“Jesus, God with Us” (John 1:1-14)

Jesus the Son of God
The central message of the gospels is not the teaching of Jesus, not the ministry of Jesus, but Jesus himself. For this purpose, as John Stott pointed out, the four gospels portray Jesus in four dimensions: its length, depth, breadth and height.[1] Matthew reveals its length. He starts with Jesus’ genealogy, proving that He is the One – the Messiah, King of the Jews. Mark emphasizes its depth. He depicts the Suffering Servant who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Luke reveals its breadth. For him, Jesus is the Savior of the world who sees, loves, and reaches out to all people. Then now, John reveals its height. Jesus is the Son of God, the Word made flesh. As we explore the fourth gospel together, let us join the apostle Paul in his prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19:

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Though it would be impossible to describe Jesus with one word, the apostle John chooses one summarizing title for Jesus: the “Word.” From the very beginning John declares the truth that Jesus is the Word, who is the very nature of God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v. 1). Jesus is eternally God. And he is eternally Creator: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (v. 3). Then, John reaches to verse 14, which is one of the most important verses in the Bible: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” This verse proclaims two eternal truths about who Jesus is. We will explore them one by one.

Jesus Became Human
First, Jesus Became Human. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Incarnation. This great mystery of the incarnation is the core of the Christian message, and a stumbling block to many. Jesus is not just a good man, or wonderful teacher. Instead, Jesus is the Son of God, who became one of us. For our better understanding, let me share the story of Mother Antonia. Tijuana’s notorious La Mesa prison contains six thousand of Mexico’s worst criminals. Drug lords and murderers ferment with anger behind bars and fences, but when the tiny figure of an eighty-year-old nun, Mother Antonia, appears, the men are transformed. “Mamá, mamá!” they shout as they reach their hands through the fence to touch her. “How are you, my sons?” she replies. In September 2008 a riot broke out in the prison when she was not there. The prisoners had taken hostages, fires had been started, and bullets were flying everywhere. The 82-year-old Mother Antonia pleaded with the police, “Let me go in. I love the men there.” Finally, they let her enter. She found the leader and begged him to end the riot, saying, “It’s not right that you’re locked up here, hungry and thirsty. We can take care of those things, but this isn’t the way to do it. I will help you make it better. But first you have to give me the guns. I beg you to put down your weapons.” The leader replied, “Mother, as soon as we heard your voice we dropped the guns out of the window.” How can that be? The answer is this: Mother Antonia voluntarily took up residence at La Mesa. She has lived in the tiny cell for more than thirty years alongside her inmates. She became one of them. She lived among them. She did abide.

That’s what God did for us. Jesus Christ our Savior really took human nature on Him and lived among us for more than 30 years in order to save us. Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14 this way: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Like ourselves, Jesus was born of a woman. Like ourselves, he grew from infancy to boyhood, and from boyhood to manhood. Like ourselves, he hungered, thirsted, was wearied, wept, felt pain. He was tempted, really suffered and shed his blood, really died, really buried, really rose again, and really ascended into heaven! The Bible says, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Heb 2:18). Jesus, the Son of God, became one of us and lived among us.

Jesus Revealed His Glory
Secondly, Jesus revealed his glory. John, in his gospel, by the Holy Spirit, carefully chose and recorded 7 “signs” or “miracles” to reveal Jesus’ identity – his glory. Sign 1: Jesus turned water (symbol of the old order) into wine (arrival of God’s kingdom). By this, Jesus has introduced a new beginning. Signs 2 and 3: Jesus performed two healing miracles, as a sign that Jesus is life-giver. Sign 4: Jesus fed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish. It’s a sign that Jesus is the bread of life. Sign 5: Jesus walked on water. He controls the powers of nature. The whole creation remembers the voice of their Creator and listens to him. Sign 6: Jesus gave sight to a man born blind, as a sign that he is the light of the world. And finally, sign 7: Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. By this, Jesus claims to be the resurrection and the life.

All these seven signs point to one greater truth: Jesus is the Son of God, who became human. Jesus is fully God and fully human. At the end of his gospel, the apostle John tells us why he recorded these signs in this way:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name (20:30-31).

That’s the purpose of the signs. That’s the purpose of John’s gospel. John’s purpose is to witness to Christ Jesus by recording his signs, that we may believe in him and have life. Signs/miracles would lead to faith, and faith to life.

The Christmas Candle
Recently, I had a chance to watch the film, titled the Christmas Candle, a story written by Max Lucado. In the fictional village of Gladbury, every twenty-five years an angel visits the candlemaker and bestows a miracle upon whomever lights the Christmas Candle. The whole town believes in the candle except the new pastor, Rev. David Richmond. He tries to convince the town folk to believe in God and not candle miracles. The preacher wants people to pray to God and do good works, and not seek hope and change in a candle. Here in this story the Christmas Candle is a symbol of God’s miracles and signs. But Pastor Richmond doesn’t believe in miracles and signs. And there is a reason for this. Sometime in the past he desperately prayed and asked for God’s miracles when his wife and child were suffering from consumption. But nothing happened. Both of them died. Since then, he doesn’t believe in miracles. But as he ministers to his parishioners, he begins to see God’s miracles in the lives of those who light the candles and pray one by one: the speech-impaired boy can talk, a man got a job, a woman's debts were forgiven, a man's beloved cat is saved, the woman is engaged and the blind man could see just before he died. At the end, even the minister's faith is restored in miracles. Signs and miracles would lead to faith, and faith to life.

Jesus, the Son of God, became human and revealed his glory for us to see and believe and have life. When Jesus revealed his glory, there were two different responses: Some (the world) rejected, and some received. “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (vv. 11-12).

Jesus is the Light. In verse 5 John testifies, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (v. 5). Here the Greek word phaino translated as “shines” is literally “shines on” or “continually shines.” 2,000 years ago our spiritual ancestors – wise men and shepherds – saw the light, and they came to the light. The light of Christ, still and continually, shines today. The signs of Christ still shine brightly among us. Christ continually shines, continually enlightens, continually penetrates our hearts, our minds, and our conscience through his powerful word and signs. So, come, believe, and have life! Amen.

--------
[1] John Stott, The Incomparable Christ (Kindle Locations 597-604). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

“Jesus the Savior of the World” (Luke 2:25-38)

Are You Ready for Christmas?
Christmas is fast approaching. Are you ready for Christmas? Author Ann Voskamp writes: “We’re ready for Christmas, not when we have all the gifts, but when we are ready for Christ—when we’re ready to give all of ourselves to Christ.” So, are you ready for Christmas? Thankfully, we have “Advent,” the four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. Advent is a great time to set aside a bit of space each day to ready our hearts for Christmas — the coming of Christ into the world. My prayer is that we never let the busyness of the season overshadow Christmas, but rather, we may prepare our hearts to respond fully to the ultimate gift of God – Jesus – this Advent season.

