He Comes Bearing Gifts

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
January 5, 2014 – Christmas II – Epiphany Sunday
Sacrament of Holy Communion

Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147: 12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:10-18

From the Prophet Jeremiah:
For thus says the Lord: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.’”

From St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.

And from the Gospel of St. John:
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

The New Year is a good time to take stock of the past year and to consider what has been good and what things you might consider changing. Are there parts of your life which you want to make wholesale changes to, or are there areas you want to tweak a little?

What about who we are as a congregation? We still have some tough decisions to make this coming year. God’s Word encourages us to measure our actions – not according to what we think is right or wrong, but against what God wants to give us and how he calls us to respond to His Word.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year. Hopefully, Jesus was not left out of the festivities. Most of us should be familiar with what the Magi brought Jesus: Gold (represented His royalty), frankincense (spoke of His divinity), and myrrh (represented His death for us).

Do we know what Jesus brought us?

There was this cartoon about a lawyer reading a client’s last will and testament to a group of greedy relatives. The caption read: “I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!”

When Jesus Christ wrote His last will and testament for His church, he made it possible for us to share His spiritual riches. Instead of spending it all, Jesus Christ paid it all. His death on the cross and His resurrection make possible our salvation.

He wrote us into His will, and then He died so that His will would be in force. Then He arose again that He might become the heavenly Advocate (lawyer) to make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he mentions a few of the blessings that God has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus chose us to be His people. God chose us even before He created the universe, so that our salvation is wholly of His grace and not on the basis of anything we ourselves have done. He chose us in Christ, not in ourselves. And He chose us for a purpose: to be holy and without blame.

There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, and often they were bought and sold like property. But a man could purchase a slave and set him free, and this is what Jesus did for us. The price was His own blood (1 Peter 1:18ff). This means that we were set free from the Law, free from slavery of sin, as well as free from the power of Satan and the world. He freely gave His life for us; He gave His all.

God paid a high price to purchase us and make us part of His inheritance. God the Son is the Father’s love gift to us; and we are the Father’s love gift to His Son. The church is Christ’s body, building, and bride; wrapped up in His church. We are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).

It was given to John, the beloved disciple, to write a book for both Jews and Gentiles; presenting Jesus as the Son of God, and if you commit yourself to Him, He will give you eternal life (John 20:31).

Much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s “Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us. According to Hebrews 1:1-3, Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for He is the climax of divine revelation.

How was the “Word made flesh”? By the miracle of the Virgin Birth (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:18-25). He took on Himself sinless human nature and identified with us in every aspect of life from birth to death.

The revelation of God’s glory is an important theme in John’s Gospel. Jesus revealed God’s glory in His person, His works, and His words. The glory of the Old Covenant of Law was a fading glory, but the glory of the New Covenant in Christ is an increasing glory. The Law could reveal sin, but it could never remove sin. Jesus Christ came with fullness of grace and truth, and this fullness is available to all who will trust Him (John 1:16).

Life is a key theme in John’s Gospel. There are at least four essentials for human life: light, air, water and food. Jesus is all of these! He is the Light of life and the Light of the world (John 8:12). By His Holy Spirit, He give us the “breath of life” (John 3:8; 20:22), as well as the Water of life (John 4:10). Finally, Jesus is the Living Bread of Life that came down from heaven (John 6:35ff). He not only has life and gives life, but He is life (John 14:6).

Light and darkness are recurring themes in John’s Gospel. God’s light is very prominent at this time of the church year. As we begin the New Year, the gospel reading from John begins with the light of the world being born into a world of darkness. Through this reading we are reminded of God’s creative work in Genesis where the first thing created was light to separate the darkness. Jesus, “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9)

So God’s world is about light. Satan’s world is the darkness which has not overcome the light. It is in the light that we are called to do our work as Christians and that work is to shine the light of Christ into the world which does not yet know Jesus. People love either the light or the darkness, and this love controls their actions (John 3:16-19). Those who believe on Christ are the “sons of light” (John 12:35-36).

Just as the first Creation began with “Let there be light!” so the New Creation began with the entrance of light into the heart of the believer (2 Cor. 4:3-6). The coming of Jesus Christ into the world was the dawning of a new day for sinful man (Luke 1:78-79).

Whenever Jesus taught a spiritual truth, His listeners interpreted it in a material or physical way. The light was unable to penetrate the darkness in their minds. This was true when He spoke about the temple of His body (John 2:19-21), the new birth (John 3:4), the living water (John 4:11), eating His flesh (John 6:51ff), spiritual freedom (John 8:30-36), death as sleep (John 11:11-13), and many other spiritual truths. Satan strives to keep people in the darkness, because darkness means death and hell, while light means life and heaven.

As you study John’s Gospel, you will find Jesus teaching the people that He is the fulfillment of all that was typified in the Law. It was not enough to be born a Jew; they had to be born again, born from above (John 3). He deliberately performed two miracles on the Sabbath to teach them that He had a new rest to give them (John 5; 9). He was the satisfying manna (John 6) and the life-giving Water (John 7:37-39). He is the Shepherd of a new flock (John 10:16), and He is a new Vine (John 15). But the people were so shackled by religious tradition that they could not understand spiritual truth. They saw His works and heard His words.
They observed His perfect life. He gave them every opportunity to grasp the truth, believe, and be saved. Jesus is the way, but they would not walk with Him (John 6:66-71). He is the truth, but they would not believe Him (John 12:37ff). He is the life, and they crucified Him!

But sinners today need not commit those same blunders. John 1:12-13 gives us the marvelous promise of God that anyone who receives Christ will be born again and enter the family of God!

John the Baptist is one of the most important persons in the New Testament. John had the special privilege of introducing Jesus to the nation of Israel. He also had the difficult task of preparing the nation to receive their Messiah. He called them to repent of their sins and to prove that repentance by being baptized and then living changed lives.

John summarized what John the Baptist had to say about Jesus Christ (John 1:15-18). First, He is eternal. Jesus always existed. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

Jesus Christ has fullness of grace and truth. Grace is God’s favor and kindness bestowed on those who do not deserve it and cannot earn it. If God dealt with us only according to truth, none of us would survive; but He deals with us on the basis of grace and truth.
Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection, met all the demands of the Law; those who trust Christ. Grace without truth would be deceitful, and truth without grace would be condemning.

