A Word about a Vision of Redemption

Today I want to share a word about a vision of restoration as I comment on Luke 1:67-79. This passage reads:

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us  in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us  that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;  for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Introduction:

The last time we saw Zechariah, in the Christmas story, the angel had told him that he and Elizabeth, even though they were old, would have a son whom they would call John. As a proof of God’s power to accomplish the unusual and unexpected, Zechariah was made to be unable to speak until the boy was born and named John. 

When his power of speech was returned to him, Zechariah burst out into praise. The key thing to see here is not his excitement over what might easily be called the miraculous birth of his son. No, the focus of his riff was not John, but God and His redemption of His people.

Redemption is the process in which you exchange one thing for another. For example, when I was a young boy, my mother collected S&H Green Stamps. This was a customer rewards program in which a retailer would give customers a number of stamps based on the value of their purchase. Customers would paste these stamps into booklets, and when they had accumulated enough stamps, they could exchange or redeem them for items out of a catalogue.

As an aside, I never collected the green stamps, but I did enjoy browsing through the catalogues. This gave me many hours of diversion that browsing on-line commerce sites just can’t replicate.

Today, retail loyalty programs don’t give out physical stamps, but they do offer digital credits that can be redeemed by customers to buy items. My wife and I make most of our routine purchases each month with a credit card that has a cash-back provision which is another version of that concept.

Zechariah’s outburst of praise describes a number of aspects of God and His redemption of His people that still resonate with us, today.

A Vision of an Active God:

In Verses 67-69, Zechariah praised God for being an active God.

Although fewer today than before, the vast majority of people believe in God. As we saw last time, Paul in Romans 1 asserted that God’s existence and personality is apparent to all in the natural world. Belief in God is so universal that even self-proclaimed atheists will use the phrase, “Oh, my God!”

Although many people believe in God, many fewer believe that God is active in their lives. Even those who believe that God created the world may not believe He is active in the world today. Formally, this theological position is called Deism. Paul saw this tendency developing among people as far back as the first century. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 he wrote:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Zechariah proclaimed a much different vision of God. Instead of a distant, hands-off God who is “way up there somewhere,” Zechariah knew that the Scriptures reveal that our God is active in His creation.

First, He created the world and everything in it, including people. He didn’t stop there, but when Adam and Eve sinned, God proactively protected them from living in sin for eternity. Later He called out Abraham to create a missionary people to take God’s love and Word to the peoples of the world. He preserved them from famine by taking them to Egypt, and then He redeemed them from slavery by sending Moses to take them back to Canaan.

In the history of the nation of Israel, God rescued His people many times from outside oppression and from internal decay. Ultimately as a part of that process, He sent His only begotten Son to exchange His life for the souls of humanity.

Even at the beginning of Zechariah’s praise, Luke stated that God had filled him with the Holy Spirit so that he could fully understand all these events. Later, God sent the Holy Spirit to all His people and fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that foretold that God would write His Word on our hearts.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God’s Word emanates from His very being. If His Word is living and active, so is God.

Our God is an active God, but what does He do?

A Vision of a Saving God:

In Verses 70-74, Zechariah praised God for being a saving God.

Retailer loyalty programs, like the S&H Green Stamps were not developed for altruistic purposes. They did not issue those stamps out of the goodness of their hearts. In fact, such loyalty programs are very transactional, along the lines of, “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Retailers want customers to continue to shop with them, and customers want to think that they are getting something for free. Both have something to offer to the transaction, and both gain something from it.

When God acted to redeem His people, when God sent His Son to save us from our sin, there was nothing transactional about that process. We had nothing to offer God. He had everything to offer us. 

In saving us, and redeeming us from our slavery to sin, God exchanged His perfect, righteous, Holy Son for people who are a hot mess. Unlike Esau, who flippantly swapped his birthright for a bowl of Jacob’s soup. God deliberately and with a clear eye exchanged Jesus for us because of His perfect love for us. What an amazing love!

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, had experienced such love. He had been both a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. Interestingly, he had also been a slave himself in Africa for a short time. He was notorious for being one of the most profane men who ever lives. Even his fellow sailors were offended by his language, which is saying something!

