Faith | Hope | Love

Warrior. Poet. King.

Pt. 3 David and Jonathan

John 13:34

I hope I’m not the only one when I say this, but when I was in high school I allowed myself to be talked into some dumb things. Through those years there were some bones broken, some visits by police officers, typical drama, and a whole lot of stupidity. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun times while I was in high school. But I’ve learned something since then. I’ve learned what friendship is really about.

During that time, my standard for friendship was pretty low. I’m not saying my friends were bad people, but I didn’t have any idea what made a good friend. I tried finding friends who were in my grade. But that wasn’t deep enough. I tried finding friends who had the same interests. But that wasn’t deep enough. I tried finding friends who had similar hobbies. But that wasn’t deep enough. In college I even tried finding friends who were studying ministry like I was. But even that wasn’t deep enough.

True friendship is deeper than fun times, hobbies, and interests. True friendship is a deep, soul connection.

Check out how two friends in the Bible cared deeply for the soul of the other.

I Samuel 18:1-4 “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.”

What’s happening here is Jonathan is taking off everything that marked him as royalty. He wore a robe, belt, and sword that were probably custom made just for him. They were probably the best of the entire kingdom. And then he gives these things to David as a symbol of his recognition that David is the anointed one of God. He acknowledged that David would inherit the kingdom. NOT HIM. This is probably the greatest sacrifice Jonathan could have made for another human being, short of giving his life.

I love the language in these verses; Jonathan’s soul was knit to David’s. Meaning this was a friendship that was deeper than sharing similar hobbies, classes, or interests. This was a friendship based on deep, soulful connection. True friendship sacrificially cares for the other person.

So here are some questions I encourage my students to ask themselves and answer honestly: Do I normally get in trouble with my friends? Do my friends know/care that I go to church? Would I introduce them to my grandparents? If I share personal things with them, do they change the subject? Ask these questions about yourself as well. Are you being a friend that cares for them?

Remember in the last section of this series how Saul was crazed to kill David? During that whole escapade, Saul tried to convince Jonathan to kill David as well. Check it out:

I Samuel 19:1-3 “And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. 2 And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything I will tell you.”

About two years ago, at teen camp, we had a vivid glimpse at what this looks like. Our speaker told the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer. How they stood back to back, fighting against an enemy that outnumbered them. How they fought for each other. It so moved our teens that they started a deal in our student ministry of defending one another by shouting, “Armor bearer” and sweeping in (playfully) to fight for their friend. Jonathan was an expert at defending his friends. And in this particular story, Jonathan chose to defend David, even from his own father because he truly cared for him.

What does this mean for you? You can start with defending against rumors, against bullying, against temptation, against sin, etc. Just think: what if you had someone willing to fight for your purity and sanctification? What if YOU were willing to fight for THEIR purity? That would be quite a strong relationship I should think.

I Samuel 20 talks about the strength of Jonathan and David’s relationship. It was a relationship that some people have even speculated might have been homosexual because of their closeness. Obviously I don’t think it was of that nature, I just think that a deep emotional connection between two people, especially two men, is rare and uncomfortable.

Emotional connection is something I never really understood until I came to TX. I have a lot of difficulty connecting on that soul level like David and Jonathan. So here’s what I try to do: I make a phone call at least 3 times a week. I really try to make it every day, but I’m no good at it. And in that conversation, I do what I call a “check-in”. I talk about anything significant that happened that day, I literally say, “That made me feel…” And I also confess any sins that I am aware of. The other person doesn’t try to fix me, judge me, or gossip about me. These are people I trust and usually they simply speak truth and encourage me.

For instance, I called my friend Joey the other week, and said, “Man, I feel like I’m just not going anywhere. I feel like nothing is really working.” And he said, “Do you think you’ve just gotten complacent?” And he nailed it. Do you know why? Because he then told me he was feeling the same exact thing. This is how I try to connect emotionally with my friends. And when I make conscious efforts to do that, I find that I am much more ready to connect on a more natural level.

Do you open up about your feelings? Do you confess sins? Or do you care more about having fun than the actual health of the other person?

Now before we end, I have to say, this blog isn’t really a lesson on “How to be like Jonathan and David”. This is a lesson on “How to be like Christ”. He does all of this the best. Jesus cares for us. Defends us. And wants to connect with us. Look at this:

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

When we do these things for others we are reflecting the Gospel like David and Jonathan and we are loving like Christ. Jesus made a covenant with us when He died. He said that there would be no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And Jesus is a man of His word. He will forever be faithful because He made a covenant with us.

When Jonathan gave David his robe, belt, and sword, that was actually a covenant action. He was, in that moment, swearing to David that he would forever care for him, defend him, and connect with him. The best way for your friendship to connect on a deep, soulful level is to make that covenant with a friend. To promise to each other these things. And to stick to your word through the thick and thin.

In conclusion: there is one of three places you might find yourself in: 1. You need new friends. 2. You need to go deeper. 3. You need to experience this friendship with Jesus. Where are you? John 15:15 says Jesus is our friend. He wants to connect with you emotionally. You know what you need to know. You have what it takes. Now is the time for action. Go quickly and do what needs done.

The Scarlet Thread

Pt. 7 Judge Samson

Judges 13:1-5; 16:23-30

Well, here we are. The final installment of the Scarlet Thread series. The shadows of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament are sometimes a little difficult to find. But we know now that there is indeed this Scarlet Thread that has been woven throughout the entire Bible. In this final article, we’re going to look at a very familiar story, but we’re going to look at it in a fresh way.

