Christmas Preps

Over in the book of Matthew, we see folks getting ready for Christmas (Mt 1:1-25).  Getting ready for the FIRST Christmas.  As a matter of fact, God is the One making all the preps.  Unlike me, He didn’t wait until the last minute.  God has been getting things ready for a few thousand years.  I need to remember that the first Christmas wasn’t just this cute, quaint one time event.  It was thousands (if not millions) of years in the making!  And God was behind it all.

Before we read of His birth, we get a meticulous telling of Jesus’ family tree through His adoptive dad Joe.  It’s VERY interesting and important for a couple of reasons.  First, this establishes the Child as coming through the line of Abraham and David on Joe’s side.  God had made super specific promises to Abe and Dave about one of their descendants (more on that later).  Take a moment and check out some of the names of Jesus’ ancestors.  Holy moly!  There are double dealers, cheats, backstabbers, oppressive dictators and a wide variety of knuckleheads.  Not exactly a series of hall of famers.  That’s because this story isn’t about them.  It’s about the one and only Hero of the story.  Christ Jesus.

Second, Matt never refers to Joe as Jesus’ dad.  He makes it very clear here in chapter one that he’s “the husband of Mary” (v16) and “her husband Joseph” (v19).  On the other hand, Matt clearly wants us to be sure Who the real Dad is, the “Holy Spirit” (v18, 20).  Wait, what?!?  Yup, that’s right.  Not the heavenly Father.  But the Third Person of the Big Three.  Joe is a blue collar laborer from the backwater boondocks of Nazareth.  He might be a descendant of the great King David, but he swings a hammer for a living.  His kids will grow up with a strong work ethic.

Third, we read that despite the supernatural influence from His Dad’s side, this Baby has a human mom.  Matty lets us know that after that spectacular conception, Mary experienced a pretty normal pregnancy.  It became clear that “she was found to be with child” (v18).  She would go into labor and give “birth to a Son” (v25).  Mary was the one chosen by God to carry and nurture the Christ.  She was the one “of whom Jesus was born” (v16).  Mary is almost certainly a teenager, maybe as young as 13 or 14.  Joe the carpenter has popped the question and they plan to marry.  But plans change when God gets involved.

This amazing combination of divine paternity and human motherhood comes together in a way no one expected.  He’s not some 50/50 combo of God and mortal.  Nope.  He’s 100% God.  He’s 100% Man.  How does that all work?  Don’t have a clue.  It’s all part of the miracle of the Dude we’ve come to call the God-Man.  The funny thing is that one of my pet peeves is when an athlete says they’ve given 150% effort.  It’s not possible.  The most anyone can give is 100%.  Well, anyone except Jesus.  He can give 200%.  100% God.  100% Man.  And it took every bit of that to save my sorry self.  

Fourth, there’s the Child.  An angel gives Joe instructions on naming this Baby.  “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save people from their sins” (v21).  This is the Greek form of the ancient Hebrew name Joshua which literally means “Yahweh saves.”  When look closely at verse 21, you see that this Child isn’t just some sort of undercover operative sent by God.  He’s the One who’s coming to do the saving.  He’s flesh-wrapped incarnation of Yahweh.  He’s coming on the greatest rescue mission the universe has ever seen.  This One who’s coming to save will have a name to match.  

Matt tips us off to a second title for Joe and Mary’s Boy: “Christ” (v1, 16).  This is the Greek version of the OT title Messiah.  In other words, Jesus is the One everybody’s been waiting thousands of years for.  God first promised our first parents of this Hero back in the garden (Gen 3:15).  He pledged to Abraham that One of his descendants would be a blessing to the entire planet (Gen 12:2-3).  Yahweh assured King David that a Member of his family line would sit on the royal throne for eternity (2Sam 7:13-14).  These are just three of the hundreds of predictions of this God-sent Hero who would come to not just save the day but our very souls.  This Child is the long-promised, long-awaited Messiah.  He’s the Christ.  This term means “Anointed One.”  He’s anointed by God the Father for this incredible search and rescue mission.  He’s anointed with God the Spirit in order to have the supernatural power to accomplish it.

The angel tells Jesus’ adoptive dad Joe about one of the many predictions about this Boy.  He’ll be called “Immanuel, which means, God with us” (v23).  God first shouted this promise through the prophet Isaiah a few hundred years before.  Matt pulls back the curtain and sheds a little more light on the name.  It “means, God with us.”  He doesn’t want Joe to miss the point.  He doesn’t want us to miss the point.  This is not going to be just another Jewish baby.  When Jesus makes the scene in that smelly barn, God will have come down in a way the universe has never seen.  He is God with us.  He is Immanuel.  And what I need to always remember that He wasn’t just with us for a short 33 years.  God is STILL with us!  God is STILL with me!  Just before His breathtaking liftoff back to His Dad, Jesus promised that He wouldn’t ever truly leave us alone again.  God is STILL with us.  God is STILL with me.

Returning Serve

In tennis, some players have booming serves.  Others can return just about everything their opponent fires at them.  But the best players are those who can not only uncork powerful serves but can return them as well.  

What in the wide world of sports does this have to do with First Impressions?  Well, thanks for asking.  We do what we do each weekend because we’ve been served.  We’re actually returning serve.  Let me explain.  Jesus first served us.  Now we return His serve by serving others.  In their book Creature of the Word, Matt Chandler, Eric Geiger and Josh Patterson describe how everything we do is a response to what Christ did for us.  “The foundation of our service is built upon Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection for us.  It begins and ends with Jesus--begins there because He is our original motivation and ends there because only in Him are empowered to serve others.”  The fact of His service through His life, crucifixion, death, and resurrection on our behalf is certainly fresh in our minds in the days following Easter.

Jesus serves us first.  We return His serve.

As followers of Christ, we need to remember that we don’t serve out of guilt or some misguided effort to earn a place in His kingdom.  That’s over.  That’s complete.  That’s why Jesus yelled from the cross, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30).  There’s absolutely nothing we can add to what He’s already done.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves in a million years.  When it comes to a serve, that’s an ACE!!!  But we return His serve by serving others with radical hospitality.  

-We return serve by welcoming people into our parking lots.

-We return serve by providing a friendly ride on our shuttles.

-We return serve by greeting folks with a wide smile at the doors.

-We return serve by guiding guests throughout the campus.

-We return serve by brewing people coffee, lattes, and mochas.

-We return serve by cooking up hot meals in our kitchen.

-We return serve by interacting with folks in the auditorium.

We return serve as a response to the overwhelming grace Jesus has showered on us.  We serve as an act of worship of our Savior.  We serve because He first served us.  A couple of hundred years ago, Martin Luther hit the nail on the head when it comes to what our service is all about.  “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”  And that’s EXACTLY the return of serve we hope to provide through First Impressions.

Jesus serves us first.  We return His serve.

(This post originally appeared on the Hope Community Church blog. I was asked to contribute a piece about the meaning of service for our church's First Impressions ministry. http://blog.gethope.net/serving-2/returning-the-serve.)

Spiritual Ancestors

Have you ever asked yourself, "What could I possibly do that matters?" You are not alone. I have asked myself that question more than once. Let me introduce you to nine people who were ALL influenced by another person.

It all started with a guy from Boston.

His name...

EDWARD KIMBALL led a small group at his church when he met a challenging teenager. That seventeen-year-old young man was poorly educated and prone to outbursts of anger and profanity.

His name...

DWIGHT L. MOODY. He became the "greatest" evangelist of the nineteenth century. He was instrumental in the life-change experienced by a young man.

His name...

F.B. MEYER. He became a minister. He mentored a young man.

His name...

J.W. CHAPMAN. He became a pastor and evangelist. He also started an outreach to professional baseball players. There he influenced a young man.

His name...

BILLY SUNDAY. He became one of the greatest evangelists in the first two decades of the twentieth century. He influenced a young man who eventually came back to work with him.

His name...

MORDECAI HAM. He became a preacher. He was preaching when a teenager responded to the invitation "to give your life to Jesus Christ."

His name...

BILLY GRAHAM. He has influenced more people than any other preacher in history. He remains a trusted confidant to presidents and other key influencers. At one of his crusades, a 16-year-old boy responded to the gospel.

His name...

CLYDE CHILES. He answered God's call to the ministry and became an itinerant Southern Baptist evangelist. Preaching a revival at First Baptist Church in Farmington, MO in 1970, a 12-year-old boy walked the aisle and gave his life to Jesus.

His name...

JAY JENNINGS.

Do the best you can where you are, with what you have, for a purpose that is greater than yourself. You can be someone worthwhile. You can do something that matters.

Jason Young deserves most of the credit for the composition of this piece. He wrote this for Catalyst about the spiritual ancestors of Billy Graham. I simply continued the progression after researching my own story.

Do you know your spiritual ancestry?

The Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four.

OK, now that I've got all of the Marvel fans' attention. But this time I'm not talking about comic book heroes. I'm actually letting you know of four hard cover heroes you might want to check out.

Over the Christmas break, I get a chance to dive into several books while I'm off work. This year, I had the pleasure of turning the pages on four fantastic works. If you like to read and are interested in outstanding Christian authors who make you think, then you might enjoy these books too.

The first is Mere Christianity. Are you curious about the basics of what it means to be a follower of Jesus? Then check out this C. S. Lewis classic. Believe it or not, this was originally a series of radio broadcasts that Lewis did on the BBC during the dark hours of World War II. If you've heard that Lewis is hard to read, then you don't know Jack. "Jack" Lewis, that is. Mere Christianity is incredibly well crafted and easy to digest.

The second is On Church Leadership. This is a super-fast read by Mark Driscoll. The title says it all. The cover also boasts that it is "a book you'll actually read." If you have any interest in how the healthy church should operate, you can knock out this 94-page wonder in around an hour. You may read it in 60 minutes, but it sticks to your ribs for quite a while.

