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| Glory Revealed Isaiah 9: 1 – 7 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 25 December, 2003 |
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| THE GOSPEL is good news. God has done a new
thing. In Jesus, God makes everything new! We are not just saved for
eternity, we are followers of a King and servants of a mighty Lord. UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGES We live in an age when we Christians face unprecedented challenges. Christmas speaks to us in those challenges. Secularism Last week, Bruce Petty’s cartoon in The Sydney Morning Herald showed the wise men fighting around Jesus’ manger, and had a caption to the effect that that would never have happened before the oriental kings were Christians and Jews and Muslims and were only wise men. What is it saying? Of course, it is repeating the truism that religion kills. Religion does kill. Fortunately God is not religious. But it is also a challenge. It is secularism confronting religion. I say religion and not faith, because I am unconvinced that any religion other than Christianity should really be called a faith. This is not an attempt to insult other religions, but only an observation, that the gospel of Jesus Christ absolutely depends on faith, whereas all other religions ultimately depend on performance. Yes, we face a challenge from secularism. We face a challenge unprecedented in world history, where a new religion that acknowledges no God disputes the right of any god to exist, except as a cultural curiosity. Almost daily, you hear howls of protest in the Letters columns when some Christian speaks out on social or ethical issues. Christians must not speak out, because that breaks down the separation of church and state. Christians must not speak out, because their leaders are not elected. Christians must not speak out, because some Christians have done wrong in the past. It’s all nonsense, but people increasingly believe it. As Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Dr. Goebbels, said: if you tell a big enough lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Immorality Furthermore, we face a moral breakdown which threatens the fabric of society. I am not pointing the finger at alcoholism, drug abuse or pornography. These are symptoms, not causes. Think of the growing gap between rich and poor in Australia, a gap which has grown far wider over the past five or six years. Think of how laws are being changed, bit by bit, to protect business from its obligations to employees, or to let pollution to grow unchecked. Think of the oppression of the powerless. Think of HIH, Enron, One Tel. And behind each collapse lurks uncounted similar businesses not yet caught. Islam But Christianity not only faces challenges from secularism and immorality, it also faces challenges from Islam. In part that challenge occurs because of the moral failure of our society. People aching for things to be better feel that cutting off thieves’hands and stoning adulterers will deliver a strong message. Sharia law lines up well with the election year abuse auctions held between the various parties. It’s attractive to people who think tougher laws and harsher punishments will make people more righteous. In the four years up to the 2001 census, the Muslim population of Australia grew about 40%. Money pours in from oil–rich Islamic states, not only to aid settlers in a new and difficult country, but to help them gain political power. And an increasingly vocal Islam is organised and working hard to sweep Christianity away and make Islam dominant in our land, in our region and in the world. By comparision, Christianity is disorganised, divided, under–resourced, and demoralised. We fear speaking out because secularism and Christian fundamentalism have combined for too long to silence our voices. We face the biggest crisis of the past thousand years. An American Civil Liberties lawyer, a Jew, remarked recently that Christians will become the Jews of the 21st Century if the world continues as it is going. We dare not fight with human weapons. How can we take up arms and remain clearly true to our Lord and his message? As St John Chrysostomos remarked, Christ is our Shepherd, who protects his sheep from wolves. But, once we cease behaving as sheep and begin behaving as wolves, we lose the Shepherd’s protection. A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS Yet we need to know that there is light in the darkness, a light that has never been overcome. We need to know that there is a trustworthy ruler. We need to know that there is a wonderful counsellor, a mighty God who will see us and our nation through all crises. It is not easy for me to talk this way. I don’t like sounding alarmist. I won’t join the fanatics who find communists under beds and demons in everyone who claps to a chorus. I also know that this sermon will be read on the Internet and may fall into the wrong hands. But we have to know what is before us. We have to be ready. And we need to understand that Christmas is a declaration of God’s victory through God’s way of doing things. If we are distressed, if we walk in darkness and live in the land of death’s shadow, Christmas promises dawning light; Christmas guarantees a blaze of glory to light our way. The catch is, that this is true, only if we are prepared to be God’s people, walking in newness of life with our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah wrote to a defeated and distressed Israel, promising times of refreshment from the Lord. This was partially fulfilled at that time. The people returned from captivity. The nation was re–established on just and righteous foundations. A degree of security returned. The people walking in darkness
But that’s not the end of it. There was far more to come; far greater
things were in store.have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. The nation rejoiced in the birth of a new king; we rejoice in the birth of the King of kings, Jesus himself: For to us a child is
born,
No merely earthly king could rightly be called “mighty God.” This title
belongs to Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone.to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And that is why it so suits Jesus. He is always the wonderful Counsellor. He is always the mighty God. He is always the Everlasting Father. He is always Prince of Peace. PROPHECIES FOR THIS DAY Ever since that little baby was born in a cattle food trough in a cave or shed behind the Bethlehem inn, all the promises began to be fulfilled. A virgin was pregnant, as we read in Isaiah 7, and give birth to a son, and called him Immanuel. God was with us. God was with us and has never departed. I have been a Christian for 41 years now. I am often glad at Christmas to hear thes words put to music by Georg Friedrich Händel in his famous Messiah. It is great to know that Jesus fulfills the ancient prophecy. But we need to know that Jesus is the Son God gave us for now. We need to know that Jesus is the wonderful Counsellor for now, that he is the mighty God for now, the everlasting Father for now, the Prince of Peace for now. He is no mere fulfilment of prophecy, but a present Saviour, who is able to save to the uttermost those who come to him. God has given him to us so that, if we need counsel from God, we have it; if we need a mighty God on our side in the battle for justice, we have it, if we need the comfort of an everlasting Father, we have it; if we need a way of peace in the midst of strife, then it is ours. We do not need a new message, but we need a fresh understanding of the message we have already heard. We live in troubled times. The kings of the
earth rise up
But what does God’s Word declare to us? In Psalm 2, it continues,and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against his Messiah. The One enthroned in
heaven laughs;
The rule of our God and of his Christ is secure. But we can delay its
completion if we fail to respond to the message.the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. AVOIDING AN ERRONEOUS RESPONSE But I don’t want anyone making mistakes. I don’t want any errors here. We might face anti–Christian secularism, and sometimes want to restrict it in the same way that it tries and often succeeds in restricting us. We might face growing immorality to the extent that we start thinking that the wicked prosper and we should join them or lose everything. We might face the demonic spiritual forces of anti-Christ Islam and want to fight a war on its terms, with bombs and guns and aircraft. But that is not Christ’s way. Christmas began with a tiny, vulnerable baby, unwanted by an uncaring world, threatened with death by the political rulers, opposed by demonised religion. THE WAY OF VULNERABILITY He didn’t utter a mumbling word. He trusted in God, that he would deliver him. All the way from the cradle to the cross, the world opposed him; and all the way from the cradle to the cross, he refused to fight on the world’s terms. He was the Immanuel baby, he was the governing son, but he never wields a blood-stained sword. And even when we come to see him in the Revelation, when we see the risen, conquering Son in all his heavenly glory, we see ...among the
lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching
down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes
were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were
like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of
rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he
held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
The sword comes out of his mouth; it is not in his right hand; his
power is the power of the Word, not the power of the sword.Jesus will conquer: human might will fail. Christmas reminds us of that fact, and calls us to follow, starting without power or riches or position; starting only with naked faith. In 320AD an aggressively anti-Christian Roman military commander in Armenia, named Agricola, found Christians among his men. Forty of them refused to make a sacrifice to declare Caesar as lord. The Eastern Emporer, Licinius, had signed an agreement with the Western Emperor, Constantine, not to persecute Christians, but he ignored his undertaking. Agricola would not stand for rebellion, and felt safe from any punishment if he persecuted Christians, so he condemned the men to stand all night, stripped and naked, in the middle of frozen Lake Sevaste. If any of them chose to renounce Christ and sacrifice to Caesar as lord, he had only to leave the ice and come to the warmth, and be welcomed back. Darkness fell, the temperature dropped, and finally, in the flickering light of the sentries’ torches, one of the condemned soldiers stirred. He marched across the ice and rejoined his troop. The cold was too much for him to bear. Yet, when this man stepped into a warm bath set there for anyone ready to renounce Christ, he died of the shock. Meanwhile the remaining 39 soldiers prayed together and sang hymns. It was too much for one of the guards. He stripped off his armour and tunic and headed across the ice to join the 39. He was convinced by their faith, and determined to follow Christ regardless of the cost. In the morning, several of the soldiers were alive, but barely conscious, so Agricola ordered his men to break their legs, so they all quickly died. That faith is far more powerful than political or religious oppression. It is a faith more powerful than sin’s inroads. It is a Christmas faith, a faith that looks to God and not to man, a faith that depends on the zeal of the Lord to accomplish righteous ends, a faith that looks to the wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. A NEW BEGINNING This Christmas, begin afresh with him! Make a personal commitment: never to budge and never to fight on the world’s terms, but always to follow the Lord of fresh beginnings and of hope. AMEN |
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| © Peter R. Green 2003. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. | |
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