Faith Matters Podcast

Mystery of Christmas Day 5

SUPERNATURAL HISTORY“While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” LUKE 2:6-7 (ESV)In the Gospel of Luke, no sooner has the author introduced himself as a detail-oriented historian (Luke 1:1-4) than we are immediately ushered into an environment filled with supernatural occurrences (v 11-17). The story of Jesus’ birth is filled with angels, predictions, and miracles (1:26 – 2:21)—and when Luke reports these events, he offers them not as imaginative stories or poetical speculations but as they are: real history.When we read that Mary laid her firstborn son—the very Son of God—in a manger, it’s because she did. When we read that the child she gave birth to was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:31-35), it’s because He was. Rather than being superfluous, these supernatural elements are an intrinsic part of the Gospel’s account.Some have concluded that Jesus’ birth narrative appears so dramatically supernatural as to be implausible. They don’t believe it themselves or teach it to anybody else. They have decided that the story would be more acceptable to everybody if we simply removed anything miraculous.But that cannot be done. The story of the gospel is supernatural in its entirety, and not just at its beginning, because it is the story of the Creator of the universe entering into time, revealing Himself as Savior and King. Surely it would be more bizarre if the almighty God did not enter and exit the world in entirely supernatural ways that made mere mortals scratch their heads in amazement! Indeed, in each of the supernatural incidents Luke recorded, some faithful people had reflected on the Scriptures and were keenly anticipating that God would break into their environment in a way that had never happened before and would never happen again. When God came, these were the people who were ready for God to come and do what only He could do; these were the people who responded in faith.Christianity is ultimately meaningless apart from the almighty, miraculous intervention of God in time. God has come to meet us, but not at the top of the towers we have created on the strength of our ideas and investigation into what is plausible. He came to meet us in a cattle shed in Bethlehem. He came to meet us on a Roman cross at Calvary. He works in ways that we cannot explain and cannot predict.As you reflect on God’s word during this Advent season, consider His divine work, which has already been accomplished, and the ways He continues to move today. In doing so, your heart will once again be stirred by the wonder of the triune God’s supernatural love for you. Your eyes will be prepared to see surprising ways that God is at work in and around you—ways that you cannot explain and had not predicted but love to enjoy and praise Him for.How is God calling me to think differently?How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Mystery of Christmas Day 4

REJOICE WITH THE ANGELS“Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.” LUKE 2:4-5 (ESV)Jesus’ birthplace had a rich biblical history before it was ever visited by angels. It was Bethlehem that had once been stirred at the return of a woman who had left with her husband and two sons. Her name was Naomi. She and her family had gone in search of bread, from “the town of bread” (the meaning of “Bethlehem”), because of famine. While away, she’d lost her husband and both her sons. After this triple bereavement, she returned to the town with one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, who gave her name to the Old Testament book that tells their story. This grieving foreigner would one day become a part of the lineage of the Messiah (Matthew 1:1-6).It was also in the fields surrounding Bethlehem that a shepherd boy, David, looked after his father’s sheep. Bethlehem was the place where Samuel arrived in obedience to God’s word to find a replacement for King Saul. He asked Jesse to bring his sons out because one of them would be the king. They all came. None of them were chosen. The prophet then asked if there were any others, and the one who just looked after the sheep was brought in—and soon became the shepherd king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-12).Then, 1,000 years later, a man named Joseph returned to his ancestral home of Bethlehem to be registered for a census with his betrothed, Mary. In this now-familiar and ordinary yet historically significant place, it was time for the arrival of the promised and long-anticipated Messiah. For some 600 years previously, the prophet Micah had recorded these words: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2, ESV)Once again, in Bethlehem, presumably in those same surrounding fields where David had once watched over his father’s sheep, there would be a stirring as the skies filled up with angelic visitation and echoed salvation’s songs.As you approach this familiar territory during the Christmas season, may your heart be stirred afresh in the presence of God’s Son, our Messiah. May His Spirit move you to consider with awe the centuries-long complexity of the preparation for that moment when your King lay in a manger. And may He cause you to rejoice with the angels in God’s great salvation, knowing that our great God uses the small and ordinary things in life—even a little town like Bethlehem—to accomplish His great and glorious purposes.How is God calling me to think differently?How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Mystery of Christmas Day 3

KNOWING WITH CERTAINTY“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed who was with child.” LUKE 2:1-5 (ESV)In our day and age, it is trendy to seek the truth but taboo to say we have found it. Our culture would have us believe that while it’s ok to have a concept or an idea, we shouldn’t say we have certainty. Luke was different. He wasn’t satisfied with anything less than knowing with certainty—for himself and others. Indeed, it was a key part of his very purpose in writing his Gospel (Luke 1:3-4).In his account of Jesus’ birth, Luke provides us with political, social, geographical, and historical observations that may seem quite mundane. But they all matter. We are being shown that within the sociological context and in obedience to the political structures of his time, Joseph, along with Mary, made a geographical journey to his ancestral home. All of this took place in real, historical time.While people back then didn’t have Google or social media, someone easily could have gone to the record of public registration and looked up Joseph’s name. The Gospel writer was not providing a philosophy, an idea, or even a religion. He was delivering an honest account of actual events—events which centered upon the child who was in Mary’s womb and who would be born in the city of David, his great ancestor whose triumphs and reign were a mere shadow of the victories this baby would one day win for His people. Luke, with every word and every detail, made it very clear that Jesus’ story doesn’t exist in a vacuum.First- and second-century historians were in no doubt concerning Jesus’ historicity. Tacitus, a Roman historian who was writing in the early second century, had no interest in supporting the claims of Christ but was absolutely convinced that Jesus was not mythological.[1] Josephus, a Jewish historian, writing in AD 93, affirmed the fact that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were proclaimed by His followers.[2]The New Testament doesn’t call any of us into the realm of blind faith or to leap into the dark. No, it invites us to take a step into the light of absolute truth. In this supernatural space where God took on human flesh, you and I can be certain about the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. And in that certainty of what took place in those days, you will discover hope, peace, joy, and purpose for your day today.How is God calling me to think differently?How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Mystery of Christmas Day 2

WONDER AND MYSTERY“‘Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus …’ And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.’” LUKE 1:31, 34-35 (ESV)It is not Jesus’ birth that is so remarkable but His conception. When the angel announced that although she was a virgin, Mary would have a baby who would rule the entire universe, she simply asked the sensible question: “How?” And with that question, we arrive at the very heart of the Christian story.How was this child to be conceived? God was going to make it happen. He would do it. The language of being “overshadowed” reminds us of God’s divine presence being symbolized to the Israelites by a great cloud (Exodus 40:34-38). The conception, in other words, would be supernatural, able to be accomplished by God alone.As Paul worked through the theology of the incarnation, he wrote, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). He emphasized that the Redeemer had to be human so that He would be of the same nature as those whom He came to save: a man dying for mankind. But it was equally imperative that the Redeemer should be perfectly holy because no sinful person could effect atonement for the sins of others. He had to be Immanuel—God with us—and He had to be man.The early Christians hammered out the incarnation’s implications and came up with ways to describe the one who was conceived by the Spirit in Mary’s womb, coming to the convictions that have passed down to us in the early creeds. Our spiritual forefathers identified the wonder of the incarnation, bowed before the mystery of it, and affirmed that Jesus was, and remains, very God and very man.The idea that God would supernaturally invade this world shouldn’t surprise or discomfort us. After all, it takes a supernatural invasion of God into individuals’ lives to bring them to living faith, just as God sovereignly worked a miracle in Mary’s womb to bring us the Redeemer. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless someone is born from above—a birth brought about by God through His Spirit—they would not see God’s kingdom (John 3:3). If we have been brought to salvation, it is only because God has done it. You did no more to save yourself than Mary did to become pregnant with your Savior. The “How?” of salvation is always answered only by “God did it.”So, bow today before the wonder and mystery of God taking on flesh. And bow today before the wonder and mystery of God redeeming you. For that, no less than the virgin birth of the Son of God is the supernatural work of God.How is God calling me to think differently?How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Mystery of Christmas Day 1

THE PURPOSE OF CHRIST’S ADVENT“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” 1 JOHN 3:4-6 (ESV)Why do we anticipate Christmas with such relish? For the believer, the answer must surely lie, above all, in the awareness that Jesus Christ appeared to take away our sins.When we read the Gospel writers, we discover this truth at the very heart of their Christmas message. Matthew recorded the words of the angel to Joseph: “[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Ahead of what might be regarded as the first ever Christmas concert, the message the angel gave to the shepherds was similar: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). John began from a different vantage point. As he highlighted the commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry, having raised our gaze to the eternal Word becoming flesh (John 1:14), he gave us the words of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v 29). And Mark records nothing of Jesus’ birth or childhood, but in his Gospel, Jesus’ first words are an announcement that in Him the kingdom of God has come near to people like us (Mark 1:15), and in one of His first miracles, Jesus assures a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (2:5).If we say that God has shown His love for us in the incarnation, that is accurate but insufficient. God demonstrated His love for us not simply by sending Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem; rather, His own word tells us that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added).Of course, if we understand that Christ came to take away our sins, then it’s only logical to conclude that we have sins that need to be taken away. Rare is the man or woman who would say that he or she has never done wrong! We all have impure thoughts. We all speak bitter words. We all know what it is to live an unholy life. But the word of God comes to us and says, Here is the good news: Christ appeared in this world to take away your sins.Today, lay hold of this message with renewed joy and gratitude. Let these eight words be the most precious part of your Christmas season: “He appeared in order to take away sins.” Your friends, coworkers, and neighbors may be more open to the gospel message during the holiday season; make it your aim, then, not to further the misguided perception that Christmas is nothing more than a sentimental emblem of God’s love, as though His Son lay gurgling in the manger but never hung in agony on the cross. God’s love can only be fully explained in the purpose of Christ’s coming: to take away our sins. This, and this above all, is what gives our hearts bountiful cause for celebration!How is God calling me to think differently?How is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love?What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Disturb Us Lord Day 5

Prayer That Changes HistoryOnce James had been murdered, Herod’s religious Jewish contingent was thrilled with his initiative and applauded him. Suddenly he saw an easy way to gain favor with a party that had always given him such opposition. Acts 12:3 says, “When he [Herod] saw that it was pleasing to the Jews, he proceeded further and arrested Peter also” (AMP). This time things would be very different. Though Peter was ultimately set free through a miracle, the Scripture is careful to preface the story of his deliverance with the following statement, “prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5 KJV).This statement is very significant because the writer of Acts is trying to show us that the miraculous deliverance to follow would be a direct result of those fervent and persistent prayers that were offered up by the believers. The tragedy of James’ death had shaken believers to the core and there was nothing complacent about their response. It was time to fervently pray!Oh, my friends, if we had any idea of the incredible power that is available to us through prayer, I think we would find it so easy to heed Paul’s prompting to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Intercession is a privilege that belongs exclusively to man. No angel can intercede on our behalf nor can the angels intervene in earthy affairs according to their own will.However, as long as the enemy can keep the people of God convinced that they are powerless against the circumstances that they face, their impact on the earth will be anemic and of little influence. But that is not what God has in mind for His people. There’s much, much more. Our prayers are one vehicle through which God has chosen to impact the world. God has given man not only the authority but also the responsibility to influence events on the earth for His glory. So let us shake off complacency and pray prayers that change history!