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SERMON FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2018

My grandson Sam, who’s thirteen years old, was for a long time, the only boy cousin on my side of the family—five girls and Sam. He was excited when Billy and then Lucas and George were born and the excitement hasn’t ended. All of them, and especially three year old Lucas, absolutely adore Sam—and the feeling is mutual. When we all gathered at Emily’s house on Christmas, Lucas could hardly contain his excitement. The first words out of his mouth when we arrived were, “Sam’s coming.” When we were at the lake last summer, Billy and Lucas would wake up and come downstairs and say, “Where’s Sam?”

And the good thing is that Sam loves his little boy cousins just as much as they love him.

When I read John’s gospel, it’s easy to imagine that Jesus had this same kind of relationship with his younger cousins. Throughout the gospel, John refers to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved.” And clearly, the love that he has for Jesus is extraordinary—it’s a love that, more than anything else, John wants all of us to share.

In the very first chapter, we find the apostle John, John the Baptist and Jesus—all of whom have surely known one another all their lives. We know that John the Baptist’s mother Elizabeth is a cousin to Mary the mother of Jesus. And we know that John is only a few months older than Jesus. With the bond that Mary and Elizabeth share in the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the birth of their sons, they must surely have spent time together. Surely John the Baptist and Jesus know one another well.

And we know that James and John are the sons of Mary’s sister, Salome, making them Jesus’ cousins. While the circumstances of Jesus’ birth seem to indicate that Mary’s family had distanced themselves from her following her unexpected pregnancy, the relationship must have been restored at some point, at least with Salome, as we know that she was with Mary at the cross. And while Jesus’ brothers thought that Jesus was crazy when He began His public ministry, clearly John the Baptist and the apostle John responded very differently.

We don’t know the ages of Jesus’ disciples, but it’s believed that John was perhaps the youngest, almost certainly younger than Jesus. It’s easy to imagine him looking up to Jesus as a favorite older cousin as they were growing up.

John was the only apostle who was not martyred and he lived to be a very old man, probably into his 90’s. His gospel was written much later than the others, likely about 60 years after Jesus had returned to heaven. So he’s had a long time to reflect on all that happened, he’s seen the spread of the gospel, and he’s seen the change that occurs in the lives of those who follow Jesus—beginning with himself.

Because the temperamental young man that Jesus referred to, along with his brother James, as “sons of thunder” has grown into a man so filled with love that it just seems to pour out of him. in fact, there are stories in other literature that say that when John was old and he could no longer walk and needed to be carried about on a pallet, wherever he went, he would say to everyone he saw, “Little children, love one another.”

Matthew was one of the twelve and surely knew Jesus well; Mark recorded the story of Peter’s relationship with Jesus and Luke tells the story according to his research, according to the interviews that he conducted with Jesus’ family and others who knew him. But John writes from a lifelong personal relationship with Jesus—with the cousin that he grew up with long before he realized that this man was also the long-awaited Messiah.

And the primary purpose of John’s gospel is to let everyone know that Jesus truly is the Son of God, that Jesus deserves our worship and our praise—that Jesus deserves to be loved above all else.

And so, if you’d like to open your Bibles to John’s Gospel, when John writes in chapter 1, beginning with verse 9, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him,” it’s easy to imagine that as John writes these words he might be thinking of Jesus’ own family—that he might share Jesus’ pain at their refusal to believe that He is the Son of God.

And when John the Baptist says in verse 31, “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel,” we can be sure that John isn’t saying that he didn’t know Jesus—he’s saying that he didn’t know that Jesus was the Son of God. Although we have to wonder if he didn’t have some idea as clearly his mother Elizabeth knew that Mary’s baby was the Lord.

But it doesn’t appear that John the Baptist has any doubt as we read beginning with verse 29:

Joh 1:29  The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Joh 1:30  This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’

Joh 1:31  I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Joh 1:32  And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

Joh 1:33  I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Joh 1:34  And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”   

John the Baptist saw the Spirit, in the form of a dove, descend on Jesus; he heard the voice of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” And he knew that Jesus is the Son of God.

