirit, and total forgiveness and freedom in Christ.
Another example is the empty pursuit of happiness and patriotic duty which we are constantly bombarded with. This is a false consolation, empty of truth and empty of temporal and eternal benefits. I watch it and am extremely angry, and find great consolation in the fact that so is God. We’ll see how he offers true consolation in a few verses, but first,
v.2-3 Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.
Even though Israel truly did have people acting as pastors (rabbis) and leaders, this verse says they wander and are damaged just as though they had no shepherds. Beloved, there are so many churches in our area that have youth pastors who are none more than adolescent boys who have no desire nor ability to lead their students into truth. There are churches all over the nation that have men overseeing them who care more for their own personal reputation than the spiritual health of their flock. In this passage God still refers to them as shepherds, but Jesus gives us a much more descriptive title for them in John 10.
John 10:12-13 The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.
Hirelings are men who look after the flock, but only as much as they can benefit from it. The moment danger approaches they take off leaving the flock to be decimated by enemies. There is an even worse shepherd which we’ll look at in Zechariah 11, who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (and sometimes in shepherd’s clothing (see 2 Peter 2)).
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
I love it that God’s anger is fierce against such men, knowing that I can leave all vengeance up to him and that he is the Sovereign of History who is demonstrating why his Son is the true Shepherd of the sheep, who does care about the sheep, the one who strengthens and equips his flock for the ministry. This is setting up an absolutely fantastic gospel presentation in chapter 13, one which it is so tempting for me to reveal now, but which I will wait a few weeks to show you!
v.4 From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler—all of them together.
For time’s sake let me just tell you that these are the four major things which Israel needed to be a great nation, they needed a firm foundation, a secure support, mighty weapons, and brave men to act justly and courageously for them. We see that all of these come straight from Christ, apart from him we can do nothing. This is why we sing the song, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” If it’s good and a blessing, it’s from God.
v.5-7 They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.
They shall be like great warriors, this is believers in Christ who aren’t out to kill people, but to convert them. If we have a firm foundation in Christ, a hope which secures us against every wind of doctrine, the sword of the Spirit which is the Bible, then we will be equipped and led by God to be great spiritual warriors, destroying every argument and persuading people to trust in Christ and Christ alone.
Now at this point it is tempting to follow a heresy that God saved us because he saw great potential in us, but verse 6 destroys that, stating that God raised us up and equipped us only on his compassion, not because of anything we had done or would do, but that both our salvation and subsequent works are his works in us. One of my new favorite verses is at the end of Colossians 1.
Colossians 1:28-29 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Whose energy? His. Who is working? He is. And we rejoice in this, emboldened, filled not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Now it gets extra beautiful, telling us that we have no fear of bad shepherds destroying our eternities if we are in Christ, for we have a much better shepherd,
v.8 "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before.”
This whistle is a call to the sheep, it’s either a whistle you make with your lips, or with a reed flute, or a specific vocal call. However it is, the sheep know this call and come. It’s amazing that even as dumb as a sheep is, it is able to know the specific call, even the voice, of its shepherd. However Christ will call, we will hear his voice,
John 10:3-5 The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
Christ calls for us, and we go to him and follow him. We see that he has redeemed us, from what we will see in chapter 11, but ultimately it is from sin and the very teeth of the world which desired to devour us. Christ will not lose a single one of his sheep.
v.9-12 Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD.
This passage is beautifully poetic, but not especially clear on when nor how it is to be fulfilled. We see that God’s people will be so many as there will not be found room for them just in Israel. This has certainly come true in these days, that every Christian in the world would not fit in Israel, so we are in far off countries remembering God and bearing witness to his truth.
We have the language of him passing through the sea. This is certainly reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea, a type for walking through death to life, and possibly we can see here that Christ is prophesied living and dying and living again. The language of striking down the waves of the sea is neat because in Heaven the sea will be smooth as glass, because all strife will have ceased, and there we see in verse 12 that Christ does this by cutting off the wickedness and rule of Israel’s enemies.
Finally, let’s read the first three verses of chapter 11 which will further expand on Christ putting an end to all boasting that is not in him,
v.1-3 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
We end with what we started with, that the false shepherds are punished and so they wail. Their riches gained through mistreating the flock of God are made nothing. These hirelings flee when danger approaches the flock, they seek only monetary gain. These sins against God’s sheep will be avenged.
So your application, trust wholly in Jesus Christ as your true Shepherd, make sure your leaders and pastors are following him and leading you in his ways, as you grow into leadership positions yourself, be willing to die for your flock, place them at far more value than yourself, refuse to let even a single one be devoured by the world while you still have breath in your lungs. Remember that this is how you were redeemed by your Shepherd, though he was God in every way, he counted you as more valuable than himself and laid down his life for your sake, and if he is willing to die for you, know that he will also equip you to walk in the power of his resurrection.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Pastor Aaron Surgery
Todd Love Recovery
Tamara Slack Recovery
Kennesaw Christmas Parade Preaching
Doomsday Outreach (December 17th!)
Christmas Concerts (James, Hannah, Bethany, Etc.)
