The Mystery of Egypt

So here we are at the end of the first chapter in the Story of Jesus. If you have been with us since the beginning of the advent season then you know that we have been looking at some of the mysteries of Christmas. We started with the mystery of the Virgin Birth and how it had been prophesied hundreds of years before by the prophet Isaiah and we looked at various reasons of why we should believe that Mary was a virgin. The bible foretold it and she affirmed it when the angel Gabriel told her that she would become pregnant she replied by saying Luke 1:34 Mary asked the angel, "But how can this happen? I am a virgin." In the original language she doesn't actually use the word Virgin she says "I have never been with a man"

But the ultimate reason is that Jesus could only have one father and you will either believe that Joseph the Carpenter was Jesus' father or you will believe that God the creator of the Universe was Jesus' father, but they can't both be Jesus' father.

Then we looked at the trip that Joseph made with the very pregnant Mary, a trip that took them from Nazareth, up here just 24 Kms southwest of the Sea of Galilee to Bethlehem which was 120 kms away over rugged terrain. A trip that probably would have taken them the best part of a week and in the very best of situations they would have ridden donkeys. Donkeys! You ever ride on a donkey? You ever ride on a donkey 9 months pregnant?

You would have to wonder what would ever possess a man to take his very pregnant wife on that type of journey. Madness or perhaps there was another explanation or two. Within the scriptures we discovered the answers. The first part of the answer lies in the Old Testament, it was prophesied by the Prophet Micah. You will remember that King David was considered the greatest king that Israel ever had, and he was born in Bethlehem and throughout the Old Testament it was declared that the coming Messiah would be a descendent of David and Micah wrote this hundreds of years before the birth of Christ: Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.

But the second part of the answer is not found hundreds of years before Christ's birth but at the very time of Christ's birth. Luke 2:1-4 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home.

Not sure that Mary and Joseph would have seen it as a fortuitous situation but it certainly meant that they were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there.

And when they arrived in Bethlehem, they discovered either that they should have made reservations or they had made them and they were lost because we are told that Luke 2:6-7 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

If I was planning the birth of the Son of God I think I would have taken care of that detail, the angel Gabriel is all over this story and he either forgets to find them a place to stay or books them into a stable.

There have been times that we have arrived at a place where we had made reservations and probably should have stayed in a barn. But as with the rest of the story there was a reason, it was not simply by happenstance or by error that the son of God would be born in a stable.

From his very conception we see the hand of God; it would be naive to think that the birth place of Jesus was accidental. And so because of the humble birth place of Christ it was accessible on that first morning even to those who proper folks wouldn't have invited into their homes . . . shepherds. And two thousand years later Jesus remains accessible to each of us, regardless of our place on the social registry or the fortune 500.

And just two days ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus, sang of Virgins and Bethlehem, of mangers and shepherds and for most of us the Christmas story finished as the shepherds returned to their fields and the Wise Men silently headed east returning to their mysterious home.

But while most of us would end this part of the story with a period the bible uses a comma, because it is here we discover "The Mystery of Egypt."

Let's go back to the story. You will recall how on their way to Bethlehem the Wise Men stopped into Jerusalem where they paid their respects to King Herod who wasn't really a King but was kind of a puppet Governor whom the Romans let rule over a small portion of Palestine. But it was his portion of Palestine and he was insanely suspicious, with the emphasis on the insane part of that statement, suspicious of those he thought were a threat to his rule. We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he had murdered his wife, mother in law and two sons because he thought they were trying to oust him, and maybe they were but it was Caesar himself who commented "It is safer to be Herod's pig then his son."

When Herod heard there was a child born who was to be the King of the Jews he was furious and began planning bad things for the baby Jesus. Gabriel shows up again warns the Wise Men to skip the Jerusalem part of their trip on the way home and that's where we pick up in our story.

Matthew 2:13-15 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother," the angel said. "Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod's death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: "I called my Son out of Egypt."

And that is really all we know. The Holy family fled to Egypt, stayed for an indeterminable period of time and then returned to Palestine. The bible doesn't elaborate on where they lived, although if you travel to Egypt today traditions of the Coptic Church will direct you to any number of spots that they claim were notable spots in Jesus' childhood.

A little aside here, for many of us the church is cleanly divided into two sections: Catholic and Protestant. And yet around the world there are parts of our family that have a long history. The Coptic Church, or Egyptian Orthodox Church is said to have been started in AD 42, by Saint Mark, that's only ten years after the death and resurrection of Christ.

While we are giving a time in history that Mary and Joseph returned to Palestine, the bible tells us they stayed there until Herod's death which history tells us happened in AD we don't have a definitive birth date for the birth of Christ. Many scholars have estimated

Back to the story; We kind of see Egypt as a strange place for Joseph to take his family but that is because we see it from our time and perspective. Two thousand years ago it was a Roman Province where Greek was spoken, it wasn't that far away from Jerusalem only 100 miles or so, but still outside the reach of Herod and there was a certain familiarity about it, not to mention the symbolism wrapped up in Jesus making the same trip the people of Israel had made when Joseph's family had fled there to escape a famine in Palestine 1700 years before.                                    

And while we don't know a lot of the details concerning their stay in Egypt there is a great story that is told in tradition. When Joseph and Mary were on their way to Egypt, they were waylaid by a group of highway men. One of the outlaws wanted to murder them and steal their belongings.

But another of the group stepped in and protected the family, tradition tells us that he looked at the Christ child and said, "O most blessed of children, if ever there comes a time for having mercy on me, then remember me, and forget not this hour". So, the legend says that the next time Jesus and the thief met was at Calvary where Dismas hung on the cross next to Jesus and there he found forgiveness and grace. Great story isn't it?     Is it true? I have no idea but it is a great story.                        

But what do we learn from this brief interlude in this young families' Life?

We Discover It Was a Story of Trust Mary and Joseph must have been overwhelmed with all that was going on. They get to the end of this gruelling journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem only to discover that for whatever reason the village inn had no room for them. Some kind soul allows them the use of a stable where their first child is born. Do you remember the birth of your first child? You can't really believe it's happened, even though you had nine months to prepare. You have to count all the little fingers and toes and then you count them again, hardly able to comprehend how tiny and perfect they are. Almost like baby toes and fingers. Then there are endless discussions of who the baby looks like until you final settle on Uncle Moe, the one with no hair and no teeth.

And then a flock of shepherds show up, do shepherds come in flocks? Babbling about angels and wanting to see the baby. And then it was the Magi with their gifts and talk about how they had travelled hundreds of miles across the desert in search of this child who would become a king. A little overwhelming for a Nazarene carpenter and his young bride.

And just when Joe thinks that maybe things have settle down and he can finally get some sleep his dreams are interrupted by an angel, again. Matthew 2:13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother," the angel said. "Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." Joseph must have been thinking every time an angel shows up he got some strange story and request. First it was when he was still reeling from the bombshell that Mary had dropped, that she was going to have a baby and that the father was the Holy Spirit. He was already to break off the engagement when an Angel showed up letting Joseph know that everything Mary said was true and commanded him to marry her and call the child Jesus. And he did.

Now this, he was to believe that not only did King Herod know that Jesus was born, I'm sure he was thinking "Like what's with that? I'm just a carpenter and he's a king, how'd he find out we haven't even put the announcement in the newspaper yet. And besides why should a grumpy old man care enough about our child to want to kill him?"

It's surprising how often God reveals extraordinary plans to ordinary people. Noah, I want you to build me an ark. Sarah and Abraham you are going to have a baby in your old age. David I want you to take on the giant Goliath with just five stones and sling shot, and on and on it goes.

Mary you are going to have a baby, even though you are a virgin. Joseph, Mary is going to have a baby even though she's still a virgin.

And now this. It's not for the ordinary that we have to trust, those are just things we do. And that's probably why we have verses in the scriptures like Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

And why the prophet tells us in Isaiah 12:2 See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid.

And why Jesus assured his apostles and us: John 14:1 "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.

 

And so there will be times that we don't understand, and those are the times we have to trust that God knows what he's doing.

 

I love the response of Joseph throughout the Christmas story. He finds out Mary is pregnant and decides to call off the wedding, that night he is visited by an angel who tells him that it's going to be all right and that he needs to marry his Fiancé. His response is found in Matthew 1:24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

After Jesus is born an angel visits and tells Joseph that Jesus' life is in danger and they need to leave the country , we read about his response in Matthew 2:14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother,

When Herod dies Joseph is visited once again by the angel, one would think that they should be on first name basis by now, and he is commanded to return to Israel, his response? Matthew 2:21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother.

So more than anything we discover It Was a Story of Obedience

Is trust trust if we don't act on it? Do you trust that the ice is thick enough to walk on? Will you walk on it? I love the story of the man falling over the bank. As he's falling to a certain death he manages to grab hold of a branch and as he dangles he yells, "Help, help!" From above he hears a voice call out, "this is God, I'm here to help you." "Thank you" He hollers back. The voice responds you need to trust me. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, he responds, I have trust you" "Then let go of the branch!" There's a pause and the man calls out again, "Is there anyone else up there?"

We talk about trusting God but until we act upon that trust then trust is just a word.

We see how the bible is full of examples of trust, even when it didn't seem to make sense, but the reason they are there is because the trust was acted on.

There are probably other instances were God called upon people and they said they trusted him, but when He asked them to do whatever it was to demonstrate that trust they hedged. And that's why we don't read about Harold in the lion's den, or Bob killing the giant, or Fred building an ark.

Jesus offers us grace and forgiveness and in return he asks for our love and obedience. And sometimes we bristle at the thought of having to obey, but the commands of Christ aren't set there to ruin our fun, they are set there for a purpose. Do you remember in the book of Matthew one of the religious leaders asked Jesus what the most important commandment was? In reply Jesus reached back into the Old Testament and answers Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied, " 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." Love God and love others. And when you get right down to it that is the sum of Jesus teachings.

Love God and love people. And so when he tells us not to murder or steal or commit adultery he is simply telling us to treat other people right. Was the command to not cheat on our spouse put there to ruin our fun or to protect our families? When we are commanded to not take the Lords name in vain, not to have other gods and to take time out to worship him they are part of the Love the Lord your God.

And finally It Was A Story Of Faith Joseph had no guarantees, God didn't hand him the plan written down so he could show Mary or that he could take out once in awhile to look at to reassure himself.

The directions were a little vague, "Go to Egypt" there was no address, not contact person for when he got there, no promise of a job. In the book of Hebrews Paul defines what faith is Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

That could have been written about Joseph, time and time again. He had an assurance about things he could not see.

But what does this mean for today, December 27^th 2009? Well first of all it reminds us that we need to trust God. We need to trust him with our career, we need to trust his with our family, we need to trust that he loves us and has the very best at heart for us, but being in the centre of God's will doesn't mean it will be easy or that there will be no problems. But it does mean that he will be with us through the times of trouble and problems.

And it means that we need to obey him, to do as he commands and put our trust into action.

And that will only happen when we believe what we cannot see.

The Mystery of the Stable

Everybody loves a good mystery and the Christmas story if full of mysteries, full of whys and hows and whos. If you've been with us over the past few weeks you know the theme we have chosen for this advent season is "The Mysteries of Christmas"

We started with the Virgin birth. One of the main stays of orthodox Christianity. The Apostle's Creed reminds us when we recite "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary."

But there are folks, including those who profess to follow Jesus who either dispute the virgin birth or ignore it. But it is the very essence of who Jesus was, he was not the son of a man and a woman like we are, he was and is the son of God and as such he wasn't born in the usual way but had a wonderful marvellous birth and conception where his Father stepped outside of the very rules that he put in place, where two cells become one and then become two again. And he started with just one cell. Not because the act of sex and reproduction is dirty or sinful but simply because it is ordinary and here we are talking about the conception of the Son of God and that isn't ordinary. And besides God couldn't be Jesus' father if Joseph was Jesus' father.

And that is why we are told by the prophet Isaiah 7:14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us').

And then the next week we looked at the journey that Mary and Joseph made from Nazareth, a small town south west of the Sea of Galilee, to Bethlehem a village situated just outside of Jerusalem, a journey of 120 kms. Not a long journey today in comfortable cars on nice roads but for Joseph it would have been a trip that would have taken at least four days and more likely a week, on foot or by best case by donkey, while accompanying his wife who was about to give birth or as some versions of the Christmas story reminds us, was great with child. And we discovered that the answer to that Mystery could be discovered in the past and in the present.

The reason was connected to the past because the Old Testament contained prophecies saying that not only would the Messiah be born of the line of King David but that he would be born at the birthplace of King David. Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.

Why were all these prophecies put in place, as a check system so the people of Israel would know that the Messiah was indeed the Messiah. Born of a virgin, check, born in Bethlehem, check and so on.

But the answer was not only in the past but it could also be found in their present, we know the story how the Roman Government decreed that a census would be taken and everyone would return to their ancestral home, in Joseph's case that was Bethlehem. So it wasn't a matter that they wanted to make the trip they had to make the trip.

And we all know what happened next, we sing about we see it in pageants and Christmas Cards, we all know the story. (Born in a barn video)

This is what the Bible records Luke 2:6-7 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

It is interesting that this verse tells us that Mary gave birth to her first child, not her only child but her first child. Seldom do we stop and think about it but Jesus grew up with siblings; the scriptures tell us that he had brothers and sisters. But I digress, back to story.

This morning we are looking at: The Mystery of the Stable. I mean face it, if you were God, master of all things, creator of the universe and all that exists where would you want your child born? A beautiful home? A Palace? A nice hotel? How about a barn? No, probably not a barn. But that was it, the word of God doesn't actually tell us that he was born in a barn, or even a stable but it does say that they laid him in a manger. Because most of us are city folks we aren't familiar with the term manger, other than at Christmas time or when we spell manager wrong. As a matter of fact I grew up around horses and barns and I don't think I ever used the term manger. But because of the Christmas story we all know what a manger is.

And again for those who do their bible study off of Christmas cards we picture this small lonely shed like structure all by itself, surrounded by singing angels and worshipful shepherds. But, hate to burst your bubble, but. . . The bible tells us that the shepherds left their fields and went into Bethlehem and we are told that 2000 years ago there was a structure in many communities called a khan and we are told that historically a khan was like a series of stalls opening off a common courtyard. And so as a part of the historic landscape of Bethlehem, there would be this communal area where travellers could house and care for their animals. Kind of a . . . parking garage.

But at the heart of this story we discover humanity divided into two groups, and those two groups exist today and each one of us belongs to one of those two groups. Don't you love it when something can be reduced to the very basics? There are not a hundred choices from which we have to choose, not fifty or even twenty or ten. Just two.

And so the first group we become acquainted with Those who said "No" To Jesus. I suppose there is an honour of sorts to be the first person to reject Christ.

The innkeeper is really the first villain in the story. I mean what type of person would turn away a pregnant lady who was as the King James version puts it was "Great with Child"? That's the polite way of saying that Mary was a big as a house.

We often think of the Inn with a big no vacancy sign flashing in the window, but it wasn't that there wasn't room in the inn, that isn't what the scripture says. Luke 2:6-7 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn. What the Bible tells us is that there wasn't room for them in the inn, and there is a difference

If we take that to it's logical conclusion the assumption is that there wasn't room for them but there was room for others.

Perhaps they innkeeper was keeping the room in case he received a better offer, maybe he knew that as more and more people arrived in Bethlehem for the census that any vacant rooms would become a commodity. You think how pricey even the most modest of rooms will be in Vancouver two months from now. And so perhaps the Innkeeper was just hedging his bets, it wasn't a personal decision, just an economic one.

And it wasn't that they were asking for the room for nothing. Again we often mix up tradition with actual facts. We have been conditioned from years of Christmas specials and Christmas cards to perceive the home that Christ was born into as one of poverty, and that probably wasn't the case.

Joseph wasn't poor, he was a carpenter a tradesman, he wouldn't have been wealthy but I'm sure that he would have been considered middle class in that day and age. I'm sure that when Joseph gathered up Mary and headed for Bethlehem he probably came prepared they weren't looking for charity. But perhaps greed on the innkeepers part meant that the room was priced well out of their reach.

And as unfortunate as they may have been at least it would have simply been a business decision in contrast to the other option.

Maybe he just didn't want their type there, maybe he has something again people from Nazareth. "Sorry we don't have room for you people."

Were they "You peoples"? Apparently for some folks they were. Do you remember the story found in the first chapter of John's gospel when the apostles were first gathering around Jesus? The story is found John 1:45-46 Philip went off to look for Nathanael and told him, "We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth."
"Nazareth!" exclaimed Nathanael. "Can anything good come from there?"

So perhaps the innkeeper just didn't like folks from Nazareth. You might be wondering how he knew where they were from. There is a hint found a life time later when Jesus has been arrested, you might recall that Peter is warming himself outside of where Jesus was being questioned and he finds himself being accused of being one of Christ's followers. A charge he denies, and then we read this Matthew 26:73 A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, "You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent."

Peter was from the same area as Joseph and Mary and ultimately Jesus. Never actually think of Jesus having an accent do we? From the movies we assume that if Jesus had an accent it was either British or American. That was what we technically refer to in preaching as a tangent.

Or maybe they just didn't want a lady who was obviously about to go into labour in one of their rooms, there was the entire plenty of hot water and clean sheets thing, the potential for a mess and not to mention all the screaming that might disturb other guests, transitional labour is nothing to laugh at.

We don't know why there was no room for them in the inn but we do know is that the innkeeper would not be the last person to reject Christ. And today when Jesus is rejected it's just like at the inn it's not because there is no room in the person's life instead there is no room for Christ in their life.

There's room for all kinds of things, career, family, habits, ambition and maybe even religion but not for Jesus

And sometimes it's because a person really doesn't want to pay the cost, and sometimes they are hoping a better offer will come along and sometimes they are just playing a long shot that they can live like hell and still make it into heaven.

But there were also Those who said "Yes" To Jesus

When we read the Christmas story we often focus on the fact that there was no room in the inn, however there was room in the stable. And the stable did belong to somebody, and that somebody allowed Mary and Joseph to move in, perhaps just for the night, maybe longer. We don't know how long they stayed in the stable. Long enough for Jesus to be born, long enough for the shepherds to visit, but apparently they moved out before the Magi go there because Matthew tells us in Matthew 2:9-11 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary.

You gotta figure that at some point a woman became involved. "You put her where?" "Well you march yourself right out there and invite them in while I get the spare room ready."

A couple of things, the offer of the stable would have been commendable if that was all they had. Seriously, if whoever owned it said "I don't have room anywhere else but there is the stable." And they went out and prepared it and cleaned it up and made Mary and Joseph comfortable.

But it would have been a different kettle of fish if they had something better and all they offered was the stable. Would have been a completely different story.

Christ explains the same principle in a very familiar story found in the gospel of, you are familiar with the story, Jesus is standing at the back of the temple next to the offering box and a widow drops in two small coins and we pick up the story in Mark 12:43-44 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on."

It's the same in our lives the same gift can be given and for one person it is a sacrifice and for another it is just a bauble.

Regardless of why Jesus and his family ended up in the stable it did serve a couple of purposes. And again it is wise to remember Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

If you remember the story the first people invited to come to Jesus were the shepherds and we have to assume that they would have felt a lot more comfortable coming to a stable than coming into an inn or a private home.

"Mort, there are a bunch of shepherds at the door; they say they're here to see the baby." And not only that but how inconsiderate would it have been for God to have brought a bunch of shepherds into someone's house with all of the mess and inconvenience that would have involved.

The shepherds were apparently an important part of the Christmas story, and God made it easy for them to take part.

I think the stable was instrumental in Jesus being accessible to all people. There is something about his humble birth that says He is there for all of us.

Often, not always but often, those born to a privileged life never understand those who are less fortunate than they are, even if their fortune was an accident of birth. We all remember Marie Antoinette's comment when she was told that the peasants were upset because they had no bread, "If they have no bread than let them eat cake." Actually if you go a little deeper you discover that when that comment was first reported Marie Antoinette was 10 years old and living in Austria, and while we don't know for sure who said it historians feel that is was probably Maria Therese of Spain the wife of King Louise XIV of France. That was free, just another one of those educational services that Cornerstone provides.

And so Christ began his life not at the top of the economic and social ladder but at the bottom.

It is interesting to note and perhaps to ponder on that Christ began his life born in a stable that belonged to someone else and ended his life buried in a tomb that belonged to someone else. Not always one for inspirational poems and readings but I do love this one. (One solitary life)

Let's end this morning with a quote from William Barclay who wrote "That there was no room in the inn was symbolic of what was to happen to Jesus. The only place where there was room for him was on a cross. He sought an entry to the over-crowded hearts of men; he could not find it; and still his search--and his rejection--go on."

And so this Christmas the question is the same as it was on that first Christmas morning over 2000 years ago: Will you make room for Jesus?

The Mystery of Bethlehem

Mystery of Bethlehem

The theme we have chosen for this advent season is "The Mysteries of Christmas". Last week we looked at the Mystery of the Virgin birth, how God Almighty the creator of the Universe stepped into the stream of human history to introduce his Son to the world. In that message we discovered that the Virgin birth was necessary because it fulfilled the prophecy of the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah 7:14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us').

And really if you were God and you were coming to the earth, it would be a special occasion and it should happen in a special way. And I know that there are those who say "Well a Virgin birth is impossible." Sure, but the same God who wrote the laws of nature surely is able to step outside the laws of nature.

So if you have been following the story, the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her the exciting news, she's going to be a mom, even though she is still a virgin, they work out the details but then there is the entire process of telling her parents and her fiancé, in Australia we'd say that would be a bit of a sticky wicket. And you can imagine that Joseph, the man she was engaged to wasn't all that excited to hear the news. "You're pregnant and you want me to believe the father is the Holy Spirit. Got news for you little lady, I didn't just fall off the turnip wagon, we are through and maybe you can convince sell that story to some other sucker."

And really you can't blame him. Sure we know the story but he didn't until the same angel appears and tells him in Matthew 1:20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit." There was more to the conversation but the end result is found in Matthew 1:24-25 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Have you ever noticed how people communicate? Some people give you just the essentials, and others go to great extremes to make sure that you know the entire story and everything that led up to the story. I just want to shake them and say "Spit it out."

Matthew and Luke are like that as they tell the Christmas story. Last week when I looked that the Virgin Birth I looked at Luke's account. And he spends 30 verses and over five hundred words telling us the story. And that doesn't include the back story that he tells about how Mary's cousin Elizabeth became pregnant.

What does Matthew do? One verse, forty words: Matthew 1:18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The same thing happens with the events that follow, Matthew tells us in Matthew 2:1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. Which if you just want the story is kind of cool. Kind of Like "Denn was born in Chatham when Diefenbaker was King." But really that doesn't tell you the whole story does it? Why Chatham? Mom and Dad weren't from the Miramachi, they didn't stay there very long and I didn't go back for almost forty years.

Matthew answers the "where" and when rather nicely Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. But there are a lot of questions that he leaves unanswered. And some of those questions are answered in Luke's account and other's we have to dig for. The most obvious question is "Why Bethlehem?" If we pull down one of our trusty maps we discover that Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph lived is up here, twenty four kms from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee and thirty kms inland from the Mediterranean Sea, a small village that was obviously the family home to both Mary and Joseph. And Bethlehem is way down here, about 120 kms away. For us that isn't an insurmountable distance depending on how you drive and what the roads are like it would take you between an hour and two hours to make the trip. When I was in Sierra Leone I made a trip of eighty kms going from Makeni to Kamakwie hospital in four and a half hours but this trip was worse than that.

Mary was not just pregnant Luke tells us about the trip in Luke 2:4-5 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. Obviously pregnant. Hmm, love what it says in the KJV it says she was great with Child. And you know what I mean; there are some women who are obviously pregnant and others who are great with Child.

120 kms, across rugged terrain, if you believe Christmas Cards Joseph walked and Mary rode on a donkey. That makes sense but we don't know it for sure. Maybe they both rode donkeys or maybe they both walked. Most of the time the drawings and paintings imply they are all by themselves making the trek but most likely they were travelling with a group or in a caravan probably for the safety that numbers provide. But regardless of whether they were travelling alone or with a group it was doubtful they could cover more than thirty kms a day and so the trip would have taken a minimum of four days and possible as long as a week.

But the question remains: Why? What would possibly possess you to head out on a journey of this type with your wife who was great with child?

Matthew tells us it was a Matter of the Past The problem in Canada is that we have no real sense of history, oh we can talk about Cabot and Champlain and Frobisher, we can point people to a 250 year old church in Halifax and a 350 year old house in Quebec, and in two years we will be able to celebrate the 400^th anniversary of the first church service on Caton's Island. But really we are just babies. Sure it's been four hundred years since the European settlement of Canada began but 400 years isn't much. There was a four hundred year gap between the Old and New Testament.

Bethlehem is one of the communities that is sacred to the Jews, Christians and Muslims and all for various reasons but what they all share is that those reasons lie in Bethlehem's past.

The first time Bethlehem is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 35:19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). This is Rachel, the wife of Abraham's Grandson Jacob and it happened 1700 years before Christ was born. 1700 years. Do you have any idea what our history was like 1700 years ago? But I regress. It was also in Bethlehem that the story of Ruth took place; you can read all about that in the book of Ruth. It is a great story of integrity and Character. But for the Jews the most important thing about Bethlehem is that it was the birth place of an unlikely King. Which would be a great title about the birth of Christ but isn't.

If you are familiar with your Old Testament history you will know that in the early years of Israel they were ruled by Men and women called Judges, some who were good and some who were not so good, but the people of Israel wanted to have a king like all the other kids. And so a man named Saul was appointed King. And if you think we sometime pick people with unlikely qualifications today listen to this 1 Samuel 9:2 His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

He might have been tall and good looking but he stunk at being a king, he started off well, he was obedient to God and tried to do the right things but eventually he started to think that he could do better by himself. And so it was decided that they would need to find a new King and the search was on, God appointed the Prophet Samuel to find the new King 1 Samuel 16:1 Now the Lord said to Samuel, "You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king."

And maybe you know the story, Samuel arrives in Bethlehem and tells Jesse the news and it was kind of like Cinderella, Jesse trots all the boys out for Samuel to take a look at. The first one out of the gate impresses Samuel and he says 1 Samuel 16:6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, "Surely this is the Lord's anointed!"

But God reminds him in 1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Possibly a lesson we still need today.

And seven sons were brought out and seven times God said "Nope" until finally 1 Samuel 16:11-13 Then Samuel asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse replied. "But he's out in the fields watching the sheep and goats." "Send for him at once," Samuel said. "We will not sit down to eat until he arrives." So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the Lord said, "This is the one; anoint him." So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.

That boy who was tending sheep of course became King David who took Israel to her peak of military and political influence. And it was from his lineage that the Promised Messiah would come, but more than that it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the birth place of David. Hundreds of years before Mary and Joseph set out on their journey the prophet Micah wrote in Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.

Let's always remember that the New Testament does not stand alone that the back story can often be found in the Old Testament. If you remember the Christmas story the Wise Men were directed to Jerusalem by the star and when they inquired about the baby king they were looking for King Herod asked the priests and religious leaders what the Magi were talking about. Their answer is found in Matthew 2:5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they said, "for this is what the prophet wrote: And then they quoted Micah 5.

And so part of the why to Bethlehem lies in the past.

The lesson we learn is that not everything can be judged or answered in the here and now. That applies to why we do things and how we do things, the yesterday often helps explain today. How we treat people often goes back to how we were treated by people in our past. Our world view can often be explained by the teachers and influential people from our past. You can't really understand Cornerstone until you understand our history.

Now let's skip over to Luke's version of the story

Luke 2:1-4 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.

Luke Tells us It Was A Matter of the Present: You understand the significance here right. There would come a time that Jesus' bona fides would be questioned. Was he really the Messiah? Did he really fulfill the prophecies? Was he really who he said he was? And the teachers of the law would look not only at whether or not he fulfilled them but how he fulfilled them.

Maybe people would think it was all an elaborate scam thought up by Mary and Joseph. You know when people are expecting their first child they often dream of what that child will be and do when they grow up. Maybe they will be a Doctor or Prime Minister or the next Sydney Crosby, or perhaps the next Tiger Woods, without the entire adultery thing.

So maybe Mary and Joseph were hoping that their little boy would grow up to be the Messiah and they knew the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem so while Mary was great with child they made the four day trip. You say "That would be crazy Denn!" You watch the news? I've seen people do crazier things.

I'm not saying that is what happened, I'm just saying that eventually there could be potential for people to think that's what happened.

But what if they didn't have a choice, what if it could never be said that they were all part of a grand plan to scam the world into believing that their son was the Son of God by choosing to have their child in Bethlehem?

Not only that but this prophecy thing was important stuff, not to be trifled with. What if there was the chance that even if Mary and Joseph were given Angelic direction to go to Bethlehem they hedged. You know at the last minute decided they didn't want to put the extra miles on donkey, or Mary wasn't feeling well or Joseph had gotten behind in some of his carpentry work, or didn't feel he could take the time off with a baby on the way.

So while they might choose to disobey a heavenly decree, for whatever reason, and don't judge them, they would be much more apt to obey the law of the land, especially when it was enforced as strictly as Rome enforced it.

The question then is was Caesar used as a puppet? Or was the divine plan simply put into place to coincide with the plans of Rome? Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. Not anytime but the right time.

I don't know if the Micah prophecy had even entered into Mary and Joseph's thoughts, if with all that they were going through at that point in their lives if it was even on the radar. "We need to get the nursery ready, buy a crib, get a donkey baby seat and go to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy made five hundred years ago." But it was part of the plan. And I'm sure when they heard the news that they were going to have to make the trip to Bethlehem they may not have been thrilled.

"Great just what we need, Mary is ginormous, I have a big job going on for the Steinberg's, our new house isn't ready yet and now this." But it was just what they needed, or at least it was what the Kingdom needed.

But ultimately it was a matter of obedience. Obedience to the laws of man and obedience to the direction of God. Maybe Joseph needed the first in order for the second. God is good; he provides us with a way and sometimes makes it easier for us.

How often do we need that nudge? I am sure there have been times in my life when I have done the right things and come out smelling like roses but I didn't do the right thing enthusiastically, and maybe not completely willingly.

And sometimes we don't understand why God allows what he does, and maybe will never understand on this side of eternity so all we can do is believe and claim the promise of Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Even when we don't understand it, and may not understand it on this side of eternity and even when we wouldn't have done it that way.

I mentioned to someone once that I was making a list of questions for when I got to heaven but they reminded me that we would have perfect knowledge when we got to heaven and wouldn't have to ask those questions because then we would know.

We will be like: there are a few things I'd like to know. And then it will be the big eureka moment. Aha!

You remember the story, the Wise men had stopped in Jerusalem and asked for directions, and King Herod had consulted with his religious advisers who told him about the prophecies of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem and he asked the Wise Men to bring him news of the baby he was planning bad things for the baby Jesus. But an Angel appeared to the Magi and warned them not to return through Jerusalem and so we read in

Matthew 2:16 Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them about two years earlier.

It was a Matter of Sin


There is one mystery of Bethlehem that isn't as easy to explain and it has less to do with the goodness of God and more to do with the evil of man. And Herod was evil and extremely suspicious that others were trying to take his power, he murdered his wife and mother in law as well as three of his sons. Barlcay tells us that Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had said "It is safer to be Herod's pig than Herod's son" Which was a lot more poetic in the Greek where the word for Pig was Hus and for Son was Huios

Some people wonder why genocide like this wouldn't be mentioned in history. Well, remember that at the time Bethlehem probably had a population of no more than 2000, less than half the population of Kingswood. So we are probably talking the death of 25 or 30 children tops. In a time when murder and unrighteousness was so wide spread the only people who would have been outraged at this tragedy would have been the parents.

But this is one of those questions of "Why didn't God prevent this tragedy?" Why are there starving children in Africa, why do people get cancer? fifty feet to the port or starboard and the Mont-Blanc would have missed the Imo and the Halifax explosion would have been averted.

Why? because we live in a broken world and because in this case an evil man was in charge. Could God have stopped him? Yep, could God stop us every time we decided, notice I said decided, to sin? Yep, sure could but he has given us this gift called freewill and sometimes we use it to hurt people intentionally or unintentionally.

I would suspect that before Herod issued that order that he thought "this might not be a good idea" and then he went, "Oh well." Just like we do. But I would never kill anyone, or hurt anyone. I guess it's all degrees.

Had Herod obeyed the laws of God and of the land which say "Do not kill" the tragedy would have been averted. If Tiger Wood had of obeyed the law of God that says "Do not commit adultery" the media would have had less news to report last week, he wouldn't have hurt his wife and possible broken up his family. I guess the thing to remember is that we are responsible for the decisions we make.

Joseph and Mary decided to be obedient to God, Herod decided to play the part of the villain but in both cases they were choices they made. So the question is what choices will you make?

 

The Mystery of the Virgin Birth

The doctor turns to his patient after examining her and says "Perhaps you'd like to have your husband with you." To which she replies "I'm not married"

"Well then maybe your boyfriend" the doctor says.

"I don't have a boyfriend either." The woman says.

So the doctor gets up and walks over to the window and just stands there. After a few moments the woman asks "What are you doing?"

"Well" the doctor replies "The last time this happened a star rose in the east and I don't want to miss it this time."

The "Virgin Birth" for two thousand years it has been the topic of debates, heresy and humour. It's believed and scoffed at by millions, some who should believe it. It will be sung about in shopping malls, proclaimed on Christmas cards and talked about by little children.

Our theme this Christmas is "The Mysteries of Christmas" and one of the Mysteries of Christmas is the virgin birth. As a matter of fact it is the first mystery of Christmas.

David Jenkins (1925-, British ecclesiastic, bishop of Durham) Said " I wouldn't put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if He wanted, but I very much doubt if He would." Jenkins shouldn't feel special, he isn't the first to question the virgin birth, that would have been Mary, nor will he be the last but that doesn't make it any less a reality. But even for those who believe it, it still remains a mystery.

The What

There was a sense of urgency that filled the country. A general expectancy was in the air concerning the long expected Messiah. Many Jews looked back to Old Testament Prophecy and in particular the book of Daniel concerning up coming events, and many of those people felt that the 70 weeks that Daniel Spoke of was an analogy, each day representing a year and so the 70 weeks actually meant 70 x 7 years, which for the mathematically challenged amongst us ends up as 490 years. Seeing that that particular prophecy was written around approximately 457 BC, they felt that the time was drawing near.

To say that the Jews were looking forward to the coming Messiah would be a little bit of an understatement. For 400 years foreign troops had occupied Israel and the feeling was that this Messiah would deliver them from their oppressors. And it was in this setting, this hotbed of expectancy that the scripture that Mike read this morning was set.

Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, The question is the sixth month of what, it wasn't the sixth month of the year. Well if we had gone back a little further in the scripture we would have read the story of a Priest name Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth. They were an older couple who had never been able to have children, a tragedy at any point in history but certainly a double tragedy for a Priest of God in a society where children were considered to be a gift from God. And into the lives of Elizabeth and Zacharias came an Angel to announce that they would have a son who would announce the coming of the Messiah. Well it wasn't long before Elizabeth conceived and six months after that miraculous event, another one is about to happen. Kind of an interesting note in the story is that Elizabeth had a much younger relative named Mary.

And so about six months into Elizabeth's Pregnancy an Angel named Gabriel arrived in the town of Nazareth. Gabriel is actually mentioned six times in the Bible. Four of those instances were in the book of Daniel, it would appear that this was the Angel who revealed the prophecies of God to Daniel, and twice in the book of Luke where he first spoke to Zacharias concerning Elizabeth's delicate condition and again here.

Just a thought but I wonder if maybe it wasn't Gabriel at all but was Gabrielle? After all if you were God would you send a male angel to break the news concerning unexpected pregnancies? Just a thought.

And so the Angel came to Nazareth, which is a small town let's pull up a map here. Nazareth is a small town that is located about 24 kilometres from the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. 30 Kilometres east of the Mediterranean Sea and about 400 metres above sea level.

Here's a picture of what Nazareth looks like today.

He didn't just come to visit the town as nice of a town as it might have been but he came for a specific reason and the scripture continues. Luke 1:27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Here is one of the key doctrines of the Christian Church. Gabriel didn't just come to anyone but to a young woman, specifically a young woman named Mary and even more specifically to a young woman named Mary who the Bible tells us was a virgin.

Now this isn't the way you'd normally describe a person or either gender. You know "the other day I was in town to meet with Fred, he's a virgin you know." But here it was crucial to the story. Now the word that is used here in the original Greek did not have to mean virgin in the strictest sense. You will remember that the New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek word that was used in this instance was  or which could mean a couple of different things, it could mean a virgin, or it could simply mean an unmarried woman or it could mean an unmarried daughter. The word itself doesn't necessarily relate to a woman's intimate experience with a man. If this verse stood by itself a much more accurate translation would be "a single young lady named Mary."

The Huh?

The reason that virgin is used is because verse 27 cannot be taken in isolation it isn't complete without the explanation given in verse 34 where Mary makes this statement
Luke 1:34 Mary asked the angel, "But how can this happen? I am a virgin." More to the point, Gabriel had told Mary that she was going to have a son, and she said, "Hold on guy, there's a small problem here and that is that I have never been with a man"

She was saying that she was a virgin. You know, if you can accept the resurrection of Christ, you should be able to accept the virgin birth of Christ. And if you don't believe in the resurrection, then it really doesn't matter if you accept the virgin birth or not. After all Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In other words if there was no resurrection you are backing the wrong horse.

And if she wasn't a virgin then who was Jesus father? Joseph? I don't think so, after all Joseph was a wee bit upset when he found out that his finance was pregnant. Do you really think that God would send his son to be born through immorality?

You have to understand the entire Jewish tradition of engagement; Mary and Joseph were in what was called the Betrothal period of their relationship. In that particular culture most marriages were arranged by the families back when the participants were only children. The philosophy was that marriage was far too serious of a endeavour to be left to the dictates of the human heart. And the last part of the engagement was the Betrothal, and it lasted for one year and was absolutely binding, the participants were considered husband and wife in all matters except they didn't live together and the marriage hadn't been consummated. The betrothal could only be broken through the formal proceedings of divorce and then only if one of the parties had been unfaithful. Which is what Joseph planned on doing in Matthew 1:19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

Now that may seem a little harsh but at this point in Mary and Joseph's relationship Mary would have been legally committing adultery. The other option under Jewish law was that he could have had her stoned. I'm sure that Joseph felt more then a little betrayed at this point. But he too was visited by an Angel, and you thought your Christmas was busy. Listen to what happened in Matthew 1:20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Just some of the reasons why the term virgin should be used here instead of simply "Young Woman," we'll come back to it.

Luke 1:28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!" Think about it, the prophecy said that the Messiah would be born or a descendent of David's. That would have encompassed thousands and thousands of families. And out of that vast number one young girl would be chosen to be the Mother of the Messiah. Mary's life and reputation must have been beyond reproach, not just because she obeyed the law but because of her relationship with God. "The Lord is with you." What a compliment. But the truth of the matter is that at this point Mary didn't feel very complimented, if anything she was a little suspicious about who he was and what he was saying.

 

Luke 1:29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

 

And she had every right to feel that way. Angels visiting and bragging you up isn't something that necessarily happens every day, at least not to me. Now maybe it's just human nature but whenever anyone starts to lay it on quite that thick I want to know why, what have I done? What do they want? You know.

 

Luke 1:30-33 "Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!"

 

Wow, if Mary had been a little confused by the Angel's initial greeting think of how she felt now. "Hey, don't sweat it Mary, because God likes you, you are going to have a baby, and not just any baby, you're going to have the Messiah!" That must have been reassuring. I mentioned earlier that there was an air of expectancy in the Holy Land at that time concerning the coming of the Messiah, but I'm not particularly sure that Mary thought he would arrive via her. And she airs what she thinks might be a minor problem, in Luke 1:34 Mary asked the angel, "But how can this happen? I am a virgin."

 

There's been a lot of speculation concerning Mary's age, many people feel that she would have been a young teen perhaps 14 or 15 when this all developed, we don't know for sure but we do know that she wasn't naïve. She knew that it takes two to tango and she also knew that she hadn't even been to the dance.

 

The "Why"

 

Now this goes back to what we had talked about before concerning the virgin birth. You see it had to happen this way, cause this is the way it was predicated. If you go all the way back to Genesis 3:15 after Adam and Eve had fallen, the curse that was pronounced on Satan stated that it would be the seed of woman who would bring about his ultimate defeat. Not the seed of man and woman. Just the seed of woman. And we know that Joseph couldn't be the Messiah's father because of a predication made several hundred years before the birth of Christ.

 

You might recall that there are two separate genealogies listed in the Gospels for Christ, hopefully you'll recall it, I preached on the genealogies in October. The first in Matthew is considered by most Scholars to be the lineage of Joseph; the second in Luke is the lineage of Mary. It's kind of interesting. Don't know if you're into family trees or not. The Genealogy in Luke begins with Adam, the beginnings always a good place to start, while Matthew's account begins with Abraham, who of course was the father of Israel. Both genealogies follow a common path from there to King David, kind of remind you of a Grand Manan family tree at that point, or family stick, or family wreath whatever it is that we have down there.

 

But at David things veer off, one branch goes by way of Solomon, and one by way of Nathan. Thus they both link back to the David but by different routes. You still with me here? Ok, the reason I bring it up is because of two references, the first in Matthew 1:6-11 Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah). Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram. Jehoram was the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).

 

That is only pertinent because of the second reference found in

Jeremiah 22:30 This is what the Lord says: 'Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless. He is a failure, for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David to rule over Judah.' This is the same Jehoiachin who is mentioned in Joseph's family tree, so Jesus could not have been Joseph's son because of that particular OT pronouncement. Did that make sense?

 

The How

 

The bottom line is that God's son should have a special birth, and that was the virgin birth. That's why the Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 7:14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us'). Now really, a young woman conceiving a child isn't much of a sign, happens all the time. But this was a special child who would be born in a special way.

 

The Angel didn't want to leave any doubt in Mary's mind though and so he told her

Luke 1:35-37 The angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she's now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."

 

What was he doing, he was summing up the entire story, who would be the father, the Holy Spirit, how? Through the power of the most high, who is the most High? Well the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. So the Highest must be God. And how was this all going to happen, I love the last statement: For nothing is impossible with God."

Interesting statement and often times we try to claim a promise that isn't there. There is nothing that is impossible for God when it's in his will, but he will not necessarily do the impossible just because we ask him to. Some things are not in his plan or are not necessarily in our own best interest, although we might think they are.

So put yourself into Mary's spot, just for a moment. Your life is pretty much perfect, you come from a great family, you're engaged to be married everything seems to be coming up roses. And then into this perfectly ordered world comes an Angel who says you're about to become the mother of the Messiah, which is the upside because the downside is you're engaged but not married. What would your reaction be? Probably not what Mary's was Luke 1:38 Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her. Roughly translated into 2009 teen she said "OK."

 

If there is one thing to get out of this message today it is Mary's obedience to and trust in God. Her reputation would be ruined; he life would be dramatically changed. Nazareth wasn't a big place so it would have been hard to for Mary to keep her delicate condition a secret. Even though Joseph had his own visit I wonder if he ever doubted Mary's fidelity?

 

Trust doesn't mean anything until it's coupled with obedience. So where are you at? Are you trusting God? Taking it one step further are you being obedient to God?

Martha: The Good the Bad and the Ugly

She was a little steamed, actually she was a lot ticked and who could blame her. Sure she had been the one who had invited the company over, but it wasn't just her home, I mean her sister could do a little bit to help out. Instead she just sat there staring up at their guest as if it was the first time she'd ever seen the man, when the truth was they had practically grown up together. And so she walked a little louder, actually it was pretty close to stomping, and banged the pots a little more then necessary, actually a lot more then necessary and she sighed a lot and not little sighs either, these we full blown asthmatic sighs that were not to be missed. And yet they were missed, their guest continued to teach and her sister sat mesmerized, hanging on every word that he said. And Martha was a little steamed, actually she was a lot ticked and who could blame her.

Joel read the story earlier in the service. Mary and Martha were the sisters of Jesus' good friend Lazarus and it would appear from different gospel accounts that Jesus spent a fair amount of time at their home. On this specific occasion Jesus was travelling past on one of his journeys and Martha invited him to come and stay with her family. When Jesus arrived he sat down and began to speak, we don't know if he was teaching, or if he was telling them of his journey or just shooting the breeze. Whatever it was Mary was soon entranced with his words and sat at his feet hanging on to every word. If you ever saw the CBS mini series "Jesus" you might remember they actually portrayed Mary as having a crush on Jesus, and it could have happened. He was a likeable type of guy who obviously was well respected, had a trade and came from a good family. A girl could do worse then Jesus.

But the story really isn't about Mary at all; it's about her sister, Martha. It had been Martha who had invited Jesus into her home and she was bound and determined that everything would be perfect for Jesus. And so she began to fuss around, cleaning up and getting supper ready. At first it wasn't bad but the longer she worked the more she began to resent the fact that her sister was just sitting there, doing nothing. And finally she couldn't stand it any longer, in Australia they would say that she spit the dummy or got her knickers in a knot, and she blurted out, "excuse me, doesn't anybody think this might be more then a little unfair, me playing Cinderella, while her highness sits on her duff and does nothing." Or something to that effect.

And Jesus responded by saying "Martha, don't sweat the little stuff, and this is all little stuff. Right now Mary has discovered what is really important, and I'm not going to put a damper on that."

I wonder what Martha's response was? It's not recorded but somehow I don't think she said "Oh I'm sorry Lord, I didn't realize." What can we learn from this? As I got into my message I realized that there could only be one title and it is

"Martha, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

Let's go back and look at the story, Luke 10:38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And so we begin with
The Good. The good is what made Martha, Martha. We have talked in the past about spiritual gifts, that is to say the gifts that are given to each believer for the building up of the Kingdom.

Depending on who you talk to the list include things like, prophecy, speaking in unknown languages, healing, teaching and leadership. And right in the middle of all of that is the gift of hospitality, or entertaining. A very valid gift and a very important gift. It is referred to in scriptures like 1 Peter 4:9-10 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. As well as Romans 12:13 When God's people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

And Hebrews 13:2 Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!

Do you remember that last scripture from the King James, it says: Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. When I first heard that I wondered who would want to entertain angels in underwear. Talk about strange mind pictures.

Martha Knew What Her Giftedness Was, And She Was Willing To Put It To Use. She was one of those people whose home was always open. As believers one of the most frustrating things in life can be trying to do things that we not gifted for, it goes back to the trying to put square pegs in round holes.

Now sometimes we can fill a temporary need, and that's valid. But for the most part our place of service ought to be where we are spiritually gifted. When we find where that is, and then we exercise that gift we not only feel fulfilled we are fulfilled.

Mary Lou Retton said As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given.

But spiritual gifts are more than simply talents, they are gifts given to Christians from the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of seeing the Kingdom of God grow. And every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, and most of us have several, some stronger, some not nearly as evident. That's part of why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

But how do you find out what your gift is? One of the easiest ways is to take a spiritual gift inventory, it's like a personality test except it helps us to identify our spiritual giftedness. If you interested let me know and I'll get a copy to you. But many of us know what our giftedness is, because that's where we feel comfortable.

One of the easiest ways to determine that is by asking two questions: 1) Do I enjoy this? and 2) Do I do it well? The first question can only be answered by you; the second question may have to be answered honestly by someone else. Notice that I said honestly.

Not like the train wrecks who get panned on American Idol then tell the judges: But all my friends say I can sing. And I can only think of a couple of explanations for that

1) Nobody in their life knows anything about music. And maybe there are some bizarre little communities out there where horrific singing is something to be admired and praised. I've never heard a hint of such a community and as strange as it may seem it be it can't be as strange as the only other alternative and that is

2) People who say they love these folks would lie to them about their singing abilities setting them up for ridicule and humiliation. And they would probably defend their actions by saying they didn't want to hurt their feelings.

I've been looking for a place to quote Red Green and this looks like the spot. Red Green says "You are not good at something just because you enjoy it. Karaoke has proved that. To my way of thinking, you are not good at something because you enjoy it; rather you enjoy something because you are good at it."

For the church to function at its optimum level each believer has to be exercising his or her spiritual gifts. Paul uses the analogy of the body time and time again to describe the church, and for a body to operate the way it was designed each element does the work that it was designed to do. The nose smells, the eyes see, the ears hear. That's the way it's supposed to work, and we are told that often if one part doesn't work the way it's supposed to that other parts take up the load. And so a blind person will have a heightened sense of hearing or smell to help offset the disability of not being able to see.

But that's not the way it's supposed to be and it's not nearly as effective. In the same way when some believers don't use their spiritual gifts to help the kingdom grow then the gap will have to be filled by someone else, perhaps someone who isn't gifted there but is willing to help carry the load. But that's not the way it's supposed to be and it's not nearly as effective. Think about what happens when things get mixed up and your nose runs and your feet smell.

If Cornerstone is going to be everything that God intends Cornerstone to be. And if we are going to impact the people that God wants us to impact. And if we are going to do all that God intends for us to do it will be when "We" not "Me" does it.

We've been here before but everyone here, everyone here has an ability, a talent a "something" that they could and should contribute to the Kingdom, and often as Christ followers we do it through the local church.

Do you ever stop and think about how many people are volunteering on a typical Sunday morning to make all this seem seamless. So that adults and children can be lead into God's throne room? There are probably fifty people who will be involved in some way today between the two services. From nursery to greeting to making coffee and cleaning up afterwards to children's ministry and platform ministry and in the sound booth. And there is something you could be doing and something you should be doing. You should have been handed a yellow form this morning and you should fill it out. On the front is contact information, if we get your email address you will get Cornerstone Connections each week so you will know what's happening in the church. On the back is ministry information, and if you are honest than you know that there is someplace at Cornerstone that you can serve.

And so the good is that Martha knew her spiritual gift and was willing to put it to work. But like everything in life, balance is a wonder thing. Luke 10:39-40 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. . And it is while Martha is exercising her spiritual gift that she goes from the Good to The Bad. .

Martha had at least an elementary grasp of who Jesus was because she called him Lord. If she didn't recognize him as the Son of God or the Messiah she at least identified him as being a teacher or a Rabbi, and we don't have to look too far through the gospels to discover that Martha and her siblings were friends of Christ. I wonder why she invited him to their house?

 

Was it just to eat or had she invited him to come so she could enjoy his company and to hear what he had to say. I would suspect that it was that the latter. I mean if she just wanted to provide him with a meal she could have given him five deanari and sent him to McMalaci's or someplace.

 

But as so often happens the good soon eclipses the best. And so in an attempt to be the best hostess that she can be, to provide the cleanest possible house, and to make the best meal she can, she neglects the very reason she's doing it. Have you ever done that, invited company over and by the time the evenings over, the dishes are done, the kitchen's cleaned up you realize that you didn't get to spend anytime with your company.

 

There was a couple in our church in Australia who had this hospitality thing down pat, if you stopped there to say hello or to pick up your kids there was a pretty good chance that you would end up staying for a meal. Nothing fancy, just put some more water in the soup, but they were some of the best times we had. We have known other people who wouldn't think of having you in there house unless everything was perfect, nothing could be out of place and the meal, it had to be a five star event, which inevitably meant that you never got invited to their house, or if you did you didn't get to visit they were way too busy getting ready for you to actually have anytime for you.

 

Martha Was So Caught Up In Serving Jesus That She Didn't Take The Time To Know Jesus. And that doesn't just happen when we are beating around the kitchen. We can take course after course, read book after book, go to seminar after seminar and never take the time to actually sit at Jesus feet and build a relationship with Him. And to be truthful Jesus probably would have preferred a tuna sandwich and Martha's company to the fancy meal she was so busy preparing.

 

What is it that distracts you from getting to know Jesus better? What keeps you from having the relationship with Jesus that you would really like to have? What would it take for you to slow down and sit at His feet and listen to what he has to say?

 

But the bad wasn't bad enough.

 

And so Martha is busy being the hostess with the mostess and before long she notices that she's doing all the work, which knowing Martha was what she wanted but she wanted it on her terms. You understand there's a difference between doing everything after someone has offered to help and you've turned them down, and doing everything and nobodies even offered. And it would appear that Mary hadn't even offered, she just plopped down at Jesus feet and became engrossed in what he was saying.

 

The text tells us that Mary wasn't helping but neither was Lazarus, or any of the disciples. Sometimes we overwork our volunteers because nobody else steps up to the plate. And maybe they offered and Martha turned them down, after all it was her house and her kitchen, but maybe they were content to just sit back and enjoy the service they were getting and it didn't even cross their minds that they could help out.

 

And that goes back to the Sunday morning thing, we come in take a bulletin from a greeter, drop the kids off in Nursery or Jr. Church, come out and grab a coffee and then we go in and enjoy the worship, without ever thinking "I wonder how I could help out."

 

And Martha was not in the least bit impressed. But she couldn't really lash out at Peter and James and John and the other nine so she lashed out at her sister.

 

Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." And this is where things get Ugly This is the part where we say that Martha spit the dummy. If you close your eyes you can almost picture her standing there, a tea towel over one shoulder, a smudge of flour on her nose and her hands on her hips. She's not a happy camper.

 

A couple of warnings here. First: Martha Was Insisting That Mary Share Her Spiritual Gift. I mean after all if she had the gift of hospitality than everyone should the gift of hospitality. But that isn't the way it works, but often we can get caught up in thinking that. Especially with gifts like mercy, or intersession, that is the gift of prayer or the gift of helps.

 

We kind of feel like: if I can pray for four hours than everyone ought to be able to pray for four hours. And if there's nothing I love more then doing hospital calls then everyone should feel that way. When I was in Truro I had a retired gentleman in my church who worked as my lay assistant helping with visitation. And it was nothing for Don to visit 4 or 5 hundred people during the year, yes that's right four or five hundred people, people who were in the hospital or nursing homes or were shut ins.

 

And he did it so well, the gift of mercy was right up at the top of Don's gift blend. Don lived to call on people, But he never tried to make me feel spiritually inferior because I didn't have the spiritual gift of mercy in the same way he did.

 

Secondly Martha allowed herself to be consumed by bitterness. I've said this before you will never, ever be responsible for another believer's behaviour but you will always be responsible for your own. Martha wasn't responsible for what Mary was or wasn't doing. But when she allowed envy to rear its head she became responsible for that.

 

I don't think it was so much that Martha wished that Mary would do what she was doing. I think that Martha was envious of what Mary was doing, but instead of asking herself "Why aren't I doing that?" She found it easier to attack Mary, not for what she was doing, I mean how can you condemn a person for listening to Christ, but instead for what she wasn't doing. But that wasn't the issue.

 

And Jesus recognized that, listen to what he says Luke 10:41-42 But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."

 

What was the one thing that Mary had discovered that Martha hadn't? I don't know it doesn't tell us, but somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with his words in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. What is your primary concern? And if someone was to define your spiritual walk, where would it end up. I trust that your desire is to serve him. To exercise your spiritual gifts.

Mission Statement of the Church

It was almost as if it had never happened. Almost as if it had been a dream, a bad dream, but just a dream.

 

Everything was exactly the way it had been before. Jesus spoke about the kingdom, they walked everywhere they went and did lunch together. It was hard to believe that a month before they had watched as the Romans had nailed their teacher to a cross and left Him to die, only five weeks had passed since Jesus had been raised from the dead. You would have thought that the events of the Easter weekend would have made some kind of impact on his little band of happy followers but apparently not because it would seem that it was "Business as Usual". It was almost as if it had never happened

 

 

But then after 40 days of miracles, and teaching Jesus has this to say to His followers: "And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
These signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak new languages.
They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and heal them. With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: 'There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.'
You are witnesses of all these things.

Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.
Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

 

Now just a word of warning, don't go looking for that particular conversation in your Scriptures cause you won't find it. At least you won't find it exactly like that because that is a compilation of the recollections of those who heard Jesus last statement. Just as each of you will walk away from the sermon this morning remembering certain things I said each of those at the ascension of Christ remembered what to them appeared to be the most important parts of Christ's last class with them. Those fragments by the way are found in Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-19, Luke 24:47-49 and Acts 1:8-9.

 

It is out of this particular conversation that Matthew gleaned what we call the great commission, now I know that for those of you in sales your idea of a great commission is 25% of the Gross and while that is a great commission it is not the Great Commission. This is in reality the mission statement of the early church. You know what a mission statement is right, it is when you have boiled the purpose of your life or the life of your church down to a concise statement of purpose. At Cornerstone we can tell you that Cornerstone Wesleyan Church exist to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit. That is our mission statement. The mission statement of Christianity is this "Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded."

 

That my friends is why Christians are left in the world, to fulfil that mission statement. You see if Cornerstone Wesleyan Church does not reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit, then we have failed to do what we set out to do. Our mission statement does not say that Cornerstone exist to provide Wesleyans with a place to worship in Hammonds Plains, nor does it say that we exist to have this beautiful building or that we exist to do what other churches in the area are already doing or that we exist so that our people can have a pastor call on them when they are feeling in need of company. The reason that we are here, our passion, the all consuming reason we exist is to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit. That is why we are here and if we don't accomplish that, then we have blown it and might as well turn this building into a furniture store or a car dealership.

 

I have said that to say this: The greatest measure of our success is how well we fulfil our mission statement. And a mission statement is really just your vision set down on paper. And just a word to the wise here, the vision has to be from God, too often churches use vision in much the same way that a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support then for illumination. A vision or mission statement is not for the express purpose of supporting what we are doing now, instead it is a reflection of what God wants us to be doing and sometimes there is a difference. Our measure of success will be whether or not we are fulfilling our mission statement.

 

But it's more then that for you and for us because along with the mission statement that we have for our church is Christianity's mission statement which was laid down by our Lord, Jesus Christ in His last public address to his followers: "Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded." If we are not doing that then we have failed.

 

1) What It Is

There has to be a reason why the church is here and why the Lord leaves us in the world after we get saved. I mean lets think about it, the world is cold and uncaring, full of pain and grief and heaven has none of that. The old song is right when it say "Heaven is a wonderful place full of glory and grace." And so isn't that where we really ought to be? But that isn't where we are. So, why are we here and not there? Well Jesus offered a couple of suggestions in his teachings when he told the disciples in
Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth." He added to that in the next verse when He said Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world." And so we are told that we are to be an influence in the world, both preserving it and flavouring it as salt and lighting the way brightening it as light. But there has to be more to it than that. In John 20:21 Jesus, tells His disciples why they are being sent out "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." So we are being sent by Christ in the same way that Christ was sent by the Father, and what was that, To keep people out of hell, right? John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

 

Winning the lost is the bottom line that's why we are here, that ought to be the mission statement of every Christian and every Christian Church, to reach the lost. The problem though is that the main focus of the church and of Christians is not the lost, it's the found. You say that's not true preacher, oh no? Open the cheque book of most evangelical churches and see where the money is spent. Open the calendar of most Wesleyan Churches and see where the time is spent. Is the majority spent on reaching the lost or on making the found more comfortable? Do churches expect their pastors to spend the majority of his time and effort on the sinners or on the saints? It's easy to say we have a commitment to winning the lost but our beliefs are confirmed by our actions not by our words. In other words my friends, talk is cheap.

 

Sometimes I get the impressions that most Wesleyan's don't really believe the Bible. I mean we are supposed to, the discipline tells us that we believe the Bible, our preachers tell us we believe the Bible from the pulpit, and when we compare ourselves to the liberal churches we tell other people that we believe the Bible, but personally I think that we are lying.

 

Has anybody seen the movie "Schindler's List"? The plot is about a German industrialist during the Second World War who saved a pile of Jews from the concentration camps and certain death. Do you know why he did that? Well he was convinced that if he didn't save them then they were destined for the gas chambers. His mission was to save Jews from a certain death.

 

20 or so years ago when Air Florida flight 90 flew into a bridge and crashed into the Potomac River a man named Arland Williams jumped into the February chilled waters and saved five people from drowning. Do you know why he did that? Well he was convinced that if he didn't save them then there were destined to drown. His mission was to save people from drowning.

 

2000 years ago Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived 33 years, took the sins of the world upon himself and died on a cross. Do you know why he did that? Well he was convinced that if he didn't save the world then they were destined for hell fire. His mission was to save the world

 

Today most Christians are concerned with themselves and most churches are concerned with keeping Christians happy. And do you know why? Because they are not convinced that the people of the world are destined for hell. You say that's pretty harsh isn't it preacher. No if I wanted to be pretty harsh then I would say that Christians are convinced that those people are going to hell and that they just don't care and that would make them monsters.

 

 

2) Where It Happens

 

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Basically that means "here there and everywhere. Too often we qualify the word missions by adding either foreign or home to the beginning of it. But the church only has one mission and that is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

 

We have an obligation to reach people where ever there are people. Jerusalem was where there were at, that's Hammonds Plains, the HRM, in all Judea meant in their entire country, Samaria was the place next to Judea where the people were a bit different but a bit the same, maybe that is another province or across the line in Maine and of course to the ends of the earth covers everyone else. That means that we have an obligation to reach our next door neighbour, to reach the guy across the street, to reach the lady on the other side of town, to reach Jim Oullette in Saint John New Brunswick, Stuart Thomas in Grand Manan New Brunswick and John Kennedy in Brisbane Australia.

 

And it needs to be intentional. It won't just happen. If you don't plan a way for it to happen then don't count on it happening.

 

At Cornerstone reaching the lost is a priority, not just in Hammonds Plains which is our Jerusalem, but also in our Judea, our Samaria and to the very ends of the earth.

 

One thing that we did when Cornerstone was in the planning stages was to list our core values. Those are the principles that our church was founded on, there are seven and we live and die by those seven core values, they are non negotiable and they are what Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is all about, if you like our core values you'll like us, if you don't like our core values then perhaps you'd feel more comfortable in another church. Three of the seven core values are

 

1) Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to the reaching of pre-Christians through relational evangelism. Evangelism is and will remain a priority.

 

Every dollar spent, every staff person hired, every program instituted will have to answer the question how will this reach the lost. That is our Jerusalem

 

3)
Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to reaching the lost and will make tithing our general offering to world and home missions a priority. We are already Supporting Kerry and Carol Allison in the Ukraine, Carl and Mya in Haiti, Robin White in Japan as well as supporting the work in both Suriname and Ghana. As well as Darren and Janel Clark with their new church in Charlottetown. That is our Samaria and the very ends of the earth

 

6) Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is committed to planting additional churches. We have assisted in planting one new church here in the HRM and one in Charlottetown and some day we are going to take an active role in starting a new church in the Elmsdale Enfield area. That is our Judea

 

The vision has to be bigger then these four walls, it has to be bigger then Hammonds Plains and it has to be bigger then Nova Scotia or the Canada. And it has to be bigger than home missions or foreign missions, what it needs to be is a vision to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

 

3) Who Is Supposed To Be Doing It? If we were to look at who was there on the day of the ascension we would discover the eleven remaining apostles, but the great commission had to have been for the entire movement at that time, it wasn't enough for those eleven to be committed to evangelism without the rest of the group being committed as well.

 

The great commission is meant to be a mission statement for all of Christendom. It doesn't matter what Christians call themselves, whether it be Wesleyan, Nazarene, Baptist, Pentecostal or whatever they have a common mission and that is, that is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded. For Christianity to survive, Christianity has to be committed to the mission of winning the lost. When we stop making disciples and baptizing people then at that point the Church will begin to die, and will die within one generation.

 

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of Christianity; it needs to be a burning passion for the Wesleyan Church. Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our denomination will become just another empty shell in the ecclesiastical wastelands of our country.

 

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for all of the Wesleyan Church it needs to be for this church right here. Without the desire to win souls to Jesus Christ our church will become just a social club, we'll be like the Lions or the Rotary Club. Not that there's anything wrong with the Lions or the Rotary club it's just that they are not the body of Christ and we are, or at least that's what we are supposed to be.

 

But the great commission has to go beyond simply being for this Church it has to be for you. Without the desire to win souls what do you become? What does it say about you as a person if you aren't willing to put yourself out just a little bit to ensure that someone that you care about doesn't end up in hell? You see everything boils down to our responsibility. If we aren't committed to the mission, then our local church won't be and if the local churches aren't committed to the mission than the denomination won't be. And if the denominations aren't committed to the mission than Christendom won't be. Maybe we need to adopt the adage of salespeople who say "If it's going to be it's up to me"

 

The problem is that even though most Wesleyan Churches are sound evangelically they are sound asleep evangelistically. And I'm here today to say, "That ain't the way it's supposed to be!" Our main purpose for being here is very simply to depopulate hell. Somehow we need to get a grasp of the reality of hell fire and realize that those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour are destined for a Christless eternity and will be tormented forever. Do you believe that, do you believe that people today, people we know and people we don't know will suffer for eternity because we didn't do anything to prevent it. There are times that I think most Christians take Mark Twain's position on heaven and hell when he said, "I don't want to express an opinion. You see, I have friends in both places." but we have to express an opinion because that is part of the deal of being a Christian.

 

It would be so much easier to convince people of the value of evangelism if the Bible said that the only way that you would get into heaven is if you brought somebody with you, but it doesn't. However listen to the words of Christ in John 14:21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."

You want to be loved by God and by Jesus? Sure you do. Well here's the ticket all you have to do is to obey Christ's commands and one of those is Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

If that was a command of Christ and we don't do it then John 14:21 says that means that we don't love him, and only those who love Christ are loved by the Father and only those who are loved by the Father are going to get in.

 

There is a story told about when Calvin Coolidge
was Vice President of the United States. One day the Vice President was presiding over the Senate, one Senator angrily told another to go "straight to hell." The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer, and Cal looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate. "I've been looking through the rule book," he said. "You don't have to go." Friends we need to be in the business of telling people that we have checked the rule book and they don't have to go."

 

 

4) How Are We Supposed To Be Doing It? The power of the Holy Spirit is the means, the method is not defined. Deng Xiaoping said "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." When we allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives neat things happen. The Bible tells us in: Mark 16:17-18 (Jesus Said) These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed."

 

Now some people get really caught up in those particular things, but they are simply indications of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who minister. It is a promise of enablement and protection. When Kerry and Carol minister in Ukraine they speak in a new tongue because their mother tongue is English. When Medical missionaries minister in a hospital in Sierra Leone and Haiti aren't they placing their hands on sick people to heal them? I don't think that you ever have to worry about me picking up snakes, but I was convinced that the drinking deadly poison was a direct reference to Australian Coffee.

 

Sometimes we get so caught up in how we should do it that we never do it. What should the church look like, what should the church sound like, what songs should we sing, should we have pews or chairs. Let me share with you my new favourite quote Thomas Jefferson said "In matters of style swim with the current in matters of principle stand like a rock."

 

Do you remember when Nike used the phrase "Just Do It."? I would like that to be my message to the church, "Just Do it" Listen again to the promise of Christ in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

 

There are two things that happen when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, two evidences of his presence. 1) We receive power 2) We will tell people about Jesus. If our lives do not exhibit power and we are not witnesses than it would appear to be very obvious that the Holy Spirit has never come upon you.

 

As far as evangelism on a personal level that is all of our responsibility, you can no more shirk that than you can walk past a drowning man and not throw him a rope. But on a broader spectrum there are those who God has called to reach people where you can't. Let's face it, realistically we can't all move to Newfoundland to plant a church, you can't move to the Ukraine to help Kerry and Carol Allison to minister to street kids or to Haiti to help Carl and Maya in the Work there. But that doesn't remove the obligation that God has placed on you to reach the lost in those places, it simply changes how you can do that.

 

Instead of going to the Ukraine, or going to Haiti or going to Newfoundland you help Kerry and Carol, Carl and Maya and Darren and Janel to go. Even though you can't be there your prayers can be there. You may not be able to say, "Here am I send me" but you can say, "Here I am, let me help send others.

 

Let's not forget our mission statement "Christianity exists to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded."