Acts 14:8-18

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

January 29th, 2012 

Today we’re looking at Acts 14:8-18. But this message could be based on any of a number of the historical events that Luke records in Acts, because throughout the book of Acts, we see all kinds of instances of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The Holy Spirit inspires people, gives them courage, touches lives, does the miraculous, and more…and it’s all through people who are faithful to God’s call on their lives. But all of them are ordinary people. No one has a big “S” painted across their chest. No one has a suit they put on that makes them fly or invincible to bullets and knives and so forth. They don’t have x-ray vision or super-human strength. These are ordinary people who put their pants on one leg at a time just like you and me. (You all do put your pants on one leg at a time, right?) So, let’s dive into this passage and see what God has in store for us today: 

In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been crippled from birth. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And the man sprang up and began to walk.

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice. When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, ‘Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.’ Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

So…pretty extraordinary stuff, right? A man who can’t walk stands up and walks. And if we aren’t familiar with the Bible, or don’t have an understanding of the power of God, we might think like the people who saw this: “Wow, these guys are amazing. We need to put them on a pedestal and worship them!” And that’s what the secular people around them started to do. They brought in offerings of oxen and garlands, they started to worship them as Zeus and Hermes, two of the plethora of Greek gods, and started to make sacrifices to them. And then Paul and Barnabas find out about this response (Luke points out that they cried out in their native language, that was foreign to them, as opposed to Greek which was the common language, so it took a bit of time until they found out what was going on), and they tell the folks, “Hey, look, we’re ordinary people. Don’t worship us! We’re just messengers with good news to share with you.” And then they point the people to the one living God, and begin with an aspect about him that they would be able to understand and resonate with: God is the God of creation and the giver of the rains and the crops and the food they eat, and the joy they have in life. 

But the crowds press on, and they never let Paul or Barnabas get to the best part of the Good News: Jesus Christ. You know, it’s not so different today, except that by and large, people are lifted up and exalted for different reasons than Paul and Barnabas experienced. Remember, they’re being exalted by people who weren’t receptive to the gospel message. These are secular people who are trying to worship them. That certainly doesn’t happen today. But our culture does turn people into objects of worship. Haven’t you ever seen someone with a shirt on, or maybe some graffiti on a wall somewhere that has a person’s name – Michael Jordan, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Carol Days/Tim Carr – followed by, “is god”? We parade movie stars, athletes, inventors, and other public figures for all to praise and glorify and practically worship. But all of those people are mere mortals like the rest of us. 

Well, that’s what happened to Paul and Barnabas as they Holy Spirit worked through them. But they tried to correct the people and point them to Jesus, even though they never got the chance to share the good news in its entirety. 

Now, the point here is not the response of the people. People’s responses can’t be controlled; all we can do is be available to be used by God. Paul and Barnabas were normal, everyday people through whom God did amazing things. They said to the crowds: We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news (Acts 14:15). The one who is doing the amazing work, the one who should be worshiped is the one true God. 

Wouldn’t it be awesome, though, if the response of the people around us was like that of the people around Paul and Barnabas? Not because people should worship any of us. Rather, I say that because I want you and me, ordinary people, to have the opportunities to do amazing things for God, to have God work through us in amazing ways, and then to have the opportunity to point people to Jesus. And I’m not the only one who wants that: God does! That’s what happened to Paul and Barnabas, they got the people’s attention! They had a captive audience. They were lights shining in the darkness, ready to proclaim the Good News. And they were just ordinary people like you and me. 

Fortunately, people make themselves available to God all the time throughout the church worldwide, and right here at WPC. I’ve been thinking some this week about the extraordinary ways God has worked through people here at WPC. There are many. Too many to share them all. So I’m sorry if in sharing a couple I don’t share yours. But two I want to mention. 

Illustration: Micheline Bickford’s property ravaged by snow and wind, and 13 people from WPC went and cleaned up. Those are ordinary people moved by God to do something extraordinary. 

Here’s another: my son, Blakely, came to me after church last week and said, “Dad, you need to preach longer.” I thought, “Wow, that’s extraordinary…it’s pretty neat that he likes his dad’s preaching.” Then I remembered that he’s not in the services for the sermon. I figured there’s something else going on here. “Why should I preach longer?” I asked. “Because Mrs. Tibbits doesn’t have time to get through our Bible lesson in children’s church.” Any request for children’s church or Sunday School to last longer is an extraordinary work of God through ordinary people. And I know that the other children’s church classes and teachers are just as loved and appreciated by the children in them. On more than one occasion, we’ve all seen kids practically run out of the sanctuary to get to their classes. That is really cool, and a demonstration of God’s spirit working through those people so that lives are touched and changed and drawn close to God. 

Like I said, there are countless other ways I’ve seen God work through ordinary people in extraordinary ways here at WPC. My hope and prayer is that if you haven’t had the opportunity for God to do something extraordinary through you ever or in a long time, that you will experience that soon. There are many opportunities to experience the extraordinary power of our extraordinary God.

The first of those is to know the extraordinary forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s where it all begins. Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and raised to life so that we might have peace with God and the assurance of eternity with Him. It all starts with coming to the cross, and saying, “Lord, I’ve messed up. I’ve sinned against people and I’ve sinned against you. Take my sins and nail them to the cross, and forgive me. I want to experience freedom and redemption through faith in Jesus Christ, and I put my trust in Him.” That’s where it all begins. That’s the message that was taken out by John, Paul, Geroge, and Ringo…I mean, that’s the message that was carried out by John, Paul, Peter, Barnabas and the rest of the disciples. That’s the message that Jesus preached, right? I mean, how many parables does Jesus tell that have to do with repentance and confession of sins? How many times does he teach on repentance and believing in Him? It’s countless! So the first extraordinary way in which God works in us is found at the foot of the cross, in relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Then the response is, “Now what, God? What can I do? What can I say? What can I offer to you and for your service?” That’s where the rubber meets the road in our trust of God: when God calls us to do something with our faith. And if God is really, truly calling us to step out in faith for Him, there’s only one possible response: “Yes.” And it’s quickly followed by a prayer asking that by the power of the Holy Spirit God would give us everything we need to do what He’s asking us to do. So often, though, we have reasons to say “no” to God. We pass up the opportunity to minister to someone, to lend a hand, to speak an encouraging word, to pray with/for someone. And in doing that, we’re saying “no” to God’s leading. 

Have you ever tried to do that with God? Probably we all have. I know I have, more often than I’d like to admit. We aren’t the inventors of that response, though. For instance, Moses tried to do that. In Exodus 3, God called him to lead the people out of Egypt, and his initial response was, “But God I have this shortcoming…” “But God, I can’t do this…” “But God, I don’t have this ability…” I spoke on that passage to a youth group a number of years ago, and I titled the message, “Moses and His Three ‘buts.’” And it’s so easy for us to do the same: “But it might embarrass me…” “But I don’t know what I would say…” “But I don’t know what I’d do…” “But I don’t know what to pray…” And on it goes. BUT, God’s response is that He will be with Moses, and that God will provide for him everything He needs to do the job…and He’s still with people who follow His will! And the point is not our limitations…or even our abilities. The point is that God will give us all that we need to accomplish what he calls us to do. And that’s all that matters. So no “buts” to God’s call on our lives. Like Paul and Barnabas, we say, “Yes” when he calls us and then let God work through us. 

Let me share one last true story, and then we’ll finish up. One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something protruding from the bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. “If I can just hang on until help comes,” he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew: Ray Blankenship can’t swim.¹  

There is an ordinary guy doing something extraordinary. And God gave him what he needed to do the job. It’s the same for us: When we trust that God will provide us everything that we need to do what He’s put before us to do, then amazing things will happen. It starts with his extraordinary forgiveness, and it goes on from there as we trust in Him. That’s what happened to Paul and Barnabas and a number of others that Luke records for us in Acts. It’s happened to Christians around the world ever since. And God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and me, too. Let’s make ourselves available to him: no “ifs,” “ands,” or…well, you get the point. Let’s pray…Amen.

 1^ Paul Harvey, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, at sermonillustrations.com.

Saturday, February 11th at 5:30 p.m.

Plan to double-date for dinner out or to see a movie with a couple you know that doesn’t attend WPC or take a neighbor or church couple. Child care will be provided by the church. Registration with the number of children attending is required (1-2 $5 and 3 or more $10).

Wednesday, February 22, at 6:30 PM

This service will be reflective, candle lit and includes mediation and the imposition of ashes.

Acts 11:1-18

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

January 22nd, 2012

In August I laid out the sermon series for the whole year. I had given today’s message a tentative title of “Unexpected.” Who knew that after the dry winter we’ve had so far – December was a record dry month, at least through Christmas – who knew that during the week leading up to a message on the way God works in unexpected ways, that we’d have 12-18 inches of snow on the ground!?! This has been an unexpected week! So, I decided it was an appropriate, and providential title for the sermon. Really, the fact is, an awful lot of life is unexpected. Some unexpected things are good, others are not. For instance, on more than one occasion, I have been holding one of my kids, especially when they’re under the age of two or so, and unexpectedly had them throw up all over me. The joys of parenting, right? And on Wednesday morning Gwen and I were outside with our kids. She and I put on our snowshoes, and I had Elliott in a kid back-pack thing, and we were tromping through the 17” of snow we had at our house, and I walked right into the drainage ditch between our yard and the street. It was completely unexpected, even though I was right at home! It was so filled in with snow I couldn’t see it and I forgot it was there. Between the unexpected step down, and the weight of Elliott on my back, I fell down to my knees like a toddler learning to walk – fortunately, keeping Elliott upright and not dumping him into the snow! So unexpected things happen – both good and not so good.

And today, as we continue our series going through the New Testament in a year, which we started in September, we’re looking at this idea of the unexpected, and how God works in unexpected ways. So I invite you to grab your Bibles, or a blue pew Bible, and turn to Acts 11:1-18. We’ll read the whole thing in one fell swoop this morning. And as we read it, count up all the things that might have been unexpected to the people in this passage.

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.” And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’

(How many unexpected things did you count?) I count at least 7 things in there that are unexpected for the various people in the passage. And every single one of them is an unexpected move of God. The Gentiles receive the word of God; Peter had a vision from God; The vision declares that all food is clean to eat; A voice in the vision reiterates that message when Peter resists; Three men, following God’s leading, unexpectedly show up at the door of the house where he’s staying; He senses the Spirit of God telling him not to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles; and the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles the in much the same way that it did on the Disciples in Acts 2. Clearly, God moves in unexpected ways, and we see several of them here. It happens often enough, that you’d think we would begin to expect God to move like this, but so often we are caught off-guard.

In fact: This is common throughout Scripture, and in our lives, too. For instance, a couple chapters before this we read of Saul, who persecuted the church. But he had a radical encounter with Jesus and Saul was transformed into a follower of Jesus. He later changed his name to Paul, and he went on to start churches and many of his letters to those churches comprise much of the New Testament. That was unexpected.

We can back up a little further and find God moving in other unexpected ways. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s unexpected. Jesus healed people with some amazing miracles. Unexpected. Jesus taught with uncanny wisdom. Unexpected from a carpenter. Jesus died on the cross. Unexpected by everyone except Jesus himself. Jesus rose from the grave. That’s pretty unexpected. We can go back further, too: Israel’s escape from Egypt; Manna from heaven, water from a rock; the young shepherd boy David being chosen as the king in waiting; Nehemiah leading the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall…there are many other examples of the unexpected ways in which God has moved and led His people.

And probably the key point in all of this is that these are acts of God. Or, as we see in this morning’s passage, they’re things declared by God. This unexpected new direction we read about this morning is not because of the whims of a group of people, or a bright idea that Peter had and he decided to push it upon his fellow Christian brothers and sisters. Peter was just as shocked as anyone. In fact, his initial response to the meaning of the vision, which was the catalyst for everything else, was, “No!” But God was persistent, and got through to him. Two of the unexpected things in this passage particularly had long-term ramifications: The meaning of the vision, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles.

The background behind the vision is that there were food purity laws that any devout first century Jew followed, to the point of not sitting at a meal where non-kosher foods were served – which basically meant, no meal sharing with Gentiles. These food laws were initially given by God to protect the Israelites and keep them pure from neighboring nations; it was a way of keeping them “set apart for the Lord.” Now, we’re still called to be “set apart” in our relationship with people and with God. We’re still called to holiness, and there are still boundaries, which when crossed, are sins against the Lord. So we’re set apart…but for the purpose of being a light to the world, to be God’s hands and feet in the world. We are sent by Jesus, just as he sent the Disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so this vision from God to Peter is the catalyst for that to happen, because it removed one of the biggest barriers to ministering to other people. And before Peter had much time to think about the message in this vision, God sent confirmation in the form of the guys knocking at his door, asking him to come stay at a Gentile guy’s house for a few days…where there would undoubtedly be food served that crossed the lines of food purity.

For Peter, it was clearly God speaking into his life, declaring that these foods are clean: Because they were a barrier to reaching people with the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. They, and now we, are called to share the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus with anyone. God’s gift of forgiveness and grace isn’t for a select few; it’s for the world, even if the whole world doesn’t always receive the gift. So then comes the second of the particularly impactful unexpected things, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these people. And it was then that Peter saw the unexpected wideness of God’s grace. He didn’t see that coming. The Jewish, Old Testament lenses through which they viewed Jesus prevented them from seeing the breadth of God’s grace, and it was unexpected. Maybe it is unexpected for us, too?

Maybe God is moving in an unexpected way in your life. Actually, I’m sure that He is. He does this with us all the time. Lloyd John Ogilvie, a Presbyterian Pastor and former Chaplain for the U.S. Senate, says in regards to this passage, “It gives us the assurance that the Lord will move us on in our growth, and that the one place He will never let us stay is where we are” (Lloyd John Ogilvie). God will always move us in unexpected ways – deeper understanding of the Bible, greater sensitivity to God’s Spirit, confession of sin, and so forth.

But my guess is that God is also opening doors for us to reach out to people with the love of God in Christ, perhaps to help someone in need and ultimately to share the Good News with them so that they would follow Jesus as well. And like Peter, perhaps those people are hard for us to reach: A family member you don’t get along with. A neighbor whose dogs bark at night and really annoy you. The waitress with piercings all over her ears and nose and tattoos up and down her arms. Every day we come in contact with people who are far from God, and they live right here in our community. Are we prepared to minister to them and mentor them in a relationship with Jesus, or would we let certain barriers get in the way?

This has been a huge area of growth for me in the last several years. As head pastor of a downtown church in a prominent location with a reputation for helping people in need through gas vouchers and snack packs, we get a lot of people walking in off the street looking for assistance. As a result I’ve had a lot of opportunities to pray with people, to counsel people, and to minister to people, who are nothing like me. I mean radically different in every way imaginable: drug users, homeless people, alcoholics, mentally unstable people (well, maybe I’m a little bit that), people who’ve probably been abused, neglected, and are downtrodden…just a lot of really colorful people, and a lot of people who are a lot different than me. Some of them even hair. But here’s the thing that I’ve come to realize in a more profound way than I ever had before: They’re just as worthy of the love of God and being ministered to as anyone else. And so I do my best to minister to them. In fact, all of us on staff do. Especially those of us in the office: Melodee, Robin and Kent…they all do a great job of ministering to whoever comes through the door, even the unexpected ones, much like happened to Peter here in Acts.

But here’s the thing I’ve come to realize that I think Peter finally realized, too, and it is this: I’m really not so different from them. Their struggles and their sins might be ones I’m not so familiar with, their family backgrounds may be a lot less stable, their education level may be different…but I am every bit the sinner that anyone else is. That’s true of all of us. In fact, let’s all just take a moment to say that sentence together: I am every bit the sinner that anyone else is. And so maybe what’s really unexpected, is that God’s grace is extended to me, and to you. And that grace is a license to receive forgiveness. It’s the opportunity to confess, seek God’s transformational power, to let the Holy Spirit lead us into a new and holy way of living. And that gift is available to all.

One final thought as we wrap this up: if I’m honest with myself, and maybe it’s the same for you, it certainly was for Peter and the others who questioned him about eating with Cornelius… deep down inside, somewhere where I don’t even like to admit it exists…I have this basic assumption that I deserve God’s grace, and others don’t. That’s an ugly thing that is buried somewhere deep inside of me, and probably a lot of us have. And in this thinking that I deserve God’s grace and others don’t is one truth and one lie. The truth is that other people aren’t worthy of God’s grace. The lie is that I am deserving of God’s grace. Rather, I’m on the same playing field as anyone else. All of us are. That’s the unexpected realization Peter and his fellow believers had then when the Spirit of God touched Cornelius and the others in the same way that it had Peter and his Jewish buddies. And it’s the realization we can have now. And so maybe the most unexpected thing in all of this, is not that God’s grace is extended to people who are radically different than you or me, but that: God’s grace is extended to you and me. God loves you so much, that he sent his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s the gift for the world, which includes you and me. It’s unexpected, but that’s how God works. Let’s pray…Amen.

Acts 4:1-22

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

January 15th, 2012

Oftentimes in life, we have decisions to make, or things to stand up for, that require us to be bold. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of those people. He lived a very bold life. Unfortunately, however, we are often lacking in boldness, and we give in to the opposition. That’s why many New Year’s resolutions don’t last: they require some sense of boldness – a new direction, a new schedule, new habits, and so forth – but we opposing forces mount up, and we ultimately give in to them, rather than boldly sticking with what we supposedly resolved to do. How many of you made New Year’s Resolutions? I did too: I resolved to make New Year’s resolutions next year.  Actually, I did set a few goals for this year, and they’ll take a certain degree of boldness to achieve them. And it’s probably the same for you.

Well this morning we’re looking at a passage where we’re going to see boldness expressed in five different ways. And in this I hope we will all be inspired to live boldly as well. So, we’re in Acts 4, starting with verse 1. You need to know that just prior to this, there was a man who couldn’t walk, and who always sat at one of the gates to the temple, begging, and who asked Peter and John for some money as they walked by. Peter’s response to him was, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And he did. Word of the healing spread quickly, and was witnessed by all kinds of people as they were heading into the temple. The guy praised God. People were astounded. And Peter addressed all the on-lookers, giving all the credit and glory to Jesus. That gets us to today’s reading:

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand (Acts 4:1-4).

The first aspect of Boldness that we see here is the boldness of the Resurrection – both Jesus’ and the resurrection of those who believe in Him. Peter and the Disciples were witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. And that resurrection was a bold move. It was a move conquer death. The motives and the subsequent boldness of the disciples are completely because of the resurrection.

Someone recently told me about a Presbyterian church that they attended for a while in another state. She said that she stopped attending there because they didn’t believe in the resurrection. I was a little surprised, quite frankly, but the person who shared this with me is pretty astute and observant and all that, and I trust her on it. And I thought, “Wow. If they don’t believe in the resurrection, what do they have to offer? There’s no power in the preaching or the teaching, there’s no eternal life to offer…That must be a church that’s really struggling.” So I went to our denomination’s website and looked up the statistics on the church, and saw pretty much what I expected to see: Consistent and drastic loss of members and Sunday morning worshipers over the last 6 or 7 years. In fact, it was a loss of almost one half of their Sunday worship attendance. You see, there’s boldness in the resurrection, and that’s what motivates us in our faith, just as it did for the disciples here. Without it, we have nothing to offer. Let’s continue on…

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel:” (Acts 4:5-8).

Here we see the boldness of the Holy Spirit. Peter is standing before a whole crew of people. These are the very people who participated in sentencing Jesus to the cross. They thought they were rid of him and the problem he had become – or at least the problem that Jesus was perceived to be. In the first few verses, we’re told that they’re “annoyed” by their teaching and proclamation of the resurrection. These are not people that are dancing in the aisles to hear that people are still carrying on in Jesus’ name and proclaiming a resurrection. It’s like when you thought you’d finally gotten all the Barney videos out of the house, and then it turns out there’s one last one left in the DVD player that you missed, and your kids get a hold of it. And you’re annoyed as your kids watch it. And it makes you want to rip the dvd player off the shelf and throw it out to the garbage. That’s the kind of “annoying” this is. And these guys have a lot of power. And they put Peter in front of them and they want an explanation for what’s going on. So you can imagine the intensity of this, and what Peter would be feeling. But Luke tells us that Peter was then filled with the Holy Spirit to say to them what he said. And as we’ll see in a moment, in spite of the possibility of losing his life, he doesn’t back down. That boldness comes from the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit that gave him the courage to say what he said, to give him the right words, to speak them with power and authority and courage and conviction. The boldness of the Spirit is evident in Peter in this moment. Let’s keep going and you’ll see even more what I mean:

[Peter said to them;]‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is
“the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
it has become the cornerstone.”
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:8b-12).

See what I mean? The Spirit gives Peter boldness. But we also see here the third facet of boldness in this passage: the boldness of the name of Jesus Christ. We don’t think about this so much in our day, but certainly they did in theirs, that: A person’s name was really a reflection of the person’s character. Names meant something. For example, in the Old Testament, there are several names that God is given: El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty); Adonai (Lord or Master); Jehovah Rapha (The Lord that heals); Jehovah Nissi (The Lord my Banner); Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You); Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Who Will Provide), and others. All of those names tell us of the character of God.

This prompted me to take a look at the meaning of Gwen’s name, and my name. Gwen means, “Amazingly talented, intelligent and beautiful.” Isn’t that cool? Brian means, “Luckiest guy in the world.”  Totally fits. Ok, so they don’t mean those things.¹ But “Jesus” means, “Yahweh saves.” When Mary is told of her pregnancy, she’s also told what to name the baby, and when told “Jesus” the angel says it’s because he will save people from their sins (Matthew1:21). There is boldness in the name of Jesus. It’s a boldness that challenges the grip of sin and releases us from its grip so that we can live rightly and eternally with our holy Heavenly Father.

By the way, that church I mentioned earlier, I took a look at their website to find out a little more about them. And I could not find the name of Jesus anywhere on the website except for a brief mention in one place, and it was more of a historical reference than a statement of faith. Even in their statement of beliefs and their core convictions, the name of Jesus was not mentioned. Contrast that with Peter’s speech. He’s not ashamed of the name of Jesus. There is boldness in that name, because, as Peter says, it’s the only name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. Let’s continue on…

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition (Acts 4:13-14).

Here we see boldness in the transformation of a person’s life. And that transformation comes from spending time with Jesus. They noted that Peter and John were “companions” of Jesus. In other words, they were with Jesus. They spent time with him. They learned from him. They modeled their lives after him. Jesus influenced them and shaped them, and ultimately: transformed them. A life that has been transformed by Jesus is a bold life.

All of us have been transformed on some level. Some people have really radical transformations. Maybe you’ve heard people tell the story of how Jesus transformed them. They used to be addicted to heroin or alcohol and Jesus got a hold of them and they left it all behind. Those are amazing transformations that inspire us. I’ve heard people who don’t have such a radical story to tell say, “Man, what an amazing story. I wish my faith story were like that. I want Jesus to save me from that stuff. I wish I was addicted to drugs.” Really? No you don’t. Just ask anyone who ever was addicted to drugs or alcohol or lived a life of crime or anything else like that, they’ll tell you: You don’t want to be saved from the midst of that kind of lifestyle. Be glad that Jesus saved you from ever getting into that stuff in the first place. So all of us who have proclaim the name of Jesus have been transformed. And there’s boldness there when we live out that transformation. Ok, let’s get to the last chunk of verses:

So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. They said, ‘What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.’ So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.’ After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old (Acts 4:15-22). (You know, I just turned 39, and I really don’t appreciate that last verse. I’m sure many of you appreciate it even less!)

Here we see the boldness of the opposition. Wherever the resurrection is proclaimed, wherever the spirit fills people, wherever the Name of Jesus is lifted high, wherever people live transformed lives, there will be opposition. And we see here that opposition has the boldness, and audacity, and arrogance to tell them to shut up about Jesus. If you are living boldly for Jesus Christ as Peter and John did, as Martin Luther King, Jr., did, and countless others have…you’re going to face bold opposition. It’s inevitable. And what that opposition wants you to do is to keep quiet; to live in timidity; To give up on those resolutions and goals that God has put on your heart so that further transformation won’t take place; the bold opposition wants to keep the Holy Spirit in check, to make us ashamed of the gospel, to make us uncertain of God’s grace and truth, to doubt our salvation, to forsake the new and revert back to the old. That’s what the opposition wants.

So we see here that when we live in the boldness of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit, and we proclaim the boldness of the name of Jesus, and we live out the bold transformation that God has done in us, when all that happens: then even the bold opposition cannot win the day. As bold as the opposition was that put Jesus up on the cross and in the tomb, it couldn’t hold him down, and because of that opposition, something even more glorious came forth in the resurrection. That’s the boldness that you and I have access to in our lives and that God wants to plant in you and me. That’s the kind of resurrection life that you and I can live beginning today. So in this coming year let’s live boldly for those resolutions and goals in our personal lives; let’s live boldly for our goals as a church, and that through all of that let’s live with boldness for Jesus Christ so that his name is lifted high and proclaimed loudly through you and me here in Chehalis and wherever we go. Let’s pray…Amen.

Acts 1:1-9

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

January 8th, 2012  

Today we’re continuing in our year-long series going through the New Testament. We’ve gone through all four Gospels, and now we come to part two of the series, the Book of Acts, which is all about the spread of the gospel and the birth of the Church. The full title of the Book of Acts is “The Acts of the Apostles.” But it might be more appropriate to call it “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Because what we see, right from the start, is that Acts is all about God continuing His activity in the world, only now, it’s not directly through Jesus Christ, but through his Spirit-filled disciples in the Church.

So, I invite you to open your Bibles to Acts 1, where we will read the first 9 verses this morning. This is God’s Word to you and me today…

In the first book, Theophilus, (Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke to his friend Theophilus, also wrote Acts) I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

There is one question that often comes up about the giving of the Holy Spirit, and I want to take a moment to address this before getting to the main message. In John’s gospel (20:22), Jesus tells the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, and then breathes on them in what appears to be an act of giving the Spirit. Then, in Acts Jesus tells them to wait for the coming of the Spirit (we just read that), and then the Spirit comes upon the disciples in chapter 2. There appears to be a contradiction in regards to when Jesus gives the Holy Spirit, and so this is something that many Christians have wondered about for some time: When did the Holy Spirit come? Maybe you’ve wondered about it. Let me make two comments. 

First, we need to realize that: The Holy Spirit did not originate with either of these events. The Holy Spirit, oftentimes called the Spirit of God, has been around since before Jesus, and is mentioned throughout the Bible from the Old Testament and right on through the New Testament. In fact, the second verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:2, which describes the start of the creation of the universe, says, “And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” So the Spirit is not new with the Gospels or Acts, much as gravity existed before Sir Isaac Newton. 

Second: The event in John seems to be more of a symbolic act rather than the actual giving of the Spirit. This is based on two things. First, After Jesus breathes on them in John 20, the disciples don’t live with any sense of power or conviction in their faith. They’re timid and scared, and they huddle up in a home (20:19, 26). Quite frankly, they don’t act as if they have the Spirit. Compare that to what happens in Acts after the Spirit clearly comes upon them and then God moves in amazing ways through them because of the courage and power infused in them by the Spirit. Second, Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples that the Spirit will come after he returns to his Heavenly Father, not while he’s still with them. So I believe that the Holy Spirit was not actually given to them in John, but instead with the day of Pentecost that’s recorded in Acts 2. (For a really good article on this, go to: http://knol.google.com/k/mis-givings-of-the-holy-spirit#. 

Now, we see here in Acts 1 that Jesus returns to be with his Heavenly Father, with some similarities to the cloud that enveloped Jesus, Peter, James and John in the famous transfiguration event. But here, before Jesus says, “Beam me up” he gives some final instructions to the disciples. These are important for them in their time, and they’re important for us in our time.

The first of the instructions is that: The timing of God’s activity in our lives and in the world is not for us to know in advance. The disciples once again display their desire for Jesus to act on their schedule. They ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?” They’re anxious. They can’t wait for Jesus to call in the cavalry and lead the charge to restore Israel to prominence with an earthly kingdom. And they want that to happen now. 

So often, we want things right now. We want a new job, and we want it now; We want the economy fixed…right now; we want peace…right now. I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed, “Dear God, please give me patience…and give it to me now.” Any of you prayed that? Children are often this way. They want things “right now.” Now, Jesus said that we should receive the kingdom of God like a little child (Mark 10:15). But there’s a difference between receiving something like a child – with wonder, excitement, amazement, enthusiasm, and so forth – there’s a difference between that and being childish. One is good, and one is not. So we’re to be child-like, but at the same time, we’re called to grow in maturity in our faith. And one sign of maturity is trusting God and His timing. But often, God’s timing of things is not what our timing is. There’s a bigger picture that we don’t see. There are things happening that we’re not aware of. We can’t see how letting go of our timing of things will bring great blessing to others, and ultimately to ourselves, too. But God sees all that, and so it’s a matter of trust. 

So the disciples illustrate this for us well, and Jesus gives them the response that we all need to hear: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “The kingdom isn’t coming.” It is. And even if they misunderstand what the kingdom is to be – heavenly, not earthly, and spiritual, not material – that’s just their misunderstanding of Jesus because of preconceived notions about the Messiah. But what he hasn’t told them, and what they cannot be privy to, is when that kingdom is to come to fruition. It’s in God’s time, not ours. And ultimately, God’s timing is always right. 

Now, here’s the thing: Waiting on God’s timing does not mean that there is nothing for the disciples to do. We don’t wait passively for the kingdom to come; rather it’s an active waiting, participating with God in bringing the kingdom to fruition. This is the second point Jesus makes here. So, while the timing of when the kingdom will fully come is not for followers of Jesus to know, we actively participate with God in bringing it about. The first thing that Jesus says will happen is that the Holy Spirit will come upon them, and when that happens they will receive power. The word for power is “dunamis” and we get our word, “Dynamite” from it. “Dunamis” is used in Scripture to mean a variety of different kinds of power: power for performing miracles, moral power, power in numbers, and more. Perhaps what best describes it here is “inherent power,” or “power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.”¹ The Holy Spirit gives Christians inherent power, it’s power by the very nature of the Spirit. 

The question is: What’s the power for? Jesus answers that when he continues on: “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The power of the Holy Spirit is the power to live as Jesus’ witnesses. Any good lawyer can tell you that a good witness is a person who says, “This is what I know to be true.” A bad witness is a person who says, “Well, I think this is true;” or “I heard this is true.” 

The story is told of Paul Smith, a man who grew up in a poor home, but died owning a million dollars’ worth of forest land. He was talking about property disputes with an old friend. Paul said to his friend, “Did you hear of the lawsuit over a title that I had with Mr. Jones last summer?” The friend had not heard. “Well,” said Paul, “Here’s what happened. I sat in the court room before the trial opened with my witnesses around me. Mr. Jones walked in, stopped, looked my witnesses over carefully, and said: ‘Paul, are those your witnesses?’ ‘They are,’ I said. ‘Then you win,’ he said. ‘I’ve had those witnesses twice myself.’” Mr. Jones knew they were good witnesses.

And a good witness to Jesus…a person who can witness with real power…is a person who’s full of the Holy Spirit and can say, “I know Jesus is true.” It’s the Spirit that gives power to do that; It’s the Spirit that gives the power to live life as God intended it; It’s the Spirit that gives the power to live life transformed, so that the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17), to live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23). That’s a life that says “I know this to be true, because I once was lost and now I’m found (Luke 15)…I know this to be true because I was blind but now I see (John 9:25)…I know this to be true because I was once dead in my transgressions but now I’m alive in Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-5; Colossians 2:13). And the Holy Spirit empowers us to do that, to witness to the saving, transformational grace of Jesus Christ. So, we don’t know the time, but we wait…and we wait actively, working with God to bring about His kingdom as the Holy Spirit gives us power to bear witness to Jesus Christ. 

Lastly, Jesus goes on to say where his disciples are to do this witnessing, and if we were to translate what he says into our culture and our place today, we would say that: We are called to be his witnesses in Chehalis, Lewis County, the United States, and to the ends of the earth. That’s roughly the equivalent of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. It literally begins in our homes, as well as our neighborhoods, places of work, the coffee shops and restaurants where we hang out and elsewhere. Probably for most of us, 99% of our opportunities to witness to Jesus are going to take place in Chehalis, or wherever we live. The Good News, however, is that in other parts of Lewis County, in other parts of the U.S., and in other parts of the world, all the other Christians are doing the same thing: bearing witness in their “Jerusalem.” That’s not to say we shouldn’t look for opportunities to bear witness elsewhere, or go on mission trips and so forth. Those are fruit-bearing ministries that can encourage everyone involved in them (the people “on the ground” there doing ministry, the people receiving that ministry, and the people who go on those mission trips), and help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. But it’s important that we realize that witnessing to Jesus begins right where we are. We don’t have to go anywhere to bear witness to Jesus Christ. It’s not something that “other people” do “out there.” Chehalis, Centralia, Adna, Napavine, Mossyrock, wherever your home is, wherever you spend most of your time: This is where God has placed you and placed me. And we’re called to be his witnesses here, and wherever we go. 

In fact, you may have heard this line before, that “God hasn’t retained many of us as lawyers, but He has subpoenaed all of us as witnesses.”² Are you living as a witness to Jesus Christ? Would our friends and co-workers be surprised to hear that any of us are followers of Jesus? Like one guy, after someone else had talked to him about faith in God, he said to his Christian co-worker, “Well, I never knew before that you were a Christian, even though we’ve been on the job together here for two years. When that other guy talked with me about my soul, I told him if so clean a chap as you could get along without religion I believed I could do the same.” The Christian co-worker realized he hadn’t been a good witness. 

You and I can be better witnesses to Jesus Christ than that, starting right here, and right now. Jesus is telling us, as he told his Disciples then, to be His witnesses and testify to His forgiveness, grace, justice, and truth. We do it by letting the Holy Spirit fill us up so that we witness to Jesus Christ with power, as we live and say, “I know this to be true.” Let’s do that starting right now, today, and right here, in Chehalis, and wherever we may go. Let’s Pray…Amen.

John 15:1-12

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Ralph Carr, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

January 1, 2012

John 12:35-36

Matthew 5:14-16

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

December 25th, 2011

Depending on which service you came to last night, somewhere between about 10 and 14 hours ago you were here listening to John 1:1-14, listening to a message about the Light of the World, then we lit the Christ candle on the Advent wreath, then we held candles to symbolize the light of Christ that shines brightly in and through us to the world. And then this morning, we’ve heard a number of passages from various Old and New Testament books that help us to see that from the very dawn of creation right up until this moment, God and light go together. Jesus is the light of the world, but he didn’t begin shining on that first Christmas 2,000 years ago. His light has been shining since the beginning of time and still does today. With that in mind, I want to read one more passage that continues this theme, and urges his followers to walk in the light.

Listen to God’s Word to you and me today, John 12:35-36: “Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’”

Now, considering that God’s light has been shining in Creation since the beginning of time, we shouldn’t read Jesus’ statement about the light being with them only a little longer as a kind of permanent power outage, as though the light of Christ stopped shining a few days later with his death, and has never shone again since. It was simply his way of saying that he wouldn’t be physically with them much longer. Clearly, based on the passages we’ve heard this morning, the light of Christ shone before Jesus came into the world at the first Christmas, and has continued to shine even up until now. And yet, His statement reminds us that we only have so long to walk in the light here on earth. The urgency in His message to the crowd around him right then was because of His impending death; he wasn’t going to physically be with them much longer. But that urgency is still there for us, too, though because of a different death: ours. There’s a limited time that we have to walk in the light of Christ, and to shine the light of Christ in this world like lamps on a lamp stand. And there is a limited time for people to let the light shine into their lives, to trust in the light, as Jesus puts it here in verse 36. That’s the urgency.

And so, now that we are here at Christmas Day, after a month of Advent and of waiting, watching, preparing, and praising, it makes me wonder, “Now what?” What have we been waiting for? What are we watching for? What are we preparing for? Why are we praising? If the answer to those questions is to eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy the gifts…then that seems to fall a little short. I mean, how many of the gifts you got last year can you even remember? How many are you still using? As I wrote those two questions, I reflected on what I got for Christmas in 2010. And I could not remember a single thing. Either I have a really bad memory, or I got some really bad gifts! And I’m not sure which answer I want to admit is the right one – I don’t like either of them. But it helps me remember something I know, and probably all of us here this morning know: Christmas is about the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, coming into our midst, and we have a limited time in which to shine the light as brightly as we can.

It’s not that we shouldn’t give gifts…it’s not that gifts aren’t important…they are certainly an expression of love and gratitude, which is needed in our relationships. I probably felt loved last Christmas when I opened my gifts. But like the gifts, I really can’t remember. Maybe I felt loved, maybe I didn’t!  But feeling loved is important, and gifts can do that. So I hope each of us goes home today, opens up all our gifts and has an overwhelming sense of being loved by our family and friends.

But God’s love, expressed in Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, is a gift that demonstrates we are loved beyond any gift we’re going to unwrap today. The gift of Jesus Christ – His life, His death, and His resurrection – is more sacrificial, more giving, more thoughtful, more extravagant, more costly, more personal, and more loving than any other gift any of us will receive today. And we can receive that gift, the light of the world, walk in that light, follow it, and shine it for others to do the same.

So, now that we’ve waited, watched, prepared, and praised for Advent, it’s time to walk in the light. It’s time to let an increased amount of His light shine into our lives. It’s time to shine like a lamp set on a table. It’s time to shine brighter than ever before. It’s time to shine in more places than ever before. It’s time to be God’s hands and feet in the world, to be a good and perfect gift to the people who walk in darkness. It’s time to let every day be Christmas day, and announce the Good News: That Jesus Christ, the Light of the World was, and is, and is to come….

So, I want to close with a challenge to each and every one of us. One year from now, next Christmas, I will to ask you, “How have you walked in the Light, and how have you shone the light of Christ in 2012?” I’ve already got it on my calendar to follow up with you in a year. The opportunity to walk in the light and share it with others is important. This gift of light that God gives is the gift that trumps all other gifts. It’s a gift for us, and it’s a gift for us to give to others, too. Let’s let it shine for the world to see today, and every day, in 2012, whether it’s Christmas or not. Let’s pray…Amen.

John 1:1-14

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

December 24th, 2011

You and I live on a dot. A very tiny dot. We think the earth is big. We know it’s bigger than us, but even this dot we live on is tiny. That makes you and me pretty miniscule, in the grand scheme of things. In the first half of the year 1990, people realized just how small of a dot we live on, and how small we are. The Voyager 1 had been launched into space on September 5, 1977. 12 ½ years later in early 1990, while still traveling at 40,000 miles per hour, it had traveled about 4 billion miles from earth.¹ At the suggestion of famed astrophysicist and Cornell University professor Carl Sagan, NASA scientists had the Voyager take pictures of the planets it had long since passed, including the one we all call home. While the pictures of earth have virtually no scientific value because of the distance, they do show our place in the cosmos. And it’s rather humbling. Here is one of the pictures that the Voyager beamed back to scientists:

Do you see our home there? In the midst of the top band of light you can see a pale blue dot, as this picture came to be called. That’s you and me, almost 22 years ago, in the first half of 1990. That’s earth. In fact, if you look really carefully and closely, I think you can see the lights of Chehalis shining into the darkness. Well, maybe not quite. In fact, you might be having trouble picking up on it at all. Here’s the same picture with a helpful little hint about where to look:

Does that help? Who would have thought you’d need a big old arrow pointing out where the earth is? Surrounding that pale blue dot is outer space: our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe. If you could take a picture of all of that, you wouldn’t even see the earth.

A few years later, Carl Sagan gave a lecture at Cornell University where he showed this picture and said, “That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.”²

Because Sagan didn’t believe in a living, personal God, it’s ironic that he comes close to Biblical theology in that speech he gave. In fact, I love the last phrase, that this pale blue dot called earth is “a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.” The earth is not just suspended in the light of the sun, it has been visited and touched and inhabited by the Light of the World, the Son of God. This pale blue dot, as tiny as it is, and even more so the people on it, you and me, who are tinier yet, we are the object of God’s affection. You and I, and all the people who have ever walked the face of this earth, are loved by God. And: Into this world, suspended in a sunbeam in the midst of a dark universe, God shines His light in the person of Jesus Christ. And the light of the world continues to shine in and through all “who believe in his name” as John 1:12 says. That’s the Good News of Christmas.

Matthew and Luke paint the picture for us in the grounded, tangible, “just the facts ma’am” kind of way: angels and shepherds, Mary and Joseph, the stable and the manger, the birth of Jesus. That’s the story of the light coming into the world told through real people and real things that we can touch and feel. A Sunday school teacher once asked her class, “What was Jesus’ mother’s name?” One child answered, “Mary.” The teacher then asked, “Who knows what Jesus’ father’s name was?” A little kid said, “Verge.” Confused, the teacher asked, “Where did you get that?” The kid said, “Well, you know, they are always talking about Verge n’ Mary.”

Well, John doesn’t tell us about Verge…or Joseph or Mary. Matthew and Luke did a great job of capturing the details of the first Christmas. John tells us of the same event in a more poetic, theological, and even scientific, way. And he’s saying that: We’re not just “suspended in a sunbeam,” rather: the light is here with us, amongst us, and in us. Do we believe that?

Now, some people have a hard time believing that Good News. Carl Sagan was one of those people. He passed away in 1996, and he never believed in God – at least not as most of us here tonight would probably define God. To him, God was simply the laws of physics that governed the universe, and even he said that wasn’t a God worth praying to.³

In his book, “Cosmos,” Sagan wrote, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” We can apply that to Jesus, too. I mean, let’s be honest: the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus are extraordinary. And yet the evidence for them is equally extraordinary. We have more information about the life of Jesus Christ than just about any other person or event of the ancient world. The earliest New Testament writings were written within 25 years of his death and resurrection; we have manuscript evidence dating to 130 A.D. which puts it 40-70 years within the originals being written. Compare that to other works of literature that are considered authoritative – such as Homer’s Illiad and Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic Wards – and have a 500 to 1,000 year gap between the original writing and the earliest known manuscript. There’s so much more I could say on that subject. But the point is that there is extraordinary evidence for the extraordinary claims of the New Testament. And the first of those claims is what we celebrate at Christmas: That Jesus Christ is the Light of the pale blue dot.

The questions for us, then, are ones such as: Do we see the light? Is He the light of my life? Is there some other light in my life that’s making it hard to see the light of Christ? As bright as the light of Christ is – and you only have to read the gospels once to understand that He can light up people’s lives like no one else ever has or could – as bright as that light is, sometimes we have a hard time seeing it, because there’s a lot of ambient light from other lights shining in our lives: light from our jobs, light from our friends, light from politics, light from our Christmas trees…light from other religions, light from philosophy, light from our money, light from science, light from our stuff, light from our own selfish desires…there are all kinds of lights shining in our lives. Some of them point us to the light of Christ, but others that can make it hard to see the light of Christ. They compete for our allegiance and our faith, or they plant seeds of doubt about the true Light of the World.

It’s much like looking at the stars at night. Walk out after the service tonight and look up at the stars. Even in a smaller town like Chehalis, let alone a big city like Seattle, the lights from the city make it hard to see all the stars. But get out in the country, away from the city, and many more stars become visible. It’s the same in our walk with Christ. And in order to see His Light and allow it more fully into our lives, sometimes we have to dim the other lights around us. Maybe there’s too much ambient light in our lives to see the light of Jesus Christ clearly.

Is the Light of the World the the light of your life? You see, we may live on a dot suspended in a sunbeam…and we may be miniscule even in comparison to that dot…but we’re really, really important to God, and loved by Him. Humanity, including you and I, are the reason Jesus was born, the reason he lived, died, and rose from the grave. And that’s all an act of grace, unearned by any of us. It’s a gift from God to the world. So if he’s not the light of your life, I invite you to allow that light into your life, beginning tonight. Or perhaps Jesus’ light shines in your life…but only in certain areas. Let His light shine more completely in you, beginning tonight. The other lights in your life will try to compete for your allegiance, but only Jesus Christ gives the promise of truth, grace, and abundant and eternal life. And there’s no time like Christmas to begin letting that light shine in our lives brighter than it ever has before. Let’s pray…Amen.