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Transcript December 20/21, 2014

Waiting for the World to Change: God Breaks Through Jake Barker | Matthew 1

Welcome Traders Point! I hope you have had a great weekend so far. Hopefully you are in full Christmas spirit at this moment, kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer. That is the ultimate Christmas spirit; that is what I think. I know that, on my calendar, Christmas Eve service really focuses me so I would love to see you back here on Tuesday or Wednesday at 5 and 6:30. We just felt like we needed to pause in this calendar year and talk about Christmas for a few weeks. Not because the calendar told us to do it but genuinely, and I don’t mean this as an overstatement, we believe that Christmas is the beginning of the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of the world. I am not overstating that. A few of you agree [applause], and the rest of you will. Genuinely, Christmas is the beginning of the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of the world. We believe that history, up until that moment, was paving the way so that when Jesus arrived we would pay attention. We believe that after Jesus arrived everything has been changed because of Him. So we are going to spend time on Christmas, not just because it is December but because it is important. You see Christmas is the most important thing that has ever happened because Jesus is the most important person who has ever lived. We are wildly convicted that this is a message that is not just timely, but that it matters. It is super important. So our question today is not going to be just resting on the historical facts and figures. We are not doing just a sentimental re-‐telling of the same story with the same characters that you’ve heard all your life. What we want to ask is the question, “Why does Christmas Matter?” Genuinely, if you were sitting across the table from your friend at a coffee shop and they said, “I know the point of Christmas but how has it changed you?” how would you answer that question? How has Christmas changed the way you live? How has it changed your relationships? How has it changed the way you spend your money, the words that you use? How has Christmas genuinely affected the way you live life? So, at 3:30 on a random afternoon, if a classmate, or a co-‐worker, or a family member asked you that question how would you respond? That is what we are going to focus on today. If you have your Bible or a Bible app, I would love for you to join me in Matthew 1. Matthew 1 is the very first chapter in the entire New Testament. It is two-‐thirds of the way through a paper Bible if you have one of those. You can head on over there. While you are on your way I want to ask you a question. How many of you have accidently accomplished greatness? Like the greatest thing that you have ever done in your life was a complete accident? You didn’t mean to, it was just a total chance, and it just happened, and it was incredible. So fellas who are in the room, how many of you accidently proposed to your wife? You were on a date and it was going really well, and she is laughing at all your jokes, and you remembered to put on deodorant, really all that stuff that happens before you are married? You are kind of walking on the

Waiting for the World to Change: God Breaks Through December 20/21, 2014

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

sidewalk and you see something shiny and you bend down and pick it up and you realize, “Oh, it is a ring.” Then you look up and she is crying, and she has already called her mom, and you are like, “I guess we are getting married. I guess I am engaged now. I didn’t realize that was going to happen.” No of course not. Like you dated, and you love her, and you picked out the ring. If that is your story, do not tell her. Just ride it out. It will make it very awkward forever so do not let that one out of the bag. How many of you accidently graduated from high school or college? Like you didn’t mean to, it just happened. You turned in these papers, and they happened to be about the right thing, and you studied for the right test, and all of the sudden you accidently got this diploma. Or imagine tonight on the 10 o’clock news they are interviewing Andrew Luck after one of his fourth quarter comebacks. And they say, “Andrew, tell us about that game clenching touchdown you threw.” And he is like, “Guys, I’ve got to tell you. I didn’t mean to do that. That was a complete accident. I was trying to throw the ball out of bounds and T.Y. Hilton grabbed it out of mid-‐air and scored a touchdown. I’ve just got to be honest. I didn’t mean to. It was just an accident to win that game.” Well of course that didn’t happen. He meant to do it. There was a game plan and it required execution to win the game. So many of us would admit that greatness, the greatest things in our lives, required a great amount of intentionality, hard-‐work, planning. What we are going to read here in Matthew 1 is a very intentional telling of the arrival of Jesus Christ. This is His origin story. This is where Jesus came into the world and we are going to find that our author, Matthew, spends a lot of time focusing on the details and the nuances of the story because it fully reveals who Jesus is. You see the truth is that the Bible is intentional because God is intentional. The Bible is intentional because God is intentional. I think a lot of times when we are considering the Bible we often assume that it is just kind of thrown together, it is the First Century and they just kind of smattered these words together and it happens to tell a pretty descent story. Maybe we assume that because it was written 2,000 years ago. Or maybe it’s because we are speed reading and we miss all the nuances and the details. But I can tell you that the Bible is incredibly intentional. Matthew focuses on details that will further illuminate the person and the mission of Jesus and that is what we are going to dive into today. So if you are already in Matthew 1 you will most likely see this big list of names at the very beginning. It is like this guy, and then that guy, and his mom, and then that guy and that is what that is. It is called a genealogy and this is the genealogy of Jesus. Now there may have been a year in your life where you made a New Year’s resolution that you were going to read more of the Bible that year. Then you ran into one of these suckers and you were like, “Oh, there is always next year. I don’t know these guys. I don’t even know my own family so why in the world do I care about who begat who. I don’t really care.” I don’t blame you. I get that but if we really believe that Bible is intentional, because God is intentional, then this stuff really matters. This family line, and this dad, and this son, and his mom, this was not an accident. This is no arbitrary listing of history but this is an intentional telling of the story. In fact Jesus’ family line illuminates the type of person Jesus is. You see back in the day your genealogy served as your resume. Now modern day if you and I were applying for a job, or a volunteer position, or whatever it may be, we are going to provide a resume that has our educational experience, where we went to school. It is going



