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Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Alright. This is going to be fun.
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So, we're having an 11:00 service today without the nine. So, we usually have the band and everything. Well, I think we're just going to go straight full on traditional Christmas. Florine's going to be at the piano. Sing like you mean it.
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Sing like you know it. If you want to look for your parts, we're singing em straight out of the hymnal. The words will be on the wall but if you want to sing your parts, feel free and Oh, we don't. Don't worry about it. Just sing whatever comes up on the wall.
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I will be, I was singing mostly melody but merry Christmas. I'm glad that you made it in here this morning. Would you stand and join with Florine and I'm Joy to the World. Joy to the world the Lord is come let her receive her king let every heart prepare him and heaven Amen. Amen.
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Alright. Heart the Herald Angels Sing Number two seventy two. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. We have a you know what?
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I think, are we doing announcements right now, Blake? Announcements are here? Welcome. We're glad that you're here and I have announced myself completely out. We have been so so busy for Christmas.
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I'm going to say merry Christmas and it's time for hugs, high fives, and handshakes, alright? There's plenty coming in 2017. That's great. Next week will be January 1. It'll be the time to start looking at that and I think we're going right back to Romans but I don't think there are any other announcements I have to say right now.
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I love you. I appreciate you being here. Would you stand up? Greet one another and we'll bring you back together with another happy Christmas song. Amen.
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Transition. There we go. Joyful, joyful, we adore you. Hymn number two seventy one, y'all still don't have hymnal. It's okay.
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You can sing whatever comes up. This is fun. Would y'all have a seat? I'm going to invite the frontline team to come forward. Just want to give thanks to God for what a a great year.
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Speaker 2I mean, I guess this is
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Speaker 1the last Sunday of the year and 2016 has been a little different for for me and for my family. We have not been out of the country this year. It's the first time I think that we've done that in a long, long, long time, not on mission but we've been on mission here and I think every Sunday when we're going to do this, every single Sunday, I think, lord, would you bless this offering to do your work here in this place and then extend it out from here to the ends of the earth and we've had some kind of a central focus this year. So God, I I do, just pray for this valley, and I I know that the families in need, Lord, you have been reaching out, to them. You've been reaching out through this, church family and through this community, and I just wanna praise you for that.
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So many have been overjoyed by the generosity of your people, your obedient people. So, God, I praise you for that, and I thank you for using us and for letting us have a taste of what it is like to bless to bless other people. God, would you take these, tithes and offerings, Lord, that we are now presenting? Would you use them to do your kingdom's work? Lord, would you use them for the upbuilding of your church, the capital c church, the church triumphant, those who will be gathered to you.
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God, we pray, that you would tarry. And I think of your advent, of course, because it's Christmas and you're coming, Jesus. But I think of your second coming too. And Lord, I pray that you tarry until all the world may have that chance to hear that they would know that you are the king, that you are the one that deserves our praise and glory. So, Lord, would you take what we put in these plates right here, right now?
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Would you multiply and amplify and stretch it to the ends of the earth so that, Lord, many may come, that the ransom you paid, Lord, would cover many. Call us, Lord, into your service. In Jesus' name, Lord, bless this offer. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 2I'm thankful to be here again. Amen. Yesterday, we had an amazing day. Beautiful, great music. Pastor Carl, you did an amazing job.
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God bless you. Amen. And of course, last night, I had too much food. And now, I'm planning to sing a very difficult song, but it's so beautiful. And by the way, as you know, I play by ear.
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When you play by ear, you can do lots of mistakes. Right? Actually, everything I do, I do by ear. Holy night, the stars are brightly shining.
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Speaker 1Not working? There it goes. Sorry. I turned it off. So, a couple of a few weeks back.
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So, past three sermons, I, you know, I like to go in order. Y'all know that and those of you who are visiting, I like to go in order and we've been going chronologically in order. We started a series on Romans, January seventeenth of last year and I hardly ever break away from it. For Easter, we turn towards the cross at Easter but every page mentions Easter. Every page mentions the grace of God and the cross of Christ.