Text – Zechariah 10
Zechariah 10 is a NEAT chapter, it tells us all sorts of great things about God, that he is the God of nature, he is the God who strengthens armies in righteousness, he is the God from whom all good things flow, he is the God who will win a complete victory at the end of time, and he is the Good Shepherd. The first thing I want to look at though, which is certainly not the main thrust of Zechariah’s message, but which is hugely important for your life is a tangential lesson from verse 1.
Zechariah 10:1 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.
I love every Bible verse, but recently this has become my favorite, because it rocked my world. Look at it, when are we supposed to ask for rain from God? In the season of rain. Now, God is able to do things outside of the order in which he has decided to work, he can send rain in the middle of a desert in the dry season if he wants to, but he has structured the world in a way which we can trust and rely on a system of reliability. This is a miracle in itself,
Matthew 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
It is a miracle every time it rains, even when we’re expecting rain, this is a blessing from God. It reminded me of another verse which is really taking us on a rabbit trail, but I think it’s totally worth reading,
Hebrews 3:12-13 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
There is a season given to us for every thing we do. As long as we live in a sinful world we must be killing sin, seeking righteousness, trusting Christ, and watching our brothers and sisters to ensure they are doing the same. Someday I’d like to do a study of Ecclesiastes 3 which talks a lot more about this. But the true reason I wanted to look at this is to exhort you all towards a season which comes all too early in most people’s lives, the season of dating and marriage. At 12, 13, 14 you shouldn’t be seeking boyfriends and girlfriends; someone to love, to kiss, to be for all intents and purposes married to, because at your age you are a ways off from expressing your love in the proper marriage covenant. We ought to pray for godly husbands and wives, yes, but in the season that this is appropriate, not a moment before.
Proverbs 6:27-28 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
So please at least think on this topic, that we may have perfectly right desires which are made wrong by the timing. While this isn’t remotely Zechariah’s point here, I would like to encourage you as you pray to consider if your prayer is keeping with the will of God. Can God do miracles outside of his normal timing? Absolutely, that’s one of the ways we really recognize it’s a miracle. For example, when Lazarus died, his sister knew he would be resurrected on the final day when everyone is resurrected, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to eternal death, but Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And he raised Lazarus and showed that he is the Sovereign of history and nature; he is not subjected to history nor nature.
Song of Solomon 2:7 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, by the gazelles and the wild does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.
So all that to say, there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. I adjure you not to awaken love before its season, that you would date only for the purpose of marriage, and count every act of love as sacred within that covenant, everything from holding hands to kissing to adequately covering yourself from everyone but your future spouse. I know I speak about this fairly often, and as soon as you get the message, then I’ll talk about it less frequently.
So let’s get to Zechariah, today we’re going to look at some wicked leaders, some false shepherds, and we’ll look at our true Shepherd, who is Christ. Chapter 10 and 11 of Zechariah are one complete thought, but they teach different lessons. Really quick though, we need to know from Zechariah 11 that the so-called shepherds of Israel were only in their positions for the money, they would sell their sheep for slaughter if it meant turning a profit.
We see this rampant in Christianity today, people so greedy that they go so far as to tell their audiences to send in their last bit of money so that they can show God how strong their faith really is, when in reality the leaders really only want a new jet-airplane or house. One of the craziest things I run into is false-teachers who use the very passage against them for their gain. For example, 1 Corinthians 14 is totally against speaking in gibberish, but gibberish speakers quote it frequently to justify themselves in their deep things of Satan. Here in Zechariah it speaks of the "latter rain" and some false teachers have used this passage and others like it to say there was a first "rain" of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, then a drought, and that they are now receiving the second "rain" of the Holy Spirit today. This is utterly untrue because the Holy Spirit was promised to be with us always. These will tell you basically anything in order to get your money. This is forever one of my greatest blessings to be unpaid because it utterly removes this temptation from my life.
Zechariah 10:1-11:3 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler— all of them together. They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD. "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD. Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
We see first and foremost that God is the true God, the God of nature, the God of providence, the sustaining God. We ought to frequently realize that. We may say, “This morning the sun rose because the sun always rises.” Well really if it weren’t for God’s holding the universe together the sun wouldn’t rise. Centrifugal force would cause it to go zinging out into space and we’d never see it again.
There are many substitutes for God, but only one true God. Check out verse 2,
v.2 For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation.
Household gods are personal little figurines or methods of receiving supernatural revelation. These can be as simple as statues or as complex as astrology and horoscopes, or as seemingly innocent as a television. Zechariah didn’t have a television, but this very easily can fit into the place of a household god for us, as The View or Glee or Oprah or Glenn Beck try to form our theology into something that is radically different from true theology.
The false prophets make up revelation and present a god who really is of no account and isn’t able to save. This god won’t send people to Hell, but only because he can’t because he doesn’t exist, and he can’t save anyone for the same reason. Let me give you a controversial example, recently with all of the homosexual suicides several politically and financially successful homosexuals put out public statements that life for homosexuals is getting better and therefore troubled homosexuals should hold on. This seems like consolation, until we look at the fact that it is still a horrendous sin against humanity and God and that it is judged both temporally and eternally as hugely unhealthy for a person’s body and soul. True consolation is found in reconciliation to God, sanctification in the Spirit, and total forgiveness and freedom in Christ.