John did not suggest that there was no grace under the Law of Moses, because there was. Each sacrifice was an expression of the grace of God. The Law also revealed God’s truth. But in Jesus Christ, grace and truth reach their fullness; and this fullness is available to us. We are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-9), but we also live by grace (1 Cor. 15:10) and depend on God’s grace in all that we do. We can receive one grace after another, for “He giveth more grace” (James 4:6).

Finally, Jesus Christ reveals God to us (John 1:18). As to His essence, God is invisible (1 Tim. 1:17). Man can see God revealed in nature and in His mighty works in history; but He cannot see God Himself. Jesus Christ reveals God to us, for He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and “the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). Jesus Christ explains God to us and interprets Him for us. We simply cannot understand God apart from knowing His Son, Jesus Christ.

True riches come from God. It is a source of great encouragement to know that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all working on our behalf to make us rich. There is always more spiritual wealth to claim from the Lord as we walk with Him. The Bible is our guidebook; the Holy Spirit is our Teacher. As we search the Word of God, we discover more and more of the riches we have in Christ. These riches were planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and presented by the Spirit.
All these gifts are freely given by God; and the greatest gift we can give Him is our lives; to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

Let us pray:
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!

Save the King

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
December 29, 2013 – Christmas I

Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148, Hebrews 2:10-18, Matthew 2:13-23

From the Prophet Isaiah:
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

From St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews:
For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham.

And from the Gospel of St. Matthew:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

When we look at the church calendar after Christmas, it almost seems as if the church fathers made it their business to remind us that Jesus was born into a sin filled and cruel world. The three days after Christmas are some of the deadliest days of the church year. We do not celebrate these commemorations, but some denominations do.

The day after Christmas, December 26th is the Feast of Stephen. It is the day we remember his death. The feast commemorates the first martyr of the New Testament Church. We read his story in the sixth and seventh chapter of Acts. There we read how the Jewish ruling council stoned him after he confessed his faith in Jesus Christ.

December 27th, the next day, is the Feast of John the Apostle and Evangelist. It is the day we remember his death. Although he was the only one of the original twelve apostles to die of old age, that was not for a lack of trying. He suffered much for his confession of faith in Jesus Christ, but, for some reason, all the efforts of the executioners and assassins failed to end his life.
Then, on December 28th, we remember the Slaughter of the Innocents, the story we read in today’s gospel. The events of today’s gospel are so disturbing that it is hard to believe they are part of the Christmas story. Yet, it is something that truly happened. King Herod really did send his troops to kill all the boys of Bethlehem who were two years of age or less.

A person is identified not only by his friends, but also by his enemies. Herod pretended that he wanted to worship the newborn King (Matt. 2:8), when in reality he wanted to destroy Him. God warned Joseph to take the Child and Mary and flee to Egypt. Egypt was close by. There were many Jews there, and the treasures received from the magi would more than pay the expenses for traveling and living there.

King Herod was one of the most ruthless politicians of his time. He managed by cunning and the spilling of a great deal of blood to remain in power through several transfers of power in Rome. Most of the time, a new emperor took control in Rome and then purged his government. This usually included killing all those who were loyal to his predecessor. Somehow, Herod not only survived these purges, but even managed to gain power while those around him lost their heads.

Herod was cruel and paranoid. Since he often maintained his hold on power through bloodshed, he expected others would do the same. As a result, no one was immune from his sword. He freely killed his sons, wives, and anyone else who might make a claim to the throne. According to legend Caesar Augustus remarked: “It is better to be Herod’s swine than his son.” Some historians didn’t bother to include the slaughter in Bethlehem in their accounts because it paled in comparison to Herod’s other atrocities.

Herod’s anger was evidence of his pride; he could not permit anyone to get the best of him, particularly some Gentile scholars (he was referring to the magi)! This led him to kill the boy babies two years of age and under who were still in Bethlehem. We must not envision hundreds of little boys being killed, for there were not that many male children of that age in a small village like Bethlehem. Even today only about 20,000 people live there. It is likely that not more than 20 children were slain. But, of course, 1 is too many!

St. Matthew introduced here in our gospel reading the theme of hostility, which he focused on throughout his book. Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), as was King Herod. He lied to the magi and he murdered the babies. But even this horrendous crime of murder was a fulfillment of prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:15. In order to understand this fulfillment, we must review Jewish history.

It is obvious that Satan inhabited Herod in the same way that a hand might inhabit a glove. Herod may have given the appearance of a man with a lot of power, but he was really a slave – a slave of Satan. When Herod gave the order for the death of the young boys in Bethlehem, Satan was stretching out his hand to put a quick end to God’s plan of salvation.

This was only the latest in a series of satanic attacks that stretched back to the Garden of Eden where Satan began his war to stop the coming of the Savior who would crush his head. Down through the centuries, Satan waged continuous war in a vain attempt to exterminate the remnant of God’s people who carried the promise of the coming Messiah. Sometimes, it almost seemed as if Satan was winning as the remnant dwindled in size to almost nothing – the church of eight people that met on Noah’s Ark – the lone prophet Elijah who thought he was the last God-fearing man on earth – the exiles in Babylon. There were several times that the remnant of God’s people almost disappeared, but God always preserved a few faithful people.

Today’s Gospel tells how this war focused on one child born in Bethlehem. That child was all that stood between Satan and total world domination. Is it any wonder that Satan instigated Herod, his slave, to wipe out those toddlers and infants of Bethlehem? This was not just a political assassination on Herod’s part. This was spiritual war on Satan’s part.

In spiritual warfare, no holds are barred. There is no Geneva Convention. Satan will attack men, women, and as today’s gospel indicates, even children. All are his targets. All are his enemies. There are no non-combatants.