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When we get to Christmas, I kind of turned for a few weeks. I've turned and I did one topical sermon called On Time and On Purpose and I went through the whole New Testament and took those purpose statements where God does something so that we might receive something, Okay? And I'll
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Speaker 2get into that in a
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Speaker 1minute a little bit. And then last week, I went through all of Matthew one and I only had one real point. The one real point was simple obedience is blessed by God. And it's amazing that when he gives us one simple task to do and we do it, what he does with that. What I was struck by last week, and I'll get to it in a minute, is that Joseph was he had decided what he was gonna do.
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It was a reasonable decision, and he had made up his mind but it says, as he was considering these things, God spoke to him and told him what he should do and when he woke from his sleep, he did it and it was just that one act, simple obedience. That's what last week's message was about. I'm gonna go back here for the on time and on purpose. When the fullness of time had come or came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. So that is what God has done, right?
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It's the Christmas story. It's the incarnation. At a certain point in our time, in a in a specific place, when the fullness of all of the hours, minutes, seconds, eons, decades had come. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law. Now, who's under the law?
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Everybody. We all are. We all start out that way. Under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive the adoption of sons. So, that is on time and on purpose, God did that.
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So that he might redeem and so that we might receive adoption. Now, there's the might in there is very important. It's about our will. Are we in agreement with God? Are we putting our will in line with his and agreeing with him that we need redeeming?
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That we want adoption. Are we reaching out for it? Are we calling out in faith? That's where that sermon kind of started off. So, last week was this, Matthew one.
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I talked for quite some time on the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ and I'm going to mention that again today. Now, y'all are combined service this week. I forgot to say something in the first and I did say it in the second but I'm going to go back because I think it bears repeating. Book of the genealogy, we went through all of these. There are 42 names in this list and I showed you for the first two, I showed you a sketch.
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This is a sketch of Michelangelo's destroyed work, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, the first four names on that 42 person list. Then, it goes up to the next three right here and again, it's a sketch. I'm not going to preach the whole sermon but I do want to show you these images. The images are from the Sistine Chapel. They are over the windows, the lunette windows and so it's kind of like where our shelves are in this chapel.
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Those two were destroyed and so all we have are these prints of them but most of em are still frescoes and you can still go there and see em today. They've been cleaned up. This is Amanadab, Nashon. We go through Solomon, Boaz, Obed. We go through Jesse, David, Solomon, and you see various people, some of them are representative of the people in there, some of them are representative of an idea but it's kind of with the cysteine ceiling being so overwhelming and the the wall upfront being incredibly overwhelming.
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You kind of lose these lunette windows. Keep on going. There are tons of these. It just keeps on going and there, some of Michelangelo's most famous. Although, he considered himself a sculptor and hated to paint.
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He absolutely hated it but when your pope ask you to do something, you do it. So, Julius the second was a warrior pope. He was known for being warlike and not for being pope like, not for being a Christian necessarily. He did a lot to hold the church together but not a whole lot spiritually speaking and he wanted to be remembered well so he gets Michelangelo kind of forces him to do these paintings instead of what Michelangelo wanted to do which which was Julius the second's tomb. He wanted to do all the sculptures for this pope's tomb and when he had started working on him, he goes, nope, nope, nope, nope.
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I'm taking you away from that. So, in 1508, he starts painting the Sistine ceiling and these places over the windows like this, the the lineage of Christ or the ancestry of Christ and he keeps on going and he does this for four years, from 1508 to 1512. Now, what happened right around this time? This is the Italian Renaissance. In painting but it's right at the time of the reformation, right?
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It's four years before the 1516 nailing up the thesis on the door at Wittenberg. So, all of these were painted just four years before the reformation. When I say that he keeps on, I mean, it just keeps on and on. 42 names in the list. I mentioned all the ladies that were in the list last week which that's not normal for a genealogy from the first century but Matthew includes them.
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He keeps on going. We get down to Jacob, Joseph's father, and then Joseph and then, Christ was born of Mary. It says, it's very specific. It's been following the lineage of Joseph the whole way but Christ is born of Mary. So, is last week's sermon.
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I'm just catching you up on the art stuff, okay? Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together. She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit And her husband, Joseph, being a just man, unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. I mentioned this. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
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She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. It's a play on words with his name. He will save his people from their sins. Matthew is very, very much about obedience, simple obedience, and it's also very much about the forgiveness of sins. When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, simple obedience.
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He took his wife, knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus, just like the angel said. So, my point was simple obedience. No matter your ancestry, there was a checkered past for a lot of those people in Jesus's ancestry. There are lot of black sheep in that family. Lot of bad guys, some bad ladies, but there was a faithfulness to God to bring redemption and adoption as sons It happened right on time.
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The the lineage was perfect. Everything was just so. No matter the human decision, Joseph had already made up his mind. It said, he had resolved that what he was going to do even considered and set. God can use you in his plan to redeem if you'll just believe the gospel and respond in simple obedience.
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So, was last week's message. So, this week, I'm going forward in the Matthew two. I want you to look for those two things, on time and on purpose and simple obedience. I did not have time to do a Carl style bullet point takeaway slide. I was still working on it but I just didn't get there.
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So, Matthew two, I want you to listen this. We've heard it time and again. Forgive the running commentary style this morning. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, that's Herod the great by the way. Behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem.
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We don't know exactly where they're from. Could've been Babylon. It could've been further east. We're not sure. And they were saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
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They knew that it had already happened. Now, typically in our manger scenes and typically in our Christmas plays, we see shepherds and wise men show up at the same time. This is saying that that's not the case. If you pay attention to what the text says, they showed up quite some time later. They knew he had already been born king of the Jews.
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Now, Herod, the great, went by the term king of the Jews. He was complicit. He was up under the Roman government and he was the king and it's good to be king. Where Where is he who's been born king of the Jews? Well, they're asking Herod.
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He is the king of the Jews. For we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him. Now, Herod was the king of the Jews but he had never been mistaken for being the Messiah. He was not militarily strong. He was not going to overcome Rome.
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Nobody thought that there's a threat because he's a very selfish, self centered sicko. Actually, the best portrayal that you can usually see of Herod is Jesus Christ superstar. He's a bad dude. When Herod, the king, heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem was troubled with him because he was an unstable man and so they were troubled like, what's Herod going to do about this? Assembly all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, was to be born and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea.
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For so it is written by the prophet. And you, oh Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler, capital r, who will shepherd my people, Israel. That's from Micah five two. It's a prophecy. Several 100 years old, five, six hundred year old prophecy.
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There were other places that pointed to Bethlehem too And so then, Herod summoned those wise men secretly ascertained them from them. What time exactly? The star had appeared and that's one of those emphasis of time. He wanted to know exactly when it was because he was trying to narrow down the birth range of the people that were born at that time. He also wanted to know where, where, and when, on time, on purpose, right?
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He has his own purposes and he knows that time and space makes a difference. So, he's figuring out where was he born and when was he born? And he sent them to Bethlehem because that's where the Christ was supposed to be born, saying, go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word. I'm the king, right?
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That I too may come and worship him. And I said last night when I did this narration, wink, wink. Because Herod had no intention of worshiping him. By this time in Herod's life, he had already put to death two of his own sons. Augustus, you know, when the days of Caesar Augustus, we hear from Luke.
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Augustus quipped about Herod that it was safer to be a pig in Herod's house than to be his son. Because he's the king of the Jews. Jews don't eat pork. It would be safer to be a pig than it would be to be his son because he'd already killed two of them by this point. He would kill another and maybe one more.
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There disagree disagreement about how many. Three or four sons of his own that he had killed. Bad dude. After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose, it went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Now, that is an unusual circumstance.
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If you try to figure it out exactly how it was and there are people who go to great lengths to figure out exactly which planets were where in the night sky at that time. This is a supernatural event. I don't think that we can keep on and keep on and keep on trying to figure it out. I think it actually shows a lack of faith. When we try to figure out every single detail.
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They saw this star. That's what got em up and out from where they were going. It was something that they had a deep interest in. They were being drawn by God in a supernatural way to come and worship the Christ. I said last week that Matthew includes Gentiles in Jesus' lineage from the beginning.
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He doesn't tell the story about those local Jewish shepherds. Luke tells that. He tells about how people are being drawn from great distances by an almighty God that draws them in in a language they can understand. Astronomy in their case. And then, when they get there, of course, they're going to go to Jerusalem.
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That's the general area. They speak to Herod. They narrow it down to Bethlehem and listen to this next little verse. The verse says, and when they saw the stars, so coming out of Herod's court, when they saw the star, they rejoice exceedingly with great joy. It had not disappeared.
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The star that they had been following that probably for quite some time. They rejoice exceedingly with great joy because it was still there. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. It came to rest. Actually, it says that somewhere.
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Yeah. When it rose and went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. I don't know of any star that acts like that. It looks almost just like when we do a Christmas play and you have a little tinfoil star with lights all over and it's come to rest right over the manger which was here a few weeks ago. When they saw that star, they rejoice.
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I'm sure they rejoice that it had stopped and their journey was over and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary's mother and they fell down and worshiped him. So, they were drawn from great distances by a supernatural means and when they found what they're looking for, they did what you should do at seeing the Christ, the anointed one, the one who would bring peace and joy. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, they fell down and worshiped him then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Okay. And being warned in a dream, another supernatural providence, being warned in a dream, not to return to Herod, probably got the creeps when they were with Herod anyway, I think.
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They departed to their own country by another way. So, they skirted back home with a story to tell about the Christ, about worshiping him, about all that they had seen on their journey. Being warned in a dream not to return, they departed. That is simple obedience. If they had gone back to Herod, would they have fared any better than Herod's sons?
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Probably not. They wouldn't want the word to get out that there was a worship. Uh-oh deserving Christ. The flight into Egypt. Now, this is a poor family Egypt's a pretty good ways away.
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Traveling is expensive. Visitors, y'all know that, right? Now, when the when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. So, what we know about Joseph so far, he's a just man and he listens to what the angel says.
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He has been obedient. What do you think he's gonna do now? And he rose and he took the child and his mother by night and they departed Egypt with some traveling money. They had gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Really?
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God provides, and he provides for those who are obedient. I mentioned last last week that the vulnerability of leaving the decision up to Joseph to whether he would put her away quietly. Now, used supernatural means. He impressed upon Joseph that he should not, that he should not be afraid to marry Mary, that he should name that child Jesus, and he did that. But consider that that option was there.
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He had already made up his mind that he was going to put her away quietly. He was gonna divorce her. We have been commanded. This is something. We've been commanded to carry forth the gospel, to preach it, to proclaim it to all the nations.
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For that to be entrusted to us as humans seems like a chink in the armor, right? Of God's plan. God's redemptive plan is that we who know Jesus would tell other people who don't know Jesus. It's it's the same kind of thing that he left these sort of things. He he touches them and tells them, take that child and flee to Egypt.
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But Joseph had to comply. Ain't that crazy? I don't want to go to Egypt. What do I know about Egypt? Logically, might not have made any sense whatsoever.
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Maybe fear is a motivator but at this point, Herod had not started any nonsense that he knew of around where they were. So he rose and he took the child and his mother by night and he departed to Egypt and they remained there until the death of Herod. Five days before Herod's death, he had another one of his sons put to death. Just five days, a week before he was die, he was dying and he didn't want that guy to take over so he had him killed. Bad dude.
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He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt, I called my son. Now, God had called his people out of Egypt one other time, right? And that was what the story of the Passover, the story of all Moses and leading the people out.
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The other Yeshua, Joshua leading people into the promised land out of Egypt. He called his people but there was a prophecy specifically that was out of Egypt I called my son. Just the title of this makes my stomach turn. Herod kills the children. So, he wanted to know where this Messiah, king of the Jews, Christ was to be born and he wanted to know when and he only had one purpose in that and this was it.
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Then, Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children. This is the king of the Jews. These are his people. The king of the Jews. Now, we might have blamed the pharaoh way back in Egypt before because we've seen a slaughter of the innocents couple of different times.
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This is the king standing king of the Jews became furious. He sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region around who were two years old or under. According to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. Every paragraph for the first two or three chapters of Matthew has an Old Testament prophecy where it was something that was established so that when we got to the fulfillment, we'd know exactly what it was.
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It would be clear. Now, prophecy from the front side is incredibly difficult to predict but prophecy once it's completed should say, oh, that was it. Matthew's pointing it out for us. That's a horrible, horrible thing to have that many kids. And because of my heart turning and my stomach turning about that and thinking about that, I think of the slaughter of the innocence that is present and ongoing today that 60,000,000 innocence have been aborted since 1973.
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Herod kills the children. A voice was heard in Rhema. This is the area around Bethlehem. Weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel. Rachel was actually buried on the road right there in between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
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Rachel is weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. They simply are no more. Now, that is from Jeremiah 3,115 and I think it's interesting that the same exact chapter thirty one thirty one is where the new covenant is mentioned. Old covenant was a covenant of works, of law, and a new covenant was a covenant of grace where he says and I will write my law upon your hearts.
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I will take out that heart of stone. I'll give you a fleshy, soft heart. That's the same chapter of Jeremiah right there. But when Herod died, finally, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in the dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, rise and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are now dead. What do you think he did?
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He rose and he took the child and his mother and he went to the land of Israel. Praise God. Simple obedience. Every time that we hear this from Joseph, this is what he does. He rises and takes the child and the Christ is protected.
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The redemptive plan of God is protected by the obedience of his people. But when he heard that Archaeus was reigning over Judea and Archaeus is one of Herod's sons. When he heard that Archaeus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. So, that's how they got to Galilee instead of being right around where they were and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled that he would be called a Nazarene. I I come to this and I think, I love the fact that there's prophecy.
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It's Old Testament and that the people know it and I love that Matthew points it out so there can be no doubt about what's going on here but then, this just kind of ends the narrative. Now, we
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Speaker 2get into
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Speaker 1Jesus's ministry. It actually goes to John the Baptist next in the next chapter. Prophecy has been completed. The ancestral line has been detailed. All of these things in the past have come so that we can know in the right now that this is the truth and it's good.
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So, I'm going to go back for just a second. This first time that Jesus came into this world that the incarnation happened. God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but so that the world might be saved through him. So, he sent Jesus and he protected him and he entrusted him to this family. And he grew up and he grew in wisdom and in stature.
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Before God and man so that the world might be saved through him. So, he came to offer salvation. So, these sketches from the the lunette. So, all of the lunette windows on the sides of the church are still intact but the ones that are at the back of the of the preacher or the priest, I guess, back here, these two, the first two were destroyed. They were right there and right there.
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That one and that one have been destroyed. We only have the sketches left. So, if you fast forward, first of all, I'm going to fast forward in the book of Matthew and the reason I like to go in order is because I jump around like crazy if I don't go in order, okay? I'm going to fast forward in the book of Matthew to this. This is what destroyed those two blu net little ancestral freezes above the windows.
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They were right here and they took out the window too and right here and there was a window right there. They actually started this whole wall kind of reconstructing, built up over that so that he would have this huge, massive canvas as it were to paint this scene on. So, is Michelangelo who painted this and it the style is somewhat different. If you notice all the figures on the ceilings, almost all the figures on the ceilings with the exception of Adam. Most of them are clothed especially after the fall of man.
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All of them are clothed but at the creation of Adam, yeah, he's naked. This one, almost all the figures up here are naked. Now, they're far enough away that I hope it's not lewd for some of you. Y'all cringe when I put artwork up there. I know that.
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Twenty five years after he had finished the original, several popes later, he was commissioned by one of the popes to say, you know what? We have been focusing a lot. There are nine scenes from Genesis right over our head here. There's the ancestry of Christ but there's not a whole lot about the cross. There's not a whole lot about redemption.
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It's the story of redemption but it's not fully told. It's not fully orbed. In their response, the Catholic church's response to the reformation, there was a counter reformation where they align themselves more with the focus of scripture. And this is the final judgment. So, if we're fast forwarding twenty five years in fifteen hundreds Italy, it's around fifteen thirty something.
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Michelangelo starts. It actually took him longer to paint this wall than it did to paint the whole ceiling. I'm going to fast forward in the Bible to Matthew twenty five thirty one. This is about the second advent. So, we've been talking about the first advent, the Christmas story, the final judgment is the name of this painting.
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When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all of the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. And he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. And then the king will come and say to those on his right, come. You who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the very foundation of the world.
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For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.
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I was in prison. You came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison? And visit you.