Another example is the empty pursuit of happiness and patriotic duty which we are constantly bombarded with. This is a false consolation, empty of truth and empty of temporal and eternal benefits. I watch it and am extremely angry, and find great consolation in the fact that so is God. We’ll see how he offers true consolation in a few verses, but first,
v.2-3 Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.
Even though Israel truly did have people acting as pastors (rabbis) and leaders, this verse says they wander and are damaged just as though they had no shepherds. Beloved, there are so many churches in our area that have youth pastors who are none more than adolescent boys who have no desire nor ability to lead their students into truth. There are churches all over the nation that have men overseeing them who care more for their own personal reputation than the spiritual health of their flock. In this passage God still refers to them as shepherds, but Jesus gives us a much more descriptive title for them in John 10.
John 10:12-13 The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.
Hirelings are men who look after the flock, but only as much as they can benefit from it. The moment danger approaches they take off leaving the flock to be decimated by enemies. There is an even worse shepherd which we’ll look at in Zechariah 11, who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (and sometimes in shepherd’s clothing (see 2 Peter 2)).
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
I love it that God’s anger is fierce against such men, knowing that I can leave all vengeance up to him and that he is the Sovereign of History who is demonstrating why his Son is the true Shepherd of the sheep, who does care about the sheep, the one who strengthens and equips his flock for the ministry. This is setting up an absolutely fantastic gospel presentation in chapter 13, one which it is so tempting for me to reveal now, but which I will wait a few weeks to show you!
v.4 From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler—all of them together.
For time’s sake let me just tell you that these are the four major things which Israel needed to be a great nation, they needed a firm foundation, a secure support, mighty weapons, and brave men to act justly and courageously for them. We see that all of these come straight from Christ, apart from him we can do nothing. This is why we sing the song, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” If it’s good and a blessing, it’s from God.
v.5-7 They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.
They shall be like great warriors, this is believers in Christ who aren’t out to kill people, but to convert them. If we have a firm foundation in Christ, a hope which secures us against every wind of doctrine, the sword of the Spirit which is the Bible, then we will be equipped and led by God to be great spiritual warriors, destroying every argument and persuading people to trust in Christ and Christ alone.
Now at this point it is tempting to follow a heresy that God saved us because he saw great potential in us, but verse 6 destroys that, stating that God raised us up and equipped us only on his compassion, not because of anything we had done or would do, but that both our salvation and subsequent works are his works in us. One of my new favorite verses is at the end of Colossians 1.
Colossians 1:28-29 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Whose energy? His. Who is working? He is. And we rejoice in this, emboldened, filled not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Now it gets extra beautiful, telling us that we have no fear of bad shepherds destroying our eternities if we are in Christ, for we have a much better shepherd,
v.8 "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before.”
This whistle is a call to the sheep, it’s either a whistle you make with your lips, or with a reed flute, or a specific vocal call. However it is, the sheep know this call and come. It’s amazing that even as dumb as a sheep is, it is able to know the specific call, even the voice, of its shepherd. However Christ will call, we will hear his voice,
John 10:3-5 The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
Christ calls for us, and we go to him and follow him. We see that he has redeemed us, from what we will see in chapter 11, but ultimately it is from sin and the very teeth of the world which desired to devour us. Christ will not lose a single one of his sheep.
v.9-12 Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD.
This passage is beautifully poetic, but not especially clear on when nor how it is to be fulfilled. We see that God’s people will be so many as there will not be found room for them just in Israel. This has certainly come true in these days, that every Christian in the world would not fit in Israel, so we are in far off countries remembering God and bearing witness to his truth.
We have the language of him passing through the sea. This is certainly reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea, a type for walking through death to life, and possibly we can see here that Christ is prophesied living and dying and living again. The language of striking down the waves of the sea is neat because in Heaven the sea will be smooth as glass, because all strife will have ceased, and there we see in verse 12 that Christ does this by cutting off the wickedness and rule of Israel’s enemies.
Finally, let’s read the first three verses of chapter 11 which will further expand on Christ putting an end to all boasting that is not in him,
v.1-3 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
We end with what we started with, that the false shepherds are punished and so they wail. Their riches gained through mistreating the flock of God are made nothing. These hirelings flee when danger approaches the flock, they seek only monetary gain. These sins against God’s sheep will be avenged.
So your application, trust wholly in Jesus Christ as your true Shepherd, make sure your leaders and pastors are following him and leading you in his ways, as you grow into leadership positions yourself, be willing to die for your flock, place them at far more value than yourself, refuse to let even a single one be devoured by the world while you still have breath in your lungs. Remember that this is how you were redeemed by your Shepherd, though he was God in every way, he counted you as more valuable than himself and laid down his life for your sake, and if he is willing to die for you, know that he will also equip you to walk in the power of his resurrection.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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