After the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, they needed some form of government. For a while they were considered a “Theocracy” meaning they took orders directly from the Lord by way of the prophets. But there came a time when they needed more. So for a period of time, God chose to govern over the nation of Israel by way of Judges. Judges were only a temporary form of government until the Kings were established. These judges were each appointed at a certain time for only a certain period. There were 12 judges in total, with Samson being the very last, and probably the most well-known, of them all. His story starts like this…

Judges 13:1 “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.” Kind of a lousy way for your story to begin, right? Now remember, Israel represents Christians today. They were freed from the slavery of Egypt, and they made it into the Promised Land, showing how Christians are freed from slavery to sin. Some Christians never quite make it to live in Christ and enjoy His power and manifest presence. But other do make it into that Promised Land.

Once a Christian reaches the Promised Land to enjoy God’s power and presence, they are not completely free of temptation or trials. Even to this day Israel does not live in peace. They are constantly defending themselves in their land from surrounding countries that are trying to take their country. It just so happened, not long after Israel reached the Promised Land, that they were attacked from the Philistines. Unfortunately, Israel lost their faith in God, and did what was evil in His sight rather than trust in Him. And so God allowed them to be taken captive.

Read this carefully, you might have once enjoyed Christ’s power and presence, but that doesn’t mean you are free from trials and temptations. Satan still wants you. You still have a sin nature. And the world still attempts to persuade us that we’re wrong. Many of us, right now, find ourselves being taken captive again and again. The Philistines in this story do not represent Satan, they represent your flesh, your sin nature. And when you allow your flesh to make your decisions for you you’re willingly giving control of your life over to your sin.

And just like always, the Israelites could not free themselves from this problem. They needed a hero just like we STILL need a hero.

Judges 13:2-5 “There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” A woman for whom it would be impossible to be pregnant is promised a son. This son would be special and would save the people. Doesn’t this sound a little familiar? Like the virgin Mary perhaps?

The story of Samson is a bit twisted. He is a shadow of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. But he was imperfect. He sinned pretty badly. So he’s only a 2-dimensional shadow. Not a perfect image of Christ. Yet throughout Samson’s life he did some incredible things. He basically waged guerrilla warfare on the Philistines singlehandedly. He killed a lion by ripping it apart. Caught 300 foxes, tied torches to their tails, and sent them running through the Philistines wheat fields. He fought an army of Philistines and killed 1,000 of them with the only thing he could find; a donkey’s jawbone. He tore the city gates off their hinges and carried them up a hill for everybody to see.

This man was the number one enemy of the Philistines. Remember, the Philistines represent your sinfulness. You cannot defeat your sinfulness on your own. You need a hero. And throughout the life of Jesus Christ, He proved that He has the power to defeat the strongholds of sin in your life.

But then tragedy strikes. Samson is betrayed by a person he trusted, and he is taken prisoner. Sound familiar? Jesus Christ was betrayed by a person He loved and was taken by soldiers. This all sounds like terrible news. It’s like the part in a movie where the hero gets amped up, he goes to battle the villain, and something goes wrong. The villain seems to prevail. But read this.

Judges 16:23-30 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”[b] 25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

In Samson’s death, he did more to defeat the enemy than while he was alive. His death brought a victory for Israel, and a blow to the enemy. Now, what does this have to do with us today in 21^st Century America?  Check it out, this is a picture of when Jesus Christ died. When He died, it was the enemy of sin that was defeated. Christ’s death brought our victory. Jesus was taken, beaten, and crucified in our place. We were supposed to go to Hell, but He died for us. His death bought our freedom. His sacrifice gave us victory and satisfied the law.

The reason all of the Bible has a Scarlet Thread running through it is because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is central to our faith. If you do not build your life on the Gospel, then nothing will feel in place. This life is designed to only function properly when we have centered our lives on the Gospel. Not just as a means of getting us to Heaven, but even to give us peace with God now. To give us a satisfactory relationship with God, even after we had fallen short of Him.

In Italy, the Tower of Pisa began construction in 1173. The foundation was laid, and then abandoned due to war. Two floors were built by 1178. The weight of these two floors began causing the tower to sink. The foundation was thin and the soil was soft. Again, construction was abandoned due to war. After 199 years of construction the tower was finished. Because of the lean, the architects made one side taller than the other so the building is now actually curved.

A decade ago, they determined the tower was on the brink of collapse and so efforts were made to stabilize the building. Now architects say it will stand another 200 years minimum. At this point, the tower itself is safe for tourists to visit and get pictures of. But the foundation will eventually cause the entire structure to crumble. It’s a ticking time bomb. But not all is lost. The foundation can be fixed.

The Gospel Thread runs throughout the entire Bible because the foundation of Christianity is about bringing you back to Jesus. If you’ve tried Christianity and it has failed you, could it be that you have fallen out of alignment? Do you feel lost, burdened, depressed, and confused? Could it be you’ve built your life on something other than the Gospel?

Return to the Gospel. Thank God for His sacrifice. Thank Jesus that He satisfied God’s wrath. Thank God that you can know Him because of His death and resurrection. And place yourself back on the secure foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that the Gospel is painted beautifully throughout all of Scripture; not just the four books we call the Gospels?

For centuries many Christians have thought of the Bible as a simple collection of stories about morality. Like each story is meant to teach us some new life principle. But it seems in every century there are some Christians who see the bigger picture. They see that there is a Grand Story behind all of these stories. Some of these Christians started calling it the Scarlet Thread through the Bible, and this Scarlet Thread is the story of the Gospel.

See, the Gospel is not a set of facts. The Gospel is a story. I want to reframe our understanding of the Gospel, as told in the Bible, because, truth be told, all of the Bible is the Gospel. From Genesis 1:1 to the final “Amen” in Revelation.

I wish I could go through each chapter with you to find the scarlet thread of the Gospel. I wish we had the time, energy, and focus to see how each book of the Bible is really part of the Gospel story. But for the time we have, I’m going to spend the next few articles looking at some very familiar stories through the lens of the Gospel.

We’re going to look at Adam and Eve, Joseph, Moses in the Exodus, and a couple others. We’re going to see how each of these characters cast a shadow of the Christ.

I said it begins in Genesis 1:1 and that’s where we’re going to begin with this article. I don’t even really want to talk about Adam and Eve just yet. I simply want to talk about the beginning.

I’m sure you remember the first verse of the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And that’s how the Gospel begins. God created. He’s a creative God. But He didn’t just make planets and stars. The pinnacle of His creation is humankind. Furthermore, Colossian 1:15-17 tells us that “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Jesus Christ was present at the Creation of this perfect planet. But not only was everything created by Him, all things were created through Him and for Him. It’s funny how sometimes our feeble little brains can lose our eternal perspective. Sometimes we just get so caught up in life that we forget this world doesn’t revolve around us.

It’s amazing how this one verse can bring about a new perspective for that is so powerful that it can crash my pity party. I’ll admit I can get really mopey at times. But when I’m confronted with the reality that this world was created by, through, and for Him, and not me, it allows me to see my life and circumstances in a way that frees me from my sense of entitlement.

So chapter one of the Gospel is simply this: God rules. He created this universe, which means He owns it. We’re the crown of His creation, but that still means He owns us. I suppose if you don’t like the rules of the Universe then you can go create your own. But this is God’s universe. Created by Him, through Him, and for Him. He owns it, which means He makes the rules. And the best part of it is this: His rules are what’s best for us. His rules are not cruel and overly demanding. His rules are meant to bring us to the one thing that can give us the most joy. Himself.

[Audio Transcript]  Pastor John, you have, for years stressed an approach to Reformed theology that is both hard-thinking and deep-feeling. Each of us will tend to fall on one side or the other, either an anti-intellectual feeling, or an anti-feeling intellectualism. Both are to be avoided. In today’s question, a listener wants to know this: “Dear Pastor John, in your 30+ years of ministry, what have you practically done to avoid mere intellectualism — cold academic study — in your Bible reading and in your exposition?”

1) The first thing I would say is that I need to be, we need to be, deeply persuaded that this really, really matters: this non-cold, non-intellectualistic, warm, practical, affectionate relation to the living Christ. We need to be persuaded. This really matters because there are a lot of people out there — I keep bumping into them — there are a lot of people out there who either for personality reasons or sometimes theological reasons think it doesn’t matter what your emotions do. That is, they think emotions are the caboose at the end of the train. They are just not essential at all. And it sounds like the person who wrote this question is persuaded that they matter, and it might be good to ask why. And here is my reason.

The first and greatest commandment is not to know the Lord our God — which is, of course, assumed — but to love the Lord your God. And that includes with all your heart (Matthew 22:36–37). And Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians: If you don’t love the Lord you are accursed (1 Corinthians 16:22). Love the Lord. And Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). In other words, the love that we must have isn’t just a kind of dutiful, commandment-keeping love. That is not what you have for your kids, nor your parents. It is the deepest, heartfelt, affectionate, relative kind of love, the kind we have for mother and father and son and daughter — only more, more for Jesus. And if we don’t have it, we are not worthy of Jesus.

So, this is the first thing I would say. We must be totally, John Piper must be totally persuaded that knowing God truly without loving him duly is eternally deadly, deadly. I must be persuaded of that. So, I am trembling at the thought that I could go about my academic work or my scholarly work or my writing work or preaching work or study work in some kind of cold frame with no awakened love for God, affection for God. So, the quest for overcoming what he is referring to as intellectualism is a life and death battle. That is the first thing.

2) The second thing I would say is that we should therefore read all things — Scripture and everything else, especially the word; the Scripture, but also the world and everything in it — we should read everything on the lookout for evidences of God’s value, not just evidences of his truth. The devil owns that God is true and probably knows more true things about God than we do. But the devil will not own that God is supremely valuable and supremely satisfying. The devil values himself above God. God’s presence gives no joy and no satisfaction to the devil whatsoever.

Therefore, our aim in reading the Bible should not be demonic. We are not aiming to rise just to the level of the devil. Our aim is, of course, to see what is really there, what is true about God — but always more, always more; namely, with a view to feeling what is valuable about God, treasuring the treasure that God is. The aim is to see the millions of reasons why God is a treasure, not just the millions of evidences that God exists or has certain attributes. All of our theological refinement should be for the sake of doxological embrace and enjoyment. This affects the way you read. This is what I try to do. I try to read. You read on the lookout for evidences of value, evidences of preciousness, evidences that he is beautiful and sweet and satisfying.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:1–3, “Long for the pure, spiritual milk” — and I think he means the milk of the word — “that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” What is the point of that if: if you have tasted? The point is that all the drinking in the world without tasting will not grow us up into salvation. The aim of drinking the word is tasting the Savior. It is the tasting that is the nutritional encounter with the living God that grows us up into salvation. So, that is the second thing I would say. In all of our reading, be on the lookout for evidences of God’s value, not just evidences of his truth.