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And the king will answer to them, truly I say to you, as you have done it or as you did it, to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. And then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked, you did not clothe me.
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Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not minister to you? And then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into the eternal punishment but the righteous and eternal life. There's a lot of space between Matthew two and Matthew 25.
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A lot. There's a lot of chapters in there. The sermon on the mount is in there. There are some instructions that are given all along the way. Not to mention the other gospels too.
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I was talking to Gary the other night and we're mentioning this the sermon on simple obedience. He said, the more I study and the more I look and the more I think, you know, the love languages, the five love languages? Y'all remember that book? There are certain love languages. He said, I think that the the love language that God speaks in is or that unders he understands his obedience.
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If you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, feed my sheep. Simon, do you love me? Yes. Feed my sheep.
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Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Take care of people. There is an aspect. It matters what you believe.
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That's how you're saved but when you believe, believe the commands. Believe what it is that he has put before us to do. This final judgment, the last judgment or final judgment by Michelangelo, we see these people stripped bare literally. All over the ceiling, we see em all clothed. Now, they're equalized.
46:35
These figures are leaving just like they came in. Naked, I came into the world and naked, I will leave. Now, I will say this, twelve years later, there was a there was a legalistic there's after the death of Michelangelo, there was a legalistic pope that came along and he decided to paint clothes on all these people. So, most of em are draped. If you get closer, you could see most of em are draped.
47:05
These are all ascending. They're clinging to the cross. These are ascending and these are descending. These are the sheep. These are the goats.
47:22
It all depends on what you do with this central figure right here. Right here, he is the coming king coming in his glory and coming to judge. Right here, he's on the cross. The message of the cross. As we look forward from Christmas to Easter, we look forward from Christmas or this first advent to this his second coming.
47:53
I don't want to just go, oh, it's great. He's a baby. Everything's wonderful. Hunky dory, we all get presents. It's sweet.
48:03
He sent his son into the world at exactly the right time. Born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law. He sent him so that we might receive adoption as sons so that we might be a sheep not a goat. Would you pray with me? God, thank you for for this time, this time between your advents where there is a chance.
48:37
Lord, there's a chance that we may come to know you, that we may come to have a heart of flesh, a soft heart with your law written upon it, that we may be be able to understand your direction, your impressions that you make on our spirit. Lord, I I pray that we would each become more and more aware of what it is that you're impressing on us. We see Joseph had somebody say last week, I wish God would just come to me in a dream and tell me exactly what I was supposed to do when I rise up. I would go do it. Lord, I have a feeling that we have an impression of what it is that you'd have us do but for fear or for selfishness, we often don't do it.
49:19
So God, I pray that you give us the strength of conviction and know what you would have us do and that you give us the power and the will to do it. So that we might protect the name of Christ so that we might present the name of Christ. We might proclaim the name of Christ and the forgiveness of sins. By his death, by his blood, by his cross. Lord, maybe ever be presenting and reflecting the light of Christ.
49:55
In Jesus name, lord, we pray. We thank you for that baby that came so sweetly and so vulnerable and lord, we recognize that the gospel is just as vulnerable today if we don't protect it. Amen. Would you stand with me and sing? Away in a manger.
51:46
Now, I'm just thinking about this. As you are standing in the Sistine Chapel and you're looking up, that's amazing and glorious but I agree with the pope. To look at the past and just go, yes, that's it. That's the past. He tore down part of the past to be able to put up what's in front of us and it is when you're paying attention to what the priest is saying or when you're paying attention to the word that's being proclaimed, you're looking at that and I think that with us looking forward to that second advent and looking forward to that final judgment and having that in our hearts that every single person that we meet is either going to be ascending or descending.
52:29
That gives a gravity to the gospel that we might not otherwise face. So, I I say, always in light of the cross. It's possible. The vilest sinner who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives. But if we don't think of em that way, if we don't think of ourselves that way and know that it is by the cross, the message of the cross.
52:51
It's foolishness to those who are perishing but it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who would believe. God, would you please be with us this week and as we receive the benediction, God, I pray that you would that you would make it real in our lives. Amen. So, finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration.
53:13
Comfort one another. Agree with one another. Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you. Amen.