Speaking of busyness Jerusalem temple at the time of Jesus was a very busy place. It was filled with all kinds of people from everywhere – from the priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, worshippers, to those selling things. But when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus – the long-expected Messiah – for the purification to the temple, sadly enough, no one recognized him. They all failed to recognize their Savior. Only two lay people recognized the Messiah – Simeon and Anna. Luke’s understanding of Jesus the Messiah is well captured in the Song of Simeon, who claimed:

“My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (2:30-32).

So, Luke’s message can be summarized in one phrase: good news of salvation through Christ for the whole world.

Salvation
First, “salvation” is a key word in Luke’s Gospel. What is then salvation? Salvation includes two components. Negatively, salvation means freedom from all evil, including sin, eternal death, disease, oppression, and bondage (“The Gospel of Luke”). Positively, salvation means promise of new birth, eternal life by the power of the Holy Spirit (“Book of Acts”). At Jesus’ time Israel was under the rule of the Roman emperor. But in a spiritual sense the Israelites were in bondage to sin and death. But they didn’t know that they were in bondage. So the mission of John the Baptist was to go and tell this spiritual reality to the people, “You are in bondage. Repent and be saved.” Missionary Horace Underwood was one of the first missionaries to Korea about 135 years ago. Part of his prayer is like this: “Lord, nothing is visible in this land… Only stubbornly stained darkness can be seen. Only Korean people chained with poverty and superstition can be seen. They don’t even know why they are chained, what suffering is. They just distrust us and express anger to us as we tell them how to take away their suffering, which is not suffering to them.” It is all by God’s grace that we come to realize, “I am helpless. I am in bondage. I need help to be saved.”

God’s salvation brings healing, liberation, freedom, removal of guilt. But there is more! Salvation brings new life. As Jesus began his ministry, he went to the synagogue, opened the scriptures, and read from Isaiah 61:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners… to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit (61:1, 3).

God heals, restores, liberates, forgives, removes our guilt and our past. But not only that, God transforms, empowers, gives new life. That is good news of salvation.

Through Jesus
Secondly, God brings his salvation through Christ. This truth is clear in the story of Simeon. When Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms, he said, “My eyes have seen your salvation!” (v. 30). Jesus is God’s salvation. Salvation comes through Christ. The Bible says “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There are countless people who accept Jesus as Savior and surrender their lives to him. Each one has a unique story. But They all have one thing in common. They acknowledge Jesus Christ to be at the center of their conversion experience. Sundar Singh is one of many examples. He was born in 1889 into a rich family in India, and he grew up to hate Christianity as a foreign religion. He even expressed his hostility at the age of fifteen. He publicly burned a Gospel book. But three days later he was converted through a vision of Christ, and in his late teens, he determined to become an itinerary preacher. On one occasion Sundar Singh visited a Hindu college, and a professor accosted him aggressively and asked, “What have you found in Christianity that you don’t have in your old religion?” Sundar Singh replied, “I have Christ.” The professor continued impatiently, “Yes, I know, but what particular principle or doctrine have you found that you did not have before?” Sundar Singh replied, “The particular thing I have found is Christ.”[1] Christianity is not about institution or doctrine. It is all about one person, Christ. What we must have to be saved is the person Christ. What we must preach is good news of salvation “through Christ,” nothing more nothing less.

For the Whole World
Thirdly, Luke’s message is good news of salvation through Christ for the whole world. Luke was a Gentile. As a Gentile, he deliberately includes the stories how Jesus reaches out to “all people.” Jesus touches a leper and says, “I do choose. Be made clean” (5:12-13). Jesus goes to see a widow who just lost her son and touches the coffin and says, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (7:14). Jesus forgives a sinful woman, who was weeping, anointing his feet with the ointment, and says, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:50). Jesus includes and blesses children, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (18:15-17). Jesus visits Zacchaeus, a hated tax collector and sinner, and says, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today” (19:5). Jesus sees all people. Jesus reaches out to all people. Jesus loves all people. God brings his salvation through Christ for the whole world.

Preparing for Christ’s Coming
Lastly, Luke’s message, good news of salvation, is personal as well as universal. Simeon, by the Holy Spirit, presents Jesus as the Savior of the world. But at the same time, both Simeon and Anna see Jesus, receive Jesus, experience Jesus in a personal way. They were obscure, ordinary people. We don’t find their names any other books in the Bible. But, they lived an extraordinary life in God’s eyes. They were ready for the coming of Christ into their lives.

As I close, I would like to share the story of Brother Lawrence. He entered the priory at Paris in 1666 as a lay brother. Because he was lame and had no education, he was assigned to the kitchen. He had naturally a great aversion to the kitchen. But, he determined to live as if there was none but God and he in the world. He began to do all the kitchen work for the love of God with prayer in all occasions. He prayed before and after the work, and also prayed all the intervals of his time. In his book The Practice the Presence of God Brother Lawrence said, “For the first ten years I suffered much. During this time I fell often, and rose again presently… But later I found myself changed all at once. My soul felt a profound inward peace.” Every morning as he started a day, he practiced the presence of God. He considered himself as a stone before a carver. He truly desired God to form His perfect image in his soul, and make him entirely like Himself. He did every common business and little things for the love of God. He said, "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God." He did seek God only, and nothing else, not even His gifts. As time went by, more and more visitors came to seek spiritual guidance from him. From Brother Lawrence’s life, I think we can learn what it means to be ready for Christ in our everyday lives.

Are you ready for Christmas – Christ’s coming – into your life? As we journey toward Christmas, may we clear the path in our hearts and be ready for Christ. May we be ready to give all of ourselves to Christ. Amen.

-----
[1] E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (Hodder & Stoughton, 1926), 64.

“Christ the Suffering Servant” (Mark 8:27-38)

Turning Point
Many of us have heroes in our lives – heroes who risk their lives and save the lives of others. For me personally, my grandfather comes first on the list. Recently, he celebrated his 95th birthday. He has been through a lot for all those years. He was born in North Korea. But then he had to escape for his life to the South by crossing the river by swimming. Then he joined the army fighting the Korean War. Though he is very fragile now, when he was younger, he was quite athletic. He was healthy, strong, and fast. But one day in his 70s my grandfather said something like this: “I used to cross the river by swimming easily, but now I am afraid of crossing the street. I used to enjoy riding in the trunk of the military truck, but now I can hardly sit on the chair without a cushion.” To be honest, I was taken aback, because I thought that he would be always healthy and strong. It was a turning point in how I see my grandfather.

I shared this because today’s passage is also a turning point in the Gospel. It’s a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Before this incident (chs. 1-8) Jesus had been admired by the public as a popular teacher, healer, and miracle worker. But from now on (chs. 9-16) Jesus steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem – journey to the cross as a suffering servant.

People’s Messiah
In today’s passage we can see tensions between two different concepts of Messiah – people’s Messiah and God’s messiah. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.” Then he asked them, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And strangely enough, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Why? It is because the people had false political notions of the Messiah. For more than 700 years Israel had been oppressed by foreign powers. So they were anxiously watching and waiting for their Messiah who would come, destroy their enemies, and liberate Israel. When the people saw Jesus teach with authority (like John the Baptist), and heal the sick and perform miracles (like Elijah), they were excited, thinking, ‘This man must be the Messiah.’

On another occasion, after Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, in their enthusiasm the people were about to force him to be their king. Again, they were excited and said, “Lord, give us this bread always” (John 6:34). Here they were saying, “Lord, come and fix all the problems of our lives and the world. Make us healthy and wealthy.”

God’s Messiah
But now, in today’s crucial passage, Jesus openly began to teach his disciples about the kind of Messiah he had come to be. He said, “The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” According to Mark, that’s God’s Messiah, who had come to die, and through his death to bring salvation and spiritual liberation for his people. For Matthew, Jesus is King of the kings, Lord of the lords. But as for Mark, Jesus is Servant – the suffering servant. At the center of Mark’s Gospel is the cross. From today’s passage, on three more separate occasions Jesus plainly said to the disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer and die” (9:31; 10:33, 45). In fact, a third of Mark’s Gospel is devoted to the story of the cross.

Why the cross? Why must Jesus suffer and die? The answer is because the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Because that’s God’s way of salvation. Isaiah, by the Holy Spirit, describes God’s Messiah as the suffering servant as follows:

He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (53:3-6, NRSV)

Then, the Lord God said, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain… The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (vv. 10-11). By God’s will Jesus the Messiah suffered and died in our place on the cross, so that we might be set free from sin and death. Jesus is God’s Messiah, the suffering servant.

My Messiah
After revealing himself, Jesus now moved from his cross to ours. He said to the crowds, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). In other words, Jesus has to be my Messiah as well as God’s Messiah. And if Jesus is my Messiah, we too must deny ourselves and take up our cross and die to self. We all wanted to be honored and respected, rather than humiliated. But it is humiliation that leads us to humility, leads us to our humble Christ. At one of the ordination services Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, preached on humility, and the following was one of his advice:[1]

Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly, but they help you to be humble. There can be the trivial humiliations. Accept them. There can be the bigger humiliations... All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our humble and crucified Lord...

Raising children can be a humiliating experience. Married life can be a humiliating experience. Fighting disease can be a humiliating experience. Aging can be a humiliating experience. All these can be great “means of grace” that draws us closer to our Savior. Sometimes we hear people say, “I don’t want to be a burden to anybody. As soon as I become a burden I would rather die.” But that is not biblical. We are all designed to be a burden to others. The Bible says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). By being a burden (depending on others) as well as carrying others’ burdens, by this humiliating experience, we can learn to be humble. We can learn to deny ourselves and die to self.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself accepts humiliations. He is born a baby – totally dependent and vulnerable. He has to be fed. He has to be washed. He has to be taken care of. He has never skipped any part of human life. He doesn’t turn stones into bread. He doesn’t take a short cut. And at the end, on the cross, he again becomes totally dependent and vulnerable, totally humiliated. He accepts humiliations. But at any point in his life Jesus never loses his divine and human dignity. In some circumstances independence is important quality, but as disciples of Jesus, learning to be dependent and accept humiliations is a mark of maturity. When Peter was reinstated in John 21, Jesus said to him: “Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go” (v. 18).

Granddaughter
Aging is a universal experience. It’s part of God’s design. As we get old, we become more dependent, more vulnerable. It can be a humiliating experience. But at the same time, it can be a wonderful opportunity to become more like Christ, our humble Messiah.

I would like to close today’s message with Missy Buchanan’s prayer, titled, “Granddaughter”:[2]

Not so long ago I carried her in my arms 

and read her favorite good-night story to her. 

I held her small hand as ocean waves lapped our bare feet, 

making us giggle with unbelievable joy. 

But now she steadies my stooped body as I move from bed to chair. 

It’s so humbling to accept help, 

especially from a granddaughter who once thought 

I would always be able to chase after fireflies on a summer night. 

God, where are you when the generational tables are turned, 

when the young care for the old? 

Is it your plan that we learn to serve each other and accept being served? 

Give me grace to surrender my pride, 

to delight in my granddaughter’s compassion. 

Let me teach her the truth about faithfulness in the trenches of life. 

In this curious season where old and young intersect, 

may we look in each other’s eyes and see the eyes of Christ peering back. 

My prayer is that the Lord give us grace to receive God’s Messiah, humble and crucified Lord, and that we be always ready to accept humiliations – big and small, so that we too may become more like Christ. Amen.



----
[1] John Stott, The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling (Kindle Locations 894-896). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
[2] Missy Buchanan, Living with Purpose in a Worn–Out Body (p. 12). Upper Room Books. Kindle Edition.

“Jesus the Messiah” (Matt 2:1-12)

Advent during a Pandemic
In Psalm 13 the psalmist David cries out to God, “How long, O Lord? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?” I believe a lot of us can resonate with this question, “How long?” How long must we endure this pandemic and wear face masks? When can we be freed from the impersonal social distancing norms and greet our family and friends again with a hug, a handshake or a kiss?

As we begin our Advent journey together today, we ask God our persistent question, “How long, O Lord?” And we expectantly wait and long for Christ to come and help us. As we wait as a church, we will explore four gospels through Advent this year to see the magnificence of Jesus, the coming King. We have four gospels, because I believe, as John Scott said, Jesus Christ is too great and glorious a person to be captured by one author or described from one perspective. So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew by the Holy Spirit presents Christ as King, Mark as Servant, Luke as the Son of Man, and John as the Son of God. Today we will see the beauty and glory of Christ through the eyes of Matthew. Who then is Jesus according to Matthew? Jesus is King of the Jews, long-expected Messiah, promised Savior of Israel and all nations. So Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus, then announces King’s arrival first through the Magi. From this story, we can learn who Jesus is and how we should respond to King Jesus.

Look!
As we listen to the story of the Magi today, I would like to draw your attention to three particular verbs in verse 2. The Magi said to King Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” – “look (see),” “come,” and “worship.” First, look. The star was not hidden. It was right there, shining and guiding. Anybody could see the star if they lifted up their eyes and looked. Charles Spurgeon was converted when he heard a preacher saying, “Look! Now looking don’t take a deal of pain. It’s not lifting your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand pounds a year to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look…. Look to Jesus, and be saved!” In other words, God is always at work around us. God’s signs are all around us. That’s the first reality. That’s the first step to know who Jesus is. When the apostle Paul preaches in Athens, he said, “Indeed, he [God] is never far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27 ISV). The Message version translates it this way: “He doesn’t hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near!” Yes, the Lord is near.

God’s sign is not hidden. But in the busyness of our life it is possible to so easily lose sight of God’s work in us and God’s sign around us. When Ahaz, king of Judah, heard news that Aram and Northern Israel went up to attack his kingdom, he and his people shook like trees in the wind. Then, the Lord said to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Ahaz was a hypocrite. He was saying pious words, but deep in his heart he didn’t trust God. God said to Ahaz through Isaiah, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isa 7:14). So what God’s signs do you see? Surely this year will be one of the most memorable years for many of us. We have been through a lot together this year: Covid-19 pandemic and civil unrest, George Floyd death and second civil rights movement, presidential election and political unrest, and the list goes on. In all this what are signs that it is present? Where and how is God at work? How do you sense God nudging you in this situation? These are guiding questions to discern and see God’s signs.