This has been the case throughout history. If we look back at the Israelites who conquered the Canaanites and took their land away from them, one might think that that was incredibly unfair. However, if we look closer at the Canaanites, we learn that they worshiped a god of the underworld and frequently offered their children as burnt sacrifices to that god. God not only gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites, but He also punished the Canaanites for their detestable worship practices including the sacrifice of children.

In today’s world, many dictators use starvation and poverty as a weapon to subjugate their own people. In such cultures, children often take the brunt of this attack and die of malnutrition and other curable diseases.

Some of you may not agree with me on this analogy. We in this country also sacrifice our children to the gods. We simply sacrifice them before they are born. We sacrifice them to the god of convenience – “this is not the right time for me to have a child,” the god of fashion – “I look so fat when I am pregnant,” the god of finance – “we just can’t afford a child right now,” and all the other gods of greed and narcissism. On an average day, elective abortion, in this nation alone, kills about 300 times as many children as died in Bethlehem at the order of Herod. Since 1973, when Roe vs. Wade was enacted, thus legalizing abortions, over 56 million abortions have been performed in the United States. There is a website that has an abortion clock, which keeps track of abortions around the world by country. It was very disturbing to see the clock ticking away right before my eyes. Every few seconds another abortion had been done.

There are some in our culture who believe that children are somehow exempt in the spiritual war – that children are somehow innocent. They claim that children are guiltless until they can actually understand the nature of the spiritual war against them. They speak of an age of accountability. They speak as though Satan has a sense of fairness or honor. He doesn’t. Today’s gospel makes that very clear. The wages of sin is death and even children draw the wages of their sins and die. As King David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Fortunately, God saved a remnant from the slaughter of the innocents – a remnant of one child. God warned Joseph by way of a dream that Herod sought to destroy the child. He told Joseph to take the child and His mother to Egypt. There Jesus was beyond the reach of Herod. There Jesus would be safe until Herod died.

Joseph obeyed. He awakened Mary in the middle of the night and they left Bethlehem. Ultimately, Jesus retraced the trail of his ancestors – the time, long before, when another Joseph brought his father, Israel, and the rest of his family to sanctuary in Egypt. Later, after Herod died, Jesus would follow the trail that His ancestors – the Children of Israel – took back into the Promised Land.

Herod died in 4 B.C., which means that Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 5 B.C. It is impossible not to notice the parallel between Jesus and the call of Moses. As God’s Son, Jesus was in Egypt and was called out to go to Israel. Moses was outside Egypt, hiding for his life, and he was called to return to Egypt. But in both cases, God’s program of redemption was involved. It took courage for Joseph and Mary to leave Egypt, and it took courage for Moses to return to Egypt.

Archelaus was one of Herod’s sons, and to him Herod had willed the title of king. However, the Jews discovered that, in spite of his promises of kindness, Archelaus was as wicked as his father. So the Jews sent a delegation to Rome to protest his crowning. Augustus Caesar agreed with the Jews and made Archelaus an ethnarch, or ruler of the province, which encompassed only half of his father’s kingdom.

The whole episode is a good example of how God leads His children. Joseph knew that he and his family were no safer under the rule of Archelaus than they had been under Herod the Great. It is likely they were heading back to Bethlehem when they discovered that Archelaus was on the throne. Certainly, Joseph and Mary prayed, waited, and sought God’s will. Common sense told them to be careful; faith told them to wait. In due time, God spoke to Joseph in a dream, and he took his wife and her Son to Nazareth, which had been their home earlier (Matt. 2:19-20).

But even this fulfilled prophecy! Once again, Matthew points out in his gospel, that every detail in the life of Jesus was foretold in the Scriptures. It is important to note that Matthew did not refer to only one prophet, but instead says “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets” (plural).

We will not find any specific prophecy that called Jesus a “Nazarene.” The term “Nazarene” was applied to both Jesus and His followers (Acts 24:5); and He was often called “Jesus of Nazareth” (Matt. 21:11).

But perhaps Matthew, led by the Spirit, saw a spiritual connection between the name “Nazarene” and the Hebrew word netzer, which means “a branch or shoot.” Several prophets apply this title to Jesus. “There shall come forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isa. 11). God planted a Christmas tree some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.

When Jesus grew up in Nazareth and began His ministry, He began with baptism in the Jordan River. Through that Baptism Jesus sanctified and instituted water to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin.

When we combine water with God’s Word in Baptism, we see the Holy Spirit working faith in the heart by means of the Word of God that makes water into a Baptism. Through this faith, God works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation. Through this miracle of faith worked by the Holy Spirit, God can give protection against the spiritual warfare of Satan even to infants.

Jesus showed His love for children throughout His ministry. He said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” God loves children. And since at one time or another, we were all children, that means He loves all of us.

Eventually, Jesus stood trial before another Herod, the son of the Herod who tried to kill Him in Bethlehem. After that trial, Jesus finally did die.

He did not die in Bethlehem when the first Herod wanted. Instead, He died when He finished His mission here on this earth. He died after He had led a perfect life and after He had taken our sins to the cross. He died as God’s sacrifice for our sins. He died at the time God established and not at the time Herod established. He died only after Jesus Himself said, “It is finished.”

He not only died according to God’s timetable, but He also rose according to it and ascended into heaven. His resurrection and ascension mean that all who have faith in him, men, women, and even infants, will spend eternity in His presence in heaven. It means that God gives us protection against Satan’s spiritual war. It means that even when we die, God will always be with us.

From a human point of view, it would seem foolish for God to become Man; yet it was this very act of grace and humility that made possible our salvation and all that goes with it. If Jesus Christ had not come to earth and become man, He could not take us from earth to share in His glory. The incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection must go together. They all lead to glory.

Satan can fill the world with evil forces like Herod, but the cross and the empty tomb assure us that he cannot win. The worst he can do is kill us and then we shall be with the Lord in heaven. In the end, God’s Word will remain and Satan will suffer eternal condemnation. The God, who preserved and saved His Son from the Satanic hand of Herod, but who did not spare His Son when the fullness of time had come, will graciously protect us from Satan and preserve us in the one true faith unto life everlasting.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!