3) Which leads now to the third thing that I would say, namely, that the goal of valuing or treasuring or feeling the preciousness of or enjoying the beauty of God in all of our reading confronts me immediately with the impossibility on my part of making it happen. You can’t make yourself value God. You can make yourself read. You can make yourself list off attributes of God that you see. You can make yourself list of ways that God behaves. But you can’t make yourself feel how wonderful they are. That is why the psalmist cries: Open my eyes that I may see wonders in your Word (Psalm 119:18).

So, the third point is: Pray, pray, pray. And we pray not only for illumination to see what is really there about God, but to feel. We pray Psalm 90:14, “Satisfy [me] in the morning with your steadfast love.” Why in the world would the psalmist pray that, except that the human heart doesn’t naturally feel it when it hears and sees the beauties of God? God has to work this. We ask God to make us satisfied in God. So, prayer is absolutely essential not only that my eyes would be open, but that my affections would be awakened.

4) The fourth thing I would say is that, beyond the Bible, I read authors who have understood God deeply and felt him mightily and expressed both the understanding and the feeling with clarity and power. For me, that has been mainly Jonathan Edwards and John Owen and C.S. Lewis and the Puritans. You need to find the great seers of God and the great lovers of God and the great expressers of the seeing and the loving, so that they can feed your soul with true and large affections.

I know you, Tony, would put John Newton in that category and so would I — kind of a latter-day Puritan who saw things deeply and expressed things beautifully and felt things deeply. So that is number four.

5) And then, finally, I would say: Open your mouth and bear witness to family and friends and neighbors and colleagues to the beauty of God and your joy in him. It is precisely in giving expression to our joy that intensifies the joy itself. A shared joy is a doubled joy. God loves mission. God loves witness. God loves sharing. God loves loving people. And he does not love hoarding. Therefore, when we turn on our affections and express them to other people, God is pleased and our joy is intensified.

So, those are my five strategies against cold intellectualism. There are lots more strategies, but maybe that is enough to set the trajectory of discovery.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including A Peculiar Glory.

Copyright © 2016 by John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find the original article at http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/five-strategies-for-avoiding-intellectualism

I’ve so looked forward to this time with you before get into our holiday this week and celebrate the birth of Christ...  Unless you have been living in some form of cave, you know that this week Star Wars Episode 7 premiered at the box office.  Projections say that the movie will make over $250 million this weekend alone.  Written by George Lucas, it was originally released in 1977, and most of you know this but for those who don’t, these seven movies are the story of the rebels versus the empire; Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader; heroes versus villains; light versus darkness. 

When it’s all said and done, “Star Wars” will have captivated three generations of people.  I’ll never forget when I was a kid and I saw (what’s now Episode 4, but the very first movie).  I had been waiting and waiting, we saw it a little late, and the buzz had grown, “this was unlike anything anybody ever seen”.  It came up to the weekend and we were going to the Ritz Theatre in Big Spring.  The Ritz Theatre was like popcorn covered floor , get stuck at the end of the movie, a little bit run down, but it was a palace to me because I was going to see Star Wars there.

 My Dad was a literature teacher so we grew up on the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Beowulf, and all those stories.  Dad was a very dedicated follower of Jesus Christ who didn’t mind us using our imagination.  He explained, “Hey son, the force is nothing, there’s not a real force”, but this idea of good versus evil, light versus dark encouraged us to think in those way.  He, my mom, brother, and I were all geared up to go to Star Wars and I got sick as a dog somewhere around Thursday and we were supposed to go on Saturday.  I was nauseous and throwing up; the whole thing.  Saturday rolls around and my parents are like “you’re not well enough to go” and I’m like “I am well enough to go! I can make it!  I’m well! I’m better!  If I don’t see Chewbacca something’s going to happen!  I got to go!”  So we get there, and it’s right about the scene where Han Solo is about to take off in the Millennium Falcon with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker and it hits me.  I start throwing up, LOL.  I will not gross you out with the details but there was a hurried rush out of that theatre!  They replaced our tickets and I got to go the next weekend. 

I can remember during my childhood just the awe of that.  This is back before they had cartoon stations. You didn’t watch cartoons online.  You woke up on Saturday morning to go watch cartoons.  At Christmas Mom and Dad would buy us little Star Wars figurines which I wish I had saved.  I wish I had saved in their packaging. I wish I’d never played with them because they’re worth thousands now.  That whole notion is epic to me.

I read a Time Magazine article, and there is sociologist named Wayne Youngquist in 1977 who wrote about the phenomenon that was Star Wars and Time revisited that with some thoughts of its own as this new [movie] is being released.  I found it fascinating when describing why [Star Wars] captivated the culture to such a degree; and it still does. 

The mid- and late-1970s were a time when American institutions were collapsing. Watergate had destroyed the collective sense of investment in the democratic process. The Vietnam War, having worn down the nation, had ended in disappointment. Even pop culture was splintering into niches. There had been an energy crisis and an economic crisis, and the end of the Vietnam War did not mean that the world was suddenly all that peaceful.