to have our previous jobs to show our unique training for this position. It may even have our Myers-‐Briggs letters, “Here is the type of person I am. Here is my resume.” Well in that day they didn’t have resumes, they had genealogies. Who they were related to determined why they deserved a particular piece of property or a position. So if there was a debate as to who owned this piece of land they would not come with, “Here is where I went to school or here is my previous work experience.” They would say, “Here is who my dad is, and here is who his dad was, and here is who his dad was so I am the rightful owner of this piece of land.” Or if there was a dispute as to who was supposed to be the king they would not bring their resume. They would bring their genealogy. They would say, “My dad was the king, and his dad before that was the king, and his dad before that was the king so the throne is mine.” So these genealogies were incredibly important because they expressed the qualifications of that individual for a particular opportunity be it property, be it a position, maybe even a promise. They would say, “Here is my family. Here is why it is mine.” So you could imagine with something as important as a resume that the people in that day would edit their genealogies. They would edit their family to make them look as good as possible. Maybe that sounds super appealing to you. You would like to edit some of your family out of Wednesday, “I am going to go ahead and cut you out. I don’t want you to be there.” That is what they would do, right? They would just say, “I am going to show who I am related to but I am going to leave out my awkward cousin Eddy because I don’t want to talk about him.” This is very much like our resumes. We don’t include the embarrassing parts of our past when we are applying for a job. So when I was applying for jobs after college I did not include the embarrassing fact that I was fired from being an RA in college. An RA is the one who is on the floor in the dorm and, apparently, if you do not enforce an entire rule for an entire school year you were a bad RA. I didn’t know that. I didn’t get that note so I didn’t include that on my resume. This is much like the people in this day, they would not include the embarrassing parts of their family history to show who they were. For instance, there was this guy named Herod the Great. He was a King and he did not want anyone to know his past – that part of his family was half Edomite. He was of a mixed ancestry. So he had all of his genealogies destroyed so no one would know that about him. All of this is incredibly important because what we are about to read is Jesus’ genealogy. This is His family tree. This is His resume to be Savior of the world. So Matthew, our author, had every opportunity to edit this in any way he wanted to. The only people he includes in Jesus’ genealogy are intentional and they are on purpose. It is telling us more about who Jesus is and why He matters. So let’s dive into Matthew 1, verse 1 and we are going to read the family tree of Jesus. I promise this is important. Here we go, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Now we are going to pause right there. With these two men, the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, Matthew was trying to make a point. Matthew is writing to a bunch of Jewish listeners and when they heard that Jesus was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham they would have perked up because these two men were very, very famous in the history of Israel.



Now I don’t know about you. I don’t know if you are related to anyone famous, maybe like a celebrity, or an athlete, or a politician. I don’t know where your family history goes. For me, I was trying to think this week. I honestly think the most famous person I am kind of related to is Davey Crockett. Does anyone know Davey Crockett the frontiersman? That is all I have. But I’m also from Kentucky and I am kind of convinced that everybody in Kentucky thinks they are related to Davey Crockett. Now before you make the joke that everybody from Kentucky is related, just know that I beat you to the joke and it hurts my feelings. It really hurts my feelings but that is all I have. Matthew was making this massive cannonball in the pool of expectation by saying, “Hey guys you need to listen up. Jesus is important because He is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.” While that might be a little lost on us, Matthew knew exactly what his readers would assume. So maybe you are not all that familiar with the Bible. Let me give you the Sports Center highlight package of both guys. David was the King of Israel and I mean the greatest king. Honestly, there wasn’t even a close second. David was an incredible commander on the battle field and he won these amazing victories. When he returned home the ladies in town would sing songs about him. I don’t know if anyone has written a song about you. They have not of me yet. But David was really important like a really, really big deal. The influence of Israel grew under his leadership. It was an incredible blessing upon that nation for David to be their King. And on top of all of that David received a promise from God that one of his ancestors would sit on the throne forever. And so by Matthew saying that Jesus is the Son of David, he is saying Jesus is heir to the throne. He is the rightful owner of that seat. He is the King we have been waiting for. Then there is Abraham. Abraham was equally important in the history of Israel. Abraham was a guy God called to leave his family and all of his circumstances, everything he found to be familiar, and go…but He didn’t give him any of the details. And when Abraham followed because of his faith, God gave him a promise. He took him out into this open area in the middle of the night and told him to look at the stars. He said, “I will make your ancestors greater than the number of the stars in the sky.” And so by Matthew saying that Jesus is related to Abraham, he is saying Jesus is the heir to the promise. Abraham was the father of the nation of Israel and Jesus is in his direct line. So now we have Matthew saying, “Hey everybody pay attention!” He grabs the megaphone and starts yelling into it and says, “You need to pay attention to Jesus because He is the Son of David and He is the Son of Abraham.” So what we read next is this long list of qualifications. Here is why Jesus’ family matters. Now if you were with us last week you heard Aaron talk about the fact that the people in this moment had been waiting in silence for about 400 years. God had not communicated with them for about 400 years. If you have one of those paper Bibles, that piece of paper between Malachi and Matthew represents 400 years of silence. So God is breaking through the silence with His Son Jesus Christ. Matthew is yelling into the megaphone, “Pay attention! This is the King we have been waiting for!” If you and I were writing this story, most likely we would list off some of the greatest kings in the history of Israel that Jesus was related to, maybe some incredible military commanders who were in His bloodline. But it would be pristine, it would be perfect, it would show why Jesus is qualified to be the Savior of the world. But what we are about to see is not a family tree that is perfect and straight and



narrow. Jesus’ family tree is crooked, and backwards, and sideways. It is messy. We believe very much that this is intentional. It tells us about who Jesus is. So let’s start here in Matthew 1, verse 2, “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,” so Matthew begins listing off His forefathers and he begins with Abraham. Abraham was the father of the nation of Israel, the recipient of the promise from God. Abraham did incredible things for Israel but he also made some massive mistakes. Abraham was far from perfect. In fact after God gave Abraham that promise, he and his wife grew pretty impatient. You see when he got the promise that his ancestors would be greater than the number of stars in the sky, he wasn’t a dad yet and he was old in age. So he and his wife developed this plan to highjack God’s promise and get the ball rolling a little bit. They were going to make some action happen. So their plan was that Abraham would sleep with his female servant and they would have a baby and get this whole thing going. At the risk of blowing your mind, Abraham’s wife became jealous of the baby he had with another woman. Shocker, like maybe they should have considered that in the plan, but they didn’t. So Sarah grows resentful of that baby and that woman and casts them out of the camp. That is a messy start for this whole nation of Israel. Maybe you, in your impatience, decided to get God’s plan under your own control and make things happen. That is what Abraham did and he is in the family of Jesus. Then we meet Abraham’s grandson. His name is Jacob. And Jacob, just like his grandfather, did some incredible things for Israel but man he was shady. There was a moment in Genesis 25 where he tricks his older brother into trading his inheritance for a cup of soup. Then to top it all off he goes in to his dad who was blind and on his deathbed and lies to him. Now I am not sure if it gets much lower than lying to your dad right before he dies. But Jacob did that. Maybe you, just to get what you wanted, used the people you loved. That is what Jacob did and he is in the family of God. In verse 3 it continues, “And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,” and in Genesis 38 we meet Judah and Tamar. Judah was a man and Tamar was a woman and they had twins together, which seems perfectly normal, until you read in Genesis 38 that Judah and Tamar were not married. Tamar was his daughter-‐in-‐law. A father-‐in-‐law and a daughter-‐in-‐law had twins. You see Tamar had lost her husband early on in life and he left her a widow without any children. At that time in culture a woman without a husband or children really had no value. So out of a moment of desperation she tricked her father-‐in-‐law into sleeping with her and they had twins. So if you are asking yourself, “Is that true,” the answer is yes. There is actual incest in the family of Jesus. Maybe because you saw no light at the end of the tunnel you lied to someone in what you thought was self-‐preservation. That is what Tamar did. She is in the family of Jesus. It keeps going here in verse 5. If you skip down to verse 5 it says, “…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth.” In Joshua 2 we meet this lady named Rahab and there is really no gentle way of explaining who she was. She was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. She showed



grace to two Jewish spies who were on a reconnaissance mission and, because of her act of grace, she was saved when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. Not only was her life saved but she was adopted into the family of Israel. But if you are keeping score at home, there is a prostitute in the family of Jesus. Maybe you have an embarrassing secret in your past that you don’t want to talk about. Rahab did. She is in Jesus’ family. Rahab had this son and his name was Boaz. Boaz was one of the greatest men in the entire Bible. Boaz married a girl named Ruth. Boaz was of Jewish descent and Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabites were a people known for their sexual immorality. They were so bad they were not allowed to worship with the Jews. They literally had to stay outside. And Boaz goes and he marries one of them, producing one of the multiple inter-‐racial marriages in the family of Jesus. Maybe you have been judged or outcast because of the color of your skin. Ruth had that experience. She is in the family of Jesus. It keeps going here in verse 6, it says, “…And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” Details matter. “By the wife of Uriah,” is very important to the story of King David. Remember this is King David the greatest of all kings and called, “A man after God’s own heart.” But one hot, lonely summer night the King was where he should not have been, and he saw what he should not have seen, and he took what was not his. He took a woman who was the wife of another man and they had an affair. And when he found out she was pregnant he tried to cover it up. When that cover-‐up imploded he had her husband killed and took her for his own wife. Maybe you have faced the very real consequences of sexual sin. David did and he is in the family of Jesus. From there on we see this list of names of terrible, I mean terrible kings of Israel. These were the worst kings. These kings were in charge of God’s people and they encouraged them toward idolatry. Just think about this. A relative of Jesus encouraged people to worship an idol. And they are in the family of Jesus. It all wraps up here in verse 16. It says, “And Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” Here is the undeniable truth of Matthew 1. Jesus came from a mess. This is messy. Jesus’ relatives were adulterers, idolaters, and murderers. So we have to ask the question, “Why would Matthew include all of that?” Why would Matthew air out all of Jesus’ dirty laundry for generations? And for Centuries people, millions of people have read Jesus’ family history? Why would Matthew air that out? Maybe as I was kind of describing Jesus’ family you resonated more than you would really like. You are going to get together with family in a few days and there are going to be some major elephants in the room. And there have been conversations that should have happened 20 years ago and you are just stuffing it. Your family is a mess. So is the family of Jesus. And I have a feeling that the author Matthew resonated with Jesus’ family too. You see Matthew was a tax collector and in that time everybody hated the tax collectors. They were dishonest and they stole from people. Matthew had a very dark past. He said, “You know what. Jesus’ family, they are a mess and I resonate with that.”



But we still have to ask the question why. Why would Matthew as he is writing this, if he really is intentional, why would he air out all the family drama of Jesus if he is trying to show His qualification to be our Savior? Here is the conclusion we can come to. Jesus’ family was messed up to show the people for whom He came that the sin, and the darkness, and all the mistakes were put there on purpose to clearly communicate why Jesus showed up in the first place. You see Jesus’ family broke down barriers no one else could break down. First of all it broke down the gender barrier. Historically speaking it was completely unnecessary for women to be included in a genealogy. If you read Old Testament genealogies it is dads and sons and that is it; just the guys. But Jesus didn’t come just for the guys. He came for men and women and both are included in His family genealogy. Jesus came for everyone. Not only did it break down the gender barrier but it also broke down the racial barrier. There are four inter-‐racial marriages in the family line of Jesus. Jesus did not just come for one particular people group. And in a culture that is tense and divided right now that is wildly important for us to understand. Jesus did not come for a particular skin color or cultural experience. Jesus came for everyone. Then, finally, Jesus broke down the moral barrier. It is clear from Jesus’ family line that He did not come from just good people. They were a mess. So Jesus did not come for the perfect, the pristine, the put together. He came for us, the broken, the messy. Jesus came for men and women. He came for Jews and Gentiles. He came for the good and the bad. Jesus came for everyone. In Jesus’ family line all the dirty laundry is aired out for our reading because it clearly communicates who Jesus came for. It is for all of us. Matthew begins with a very intentional family tree and then he moves on to the very intentional circumstances into which Jesus was born. Let’s continue reading in Matthew 1, verses 18 through 20. This is the world into which Jesus was born. It says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” So Matthew reveals to us that Joseph and Mary were a couple in this day and they were betrothed. Now for us to fully understand this we have to separate it from our modern day engagement. This is far more serious. A betrothal was like a done deal. They were basically married. They were just waiting for one thing; the consummation of the marriage. But Mary’s parents would have already considered Joseph their son-‐in-‐law. For this to end it would have been far more like a divorce than a breakup. So this was a done deal. But it was all predicated on one mutual agreement which was like, “You don’t do the thing and I won’t do the thing and someday we’ll do the thing together. You stay pure and I’ll stay pure and then we will get married and it is like game on. Until then just don’t.” Now Joseph is confronted with a pregnant fiancé. So not only did Jesus come from a mess, His family line, but Jesus came into a mess. These circumstances were not perfect. They were not pretty.



Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. He knows he didn’t do that so he comes to some very natural conclusions about the way this happened, the same as you and I would do. The First Century rumor mill kicked into full gear. In fact Jesus was later confronted with the rumor that He was the baby of Mary and a Roman soldier because no one is born like that. I mean Joseph was concluding some things that we would have because a virgin has never had a baby because of science. That is the way this works. And it took the interjection of an angel of the Lord to say, “This is intentional. These circumstances are not an accident. This is very much on purpose.” Now I don’t know about you. This is not the way I would have written the story. If you remember maybe back a few, I don’t know how long ago, Prince William and Kate Middleton had a baby; the royal baby. Do you remember this? I don’t know how old the kid is but he is alive and they have a kid. So anyway, the baby was about to be born and it was everywhere. The entire world was talking about it. The news outlets pointed their cameras to the hospital like it was going to do something. Everybody was focused on this thing. That’s how I would announce the arrival of a King. Anderson Cooper would be reporting live from Bethlehem. There would have been a royal parade and concerts sponsored by Huggies. It would have been the whole deal. I would have brought out all the stops. But that is not what happened. Now there is a carpenter and a teenage girl in a Podunk town called Nazareth raising the Son of God. It could have been different. God could have done this however He wanted to. He could have showed up in any way. But this is the way He chose, now why? Imagine if Jesus didn’t have any human parents at all. He walked into Jerusalem, a full-‐grown man, and started doing His thing. What would have happened? Well we wouldn’t have been able to relate to that guy. He would have been fictional, mythological, just this guy without any characteristics we could relate to. The fact is that He was a relatable human being. The book of Hebrews says that this was really important. Here is how it says it in Hebrew 2, verses 17 and 18, “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation,” that means the payment for the sins of the people, “for because He Himself has suffered when tempted He is able to help those who are being tempted.” So the author of Hebrews is saying it was so important for Him to be fully man so He could be a relatable high priest. He experienced the things that we experience in our human life so that He is able to relate to us and then save us. Now imagine the flip side. Imagine Jesus was born to a human mother and father just like us. Well then He would be no different. He wouldn’t have been holy. He wouldn’t have been set apart. We would not worship a guy like that. So God, in His perfect creativity, had the Holy Spirit work together with Mary and then broke the 400 years of silence with a baby boy, the perfect Messiah, the relatable Savior, the King that we needed. God doesn’t write stories like I do and I am so glad He doesn’t. God writes better stories. Matthew led with a very intentional family tree. And then he illuminated the intentional circumstances into which Jesus was born. As we wrap up Matthew 1, we are going to find the intentional purpose behind His arrival. This is the mission of Christmas. In Matthew 1, verses 21 through 25, the angel is continuing to talk to Joseph and he says, “‘She,’” Mary, “‘will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ All this