Jesus Christ Is Born

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
December 24, 2013 – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Isaiah 62:6-12, Psalm 97, Titus 3:4-7, Luke 2:1-20

From the Prophet Isaiah:
Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”

From the Letter of St. Paul to Titus:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

Augustus Caesar sent out a decree to the entire world that a census should be taken. Caesar was ruling, but God was in charge, for God used Caesar’s edict to move Mary and Joseph eighty miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfill His Word. Rome took a census every fourteen years for both military and tax purposes, and each Jewish male had to return to the city of his fathers to record his name, occupation, property, and family.

When Mary said “Be it unto me according to Thy Word” (Luke 1:38), it meant that from then on, her life would be a part of the fulfillment of divine prophecy. God had promised that the Savior would be a human, not an angel (Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:16), and a Jew, not a Gentile (Gen. 12:1-3; Num. 24:17). He would be from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), and the family of David (2 Sam. 7:1-17), born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem, the city of David (Micah 5:2).

Mary and Joseph were already husband and wife but since they did not consummate the marriage until after Jesus was born, she is called his “espoused wife” (Matt. 1:18-25). The journey must have been very trying for her, but she rejoiced in doing the will of God, and she was no doubt glad to get away from the gossip of her pregnancy in Nazareth.

This was God’s way. He used the ordinary to do the extraordinary. Bread and Wine become the body and blood of Christ – the very medicine of immortality. Simple water becomes a flood of righteousness, washing away every spot and stain of sin. The simple doing the extraordinary. The everyday touching the eternal.

Mothers in that day wrapped their infants in long bands of cloth to give the limbs strength and protection. Jesus was laid in a manger. The words “manger” or “stall” can either mean a feeding trough or an enclosure for animals. You see ancient stone troughs even today as you travel in the Holy Land, and it is probable that such a trough cradled the Infant Jesus. Many scholars believe that our Lord was born in a cave where animals were sheltered and not in a wooden shed such as you see in modern manger scenes.

Bethlehem means “house of bread,” the ideal birthplace for the Bread of Life (John 6:35). In this extraordinary infant, we see the very image of God – the living word of creation made flesh. The eternal Son of the Father humbled, made low, for us; always for us.

What a blessed union of the everyday and the once and for all. A paradox of cosmic proportions – God and man joined in this one small person. Unfathomable power and authority placed in the care of these two humble travelers of little means by our standards. Indescribable glory and majesty shrouded in the swaddling clothes of a newborn. It was God’s plan for eternal salvation hidden in the peace and calm of a dark night in a small town, long ago.

The first announcement of the Messiah’s birth was given by an angel to some anonymous shepherds. Why shepherds? Why not to priests and scribes? By visiting the shepherds, the angel revealed the grace of God toward mankind. Shepherds were really outcasts in Israel. Their work not only made them ceremonially unclean, but it kept them away from the temple for weeks at a time so that they could not be made clean.

The shepherds knew what to look for: a newborn Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And they found Him! They worshiped Him and marveled at God’s grace and goodness and the miracle he had wrought for them.

These shepherds are good examples for us to imitate today. They received by faith the message of God sent them and then responded with immediate obedience. After finding the Baby, they reported the good news to others, “glorifying and praising God.” Then they humbly returned to their duties, new men going back to the same old job.

The Messiah came to be both the Good Shepherd (John 10) and the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world (John 1:29). Perhaps these shepherds were caring for the flocks that would provide sacrifices for the temple services. It was fitting that the good news about God’s Shepherd and Lamb be given first to humble shepherds.

And who brought the Good News? First one angel appeared, probably Gabriel, and brought the glad announcement; and then a chorus of angels joined him and gave an anthem of praise.

“Fear not! I announce to you good news, a great joy which shall be to all people.”

What was the good news?

This Messiah was one who came to die. If we look into the manger and gush over the image of a sweet and pure child, but see no cross, we miss the whole point. If we forget that this precious child came to shed His precious blood for our sin, then why are we celebrating Him anyway? For this is the perfect and spotless Lamb of God, appointed for sacrifice, to take away the sins of the whole world.

This doesn’t happen every day. But it did happen on Good Friday. The Christ that laid in the manger is the same Christ nailed to the cross. The Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes is the same Christ wrapped in grave linens. The one whose birth was peaceful and humble and ordinary was destined for a death that was violent and humiliating, and …ordinary. Romans crucified people all the time. Such a death was part of life for ancient Jews.

But then the usual gave way to the unusual once again, and Christ conquered death. And this is His greatest miracle. This is what no one expected, even though He said so.

On this Christmas Eve, we do all the usual things, read the usual readings, sing all the usual hymns, light the candles, like we always do. We’ll go home to our regular places at the regular times, and do our holiday traditions in the usual way, with the usual foods, and the usual folks. But through it all, and behind it all, and in it all is our God – present and working his extraordinary salvation. There is nothing common about His grace in Jesus Christ.

May your everyday Christmas be filled with those unique blessings brought by the Lamb of God, the babe of Bethlehem, true God, true man, the firstborn of the dead, Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that He sent us His Son, and that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life.

Let us pray:
O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!

His Divine Credentials

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
December 22, 2013 – Advent IV

Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25

From the Prophet Isaiah:
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

From the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

And from the Gospel of St. Matthew:
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

A few of you traveled great distances to be here for the Christmas holiday. A time to be with family and friends; a time to share good food and fellowship; and of course to thank God for His most precious gift: His Son Jesus Christ.

When you arrived at the airport and proceeded through the security area, you needed to show some form of identification or credentials before you could proceed.

When you apply for a job, you present to your prospective employer a resume. This gives a summary of your experience; your resume is your credentials for the prospective job. It is also important to check a person’s credentials to make sure they are telling the truth. This is so important that we do this for our politicians.
If a man suddenly appears on the scene and claims to be a king, the public immediately asks for proof. What is his background? Who pays homage to him? What credentials can he present? Anticipating these important questions, Matthew opened his book with a careful account of the birth of Jesus Christ and the events that accompanied it.

Genealogies were very important to the Jews, for without them they could not prove their tribal memberships or their rights to inheritances. Anyone claiming to be “the Son of David” had to be able to prove it. It is generally concluded that Matthew gave our Lord’s family tree through His foster father, Joseph, while Luke gave Mary’s lineage (Luke 3:23ff).