When he realized his own sin, and when he had found himself redeemed by the blood of Jesus, he wrote, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”  None of us today are slavers, but our sin is just as scarlet before God, and yet He deliberately and in full awareness of the poor exchange rate, offers us salvation.

God’s loving is amazing, but His fidelity is also. God not only saves us because of His love, but also because of His faithfulness to His Word. 

God made many covenants with the Old Testament saints. He always kept His side of them, but His people could not or would not keep their side of these covenants. Time and time again He saved His people from the troubles that they got themselves into. He never gave up on His promises, and He has always kept them.

Have you ever had someone make a promise to you that they failed to keep? Many years ago, I had a requirement to submit some documents to an agency about an issue that would have had a significant impact on my work and my family. I completed the forms well in advance of the due date, and I entrusted them to a staff member of the agency who, knowing how vital they were to me, had promised that the documents would be processed and submitted forthwith. 

After I had not had any communications from the agency in several weeks, I called to confirm all was well. Sadly, all was not well. The staff member had failed to take any action on my submission, even after promising so earnestly that he would do so. I am glad to report that another staff member was able to retrieve the documents, and they were processed on time. I later found that the fellow who promised he would take care of me took his annual leave instead!

Our God is faithful to His Word and to His people. If He says it, He will do it, regardless of what is might cost Him!

A Vision of an Encouraging God:

In Verses 74-75, Zechariah praised God for being an encouraging God.

What kind of expert help do you prefer? For example, do you prefer a doctor with a great bedside manner but who is not very competent? What about a very competent doctor who has a terrible bedside manner? I must have a competent doctor, but I would prefer one who also has a pleasant manner as well.

Zechariah has told us that God is an active God and a saving God, but our God is also an encourager as well. He is the best of both worlds: He acts lovingly on our behalf. Because He does, we can serve Him without fear.

Previously, I asserted that hurt people hurt others, and that scared people scare others. The fact that we can serve God without fear helps us to serve Him and each other in holiness and righteousness.

The parable of the unforgiving servant is a perfect example of this dynamic. In Matthew 18, Jesus told of a servant who owed his master an unimaginable sum of money. In an act of grace and mercy, the master forgave the man. Instead of confidently resting in that act of redemption, the servant demanded a colleague pay him back a small amount of money. When that colleague could not, the servant had him thrown into jail. This sequence of events did not turn out well for the unforgiving servant!

The Scriptures do not say why the unforgiving servant acted the way that he did. However, knowing human nature, I suspect he was acting out of fear. I believe he was afraid that his master would revoke his forgiveness so he needed to accumulate as much money as he could, even though he would never be able to repay his master. He basically hurt his colleague for nothing.

We can fully trust God. We don’t have to be afraid that He will renege on His promises. Psalm 103:11-12 assures us, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

In Ephesians 3:11-13, Paul also assured us that, 

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

The writer of Hebrews 4:16 encouraged us to not be afraid to approach our Lord, saying, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Our God not only solves our problems, but He does that in a way that gives us confidence in Him. We don’t have to scramble or to lie, cheat, and steal to address issues that God has ready resolved. Therefore, we can as Paul said in Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

A Vision of an Enlightening God:

In Verses 76-79, Zechariah praised God for being an Enlightening God.

In his preamble to Zechariah’s praise of God, Luke reported that Zechariah had been filled with the Holy Spirit. We must not overlook this simple statement because it shows us a vital difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Christians criticize the children of Israel in the Old Testament and for good reason. They were spiritually hapless, helpless, and hopeless, and often they were “rebels without a clue.” They could not keep God’s Law, they were addicted to sin, and they made bad decisions. They had little internal ability to honor God with their lives and so they either fell into worshiping idols and other false Gods or they became rigidly legalistic. Neither position was very mature, spiritually.