Come!
Not only did the Magi see the star, but also they have come to Jerusalem. Many scholars assume that the Magi came from the environs of Babylon. If so, they would have traveled about nine hundred miles. It would have taken several months. When they saw the star, God’s sign, they spared no efforts to leave their country and come to Jerusalem. In today’s passage we see a clear contrast between the Magi and the Jewish religious leaders, who simply do nothing about Jesus. When asked where would Messiah be born, the priests and scribes had accurate scriptural knowledge, quoting from Micah 5:2, “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” But that was it. They went back to business as usual. Their biblical knowledge did not lead them to come with the Magi. In fact, they were not interested in the arrival of the Savior because they were already content with their present life. They did not need a Savior.

Like these religious leaders, there are many in the church who have scriptural knowledge and affirm its teaching. They regularly attend church and say the right prayer. But in reality, deep down in their hearts they feel indifferent towards Jesus. Pastor and theologian Michael Horton, in his book Christless Christianity, said, “In short, the spirituality of American is Christian in name only…We embrace preferences rather than truth. We seek comfort rather than growth…We have enthroned ourselves as the final arbiters of righteousness, the ultimate rulers of our own experience and destiny.” John Wesley called this kind of people “Almost Christians.” We see God’s sign, but we don’t want to go there. We hear God’s message, but we don’t want to change patterns of our lives because, then we need to give up our preferences and comfort. We find ourselves in religious leaders. The Magi stirs our hearts today. “Lift up and look up and see the sign! And come with us!”

Worship!
The Magi had a clear purpose to come: worship. They saw the star, and they have come to worship Jesus (v. 2). They didn’t come to Jesus empty-handed. Instead, they brought their precious and valuable gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They worshiped Jesus with sacrificial gifts. Each gift has a significant meaning. Gold is a symbol of royalty and divinity. Frankincense was consecrated as pure and holy and was the only incense permitted at the altar. Myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial. By bringing these gifts, the Magi were prophesying and saying, “Jesus, you are King. Your life will be a pure and holy offering to God. And your death will bring salvation to all people.”

Have you given a sacrificial gift to someone? When we give such a gift to somebody, it’s a way of saying, “I love you.” When the Magi worshipped Jesus with their sacrificial gifts, it’s a way of saying, “Jesus, I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. Lord, you are my treasure, not these things. I honor you. And I love you.”

The Gift of the Magi
Probably, many of you have read “The Gift of the Magi” a short story written by O. Henry. Jim and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment. They have only two possessions between them in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather. On Christmas Eve Della was desperate to find a gift for Jim, but she had only $1.87 in hand. She decides to sell her hair for $20 to a wigmaker, and eventually she finds a gold watch chain for $21. She buys that chain with joy. Without knowing what she has done, Jim sells his cherished watch to buy expensive hair accessories for his wife. At 7 o’clock, Jim walks in and gives Della her present. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him. Both Jim and Della are now left with the gifts that neither one can use, but they realize what love is. The very act of sacrificial giving defines what it means to love each other.

God showed his sacrificial love by sending his own Son to die for us. The Bible says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God has entered our lives in Jesus, and we have never been the same. That is what Christmas is all about – first “Christ’s mass (service)” then “Christian’s mass (service).” “Christ’s love” and “our love.” By God’s sacrificial giving, we are transformed from the inside out, and now we give ourselves to King Jesus. The Magi saw the star, and they have come and worshipped Jesus. And now it’s our turn. What signs do you see? How do you respond to King Jesus? What gifts would you bring to him? May the Lord Jesus give us grace to see his signs. And may the Lord give us desire and courage to come and worship him with sacrificial gifts. Amen.

“Why Gratitude Matters” (Luke 17:11-19)

Giving Thanks Always?
There are few verses in the Bible that clearly say something like, “This is the will of God for you.” One of them is 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I believe most of us want to be thankful always, but in reality, it’s just hard. In particular, this year the Covid-19 pandemic has been stressful and isolating for many people. This week we celebrate Thanksgiving, but many of us had to cancel family gatherings. We find it more difficult to be thankful than in other years. But in today’s scripture – the story of ten lepers, we meet one man who did not forget to say “Thank you, Lord!” What made him so different from the other nine and so thankful? From this simple story, we can learn what gratitude is and why it is so important.

Gratitude Starts with Remembering
First, gratitude starts with remembering the past, remembering who we are. In today’s passage, all ten lepers are healed, but only one comes back and gives thanks to Jesus. Luke 17:16 says that man was a Samaritan. Who were the Samaritans? Samaritans were normally considered “half-breeds” or “the pagan half-Jews” because they had intermarried with the foreigners during the Assyria occupation period. In Jesus’ time, Jews did not associate with Samaritans. So, in verse 18 Jesus said to him, “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Yes, this man was a despised foreigner. He was the lowest of the low even among the lepers. But, because of that, because he knew who he was, when he was healed he was more thankful than anyone else. “Thank you, Jesus! You even came to me, you even loved me, you even healed me.” That is the reason why this man was different from the rest of them.

Gratitude starts with remembering. David always remembered the past. When he became prosperous, he knew that it was the Lord who had established him as king and made him successful (1Ch 14:2). In 2 Samuel 7 he prayed to the Lord, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” David had never forgotten the time when he was a shepherd boy. So he could give thanks to God always. God said to Israel again and again, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (ex. Dt 5:15). The apostle Paul says, “Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:12-13). All Christians, you and I, have a past. But now, by grace through faith we are saved and have new, eternal life. God even came to us and turned our scars into stars. If we remember this, how can we be silent? How can we stop giving thanks to God?

Gratitude Is a Choice
Gratitude starts with remembering our past. The second is, gratitude is a choice. In today’s text ten lepers met Jesus, and they asked him for healing. On the way to the temple all ten were made clean. I believe that all of them must have been grateful to Jesus for their healing. But for some reason the nine put off expressing their gratitude to Jesus till tomorrow. But we know that tomorrow never comes. Verse 15 says, “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.” All ten were healed and were grateful, but the nine put off and only one of them chose to express his gratitude. It was 9 to 1.

In the ongoing struggle of daily life, it’s much easier to choose ingratitude over gratitude. But as Christians, now we have the power to choose gratitude. Matthew Henry, the 18th-century Puritan preacher whose Bible commentary remains among the most popular of all time, was once accosted by robbers, but still he chose to be thankful this way:[1]

Let me be thankful, first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.