Many Bible readers skip over this list of ancient (and, in some cases, unpronounceable) names. But this “list of names” is a vital part of the Gospel record. It shows that Jesus Christ is a part of history; that all of Jewish history prepared the way for His birth. God in His providence ruled and overruled to accomplish His great purpose in bringing His Son into the world.

This genealogy also illustrates God’s wonderful grace. It is most unusual to find names of women in Jewish genealogies, since names and inheritances came through the fathers. But in this list we find references to four women from Old Testament history: Tamar (Matt. 1:3), Rahab and Ruth (Matt. 1:5), and Bathsheba “the wife of Uriah” (Matt. 1:6).

There were many Jewish men of that day who could trace their family back to King David. It would take more than human pedigree to make Jesus Christ “the Son of David” and heir to David’s throne. This is why the divine heredity was so important.

Matthew made it clear that Jesus Christ’s birth was different from that of any other Jewish boy named in the genealogy. Matthew pointed out that Joseph did not ‘beget” Jesus Christ. Rather, Joseph was the “husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” Jesus was born of an earthly mother without the need of an earthly father. This is known as the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.

Every child born into the world is a totally new creature. However, Jesus Christ, being eternal God (John 1:1, 14), existed before Mary and Joseph or any of His earthly ancestors. If Jesus Christ was conceived and born just as any other baby, then He could not be God. It was necessary for Him to enter this world through an earthly mother, but not to be begotten by an earthly father. By a miracle of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, a virgin (Luke 1:26-38).

Both Mary and Joseph belonged to the house of David. The Old Testament prophecies indicated that the Messiah would be born of a woman (Gen. 3:15), of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 22:18), through the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), and of the family of David (2 Sam. 7:12-13). Matthew’s genealogy traced the line through Solomon, while Luke’s traced it through Nathan, another of David’s sons. It is worth noting that Jesus Christ is the only Jew alive who can actually prove His claims to the throne of David! All of the other records were destroyed when the Romans took Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
To the Jewish people in that day, betrothal or engagement was equivalent to marriage – except that the man and woman did not live together (not like today). They were called “husband and wife,” and, at the end of the engagement period, the marriage was consummated. If a betrothed woman became pregnant, it was considered adultery. But Joseph did not punish or divorce Mary when he discovered she was with child, for the Lord had revealed the truth to him. All of this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa. 7:14).

Let’s take a moment and look at the three names assigned to God’s Son. The name Jesus means “Saviour” and comes from the Hebrew name, Joshua, which means “Jehovah is salvation.” Jesus was also called “Jesus the Christ.” The word Christ means “anointed”; it is the Greek equivalent of Messiah. He is “Jesus the Messiah.” Jesus is His human name; Christ is His official title; and Immanuel describes who He is – “God with us.” Jesus Christ is God!

The King, then, was a Jewish male who is also the divine Son of God. Was He worthy of worship? Was he really both God and man? Did anybody acknowledge His Kingship? Yes, because He was born with a divine nature. He was born a child, but He was also born the Son of God with power and authority. The magi from the East got it right and they came and worshiped Him.

Have you ever noticed that St. Paul always begins his letters with something like: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…” In ancient days, the writer of a letter always opened with his name. But there would be many men named Paul in that day, so the writer had to further identify himself and convince the readers that he had a right to send the letter. What were Paul’s credentials?

The word Paul used for servant would be meaningful to the Romans, because it is the
word slave. There were an estimated 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire; and a slave was looked on as a piece of property, not a person. In loving devotion, Paul had enslaved himself to Christ, to be his servant and obey His will.

Paul was an apostle, which means “one who is sent by authority with a commission.” It was applied in that day to the representatives of the emperor or the emissaries of a king. One of the requirements for an apostle was the experience of seeing the risen Christ (1 Cor. 9:1-2). Paul saw Christ when he was on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), and it was then that Christ called him to be His apostle to the Gentiles. Paul received from Christ divine revelations that he was to share with the churches.

When Paul was a Jewish rabbi, a Pharisee, he was committed to the laws and traditions of the Jews. But when he yielded to Christ, he was committed to the Gospel and its ministry. He was to preach and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is the message that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, and now is able to save all who trust Him (1 Cor. 15:1-4). It is “the Gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1) because it originates with God; it was not invented by man. It is “the Gospel of Christ” (Rom. 1:16) because it centers in Christ, the Saviour. Paul also calls it “the Gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9), which indicates that Jesus Christ is God!
Jesus Christ is the center of the Gospel message. Paul identified Him as a man, a Jew, and the Son of God. He was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18-25) into the family of David, which gave Him the right to David’s throne. He died for the sins of the world, and then was raised from the dead. It is this miraculous event of substitutionary death and victorious resurrection that constitutes the Gospel; and it was this Gospel that Paul preached.

Jesus Christ became one of us so that He could redeem us. That’s what we celebrate when we talk about Christmas – the child that is born in Bethlehem. You’ll notice that it says, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” His sonship has to do with His divinity. Jesus Christ’s humanity began two thousand years ago, but His divinity was there from the beginning of eternity.

His redemption is based on a relationship with Him. It’s based on faith. It’s based on trust and that is developed through reading of His Word.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of darkness, on them the light has shined.” (Isa. 9:2) Open your heart to the light – to the Saviour.

There is no Christmas without Christ. And there is no Christ without the cross. There’s no manger scene apart from a crucifix. No Bethlehem without Jerusalem. No Saviour born unless He is born to die. And there is no salvation for sinners like you and me; without Christ crucified.

May we rejoice today with the angels that sang when that great gift of salvation came – when that child was born in Bethlehem and the Son given.

Advent now closes. Christmas is almost here. And now we are prepared to celebrate His birth because we know who He is. We have seen His credentials. He is Jesus Christ. He’s our Saviour from sin. He is our true Christmas joy!

Let us pray:

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation; that Your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen!

Repent and Be Baptized

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
December 8, 2013 – Advent II

Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3:1-12

From the Prophet Isaiah:
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

From St. Paul’ Letter to the Romans:
Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope.”

And from the Gospel of St. Matthew:
John the Baptist says, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

This is the second Sunday in Advent, as we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold His coming. He looked beyond his people’s trials to the glorious kingdom that will be established when Messiah comes to reign (Is. 11:1-9). David’s dynasty was ready to end, but out of Jesse’s lineage, the Messiah would come (Rom. 1:3). A godly remnant of Jews kept the nation alive so that the Messiah could be born.

When Isaiah looked at his people, he saw a sinful nation that would one day walk the “highway of holiness” and enter into a righteous kingdom. He saw a suffering people who would one day enjoy a beautiful and peaceful kingdom. He saw a scattered people who would be re-gathered and reunited under the kingship of Jesus Christ.

Over 400 years had passed and the nation of Israel had not heard the voice of a prophet. Then John the Baptist appeared on the scene and a great revival took place. But who was this John the Baptist? Why was he so significant? What was this John the Baptist like?

When we read about John the Baptist, we see he was a straight talker, said it like it was and wasn’t afraid to offend people in order to tell them the truth. He was a true prophet. John’s preaching centered on repentance and the kingdom of heaven. The word, repent means “to change one’s mind and act on that change.” But why repent? It’s because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Kingdom of heaven, that is God’s kingdom, God’s reign, God’s rule, is at hand. But what does all this mean?

All kinds of people came to hear John preach and to watch the great baptismal services he conducted. Many publicans and sinners came in sincere humility (Matt. 21:31-32), but the religious leaders refused to submit. They thought that they were good enough to please God; yet John called them a “generation of vipers.” Jesus used the same language when He dealt with this self-righteous crowd (Matt. 12:34; 23:33).

The Pharisees were the traditionalists of their day, while the Sadducees were more liberal. The wealthy Sadducees controlled the “temple business” that Jesus cleaned out. These two groups usually fought each other for control of the nation, but when it came to opposing Jesus Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees were united.

John’s message was one of judgment. Israel had sinned and needed to repent, and the religious leaders should have led the way. The ax was lying at the root of the tree; and if the tree or Israel did not bear good fruit, it would be cut down. If the nation repented, the way would be prepared for the coming of the Messiah.

John fulfilled the prophecy given in Isaiah 40:3, “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” In a spiritual sense, John was “Elijah who was to come” for he came in the “spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:16-17). He even dressed as Elijah did and preached the same message of judgment (2 Kings 1:8). John was the last of the Old Testament prophets (Luke 16:16) and the greatest of them (Matt. 11:7-15).

And what was he saying? What was his message? It was to prepare the way for the Lord, to make his paths straight. That is, John’s role was to prepare people for Jesus, the salvation that Jesus was bringing: The Gospel – the good news – of the Kingdom of Heaven. That Jesus would shortly be proclaiming. The Good News that the war is over, peace is coming, because the people’s sin has been pardoned. That’s what John did, he prepared people’s hearts for the coming of Jesus the Messiah, by preaching and telling people to repent.

The Jews baptized Gentile converts to Judaism, but John was baptizing Jews! His baptism was authorized from heaven (Matt. 21:23-27); it was not something John devised or borrowed. It was a baptism of repentance, looking forward to the Messiah’s coming (Acts 19:1-7). His baptism fulfilled two purposes: it prepared the nation for Christ and it presented Christ to the nation (John 1:31).

Baptism is always a voluntary thing on the part of the person being baptized. And what came with the baptism – confession of sins. You know, one of the biggest problems we face with evangelism in our modern culture is that people don’t think they are sinners. It’s always someone else. We are under the impression that as long as I am a “good” person; then I am okay. People don’t realize they have offended God; that they have rebelled against God.

Remember our ancestors Adam and Eve. God told them not to eat of a particular fruit in the Garden of Eden; and they did anyway. They thought they knew better than God. It was the same with the Pharisees and Sadducees and it is the same today. We think we know best. That’s what sin is. It’s a kind of arrogance. It’s when we write our own rules. It’s when we ignore God. It’s when we don’t put Him first in our lives. Sin is the belief by a person that he knows better than God or that we don’t need God. You’ve heard the expression: move over God, there’s two of us.

And so the first step towards coming to God, is we need to acknowledge our sin. And that’s what these people were doing at John’s baptism. They were confessing their sins. And if you haven’t confessed your sins, then you are still separated from God. But the Good News is, that if you do confess your sins and repent, then God can and will forgive you.

Now we have some distinguished visitors arriving at John’s baptism. It doesn’t say that they were baptized, but perhaps they just came down to the waters see what was going on. These people were two Jewish religious groups: the Pharisees and Sadducees. Although the Pharisees and Sadducees were quite different to each other, they had the reputation of being very religious, and they thought they were right with God. So, does John welcome them with open arms; No! He called them a “brood of vipers!” In other words, he called them “offspring of snakes.” Why did John say that to them?

The problem is two-fold. First, John is saying that they need to “bear fruit” in keeping with repentance. That is, if you repent of your sins, if you confess your sins, turn to God, then there must be something to show for it. It MUST affect the way you live.

Second, the Pharisees and Sadducees thought they were okay, that they were right with God, simply because they were Jews, descendents of Abraham. This happened in Isaiah’s time. Isaiah proclaimed repentance and the Jews wouldn’t listen and they were exiled and punished for their sins. And now in John the Baptist’s time many of the Jews had the same attitude.

So, John is preparing the way for Jesus – that it is not just good enough to be born into the right race, the right family, but there must be repentance – and not just a repentance of words, but a repentance of action, of a changed life, of good fruit.

