Aleethia!

So far in our series on Christmas we’ve looked at Christmas as a time of hope, Christmas as the birth of the King, Christmas as the incarnation (God becoming man), and today I want to look at Christmas as an invasion.

God becoming man, the birth of the King, our hope of deliverance, these things are all related in what could appropriately be called a Spiritual D-Day. D-Day is a designation the military gives to dates upon which some significant military action or event takes place.

June 6, 1944 is still remembered as D-Day. This was the day on which the Allied forces began their invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. The goal, of course, was to liberate mainland Europe from the Nazi forces. D-Day was the day of actual landing on the shores of Normandy, France. On D-Day, the Allied forces air dropped American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, and then began the largest amphibious invasion of all time, over 130,000 infantry and armoured troops were landed on five beaches: Uta, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. 195,700 naval personnel were involved in delivering these troops to shore.

Our own Mr. Woodyard can tell you of his experience that day as a driver for the landing craft. It was a nightmare scene in which thousands of soldiers died, but it changed the course of history.

As we turn to the book of Revelation to read John’s retelling of the Christmas story, this is the perspective he gives us. It is the Christmas story told with cosmic proportions, as a great spiritual battle. › Continue reading

Read Luke 1:5 - 2:21

When we began looking at the Christmas story several weeks ago, we read in Isaiah that Jesus would be called Immanuel. The name means “God with us.”

Immanuel - God with us, in our nature, in our sorrow, in our daily work, in our punishment, in our death, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor. ¹

Last week we looked at the kingship of Jesus according to the book of Matthew. As we read Isaiah’s prophecy and Matthew’s history, we read in both places that the savior was conceived by a virgin. We see it again here in Luke’s Gospel. We often call this the Virgin Birth. Virgin Conception might be more to the point, but Virgin Birth encompasses the conception and is the accepted term.

The Apostle’s Creed reads as follows. › Continue reading

As we approach December 25th, the country (the world) is gearing up for the celebration of Christmas. The most commercial of holidays. It is the time of year when everyone is buying gifts and throwing parties. Lots of candy will be eaten, stories of Santa will be told, and the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth will be told.

Christmas is a time that brings childhood memories to mind. Gifts will be purchased at a frantic pace. With the economic crunch going on right now, the average American is expected to spend 1.9% more on Christmas gifts this year than they did last year, which means they will spend just over $800. That’s right, the average American will spend $832 on Christmas gifts (more info here).

We, as Christians, often bemoan the crass consumerism of our American culture, but we buy into it just as much. We assuage our guilty consciences by using many little cliches to remind ourselves of the true significance of Christmas.

The reason for the season

Putting Christ back in Christmas

This year, I want to dedicate four weeks to the Christmas story. I want us to look at it from four different perspectives.

First, today, I want us to look forward to the birth of Christ, from the perspective of the Old Testament writers/readers. This will give us a view of Christmas infused with hope. Hope for a Messiah to rescue us from the sin and death of this world. › Continue reading

Last week we looked at a list of seven behaviors we should be cultivating in our lives as believers. We said these things represented the new, clean clothes we are to put on since we have been elected, made holy, and loved by God.

This week we’re going to look at the rest of the paragraph. In these verses, Paul gives us three principles and one overarching attitude, that if followed will increase our likelihood of living out the kind of life we looked at last week.

The three principles are:

• The Peace of Christ
• The Word of Christ
• The Name of Christ

The attitude is: Thankfulness.

Let’s look at each in turn, and see how we can apply these things in our lives today.

The Peace of Christ

Paul says in verse 15 that we should let the peace of Christ “rule” in our hearts. There are three things that need defining here. We need to know what the peace of Christ is. We need to know what Paul means by “rule” and “heart”.

We’ve talked about the heart before and what the Bible means by heart. It simply means your inner man, who you are as a person apart from your physical being. The heart is the seat of your mind, will and emotions. It is your soul.

Next let’s look at the idea of peace. › Continue reading

As we’ve studied through Colossians and other New Testament passages, we’ve been told to “walk by faith” or “in the Spirit” and to kill our old sin-nature. But what does that look like?

This morning we’ll turn to David for some help in understanding Paul. David is a guy I can relate with. He had humble origins. He became King, but was troubled by enemies and even the rebellion of his own children, most of his life. At many times in his early career, he was troubled by the fact that wicked people seemed to be prospering and doing well, while he, and others like him who were God fearing folk, seemed to be struggling to get by.

In Psalm 37 he addresses this issue, but he also touches on some of the same ideas that Paul has been teaching in Colossians, and David helped me grasp the concepts a little more readily.

Now David doesn’t build a theological frame work before giving practical advice, the way Paul does. He just jumps right to the practical, and the theology is just part of it. So he starts the Psalm with by telling us not to ‘fret’ because of evil doers, and not to be envious of them.

If you ‘fret’ over something you are worried, anxious, distressed, upset. The dictionary says it means to

upset oneself, concern oneself; agonize, sigh, pine, brood, eat one’s heart out.

The Hebrew word means “to grow warm, or burn.” It’s a burning in the heart. An agitation that can even lead to anger, stemming from worry.

What causes us to worry? › Continue reading

This lesson was taught on Sunday morning, 08-10-2008.

Sometimes it seems the Lord is far away and you can’t feel his presence. It seems like he has abandoned you just at the moment when you need him most. David felt that way and wrote about it in the Psalms.

In Psalm 13 we’ll look at the journey from sorrow and desolation, to joy and rejoicing. The hinge between the two, we’ll see, is prayer.

The Psalm can be divided into 3 parts which Spurgeon has labeled

the question of anxiety, 1, 2; the cry of prayer, 3, 4; the song of faith, 5, 6. ¹

Taking verses one and two let’s look at “the question of anxiety.” What is meant, is the question we ask of God while suffering from anxiety. Do you know the question? It is in the text four times.

How long?

That is the question. Have you ever felt that way toward God? Just asking him “How long will I have to suffer through this? How long till I’m out from under my parent’s authority? How long till…?” › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

In this passage we come to the last section of our outline under the heading of Paul’s Ministry. So far we’ve seen his work in suffering (1:24), preaching (1:25-29), and intercessory prayer (2:1-5). Now we are to see his ministry of encouragement.

This section is difficult to separate from the previous paragraph as the transition between the two is so smooth.

In verse 5, which we looked at last week, Paul’s words were the explanation of his labors in prayer, but were in nature, encouraging.

Verse 6 begins with the word “Therefore”, which points back to something previous. The reason I take this as a separate section is that it seems to refer to the previous discussion in its entirety. Everything that has gone before, including chapter one, could be seen as cause for the following statements.

What does Paul mean by “received Christ”? In Christian circles today, we say someone received Christ when they are saved. I think that is an over simplification of what Paul means here.

When looking at other passages (Gal 1:9, 12 and 1 Cor 15:1-3) where Paul used similar language, we can see that he is referring to a correct understanding of the Gospel. Jesus is the Gospel. In context, our passage is in the midst of Paul encouraging the Colossians to hold fast to the truth about Jesus, and not accept false teaching.

Spurgeon extended the definition of “received” even further.

…receiving means also … getting a grip of it, grasping it. The thing which I receive becomes my own. I may believe it to be real, but that is not receiving it. I may believe, also, that if I ever do get it, it must be given to me, and that I cannot earn it for myself, but still that is not receiving it. Receiving is the bona fide taking into my hand and appropriating to myself as my own property that which is given to me. ¹

What he’s saying is that Christ becomes very real and very personal to you. He is not some abstract idea that you “believe” in, but doesn’t change your life. If you “receive” Christ, your life is changed. › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

This section of Colossians is defined on our outline as “Paul’s ministry of intercessory prayer.” Looking at Colossians 2:1-5, this week and next, we’re going to discover, how Paul prays, what he prays, and why he prays.

This week, we’re just going to focus on verse one.

Colossians 2:1

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,

Verse 1 tells us how Paul prays. He says that he struggles in prayer for them. This word “struggle” is agona in the Greek. It is the root of our word agonize. It was used in Greek literature when speaking of the combative nature of the olympic games. It is more often translated “fight” (1 Tim 6:12) than it is “struggle.”

We know from our survey of Colossians that some false teachers had infiltrated the church there, attempting to lead the Christians astray. Paul cannot confront them in person due to his captivity in Rome at the time of this writing (Colossians 4:3, 10). Therefore his prayer is his weapon, along with this letter, in this spiritual fight. He tells us in Colossians 4:12 that Epaphras also struggles for them in his prayers. What Paul is suggesting here is that he is engaging in a spiritual wrestling match.

To wrestle though, you must have an opponent. When we go to our knees in prayer, who, or what, is our opponent. What/Who are we struggling/wrestling with?

We might struggle with unrepentant sin when praying. - Psalm 66:18

We might struggle with doubt and unbelief. - Mark 9:24

We might struggle with distractions. - 1 Peter 4:7

We might struggle in spiritual warfare. - Ephesians 6:12

Satan is often depicted as our opponent. To be sure, prayer is an offensive weapon in the spiritual war against Satan.

We might also wrestle with God in prayer. › Continue reading