Batting third is Life and Practice in the Early Church. Don't let the title fool you. Steve McKinion cranks up the Flux Capacitor to see what church life was like back in the first through fifth centuries through the writings of the early church fathers. Pretty quickly you see that they were dealing with some familiar issues. Arguments over worship style. Huge attendance swings at Christmas and Easter. People not paying attention during the service. It's amazing to see how they "did church" still impacts us today.

Last but not least is The Reason for God. I mentioned Tim Keller's book in an earlier post. In the first half of the book, he tears down the arguments against faith in Jesus. The second half makes a powerful case for belief in the Carpenter from Nazareth as the Savior of the world. The last three chapters simply take your breath away. This is a modern day must-read for anyone with an interest in Christian apologetics. I'll almost certainly be re-reading this one in the not-too-distant future.

As Charlie "Tremendous" Jones has said, "You are the same today as you'll be in five years except for the books you read and the people you meet." I'm better for having read this Fantastic Four.

Sorry 'bout that, Human Torch.

My Head Hurts

Tim Keller makes my head hurt.

OK, not Tim Keller personally, but his book The Reason for God.

Keller is an outstanding writer and Bible teacher. And he is, quite frankly, scary smart. This book takes a powerful look at the existence of the God of the Bible. It's what Christians call an apologetic work. Not because he's sorry for being a follower of Jesus. The term "apologetic" comes from a Greek word in the New Testament that basically means "to make a case for" something.

Keller doesn't shy away from the toughest arguments against the faith. As a matter of fact, he pokes his finger in the chest of Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) and the rest of the Four Horsemen of Atheism.

The Reason for God may be a lofty read with heavy concepts, but it is not a thick read with big words that only a PhD could comprehend. Keller writes in a very approachable manner that anyone interested in the debate can understand.

Tim Keller makes my head hurt. And that's not a bad thing.

Hello Old Blog

You might want to step back while I blow the dust off this thing.

There. That's better. Hard to believe that it's been nine months since I've posted anything. Not that there hasn't been anything to write. The past year was a pretty good one. A lot to be thankful for.

As we reboot the calendar to 2011, this looks to be a big year. First of all, there's a pretty good chance that I'll finally graduate from seminary in May. Kinda hard to believe, huh?

Well, I don't want to keep you. But I'll do what I can to be a bit more faithful to post in '11.

We now return you to your regular programming...

The God Box

I spent the morning reading Romans 10-16. After Paul writes of his passion for his Jewish brethren to come to faith in Christ in chapters 10 and 11, he puts the rubber to the road starting in chapter 12. He spends time warning Gentile believers not to get cocky because God has grafted them into His family after cutting off the Jews. This was an act of unspeakable and unimaginable grace on God’s part. He says that the whole reason God offered salvation to the rest of the world is to make the Jews jealous.

In Romans, Paul uses what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Pauline terms: mystery. More and more (as a result of Dr. Doug Bookman’s teaching) I’m seeing this mystery as God’s offer of salvation to Gentiles AS Gentiles. This was something so crazy, so incredible, so “outside the box,” that it would have been inconceivable to first century Jews. Sure Gentiles could come to faith in Yahweh, but only as Jewish proselytes. In other words, Gentiles could follow God, but not without converting to Judaism first. That meant circumcision and complete adherence to the Mosaic Law.

Paul writes that he doesn’t want his Roman brothers and sisters to be ignorant of this mystery (Rom 11:25). This is something that NOBODY saw coming. This is something that is hard to figure out even after God has revealed it. As a result of this brain busting revelation, the apostle launches off into an impromptu moment of praise:

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)

Paul is blown away by this incredible revelation of God’s plan. Gentiles as Gentiles?!?! You have got to be kidding me!!! Yet when he goes back and looks at the OT Scriptures, the evidence is there. The apostle seems to be saying, “Oh, THAT’S what He meant!” This is a classic example of why we can never fully understand and comprehend His omniscience and His omnipotence. Just when Jews like Saul thought they had Yahweh figured out and packed neatly into their box, it exploded right in their hands!

I need to hear Paul’s warning loud and clear. While the Bible presents me with the revelation of who God is and what His plans are, it can in no way fully contain Him. There are no books of theology, seminary libraries, web resources, or software applications that can hold a thimble of who God is. Remember, His wisdom is UNSEARCHABLE and UNFATHOMABLE. I must never lose the sense of holy awe, wonder and worship of the One who descended from heaven to die on a Roman cross for me. Yet He calls me “friend” and “brother.” How is that possible? Because He is unsearchable and unfathomable.

A couple of encounters between John and Jesus come to mind. At the Last Supper, John is resting his head against Jesus’ chest as they eat. Now THAT’S a friend. Some of that is lost in cultural translation. But it’s clear that they are intimately close. Yet in the book of Revelation, that same John sees Jesus and falls like a dead man in awe and worship. We must always remember that the same Savior that allows us to lean on Him in those tender times is also Almighty God, Creator of the universe, King of kings and Lord of lords. As Paul would say, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

In Christ,

Jay