“It was this very kind of fragmentary period where everybody woke up with a hangover from the ‘60s and was really dubious about getting swept up into anything that large again,” Hallberg tells TIME. “And then all of the sudden you have this myth arrive that seems to speak for everyone and to everyone and that everyone can collectively project themselves into and talk about...”

... Star Wars, on the other hand, is morally uncomplicated. It’s about a just cause, people coming together and the good guys winning, “like the opposite of Vietnam, in a way.”

And that’s where today comes in.

“I see our time period, where we sit in history, as having something in common with where audiences might have been sitting in May of 1977,” Hallberg says. “There were the oil shocks, this huge economic grinding of the gears going on in the mid-‘70s, and stagflation that followed from that. We don’t have the inflation but I think we have the sense collectively of having lived through an economic trauma and not really having reached escape velocity from that. In 1977, I think there would have been a kind of hangover from a decade or more of armed conflict far away.”

Hallberg notes that the public appetite for The Force Awakens seems even larger than the appetite for the The Phantom Menace and the trilogy it began in 1999—and, if the ‘70s are any indication that may portend a bigger shift... perhaps the nation is ready to celebrate a new era of heroes.

I think the appeal of this, the frenzy, the captivation with just this one example in our culture is in a painful, troubling, monotonous, often heartbreaking world, we long for something more.  Down deep inside of us, I believe all of us, whether you knew it or not when you walked in here, deep down we crave adventure.  We ache for romance.  We yearn for mystery.  We cry for hope. 

In short, this didn’t die out in 1977.  We human beings collectively, deep in our hearts, need a hero.  Some of you are like, “what in the world does that have to do with Christmas?  I didn’t really come to get a soliloquy on Star Wars, Pastor. It’d be nice to hear something about Jesus.”  What in the world does that have to do with Jesus?  Everything.

I hope when you see that manger scene, that nativity, shepherds with bowed knees and crooks in their hand.  Mary there before the baby, and the Christ child lying there... When you see the light shining in darkness, when you see all this imagery, I pray you don’t just see something beautiful.  I pray you don’t just think of the warmth of motherhood and family.  Don’t just see a time of reprieve and a time of thinking about things that are bigger than us.  Don’t take the teeth out of what Christmas is really about.  This coming to the manger is the ultimate hero story.  It is what, deep down, we all long for. 

 “JESUS CHRIST: GOD, MAN, HERO, KING”

Hebrews 1:1-3  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners (various times and various ways) spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,  2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (created the universe);  3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…

Let’s break that down a little bit.  The scripture says the Son radiates God’s own glory.  Jesus expresses the very character of God, and He sustains everything by the mighty power of His command.  That same Jesus, when He had all by himself purged away, paid for, redeemed us from our sins, He sat down on the r right hand of God, the majesty on high.

Jesus Christ: God, Man, Hero, King.

Before we go one step further, for a lot of us hearing the title of the sermon, or where I’m going with this, it doesn’t generate a whole lot of excitement or enthusiasm.  Whereas, we might have bought our tickets for that movie a month ago!  Whereas a lot of us, when it came up on the screen, that shot of the gigantic star wars print and the music playing, we were excited.  Why would we be so excited about that and so “eh” about Jesus?  I’m not about to throw a holiday guilt trip on you, listen, there is a world not only with a hero, victor, and a king but there’s a world with an enemy.  The enemy’s favorite pastime is to blind you to the truth and open you up to the lie.  Blind you to the glory of God and offer you some pseudo glory.  Take your deepest longing and say “listen, God can’t give you anything for that long but a move can, or food can, a relationship can, a drug can, a drink can, a trip to the mall can.”  That’s what he’s been doing for over six thousand years; offering pseudo glories that we will wrap our heart around in worship and miss the point. 

There are 4 Episodes in the Story of Jesus Christ:

EPISODE ONE

The bible says that before there was ever a plant Earth, before there was  a moon or Sun, stars or universe as we know it, before any of that; there was God.  God existed in what we know as tri-unity; we call it trinity. One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God for all eternity passed.  Don’t think of Jesus beginning in a manger, think of Jesus as God with God forever in the past.  What were they doing?  They loved on another, they fellowshipped together.  They were in perfect power and perfect knowledge.  Beyond that y’all, I can’t tell you what they were doing.  It’s too big for my feeble mind.  Is too mysterious for us to comprehend, but God was God before there was ever a planet Earth.  Jesus was Jesus before He ever came down to Earth.  For all of eternity.  He didn’t have a birth date.  Spiritually speaking, He always was and He was always with the Father.  Do you know what the bible tell us?  I didn’t know this for the longest time,

 Col 1:16   For by him (by Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him (Jesus), and for him(Jesus):

When God determined, “I’m going to speak the universe into existence.  I’m going to make a Milky Way galaxy. I’m going to establish atoms and cells, minutiae of the universe.  I’m going to establish not only the micro but the macro.  I’m going to put planets in orbit. I’m going to make galaxies.  I’m going to make supernovas.  I’m going to make black holes...” it was the mouth of Jesus that spoke it into existence.

