The Reason Why (John 1.1-14)

Introduction

A very happy Christmas to you all, and to your families.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a poor man and his wife. They were so poor that one day they found themselves with bare cupboards and nothing to put on the table for supper.

So the wife, who incidentally wore the trousers in this particular household, decided to send her hen-pecked husband off with his fishing rod to the local lake. “If you don’t catch nuffin’, there’ll be no dinner tonight,” she said.

So off he went, desperate to land some sort of catch. After five hours of miserable failure, he finally reeled in, against all the odds, a decent sized fish. In fact it was so big, he had a bit of a struggle pulling it out of the water.

Finally he managed to master it and place it on the bank of the lake. He was just about to whack it on the head when, the fish began to talk, pleading with him. “Please don’t kill me. If you throw me back into the water I’ll grant you three wishes, whatever you want, you can have it.”

The man thought that would be great, so he let the fish go and returned home empty handed, excited about what his wife was going to say.

“Well, what did you catch for our dinner, lazy bones? You ain’t done nuffin’ have you?” she said. So he explained what had happened. “You and your tall stories, I don’t know, what do you think this is, Jack and the beanstalk?”

So he says, “Watch! I wish… I wish that a magnificent four-course meal would appear before us right now.” And sure enough the table is filled with the most exquisite delicacies and fine wines. “You idiot!” she screams, “you could have asked for anything, a flashy sports car or a luxury yacht.” “OK,” he says without thinking, “I wish for a new Rolls Royce.” Immediately, a gleaming new Rolls appears before their eyes.

“What? Are you totally stupid?” she says! We can do better than this. Don’t say anything. For your last wish, ask for a royal palace… No! Wait… Ask for a dwelling fit for God himself.” So he does, and instantly they find themselves surrounded by farm animals in a dark barn, with a cattle trough for their bed. The sumptuous meal has turned into humble flat bread. And, outside, the brand new Rolls Royce is now a donkey that’s seen better days.

God in Human Likeness

Christmas is the celebration of God taking human form in Jesus Christ. In our Gospel reading tonight we heard the following words;

The word became flesh and blood and lived among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, sent by the Father, full of grace and truth. He lived among us…

…or literally ‘pitched his tent in the neighbourhood.’ God becoming one of us is one of the deepest and most weighty mysteries of the Christian faith. It blows the mind to think that the creator of all that is, he who spoke vast galaxies into existence and who sustains all things by the word of his power, became a dependent infant who needed to be fed, changed, burped, loved – and everything else we associate with newborn babies.

Verse 12 of our Gospel reading explains what we have to gain if we respond to this event in the way God wants us to.

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

How an infant sleeping in his cot can be begotten, not created, and how he can be very God of very God, remains an unfathomable mystery.

But God became a child so that you can become a child of God.

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name…

And so we embrace it by faith, or we don’t really take it seriously, as if it were a fairy tale, like the one I told a minute ago.

But if it is true, if God really did come down to earth, what would he be like?

Our reading talks in philosophical - almost abstract - terms. If your daughter phoned one night and told you she had a new boss, and you said, “Oh, what’s he like?” And she said, “Well, to me, he’s the word incarnate, he’s the true light, he is in the world, shining with glory, full of grace and truth,” let’s be honest - you’d want something a bit more concrete. It’s very conceptual, and we like things to be a bit easier to grasp.

Well, it’s like this: the infinitely awe-inspiring glory of God was concentrated in one person, who immersed himself in our wearisome humanity.

The landlord became the tenant. The club owner became the centre-forward. The headmaster became the pupil in reception class. The supermarket chairman became the checkout assistant.

He laughed and cried; he got hungry and thirsty and tired. He suffered humiliation, rejection and derision.

If anyone wants to know what God looks like, take a look at Jesus. You see straight away that God is not bitter, or frustrated, or miserly. He is larger than life, he eats and drinks with outcasts, he heals people the doctors gave up on and he leaves stuffy hypocrites speechless. Kids love him, bullies fear him.

But he was more than a great man. We talk about Charles the Great, Alexander the Great, Napoleon the Great, but not Jesus the Great. Jesus is above greatness. He is unique. It was dark at midday when he died, and it was bright at midnight when he was born. No one has ever been like him before or since.

In v2 John says that Jesus was already there before time began. In v3, 10 and 11 we read that Jesus was behind the whole of creation. Everything that exists traces its origin and raison d’être ultimately back to him.

We know John wrote his Gospel, in Greek, in Ephesus in the first century.

In the beginning was the word. All things were made through him. The word was with God. The word was God.

“Word” there is our English translation of the Greek word logos, but logos means much more than ‘word’.

Five centuries before Jesus was born lived a philosopher - before Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - called Heraclitus, who by a remarkable coincidence also wrote in Greek, in Ephesus about this logos. Heraclitus was way before his time. And ‘the logos’ was his big thing, it was central to his quest to understanding what made everything tick.

In his thinking, the ‘logos’ meant the principle that explains why things are the way they are, it’s where we get the words logic, logical, logistics. It’s not an ivory tower philosophical idea, it practical. It means the reason why. What is the reason why the rain and the wind come and go? It’s the meteo – logos (meteorology). What is the reason why people behave the way they do? It’s the socio – logos (sociology). What is the reason why planets spin round the sun? It’s the cosmos – logos (cosmology). Every discipline of human understanding and learning comes back to its logos, the explanation why it is like it is.

So when John wrote his Gospel, he deliberately picked up this language from Heraclitus – he said that Jesus is the logos, he is the reason why. All things find their true sense, their ultimate meaning in him. He is the reason why you were born and have life. He is the reason why you can know God. He is the reason why you can know that God loves you. Life, the universe and everything; Jesus is the reason why.

You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to see the fullness of Christ, or the emptiness of life without him. But the God of the whole universe was living down the road, in the neighbourhood, and most people totally missed it!

A few years ago I read about a farmer called Maurice Wright who bought an old painting in 1975 for a few quid at a car boot sale and hung it up in his barn. Over the years it collected cobwebs and dust until one day an art lover noticed it on the wall. They talked about it and the farmer asked if he thought it was worth anything. So the art lover took a photo of it and went to see an expert at Christie’s. A few weeks later he learned that it was the work of a 19th Century artist named Edward Thomas Daniell. Collectors knew that this picture existed but assumed it had perished years ago. It had been missing for over a century. When the farmer put it up for auction and it sold for £100 000!

The ‘reason why’ was in the world but (like that painting in the barn) the world did not recognise him. He came to his own and his own did not accept him. But those who did receive him, to those who believed in him, he gave the right to become children of God.

Ending

Do you accept him? Have you received him? Do you believe in him?

Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

After all, one of his 92 names and titles is Emmanuel – which means God is with us. So if you’re searching for God, don’t bother looking in great palaces or splendid castles – discover him, if you will, in an inconspicuous barn in a quiet corner of a modest road in an insignificant backwater province of a mighty empire.

It’s not easy to find. You have to search. But if you seek, you will find. You’ll find him surrounded by farm animals, with an eating trough for his bed. Ignore the gleaming Rolls. Look for the donkey that’s seen better days waiting outside.


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 24th December 2011

The Promised Messiah (Isaiah 11.1-10)

Introduction

We all know why you never see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery.' There is a reason why astrologers and fortune tellers have no more success predicting the winner of the Grand National than anyone else.

Those of you who were at the John Archer evening last week will have been amazed by some of his tricks and illusions.

In one trick, he had a coin placed over each eye and stuck down by three strips of gaffer tape. Then he had a police issue blindfold placed on top of that. After that he had one more layer of black gaffer tape applied over the blindfold. He then asked three members of the audience to draw a picture of anything they wanted. One drew a Christmas tree, one drew a rugby player kicking a penalty and the third drew a matchstick man. John then described all three pictures in detail, fully blindfolded.

In another trick, he had a deck of cards held together by a rubber band. He asked three people at random to flick through the deck and stop at any card they chose. They had to memorise the card and say nothing. John then guessed the three cards; 3 of diamonds, ace of clubs and Jack of hearts. And he guessed each card correctly.

It was highly entertaining and absolutely amazing. And yet we knew that each trick he did was an illusion of sleight of hand or a loaded deck or some other ruse. No one believed that John Archer really has magic powers.

Messianic Prophecy: Descent

Perhaps that’s why we don’t really get that excited about Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Maybe we think to ourselves deep down, “What if there’s some psychological explanation.” And because most of us aren’t Jewish by background, we aren’t sensitised to the concept of a Messiah anyway.

But there’s no question that the announcement of the identity of the Messiah is important to God – because quite a lot of the Old Testament is devoted to it.

Have you ever thought about those genealogies in the Bible? They are admittedly not enthralling reading, but they are important for confirming that Jesus fulfils the first of the three conditions necessary to be the authentic Messiah. And it’s this; according to Scripture, he must be a descendant of Abraham, of Isaac (not Ishmael), of Jacob (not Esau), from the tribe of Judah (not from any of the other 11 tribes). Furthermore he must descend from Jesse’s family - I’ll come back to Jesse later - and from David's line (not from any of his brothers). That narrows the field down significantly. It excludes well over 99.9% of the human race.

The significant thing is this; when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD70, all the genealogical records were lost in the flames. So no one can ever again prove their descent from Judah or the royal line. But Jesus’ family tree is written down for us in black and white.

Messianic Prophecy: Birthplace

The second condition is equally easy to substantiate and difficult to fake. Anyone claiming to be the Messiah must have “Bethlehem” on his birth certificate to the exclusion of every other location on earth. Fact; the Messiah has to be born in Bethlehem. Problem; the parents chosen for the task of raising him live 80 miles away in Nazareth. Solution; "I know”, says God, “some bureaucrat in Rome dreams up a new poll tax for the entire Roman Empire! It won’t be popular but it should get Mary and Joseph from here to there just in time. God always keeps his word even if taxes go up to make it happen. Oh, the inscrutable mysteries of the sovereignty of God…

There are dozens of other prophecies that, taken together, narrow down further the identity of God’s Chosen One to a very small number of people even among the tiny percentage who qualify through their genealogy and birthplace.

Messianic Prophecy: Character

But just in case there is still any doubt, there is a third condition to be fulfilled. There’s quite a lot about the character of the Messiah – and there are several facets of that in our reading from Isaiah this morning;

Verses 2-3 talk about his spiritual stature.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord -
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Verses 3-4 say he’s going to see deeper than what’s on the surface of people’s lives; he’ll look into the heart and favour the poor and needy.

Verse 5 says he will be characterised by doing the right thing and being faithful to what he said.

Now, you might think that that’s pretty general; insight, consistency, integrity and honesty. But how many political leaders can you name, from any era, who tick all those boxes? Maybe a few stand out from the crowd; Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi all have that one-in-a-generation mark of greatness but none is from the tribe of Judah or descended from David.

Jesus qualifies handsomely not only though the particulars of his family tree and the location of his birthplace but also through the incomparable merit of his character.

Messianic Prophecy: Branch and Root

I said I’d come back to Jesse and I’d like to draw your attention to v1 and v10 of our reading. Let’s read v1 first.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Isaiah often uses word pictures and sometimes compares people to trees. You might remember chapter 61 where he says of the redeemed: “

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.

And in v33-34 from the previous chapter he says,

See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.

What he is talking about here is not literal trees, but the Assyrian army that appeared like a vast and mighty forest. But God says here that this all-conquering superpower of its day will be cut down like a chainsaw fells a diseased tree in your back garden.

God does that. This is the year that has seen Bin Laden and Gadaffi, who struck fear in the hearts of nations, brought low like lofty trees.

So when chapter 11 begins by saying…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit

…Isaiah means that Judah, the royal dynasty of David, would one day be chopped down like a tree stump (as indeed it was when the nation, including its king, were exiled to Babylon in 587 BC). That was the end of the monarchy. The king became a humbled civilian. But Isaiah says here that from this miserable stump a new shoot would grow – this is someone completely new but from the same royal line. And here’s the thing; he will be greater than the original tree and would bear much fruit.

We looked at Isaiah 53 a few weeks ago and marvelled at the extraordinary vision of a man of sorrows who suffered for the sin of his people. That chapter links to this one because it begins with these words;

[The Lord’s servant] grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
(Isaiah 53.2)

In other words, the one who suffered and died for the sins of his people is this branch who will bear much fruit.

But in v10 there’s a curious twist;

In that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples;
the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Did you notice? It’s no longer a shoot from the stump. Now the Messiah is called the root of Jesse. In other words, he is not only the greatest descendent (or branch) of David’s line, he came before it as well. He is the root. Once again, it points unmistakably to Jesus; son of Mary and Son of God. He is the root and branch Messiah.

Ending

So, as I close, think about this; blind faith is to believe in a baby in a manger. But informed faith is to put your trust in the only one who perfectly fulfils dozens of prophecies made over hundreds of years.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit.

The root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; [and] the nations will rally to him.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees and Saint Mary's Long Newton, 18th December 2011

Your God Will Come (Isaiah 35.1-10)

Introduction

There’s this Hezbollah militant, desperate for water, and he is treading wearily through the Judean wilderness when he sees something shimmering far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurries towards what he hopes is an oasis, only to find a little old Jewish man with a small stand, selling ties.

So the Hezbollah guy says, “Do you have water?”
The Jew replies, “I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only 100 shekels.”

The militant shouts, “Idiot! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I need to save my energy and find water first!

“OK,” says the Jew, “No matter. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the ice cold water you need. Shalom.”

So, the Hezbollah guy staggers over the hill, cursing as he goes. Several hours later he staggers back, almost dead.

The Jew says, “So what’s the problem?”

“Your brother won't let me in to his restaurant without a tie!”

Israel’s Wilderness

The only time I’ve been to Israel, I took a coach trip one day from Jerusalem down to a place called Masada in the valley of the Dead Sea.

If you’ve done the same coach journey - and if you’ve been to Israel to see the sights, you probably have - you’ll remember I’m sure how the road, surrounded by rough, craggy cliffs either side, keeps winding down and down and down. It seems to go on forever.

You begin to say to yourself “I’m sure we can’t go any lower than this.” And you’re right, because eventually, at 423 metres below sea level, you arrive at the lowest point on the planet.

You are at the northernmost edge of a deep gash on the surface of the earth called the Great Rift Valley that extends all the way down to the heart of the African continent.

When you finally get there, you find that it is quite unlike any valley on earth (except perhaps Death Valley). We tend to think of valleys as fertile places watered by streams and rivers. But this is an arid and bleak and rocky place. This is what it looks like.

It’s a bit like the surface of Mars, but with constant heat haze shimmering over it. The Dead Sea itself is over 8 times more salty than the ocean – which is great for floating tourists. But it’s a harsh, inhospitable and unforgiving environment.

In fact, you can hardly go anywhere in Israel without quickly getting dehydrated. That’s one of the reasons Jesus said “Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I remember getting out of the air-conditioned coach to take a stroll around outside. Nothing prepared me for the shock of stepping off the coach into what seemed like a furnace. It was like opening an oven door and being blasted by a power wave of blistering heat.

When I went it was July, when the average daily high temperature is 40 degrees and often pushes up to 45 and even beyond that. From May to September the average rainfall there is nil. In fact, it only rains at all in that place for two weeks a year. Very few plants or shrubs flourish there and hardly anything living survives for long.

This is the setting for this morning’s reading from Isaiah. When Isaiah prophesies about the wilderness, you can see it’s not like the Sahara with its fine sand and rolling dunes. The sand in the desert of Judea is gritty and dirty. It’s a lifeless, charmless, hopeless, waterless wasteland.

Spiritual Dryness

But God’s word to us this morning is not actually about a physical wilderness. When Isaiah says,

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom

it’s a metaphor. A friend of mine, Sarah Hodges, said to me this week, “It’s only when I am in the desert place and really thirsty that I can truly appreciate the utter truth and beauty of this.”

She was meaning spiritually thirsty. The wilderness is spiritual. God is saying “This is what it’s like when someone is away from God.

This is how it feels to leave the path of his perfect will for your life. Your entire soul becomes parched dry.

Everything around you just begins to feel wretched and without hope. Everything about the future looks bleak.”

Now if you will bear with me just a moment, I need to set the scene so we can understand the context of these verses.

At the time of this prophecy, God’s people were settled in their own land. They were relatively prosperous; things were quite stable. They thought they were safe. They were wrong.

Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says that things are going to get worse.

History records that Isaiah’s predictions and warnings in the early chapters of his book were spot on.

• God’s people were indeed overrun by an invasion of awesome military might - as Isaiah had warned.
• They would soon suffer the deep trauma of a heavy loss of life - as Isaiah had warned.
• They would soon be carried off as a people to a foreign land and that generation would never see home again - as Isaiah had warned.
• Those that survived the bloodbath would end up in Babylon, away from their land, away from their roots, away from God.

This empty, barren, deserted place is what exile was going to feel like to them and it was about to happen.

Isaiah says here (these are his words) that being away from God, being out of his purposes for your life is like

• a desert
• a parched land
• a wilderness and
• a thirsty ground with burning sand

Have you ever (spiritually, I mean) been in a place like that? Maybe you are there now?

What does it feel like when you find that you are far away from the God you once loved and encountered in worship?

Verses 3 and 4 talk about feeble hands, knees that give way and fearful hearts.

Feeble hands – it’s what you feel like when you’re handling so many burdens that you think you just can’t carry them all anymore.

Knees giving way – it’s that sense of fatigue, of overwhelming tiredness. Spiritually as well as physically, you feel you just can’t stay strong much longer.

Fearful hearts – it’s when you’ve lost the sense of God’s provision and now you just don’t know how you’re going to pay the bills.

It’s when you’ve lost the sense of God’s enabling and now you can’t see how you’re going to get your marriage back on track or know his power in your workplace – or whatever.

Have you been there? This is the desert.

Isaiah, in v5-6, also talks about the blind the deaf, the lame and the mute.

Blind - it’s when you just can’t see how God’s hand is over your life anymore.

Deaf – it’s when his word seems like a closed book that has nothing relevant to say to you.

Lame – it’s when you’ve stopped walking with God because you feel you just can’t. Your walk with the Lord has slowed to a stop.

And mute – it’s when you feel so powerless, like you haven’t got a voice and everything you say seems to be ignored.

Have you been there? This is the desert. For Israel in Isaiah’s day those feelings were brought on by the exile to Babylon, but for us any trauma or sorrow or trail of bad news can land us in that desert place.

Real Peace, Real Joy

The times when I’ve been furthest away from God and the most estranged from his will in my life are when I have been tempted to recover that sense of wellbeing that only God gives through other means – like in music or in human friendships or through entertainment or in nature.

People think sometimes that they can generate happiness and produce joy on our own. We never can. Peace and joy are the fruit of the Spirit; they are the by-product of the rule and reign of God in your life.

Actually, I should qualify that by saying that you can find pleasure in all kinds of things – but the Bible (in 1 Peter 1) talks about fullness of joy and inexpressible joy. You can’t find delight like that anywhere apart from in Christ.

People pay good money for substances and experiences that will alter their mood and give them a buzz for the evening. But the Bible talks about unspeakable joy which is real even when everything around you is falling apart.

Similarly, you can find calm and stillness in many places if you look. People pay top money for weekend escapes and havens of tranquillity - but they come back when it’s over to the same old hassle.

You can’t get the peace of God that passes understanding anywhere else than in Christ. Philippians 4 says that this peace only comes through thanking God in all circumstances and laying your burdens before him instead of worrying about them.

If you’ve got the joy of the Lord (which is your strength) and the peace that the world cannot give you’ll be very well over the circumstances, not under the circumstances.

God is Sovereign

Anyway, back to Isaiah 35: The amazing thing about these verses to me is that God is not one step ahead but two. He is telling Israel the good news that’s going to happen after the bad news that hadn’t even happened yet.

Well before even the first sign of a downturn, God is already talking about how good the recovery is going to be.

Don’t you find that encouraging? Though things are going to become very grim for them, God tells his people here that he knows already that things will get much better because he is on the throne. He has a plan.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Nothing takes him by surprise. He is sovereign over the affairs of the nations, so you can step out in faith and trust. You can depend on his goodness.

With our God there is no ‘oops!’ With our God there are no accidents. There is no wiping the sweat off his brow.

So before you enter a crisis, God already knows how he can lead you out of it.

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.

If you think your life is barren and dry and without purpose, look up. God is sovereign. Even in death God has a better future in store for those who love him. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Armed with that knowledge you can begin to flourish.

The Highway of Holiness

But my message this morning would be unbalanced and misleading if I were to stress God’s dominion and power – and be silent about what it is that the Lord requires of us.

Those feeble hands and trembling knees I mentioned earlier. God says in v3 “Strengthen them. Steady them.” Those fearful hearts I talked about. God commands us in v4 say to them:

Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution he will come to save you.

God is calling for a response of trust in him. Given his track record of creation and redemption, how much more trustworthy could he show himself to be?

God is also calling forth from us a response of holiness.

Verse 8 says this:

And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.

It’s significant that the New Testament describes the Christian life as a “walk” (Ephesians 4.1) and God’s New Covenant people, the Church, are called the Way (Acts 19.9).

The way back into God’s purposes is a path of holiness and righteousness. God says here very clearly that the unclean and the wicked and the morally perverse will not be found here. It is set apart for the redeemed.

There’s a story about an old man living on a nobleman’s estate in Glamorganshire who used to go to the local chapel using the noble lord’s private path because it saved him walking considerable distance.

One day, the two men met on the private footpath. The lord said, “And what right have you on this path?” “No right at all, sir,” said the man, “but I thought you wouldn’t mind an old man who has lived on your estate so many years going this way to worship God, especially as it’s so far the other way.”

The nobleman looked at him and said “Give me your stick!” So the trembling old man gave him his stick, not knowing what to expect. To his surprise, the noble lord gave him his own cane, capped with gold and bearing his family crest.

And then he said kindly, “My good man, when anyone asks you again what right you have to walk this path, show them this, and tell them I gave it to you!”

What right do you and I have to walk on the Highway of Holiness? None at all.

But when Jesus died God made us an offer. We lay on Jesus our filthiness and sinfulness and fallenness. And he takes that on himself, bearing our punishment on the cross. And in return, he gives to us his perfect holiness and righteousness.

That’s grace. And you can only receive it as a free gift with grateful faith. Jesus will take no payment for it. If you were to give me a gift and I offered to pay you for it you’d be insulted wouldn’t you? It’s a gift.

Have you accepted that gift by faith? Are you continuing to receive it, as a gift, every day? Then walk on in the holiness he has given you as a gift.

You men here – it’s like you’ve been given a classy Saville Row Italian suit, perfectly made-to-measure.

Ladies; it’s like a stunning new silk dress that has been expertly tailored to adorn your beauty. Wear it! Put it on! In Romans 13.14 this is what Paul means when he says “Clothe yourselves the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is the Highway of Holiness we travel on.

It also says this in v9-10:

No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and those the Lord has rescued will return.

I don’t think it’s an accident that the New Testament talks about the devil as a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

And when Paul wrote about fighting wild beasts in Ephesus he was talking about evil people with a dark agenda that he had to contend with spiritually.

But the Highway of Holiness is a road upon which we have ultimate victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Ending

So to finish, and as we have those words “Your God will come” ringing in our ears, let’s look to the baby of Bethlehem. Like a fragile crocus blooming in the desert, God poured all his fullness into this tiny infant who, though being in very nature God, submitted himself to living among us to show us how much he loves us.

It is in this little one, this fragile, dependent newborn baby in a cradle, raised in obscurity and poverty, betrayed and crucified but victorious by his resurrection – it is because of Him that there are streams in the desert to drink from.

Is anyone thirsty?

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th December 2011