What a perspective! Gratitude is a choice. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says “Give thanks in all circumstances,” and then Paul says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” In other words, in order to give thanks always, we must not quench the Spirit. We need to be sensitive to the Spirit and obey him without delay. When I look back over this year, every time I obeyed the Spirit, there was joy. But, every time I quenched the Spirit and put off obeying him, there was regret. Do you listen to the Spirit today? He still speaks to us today. We can listen to him through the Bible, our prayer, our circumstances, our conversation, our church and even this message. Do you want to be thankful always? Be sensitive to the Spirit and choose to obey him today. Express your gratitude to God today. Sing praises to him today. Give him a thank-offering today. Contact the person God puts on your mind today. Forgive today. Help those in need today. Then, your heart will be filled with joy and thanksgiving.

Gratitude Draws Us Close to God
Now we move on to the most important question, “Why is gratitude so important?” “Why are we commanded to give thanks in everything?” The answer is, it’s because gratitude draws us close to God. It’s because gratitude is good for our relationship with God as well as our well-being. In today’s scripture when the man came back and thanked Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (NIV). This verse can also be translated as, “Your faith has saved you.” In other words, when the man chose to give thanks to Jesus, he was healed spiritually as well as physically. All ten cried out (prayed) to Jesus. All ten were healed. The nine were healed and moved on. But this man was healed and saved. Gratitude draws us close to God.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Be thankful for moonlight, and you shall get sunlight: be thankful for sunlight, and you shall get that light of heaven which is as the light of seven days.” The more we choose gratitude, the more we are ushered into the very presence of God. The Bible says, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:6-7, NRSV). In other words, in every situation prayer plus thanksgiving equals God’s peace, God’s presence. Gratitude keeps our hearts in right relationship with God.

9 Things to Thank God
As I close, I would like to share a story about Pastor Sohn Yang Won, whose nickname was "Atomic Bomb of Love." In 1948 the communist rebels captured the city where he had ministered in South Korea. The rebels captured his two young adult sons, Dong-In and Dong-Shin. The two sons refused to renounce their faith; instead, they boldly preached the gospel to the rebels. They were beaten, tortured, and murdered. A few weeks later the South Korean troops recaptured the city. At the trial Pastor Sohn forgave the sons’ killers and even adopted the rebel leader as his own son. The adopted son later became a pastor. On the day of his two sons’ funeral Pastor Sohn read a thanksgiving address, titled, “9 things to thank for”:

1. My God, I thank You, for having allowed martyrs to be born in the family of sinners such as mine.
2. My Lord, I thank You for having entrusted me, out of countless believers, with such precious treasures.
3. Among my three sons and three daughters, I thank You for my blessings through which I could offer You my two most beautiful children, my oldest and second oldest sons.
4. I thank You for the martyrdom for two of my children, when the martyrdom of one child in itself is much more precious than I could bear.
5. I thank You for the martyrdom of my sons who were shot to death while they were preaching the gospel, when dying peacefully on his deathbed in itself is a tremendous blessing for a believer.
6. I thank You for my heart is at peace as my sons, who had been preparing to go and study in America, are now in a place that is much better than America.
7. God, I thank You for giving me a heart of love for repentance of the enemy who murdered my sons and compelling me to adopt him as my own son.
8. My Father God, I thank you for there will now be countless more sons of heaven through the fruit of the martyrdom of my sons.
9. I thank and thank Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given me these eight truths in times of such adversity, the joyful heart seeking faith and love, and the faith that provides me with composure.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, what are you thankful for today? How shall you express your gratitude to God?

---------------
[1] Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, “Gratitude Is a Choice,” https://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/faith/essentials-faith/growing-in-your-faith/gratitude-is-a-choice/

Add caption

“The Life God Blesses” (Psalm 134:1-3)

The Day I Hit the Wall
In his book Ordering Your Private World Gordon MacDonald, who is now an 81-years-old pastor and spiritual father to many, shares his story about the day he hit the wall. At that time he was a young pastor in a sizeable church. His father had been a pastor, and his grandfather had been one. Pastor Gordon enjoyed the advantages that had come to him: natural giftedness, good connections, and fast start. But ironically, the more the church was thriving, the more he felt empty and impoverished. One Saturday morning, he finally collapsed. He cried for hours without knowing why. But thankfully, he didn’t let the day just pass by. He stopped, stepped back, pondered what was going on, what was wrong, what was missing. Later he called that day something of a conversion experience. That was the day he saw all too clearly where he was headed if something did not change in his private world. It was the day he started the search for inner orderliness. Pastor Gordon says that this process continues until this day.

The Final Words of Blessing
Today’s scripture, psalm 134 is the last of the fifteen Songs of the Ascents. It is a psalm of blessing. It is a psalm sung by the pilgrims who finally finished their pilgrim journey and safely arrived in Jerusalem. So psalm 134 is like the blessing and advice our grandparents give to us on how to live a blessed life. The structure of the psalm is simple and clear: “call to worship” (vv. 1-2) and “benediction” (v. 3). “Bless God and be blessed by God” is the main theme.

Then, what is a blessing according to the Bible? In the Old Testament the Hebrew word most often translated “bless” is barak, which can mean to praise, congratulate, or salute. In the New Testament, according to the Key-Word Study Bible, “The Greek word translated blessed is makarioi which means to be fully satisfied.” So if we put those meanings together, to bless God means to praise God, worship God, exalt God, be satisfied in God. And to be blessed by God means to live a life that God blesses and praises.

God’s Greatest Blessing
To many, God’s blessing means to have a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, and quick and easy death and no suffering. But that’s not necessarily God’s blessing. It’s called the American Dream.

The Bible says that God’s blessing is anything that makes us fully satisfied in him. Anything that makes us seek the things above. Anything that draws us closer to God. And often it is the struggles and trials and crises in life. Nice families, financial wealth, and good health are all wonderful gifts from God. But they are not his greatest blessing.

God’s greatest blessing is God himself, God’s presence. In Exodus 32 the Israelites made the golden calf while Moses was away. They said to Aaron, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us.” We can paraphrase what they said in today’s language this way: “We don’t care about what kinds of gods you make. If we could just have a good job, a good family, good friends, a fun retirement, and if we could get to heaven safely – if we could have that, we’d be satisfied even without God.” The Israelites didn’t care about God’s presence if they could have those gifts on the way and enter the Promised Land. But Moses was different. When Moses interceded for his people, God said, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you” (33:3). Moses replied, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” God said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then, Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” Moses was neither satisfied with security on the way nor the Promised Land at the end. All he wanted was to taste and see God’s presence and to be fully satisfied in him.

Two Stories
In his sermon, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” Pastor John Piper shares two different stories with us. The first story goes like this. In his church two of the faithful church members, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, who went to Cameroon as missionaries, had both been killed because of a car accident. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. As people read this story in the paper, they said, “What a tragedy!” But Pastor John said, “No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.” Then, he tells us the second story, what a tragedy is. He reads to us from Reader’s Digest: “Bob and Penny… took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their thirty foot trawler, playing softball and collecting shells.”[1] Pastor John concludes in this way[2]:

When you don’t believe in heaven to come and you are not content in the glory of Christ now, you will seek the kind of retirement that the world seeks. But what a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure (!) while living in the midst of the Last Days of infinite consequence for millions of people who need Christ. What a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of the King who finished his last mile so differently!