All the trees, animals, wind, sea, earth, us!  It is the most mysterious, awesome, unfathomable thing.  When you take a telescope and look into the night sky, you think “oh God, how big that is...”  Yes, and Jesus made it all.  When you hear in your science class about how the universe breaks down into smaller and smaller elements. There was a time when they thought the atom was the smallest unit.  “Atomo”, atom, means indivisible and then they split the atom and realized.  Some scientists believe it keeps getting smaller and smaller almost infinitely. Jesus spoke all that into existence.  What was He doing before He came to Earth?  He was God, with God, and it’s a mystery. 

EPISODE TWO

Incarnation.  We sing songs about it.  There are a lot of Christmas songs that have that word, “incarnation”, and sometimes we don’t define our terms.  Incarnation means “The assumption of a bodily or human form by a supernatural being.” Here’s the picture: God doing life with God, speaks the universe into existence., creates the angel orders, the Angels – a third of them rebel and become demons – led by an angel named Lucifer, “the shining one”, not became Satan.  God creates the Earth, Adam and Eve, and the created order in perfection, but they make a choice in chapter three of Genesis.  We think we can be our own God and do it better.  Creation falls.

Two thousand years ago, there came a moment when God the Son looks down on plant Earth.  Jesus Christ, who’s been there all the while, watching Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, watching all the things transpire with the Jewish people.  Conquered by the Babylonians, Neo-Persians divided up by Alexander’s generals and ultimately conquered by Rome.  Jesus Christ looks down on, planet Earth, a people lost in sin and He says,

”Father, I want to rescue them.  Father, is there hope for them?”  I’m speaking in human terms because Jesus knew everything from the beginning. 

“Father, is there hope for them?” 

“Yes Son, there’s hope but it’ll be terribly expensive.” 

“Father, is there a way to bring them back from their sins?  The fact that they’ve hated, even rebelled, against you and run from you.  In their own will and volition they’re going off the edge of the cliff.”

“There is hope for them, Son, but it will be very expensive.”

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit devise a plan. God will have to journey to Earth.  God will have to be born into a human body.  God will have to live life on this planet with all of its mud, blood, war, and turmoil.  God will have to die to rescue mankind.  “Incarnation”.

Man, this came down to me so vividly this last week.  My daughter, Aubrey, went in to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out.  You know, very minor surgery, but it’s never minor if it’s you and it isn’t minor if it’s your Mom or Dad.  They did a marvelous job out at the Baylor Surgicare out in Mansfield, such sweet people.  It was all done well, everything was as it was intended; we get Aubrey home and the first day she just shock us.  They said, “If they want to eat something, let them eat.  It’s not a big deal give them the pain medicine, we’ve got some nausea medicine.  If it gets bad you can give them that.”  She comes home on day one and she’s like “Dad, did I see some Roses Tortillas in there?  Can I have some tortillas?”  Like Father like daughter; yes, absolutely.  She was eating, feeling pretty good, giving her pain medicine.  Boy, day three she really started hurting.  Yesterday, she got a fever and her stomach was burning so bad she couldn’t hold any food down.  You parents, every one of you know what I mean, she just literally has her mouth open just crying and there’s not a thing in the world I can do for her, and that flat kills you.  This morning, when I got up and had my little time with the Lord, He reminded me He knew what His Son was about to go through.  He knew what He was sending Him down into:  open mouth, unsolvable pain, and He sent Him anyway.

Jesus comes. You talk about adventure?  The Son of God standing up and walking away from the throne in heaven, from the right hand of God; I believe Angel armies are all along that procession blasting their trumpets, standing in awe with mouths covered as Jesus, the Son of God, walks to the edge of Heaven and makes a journey down past planets, stars, through the atmosphere, to planet earth, into a virgin’s womb, flesh and blood and fluid, into a cattle trough.  God is incarnated and becomes a man.  The adventure of that!  What a journey.

John 1:14   And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

“Infinite and an infant.  Eternal, and yet born of a woman.  Almighty, and yet (nursing) on a women’s breast.  Supporting a Universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms.”

He’s still 100% God, mind you, but now he’s also 100% flies-and-blood man.

EPISODE THREE

Jesus is on earth.  We don’t hear much about His childhood.  There’s one little story about Him going to the temple. There are all sorts of apocryphal stories that we don’t believe in the New Testament canon, but we don’t know much about thirty years of life on planet Earth.  We do know He is raised by Mary and her husband, Joseph.  Joseph is a carpenter which meant Jesus was a carpenter.  He would have been raised to learn that trade there in the city of Nazareth.  I believe there in the carpentry shop, at the age of 30, there came a moment of decision.  He knew why He’d come but for 30 years He’s been living life on planet Earth and at the age of 30, He faced a decision.

Max Lucado wrote a book called “God Came Down” and one of the chapters was entitled Out of the Carpentry Shop. If you’ll bear with me, I want to share some of his thoughts with you today.

The heavy door creaked on its hinges as He pushed it open. With a few strides He crossed the silent shop and opened the wooden shutters to a square shaft of sunshine that pierced the darkness, painting a box of daylight on the dirt floor. 

He looked around the carpentry shop. He stood for a moment in the refuge of the little room that housed so many sweet memories. He balanced the hammer in His hand. He ran His fingers across the sharp teeth of the saw. He stroked the smoothly worn wood of the sawhorse. He had come to say good-bye.

It was time for Him to leave. He had heard something that made Him know it was time to go. So He came one last time to smell the sawdust and lumber.