Are we Christians any different? Do we not preach “forgiveness of sins;” that God loves us and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The problem is, we forget the repentance part.
Did God did say, go forth and do whatever you want, because I will forgive you? No! John the Baptist’s cry is the same today, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

We all need to examine ourselves and our relationship with God. John the Baptist warns people that they were not okay with God simply by virtue of their birth or that they were from a religious family; or that they did the right rituals. Now many of us are in a similar boat. We have grown up in Christian homes. We have grown up in the church. We come to church each week (most of the time). Most of us are members of this church. So, because of these things, we call ourselves a Christian, because that’s what we’re supposed to do, that’s what our parents did. And because of that, we think we are right with God.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s great to be brought up in a Christian home; it’s great to have the things of God taught to you from an early age through the Sunday school, and that’s what we are doing with our kids. But unfortunately, being brought up in at Christian home won’t save you. Going to church every Sunday won’t save you. Just because you were baptized, won’t save you. These circumstances can certainly help, but they won’t guarantee that you will be saved. You can’t rely on your upbringing, your Christian heritage, or just calling yourself a Christian. You must decide for yourself to follow Jesus Christ, and live it.

You see, every one of us must decide for ourselves to follow Christ or not. And if you decide to follow Christ, as John the Baptist says so clearly, then you must do it properly. 100%. You must be honest about it. You must show fruit of your repentance. It must be obvious from the way you live, that God is number one. As far as God is concerned, there is no such thing as Christianity Lite. What are the priorities in your life? Do you put God first?

Is serving the Lord with your time, your abilities, your money, the number one priority in your life? Do you make the proclamation of the Gospel the priority of your life? Does your behavior towards others show that Christ lives in you? Are you kind, generous, thinking of others ahead of yourself, helping those in need, the poor? Do you spend time each day in prayer and Bible reading, soaking up the Word of God? When you talk with people, email them, post on your Face book wall, do you talk about the things of the Lord? Have you made Jesus the priority in your life?

John mentioned two other baptisms: a baptism of the Spirit and a baptism of fire (Matt. 3:11). The baptism of the Spirit came at Pentecost (Acts 1:5). Today, whenever a sinner trusts Christ, he is born again and immediately baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, the church (1 Cor. 12:12-13). In contrast, the baptism of fire refers to the future judgment.

Jesus will come again and He will sort out the wheat from the chaff. He will sort out those who truly are His, and who show it in their lives. The wheat he will gather into His silo, and the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. He came to bring Good News of forgiveness, but it is only good news for those who recognize their sin, repent, and turn to God, who then have their sins forgiven and who show fruit of that repentance.

Thus, John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and also as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). Because of John’s witness, many sinners trusted Jesus Christ (John 10:39-42). The word “trust” can also mean “hope.” Not only do believers have hope, but they also have joy and peace and power (Rom. 15:13). As we prepare for His coming, may we bear witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ!

Let us pray:

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation; Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen!

What Will Tomorrow Bring?

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
November 17, 2013, Pentecost XXVI

Isaiah 65:17-25, Psalm 98:1-6, II Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19

From the Prophet Isaiah:
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians:
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us;

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, “As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

Have you ever tried to make a prediction? Here are some from the past. All from people who were trusted individuals:

Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, in 1943 said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Popular Mechanics magazine in 1949 made this prediction: “Where a calculator on the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons.”

The Decca Recording Co. made a big mistake when they made this prediction: “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” That was their prediction in 1962 concerning a few lads from Liverpool, England. Their band was called the Beatles.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we have Jesus and His disciples in the Temple. Now it was the disciples’ turn to ask Jesus some questions!

It all started with the arrival in the temple of a poor widow with an offering for the Lord (Luke 21:1-4). We should all be familiar with this passage and it would be an excellent stewardship message, but that’s next week. Compared to the gifts of the rich men, her two copper coins seemed insignificant, but Jesus said that she gave more than all the others combined. “The widow’s mite” does not represent the least we can give, but the most, our very all. When we sing, “Take my silver and my gold/Not a mite will I withhold,” we are telling God that everything we have belongs to Him.

When it comes to our giving, God sees more than the portion; He also sees the proportion. Men see what is given, but God sees what is left, and by that He measures the gift and the condition of our hearts. Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” It’s something to think about for next Sunday.

The temple in Jerusalem was a beautiful structure, embellished with many costly decorations that a poor widow could never give, and the disciples mentioned this to Jesus. But our Lord was not impressed. He told them that the day would come when the beautiful Jewish temple would be demolished (Luke 21:5-6). He had already announced that the city would be destroyed (Luke 19:41-44), but now He specifically mentioned the destruction of the temple.

Jesus’ prediction that a structure so immense would be leveled to the ground seemed implausible. But they pressed Jesus for more information. In their voice was fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that their lives were about to change forever. Jesus had not made any predictions like this one. This was different. This, they could understand.

Forty years later Jesus’ prediction came true. In 70 AD the Temple was destroyed by Rome. If this prediction came true, would not the other predictions of Jesus come true as well?

Jesus left the temple and went to the Mount of Olives, and there Peter, James, and John asked Him three questions: (1) When would the temple be destroyed? (2) What would be the sign of His coming? (3) What would be the sign of the end of the age?

The disciples thought that these three events would occur at the same time, but Jesus explained things differently. Actually, the temple would be destroyed first, and then there would be a long period of time before He would return and establish His kingdom on earth. Our Lord’s reply comprises what we call “The Olivet Discourse,” the greatest prophetic sermon He ever preached.
Keep in mind that this was a message given to Jews by a Jew about the future of the Jewish nation. Though there are definite applications to God’s people today, the emphasis is on Jerusalem, the Jews, and the temple.
Our Lord was not discussing His coming for the church, for that can occur at any time and no signs need precede it (1 Cor. 15:51-58; 1 Thes. 4:13-18). “For the Jews require a sign” (1 Cor. 1:22); the church looks for a Saviour (Phil. 3:20-21).

The sermon focuses on a period in God’s program called “the Tribulation” when God will pour out His wrath on the nations of the world. Some scholars believe that the Tribulation will begin after the Lord comes in the air and takes His church to heaven (1 Thes. 4:13-5:11). It will climax with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, at which time He will defeat His foes and establish His kingdom (Rev. 19:1-20:6).

Our Lord’s admonition to His people is, “Don’t be terrified!” These things must come to pass; there is nothing anyone can do to prevent them. This does not mean that God’s people are submitting to blind fate; rather, it means they are yielding to the plan of a loving Father who works all things “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11).