Then we discover that the apostle John was a disciple of John the Baptist, as we read, beginning with verse 35,

Joh 1:35  The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples,

Joh 1:36  and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

Joh 1:37  The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

Joh 1:38  Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

Joh 1:39  He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

Joh 1:40  One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

Joh 1:41  He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

Joh 1:42  He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

 

So John and Andrew began immediately to follow Jesus—younger cousin John seems to have no doubts at all that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And while he doesn’t immediately understand all that this means, he’s anxious to learn. Anxious to discover more about this older cousin.

And by the time he writes it all down, he not only has a much greater understanding of just who Jesus is and was, but he also understands that everything changed when Jesus came into the world.

So when he begins his gospel with the words, “In the beginning…” John is making it clear that when Jesus came into the world, everything changed. A new creation was beginning. He wants us to remember that the book of Genesis begins with the words “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And he wants us to understand that with the words, “In the beginning was the Word” he is introducing the beginning of a something totally new.

He wants us to understand that, with Jesus, everything has changed. And that, in order to be a part of this new creation, we too must change.

Verse 12 says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The apostle Paul wrote that we are “new creations in Christ Jesus.” This is what John is talking about.

And as John the Baptist speaks of Jesus’ baptism, we find that the change is the result of the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven. In the beginning, God created the world—He created the physical world that we see around us and He created physical man. And while God was present with His people, even sending the Holy Spirit into people at various times for various purposes, it was nothing like this.

The apostle John tells us that on that day when Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist “bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him’” (John 1:32).

“It remained on him.” In Jesus, heaven has come down to earth. The Holy Spirit came down and remained on Him. And everything changed.

But not everyone believed. Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God until after the resurrection. What about you? Have you ever doubted whether Jesus was really God? Ever thought He was just a mere man? Maybe a prophet? John’s gospel leaves no room for doubt.

“The Word was God.” How many times in the Old Testament do we read of the “word of the Lord” coming to the prophets? Of the psalmist speaking of God’s Word: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). We read that God’s Word brings about change: “My word that goes out from my mouth … will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

And now the Word of God has come into the world in the form of a man—in Jesus. Come to live among us.

When Andrew and John followed Him, Jesus turned and asked, “What are you seeking?” What are you looking for? What do you want?

The same question that He asks every one of us. What are you looking for? What do you want from Jesus? Are you following Him? Following Him the way you follow friends on Facebook or Twitter? Checking in with Him when you happen to think of it or when it’s convenient? Reading His words occasionally?

Is that what Jesus expected when He asked John and Andrew, “What are you seeking?” Was He hoping they’d say, “We just want to hang around for a while and get to know you a little bit. We’ve been following John the Baptist and it’s been pretty exciting to listen to him—he gets really fired up. And watching him eat those locusts—it’s amazing. Everybody’s coming out to see Him and thousands of people have been baptized. He’s been saying for a while that someone is coming who’s more important that he is—and today he said that you’re that person.

What were they seeking?

Were they hoping that Jesus would become famous and that some of that fame would rub off on them?

That first day when they turned away from John the Baptist and followed Jesus, do you think they expected that everything in their lives would change forever? Because that’s what happened.  They must have been pretty impressed because immediately Andrew went to find his brother Simon and bring him to meet Jesus.

When’s the last time you were so excited about Jesus that you couldn’t rest until you shared Him with your brother or your friend?

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Or do you just like Him? How do you know?

John and Andrew went with Jesus “and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day.”

For some of us, that’s all we do. We stay with Him for a day. We stay with Him just long enough to decide that He really is God and that we’ll believe in Him for salvation. We want a relationship that we can benefit from. We want salvation, we want God to answer our prayers, we want Him to bless us with good health, good relationships, and a happy life—but we don’t want to change the way we live. But is believing in the Son of God really enough? Even demons believe in Him.

Others of us go a bit further. We want to get to know this Jesus. We decide to believe in Him and in the gospel enough to contribute comfortably to His church. We decide that as long as we don’t have to change too much, we’ll do some of what God asks. If it doesn’t hurt too much—if it doesn’t interfere too much with all the things we want to do.

