Glory to God in the Highest

I have frequently written about how Mary might have felt when Jesus was born in a stable and her precious baby was placed in the only cradle available, a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. However this unusual circumstance became a sign for the first group of visitors. 

You might imagine that the religious leaders or the synagogue rulers of Bethlehem would be first to visit the baby Messiah but no. God chose shepherds as the first visitors; uneducated, straight from the fields, probably dirty and smelly working men. 

But God loves shepherds – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and now his Son who would become the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5: 4). Jesus spoke of himself: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10: 1 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10: 14 – 15 So it is not surprising that the shepherds were the first to hear the news and what a way they heard the announcement. 

This is surely one of the great events of history. Here we have shepherds possibly looking after the temple sheep (more symbolism) and suddenly into the darkness an angel appears with the words, ‘Fear not.’ The Bible is full of angels telling people to ‘Fear not.’ Obviously a glorified angel is a terrifying sight. These men would have been used to fighting off wild animals, rescuing silly sheep from their own predicaments, even dealing with sheep rustlers but an angel appearing – and they are terrified. 

The angel then made the royal proclamation. Today, a baby has been born, a Saviour, the Messiah. The shepherds were given the sign. This baby would be found wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. However there was more. 

A royal birth requires the royal choir of heaven to rejoice over the Son of God entering the world of men. Suddenly – I love God’s suddenlys. Suddenly heaven was torn open and the heavenly choir stepped forth. What a sight that must have been! A choir of angels singing glory to God. How amazing! You can imagine the shepherds either lying terrified face down on the earth or standing with their mouths hanging open.

When the angels had gone back into heaven, the shepherds decided to investigate. You can hardly imagine them settling down round the fire again. They ‘hurried off’ and found everything as it has been described to them. What Mary and Joseph thought of this group of uneducated, uncouth men turning up to coo over the baby we do not know but whilst the shepherds went out and evangelised the whole area with the good news of the birth of the Messiah, Mary treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2: 19). She didn’t need to tell the world that her baby was the Messiah, the shepherds did that. 

Jesus wasn’t born in a palace in splendour to come and spread beneficence to his lowly subjects. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1: 14). Literally it means the Word tabernacled amongst us – just as God had done with the Israelites in the desert ‘dwelling’ in the midst of the encampment. 

Jesus didn’t come to hob nob with the rich, the famous, the religious. He came and dwelt with ordinary people – shepherds and fishermen, tax collectors and sinners. And he will come and dwell with each one of us – if we will only ask him. Then we will be those ‘on whom his favour rests’ and we will know his peace – ‘the peace that passes all understanding’.

Advent - re-setting our priorities

This coming Sunday, 29th November 2020, is Advent Sunday. Advent is a season that has been eased out of many churches nowadays which I feel is a great shame. In fact the whole Church calendar has been discarded in favour of celebrating just the big ones – Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. 

I would love to see the season of Advent make a comeback in every church not just the more traditional ones. Advent helps us prepare our hearts to celebrate the first coming of Jesus. We remind ourselves that Emmanuel – God with us, God made Man – came and lived on this Earth.  I like to use Advent to meditate on the wonder of this and the role the key players had in the birth of Jesus.

However, the more important aspect of Advent is that it helps us focus on the Second Coming of Jesus, the conclusion of all the first things and the shutting of the door to the old era and anticipating the new. 

This event, due to its delay, is not so much forgotten as placed on the back burner for future reference if needed.  The difficulty arises when like the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1 – 13 we can easily get caught out. We know the bridegroom is coming but it may not be in my lifetime, so I’ll not attend to my lamp.  We forget we must always be ready. Indeed Jesus concludes the parable with, ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do no know the day or the hour.’  In fact Jesus labours this point that we must be ready because no one knows when Jesus will come again.  

Advent is a really useful time to remind ourselves of this; to review our preparedness for Jesus’ Second coming. Have we been effective witnesses, have we remembered the poor, the widows, the orphans? Will I bring sheaves of corn with me or have I been preoccupied with my own life, with virus, lockdown, and Christmas preparations? Or am I anticipating with joy Jesus’ Second Coming and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?