Life was peaceful here. Life was so . . . safe. Here He had spent countless hours of contentment. On this dirt floor He had played as a toddler while His father worked. Here Joseph had taught Him how to grip a hammer. And on this workbench He had built His first chair.

I wonder what He thought as He took one last look around the room. Perhaps He stood for a moment at the workbench looking at the tiny shadows cast by the chisel and shavings. Perhaps He listened as voices from the past filled the air.

“Good job, Jesus.”

“Joseph, Jesus – come and eat!”

“Don’t worry, sir, we’ll get it finished on time. I’ll get Jesus to help me.”

I wonder if He hesitated. I wonder if His heart was torn. I wonder if He rolled a nail between His thumb and fingers, anticipating the pain. It was in the carpentry shop that He must have given birth to His thoughts. Here concepts and convictions were woven together to form the fabric of His ministry.

You can almost see the tools of His trade in His words as He spoke. You can see the trueness of a plumb line as He called for moral standards. You can hear the whistle of the plane as He pleads for religion to shave away unnecessary traditions. You can picture the snugness of a dovetail as He demands loyalty in relationships. You can imagine Him with a pencil and a ledger as He urges honesty.

It was here that His human hands shaped the wood His divine hands had created. And it was here that His body matured while His Spirit waited for the right moment, the right day.

And now that day had arrived. It must have been difficult to leave. After all, life as a carpenter hadn’t been bad. It wasn’t bad at all. Business was good. The future was bright and His work was enjoyable. In Nazareth He was known only as Jesus, the son of Joseph. You can be sure He was respected in the community. He was good with His hands. He had many friends. He was a favorite among the children. He could tell a good joke and had a habit of filling the air with contagious laughter.

I wonder if He wanted to stay. “I could do a good job here in Nazareth. Settle down. Raise a family. Be a civic leader.” I wonder because I know He had already read the last chapter. He knew that the feet that step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they had been pierced and placed on a Roman cross.

You see, He didn’t have to go. He had a choice. He could have stayed. He could have kept His mouth shut. He could have ignored the call or at least postponed it. And had He chosen to stay, who would’ve known? Who would have blamed Him?

He could have come back as a man in another era when society was not so volatile, when religion wasn’t so stale, when people would listen better. He could have come back when crosses were out of style, but His heart wouldn’t let Him.

If there was hesitation on His part of humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of His divinity. His divinity heard the voices. His divinity heard the hopeless cries of the poor, the bitter accusations of the abandoned, the dangling despair of those who are trying to save themselves.

And His divinity saw the faces. Some wrinkled. Some weeping. Some hidden behind veils. Some obscured by fear. Some earnest with searching. Some blank with boredom. From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you read these words, He saw them all.

And you can be sure of one thing. Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice. Your silent prayers uttered on tear-stained pillows were heard before they were said. Your deepest questions about death and eternity were answered before they were asked. And your direst need, your need for a Savior, was met before you ever sinned.

And not only did He hear you, He saw you. He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew Him. He saw your face in shame the hour you first fell. The same face that looked back at you from this morning’s mirror, looked at Him. And it was enough to kill Him.
He left because of you. He laid His security down with His hammer. He hung tranquility on the peg with His nail apron. He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of His youth and locked the door on the comfort and ease of anonymity.

Since He could bear your sins more easily than He could bear the thought of your hopelessness, He chose to leave. It wasn’t easy. Leaving the carpentry shop never has been.

He makes a choice.  For three years He gathers a group of unlikely men, nobody else would have picked them.  He constantly depends on His Father.  He constantly depends on the Holy Spirit.  He doesn’t make a move, preach a sermon, say a word, heal an individual without the Spirit empowering Him to do it.  And for three years He teaches, preaches, heals, loves, helps, and He suffers.  At the age of 33, the hero is nailed to a cross.  The hero has come to rescue you and this is the only way He can do it.  Our sins my friends are so serious to God, so vast, unconquerable, the only way to deal with them was for the Son of God TO DIE.  Jesus hangs on a cross, the sky goes black, that place is so think with spiritual warfare and out of the darkness Jesus Christ cries “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani” meaning “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” because now the Father for the first time in creation isn’t looking on Jesus as God the Son.  He is looking on Him as the greatest sinner that’s ever lived because now your sins, my sins, our children’s sins, our forebearers sins have come into His body on the cross and Jesus is being punished in your place and mine.  The hand of God’s justice, I believe with tears in His eyes, is being brought down.  The hammer blow falls on Jesus so it doesn’t have to fall on you. There Jesus Christ, with a loud voice and gives up the ghost.  We don’t know for three days while He lies in a borrowed tomb what is going on, but here’s what we do know: DEATH COULDN’T HOLD HIM DOWN.  Death couldn’t conquer.  Jesus, our hero, the Son of God comes back from the dead and He ascends to the right hand of the Father from when He came.  Up passed planets, through the atmosphere, stars, and the gates of glory swing open and the angel throngs hit their knees and applaud.  Jesus Christ takes His seat at the right hand of the Father and now He made a way to bring you and me with Him.  Praise God.  That’s our hero.  That’s the story.

EPISODE FOUR

I’ve got to tell y’all, listen, one day in a scene that Steven Spielberg himself could not possibly do justice, the Living God, Jesus Christ, on a white horse with the throngs of glory is coming back to planet Earth to reclaim what is rightfully His. 