We who are not Jews should not boast, however, because Paul, In Ephesians 4:17-24, said that the Gentiles were just as hapless, helpless, and hopeless without Christ.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

This is a dismal picture of how people are in their natural state. The good news is that, in Christ, we have power and abilities that natural people don’t have. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit inhabits our soul and brings light to our darkened understanding. This is one of the key differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

• The Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of the Truth so that we are no longer hapless and confused.
• The Holy Spirit gives us the power and ability to grow and mature, so that we are no longer helpless.
• The Holy Spirit gives us a witness to our spirit of the presence of God and the assurance of salvation in Christ, so we are no longer without hope.
• The Holy Spirit also gives us gifts for ministry, so that we can bless God and others with our words and our actions. 

With the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are not only redeemed from our sin, but we are also redeemed to live an abundant and productive life for our Lord!

Conclusion:

There can be no questioning that fact that our redemption in Christ is an unfair exchange. In return for God giving us His perfect and Uniquely Begotten Son, the one human who never sinned and who even faced down the Devil face-to-face and hand-to-hand, God received a bunch of rag-tag, helpless, hapless, and hopeless rebels. 

God redeemed because of His love and because of His righteousness. In doing that, He totally transformed our lives. If you have not let Him do that for you yet, there is no better time to let God have His way than Christmas!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about a Vision of Blessing

Today I want to share a word about a vision of blessing as I comment on Luke 1:26-45. Let’s begin by reading verses 26-33:

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.”

The pastor of a church I know begins their worship services with asking the congregation how they are. They all reply in unison, “Blessed and then some!” The church has been blessed with a good pastor and a good ministry together, so their reply is more than just a slogan. It is the truth for them.

Sometimes, however, blessings come in unexpected ways. A young couple had been unsuccessfully trying to have a child for several years, when their doctor encouraged them to adopt. Just after their adoption of twins was finalized, they conceived themselves. Everyone involved was surprised, but the couple felt blessed.

Mary, the mother of Jesus also received an unexpected blessing as we will read in our focal passage for today.  Along with the news of being the mother of the Uniquely Begotten Son of God. Mary also experienced blessings that we also can enjoy today!

The Blessing of Revelation.

Uncertainty is troubling to our souls. We don’t have to feel like we know everything, but to feel like we know nothing is very disturbing.

During the Victorian Era, people in England were supremely confident that they knew the truth and they knew the right way to do everything. So, when the Titanic was built, it was proclaimed far and wide to be unsinkable. When, in 1912, it hit the iceberg and sank, one of the survivors lamented, “I will never feel certain about anything ever again.”

A saying we all know is, “Ignorance is bliss.” Another is, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” I have found out that what you don’t know can hurt you. A simple example of that is when you don’t realize your car’s wheels are out of alignment. Most of won’t know that is the case until we must purchase a new set of tires.  Such things are not usually dangerous, but they can be expensive.

In terms of our spiritual lives, we have been blessed by God because He has revealed Himself and His truth to us. In Romans 1:18-23, Paul taught us:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 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. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Paul taught us that God revealed enough of Himself in the natural world that humans should seek Him out. Instead, they deceived themselves and allowed Satan also to lead them astray.  God also revealed Himself to us in more explicit ways as well, as the writer of Hebrews 1:1-4 tells us:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.

God is not playing hide-and-seek with us. He is not playing peek-a-boo. He wants us to know Him. Not only is he revealed in His creation and in His word, but He is also revealed in His Uniquely Begotten Son, who is the “exact imprint of His nature.”

It is a blessing to access the revelation of God, in His Word, as well as in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It good to know the truth and to not flounder in the darkness. On the other hand, His Word can also rock our world as we see in the next section of our Scripture for today. Verses 34-38 tell us:

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.

The Blessing of Challenge.

We saw last week that Zechariah and Elizabeth were challenged because they could not have children. This was a huge burden for them and a painful one also. 

Mary’s situation involved giving birth, but her situation was 180 degrees out of phase with Elizabeth’s. Mary could give birth, but she shouldn’t be giving birth. This could have been huge burden for her and a painful one also. 

Mary was a virgin, and she was betrothed to Joseph, but they had not been intimate. In fact, up to this point I doubt that they had ever been in a situation in which they had the opportunity to be intimate. Jewish girls of that day grew up in a very protected environment. Joseph would be certain of the fact that he was not the father, and everyone around would be certain of that fact also.