The Life God Blesses
God’s blessing is more than the golden calf. God’s blessing is more than the American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells. And God’s blessing is more than just getting to heaven, or safely arriving in the Promised Land. God’s greatest blessing is to be fully satisfied in him and his presence now. Catherine of Siena said, “All the way to heaven is heaven.” The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” What is the final purpose? What is the main thing about us? Where are we going, and what will we do when we get there? The answer is “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Bless God. Glorify God. Enjoy God. Be satisfied in God.

At one Christian Conference a Chinese pastor who had spent 18 years in prison for his faith gave his testimony. The authorities in the camp put him to the hardest and dirtiest work – emptying the human waste cesspool, because they knew he was a pastor and a Christian. But they didn’t know in those years how he actually enjoyed working there. In the labor camp all the prisoners were under strict surveillance 24/7 and no one could be alone. But when the pastor worked in the cesspool, he could enjoy the solitude. He could be alone and could pray and sing to the Lord as loudly as he needed. The guards kept a long way off because of the strong stench. One of his most favorite was “In the Garden.” He always liked this hymn, but he didn’t realize the real meaning of this hymn until he worked in the cesspool. There, he knew and discovered a wonderful fellowship with Jesus. Again and again he sang this hymn and felt Christ’s real presence with him:

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear;
The Son of God discloses.
And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
And he tells me I am his own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.

The pastor said, “Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the Lord’s presence. He never left me or forsook me. And so I survived and the cesspool became my private garden.”[3] These are the words of a person whose life God has chosen to bless. Many of us remember the final words of John Wesley: “The best of all, indeed, is that God is with us.” We don’t have to wait until we get to the end of our pilgrim journey. So, come now, bless God, and God bless you! Amen. 

----------
[1] John Piper, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/boasting-only-in-the-cross/excerpts/dont-waste-your-life
[2] John Piper, Rethinking Retirement (Crossway Books, 2008), 27.
[3] Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses (Thomas Nelson, 1997), 225-26.

“Life Together” (Psalm 133:1-3)

Where Should We Begin?
We are in such a divided world. We fear each other. We fear people who don’t look like us, don’t think like us, don’t talk like us. Republicans think Democrats are dangerous, and Democrats see the same threat in Republicans. We shoot each other in malls and schools. We threat each other in our places of worship. The list goes on and on.

Psalm 133 is about unity. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” Here the word translated good is tov. The same word is used in Genesis 1. When God created the heavens and the earth, he saw that it was good. Unity was a part of God’s design. We were meant to enjoy unity. But, since sin entered the world, all of our relationships have been broken and divided: between God and humanity, between husband and wife, between siblings, between tribes, between races. So today, as we look around the world, our divisiveness, our woundedness, and our brokenness seem too deep to overcome. We are tempted to just throw in the towel and give up. But psalm 133 tells us that there is hope. In fact, the whole of Scripture proclaims that it is possible to live together in unity because of what Jesus has done for us. The Bible says, “He is our peace. He has broken down the diving wall between God and humanity, and between us. He created one new humanity and reconciled both groups through the cross!” (Eph 2:14-16) Jesus already created unity for us, but the question is, “How can we have that unity in this divided world today?” “Where should we begin?” Actually, John Wesley asked the same question and provided the blueprint for a path to unity. It’s called “three simples rules.”

Do No Harm
The first simple rule is “Do no harm.” On the surface, this first rule looks easy and simple. And we think that we are already practicing it and doing a good job. But when this first rule is really practiced, it can change our world. For instance, if I am to do no harm, I can no longer gossip. Some people would say that gossip is when you spread rumors that aren’t true. But actually, gossip is more than that: If I talk bad about somebody who’s not present – that’s gossip. If I talk about somebody who’s not present and I share things without that person’s permission – that’s gossip. If I talk about somebody who’s not present and I say anything with a motive of tearing that person down – that’s gossip. What I’m saying might be true, but that doesn’t mean I ought to be saying it.

Therefore, one of the practical ways to live out the first simple rule, “Do no harm,” in our daily living is to examine ourselves and confront the sin of gossip in our own lives, and stop gossiping in any circumstances. This is the act of disarming, laying aside our weapons and desires to do harm. We all have desires to win other people to our side, especially when we think it is not fair. In this process we often gossip, manipulate facts, speak only half-truths. But when we resolve to do no harm, we can no longer gossip about the conflict. We can no longer manipulate the facts of the conflict. We can no longer speak badly about those involved in the conflict. It does demand self-denial and a radical trust in God’s character, intervention, and guidance. The Lord says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19). Only when we trust this promise of God, we are then able to disarm ourselves and leave it to God without bitterness. Let us trust God, examine ourselves, confront and repent our own sin of gossip, and stop gossiping. That’s the first step to unity.

Do Good
The second simple rule is, “Do good.” Again it sounds simple. But do good to whom? Where are the boundaries? Where do we start? Rueben P. Job expounds this way: “Doing good is not limited to those like me or those who like me. Doing good is directed at everyone, even those who do not fit my category of “worthy” to receive any good that I or others can direct their way.”[1] The parable of the Good Samaritan can be a good example. In Jesus’ time Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other. They were each other’s enemies. But when the Samaritan saw the man attacked by robbers and lying there, he was moved with compassion. And he reached out to him, bound up his wounds, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. At the end of this story, Jesus said to the lawyer, “Go and do the same (love and do good to your enemies), and you will live” (cf. Luke 10:28, 37). From this, we can learn at least two significant spiritual principles. First, the boundaries. We must do good and love our enemies as well as our friends. Second, by loving our enemies we will live. By loving our enemies, we overcome evil.

Then, what does loving our enemies look like in our divided, hostile, and wounded world? Our Lord Jesus tells us the first step to loving our enemies. It is to pray for them. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!” (Matt 5:44) Not just once, twice, or occasionally, but day by day and on a regular basis. Not just pray in general, but pray specifically for their salvation, for their families, for their physical strength, for their spiritual health and growth, for their God-given vision and purpose of life. Also, another way of doing good and loving our enemies is to forgive them. Forgiveness is not easy. It’s a process. Bitterness keeps coming back. Forgiveness takes work. But as we come to the cross of Christ, we begin to see the depth of our own sins and the wonder of God’ grace. We begin to realize Christ loved me so much that He died on a cross to forgive me. If the Lord has forgiven me – even me, who am I to refuse to forgive others? I must forgive. You must forgive. We must forgive. Do you have any grudges you’ve been harboring? Identify them, and forgive the persons involved today. Doing good is a proactive way of living. We don’t need to wait to be asked to help, pray and forgive. Do good. That’s the second step to unity.

Stay in Love with God
These first two simple rules – “Do no harm” and “Do good” – are important. But without the third rule, they become the righteousness of a Pharisee. In other words, the external righteousness of the first two rules must be accompanied by an inward transformation of heart, which only comes from a vital relationship with God. That leads to the third rule, that is, “Stay in love with God.” It is a foundation to all of life. When we keep falling in love with God, we are enlivened, sustained, strengthened, and transformed.