took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a Son. And he called His name Jesus.” So Matthew is illuminating the mission behind why Jesus showed up in the first place. He says it is all in the name. The angel gave Joseph the name Jesus which is the Greek form of Joshua and that means God saves. Then there was the title Christ which is not Jesus’ last name. It was a title. It means the Messiah, the King that we need. Then finally the last name he gives us is Immanuel which means God with us. So the God who saves is with us. Now the mission is very clear in verse 21. He says that Jesus came to save His people from their sins. In order for us to be saved it means we needed to be in trouble. All of us are slaves to our sins and we needed someone to save us from them. So the Good News is for sinners. The gospel is for sinners. In fact Christmas is for sinners. Jesus came from a mess. He came into a mess. And He came to save us from our mess. This is the mission of Christmas. Christmas is the beginning of a rescue mission. A rescue from something we could not accomplish ourselves. The chains of sin were too strong and we needed God to break through to save us. This is why Jesus showed up. It is more than a baby. It is more than animals. It is more than being jolly and giving presents. It is a rescue mission and that is why Jesus arrived in the first place. It says Jesus came for sinners. He did not come for perfect people. He did not wait until we were all put together. Here is how Romans 5, verse 8 says it. It says, “For God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” He didn’t wait until we had cleaned it up. He didn’t wait until we had it all figured out. He came into the mess. God is not afraid of the mess. God is bigger than the mess. God is stronger than the mess. He knows how to save us from the mess. That is the mission of Christmas. So let’s go back to our original question. Why does that matter? At 3:30 on a random afternoon why does it matter that Jesus showed up. For some of us, we are still trying to clean up our own mess. We would actively describe our lives as a complete train wreck. It is just not going well. But we think we can lean into a gallon of bleach and some elbow grease to really clean ourselves up. Maybe even today you put on the face that you have the act together, that you are clean on the outside, but on the inside you know it is all over the place. It hurts. Sin has imploded your life. It has sabotaged your relationships. That is the result of sin. Maybe you haven’t attributed it to sin yet but I am telling you that tension you and your wife feel on a regular basis, that is sin. And that temptation to use other people for what you want, that is sin. And that inability to control your own behavior, that is what we are talking about, that is the sin mess. That is why Jesus showed up. This was not an accident. This was intentional. He was intentionally sent on a rescue mission to save us from our mess. Today is the day that you can receive the grace you so need. Jesus is the Savior that you know you need. And today is the day you can receive Him. The mess is not yours to clean up. Jesus saved us from that. He wasn’t scared of it. He dove into this and saved us from it. So you don’t have to work on it anymore. Jesus paid that price once and for all. It is over.



Now what about us who have received that already? “I would say I am a Christian, and I would say I love Jesus, and I would say I am on mission with Him.” What do we do with this now that we are on mission with Jesus? Christmas is more than a message. Christmas is more than a story. Christmas is more a holiday. It is a rescue mission and now God has called us to participate. So now it is our job, because we have received the grace that we need. We didn’t earn it, we received it and we offer it to everyone else. We are on mission with Jesus. Now here is the problem. I need everyone who loves Jesus to lock in really quick. Here is the problem because I have experienced it personally. Sometimes I forget how messy I was. Sometimes I forget that my life was a complete train wreck right before Jesus stepped in. And now that I’ve experienced grace I’ve become a little numb to it. And now when I see other messy people I forget how messy I was at one time. I have to ask, “Who are the messy people I have been avoiding?” The problem with messy people is that if you get too close their mess gets on you. And I like to stay clean so I am going to avoid the awkward conversation. I am going to avoid saying what I know I need to say. And I am going to avoid participating in the mission of Christmas, offering the hope that only Jesus can provide. So if you are on mission with Jesus, guess what? You are going to get messy. You are going to reach out to people who are sinful and broken and there is a really, really good chance that their mess is going to get on you. But just remember it is while we were still complete messes that Jesus dove in for us. He didn’t wait for us to clean up our act before He came. He came while we were a train wreck and He saved us from our sin. So this Christmas, right now, in this moment, who is God putting on your heart? Who is that messy person that maybe you’ve been sidestepping who you know you need to dive in for so you can be Jesus for them – so that you can offer Jesus to them and offer the hope that only He can provide. Right now we are going into this thing we do every week. It is called Communion and it is our opportunity to remember this message, to remember the mission of Jesus. Christmas is for sinners. It is the hope that we all need. We are going to pass trays. The bread is going to represent Jesus’ body on the cross and the juice is going to represent the blood that was spilled so it could clean up our mess. It is our opportunity to remember the forgiveness we did not earn and the hope that keeps us going. I’d love to pray for you. God we are so grateful for this message. We did not earn it, we do not deserve it, and we can’t possibly manufacture what You pulled off. We are so glad that You tell better stories, that You revealed the mess Your Son came into and now we celebrate the forgiveness He offers. God we love You. We are humbled by Your sacrifice. It is in Your incredible name I pray. Amen.

new waiting for the world to change : god breaks through.… · 2015. 2. 12. ·...

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