What is your response to the Resurrection? For the men and women who encountered and empty tomb and a Risen Christ, the Resurrection changed everything. Has it changed everything for you? Has it given hope in grief? Joy in sorrow? Faith in fear? Have you met the Risen Christ, the Living One, who has defeated the last enemy, Death, and holds the keys to death and the grave? Listen to “Not Here” from Luke 24:1-12 as we consider our own response to the Resurrection of Jesus.
Tag: Gospel of Luke
04/05/2020 | “Making Arrangements” | Luke 23:50-56
Jesus burial established a remarkable trajectory of hope for all who believe in him. Had Jesus been tossed into a Roman burial pit, many clear and compelling proofs of the resurrection would not have been possible. But in God’s advanced funeral planning for His Only Begotten Son, he is buried in a prominent place, in a grave secure from unseen access, in a new, unused tomb, and wrapped in grave-clothes that would be abandoned. Listen to “Making Arrangements” as we examine Luke 23:50-56 and consider amazing importance of the burial of the Lord Jesus as it testifies to the certainty of Jesus’ death, the courage of those who follow Him, and a clear witness to the resurrection. Get the Order of Service here.
Unlikely Converts
Nothing keeps Christ in Christmas like our annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings. Now before you accuse me of sarcasm or heresy, consider that Tolkien’s Christian worldview shines brightly through every line of his books as well as through all twelve hours of the extended versions of Peter Jackson’s adaptation. Against all odds, as the irresistible darkness, oppression and malice of a Dark Lord covers the world in shadow and sorrow, salvation comes to the ruined race of men from the most unlikely of heroes. Like all great epic tales, great odds are overcome and great courage is exercised as common men perform uncommon deeds.
Tolkien’s magnum opus is filled with many nuggets of wisdom, spoken at salient points. In one exchange, the main character, Frodo laments, “I wish the ring had never come to me,” as bearing it had become unbearable. His friend, Gandalf responds, “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’” But not all the quotable quotes have such gravitas. Gimli, a dwarf, who provides no end of comic relief, quips when facing the prospect of a futile frontal assault on the Dark Lord’s stronghold, “certainty of death, small chance of success – what are we waiting for?”
The Lord of the Rings is a powerful story of courage, friendship, and redemption, eclipsed only by what its author once called “the only true myth” – the gospel. The gospel is a story that is so unlikely, in which common men, empowered by faith, perform uncommon deeds and in which the ruined race of men is gloriously redeemed by a mighty hero, who took on the form of a servant and humbled himself, even to death on a cross. The gospel is a story of unlikely converts, not of men whose moral excellence made them acceptable to God or earned his favor, nor men of power whose mighty deeds destroyed the power of their great enemies, death and the devil. No, the gospel is a story of the weak and powerless, snatched as burning brands from the fire.
Nowhere is this seen more powerfully than in Luke 2 – a passage sometimes called, “the Christmas story.” Here the Lord of glory is born into quiet obscurity while the only announcement is given to shepherds, the most despised and outcast class of society. These enigmatic shepherds were the most unlikely of converts — men who were notoriously under suspicion, who were rejected from temple worship due to their habitual and ritual uncleanness, and whose word was not acceptable in the courts. If anyone had hope to receive God’s goodwill and favor because of their works it was not these men.
Yet these were the men to whom God announced, “for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Unto “you!” No one gave these men anything, but unto them God had given a savior! Luther once wrote that “the gospel is in the personal pronouns.” Like them, if we hope to receive God’s goodwill and favor because of our works, then we are sorely mistaken. But the good news is that a savior has been born to us, Christ the Lord. For you see, we are all the most unlikely of converts!
Join us this Lord’s Day, December 16, as we examine the story of the shepherds in Luke 2 and consider God’s powerful plan to save the most unlikely of converts. We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock. Click here for directions. Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and worship. We look forward to seeing you there.
Making Preparations
No day of the year requires more preparation than Christmas. The demands of the season have become increasingly prodigious. We must find just the right gift for all our friends and relations, synchronize calendars so that all events can be attended, and devise elaborate culinary plans for nearly six weeks of feasting. And then there is the decorating which gets earlier and earlier every year as it gets more and more sensational.
The first mile marker on the road to Christmas for our family is the baking of the Christmas Cake. Inspired by an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, Isabella bakes the cake in mid-October then methodically feeds it brandy for the next two months. There is no rushing the Christmas Cake. Some things cannot be hurried. The preparation must be slow and intentional. Every step is important. No shortcuts are possible. And at last, after months of waiting, the day arrives just before Christmas when the cake can be iced and enjoyed with great fanfare.
I suppose it makes sense that our Christmas preparations are slow and methodical, unfolding step by step. Since the great event our celebration signifies, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, was also slow and methodical, revealed step by step in the history of God’s redeeming work among men. The Bible puts it this way.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 4:4-6.
God took His time. He worked in the fullness of time. He could have done things differently, but He sovereignly chose an unhurried pace to prepare men for His work of reconciling them to Himself. From generation to generation He raised up men and women through whom He acted to remind us that He is not powerless or unconcerned to save us from ourselves and prepare us to receive Him as our Savior and King. But how careful have we been to heed this preparation? Or have we spent more time preparing for mere signs of His grace than the grace those things signify?
One ancient preacher warned his congregation before observing the Lord’s Supper.
“Why come ye to this table, if you will not come to Christ? Why come to signs and seals and despise the very thing they point to?”
We could ask ourselves the same thing. Have we spent months preparing for Christmas, but have no time for Christ? John the Baptist was the great preparer – the forerunner of Jesus. His life’s work was to “make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” At his birth friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate his parent’s joy, they speculated on what the baby would grow up to become.
As his father’s unbelief gave way to belief, the Lord restored his speech and he uttered a long-delayed word of blessing. But his blessing and thanksgiving were not about his baby boy, but about the one his son would herald. John’s whole life would singularly revolve around preparing himself and others for Jesus. And Jesus would later declare that of all those born of women, John was the greatest. Nowhere is John’s greatness seen more brilliantly than in the following exchange with a Pharisee in John 3.
And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Can you say that? Are you content to decrease, that Jesus may increase? Does your life revolve around preparing yourself and others to love, serve and follow Jesus? Join us this Lord’s Day, December 9, as we examine the account of the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:57-80 and consider our own calling to prepare ourselves and others for Christ. We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock. Click here for directions. Or download the December 19, 2018 Order of Service
Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and worship. We look forward to seeing you there.
River City Reformed Church 