John Wesley names some spiritual practices that help us to stay in love with God: private and family prayer, studying the Scriptures, fasting, public worship, the Lord’s Supper. Wesley always emphasized a balanced spiritual life – between personal and communal spiritual disciplines. For Wesley there is no religion but social religion, no holiness but social holiness. In this respect, staying in love with God means staying in love with God’s people, the church. The church is family. Being a Christian can sometimes feel like being in a family with a thousand drunk uncles to borrow the words of Justin McRoberts.[2] But these uncles are not our enemies. Like it or not, they are still family. We don’t get to choose our family. Our family is chosen for us. As a family, we are to stick together through thick and thin, for better or worse, in sickness and health. The local church is the classroom for us to learn how to get along in God’s family and how to grow from mere tolerance to love and unity. As we stay in love with the church, we also learn to stay in love with God. The Bible says, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).

Let Unity Begin with Me
Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God. The rules are simple, but the way is not easy. But as we choose to walk this costly way and keep choosing it, unity will come in the steps. So, let us walk in the path of unity.

As I close, I would like to read part of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which rings as true today as it did in 1963:

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day…

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

------------
[1] Rueben P. Job, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living (Abingdon Press, 2007), 37.
[2] Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines (Tyndale, 2015), 49.

“Our Plan, God’s Plan” (Psalm 132:11-18)

Daughter’s Plan, Father’s Plan
I carry my travel mug everywhere and all the time. There is a story behind this. It was October 5th if I remember correctly. I was about to go to Walmart to grab some household items. All of sudden, Lydia insisted that she must go with me. She was determined. So, Lydia and I went to Walmart together. As we entered the building, I asked, “Lydia, now can you tell me why you have to come?” She said, "Because I want to buy you a gift." "Why?" I asked. "Because it's pastor appreciation month! I wanted to buy a gift for my best pastor in the world." I loved Lydia’s lovely thoughts and plans. Then later, I said to myself, “Lydia, I also have plans for you though I can’t tell you, or show you right now. I have been saving money in the bank just for you ever since the day you were born. When the time comes, it will be yours. It will probably be worth a thousand times more than the mug you bought for me today.” Our heavenly Father also says to us, “I know the plans I have for you – plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11). God has a plan for you.

David’s Plan
So, what is God’s plan exactly? Psalm 132 answers this question. This psalm consists of two parts: the first part is David’s prayer, “David’s plan” (vv. 1-10), and the second is God’s response to the prayer, that is, “God’s plan” (vv. 11-18). Psalm 132 shows a clear contrast between our plan and God’s plan. In a word, our plan is to invite God to my kingdom and assign him to be my advisor, so that I may become a better person, live a good life, and at the end get to heaven safely. It’s not a bad plan. But God has a much better, much glorious plan for us. God’s plan is to rescue us from our kingdom and take us to his kingdom, so that we may get to know him, love him, treasure him, and live a life with him now and forever.

David’s plan was to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem and to build a place for God’s dwelling. David said, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Ps 132:3-5). David was determined. It was a good plan, lovely thoughts. The prophet Nathen liked the plan, but God had a different plan, better plan for David and his people.

God’s Plan
God responds to David’s prayer in this way: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne… There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one” (Ps 132:11, 17). Here God is not merely talking about one of David’s sons. God is not talking about Solomon. Here what God is saying is about the Messiah, who will come from David’s body, build a house for God’s name, and establish God’s kingdom forever. As God promised, when the time had fully come, Jesus the Messiah did come from David’s body. Jesus destroyed a man-made, temporary temple, and in three days he built a new, permanent temple for God. He did this on the cross. He has removed the barrier of sin and death that separates us from God. He has opened the life-gate of his kingdom that we all may go in.

Skye Jethani, in his book With, tells us about five different ways of life to relate to God: life under God, life over God, life from God, life for God, and life with God. And he expounds further on each life posture in this way[1]:

LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose. But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God.

In other words, our plan is to use God in order to acquire our treasure. But God’s plan is to be with us and become our treasure. John Piper rightly said, “Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God.”[2] Through many trials we learn to treasure Christ more than anything in this world. Through this pandemic we learn to treasure Christ more than health and wealth. Through this civil and political unrest, we learn to treasure Christ and his kingdom more than our family, our tribe, our nation.

In the Wilderness
In the wilderness God disciplined his people all the way for 40 years. God had a purpose for this. He had a plan. Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” In other words, God’s plan is not simply to give bread, but to be bread. God’s plan is not just to meet our needs and help us to go on treasuring other things, but to be our treasure, our life.

Once again, in the wilderness Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish (cf. John 6). After this, a large crowd was following him. In fact, they were ahead of him and waiting for him. When Jesus arrived, they asked him another miracle, saying, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do?” Then, Jesus talked about the true bread from heaven. They said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.” In other words, exactly the same message as Deuteronomy’s one: Jesus came not to give bread, but to be bread. Jesus came not to be useful, but to be precious.

Life with God
When we pause and ponder the way we relate to God, we find that too often we live a life under, over, from and for God. We use God to protect, secure, expand our kingdom. But God gently but forcefully keeps nudging us and inviting us to a life with him. Once the CBS anchor interviewed Mother Teresa, asking, “When you pray, what do you say to God?” “I don’t say anything,” she replied. “I listen.” “Okay,” The anchor said, taking another shot at it. “When God speaks to you, then, what does he say?” “He doesn’t say anything. He listens.” He didn’t know how to continue. He was baffled. “And if you don’t understand that,” Mother Teresa added, “I can’t explain it to you.”[3]

Yes, it’s true that prayer is communication with God, talking and listening to God. When we consider prayer as communication, we would be perplexed by Mother Teresa’s answer. But prayer is more than just communication. It’s communion. Life with God means to live in constant communion with God. All of my four daughters love me, but I think for some reason, particularly Esther is a daddy’s girl. Sometimes I have to go to the church office after my children go to bed. Every night she checks on me, “Daddy, are you going to church?” “Why?” I ask. She says, “Just because I like to be with you.” I believe that’s communion – being with God, treasuring God with joy. That’s life with God.

The Now
God’s plan is for us to taste and see this wonderful “life with God” in the now, not after death. The question is “How?” God’s plan for us – Life with God – is not about do’s and don’ts. Audrey West describes what “life with God” means in this way in a recent issue of Christian Century. She saw a video of an archery expert who used his own homemade bow to amaze his audience. He started by having an assistant throw a 6-inch wooden disk in the air and he hit it dead center. A high speed camera captured the shot. The assistant then threw a 2.5-inch plastic ball. Again he hit it dead center. He did it three more times, each time into an even smaller target: a golf ball, then a Life Saver candy, and finally an aspirin tablet. Each time the arrow hit dead center. The show’s host asked how he could hit something that small. The archer replied, “The center of an aspirin is the same size as the center of a beach ball. I just aim for the center!”[4]

A lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37-39). In the Jewish tradition there are 613 commandments. But Jesus boils it down to one commandment: “Love God” and “Love your neighbor.” Jesus always aims for the center. Jesus is our perfect example. While he was with us in this world, Jesus was in constant communion with God by loving God and loving people. So, how can we live a life with God “for such a time as this”? Practice loving God. Practice loving your neighbor. Always aim for the center. May God be your treasure, your bread, your life. Amen.