This is where many of us are. We’ll follow Jesus anywhere—as long as there’s a good benefit package. As long as we don’t have to risk any of our earthly treasure to do it. As long as it doesn’t mean putting Jesus ahead of our family and friends.

And finally, there’s a third group. These are the people who believe in God and in the gospel of Jesus Christ enough to give their lives to it. They surrender earthly treasure, earthly ambition, to truly give it all for Jesus. They become different people. This is what Peter and John did. They turned away from their former lives and allowed themselves to be totally transformed into true believers of Jesus Christ. They heard Jesus’ words and they really believed them. They understood that Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:25-26).

Are you willing to give your whole life for Jesus? To let go of all those things that you think are so important in this world to really follow Him? Or would you rather lose Jesus in order to hang onto your earthly treasures?

Maybe you’re not sure which group you belong to. Ask yourself: have you done one thing today or yesterday because Jesus said, do it? Or have you not done something that you wanted to do because Jesus said, don’t? When’s the last time you didn’t do something that you wanted to do so that you could do something that God was calling you to do?

It’s simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in Him, if you don’t do anything He tells you. if you can think of nothing He ever said that has had even a little bit of influence on what you do or don’t do, you have good reason to consider yourself no disciple of His.

Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Are you ready to let your personal hopes and dreams die? All of them? Do you really believe that God’s plan for your life is better than anything you could ever come up with on your own?

Paul told the Ephesian elders that “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Are you willing to give up everything else in your life for the opportunity to tell others about the grace of God?

The apostle John, on discovering that his cousin Jesus was the Son of God, immediately set aside everything else in his life to follow Jesus. Not just for a day, not just for a week—not even just for the three years of Jesus’ public ministry. He followed him every one of his 90+ years.

Did he consider this to be a great sacrifice? Did he mourn all the other things he could have been doing? Did Paul or Peter or any of the rest of the disciples?

No—nowhere is there the slightest indication that they ever regretted their decision to follow Jesus.

And yet in our world today, a world where billions of people say they believe in God, we see little difference in the way most of them live their everyday lives.

How about you? What are you looking for?

Are you looking for some knowledge about God? Or are you looking to be transformed? To be changed into people who give our all for Jesus every single day.

Because it is only when Christianity, when following Jesus, causes us to really enter into the story ourselves, when it causes us to live out the story of God, that we become the people that Jesus calls us to be. That we become true followers. Because God’s story isn’t over—it’s still being told today. And each one of us has the potential to become both a chapter of history and a part of His story.

In Isaiah 49:6 God says to Isaiah, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” God’s not talking about the salvation of the one telling the story—He’s talking about the salvation of those who are going to hear it, who need to hear it, wherever they may be.

What we’re all looking for without even knowing it is a place to stay, a place to remain always. Jesus is that place, a person who is Himself a home, a way of life. Jesus knows that what the disciples really want is a place to belong. He says, “Come and see.” John and Andrew go with Him. They end up staying and His story becomes their way of life.

“What are you looking for?” says Jesus who were told by someone else where He could be found. “Come and see,” He said to people who wondered if they had a place in His story. The thing that moves people from one question to the other, from “What are you looking for?” to “Come and see” is the story the church has been called to tell. It’s the only story the church has to tell, the story of its home, the place from which we draw hope and strength and power. That place is a person and the best way to tell His story—perhaps the only way—is with our lives.

Imagine for a moment that the nation of Mexico went to war against the United States and that Mexico won. Then imagine that they intentionally traveled around the country seeking out the best and brightest of our young people, gathering them up and taking them back to Mexico, where they began an intensive training program to indoctrinate them with the language and culture of Mexico in order that the government could benefit from their gifts and abilities. When they came here, they took all of our young people. And did I mention that they had to walk to Mexico?

We’re not sure what happens to the rest of us. We might be dead or we might just have to watch our children being taken away, having no idea what will happen to them or if we’ll ever see them again.

This gives you a pretty good picture of what happened in Judah when, 600 years before Jesus was born, the Babylonian army invaded and conquered the tiny nation of Judah. The temple was destroyed and the city of Jerusalem was left in ruins.

Even worse, however, Daniel 1:3-4 tells us that the king brought people “of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.”

King Nebuchadnezzar brought the best and brightest of the Israelite young people back to Babylon, thus causing even greater pain and suffering among the Israelites even as he ensured that their ability to recover from the catastrophe that they had experienced would be greatly hindered by the removal of their best candidates for future leadership. At the same time he was enriching his own nation by bringing in all this new talent.

Among those taken into captivity were a young man named Daniel and three of his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—almost certainly they were still in their teens, probably only fifteen or sixteen years old. After making the trip to Babylon, which would have been an 800 or 900 mile journey on foot, taking at least 3-4 months, they were informed that they’d spend the next three years being educated and then “they were to stand before the king” (Daniel 1:5).

Nowhere is there any mention of their families, who probably were either killed in Jerusalem or had been transported to a different area. So these boys are alone in the midst of this foreign country—a country that was as different as anything could possibly be from the Israelite culture they’d grown up in. Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar was the largest city in the world up to that time and it was famous for its magnificent architecture as well as being a city of great learning. But throughout Scripture we find Babylon used to represent the worst of pagan living, the worst of glorified sin.

And yet, in a manner reminiscent of Joseph in Egypt, Daniel and his friends seem to excel at whatever they do—because somehow they’ve managed to hang onto their relationship with God. Somehow, in spite of all the pain and suffering they’ve experienced, they continue to trust in God.  Daniel 1:17 clearly says that it was “God who gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom,” so much so that 1:20 says that when the king spoke with Daniel and his friends, “in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.”

Like Joseph, Daniel rose to a position of great authority in the nation and, like Joseph, he, too, was given the ability to interpret dreams. But while we saw that Joseph knew and trusted God, we find that Daniel is much more willing to speak out, to teach others about His great and awesome God.

Daniel was also a great man of prayer. The prayer that we heard earlier is the longest prayer recorded in his book, but over and over again, we find him praying to God, giving God the glory—and doing so in a bold and fearless way. Never do we see Daniel worrying that he might offend someone by giving God the glory, never do we see him trying to take personal credit for anything. Daniel’s relationship and trust in God was so well known that when King Darius announced that he planned to place Daniel in charge of his entire kingdom, Daniel’s enemies quickly hatched a plot in which they persuaded the king to pass a law that no one could pray to any god other than the king for thirty days.

Not only did Daniel refuse to obey this law, but he went to the top of his house and opened all the windows before he began to pray to God in full view of anyone who happened to be watching.

He was thrown into a den of lions as a result—but God miraculously bound up the mouths of the lions and saved him. Daniel’s work had not yet been completed.

As the angel Gabriel told Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

Daniel’s prayers were so powerful that clearly they were still reverberating in this nation 600 years later. Still reverberating, giving some of these pagans hope in the God of Daniel. The God of Israel.

Because Daniel, in his time in Babylon, was not just a Magi, but he was the head of the Magi. And clearly he shared his God with the other magi—because when they arrived in Jerusalem 600 years later, these Magi were not only following a particular star, but they knew that the star was leading them to the king of the Jews, to the Messiah.

How many generations have passed in 600 years? if we use the common idea that we have a new generation about every 40 years, that’s 15 generations. So for 15 generations, the word of God that Daniel shared has been being passed down to at least some of the next generation. Passed down in such a way that when that star appears, “wise men from the east came to Jerusalem”—they made a 900 mile journey to discover the infant king of the Jews.

Clearly, nothing is impossible for God.

There are many amazing things about this story: there’s the fact that at least some of the reason why God allowed Judah to be conquered by the Babylonians, at least some of the reason why He allowed these teen-aged boys to be taken into captivity, was so that there would be Magi who would come hundreds of years later to worship the baby Jesus. For generations the Magi must have been watching for the sign—for the star in the heavens.

And when they had come and worshiped the infant Jesus, “they departed to their own country” (Matthew 2:12). Departed, we can be certain, to tell what they had seen.  And Matthew, who ends his gospel with the Great Commission, with the call to “Go and make disciples of all nations” is letting us know that already, perhaps before Jesus is even able to walk or talk, the process has begun.

Nothing will be impossible with God.

Nothing can stop the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ from going forward—not King Herod, not any earthly king, not any power that we can ever come up with.

Long after the Babylonian Empire had fallen to the Persians who fell to the Greeks who fell to the Romans, Daniel’s work was still impacting the world—because Daniel had lived his life for God. He’d lived his life abiding in God.

And because he did, his prayers changed the world. Because prayer is the primary means by which God moves His kingdom forward here on earth.

When Daniel’s enemies got the king to forbid prayer to anyone other than himself, Daniel could have argued. He could have gotten angry. He could have said, “God, what’s wrong with you? How could you have allowed this to happen?”

He did none of those things. He simply prayed. And when his prayer resulted in his being thrown into the den of lions, even the king prayed: “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you” (Daniel 6:16). Which He did.

Daniel didn’t know that God would deliver him from death by lions. Daniel didn’t know that not only would he not die that day, but that God would use King Darius. Daniel, like Abraham when he took his only son Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him to the Lord, trusted God above all else. Trusted God even when everything around him looked utterly hopeless.

Daniel knew that nothing is impossible with God.

Knew it not just in his head—he really believed it.

Daniel 6:25-27 says, “Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: ‘Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth.”

King Nebuchadnezzar also issued decrees praising the God of Daniel. Surely these decrees were recorded and used in future years to remind the Babylonians of the great God of Israel. Surely they are a part of the reason that Magi showed up in Jerusalem searching for the king of the Jews.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we live in a world that seems to get darker every day, a world that is so broken that it seems impossible even to stop the spread of darkness, let alone begin to turn it back. This past week a 14 year old girl from our school was buried after taking her own life. What could be more heartbreaking than a child who is so utterly hopeless that she can see no solution other than death?

Daniel knew that nothing is impossible with God—do we? Do we really believe that?

And if we do, what are we doing about it? Are we on our knees crying out to God night and day?

Do we even know how to cry out to God?

Do we even know how to pray? Or is prayer mostly about maintaining our own Christian lives? Because I think we’re all good at that. “Lord, I need help. I need your help with my children, my marriage, my job, my finances, my health.” “I need you to solve this problem in my life or in the life of someone dear to me.”

Most of us probably pray these prayers every day. But what about prayers of intercession? What about prayers that the Church will find and wield its highest power, that each member will prove his descent from Israel, who as a prince had power with God and with men, and prevailed. Prayers of intercession are prayers for the world—prayers for children whose lives are unbearable, prayers for our government, prayers for every government, prayers for all the problems of this world.

Even when those problems aren’t affecting us directly right now. What might happen if every time we were tempted to complain about something, we prayed instead? Prayed for that neighbor that we find so irritating, prayed for the politician that we disagree with on pretty much everything; prayed for the children who right now are dying from a lack of food or a lack of clean water in countries around the world.

What if instead of complaining about our school district, we began to pray for it? What if instead of worrying about war with North Korea, we began to pray for that nation? What if instead of criticizing or complaining about our boss or our co-worker, we began to pray for him or her? What if, when we listen to the evening news or read the newspaper, we were to be praying for all the problems that we hear about or read about?

And what if our prayers weren’t prayers of “Lord, I don’t like this situation. Please change it.” Or, “Lord, here’s what needs to be done. Please do it.” What if our prayers were cries of, “Help!” “We don’t know what to do about this, Lord, this problem is way to big for us to even begin to try to solve—we need you! We need Your direction, Your mighty arm to be at work!”

What if our prayers, like Daniel’s, regularly acknowledged how undeserving we are, of how “we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled”? What if our prayers, like his, were pleas for mercy?

What if we really believed that nothing is impossible with God? And what if we really believed that God is God and we are not?

Have you ever cried out to God in desperation, knowing that your problem was far beyond your ability to act? Cried out with a heart that was broken?

Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” Verse 6 says, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.”

Do you believe that God can do that for you? And if you do, how much time are you spending seeking Him, crying out to Him.

Samantha illustration

It was just amazing—answered prayer always is. It never becomes routine. No matter how often God answers our prayers, it’s still stunning—every single time. The God of the Universe is actually listening to us. Even more, He actually cares about the smallest details of our lives.

But He is the God of all creation—so why do we so rarely bring the big troubles of the world to Him? Why are we not interceding continuously?

Have you ever noticed that the only thing that Jesus taught the disciples how to do was pray? He didn’t give them lessons in how to preach or how to heal. Sure, they watched Him and learned from that, but when it came to prayer, He gave specific instructions.

Because it is only through prayer that we can bring down the blessings of His work and love on the world around us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must become a people of action—not just a people who gather here on Sunday morning and then go off to live like the rest of the world for the rest of the week. Children are killing themselves because no one has ever told them how precious they are to God. No one has ever told them that the most important thing about them isn’t how they identify sexually.

Other children and young adults are so angry with the world that they take guns and shoot other people.

How do we save these children? How do we reach out to those who desperately need someone to reach out to them? One person at a time. How do we know who that one person is that God is calling us to reach out to? We ask Him. We pray about it. We pray night and day.

We pray for God to act—not according to our will, but according to His mighty plan. His plans that are beyond our imagining.  We need prayer in the workplace, prayer in the home, prayer wherever we are.

Let us look at Daniel not as just an encouraging story, but as a model for our own lives. He was a mighty man of prayer long before that baby was born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. We have Jesus—we have His life, His example, His instruction, His command, His promises. And we have His life, His Spirit, living inside our hearts. Let Him be at work in you. Let Him teach you to pray.

Let us pray.

Grace and peace, …

Lord, through the written word, and the spoken word, may we know your Living Word, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Many of you are familiar with Lee Strobel, who was for many years an award winning investigative reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune. Some of you have seen the movie, The Case for Christ, that tells his story. He was living what he considered to be a great life until one day his wife came home and told him that she had become a Christian—she’d given her life to Christ.

Strobel was really angry. His view of Christianity was that it was a religion that worshiped a God whose main purpose was to make all kinds of rules designed to prevent people from ever having any fun—if, that is, God really existed at all. He decided that he would put his investigative skills to work and prove to his wife that Jesus was not the Son of God and that Christianity was a hoax.

As he investigated, however, he discovered that the evidence was overwhelmingly in support of Christianity. And as a result, Lee Strobel joined his wife in her Christian faith. Today Lee is a professor at Houston Baptist University and a teaching pastor at Woodlands Church in Texas.

When I read the opening verses of the Gospel of Luke, I’m reminded of Lee Strobel. Unlike the other three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and John, Luke was not an eyewitness to Jesus; he’s from the second generation of the church, that group of people who came to faith after Jesus ascended into heaven. We know that Luke was a Gentile, that he was a Greek from the city of Antioch and that he was by profession a physician. He was also a well-known historian and somehow he had become connected with Barnabas and the apostle Paul, both of whom spent quite a bit of time preaching and teaching in Antioch. Clearly Luke came to know Paul well, even traveling with him on some of his missionary journeys.

So if you’ll open your Bibles to the first chapter of Luke’s gospel, you’ll find that he begins with the words:

“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4).

No one knows for certain who Theophilus is, but what is clear is that Luke decided to conduct his own investigation into the claims of Christianity and that his gospel was a record of his findings. He interviewed many people who’d known Jesus personally, asking questions, listening to their accounts of the things Jesus said and did, until he was able to put together what he was certain was an accurate account of Jesus’ earthly life.

One of Luke’s primary sources was Mary the mother of Jesus, which is why his gospel provides so much more information about the events surrounding Jesus’ birth.

Around the same time that Luke was doing his investigation and writing his gospel, the apostle Peter was writing his second letter, probably from Rome, possibly even from prison. He writes in 2 Peter 1:14, “I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.”

Although we don’t find this in Scripture, the church from its very early days, has believed that Peter was crucified for his faith in Jesus Christ—crucified upside down, because he said that he wasn’t worthy to die the way Jesus died.

Peter writes at a time when persecution is increasing, when many Christians are being killed for their faith—and when many are wondering whether Jesus really will return. A time when even inside the church some are wondering, “What’s the point?” Does it really matter how we live? A time when false teachers were, as Peter writes in 2:1-2, “secretly bringing in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, … and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”

Even in the church, Peter is saying, sexual permissiveness is being accepted as a legitimate Christian lifestyle. The purpose of his letter is to remind the churches to live a life that is pleasing to God. To remind them that Jesus really will be coming again, to remind them that the fact that He hasn’t returned yet isn’t because He has forgotten them but rather that He is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God is giving us time to come to Him, giving us time to share the good news of the gospel with all those who still need to hear it.

2 Peter 3:11-12 asks the question: “What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”

Jesus has been gone for probably just a little more than 30 years—and the churches, even those leading some of the churches, have begun to turn away from His Word and toward the ways of the world around them.

Sounds a lot like the church in our world today, doesn’t it?

And the question for us is the same as that which Peter asked 2000 years ago: “What sort of people ought you to be?”

We find our answer in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel as we meet a priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, both of whom are descendants of Aaron. Luke 1:6 says “They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.”

60 or 70 years before Peter’s letter was written, Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were living simple lives of faith. 400 years before that, God had stopped speaking to them—and yet they remembered His promises, they trusted that He would someday act on them, and so they devoted themselves to living for Him.

To be righteous before God in the Bible doesn’t mean without sin. To be righteous means that one worships God and tries to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. It means to keep the commandments—and to be a person of prayer.

Two ordinary people living ordinary lives that honor God—exactly the kind of people that God loves to use. And He does it in a way that makes it clear that, although God has been silent for 400 years, since the days of the prophet Malachi, He has not forgotten them.

Not only has He not forgotten them, but His hand has been continually upon them.

Priests were descended from Moses’ brother Aaron and by the time of Zechariah, more than 1000 years had passed. There were now somewhere around 18,000 priests serving in rotation twice a year. But to assist in the daily offering by going into the holy place was at best a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Selection was made by casting lots—and could we really imagine that it was just coincidence that the one time in his life that Zechariah is chosen is the day that the angel is sent to talk to him?

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

We now discover that Zechariah has not only been trying to live a godly life, he has also been a man of prayer. The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. … He will be great before the Lord. … And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, … to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:13-17).

So while Zechariah has surely been praying for a child, clearly that’s not all he’s been praying for. He must have also been praying for what God described to the prophet Malachi as “the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5). And before that day came, the Lord told Malachi that, “I will send you Elijah the prophet.”

The angel is telling Zechariah that the child he and Elizabeth will have is the long awaited prophet who will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

But Zechariah is doubtful. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1:18).

How shall he know this? An angel is standing there telling him that it will happen and he doubts. Yes, he and Elizabeth are old, but he knows the Scripture. He knows that God sent a son to Abraham and Sarah when she was 90 years old and Abraham was 100. He knows that nothing is impossible for God.

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

Clearly not a doubting people. The angel appears to be astonished at the question. “Here I am, Gabriel, sent from God. How often does an angel show up to talk to you?”

But really, is it that hard to understand Zechariah’s doubt? Don’t we all have those times when we doubt? I know I do. I have no doubt at all that God can do all things—but I often have great doubt that He can do them through me.

Could it be that what Zechariah doubted was that God would use him, that God would use Elizabeth, to be the parents of the first prophet to come in 400 years?

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

Do you believe that God can use you? Do you believe that He created you and put you where you are in order to fulfill His purposes? That He has plans for you? That He has plans for every one of us? That none of us are here by accident?

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

We ought to be a people who are ready. We ought to be a people who are willing. Are we?

The angel told Zechariah that because he doubted he would be unable to speak until the day that his son was born—and when he left the temple, he could no longer speak. He went home to Elizabeth and soon she was pregnant.

“Old” and “advanced in years” probably meant that Zechariah and Elizabeth were over 60. So while they were excited about having a baby, they must have wondered if they were up to raising a child at their age.

Katherine in Estonia

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

We ought to be a people who value life. We live in a culture that places little value on life, a culture in which many think of an unborn child as not a real person, as something that can be disposed of if we don’t think we’re ready to have a child or if we don’t think we can’t afford to have a child or if we just don’t want the bother of having a child. Even in the church, many see nothing wrong with ending the life of a child in the womb.

And yet, we hear the angel tell Zechariah that the baby that Elizabeth will have “will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). Before he is even born, John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah’s parents had no idea when Zechariah was born that God had chosen him to be the father of John the Baptist—but He had. He was part of God’s plan. What if he had not been allowed to live?

We learned at the LCMC Gathering held in Minneapolis in October that fully 1/3 of the High School graduating class of 2017 in this country did not graduate—because they were never allowed to be born. What plans that God had prepared for these lives will never be realized because the parents of these babies did not allow them to be born? Because they thought the mother was too young or the father was no longer in the picture or for whatever other reasons that seemed to make so much sense to them.

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

We ought to be a people who trust that even when things make no sense to us, even when things look awful, we can trust that God is in control. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

How many of the problems that we face in this world, from cancer to Alzheimers to Parkinsons and a long list of other incurable illnesses, to terrorism and racism and a whole long list of problems that we face in our nation and our world are still with us because we did not allow the child that God was raising up to find the answer to be born? Is it possible that the next Billy Graham or Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Teresa or Martin Luther was not allowed to leave the womb alive?

No child has ever, since the beginning of time, been conceived without God allowing it to happen. And yet even in the church, we hear people who think abortion is sometimes necessary.

Pastor: Unborn infant diagnosed with problems and everyone urged abortion. Baby born healthy.

I can’t tell you how many times we have prayed for unborn babies when doctors have predicted a potential problem, only to have the babies born healthy. Many of you have been involved in those prayers.  I don’t think this is because doctors are incompetent—I believe that the God who answered the prayers of Zechariah continues to answer our prayers today.

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

We ought to be a people of prayer. A people of prayer without ceasing.

2 Peter 3:10 “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the work that are done on it will be exposed.”

Jesus is coming back—we don’t know when but we do know that when He returns, there will be nowhere for us to hide. Every one of us will face Him.

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

Every one of us should be, according to the prophet Isaiah, “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).

Jesus is coming back—He hasn’t come yet, so there is still time. Still time for us to reach repentance. Still time for us to turn our lives to holiness and godliness, still time for us to worship our Lord and Savior with all of our lives, every moment of every day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t ignore this call from the apostle Peter. Don’t fail to “be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace” (2 Peter 3:14).

As I prepared this message, wildfires were raging in California, spreading at the rate of about “an acre a minute.” Hundreds of schools were forced to close, thousands were without power, hundreds of homes and businesses have been lost and many more were being evacuated. As horrible as this picture is, it is only the smallest glimpse of what will happen when Jesus actually returns. We won’t watch the flames from a safe distance of a few thousand miles—they’ll be everywhere.

Is this the beginning of the end? No, because when the end comes, it won’t be just California that’s on fire. Peter writes, “The heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!” (2 Peter 3:12).

The entire universe will be on fire. The fires that began in July across much of the western United States and Canada and that show no sign of ending any time soon could however be a foreshadowing of what is to come.

God promised Noah that the world would never again be destroyed by a flood—Scripture promises that the next time, God will destroy it by fire.

“What sort of people ought you to be?”

“Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:14-15).

Let us pray—while there’s still time.

Gracious God, may you give each one of us the blessing of a strong desire to be the sort of people we ought to be. Give us the faith to believe that you really can be all in all to each one of us according to our need. Give us hearts that desire above all else to be used by you.