I believe God is using the virus to work out something truly incredible on the planet – to see revival, souls saved, restoration and preparation before the Second Coming. 

As we consider Advent this year, I believe our response needs to be a deep clean in our own lives and in the life of the Church. Christians are all part of the Body of Christ and each one of us has a role and responsibility to be the solution and not the problem. 

Jesus needs his Church firing on all cylinders bringing the Kingdom to this world and we all have a part to play. We are all significant because only you have the connections and influence that you have. God wants to use you to bring life and hope and to show the way out of the virus of sin into a new life. 

Speaking from experience, it is all too easy to dwell on the disappointments of 2020 but God is calling us to rise up and bring light and hope to a world that has badly lost it way. We are called to pray and influence the nations so when Jesus comes again we will be ready, expectant and our lamps full of the oil of the Holy Spirit. 

Advent is a great time to re-set our priorities, to rejoice in God becoming Man, Emmanuel, but with fresh faith prepare ourselves for the Advent of Jesus, the soon coming King. 

The trials and joys of Mary's parents

The Bible tells us nothing about Mary’s parents, not even their names and yet they must have played a huge part in Mary’s pregnancy and the upbringing of Jesus. We have much to ponder in this Christmas season from what the Bible does tell us but over these last few days I have wondered about these unsung, unknown, and yet valued-by-God heroes. 

In the Jewish culture of that day, to find that your daughter was pregnant outside of marriage was the most awful shock and disgrace as well as a terrible disappointment that your beautiful, Godly daughter had behaved in such an ungodly and shameful way. Imagine Mary protesting that she was still a virgin, that an angel had visited her and this child was going to be the Son of God. I’m sure that initially this would have been met with disbelief and it certainly would have not been much consolation.

Mary’s parents would have been going through in their minds all the ramifications of this news and would have been worried about her reputation let alone their own. After all they could not have brought up Mary very well if she became pregnant outside marriage. 

When people found out, including the extended family, their friends and neighbours and then, worst of all, the religious leaders, their responses would not be very positive. I wondered if the family thought this news would mean they would all be excommunicated from the synagogue. 

They must have felt huge relief that Joseph was prepared to do the right thing and instead of divorcing Mary, was willing to marry her but nevertheless there was still much to contend with.

Now Joseph’s reputation would also be called into question, as people would presume the baby was his. Why else would he marry Mary? 

Once the initial shock had worn off, everyone would have needed a bit of space to re-group and plan the way forward. Perhaps that is why Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth’s to help her with her unexpected but joyful pregnancy. For three months everyone would have had the space to work out how to navigate what would be shocking news in small town Nazareth. 

On top of all this, Joseph and a very pregnant Mary had to travel to Bethlehem for the census. Even with every modern convenience, no one likes to travel when a baby is imminently due. Suppose the baby arrived en route. 

Mary’s parents would have been worried sick but when the news arrived back that the baby had been safely born, I wonder if they then travelled to Bethlehem to see their new grandson. It would be some years before Mary and Joseph returned to live in Nazareth. That in itself could have been a blessing in disguise. The town gossips would have found far more juicy morsels to chew on by the time the small boy and his parents arrived back in Nazareth. 

Unfortunately I am sure the stigma of being the child almost born out of wedlock would have lasted for all Jesus’ life. You can hear the sniff of contempt that would always go with the catty remark.

Mary’s parents I am sure, loved their grandson and watched with great delight as he grew up into a Godly young man. There must always have been something different about Jesus and I wonder if they, like their daughter, treasured up every moment and pondered them in their hearts. 

We can take comfort that for every key player in the Christian life, for every one on the platform or working hard to bring God’s Kingdom wherever God has sent them, there is a host behind them, known to God who are playing a key role in the background. These are the ones providing support, encouragement, love, prayers and just being there but without whom the prominent key people would never succeed in their God given call. 

These heroes are known to God, valued and loved and for whom there will be a great reward one day. 

Glory to God in the highest

I have frequently written about how Mary might have felt when Jesus was born in a stable and her precious baby was placed in the only cradle available, a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. However this unusual circumstance became a sign for the first group of visitors.  