In a scene that JRR Tolkien could do justice to, the King is going to take His throne once again.  And every single knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus, the hero, is Lord and Savior and God.

That’s the story.  So kids, I’ve got to tell you something and don’t be mad at me: Star Wars isn’t real.  You do know that don’t you, it’s good. It’s fine, it’s fun, it isn’t real.  All the special effects in the world, in the end is just a game, is smoke and mirrors.  It’s entertaining for a time, but it will break your heart if you put your hope in it. 

Can I just tell you something?  There is a war going on in the universe.  There is a cause that you were involved in whether you like to think so or not.  There is a force called the power of the Holy Spirit of God that will change planet Earth when it flows through you.  There is a hero who cannot be killed again.  His name is Jesus Christ.  You’re playing part in a saga right now whether you yawn and talk about slough it off.  Whether you’re enamored by what we’re talking about today.  Whether Jesus Christ as your Savior, or you disdain Him and you’re here for the ceremony and because your family brought you.  Either way, you are playing a part in this drama that’s unfolding and one day you will see with your eyes what I am describing today with my lips. 

God got all over me watching that movie, which is great.  You want me to tell you all about it?  I won’t do that to you; spoiler alert!  You know what got to me?  We’re in the greatest, most romantic adventure of our lives, right now, and we’ve got a hero who is worthy of us giving everything to follow Him. Oh my God, let me flowing Jesus Christ. 

This is a moment in our service, where we’re almost complete with our time here together.  No doubt we’ll go off and have a great week ahead.  I know some of you, frankly, you have somethings in your life that are just flat painful and maybe you’re not really looking forward to this week. There’s a lot on your mind and a lot on your heart.  I want to pray for you in a minute, if that’s you. As best we can, let’s not have a lot of unnecessary movement, a lot of leaving and coming right now unless you have to.  We’ll leave this place, and this service will be just a memory.  Just be an occasion on the calendar that happened back in 2015, but I tell you what can happen here today.  

Some of you felt moved, not by my words, but something deeper.  Some of you feel compelled to do something with what you just received.  There’s some triviality in your life that you’re like, “I don’t want to live just for that.”  There’s some dark stuff in your life and you don’t want to be bound by that.  There’s some hope in your heart that He really is coming back.  If you’re feeling that, that’s not coming from this Preacher’s mouth, I’m not that skilled.  That is the Spirit of God taking His word and applying it in your heart.  He is calling you to take a step of faith.  He’s calling you to trust him and step out. 

Let me tell you who I’m most alarmed for in this service right now, some of you that enamored by the movie and bored to death with this; more enamored by the food, the relationship, girlfriend, boyfriend, phone, right?  But God, is (for you) very distant, figurative, non-literal.  I love you enough to tell you there’s a real good chance you don’t know Christ as your Savior. I don’t care what dotted line you signed.  I don’t care who made you a promise years ago.  I’m telling you, if you know Him, there’s a love for Him down there, that’s a part of Him living in you that when He calls, that part hears and responds.  It can get cold, dull, calcified by layers of triviality; yes it can.  Friend, listen to me, you ought to wonder this morning.  It’s proper to wonder if you really know him and if He came back today, if He would be your greatest friend or your enemy, frankly. 

Right now is the time of grace.  Now is a time where Jesus is still reaching out a hand to bring you back in a relationship with God.  He wants to be your hero and there is only one way that happens, when you get real.  Admit you're a sinner and ask Christ to be your hero and Savior. You don't have to have a preacher, a priest, or alter a ceremony, or any of that to have Him like that. You could just ask him. 

You know what?  Some of you need to take a step today. Today's the day you need to say hang what anybody thinks about me I don't care. I don't care if they if they smile, if they frown, if they wonder, if they look.  I need to know Christ as my savior. I need to be served today. I'm going to ask you for a moment, after we pray to slide right out of your seat come down to an altar, to come right here down to me and say, “Brian I need to be sure I'm on my way to heaven. I need to be sure I know Jesus.” Everybody in this place that knows Him will celebrate the fact that you're coming. It won't be some weird conversation some secret room. We'll have somebody come and talk to you and answer your questions, either at this alter their set up an appointment with you if you have more questions, but today you need to nail that thing down and make sure. There's too much at stake, and He loves you too much, to go through another Christmas that’s nothing but a song. 

Christians all over this place, how long has it been since you took a step of faith? How long has it been since you said, “Lord, it’s been a long time since I've really talked to you. Since I told you how I really feel.” Some of your mad at him but you’ve never told him that. You're so disappointed you kind of just pulled back but you never told him that. There's something in your life, He's telling you, and “it's time to trust me with that. It’s time to trust me with them.” I'm telling you when you do, there's a flood of Jesus coming to you that I can't describe. Why not let the hero rescue you today? 

I'm going to pray and then these altars are open if you need to come pray with your family or by yourself.  If you need to come take me by the hand and say, “Brian, I’m that guy, I’m that lady. I need to know Him today. I need to know today.” You come do it on the very first verse.

Lord,

We give you this invitation. The thing you’ve been putting on my heart is Lord, water our words, our thoughts, our sentiments. Without your power and God we feel your power here today. Spirit, make Jesus real. Make your call effective. Save souls, change lives right here today for your glory, Lord. Your children ask this of you and we ask you to forgive us for our sins and our triviality at how we miss you, Lord. Open the eyes of our heart this Christmas. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen