Love (Advent)

1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows (has first hand acquaintance with[1]) God. 8 Everyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.[2] 9 By this the love of God is revealed within and made visible among us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live a life worthy of His name through him.  

10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Beloved (divinely loves ones), if God so loved us, then we owe[3] love to one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love reaches its final, perfect goal in us.[4] 13 By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.  

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone professes/confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe[5] the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.  

17 By this, love is brought to perfection within us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fearful fleeing[6] in love, but perfect love – love that reaches the end goal - drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears the punishment of the day of judgment has not been perfected in love. 

 19 We love because he loved us first.20 If anyone says “I love God” and yet detests and devalues his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

* * * * *

During Advent, we talk a God who ‘put on flesh’ (incarnated) and became what John called an atoning sacrifice by taking the penalty for our sins against Him upon himself (John 3:16-17), thus bringing about peace. In many different places, the Bible is clear about why that happened: Jesus loves us (1 John 4:19; Romans 8:35-39; John 3;16, etc).  

This is pretty straightforward, but to understand what it means that God loves us, we have to understand what love is. So let’s talk this morning about how we get past our filters and misunderstandings to better appreciate God’s love for us and better pass on God’s love to others.

First, God’s love is supernaturally sourced. In the New Testament, the word for the love God has for us is the Greek word agape.[7] In the Greek literature we have recovered, there is very little use of this word because it wasn’t a kind of love they valued that highly. In the New Testament, agape is used 320 times. The church took a seldom used Greek word, refined it, and introduced a radical new way of understanding love in light of God’s love for us.[i] 

Agape love… is the most self-sacrificing love that there is.  This type of love is the love that God has for His own children. This type of love is what was displayed on the cross by Jesus Christ.  In John 3:16 it is written that “God so loved (agapao) the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”[8] 

"Agape love is unconcerned with the self and concerned with the greatest good of another. Agape isn’t born just out of emotions, feelings, familiarity, or attraction but from the will and as a choice. Agape requires faithfulness, commitment, and sacrifice without expecting anything in return.” (Alyssa Roat)[9]

Second, we don’t have to earn it. God loves people: not because he needs us; not because we complete him; not because we are worthy, or lovable, or pure, or spiritually impressive; not because we please God or represent Him well. As one pastor noted,

While eros and philia thirst, agape simply overflows. This means – please stay with me here – that God’s love for us, in the end, has absolutely nothing to do with us. In other words, God does not love us because of who we are. Or because of what we do, or can do for God. Or because of what we say, or build, or accomplish, or change, or pray, or give, or profess, or believe… God simply loves us...[10]

When I pray regularly and passionately, God’s love does not fail. When I don’t, God’s love does not fail. When I was chained in sin and when I was freed; when I ignore Him and when I am enamored with Him; when I am depressed or happy, anxious or at peace, self-loathing of self-loving; when I pastor well and when I do it terribly; when I am loved by others and despised by others…

If you ever think, “How can God possibly love me? I’m a disaster,” take heart: God specializes in loving and saving disasters. God has never waited to love people until they were good enough to be loved. He loves people because He is that kind of God. And that gives me great hope indeed.

 Third, God’s love will never be seen perfectly in people. None of us are Jesus. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in surrendered lives, we are being transformed into his image, and we are becoming more and more like Christ. But we won’t nail it until we are in Heaven, so on this side of eternity we will fail to adequately represent what the love of Jesus looks like. We have to be ready for this. We will inevitably distort the genuine nature of godly love, and so will others. I don’t mean to be depressing; I’m just trying to be honest. With God’s help, we will often represent God’s love well, but we will never be perfect.

That doesn’t bring me despair; that actually brings me hope. God’s love is better than even the best love that I have experienced when it comes to human love. God’s love is deeper, more faithful, more present, more life-changing, more holy and pure. Awesome. I love the glimpses I get from others, but I’m never going to mistake them for the fullness of the kind of love God has for me.

That gives me the freedom to see failure in others and not be disillusioned. It gives me the freedom to take people off a pedestal and let them be people instead of wishing they were perfect like God. And it gives me hope that people who do it so badly still bring such tremendous love into the world.  If there is this much good in a fallen Earth, I can’t imagine the goodness in the New Heaven and Earth.

Fourth, God’s love helps us love others well. Christ’s love was focused on us. As we become more like Christ, we will find that our live is focused on others.

·      “This is my command: (agape) each other.” (John 15:17)

·       “Anyone who does not (agape) does not know God, because God is (agape).” (1 John 4:8)

When we have trouble loving God or others well, we often focus on how to love better. That’s a good and necessary focus, but it’s the wrong starting point. We need to first refocus on the one who loves us. We need to experience and understand God’s love.

If a person is not loving, John says, he or she does not know God (1 John 4:8). How will that individual become more loving, then? Can we grow in love by trying to love more? No, our attempts to love will only end in more frustration and less love. The solution, John implies, is to know God better. This is so simple that we miss it all the time: our means for becoming more loving is to know God better. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12) 

The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. (Francis Chan, Crazy Love)

“We are thirsty, thirsty people. We long to know that we have worth, and value, and beauty. We ache to belong, to be included. But we run around our whole lives going after the sorts of love which will never completely satisfy this thirst. But in Christ, in the agape love of God, we find a love, the only love, which can fill us, and satisfy us so that we find ourselves, now overflowing, finally able to also love in a way that no longer seeks to take, but only to give.

Yes, Jesus wants you to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Jesus wants you to love your neighbors as you love yourself. He wants us to love with agape love. But if we try to love others, even God, like this without first realizing that we are already loved like this, all our efforts will only lead to despair. You see, agape love never flows from us. It only flows through us from the one who loves like we, on our own, never could.[11]

Fifth, love is costly. Paul talks about Jesus taking on humanity and “becoming obedient unto death, even a death on the cross” (Philippians 2:8). David said that he would not give God a sacrifice that cost him nothing (1 Chronicles 21:24).

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”  C.S. Lewis

 Love will be costly because it will break our hearts.  It will force us to walk into the hard work of life when all we want to do is wrap ourselves carefully with hobbies and luxuries and silence and entertainment and selfishness. 

• I cannot love my wife without a cost to myself:  conversations about hard things; late nights and long days because of work, or household chores and juggling responsibilities; forgiveness. I can wrap up my heart, or I can be broken for my wife.

• We cannot love our friends without a cost to ourselves.  Sometimes it’s messy (hurtful things said or done).  We can wrap up our hearts and never let them see us, or we can be vulnerable.

• We cannot love our neighbors without a cost to ourselves. If my neighbors are far from Christ, then a lot of things they do, say and love will be far from Christ. Love – real love – will be costly as we get to know and understand, as we listen and love, as we speak truth with love and grace, and we seek to represent Christ and with humility and boldness surrounded by hospitality of head, heart and hands.

• We cannot love the church, the body of Christ, without a cost.  We are not perfect people.  We will have to “bear each other’s burdens,” because we all bring burdens that other people will have to bear.  It is not a question of if.  It is a question of when.  Showing the kind of love to others that God showed to me demands something of my life.  Love is costly.

Jesus at times WEPT.  His heart was wrung out and broken. When we set out to love people with the love Christ showed to us, it will cost us something.  Like Paul said, there will be times we are poured out like an offering (Philippians 2:17).

Sixth, God’s love is transformational. The cost is only part of the story of love, and by itself, sounds hard.  But what love offers – what Christ offers -  in exchange for that cost is transformation. It’s tough to find one verse that encapsulates all the ways. Sharla Fritz compiled a list:[12]

1.    God’s love banishes fear. 1 John 4:18:  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

2.    God’s love gives us strength against Satan’s attacks.  Psalm 59:10,17: “My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies…O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.”

3.    God’s love helps us trust. Psalm 13:5: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

4.    God’s love leads us to contentment.  Psalm 90:14: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

5.    God’s love draws us to worship. Psalm 5:7: “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.”

6.    God’s love enables us to stay on His path. “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3).

7.    God’s love gives us the confidence to pray. Psalm 69:13: “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”

8.    God’s love motivates us to obey. Psalm 106:7 tells us the reason for the Israelites’ rebellion: “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.”

9.    God’s love helps us to love others. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

If I were to summarize what that looks like on a personal level, it’s the exchange of the beauty Jesus brings for the ashes of our lives.

• The disciples – from petty, self-centered cowards to martyrs

• Mary Magdelene – from demon possessed (7!) to eyewitness to the Resurrection

• Paul -  from persecutor to follower

Is there anything else that captures this transformative power of God’s love better than this commentary Paul offered on the church in Corinth:  “All these things you once were…” (1 Corinthians 6:11) he says after listing off the sins that had defined their lives.

And as we are transformed by the love of God, we transform things around us through the love that passes through us.

My marriage looks different when I love my family as Jesus loves me. My friendships change if I love my friends as Jesus loves me. This church changes when God’s love passes through me to you and permeates our relationships. My witness changes when I love everyone with the same kind of love Jesus showed me when I was dead in my sins.

When Jesus came, he offered LOVE, and in this love was the hope of transformation of the world that is also played out in individual lives all the time. It wasn’t some generic “Heal the World” campaign, it was a deeply personal offer to transform you into something new, and keep transforming you until you are perfected in eternity.

MERCY TREE (Lacey Sturm)

On a hill called Calvary, stands an endless Mercy Tree
Every broken weary soul -  find your rest and be made whole.                                       

Stripes of blood that stain its frame shed to wash away our shame
From the scars, pure love released, salvation by the Mercy Tree.

In the sky between two thieves hung the blameless Prince of Peace
Bruised and battered Scarred and scorned, Sacred head pierced by our thorns.               

"It is finished, " was His cry, the perfect lamb was crucified
His sacrifice, our victory - Our Savior chose the Mercy Tree

Hope went dark that violent day, the whole earth quaked at love's display
Three days silent in the ground, this body born for heaven's crown.                                   

 And on that bright and glorious day, when heaven opened up the grave
He's alive and risen indeed - Praise Him for the Mercy Tree!

Death has died, love has won Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome; He has risen from the dead!

One day soon, we'll see His face, and every tear, He'll wipe away
No more pain or suffering, oh praise Him for the Mercy Tree

____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] HELPS Word Studies

[2] “From a grammatical standpoint this is not a proposition in which subject and predicate nominative are interchangeable (“God is love” does not equal “love is God”). (NET Bible)

[3] 3784 /opheílō ("owe") refers to being morally obligated (or legally required) to meet an obligation, i.e. to pay off a legitimate debt. [3784 (opheílō) "originally belonged to the legal sphere; it expressed initially one's legal and economic, and then later one's moral, duties and responsibilities to the gods and to men, or to their sacrosanct regulations. . . . opheílō expresses human and ethical responsibility in the NT" (DNTT, 2, 662.663).] – HELPS Word Studies

[4] 5048 teleióō – to consummate, reaching the end-stage, i.e. working through the entire process (stages) to reach the final phase (conclusion).  See 5056 (telos).

[This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." HELPS Word Studies

[5] “In the Gospel of John the two verbs frequently occur together in the same context, often in the same tense; examples may be found in John 6:69; 8:31-32; 10:38; 14:7-10, and 17:8. They also occur together in one other context in 1 John, 4:1-2. Of these John 6:69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”, Peter’s confession, is the closest parallel to the usage here: “We have come to believe [πεπιστεύκαμεν] and to know [ἐγνώκαμεν] that you are the holy One of God.” It appears that the author considered both terms to describe a single composite action… describing an act of faith/belief/trust on the part of the individual; knowledge (true knowledge) is an inseparable part of this act of faith.” (NET Bible)

[6] Fear (5401 /phóbos) is commonly used in Scripture – sometimes positively (in relation to God) but more often negatively of withdrawing from the Lord (His will).

[Fundamentally, 5401 /phóbos ("fear") means withdraw (separate from), i.e. flee (remove oneself) and hence to avoid because of dread (fright).] – HELPS Word Studies

[7] The Greeks used a number a words for love:  there is one for erotic love (eros), one for friendship love (philia), one for family affection (storge) and one for self-sacrificial love (agape).

[8] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/05/02/what-is-agape-love-a-bible-study/

[9] https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-does-agape-love-really-mean-in-the-bible.html

[10] http://faithpresby.org/archives/sermons/written/files_4d2a59265361b.pdf

[11] [11] http://faithpresby.org/archives/sermons/written/files_4d2a59265361b.pdf

[12] http://www.sharlafritz.com/2021/08/10-ways-gods-love-changes-you/

Christians, Christmas and Christ

Is Christmas based on pagan celebrations? Is there a War On Christmas? Why do we have the decorations we do? What does it even mean to get into the spirit of Christmas? What follows starts 2,000 years ago; meander through the Middle Ages, Puritans, and your local Starbucks, and end up in your heart. I hope you enjoy the journey!

BIRTH

·      The date of Jesus’ birth is not known. Dionysius (1st century) is known for doing the historical math and arriving at a birth year around BC 12.[1] Others disagreed.[2]Generally, Jesus’ birth date is now placed around 4 BC, but there is nothing of theological or spiritual significance that hangs on this date. It was not a priority in the early church, and no writer of Scripture saw fit to include a date.  

·      The early church associated birthday celebrations with the pagan gods.[3] Early Christian writers (Irenaeus, 130–200; Tertullian, 155–240; Origen of Alexandria, 165–264) mocked Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with  festivities at that place and time.[4]Origen(c.185-c.254) said it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Tertullian did not list it as a Christian holiday for sure.

·      When Jesus’ birthdate was discussed, the date would have been figured out from a tradition that martyrs died on the same date they were conceived. If Jesus died on 14 Nisan (March 25), he was conceived on a March 25, which meant he was born on December 25 if the timing was perfect J.

·      Hippolytus' Commentary on Daniel (AD 200) claimed either March or December 25 as the date for Jesus' birth; Clement thought March 25 as the date of Jesus conception, thus 9 months before his birth and death.[5]

* * * * * *

THE ROMAN INTERLUDE: Did Christians Join A Pagan Holiday?

SATURNALIA: In the time that Jesus was born, Roman had been observing Saturnalia starting December 17 and generally lasting 6 days. It was a holiday in honor of Saturn, “the birthday of the unconquered sun,” and it was a party (to say the least) characterized by a lot of personal and societal chaos. It was a mix of good and bad for sure. 

There seems to be little reason to think Christians chose December 25 to join or subvert a pagan holiday. The Jewish population from which Christianity emerged was quite good at establishing their own holidays;  their math was based on Jesus’ death date/conception date.  Really, because the early church did not celebrate birthdays, the likelihood of Saturnalia influencing a Christmas celebration is small. The more likely candidate for potential overlap is the next one. 

SOLIS INVICTI. “On December 25th, 274 AD, the Emperor Aurelian created a holiday called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birthday of the Sun – officially elevating the Sun to the highest position among the gods.”[6] This would be a better candidate for the melding of Christian and pagan holidays, but by the time December 25 becomes a time for Christian celebration, Solas Invicti was largely more of a cultural festival than a religious one.[7] In fact, a Christian writer, in 320: “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it.”[8]

* * * * *

A Roman almanac from 336 that lists the death (and thus birth) dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs, the first date listed, December 25, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae: “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.[9]

By AD 386, Chrysostom celebrated December 25th as Jesus’ birthday, preaching, "Without the birth of Christ there is no Baptism, no Passion, no Resurrection, no Ascension and no Pouring out of the Holy Spirit..."[10]

Augustine (354-430 AD) wrote: “So then, let us celebrate the birthday of the Lord with all due festive gatherings.”[11]

In 389 St Gregory (one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church) warned against 'feasting in excess, dancing and crowning the doors'. [12] Things were already getting a little rowdy. 

The Feast of the Nativity spread to Egypt (in the 400s), England (in the 500s), Scandinavia by the 700s (we get the language of “Yule” and the tradition of Yule logs from them), and Russia by the 900s.

During the Middle Ages (400-1400) the church formally increased the focus on Jesus’ birth, but a lot of the informal celebration was not as focused. This is where one could argue that a Saturnalia-type of influence began to significantly overlap. Wikipedia’s article on Saturnalia actually has a really good article making some correlations. 

From the mid-fourth century on, we do find Christians deliberately adapting and Christianizing pagan festivals. A famous proponent of this practice was Pope Gregory the Great, who, in a letter written in 601 C.E. to a Christian missionary in Britain, recommended that local pagan temples not be destroyed but be converted into churches, and that pagan festivals be celebrated as feasts of Christian martyrs. At this late point, Christmas may well have acquired some pagan trappings. But we don’t have evidence of Christians adopting pagan festivals in the third century, at which point dates for Christmas were established. [13]

One overlap was that the poor would go to the rich and demand their best food and drink, like a Christmas version of trick or treat. There was a significant economic Reason For The Season as Christmas became a time when the poor demanded that the rich unScrooge themselves for at least one holiday. 

The Catholic Church had the first Midnight Mass on Christmas (“Christ’s Mass”) Eve 1039; it was a celebration that marked a transition from fasting to feasting. [14]As much as the Church formally focused on Jesus, Christmas was never fully able to avoid excess in all kinds of feasting once it got outside the confines of the church building. 

In the 12th century, we find the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth was deliberately aligned with pagan feasts. A biblical commentator from Syria claimed the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 to align with the Sol Invictus holiday. There is no reason to believe this is true, though I think it’s fair to say the raucous cultural celebrations had an influence on the informal celebrations of Christmas.

Reformers (beginning 1517) hit the holiday celebration issue pretty hard, which is understandable considering the partying that was going on informally. 

In the 1640s, Puritan Separatists who ‘separated’ from the Church of England sailed across the pond and came to America, with no desire to continue the observation of Christmas practiced in England. (Christmas was a time of drunkenness, rioting and “misrule’, unfortunately, and the religious tension was, uh, strong).

When Oliver Cromwell and the Long Parliament took over England around that same time (1645), they vowed to rid England of decadence and, among other things, cancelled all Christian holidays except Sunday. They even changed the name of Christmas to “Christ-tide” to avoid the word “mass.” 

AMERICAN HISTORY

The Puritans did NOT bring Christmas with them to what we now call the New England states. In fact, from 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston (you could be fined five shillings for exhibiting Christmas spirit). In the War on Christmas in the history of U.S. culture, the Puritans win hands down. On the other hand, John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all at Jamestown, which was settled by Anglicans, people who still were loyal to the Church of England. 

Whatever Christmas momentum might have started in Jamestown faded for a while after the American Revolution (English customs were not popular, as you might imagine). Still, the Anglican South was for more hospitable to Christmas than the Puritan North. 

Fast forward to the 1800s. Unemployment and poverty were high, and actual riots by the poor often occurred during Christmas. A policeman was killed trying to stop a fight between Catholics holding a Christmas Mass and Protestant fundamentalists trying to stop them.[15]

“Christmas joined Sabbath observance, slavery, women’s rights, corruption, immorality, crime, drugs, prostitution, gambling and alcohol, as major moral issues that risked plunging the city and the nation into chaos during the early decades of the young republic. In fact, daily violence reached such proportions that in 1828 the city established its first professional police force following an especially violent Christmas riot. “[16]

In 1819, Washington Irving wrote a book (The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent) that was basically a series of stories/essays that featured an English squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday where the two groups mingled in friendship. To Irving, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday that united people from every walk of life. He also wrote "Diederich Knickerbocker's History of New York," in which Sinterklaes rode through the skies in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.[17][18]

Around that time (1843), Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, a novel which had a huge impact in both England the U.S. It prominently features not a conversion to celebrating Jesus, but a conversion to a spirit of generosity (Dickens himself likely saw this as a necessary outworking of honoring the birth of Jesus). “God bless us, everyone” is experienced through the practical provision charity and generosity and the warmth of family. 

The U.S. being the melting pot that it was, people began building traditions from all sorts of sources,[19] [20] Still, as late as 1855, Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists did not celebrate Christmas, while Episcopalian, Catholic and German churches did.[21] Southern Baptists started moving in that direction after the Civil War ended in the 1860s.

In June 26, 1870, Christmas was officially declared a federal holiday (a number of states, especially from the Anglican tradition in the South, had already made it a state holiday).

Interestingly, by the mid 1900s, the main opposition to Christmas celebrations had been either within the church or between Christians and their Jewish spiritual cousins. The growing Jewish population in the U.S. found themselves very much at odds with a celebration of the birth of the Messiah, so they decided to join in attempts to secularize the holiday so it would be more like an American national holiday rather than a religious one. One of the main contributors was Irving Berlin (1888-1989), a Jewish immigrant whose family fled the pogroms in Russia.[22] He composed the all-time Christmas favorite “White Christmas” in 1942. The wait for snow replaces any expectation of the arrival of the Messiah. [23]

What I Find Interesting So Far

This holiday has been full of tensions not over how to properly celebrate. It has been profoundly holy and amazingly vulgar. There is a significance here. There is a lot at stake.  Nobody started a riot over Groundhog Day. If the Messiah was born, it’s a big deal, and how we acknowledge and celebrate that fact is also a big deal. I would expect this space to be a spiritual battleground of sorts in the sense that our allegiances and our hearts are tested. 

“So no one is really neutral about whether Christmas is true. If the Son of God was really born in a manger, then we have lost the right to be in charge of our lives… if Jesus Christ is really Mighty God and Everlasting Father, you can’t just like him. In the Bible the people who actually saw and heard Jesus never reacted indifferently or even mildly. 

Once they realized what he was claiming about himself, either they were scared of him or furious with him or they knelt down before him and worshipped him. But nobody simply liked him. Nobody said, ‘He is so inspiring. He makes me want to live a better life.’ If the baby born at Christmas is the Mighty God, then you must serve him completely.”  - Tim Keller

Christmas reminds us there was an Incarnation, a time when God became Man and lived, died, and rose again among us.  Christmas is a celebration of the birth of The King, and as such is loaded with implications of allegiance. If King Jesus is celebrated, it’s unsettling to the leaders of earthly empires and spiritual principalities and powers that there is King to whom millions give their highest allegiance.  The true celebration of Christmas will always be joyfully tumultuous in the world.

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS[24]

THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Pagans had long used trees as an accompaniment to their worship (the oak was a popular one). Christianity did not ban trees; it reframed the use. Around 700, the trees associated with pagan worship were replaced by the fir tree as symbol of Christianity (because of its triangle shape /the Trinity). The ‘ever green’ was also associated with eternal life. 

CANDY CANE: the shepherd’s crook of the Good Shepherd.

POINSEETTIAS: the star of Bethlehem. 

WREATH: a symbol of true love, which never ceases.

HOLLY: a symbol of the crown of thorns worn by Christ on the cross.

BELLS: they stand for joy, and as a reminder that Jesus is the Great High Priest (Jewish priests had bells attached to the hem of their robes).

TREE BAUBLES OR BALLS: in early church calendars of saints, December 24th was Adam and Eve's day.[25] The Christmas tree became a symbol of the tree of Paradise, and people started decorating it with red apples. Originally the apples were a reminder of sin; they morphed into a symbol for the fruits of the Spirit. 

LIGHTS: around 1500, Martin Luther brought a tree indoors and decorated it with candles in honor of Christ’s birth (indoor stars!). [26] Interesting side note: Thomas Edison (1847-1931) presented his first string of electric Christmas tree lights in 1880.[27] To advertise his new lights, Edison and his General Electric Company sent picture postcards to families in which strings of lights not only decorated the tree but were strung throughout the house.  Since these indoor trees needed decorations, a businessman named Woolworth signed a monopoly agreement with the German manufacturers of glass ornaments which he marketed at his growing national chain of stores. The smaller ones sold for 5 cents and the larger ones for 10 cents, thus the origin of the 5 and 10 cent store. [28]

MISTLETOE (“dung twig”): In the Middle Ages in England, it was hung to ward off evil spirits and witches. In Scandinavia, it was a plant of peace. In Norse legend, it was a symbol that reminded them to protect life. In many cultures it was considered a cure-all medicine. The Catholic church banned it for a while because of how much the pagans loved it, but it’s easy to see how it blended into a celebration of a baby that would heal all nations and bring peace, and who died so we could live. 

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS: a reminder of the gifts of the Magi, and of God’s gift of Jesus to us.

SAINT NICHOLAS/SANTA CLAUS The Catholic Church associated gift giving with Saint Nicholas, one of the bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Legend says he became aware of some desperate needs in his congregation (a family selling their children into slavery, among other things), so he gave money, fruit, food, etc.[29] 

In 1087, a group of sailors moved his bones to Italy and basically worshipped him. This group (a cult, really) was eventually adopted into German and Celtic pagan religions. These Celts worshipped Odin/Woden (from whom we get the word Wednesday), who had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens. As these Celts converted into the Catholic Church, the church moved that horse ride through the heavens to December 25. St. Nicholas was the rider, not Woden. Problem solved. 

In 1809, Washington Irving (remember him?) wrote a story[30] that featured a white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.[31]

An illustrator named Thomas Nast drew more than 2,000 cartoons of Santa for Harper’s Weekly during the mid-late 1800s. Nast added the North Pole, a workshop with elves and the good/bad list. [32] In 1931, Coca Cola insisted that Santa, who was the face of their new campaign, be in a bright, Coca Cola red suit.[33]

Santa Claus: A Christian bishop from the Council of Nicaea filtered through Celtic gods, Dutch culture and American cartoons, and brought to you by Coca-Cola. J  

ADVENT (ARRIVAL) Advent as a season had been around a long time, but the first printed Advent calendar appeared in Germany in the early 1900s. During WWII, the Nazi Advent calendar included swastikas and took traditional pictures (like Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus) and retold them (this was a woodcutter, a soldier, and a king who get lost, then meet a woman whose baby has wise advice).

After the war, commercial production of Christian Advent calendars ramped up. Between that and the GIs who sent them home to their families in the States, it caught on here.[34]

CURRENT APPLICATION

First, I think we need to relax with our concern about the War on Christmas. The early church didn’t celebrate for at least 250 years. For a lot of history, the birth of Christ was probably dishonored by how Christians informally celebrated. 200 years ago, if Starbucks had existed, and if they had put out cups promoting Christmas, we would have boycotted them. 200 years from now, that might be the case again. It’s a good reminder that, no matter how well or poorly the trapping of the celebration unfold, the whole point was Jesus. The Bible gives us the template for how to celebrate the birth of Jesus no matter what is happening around us.

"Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you." ―Steve Maraboli

Second, I can’t imagine Jesus or the early church encouraging Christians to be offended that those outside the church don’t embrace this time as a celebration of Jesus like we do.  We, of all people, ought to be showing what good will on earth looks like.  We glorify Jesus in this time; welet our light of kindness and joy point toward the Light of the World. If Starbucks wants to print a cup that says “Happy Saturnalia,” and businesss require employees to say “Happy Humbug,” that’s their call. They don’t worship Jesus like I do. The church has always lived in this tension. Our job is to be Christ-like in the midst of it. 

Third, probably our biggest challenge as Christians is to make sure that our Christmas celebrations do not settle into the secularized version that focuses merely on giving gifts, feeling good and warm, and offering vague sentiments about peace and happiness.

I am not opposed to those things – I like all of those things, in fact – but I suspect we are far more likely to miss the heart of Christmas when our hearts are distracted rather than when a courthouse lawn doesn’t have a crèche or a school says “holiday break” instead of “Christmas break.” Donald Heinz[35] notes we must be careful not to focus 

“…on all the materials that claim to be good instead of on the Good that claims to be material [in Jesus].” 

Considering the history of Christmas, that appears to be an easy trap in which to fall. Our celebration must involve the elevation of Jesus above all else. The other things can be a great and meaningful contribution – our gift-giving reminds us of the One who gave his life; our blessing others overflows from how God has blessed us; our feasting mimics the love feasts of the early church and points toward the Marriage supper of the Lamb – but those find their meaning, and the eternal hope, peace and joy we celebrate at Christmas - through Jesus. [36] 

"May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen." —Robert Louis Stevenson

______________________________________________________________________________

[1] He received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years and was followed by the emperor Tiberius. Jesus was 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius’ reign (Luke 3), which meant he lived 15 years under Augustus (so, born in the 28th year of Augustus reign).

[2] An anonymous document from North Africa placed Jesus birth on March 28; Clement (bishop of Alexandria) thought Jesus was born on November 18.  

[3] https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/august/why-december-25.html

[4] https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/

[5] https://apologetics-notes.comereason.org/2015/12/no-christmas-is-not-based-on-pagan.html?utm_content=bufferc1d95&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[6] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-very-non-christian-history-of-christmas_us_5a30701de4b04bd8793e955d

[7] https://www.historytoday.com/archive/did-romans-invent-christmas

[8] http://www.religionfacts.com/christmas

[9] https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/

[10] https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/the-origin-of-christmas-traditions-and-christs-birth-1457395.html

[11] http://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=1046

[12] http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/christmas_1.shtml

[13] “https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/?fbclid=IwAR2fPwOV2O-kks_7IJwDMbm-cBf0ZCpcB_DIzTv-JhaF8avlh9J0u3Mlcd4

[14] http://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=996

[15] https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[16] https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[17] https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/new-york-invented-christmas-article-1.276163

[18] In 1821, an American children's book called "The Children's Friend" changed Santa's horse and wagon to a reindeer and sleigh.

[19] https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas

[20] For example, German immigrants brought their tradition of putting lights, sweets and toys on the branches of evergreen trees placed in their homes.

[21] https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[22] His family left Russia 3 years before the setting of Fiddler On The Roof. The only memory he would talk about was watching his family’s home burn to the ground. 

[23] In Philip Roth’s novel Operation Shylock (1993), Roth boasts that Irving “de-Christs” Christmas. “He turns Christmas into a holiday about snow—he turns their religion into schlock (Yiddish for something cheap, shoddy, or inferior)… If supplanting Jesus Christ with snow can enable my people to cozy up to Christmas, then let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[24] As for nativity scenes…the Gospels do not mention there being any oxen, donkeys, camels or Magi at the manger. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, a medieval text, has heavily influenced the images in our heads as well as our Christmas songs.

Tradition about the Magi built from some assumptions from OT passages (Isaiah 1:2-3; 60:3, 6, 10-11;Psalm 72:10). An early church leader named Origen decided that Genesis 22 had something to say about the Magi, so he set the number at 3. Don’t ask me to explain why.

[25] https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/trees.shtml

[26] A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches. It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas.

[27] My Grandma was 6 years old when Thomas Edison died. 

[28] https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[29] https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/the-origin-of-christmas-traditions-and-christs-birth-1457395.html

[30] A satire of Dutch culture called Knickerbocker History. 

[31] In 1822, we got this iconic poem (based on Irving’s writing): “Twas the night before Christmas… in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…”  

[32] “During the American Civil War, Nast mobilized Santa as a representation of American nationalism, often portraying him wearing a blue outfit with stars distributing gifts to Union soldiers and referring to him as ‘Santa Claus.’” https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=nyscas_pubs

[33] https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/history-of-christmas/2566272.html

[34] The first chocolate Advent calendar appeared in 1958; by 1971, Cadbury was all over it. Advent is now a chocolate cash cow.

[35] I am quoting from a review of his book, Christmas: Festival Of Incarnation  

[36] “The incarnation means that [God] himself has gone through the whole of human experience—from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. . . . He suffered infinite pain—all for us—and thought it well worth his while.” - Timothy J. Keller

The Day After Christmas: The Story Of The Christmas Dragon (Revelation 12: 1-6, 13-17)

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars[1] on her head.  She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon[2] with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns[3] on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.  

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[4] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days[5]… 

The dragon pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle,[6] so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time,[7] out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.  

 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.[8] Then the dragon was enraged at the woman[9] and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Revelation 12: 1-6, 13-17)

Did you know that was a Christmas story? Here’s what part of it looks like in Matthew’s Gospel.

When [the Wise Men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”  (Matthew 2: 13-18)

What happens after Christmas? “The dragon will wage war against those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” I think John intended his audience to understand Rome/Herod/Caesar as the dragon. It would make sense considering how biblical writers used the image of Babylon.

• Babylon, the actual city, become an image of all great cities and empires whose love of pleasure, indulgence, and excess wreaks havoc among God’s people. In Revelation, she is represented as a prostitute seducing the people of God.

• Rome, the actual city, represents the power empires used to undermine and attack God’s people. 

 We can be attacked by both; we can fall in love with both. Revelation’s ‘prostitute’ (Babylon’s pleasure) and ‘dragon’ (Rome’s power) have made war with us for 2,000 years.

I think John was reminding God’s people that what the old map-makers wrote was right: “Here there be dragons.” Except now it’s everywhere. Isn’t Revelation the first version of Huxley’s Brave New World (Babylon) and Orwell’s 1984 (Rome)? In the United States, I think we get to battle both: the spiritual war we face in a culture infatuated by both pleasure and power.[10] But that’s another sermon….  

* * * * *

We've already talked about life in between the two Advents, the birth of Christ in the return of Christ. We've already talked about how while Advent begins in the darkness it ends in the light. We have the hope of Jesus behind us and in front of us. There is a stabilization in our lives because of this. The Advent focus on peace, hope, love, and joy all depend on the reality of the life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus.

That foundation is in place.

But we see how life unfolds between the two advents right away in scripture. After Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph have to flee with him to a foreign land, a land that represented a history of bondage and slavery to the people of Israel. They live separated from family and perhaps livelihood for months, perhaps years. In the area from which they fled, Herod promptly slaughtered children.[11]

The dragon was unleashed. Just like that, the darkness begins to push in to the light. As John made clear in his apocalypse, that war would continue. Indeed, it has, in great and small ways. The dragon hates the light of truth, love, goodness, hope, joy, peace…. When life feels ‘kingdom good,’ expect pushback. Expect war. It’s after Advent begins and the gymnatorium gets decorated and peace on earth starts for feel tangible after a hard year that a fire forces us to pivot yet again in a year with an exhausting number of pivots. 

It's often after great moments of God's revelatory light that the darkness pushes in hard.[12]

I’ve not been persecuted in any meaningful sense of the world, so I don’t want to compare my experience with that of the persecuted church around the world. When I talk about the dragon in my life, I’m talking of the ways in which spiritual/emotional/relational darkness presses in to spiritual light. I don't know if you've experienced this in your life, but I've often found moments of great depression after times of great satisfaction.  

• I go teach in Costa Rica, and it's a profound experience, and I come home and I wrestle with physical and emotional health.  

•  It's the sermon that feels really good followed by a Monday of doubt and anxiety and second-guessing. 

•  It's the fantastic vacation with my wife, and two weeks later feeling like there is a relational chasm between us. 

•  It's feeling really good about my fathering one day, and then having the wheels come off the next.

• It's thinking one day how much I love the people in my life and the next day having my heart torn out by one of them. 

• It's having a much better financial year at church than I would have anticipated because of Covid, only to realize we have to cut budget for next year because we lost momentum in the latter half of the year.  

• It’s going from a moment where I think, “I am finally grounding my identity in Christ” to days of thinking, “Dear God, I am such a screw-up.” 

• Sheila and I both had bad experiences with dreams this past week. We went to sleep after a meaninful evening at home, and woke up from inexplicable chaos in a way that darkens and disorders our day. I told Sheila, “I think the dragon is making war.”

This is the pattern.[13]

But how does it end? With the resurrection and life. How will history end? With the return of the king to make a New Heaven and New Earth. What happens when my life ends? Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So we know the beginning, we know the middle, and we know the end of the story. We're just in the middle right now. The light shines, the dark pushes in, the light shines, the dark pushes in. This is life between the advents.

This, too, is an apocalypse of sorts, an unveiling that the Bible makes clear to us and that is confirmed throughout our life. We think of the apocalypse as something earth-shattering and perhaps catastrophic, but in some ways it's the ongoing pattern of our life. Truth is constantly being unveiled to us by the grace of God. We see through a glass darkly on this side of heaven (1 Corinthians 123:12), so there is a constant need for an unveiling.

·      It's when we finally understand that obscure passage of scripture. 

·      It's when we finally see how a biblical truth applies to our life in a life-changing way. 

·      It's when we begin to actually understand the power of repentance, and grace, and justice, and mercy.

·      It's when the biblical interplay of both grace and works clicks. 

·      it's when we see the flow of our life in the reality of God's plan. 

·      It's when one our Christian brothers or sisters speaks truth into our life that opens our eyes. 

·      It's when we see ourselves as God sees us. 

·      It's when we learn how to lift up our heads (Psalm 27:6; 3:3; Luke 21:28)

·      It's when we understand how God in his mercy and power could take people like us and tell us to arise and reflect his light  (Isaiah 60:1) in a way that will bring glory to him. 

These, too, are unveilings. We participate in an ongoing apocalypse. So one of the questions I have between the two advents of God is this: “How do these dark valleys work in our favor? How does God take the war leveled by the dragon and use it for our good and God’s glory?” 

Apocalyptic literature in scripture was always literature of Hope. How does my life participate in that kind of story?

Think back to what we've read the last two weeks from the prophets in the Old Testament. What was the key to living in the light? It was repentance. 

Those who walked in darkness had often walked in the darkness of their own making. In fact, the Bible has far less to say about the attacks from the dragons “out there” than the ones that have burrowed into our hearts. We tend to think of dragons like Smaug in The Hobbit: huge, overwhelming, flying over out towns or churches and just breathing fire, and so we pick up weapons and fight the dragon that came from over there, on that mountain. Let’s go take that mountain! That feels like a noble quest, right? It fits with the image in Revelation nicely.

To be sure, the dragon will make war against the saints in a very public way, no doubt. There are Smaugs that fly over our spiritual Laketowns. The church for 2,000 can give testimony to persecution and martyrdom. In those situations, we are told to be strong. The story ends in glory for the people of God, even if we wade there through blood.

But that’s only part of the story. God’s people in the Old Testament didn't get taken into exile in Babylon and bondage in Rome because Babylon and Rome were overwhelmingly strong. Israel had Yahweh. If Yahweh was for them, who could take them? 

God’s people ended up there because they trashed their covenant with God and reaped the consequences of what they sowed – consequences God had made clear. And if Old Covenant physical realities are meant to teach us truths about New Covenant spiritual realities – and I think they are – I find myself with this conclusion: Our greatest threats as Christians and as a Church are not out there. Diablo- the devil, the dragon - is in here too, ever since Eden. “The call is coming from inside the house!” 

There is no person, politician, law, educational system, Hollywood star, or organization that can make us give in to Babylon or Rome. There is no dragon that can force our hand or batter down our spiritual doors. The gates of hell cannot prevail against a holy church. But… we can embrace temptation.  

They may not be able to force my hand, but I can choose to lie in Babylon’s bed or sit on Rome’s throne. They can’t storm the gates of heaven, but I can begin to worship their power and influence and pleasure. The most thoroughly conquered people are not those who are too weak to plot resistance; it’s those who see no reason to resist.[14]

If you read through the Old Testament prophets, they don't pull any punches. God's people gave in, and they did not see their sin. They did not see the darkness as darkness, and they embraced it. 

“Arise, shine – absorb the light and shine in the darkness.” A crucial step to staying in the light of salvation in the Glorious kingdom of God is to repent. Since we started with a passage from Revelation, let’s look at where John goes with this. 

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven. (Revelation 18:4-5) 

God told his people through the Prophet Jeremiah that if they humbled themselves and sought the face of God, their nation would experience the blessings that God told them were in store for them if they were true and loyal to God. If they didn't (as Jeremiah warned so vividly), it wasn't going to end well for their nation at all. They were always going to be God’s covenant people, but their experience of that covenant, their experience of life, was going to be radically different based on the posture of their hearts. 

Their flourishing in the Kingdom God had planned for them had almost nothing to do with what the nations around them did. It had everything to do with how seriously they took the covenant. And if Old Testament physical realities teach us something about New Testament spiritual realities, our flourishing as Christian individuals and as a church will have almost nothing to do with what our Empire does to us or for us. It will have everything to do with how seriously we take our covenant. 

This, I think, is the way in which we experience life more abundant, the fullness of the richness of God’s redemption of the world in our lives. And that can’t help but make us the kind of salt and light in the world that God intends.

We want revival in ourselves and in our nation; we want holiness in ourselves and in our nation; we want a rejection of sin and a love of justice and mercy in ourselves and in our nation. We want the light of Christ and his gospel to push back the darkness of sin. Where does this start? In the church (1 Peter 4:17). Revival begins here.[15]

Cultures cannot become more holy if the church does not become more holy; churches cannot become more holy if we fail to repent of our sinful contribution to the brokenness of the world and beg first for forgiveness from God and those we have wronged, and then for God’s wisdom, love and strength to walk in righteousness.[16]

We are going to take time for repentance this morning. I’m going to pull from the list of sins that were undermining Timothy’s church because it’s fresh in our memory.[17] You don’t have to limit yourself to this, but if you follow these categories as far as the Holy Spirit takes them in reference to your life, I think you might be surprised how much territory this will cover. 

Areas of Repentance

1.  proud/boastful  “Boasting to anyone who is foolish enough to take him seriously! This kind of person claims many things he can't really do, so he must always keep moving on to new, naive listeners.”  (HELPS Word Studies).  Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you humility. God gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5) “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”  (James 3:13) “Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:19) 

2.  arrogant/haughty  “Literally, ‘hyper shiny’. These are they who contemptuously look down on others beneath them, either in social position or wealth (the boasters), or perhaps in natural gifts (the proud).” (Ellicott’s Commentary)  Pray for Holy Spirit to help you “honor everyone” (1 Peter 2:17) “above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). “God has put the body [the church] together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25) “Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3) 

3.  abusive “Revilers/railers/blasphemers. Reverses spiritual and moral realities” by calling evil good, and good evil. (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you gentleness and truth. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2)  “Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith. (Colossians 4:6)

4.  Treacherous; Traitors.—Or, betrayers… of their Christian brethren. It does not mean traitors to their king or country, but generally betrayers of the persons who trust in them, and of the cause of the trust committed to them; perhaps specially… of their brethren in times of persecution. (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you loyalty. “Never let loyalty (steadfast love) and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.” (Proverbs 3:3) “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) “Be devoted to one another in love.” (Romans 12:10)

5.  Reckless - Better rendered “headstrong” in words, or thoughts, or actions. Rash. "Headstrong" rather denotes obstinacy which will not be influenced by wise advice… the person who acts from impulse, without considering consequences, or weighing principles. (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you prudence and self-control. “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32) “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28) “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.” (Proverbs 14:8)

6.   Self-important - Highminded.— blinded by or inflated by  pride. (See 1Timothy 3:6.) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you humble self-awareness. "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." (Lamentations 3:40) "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (James 1:22-24)  “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3)

7. Rebellious against parents [authority] ’Unwilling to be persuaded (by God), which shows itself in outward disobedience (outward spiritual rebellion).” (HELPS Word Studies)  Pray for the Holy Spirit to help us honor our parents/spiritual authorities. Pray for the ability to “add wealth” or “give weight” (biblical imagery) to godly voices in your life.  Paul planted and Apollos watered (1 Corinthians 3:6-7); we all need holy planters and waterers in our lives. Hebrews 5:12 says, "you need someone to teach you." Pray for those that ‘have weight’ in your life; they are in desperate need wisdom, grace and truth.

 8.   Ungrateful – “properly, without God's grace (favor) which results in unthankfulness (literally, "ungrace-full"). (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the ability to respond to God’s grace by “presenting our bodies (lives) as a living sacrifice” as a “reasonable act of service” (Romans 12:1). Pray for the Holy Spirit to enable you to pass this grace on to others.

9.   Unholy - “A lack of reverence for what should be hallowed.” (HELPS WORD STUDIES) Pray for Holy Spirit to help you treat with reverence, or set apart as holy, all that should be hallowed. What are those things? God, clearly, and people (who are all image bearers (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2); followers of Jesus are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3 and 6). Now ask yourself, “Am I treating everything in God’s created world with appropriate  honor, with appropriate care and reverence?

10.  Without restraint  - “Incontinent.—Having no control over the passions or urges – emotions, words, appetites of all kinds.” (HELPS WORD STUDIES) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you temperance and restraint, especially when it comes to moral and relational issues. Between the Holy Spirit, the guidelines of God’s Word, and the company of God’s people, there is no temptation to sin that we cannot bear (1 Corinthians 10:13)

11.   Savage (bestial) - Fierce.—Inhuman, savage, or merciless, harsh, cruel. They are both soft and hard, incontinently indulging themselves and inhuman to others, when they should be hardened to self-indulgence and soft toward others.” (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to be hospitable (merciful), or “soft toward others.” God is described as “abounding in mercy.”  Jesus told people to learn what it means that God desires mercy more than sacrifices (Matthew 9:13).  Blessed are the meek and the peacemakers (Matthew 5). Greater love has no one more than laying down your life (John 15:13). Serve others sacrificially. Turn away wrath with a soft answer (Proverbs 15:1). Overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). If someone strikes you or takes your cloak, don’t seek revenge (Luke 6:29). ‘Shame’ them with kindness (Romans 12:20). Give food and water to your enemy, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

12.  Haters of anything good - “Despisers of those that are good; that is, hostile to every good thought and work and person.”  (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the ability to be lovers of good (good thoughts, actions and persons), the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8). Pray for the ability to not only dwell on them, but to celebrate them everywhere we see them.

 13.  “Uncaring, coldhearted; without natural affection.” “Careless and regardless of the welfare of those connected with them by ties of blood, like spouses, parents and children. Plato says, ‘A child loves his parents, and is loved by them;’ and so, according to St. Paul's judgment in 1 Timothy 5:8, were "worse than infidels."  (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to love your spouses, parents, children and extended family. This may be a hard prayer. Remember: you are praying for a miracle, as supernatural gift from God. Also, pray for the wisdom to know what genuine love looks like in your situation. This may be a good one to pray in a small group of people who can offer wisdom. 

14.  Slanderers/false-accusers - the word is diabolos. People who a) have no regard for truth and b) like quarrels. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth (John 16:13), beginning with Scripture and extending into the rest of the world (Proverbs 23:23). Pray for the ability to know which ‘hills to die on,’ and which ones to give ground. Pray for the abilit to listen before you speak, and long for peace rather than thrive on conflict. 

15.  Despisers of covenant - Those unwilling to embrace bonds of treaty or covenant….one who will make no truce or treaty with his enemy.”  (Pulpit  Commentary)  Pray for the longing to enter into biblically covenanted relationships (spouses (Genesis 2), friends (1 Samuel 20), family (see #13), church (Hebrews 10). Pray for the strength and grace to endure. Pray for wisdom to know how to be faithfully present in the covenants in your life. 

THREE QUESTIONS

In what ares of your life do you need to repent?

To whom, besides God, do you need to repent?

What does it look like for you to move forward in a lifestyle of repentance?

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[1] “The woman is commonly thought to represent Israel. The imagery is similar to the sun, moon, and 12 stars that bowed down to Joseph in his dream (Genesis 37:9–11). In Revelation 12:2 we see Isaiah’s prediction (Isaiah 66:7–8) of a woman (Israel) bringing forth a man child fulfilled.” (Halley’s Bible Handbook Notes). The 12 stars are the faithful remnent from the Tribes of Israel. “The prophets portrayed righteous Israel as the mother of the restored future remnant of Israel (Isa 26:18 – 19; 54:1; 66:7 – 10; Mic 4:9 – 10; 5:3), and also as the mother of the leader who embodied Israel’s restoration (Isa 9:6; cf. Mic 5:2 – 3).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)  In this case, the mother of Jesus, Mary, arises from ‘mother’ Israel. 

[2] The dragon is commonly understood as the Roman empire.

[3] These symbols represents great power.

[4] This is Jesus, the Messiah. See Isaiah 7:14 and Psalm 2:7–9.

[5] “1,260 days. The time of spiritual protection corresponds to the time of persecution (see Revelation 11:2; and 13:5). (NIV Study Bible Notes)

[6] Exodus 19:4

[7] See Daniel 12:7. This is also 1,260 days. 

[8] Jesus is delivering them from bondage, just like Moses. Thus the borrowing of image from the Exodus. “A flood of water could represent any sufferings (Ps 32:6; Jer 47:2), including unjust opposition (Ps 18:3 – 4; 69:1 – 4,14 – 15; 124:2 – 5); serpents’ mouths represent slander in Ps 140:1 – 5. But God would be with his people through the waters (Isa 43:2).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[9] “The victory that God has previously accomplished over Leviathan is the pattern for the woman’s triumph over the dragon.”  See Isaiah 51:9-10; Psalm 74:14; Job 41. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary)

[10] “If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.” – Malcolm Muggeridge

[11] “Advent is the right time for the asking of hard questions. Advent comes to a climax, not only on Christmas Day but also in the massacre of the innocents by Herod. The church has historically observed the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 27, a remarkable conjuncture that remembers a massacre of infants in the same season that we rejoice in the birth of Christ. The great theme of Advent is hope, but it is not tolerable to speak of hope unless we are willing to look squarely at the overwhelming presence of evil in our world.”  Fleming Rutledge

[12] It’s a pattern found in Scripture. 

·       After God calls light into the world in Genesis 1, in Genesis 3 the darkness moves in with serpents and sin. 

·       After God Saves Noah and his family, Noah falls into sin almost immediately. 

·       Joseph gets miraculously insightful dreams from God, and it turns him into an arrogant, boastful jerk. 

·       Moses meets God on the mountain, and yet his sin keeps him from entering the Promised Land. 

·       Israel gets the promised land and then ends up in Exile when it all falls apart.

·       Mary gives birth to the Messiah, but will eventually lose her husband and watch her son be crucified.

·       Paul’s account of what his life was like after a personal apocalypse of the Risen savior is characterized by persecution.

[13] It doesn't surprise God. He entered into a world in which he experienced life in this pattern. He was revealed in the light of God's glory, only to go to a wilderness to endure temptation. (Matthew 3-4) He entered Jerusalem to adoring crowds who would eventually kill him. (Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19).He surrounded himself with 12 disciples, only to have one of them betray him. (Luke 22)

[14] Me. I just put it like a quote so I could read it word-for-word J

·       [15] Isaiah 30:15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”

·       Psalm 139:23: “Search me o God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and Lead Me into life.” 

·       Acts 20:20-21 "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."

·       1 John 1: 8 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 

·       2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." 

·       Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” 

·       Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

·       Matthew 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

·       Romans 2:4  “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

·       1 John 1:8-9  “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

·       Revelation 2:5  “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

·       Proverbs 28:13  “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

·       Acts 26:20  “[They] declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.”

[16] What about Ninevah? Jonah told Ninevah that there was one particular thing God was going to judge them for: violence. They paid attention. There is every reason to believe the rest of life in Ninevah remained as pagan as ever. They did not become holy. What about Constantine’s embrace of Christianity for Rome? That, too, did not bring about holiness. It doesn’t appear much changed in daily Roman life except that Christians weren’t persecuted. And because Christians (understandably) were quite pleased not to be killed, they eventually began to support the nationalistic agenda of Roman to stay on Rome’s good side. And that, friends, is called syncretism.

[17] We went through in our 2 Timothy series in the three “Roots and Fruits” sermons.