You might imagine that the religious leaders or the synagogue rulers of Bethlehem would be first to visit the baby Messiah but no. God chose shepherds as the first visitors; uneducated, straight from the fields, probably dirty and smelly working men. But God loves shepherds – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and now his Son who would become the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5: 4). Jesus spoke of himself:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10: 1

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10: 14 – 15 

So it is not surprising that the shepherds were the first to hear the news and what a way they heard the announcement. This is surely one of the great events of history. Here we have shepherds possibly looking after the temple sheep (more symbolism) and suddenly into the darkness an angel appears with the words, ‘Fear not.’ The Bible is full of angels telling people to ‘Fear not.’ Obviously a glorified angel is a terrifying sight. These men would have been used to fighting off wild animals, rescuing silly sheep from their own predicaments, even dealing with sheep rustlers but an angel appearing – and they are terrified.

The angel then made the royal proclamation. Today, a baby has been born, a Saviour, the Messiah. The shepherds were given the sign. This baby would be found wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. However there was more.

A royal birth requires the royal choir of heaven to rejoice over the Son of God entering the world of men. Suddenly – I love God’s suddenlys. Suddenly heaven was torn open and the heavenly choir stepped forth. What a sight that must have been! A choir of angels singing glory to God. How amazing! You can imagine the shepherds either lying terrified face down on the earth or standing with their mouths hanging open.

When the angels had gone back into heaven, the shepherds decided to investigate.  You can hardly imagine them settling down round the fire again. They ‘hurried off’ and found everything as it has been described to them. What Mary and Joseph thought of this group of uneducated, uncouth men turning up to coo over the baby we do not know but whilst the shepherds went out and evangelised the whole area with the good news of the birth of the Messiah, Mary treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2: 19). She didn’t need to tell the world that her baby was the Messiah, the shepherds did that. 

Jesus wasn’t born in a palace in splendour to come and spread beneficence to his lowly subjects. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1: 14). Literally it means the Word tabernacled amongst us – just as God had done with the Israelites in the desert ‘dwelling’ in the midst of the encampment. 

Jesus didn’t come to hob nob with the rich, the famous, the religious. He came and dwelt with ordinary people – shepherds and fishermen, tax collectors and sinners. And he will come and dwell with each one of us – if we will only ask him. Then we will be those ‘on whom his favour rests’ and we will know his peace – ‘the peace that passes all understanding’.

Emmanuel - God with us

At this Christmas time, we remember that Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us. Jesus came to show what God is like as well as to die for the sins of the world. He told Thomas ‘if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father.’

If we stop and think what Jesus is like, we see someone with a huge heart for the lost and dying, someone who loved people, who helped and healed those whom society had little time for. 

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people.  News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. Matthew 4: 23 – 24.

Having met their needs, he then sat down and taught the crowd, the teaching now known as The Beatitudes. The first one was ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ Matthew 5: 3. Who were the ‘poor in spirit’? I believe, as Dallas Willard wrote, that the poor in spirit were this crowd of needy people – the sick, demon possessed, those in pain and paralysed. They had been blessed because the Kingdom had come to them. 

When John the Baptist, discouraged and in prison sent his disciples to ask Jesus if her was the one, he told them; ‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor’ Luke 7: 22.

The sign of the Kingdom (the King’s domain) and of the Messiah, the King was wonderful things happening and good news proclaimed to the poor.

As I have written before God gets a bad press. People are very quick to believe that God is an angry, vindictive God just itching to judge and condemn the world but nothing could be further from the truth. … God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4: 8 – 10.

Jesus was only ever angry with the religious leaders and temple authorities who should have

known better. Right from his birth they stubbornly refused to believe that Jesus was the longed for Messiah. They opposed him who came to bring life in all its fullness. Jesus never was angry, cross or irritated by the poor, ignorant and needy people. He had compassion on them but those who led the people astray into dead religion he condemned.

God is everything that is good and kind. He is gracious, merciful and he showed this by sending his son into the world to show the world just what he is like. Jesus is Emmanuel.

But now as Bill Johnson said: Its all about us becoming a generation who can authentically display who Jesus is. He is the desire of the nations. (Haggai 2: 7). He is what everybody wants they just don’t know it.  The more we represent Jesus as he genuinely is, the more desirable we become to the nations.  Our job is to destroy the works of the devil, just as Jesus did – heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and cleanse lepers (Matthew 10: 8).

So this Christmas as the world turns albeit briefly to remember Jesus let’s be those who represent Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, to the world by doing the things he did and by bringing his presence wherever we go.

Receiving well

I have been struck afresh this year by the advertisements for Christmas on the radio. Many of them promise that if you use their products or services it will be your best, greatest, most marvellous Christmas ever. Maybe you would like to visit the Ultimate Gift Ideas website.  One advert even promised that if you bought their gold goblets (four for £10) it would make your Christmas table the best ever. Excuse my cynicism.

But this is the problem with all if these advertisements. As the superlatives flourish, their promises inevitably lead to disappointment and cynicism which after all protects us from disappointment. We are all familiar I am sure with Jesus words “It is more blessed to give than to receive” which is a great antidote to both disappointment and cynicism for the focus shifts away from ourselves, our wants, our desires, our needs onto others.

As we give to others we can share in their joy. I love anonymous giving as you get to enjoy others’ pleasure secretly. God, the greatest giver, must have great pleasure in giving not just to his children but everyone.  Of course the best gift God gave us was his Son which is or should be the focus of Christmas.

However I am also struck by the importance of how we receive gifts. Recently I have witnessed gifts that were of huge significance to the giver been treated quite casually by the recipient.  This can be very hurtful.

How must God feel then when his greatest gift, his Son Jesus, is treated casually or ignored by most people?  His sorrow must be deep. God has provided all that man needs to deal with sin and to live a happy, fulfilled and deeply satisfying life. Through Jesus men and women can fulfill their God given destiny. The majority choose to reject this gift.

This Christmas as we receive gifts let’s make sure we receive them all – the big and the small with thankfulness and gratitude. However I want to make sure that this Christmas I take my eyes off the glitter and nonsense that will only disappoint and with a thankful heart place my focus firmly on the greatest gift of all.

Gerard van Honthorst Nativity

Born in a stable

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2: 6 – 7

If there is one thing that almost everyone knows about the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, whether they be Christian or not is that Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger or feeding trough.  They may know little else but stables and mangers are usually remembered.

Various people have commented that Joseph should have been able to find accommodation with his relatives in Bethlehem which would have been the normal thing in those days but that because of the great number of people in Bethlehem for the census, there was no spare room.  The BBC series called The Nativity went further and gave the reason that there was no room was because Mary had become pregnant outside of marriage so Joseph and Mary were ostracised by family and society.

I expect Mary had been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism and unkindness about her baby. It was shocking in those days to become pregnant before marriage but Joseph had honourably still married her and brought her under his protection. However I expect there would have been a lot of knowing looks and comments behind her back if not to her face.

So Mary ended up in a stable or more likely a cave to give birth to the Son of God. I don’t know about you but I would be devastated to have had any of my children born in a stable.  Mary knew who this baby was and for 9 months she had literally had the Son of God growing inside her.  Now at his moment of birth she ended up not in a nice guest room but outside of the family and society with the animals.

However God takes what appears a humiliation of giving birth in a stable and turns it into a sign that makes people wonder. When the angel told the shepherds a Saviour has been born, he identifies the baby as ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ It wasn’t the rich, famous or religious leaders who come to see Jesus but the poor of society and they found the baby because he was in a manger and not comfortable in the guest room of a house.

Today God will take our humble beginnings, our lack of education or broken family, the things that others may consider weak and shameful and turn them into signs of wonder. Jesus used rough, illiterate fishermen to found his church and this too became a sign of wonder. When they (religious leaders) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4: 13

Jesus, the Lord of glory, was not diminished by being born in a stable and lowly beginnings do not need to hold us back either. The very fact of his lowly birth is what makes Jesus known today. It may not have been Mary’s ideal place to give birth but the manger became not a shameful but a glorious place because of the presence of the baby born there.  Our circumstances, our lives can also become glorious as the presence of Jesus touches and changes them.