-------------
[1] Skye Jethani, With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God (p. 103). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
[2] Ibid., 109.
[3] Ibid., 113-114.
[4] Audrey West, Christian Century, Vol 137.21. 10/7/2020, p. 21.

“The Secret of Contentment” (Psalm 131:1-3)

Christian Contentment
I always have cold hands. When I pass the peace during a Sunday service, one of the comments most often heard is “Your hands are cold!” So I bought this hand warmer, and I use it during the cold season. It does help to keep my hands warm. But the thing is I often forget to carry it with me. Without the hand warmer, as a result, my hands are still cold most of the time.

Psalm 131 is about Christian contentment. This psalm teaches us about a kind of contentment, that is rooted not in circumstances, but in God. Jeremiah Burrough, in his book Rare Jewell of Christian Contentment, compares contentment that comes from circumstances to the warming of your clothes by the fire.[1]

To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man’s clothes by the fire. But to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that a man’s clothes have from the natural heat of his body. A man who is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little while they are warm. Now, how did they get warm? They were not near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body. Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot for a long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will soon be cold again. (28)

So Christian contentment is like the sustaining warmth that comes from the natural heat of our body. Psalm 131 is a short psalm, but a very powerful psalm. When Charles Spurgeon preached this psalm, he said it “is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.” In those three verses, David invites us to a life of contentment in this discontent world.

Beware of Pride
The first key to Christian contentment is to renounce pride. In verse 1 David says, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” Here David renounces pride at three levels: his heart, his eyes (high view of himself), his action (“I do not occupy myself with…”). At every level he renounces pride.

Pride is having confidence in self. So, another word for pride would be self-reliance, self-exaltation, self-rule. John Piper said, “There are two kinds of pride — the pride of having and the pride of wanting. The pride of having is the pride of those who have superiority, or think they do … The pride of wanting is the pride of those who don’t have superiority but wish they did and continually crave others’ attention and approval.”[2] Different forms but the same root: having confidence in self. Many of us often think, “I don’t have superiority, so I don’t have pride.” We may not have the pride of having, but pride is often seen in those who have nothing to be arrogant about and crave the attention and approval of others. The pride of wanting. “My life would be better if only I had … better health, better job, better family, more vacation time, more money…” More, bigger, better. But trying to find contentment in all this is like keeping our hands warm with a hand warmer. It comes and goes. It’s temporary. So the first step to Christian contentment is to cut off all forms of pride at every level.

Learn Contentment
Here is the second point: contentment is a learned skill. In verse 2 David says, “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.” Verse 2 is David’s very intentional composure of soul. Negatively, David renounces all forms of pride at every level. Positively, he intentionally seeks to find contentment in God.

David does this like a weaned child. There is a clear difference between an unweaned child and a weaned child. Hannah is an unweaned child. She is frantically looking for her mom, craving milk for her stomach. But Esther and Grace are weaned children. They just enjoy the mom’s presence. The other day I asked Grace, “What is your favorite time?” She said, “Snuggle time with mom!” Almost every evening Esther asks me, “Will you read me a story?” Here what she is saying is, “Can I come and sit on your knee, and feel your arms around me, and hear your voice?” For Grace and Esther, for the weaned child, it is not about her stomach. It’s about her heart.

David exhorts us to learn and cultivate the weaned childlike soul. I think one of the best examples of this is the apostle Paul. In Philippians 4 Paul tells us about his contentment in the Lord:

Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Paul says, “I’ve learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” What’s the secret of Paul’s contentment? Christ Jesus is the secret of his contentment. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Paul has learned to depend on the Lord as certain things he had depended on were taken away from him. David has learned the secret of contentment through many trials and tribulations. As pandemic drags on, as American politics gets messy, as days get shorter and darker, we have been affected by all this. We grieve. And it hurts. But still, like a weaned child, with humility, curiosity, trust, we can learn to depend on God, not on circumstances. Contentment is a learned skill.

Tell the World
Christian contentment renounces pride. It is a learned skill. And here’s the third: Christian contentment is contagious. In verse 3 David says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore!” He tells the world to join him in this contentment, satisfaction, joy, peace, hope that he has found in God. When David was running away from Saul and living in the wilderness, some people came to him, and David became their leader. 1 Samuel 22:2 says, “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him” (1 Sam 22:2). Basically, those 400 men were social misfits, convicts, and troublemakers. But the amazing thing is David did not become like one of them. Instead, those 400 men became like David. At the beginning the 400 men were worthless men and troublemakers, but later, they became founding contributors and leaders. How can it be possible? It is because David spent more time with God than with those 400 men. Every morning David offered his first thoughts, first words, first hour to God. And he was shaped by God’s word and God’s character day after day after day. David has learned to be content in God. And his contentment was just shining out. Through his life David tells the world around him, “Hope in the Lord! Join me in my child-like contentment in him!”

Living with Contentment
Still today, perhaps now more than ever, the message of Psalm 131 is so true, and so need to be heard: O God’s people, renounce pride and humble yourselves before God. Seek to find contentment in God alone. O God’s people, hope in the Lord – not yourself. Hope in the Lord – not health. Hope in the Lord – not family. Hope in the Lord – not politics. Hope in the Lord – not power. Hope in the Lord – not economy, not money.

As I close, I would like to share the prayer of Missy Buchanan. When she wrote this prayer (May 2008), Missy was a caregiver for her 92 years old mother, who continued to seek her contentment in God, but increasing pain and health issues.[3]

I confess there are days when pain suffocates my passion for living. 

There are dark nights when fear chokes out hope. 

Sometimes I wonder why you have left me on this earth. 

I have outlived so many family and friends. 

Why do I linger? 

What purpose could you have for me now? 

Look at my hands. Once strong and sure, they are unsteady and frail. 

My mind, once quick and incisive, now falters under the weight of names and faces. 

What real purpose do I serve knitting away the hours, 

surfing the channels, dozing through the afternoon? 

Then your Spirit stirs my heart and convicts my soul. 

You are not a wasteful God! 

The length of my earthly days is a mystery to me, but one thing I know for sure. 

You have created me with an eternal purpose. 

How can I be more like Christ today? 

Whose life can I touch with kindness? 

Lord, give me an extra measure of grace when I feel that I’m too old to be useful. 

Help me take my limitations in stride as I search for opportunities to serve you. 

My purpose has not withered away with another birthday. 

It is rooted in eternity. 

Amen. 

---------

[1] Quoted in John Piper, “Join Me in Soul-Satisfaction in God,” Desiring God (September 14, 2014)
[2] Ibid.
[3] Missy Buchanan, Living with Purpose in a Worn–Out Body (p. 7). Upper Room Books. Kindle Edition.