Joy to the World: Those Looking for Answers

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Joy to the World: Those Looking for Answers

Pastor Rolan Fisher

We made it to the end of 2020!!!!  

Congratulate yourselves and praise the Lord!!!!  

As our lives have been turned on their heads, it has been God’s grace to us all helping us to search for the answers to life’s most important questions. 

Questions like:

• Why are we here?

• How do we respond to life’s challenges?

• Where do we go now?

We’ve learned the truth that:

“Serious circumstances remind us that the difficulty of finding the truth is no excuse for not looking.”

-Paul Copan

Focus: God brings joy to those looking for answers in Christ.  

• Looking for Answers

• Finding the God Who Cares

• Jesus at the Temple 

Looking for Answers

• We all have questions to which only God has the answers. 
  

Luke 2:41-52 

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Finding true joy in every circumstance is only possible when we look to Jesus for the answers.  

We are all ultimately here to know God and make God known through his Son, Jesus Christ. 

God is a constant tutor pointing us to this fact despite all of life’s varied circumstances. 

In the midst of a Roman occupancy that did not particularly affirm their faith, the people at the temple in Luke’s account were those who were looking for answers.  

They were giving God an opportunity to speak rather than camping in life’s discouragements or popular accusations against God’s goodness at the time.  

The truth is that God is not afraid of your questions. 

Isaiah 1:18-20 

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

When we come to God with questions, He doesn't always give us the answers that we want, but He ultimately responds with the answers that we truly need - those that lead to life and godliness. 

The great challenge of our worship is learning to humbly trust and obey God with the answers that He provides. 

We must come to grips with the fact that God can not be benevolent and sovereign when we like the outcomes of our circumstances, and treacherous or lack control when we don’t. 

That would be equating our opinions and preferences to God - and they are not the same thing. 

“Whenever I read the Bible and come across something that I disagree with, I have to assume I’m wrong.”

-Francis Chan

God is all wise and good all of the time. 

Christ’s advent is joy for those looking for answers because it reminds us of the great lengths to which God went to demonstrate His love, make Himself known and reconcile us to Himself through the cross.  

“Jesus didn’t come to win a debate, He came to win His people.  Jesus never answered a question, He answered the person.  Jesus never sought to win an argument, He sought to win the individual.”

-Ravi Zacharias

God intends our questions in life to ultimately lead us to Jesus. 

Yet when we FOCUS on the wrong things, we can end up in the ruts of life marked by cynicism, nihilism and despair.  

• If we’re not careful, even the routines of religion can make us think that we’re in step with God when really we’ve left Jesus behind. 

• Mary and Joseph had their own moment of this when they lost track of Jesus. 

• We know that we’ve lost track of Jesus when we find ourselves in emotional and mental ditches trying to answer life’s biggest questions without the Lord. 

2020 has brought plenty of opportunity for that. 

What has been your “thing” - the one focal point on which you found yourself meditating most, that which became a lens through which you interpreted all else this year?  

Was it the election, the economy, racial injustice, calamities in the world or the pandemic? 

All of these tensions could have made a person afraid to even leave their house if they were all upon which they meditated. 

You can fixate on such things or you can fix your eyes on Jesus and truly live, in every season, and at all times. 

Because through His Word, you find that there is a God who cares. 

Finding the God Who Cares

• Jesus is God who reaffirms his care for those who seek him in the world. 

God cares for us each individually. 

When you seek God personally, you find that Jesus is the all wise teacher and gentle healer that we all need it right now. 

Jesus is lowly of heart and is SO approachable. 

Though that is His nature, we need to beware of responding simply emotionally when we are looking for answers.  

Remember, as the Israeli prophet Jeremiah said, 

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Mary was understandably emotional when she couldn’t find Jesus, and so are we when we don’t sense God or understand what he is doing in our lives. 

*However, Mary would have missed what God was doing if she didn’t give Jesus an opportunity to speak.

Jesus explained exactly why He was at the temple, revealing more about his nature and His unique relationship with the Father when Mary asked her questions.  

Think of how many of you would not have been in church or moments of worship like this if it had not been for the upending of our worlds.

Think also of the countless lives that God has been eternally saving in the midst of our difficult circumstances. 

But does God care for our world?

“Cynics point to the humanitarian problems around the world and then tell us that there is no God who cares. To answer the cynics who say that pain points to a God who doesn’t care, consider that the World Health Organization says that we could feed the entire world with food and clean water for thirty billion dollars per year. Yet we spend one trillion dollars on military worldwide. The cynics can’t honestly answer the question about human depravity. They fail because they point their rage at God rather than fellow humans who could solve hunger with 3% of their military budgets.”

-Rice Broocks in The Human Right 

When we meet Jesus, we find that He is the only one who provides in the moment, comprehensive and eternal solutions to life’s challenges. 

Mary and Joseph thought Jesus went missing and found instead that they were really the ones in need. 

The good news is that we can make our way back to Jesus and find that He cares for our whole world.  

Where do you find Jesus when you feel like He’s been lost?

You go to the place of worship where God’s Word is being taught.  

You will always find Jesus there.  

The Bible not only describes the problem with the world regarding sin, but also intricately describes its solution in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

And so even in His youth, at the temple Jesus was showing those who thought themselves older and wiser how much they still had to learn. 

Jesus at the Temple

• We find our answers and joy at the place of worship.  

When Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus, Jesus exclaimed, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

*God meets us right where we are, but also calls us to be where He is. 

Those sitting at the temple with Jesus were committed to the worship gatherings where the heart and thoughts of God were revealed through God’s Word. 

In this same way, God continually brings encouragement and joy to us today as He reveals Jesus not only as a good teacher, but the great God and Savior for whom all mankind is really waiting.  

“It is impossible to read the Gospels or Paul and come away with the impression that Jesus of Nazareth thought of Himself as a mere man. Jesus said much about Himself that would have been outlandish if He were just a man.

“I am the light of the world.” —John 8:12

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” —Mark 13:31

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” —Matthew 18:20 NKJV

“The prophets who spoke for God prefaced their statements with the phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” But when Jesus spoke, He didn’t say, “Thus says the Lord,” but instead He made comments such as “Truly I say to you.” He spoke in such terms because the Lord was speaking. JESUS DEMONSTRATED HE IS THE MESSIAH”

-Rice Broocks, Man, Myth, Messiah: Answering History's Greatest Question

In response to their search, Jesus was pleased to return home with His earthly parents.

And so He is pleased to make a dwelling in your life, family and home as you repent of sin and believe the good news of Jesus. 

So where do we go from here?

Mary treasured the entire encounter that Luke recounts in her heart. 

As Jesus grew, the Scripture says that He would “increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

And so Christ’s impact on the world would grow as well. 

During our times of worship gatherings, we encounter both God’s word and the power of His Holy Spirit.  

We are to bring our questions to God and then humbly ponder the answers in His Word to allow direct application in the ways in which we live. 

Community groups are a great place to flesh this out with others!

We then allow the Holy Spirit to, like Christ, increase us in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men to take God’s gospel truth and care to the world.  

This is what it means to go and make disciples of the nations. 

“The Bible has built an entire civilization that has changed the world. We must see that the greatest steps toward justice have been taken by those following the cross. Vishal Mangalwadi says, “I call the Bible the soul of Western Civilization because it propelled the development of everything good in the West: its notion of human dignity, human rights, human equality, justice, optimism, rationality, family, education, universities, technology, science, culture of compassion, great literature, heroism, economic progress, political freedom.”

-Rice Broocks, The Human Right 

When we return to finding the beginning and end of all of our questions in Jesus, we will once again find the joy for which the world is actually longing!

Repent of your sin and meet Jesus at the cross today to receive this great joy!

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: The Learned

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Joy to the World: The Learned

Pastor Rolan Fisher

Focus: God brings joy when we allow our learning to discover life’s purpose in Jesus. 

• Following the Signs 

• With Special Revelation

• To the Feet of the King

Following the Signs

• Our joy is stirred when we begin to follow the signs in life pointing us to Jesus.  

Matthew 2:1-12

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?  For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The first thing we see in Luke’s account of the wise men is that the good news of Jesus is not an idea, but a recorded event.  

Jesus came at a particular, well documented point in human history - in the days of Herod the Great, the Roman appointed king of Judea who ruled from Israel and Judah from 37-4 BC.  

Two reasons the invitation to meet Christ would have brought joy to these wise men are:

1. It is a calculated certainty that we will all face God one day in death to give an account of our lives.  

PHD Stephen C Meyer during his interview by Lee Strobel for the book The Case for a Creator said it this way:

“If it's true there's a beginning to the universe, as modern cosmologists now agree, then this implies a cause that transcends the universe. If the laws of physics are fine-tuned to permit life, as contemporary physicists are discovering, then perhaps there's a designer who fine-tuned them. If there's information in the cell, as molecular biology shows, then this suggests intelligent design. To get life going in the first place would have required biological information; the implications point beyond the material realm to a prior intelligent cause”

-Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God

In essence, both then and now we see that resistance  is futile. 

We’re all going to physically expire one day.  

It was joy for these erudite men because for all their deep learning and achievements in life, it all amounts to nothing if you are damned in your destiny after the grave.  

King Solomon of ancient Israel, one of the wisest and wealthiest men who ever lived said it this way by the Holy Spirit:

Proverbs 11:4 

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Jesus echoed this strongly in his teachings when he posited:

Matthew 16:26-27 

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Mortality is a liberating thing if we are right with our intelligent creator.  

Yet it is a fearful and daunting reality if you enter eternity without Christ. 

It is better to meet God now with the invitation of peace, than to face the wrath of His foretold judgment.  

2. The meeting of Christ would finally put the reason for all of their great learning, achievements and resources into proper perspective. 

God intends our great learning to ultimately lead us to Christ.

This is why the wise men deemed it necessary to make such a long, costly and time consuming trip to meet the King. 

As in all encounters with God, responses of active worship are not only what God is due, but are for the benefit our hearts as we remember both our place and responsibilities in life before God.  

Worship of Jesus puts our world and all that we deem is ours in the right order. 

As with the shepherds, an invitation was made to the wise men. 

“Wise Men Still Seek Him”

God put his creation to work using the star as a sign. 

Psalm 19:1-4a

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 

Romans 1:19-20 

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

The wise men followed the signs of God’s revelation in the natural world to ultimately lead them to both the predictive and explanatory power of the Bible.  

What signs has God been giving you to lead you to meet Jesus?  

With Special Revelation

• Our joy is confirmed when we embrace the special revelation of God’s Word leading us to Christ.  

How did the wise men catch wind of the Messiah?

Scholars tell us that the term wise men originally referred to priests and experts in mysteries in Persia and Babylon where years before the Israelites had been deported in judgment. 

The Israelites carried the special revelation of the Law and prophets of God with them to Babylon speaking of the soon coming Messiah. 

By this time the meaning of the term wise men extended to those who practiced astrology, dream interpretation, study of sacred writings, wisdom and magic.  

It was not that God approved of these practices.

Rather God was demonstrating his love and missionary heart towards all mankind, meeting people where they were to bring them back to Himself through Jesus.  

*So it is today. 

It is not just good enough that we believe in something.  

God wants to bring us to Jesus who is the only means of reconciliation between fallen humanity and God because of what Jesus would eventually accomplish for us on the cross. 

When the wise men arrived in Jerusalem, they came into contact with God’s Word and were charged by Herod to diligently search for the child who was born King. 

Yet today, so many of us excuse our lack of faith with herd mentality euphemisms to simply justify the sin in which we want to live.

Both Herod and those in Jerusalem were troubled because the advent of Jesus threatened their perception of rule over their own lives. 

However, the joy and life that you find in Jesus are worth the prolonged search to make your confidence in Christ sure.  

“I started out as an atheist, utterly convinced that God didn’t create people but that people created God in a pathetic effort to explain the unknown and temper their overpowering fear of death. My previous book, The Case for Christ, described my nearly two-year examination of the historical evidence that pointed me toward the verdict that God really exists and that Jesus actually is his unique Son.”

-Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity

It took faith for the wise men to follow the predictions of Scripture to lead them to Christ.  

On what were are we basing such confidence today?

“Faith is not a leap in the dark; it’s the exact opposite. It’s a commitment based on evidence… It is irrational to reduce all faith to blind faith and then subject it to ridicule. That provides a very anti-intellectual and convenient way of avoiding intelligent discussion.”

-John Lennox

Is there a reliable source to tell us how to find the Lord?

In his apologetic, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, scholar Gary R. Habermas writes:

“We can start with approximately nine traditional authors of the New Testament. If we consider the critical thesis that other authors wrote the pastoral letters and such letters as Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians, we'd have an even larger number. Another twenty early Christian authors and four heretical writings mention Jesus within 150 years of his death on the cross.

Moreover, nine secular, non-Christian sources mention Jesus within the 150 years: Josephus, the Jewish historian; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a politician of Rome; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Lucian, the Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; and probably the historians Suetonius and Thallus, as well as the prisoner Mara Bar-Serapion.

In all, at least forty-two authors, nine of them secular, mention Jesus within 150 years of his death.

In comparison, let's take a look at Julius Caesar, one of Rome's most prominent figures. Caesar is well known for his military conquests. After his Gallic Wars, he made the famous statement, "I came, I saw, I conquered." Only five sources report his military conquests: writings by Caesar himself, Cicero, Livy, the Salona Decree, and Appian.

If Julius Caesar really made a profound impact on Roman society, why didn't more writers of antiquity mention his great military accomplishments? No one questions whether Julius did make a tremendous impact on the Roman Empire. It is evident that he did. Yet in those 150 years after his death, more non-Christian authors alone comment on Jesus than all of the sources who mentioned Julius Caesar's great military conquests within 150 years of his death.

Let's look at an even better example, a contemporary of Jesus. Tiberius Caesar was the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' ministry and execution. Tiberius is mentioned by ten sources within 150 years of his death: Tacitus, Suetonius, Velleius Paterculus, Plutarch, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, Seneca, Valerius Maximus, Josephus, and Luke.

Compare that to Jesus' forty-two total sources in the same length of time. That's more than four times the number of total sources who mention the Roman emperor during roughly the same period. If we only considered the number of secular non-Christian sources who mention Jesus and Tiberius within 150 years of their lives, we arrive at a tie of nine each.“

The star reappeared after the wise men consulted God’s word, and led them full measure, with natural and special revelation working together, to the feet of Jesus.  

To the Feet of the King

• Our  joy is realized at the feet of Jesus when the purpose behind all of our talents, learning and resources come into full view. 

People often wonder at the great purpose behind their learning, their opportunities and the measure of their resources.  

God gives us understanding when we finally meet Jesus as He is. 

• There is no other way to truly meet Jesus except as King. 

• As with the wise men, when we finally meet Jesus as KING, it demands at least three responses:

1. Jesus becomes Lord of your time - the wise men made a trip from the East that would have taken 40 days over 800 miles if they averaged 20 miles a day by caravan along the main trade route from Babylon

2. Jesus becomes Lord of your treasure - the wise men came and laid their wealth at the feet of Jesus that their resources would not be their God, but their God would be the provider of those resources.  They understood what Jesus would say later, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24) and undertook great expense to travel to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. 

3. Jesus becomes Lord of our talent - the wise men would take their encounter with Jesus, along with their great learning, to become witnesses of Christ in the places in which they used their talents on a daily basis.  

• These three responses are right in the middle of the Christmas story because worship always comes back to this:

How will God see that you used your time, treasure and talents to worship Jesus as King?

Will these things have been used for the Kingdom of God to reap an eternal reward or will they have been wasted and one day buried with you?

The wise men ventured together with like minded individuals to meet Jesus. 

They ultimately found the joy of worshiping and giving to the One who would reign forever. 

So what does Jesus being Lord mean?

“Again; thousands are deceived into supposing that they have “accepted Christ” as their “personal Saviour,” who have not first received Him as their LORD. The Son of God did not come here to save His people in their sin, but “from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). To be saved from sins, is to be saved from ignoring and despising the authority of God, it is to abandon the course of self-will and self-pleasing, it is to “forsake our way” (Isa. 55:7).

“It is to surrender to God’s authority, to yield to His dominion, to give ourselves over to be ruled by Him. The one who has never taken Christ’s “yoke” upon him, who is not truly and diligently seeking to please Him in all the details of life, and yet supposes that he is “resting on the Finished Work of Christ” is deluded by the Devil.”

-Michael L. Brown

God reroutes us in life to ultimately save our lives.  

God sent the wise men a dream to warn them of the danger that Herod, who would try to remain his own king until his death, now posed to them. 

Will you allow God to reroute you?

Take an account of your life and begin now to reorder your time, treasure and talents in Christ. 

*Leaving any one of these out is sin. 

After meeting Jesus, the wise men returned home a different way.  

So when we meet Jesus let our courses forever be altered to turn us away from a life of self-sufficiency and sin. 

In doing so, we will find the joy of Christ’s advent and be a testimony of his true life to the world. 

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: Those in Waiting

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Joy to the World: Those in Waiting 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God brings joy to those who wait on his consolation. 

• What are you waiting for?

• Joy in the waiting

• What is God waiting for?

What are you waiting for?

• We are all ultimately waiting for consolation from life’s pain.

Luke 2:1-21 

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The first thing we need to acknowledge is that God is constantly at work behind the scenes to bring about his spoken Word, including great joy to those who would receive him in the world.  

At the beginning of this recounting of Christ’s arrival, we see the historian Luke making reference to the events that would fulfill ancient prophecy. 

A contemporary of the prophet Isaiah, the Israeli prophet Micah wrote the following words approximately 700 years prior to the arrival of Jesus: 

Micah 5:2 

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

It was also significant that Jesus was born of the kingly Davidic line, as it was written:

Jeremiah 23:5-6

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.  And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’”

So God would order national affairs to fulfill the predictions spoken by the prophets as to the birthplace and lineage of His Christ. 

The point over and over again is that every word of God will be fulfilled.  

This includes God’s consolation and joy for his people who’ve experienced pain.  

Among other things, consolation means comfort. 

Though God wants to bring consolation, be careful what you allow to be that for which you most long, that which you think will give you comfort and joy.  

“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

And so it is interesting that God chose to first reveal himself to those who were ordinary men who were outside of the power circles in their society. 

The shepherds were those who would have been familiar with stigma, but were vital to Israel’s ongoing economy at the time.  

God thus declared that no one is too great or too small to meet his anointed king. 

The shepherds had observed the oppression of Roman rule from the wilderness, the outskirts of society.  

And God met them there. 

Now the shepherds rejoiced and travelled together to meet the Savior. 

* It was good news of great joy that was to be for all the people.  

Joy in the Waiting

• We find joy in the waiting as we together put our trust in God’s promises.

The shepherds found Jesus just as they were told. 

Just as at His first coming, so we will find God’s words true of his second coming.  

Yet as we wait the message of Christmas is clear.  

Fear not. 

Jesus is the savior that the world needs.  

“You never know God is all you need until God is all you have.”

-Rick Warren

Why?

“Every person has something that concerns her ultimately and whatever it is, that object of ultimate concern is that person's God.”

-Ronald H. Nash

And over and over again, these things in place of God that we hope to achieve and satisfy so often fail us. 

Yet God wants to put all of our concerns in right perspective.  

For every need that we have during the Pandemic, Jesus is the supply. 

Comfort and joy come from truly knowing who Jesus is. 

Jesus was proclaimed by the angels to be (Luke 2:11): 

1. A Savior

2. Christ (the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah”) 

- it was a title speaking of the anointed deliverer of God’s people 

3. Lord 

- proclaiming  to the shepherds that Jesus was God himself

Just as Jesus grew to fulfill the words of his prophesied miracle ministry, so our understanding of Christ can grow to meet him in new ways as we travel together.  

There is joy in togetherness as we collectively remind one another of those most important promises from God. 

As He grew:

• Jesus would bring stability in turbulent times and His authority would calm storms.

• Jesus would Himself know fatigue, hunger and thirst in his human frame, and so can understand and console us in our suffering.

• He is a miracle worker providing for those with felt needs, financial or otherwise.

• Jesus is gentle and humble in heart, inviting those who are weary and heavy laden.

• Jesus is a healer of sickness, pain and disease.

• Jesus is the Creator who calls us and knows our way when we feel lost.

• He is the builder of his church, setting the lonely in family.

• Jesus provides peace for those who’ve been under mental and spiritual oppression.

• Jesus is forevermore a resurrector of the dead.

• He provides forgiveness of sins to those who have gone astray

• He is Lord of the harvest rescuing a world set against God by turning them back to Him at the cross.

God intends good for the world. 

God sees you when no one else does. 

He sees you in isolation, in wanderings and in your own personal wilderness.  

God meets you right where you are and brings you to to meet his Christ.  

During the pandemic, it has been an amplification of the fact that people are desperately looking for peace and joy.  

* Yet this is important -  the peace that Christ brings is among those whom God is pleased, not just everyone.

This was true then. 

It is true now. 

It will be true at the second advent, Christ’s ultimate return. 

Not everyone will find Christ’s peace or joy, though it is offered to all the people. 

What makes the difference? 

What is God waiting for?

• God is waiting for a people made ready for Christ’s return.

Luke 2:22-40

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

Sometimes you are drawn to meet Jesus, sometimes he comes to meet you.  

Either way, respond when he comes.  

“I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.”

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Details matter here as God is described as the great equalizer among men. 

Mary and Joseph are described as bringing offerings appropriate to those of modest or poor means according to temple requirements. 

They brought a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons which were more affordable vs. the lamb that the well to do would have brought. 

At the same time, though we do not know Simeon nor Anna’s station in life, we know that God chose to define them by their proximity and relationship to him.  

They made choices that should matter to us as well.  

Neither Simeon nor Anna were said to be priests or of a priestly line, but because they were righteous and devout, found themselves right in the middle of the action of Christ’s coming to the world.  

May you have the same experience, regardless of your pedigree or profession because you have the same heart.  

Jesus brought  joy to Simeon as a faithful follower of God looking for Him to fulfill his prophetic promises regarding the Messiah. 

Jesus brought  joy to Anna who was affirmed that her life’s work in prayer for the Kingdom of God to come was not in vain, but a stewardship that God would reward. 

What are you waiting for?

What is God waiting for?

Christ came and He is coming again. 

Like Simeon, will you be waiting?

Like Anna, will you be ready?

If so, there is joy on the waiting. 

And because of Christ’s coming and his finished work at the cross, you will know God’s consolation as we together look to speed his return. 

So what should we do while we wait?

1. Believe the words of God like the shepherds, Simeon and Anna 

2. Make haste like the shepherds to meet Jesus.  

3. Once you do, worship him and make known this good news of great joy for all the people. 

Joy to the World: For Humble Servants

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Joy To The World: For Humble Servants 

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

FOCUS: God gives joy to His humble servants 

• Favor for humble servants

• Miracles for humble servants

• Everlasting joy for humble servants

Everybody wants joy, right?

Jesus came to bring great joy to the world, to all the people (Luke 2:10).  

Then why do so few people seem to have genuine, deep seated, lasting joy?  

Could this be because we have forgotten or never understood what joy is or where it comes from?   

A definition of Christian Joy by Theologian John Piper:

"Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world." - John Piper

Today on the second Sunday of Advent we are going to indulge the Christmas story truth that God gives this  joy to His humble servants. 

Main Scripture

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry,  

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

- Luke‬ ‭1:26-45‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Favor for humble servants

Joy starts with an invitation from God to let Jesus Christ live in you and bring Christ into the world.  

• For us, we do not have the opportunity to be the mother or surrogate father of Jesus, but we do have the invitation of the gospel to let Christ live his life in us and to bring the good news of salvation to our generation.

• God is already at work in the world fulfilling his promise to bring salvation to every people group on the planet. He will accomplish it with or without you or me….but because He knows there is no joy for you or I apart from humble service in His kingdom, he invites us to join in.
  

Joy comes from being in God's presence without fear 

Psalm 16:11

"You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Psalm 84:10-11

"For a day in your courts is better

    than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

    than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

    the Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold

    from those who walk uprightly." 

Humility is the path to favor and into God's joyful presence.

Luke 14:7-11 (The Parable of the Wedding Feast)

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We must ask ourselves "Where I have assumed a position or a role in life that God has not called me into it?  Where have I exalted myself?"

What are some ways we can choose to humble ourselves rather than God humbling us?

• Obey Jesus, Pray, Give, Serve, Fast, Study

• These are all 'spiritual disciplines' that like working out our muscles physically will make us weak but in the long run make us strong spiritually as we learn to lean on Christ.

• I recommend the classic book "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard J Foster

"Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honour and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance."

-- Richard J. Foster 

Miracles for humble servants

 When we, like Mary and Elizabeth, humbly accept God's invitation to know Christ and make him known he will do miracles among us. 

Humility is the essential ingredient to be used by God for the impossible.

We do not know if it was Mary's dream to be the mother of the one and only Son of God (probably not!). But the sanctified imagination and historical reality for young ladies at that time would lead us to believe that she did dream about being a wife and mother.  

Elizabeth and Zechariah served God faithfully as Levites performing temple service into their old age NEVER having their desire for a child fulfilled…then God miraculously healed her barrenness with the conception of a prophet. 

When we humbly surrender, wait for God's timing and serve him he will fulfill not only his plans for the redemption of the world using us, but will also grant the desires of our heart in the process. 

Psalm 37:3-5

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him, and he will act.

Nothing will be impossible with God. 

What are you longing for?  God doesn’t rebuke you for having desires.  He does command you to surrender those desires to him and make them secondary to his plan to bring Christ to you and your generation. When we surrender our desire to him he can mold it to be better than we can imagine.  

Mary became God's servant according to His word.   She exchanged her dreams for God's dreams.  This is the essence of being God's humble servant. 

Everlasting joy for humble servants

 Everlasting joy comes when we are united to Christ Jesus.

We were made to be one with God but our sin has separated  us from His presence and eternal joy.

Jesus came to earth to live the righteous and sinless life we should have lived.

Jesus died a sinner's death for you and me on the cross as a perfect sacrifice paying for our sins. 

Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead as proof the payment was accepted.

Today you are invited by faith to accept the gift of Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection as payment for your sins and receive everlasting joy being made right with God forever. 

For those united to Christ Jesus and serving him,  be assured that God is faithful to bring you home with great glory and joy:

Jude 24-25:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: Dreamers

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Joy to the World: Dreamers

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: We find the greatest joy in life when we allow God’s plans to become our plans. 

• Our Plans 

• God’s Plans

• Our Salvation

Our Plans

We all start out with dreams of how we think life should go, that which we think will bring us the greatest joy.  

Matthew 1:18-25 

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 and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

We are continually tempted to build lives with ourselves at the center. 

God’s Plans

The goal is to discover whether our plans are, in fact, God’s plans.  

When circumstances upend our plans, we don’t need to simply substitute the next best thing. 

We need to seek God to discover how he wants us to turn in our plans for His plans. 

When we truly meet God, He gives us a different dream centered around his Son and stewarding HIS plans.  

The significance you are looking for is found in being a submitted vessel to God’s eternal purposes.  

Our Salvation

Our great salvation and greatest joys come when we begin to build our lives on Jesus Christ.  

Jesus and his salvific work at the cross are the centerpiece of human history.  

The purpose of God’s shaking is that we might begin building our lives on Christ, around Christ and for the glory of Christ as we bring his good news to the world.  

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020