The message that Mary received rocked her world. She would be glad, even blessed to bear a child, but not yet! This was an unexpected, unwelcome, and an unexplainable situation. Her life going forward was going to be a challenge.

By their very nature, challenges are not easy, and they are not always welcome. Challenges, however, build our strength and our confidence, and they give us the opportunity to achieve more.

In the month that I became pastor of my first full-time church, our VBS director retired from that position. VBS was only two months away, and very few preparations had been made. A lady who had never before been the director of any event or group in the church felt the Lord calling to take on that task. She came to me admitting that she felt inadequate, but that she could not refuse God’s call. I promised her that I would help her and encourage her, and I did. 

The first year we were behind the power curve, and we spoke almost daily. The second year, she got an early start, and she didn’t need as much help or encouragement. The third year, we met at the beginning, and she told me what the plan was. Then she went on to execute the plan. She had been challenged, but God helped her to gain confidence and competence, and we conducted excellent schools. 

What Mary learned, and what we must learn is that blessings are not chosen, but they are presented to us by God. Not only that, but God will finish what He starts in our lives if we will present ourselves to Him.

Let’s continue by considering verse 38 again, which says, 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.

The Blessing of Faith.

It is easy to travel a known and well-travelled path. It is much harder to navigate around a new and unknown land.  It is easier to walk through a lighted room than a darkened room. In fact, that is what Isaiah said about the coming of Jesus in Isaiah 9:2-3:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

Sometimes, however, you have no choice but to travel unknown paths or in times of darkness. This was the case for Joshua and the Children of Israel when the fought the five kings of the Amorites in Joshua 10. The Gibeonites had tricked Joshua into making of covenant with them, and the five kings of the Amorites made war against them. The Gibeonites called for help, and this is what happened in Joshua 10:7-10:

So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.

In those days people did not travel at night but went home or found another secure place to sleep. Joshua and his fighters had no GPS, or night vision goggles, or even flashlights. All that that had was their faith and God and each other, and they acted on that faith. And they won.

Mary was stepping out in faith. She was risking ridicule, rejection, and worse because of this message from God. She was only the latest personality in the Scriptures to put her trust in God. Among these, the writer of Hebrews identified:

• Abel
• Abraham 
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Moses
• Rahab
• Gideon
• Barak
• Samson
• Jephthah
• David
• Samuel
• The Prophets

Rahab the harlot is an interesting case, because she was the opposite of Elizabeth and Mary in terms of her righteousness and her reputation, but she put her faith in the God of Israel, and that made all the difference in her life and the life of her family.

The blessing of faith does not come from exercising it, but in the fidelity and righteousness of the one in whom you are investing your trust. I have known of more than one case of a traffic accident caused by bad data in a car GPS system. People have lost their lives because they trusted a system that failed them.

God will never fail us. He is the only source of guidance and help that is perfect and infallible and in whom we can place our unalloyed trust in the same way that Mary did.

Finally, let’s read verses 39-45:

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.”

The Blessing of Confirmation.

Have you ever thought how many important documents are put into mailboxes without any confirmation that they actually arrived at their intended location? If a bill is paid by check, the sender isn’t notified when it arrives or doesn’t. The same is true for a business or utility that mails bills to their customers. They have no idea if the envelope went astray or not.  If taxpayers submit their tax returns by mail, they get no confirmation that the return was received by the IRS. Unless you get a tracking number or if you pay for a return receipt, a great deal of uncertainty exists if a letter actually arrives on time or at all.

In the same way, how do we know if a message to us from God was really from God or not? God often asks people to do things that are challenging and even difficult. How do we know if that was God speaking or some other, less benevolent or less reliable source? Fake news is a thing, as are the wiles of the Devil who can appear as an angel of light?

First, God confirms His call on our lives through the moving of the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:16 tells us, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Good parents will not lead their children astray, and God is the greatest parent of all.

Also, God confirms His call on our lives through the counsel and approval of others.  It might be an ordination counsel or a church nominating committee that confirms God call, or it might be a pastor or a parent or a trusted Christian friend. When Paul and Barnabas believed God was calling them out on the first missionary journey, the church at Antioch confirmed their call by the laying on of hands and sent them out. The kings of Israel were anointed by prophets.

Even Jesus presented Himself to John for baptism, and He was also affirmed by the voice of God from heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit like a dove.

Have you ever left home and wondered if you had left the stove on? Have you ever left home and wondered if you locked the door? How much more troubling if you left home for a ministry and began to wonder if God had called to go?

God will not let you wonder in doubt. He will never ask you to do something that violates Scripture or violates what the Scriptures reveal about His character and being. He will never call you without confirming it through the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the counsel of other God people.

We should beware of anyone who says that they are on a mission from God without other’s recognizing that mission.  Conversely, we should also beware of failing to answer God’s clear call upon our lives, because if we do, we will surely miss the blessing of serving Him!

Conclusion.

Our lives are infectious, and our manner of life affects others. 

A true saying is that hurt people hurt others. It also true that scared people scare others. This is the view from the negative side of life. On the other hand, blessed people bless others. Forgiven people forgive others. Discipled people disciple others. Restored people restore others. Joyous people enjoy others.

Christmas is a time when we celebrate and remember the blessings of God on our lives. Let’s enjoy those blessings and also determine to be a blessing to others asl well!

Thanks so much for visiting with me today! I'll be back soon with another word from the Bible that we can share together.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about a Vision of Joy

Today I want to share a word about a vision of joy as I comment on Luke 1:5-25. Let’s begin by reading verses 5-7:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

Last week, I shared how important vision is. Our vision of something shapes our expectations and the ways we attempt to achieve those expectations. In the poem “The Night Before Christmas,” visions of sugar plumbs danced in the head of the children nestled all snug in their beds, but what is our vision of Christmas?

In the 21st Century, if we don’t have an intentional vision of an issue, there are plenty of sources in our society who will provide one for us. Therefore, I think it is vital that we have a Biblical vision of the issues of life, and that includes Christmas. 

We also saw last week how God gave Jeremiah a vision of the restoration of Israel. Today, I hope we will see a vision of joy in the Christmas story.

The Joy of Righteousness.

In our society today, as with many societies in history, concepts like righteousness and diligence are seen and boring and irrelevant. How many social media videos are made on these subjects?

In truth, however, concepts like righteous and diligence are central to successful lives, successful families, and successful communities.  A great example of diligence is the mother or older sister who packed the lunch of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes that Jesus used to feed the five thousand. I will unpack that at another time, but it I found that idea to be very thought provoking.

More to the subject of our passage for today was when David and Saul were alone in a cave, and David decided not to kill Saul, even though David had been anointed to replace him. He cut off a piece of Saul’s robe instead, and yet he realized even that was a sin, and he repented of his actions.

Every school child has been corrected by a parent for some misbehavior, only to claim, “All of the other children are doing the same thing.” And how does that parent reply? “I don’t care what the other children are doing. I am your parent, and care about what you are doing!”

A former boss had a watchword: “Do what is right even when no one is looking!” Another would say, “There is no right way, to do the wrong thing.”

Pursuing righteous does not guarantee that we will never have problems. Joseph did nothing wrong, and yet he wound up in prison. So did Paul and Silas in Ephesus. In fact, let’s consider what Paul told the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:22-28:

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.  Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;  on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

The leadership of more than one church have tried to do the right thing by maintaining their property only for disaster to strike. For example, the Cathedral of Notre Dame caught fire during renovation work. The same thing happened at First Baptist Church, Columbus, GA during the 1990’s. Twenty-plus years of their pastor’s sermon manuscripts were lost among all of the other damages.

A wise Southern Baptist leader once counseled pastors to remember who their audience was as they exercised leadership. It was not the society in general, or the news media, but it was their congregation. We, too, need to remember who our audience is. God is our audience, and we find joy in pleasing Him. Olympian Eric Liddell said, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” We may not be fast, but we can pursue righteousness and feel God’s pleasure as we do.

Let’s continue by reading verses 8-10:

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

The Joy of Service.

Selfishness or self-centeredness is a common trait among humanity. The pastor that officiated at our wedding often said that “People try to get all that they can, put it in a can, put a lid on the can, and then sit on the lid.” 

Another commentator joked about Americans gather so much stuff that we fill up our garages and our expensive cars must sit outside in the weather.

A common problem American advisors had when working with the Afghan army during the Global War on Terror was that their supply officers didn’t want to issue equipment and supplies to the troops. That material represented power and influence only as long as it was in their warehouses or on the shelves of their supply rooms. Supporting the troops in the fight or being a servant of others did not give them the same cultural benefit as holding on to vital supplies and other materials. This is not the way it works in God’s economy.

Jesus taught God’s vision of servant leadership in Matthew 20:25-28, saying,

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We all have talents and spiritual gifts. We can hoard them for ourselves or we can follow the guidance of Peter, who taught this in 1st Peter 4:7-11:

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Some of the most blessed times of my life was when I was involved in service. As an example, when my disaster relief team responded in the aftermath of a storm. Or, even last week, I heard the testimony of a team of volunteers that travelled to another state to build a church. 

In Romans 12, Paul us that becoming a living sacrifice was a form of worship of God. For Zechariah his service literally was worship, but again, we must remember our audience. God sees service as a wonderful blessing to Himself and to humans as well. We need to capture that vision!

Let’s continue by reading verses 11-17:

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.  And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

The Joy of Prayer.

One mistake Christians make is to overlook the power of prayer.  A younger minister once came to me for advice. He had been counseling with a young lady who had intractable problems both at work and in her private life as well. He had tried to find practical solutions, but none were apparent. He had felt defeated, and then he said, “All I could do was prayer with her.”

At that statement, I rebuked him. I did so kindly, but firmly. I told him, “We must never discount the value of prayer. When you prayed, you took that young lady to the Throne of Grace and into the very presence of God. We can never do more for someone than to bring them into a relationship of any fashion with God.”

We should pray constantly and find joy in that relationship. Because Jesus is our High Priest, we can personally come before God with our wants and our needs, our troubles and our joys, our big deals and our insignificant issues.

• We can pray with joy because we know our Father hears us. 
• We can pray with joy because we know our Father wants to hear us.
• We can pray with joy because we know our Father not only hears us, but He pays attention to us.
• We can pray with joy because we know our Father acts upon what He hears.

One thing I miss is not being able to talk with my mom or dad. If I needed someone to advise me about life, I would call my mom. She was always a great encourager and counselor as well. If I needed to know how to do something, I would call my dad. He was a jack of all trades, and he always gave me great practical tips. YouTube just isn’t the same . . .  If I just needed to talk, I would call and talk to either of them (usually my mom because my dad was a man of few words, and he would give my mom the phone).

We need to pray constantly, but also confidently. If we are having a prayer meeting asking God for rain during a drought, we need to bring umbrellas! We need to remember our audience. What a joy it is to have some who listens to us and who acts for us. That is who God is. 

Let’s continue by reading verses 18-25:

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

The Joy of Grace and Mercy.

We should not underestimate the power of prayer and the importance of prayer, but we also, in this case, should not underestimate the pain being experienced by Elizabeth and Zechariah. We can observe that by the reaction of the both of them to this news.

Zechariah echoed Sarah when she and Abraham entertained the visitors who prophesied that she would have a child. Time comes for us all, and both Zechariah and Sarah understood the ravages of time.

Elizabeth reacted in a different way. She hid herself for 5 months. Why would someone do that? The Bible does not say, but I think that she just wanted to make sure that it was real. Maybe she was afraid of a miscarriage, we don’t know. What we do know is how she responded when she finally realized what God had done in her life. She was overwhelmed with gratefulness.

Zechariah and Elizabeth experienced God’s grace and His mercy. These are separate but related concepts. God’s grace opens the way for us to experience His mercy.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God. We must remember that God owes us nothing, for all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. Our righteousness is like filthy rags compared to the greatness of God. Even Zechariah and Elizabeth, as determined as they were to honor God, could not compare with the glory of God.

Blessedly for us, God is not only perfect and righteous, He is also loving and benevolent toward us. He loves His creation, and He loves people, His highest creation, more than anything else. Out of God’s love for us, He gives us the good things that we don’t deserve. 

• He offers us forgiveness of sin, and a relationship with Him through Jesus.
• He offers us an abundant life in the here and now as well as in the hereafter.
• He offers us mercy, so that we can find peace in a fallen and dying world.

If grace is the unmerited favor of God, mercy is the action of God to find peace in this world of sin and imperfection. Even when we don’t see a practical or physical solution to our situation, we can still experience God’s mercy. As Paul taught us in Romans 8:26-28,

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

We need to remember our audience. The truth is, it is precisely when we see no way out that God acts. If we could handle things ourselves, why would God need to do anything? God can handle everyday problems, but He is the only one who can handle God-sized problems!

Conclusion.

This Christmas we can experience the joy of our relationship with God.

We can experience the joy of righteous through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We can experience the joy of service through serving others but also by worshipping Jesus Christ in the special ways that we do during this season.

We can experience the joy of prayer by bringing to Jesus Christ all our joys and sorrows, and all our wants and needs and victories. Christmas is a time for family gatherings and Jesus is our Brother, the church is His bride, and God is our Father. God wants to hear from us this Christmas!

Finally, we can experience God’s grace and mercy because He loves us. Not just during Christmas, but all year around as well.

In our mind’s eye, how do we see Christmas? If we have a Biblical perspective, we can see it as a time of joy because of our relationship with God.

Thanks so much for visiting with me today! I'll be back soon with another word from the Bible that we can share together.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about a Vision of Restoration

Today I want to share a word about a vision of restoration as I comment on Jeremiah 33:1-9 and 14-16. Verses 1-9 read:

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard:  “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword: They are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first.  I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.

And, verses 14-16 say:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Vision is an essential element in life. As one commentator put it, “You have to see it before you see it, or you will never see it.” Some people can’t see the forest for the trees. Others cannot see the trees for the forest. Do you see a glass that is half full or a glass that is half empty? If you are logistician or a supply chain expert, you might think that your purchasing agent bought the wrong size of glass!

In the poem “The Night Before Christmas,” visions of sugar plumbs danced in the head of the children nestled all snug in their beds, but what is our vision of Christmas?

In the 21st Century, if we don’t have an intentional vision of an issue, there are plenty of sources in our society who will provide one for us. Therefore, I think it is vital that we have a Biblical vision of the issues of life, and that includes Christmas.

For the month of December, I want us to look for a Biblical Vision of Christmas, and we will begin today with a vision of restoration.

A Vision From God.

Jeremiah was the son of a priest, and he had been called by God to be a prophet to carry God’s message to Jerusalem. You might think that this was a natural fit. Jeremiah’s father would have known many people in leadership in Jerusalem, and they would have known Jeremiah as his son. In the culture of Judaism at this time, relationships were paramount.

In Covington County, AL, where I served for 12 years, everyone knows everyone else. Our office manager had lived his entire life in there, and he not only knew his generation (grandparents), but also their children, and the grandchildren as well. This would be the same for the leadership of the Jews in the day of Jeremiah.

In fact, this only made things harder for Jeremiah. He didn’t want to have to tell his friends and their families what God wanted them to hear, because they would take that as bad news, and Jeremiah would become an outcast.

Jeremiah knew this, and he tried to reject the role of prophet. God would not let him shirk his duty, however, and He made His message to be a fire in Jeremiah’s bones, and he could not help himself. He had to share God’s message, regardless of the consequences. That did not make the task any easier, which is one reason why Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet.”

In fact, Jeremiah was in captivity even as God gave Him another facet of a vision to share with the Jews. Despite this, Jeremiah was faithful to God and he obeyed God’s call upon his life as outlined in Jeremiah 1.  A prophet was required to: 

• Avoid giving in to fear.
• Stand to speak.
• Speak what God told him to say.
• Go where God told him to go.

Jeremiah did all these things, and so must we! 

A Vision Of The Condition of God’s People.

What made Jeremiah a weeping prophet was the spiritual condition of Israel. Israel had abandoned her God, and she had abandoned her mission as well. When God called Abraham, He promised he would make him a great nation. He also promised him that his nation would be blessed but that it would also be a blessing to the nations. Israel was always quick to remember that first part, but they were just as quick to forget the second part.

Being chosen does not mean being acceptable. Every year in the NFL draft, one player is chosen last. This player is called “Mr. Irrelevant,” because few of them ever play in an NFL game. Many are released before the new season of practices even begin. Being chosen in the NFL draft is an opportunity to show that you can play the game at the NFL level, not a guarantee that you will make the team. You still must perform to become a part of an NFL team and play on Sunday.

Israel took their relationship with God for granted, and they took God for granted. The result was that their usefulness to God to impact lostness in the world became so limited that He allowed them to be overcome and taken into captivity.

It is easy for us to criticize Israel, but we must also be careful. We must realize that while the church will not be overcome and taken into captivity, a church might. A family might. A person might. A word to the wise is sufficient, and the example of Isreal is a warning we must not ignore.

A Vision Of God’s Restoration.

I was taught that when you evaluate a person or an event or a ministry, you should end on a positive note. Sometimes this takes the form of reviewing lessons learned before emphasizing what went well. Other times it might be described as a sandwich with positive comments up front, followed by constructive criticism, and concluding with encouragement for the future. Regardless of how we make these evaluations, the idea of ending with a promise did not begin with us. It began with God, and we see that clearly in our passage for today.

God did not just proclaim judgment in this passage. He did clearly proclaim that Judah would suffer the consequences of her failure, but He did not focus on that. Instead, He emphasized His promise to the Jews of restoration.

What would be the result of this restoration?

• Health and healing.
• The abundance of true peace.
• The restoration of the fortunes of God’s people.
• Forgiveness of rebellion and iniquities.
• The privilege of bearing God’s Name.

How did God do this? Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us,

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,  not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The hope for Isreal and all peoples is when God places His righteous within them.

A Vision of God’s Righteousness.

In my church administration class in seminary, we discussed the various types of upgrades to church facilities. For example, repairs are simply restoring a machine to functionality by replacing parts. Replacing machinery is a like for like swap. Retrofitting is to replace a machine with a newer model. The most complete upgrade, however, is a restoration.

Restoration begins with demolition. It requires that the damaged, rotten, or corroded parts of a machine or a building be stripped away. The item being restored is taken back to its frame. This is a painful and painstaking process, but it must be done. Otherwise, the damaged, rotten, or corroded parts of the machine will ruin any new parts that are grafted on.

In disaster relief we have learned that many flooded buildings must be taken all the way back to the studs to eradicate mold. If the smallest bit of mold is left, it can grow, unseen until it infects the whole house. I served a church in England that had lost their building to a small, unseen leak in the roof that fostered a dry rot that over the years had grown around the circumference of the build and destroyed it structural integrity. The congregation didn’t even know it was happening. This is a great illustration of sin. It starts on the inside and the grows to the point it is apparent on the outside.

Our God is righteous. He is perfect, He is without spot and without flaw. There is no shadow of turning with Him and He cannot abide our human imperfection and sin. He looks into our hearts, our families, our churches, our communities, and our cultures, and He can see all of the rot that we cannot.

Blessedly for us, our God is not only righteous, but loving and benevolent. He was not willing for us to rust away, spiritually. He was willing to do what it takes to redeem us and to restore us, even to the point of sacrificing His only, uniquely, begotten Son. Restoration is painful, but as in cases, it is much more painful for the one doing the restoration than for those being restored.

Because of God’s righteousness, we can be saved, and we can be secure in our salvation.

Conclusion.

What is our vision of Christmas? Is it sugarplums? Is it surviving family gatherings? Is it receiving gifts? 

One Thanksgiving many years ago, when my wife and I lived in New Orleans, we had to take a trip to the Emergency Room. I apologized to a nurse for making him work over Thanksgiving, but he said, “That’s OK. I chose to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas so I could be off on Halloween and New Years. Halloween and New Years are the big party days, and I prefer to have them off for that reason.” 

Christmas, from a Biblical perspective was a vital step in God restoring humanity to fellowship with Him. Is that how we see it?