Finally, there will be religious persecution, both official (Luke 21:12-15) and personal (Luke 21:16-19). Of course, there has been religious persecution ever since Cain killed Abel (Matt. 23:34-36). Jesus promised that His people would suffer (John 15:18-16:4), and that promise holds true today (2 Tim. 3:12). But the persecution in the end times will be much more severe and many will give their lives for Christ.

Look at the Middle East: Christians and Jews are being persecuted, murdered and forced to flee their homeland, due to Muslims. A Christian minister, who converted from Islam to Christianity, is being held in an Iranian jail simply because he is a Christian.

Christianity is under attack in this country; God is being removed from our schools, our government, and our way of life by a few unbelievers. I pray that some day we as Christians will have the courage to restore the Judeo Christian values and beliefs that founded this great country.

Jesus gives encouragement to all who suffer persecution. We must remember that when we are persecuted, we suffer for His name’s sake (Luke 21:12), and this is a high honor (Acts 5:41). It is not important what people say about our names, but it is important that the name of Christ be glorified.

We also need to realize that suffering is an opportunity for witness (Luke 21:13-15). I am sure most of us will not have to endure suffering for Christ, but there are many down through the centuries that have. The Apostles made good use of the witness stand when they were arrested and taken before the council (Acts 4-5), and Christ’s servants and martyrs have followed their example.

Because of official persecution, God’s witnesses will stand before important people; and when that happens, they must not panic, for God will give them the words to speak. This promise is not an excuse for lazy preachers or Sunday school teachers who do not want to study! Rather, it is an assurance to faithful witnesses that God will always give them the words they need when they need them.

But they must not despair, for God is in control. Not a hair on their head can perish apart from His sovereign will (Matt. 10:28-31). Knowing this they can have endurance and be able to face the challenges with faith and courage.

While many Christians today enjoy freedom from official persecution, or even family opposition, there are others who suffer greatly for their faith, and what our Lord said here is an encouragement to them. We here in America have it easy. No one is being arrested simply because we are a Christian; at least not yet. Yes, our Christian faith is being persecuted by nonbelievers – God is being removed from our society, but it’s not personally affecting us; at least not yet.

Remember, the things Jesus described here are not signs of His soon return, because they have been going on for centuries. However, as the coming of the Lord draws near, these things will multiply and intensify. No matter what our views may be of the coming of the Lord, we all need to heed His three admonitions: “Don’t be deceived! Don’t be afraid! Don’t worry!”

We also have the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.”

God saves the best for last: His description of “the new heavens and a new earth.” People will not get old or die (Isa. 65:20), nor will there be any danger or losing anything to invaders (vv. 21-23).

Jerusalem will be a source of joy, not only to the Lord but to the whole earth. It will be a city of holiness, harmony, and happiness. During the millennial kingdom, people will work, and God will bless their labors. People will pray, and God will answer (v. 24). Nature will be at peace (v. 25) because the curse will be lifted.

As holy saints through faith in the blood of Christ, we need not fear this end of the world. God’s Word encourages us to look forward to what will be. God declares that after He destroys the world as we know it – He will create a NEW heaven and earth. Imagine living in a world where there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more living with unbelievers; no more living with sinful desires, no more bad backs, and no more death.

We may worry about what will happen here at Trinity Church. Will we continue as a Christian community? What will happen to the building if we close? Where will we worship? Who will bury me? What will happen to the friendships we have made over the years? Does any of this matter?

The kingdom of God and the spreading of His Word is all important. It is worth investing in and losing everything over. In the end, whether we die with nothing – as Lazarus did, or many things – as Abraham did – makes no difference. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Gal. 5:6). So why not make the most with what we’ve got – for HIS kingdom? Why not invest your efforts in doing ETERNAL things?

St. Paul stated: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14).

Friends, the end is always near – maybe just around the corner or many years to come. But God promises us that because Jesus died and rose from the dead, we will rise again – in a new and eternal world. So stick to the basics. That means first and foremost continuing in the Word and Sacrament – keeping connected to Christ – to keep you focused on the prize. Use your body. Use your gifts. That’s what life in Christ is all about. Have no fear. The end is near.

Let us pray:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen!

God of the Living

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
November 10, 2013, Pentecost XXV – Veterans Sunday

Job 19:23-27a, Psalm 17:1-9, II Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, Luke 20:27-38

From the Prophet Job:
“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were given in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God…”

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians:
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. We want to honor and esteem all veterans and especially those veterans who are with us in the worship service today. In doing so, we want to take a look at what is required to become a true veteran of the cross of Christ.

If you were to look up and in back of you, there are two flags hanging from the balcony. The American Flag, and the Christian Flag. One represents our country, and the other represents our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. To serve either of these flags (and the kingdoms they represent) faithfully and effectively, one must meet certain requirements.
Before one can become a veteran, they must first be a good soldier. What are the characteristics of a good soldier? First he needs to volunteer; to give of himself willingly for the cause. Second he needs to have complete faith; Faith in the one who called him to serve. And the third characteristic is that one needs to have complete commitment; Commitment to the one who called him and to serve faithfully without hesitation. And fourth, is complete obedience; to “follow orders” no matter the cost. And last: complete devotion; to be devoted and dedicated to the one who called you. Are you that soldier?

Jesus had already told His twelve disciples to expect conflict and suffering when they arrived in the Holy City. “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day” (Luke 9:22). Jesus knew fully what was coming, and He was not afraid.

In the 20th chapter of Luke, we meet three groups of religious leaders (Luke 20:1) and witness their conflict with Jesus. They challenged Him because He had cleansed the temple and called them “thieves.” They tried to catch Him in His words so they could trump up some charges against Him and have Him arrested as an enemy of the state.

These religious leaders of the Jewish people – the establishment – were sure of their ability to rule. They enjoyed the power they had and saw Jesus as the brash young challenger to their authority and power; so they were always trying to trap Him and make Him say something that would make Him lose His credibility with the crowds. Jesus, however, was like a rubber band that always snapped back in their faces.

It was required that the Jews carefully examine the Passover lambs from the tenth day to the fourteenth day to make sure they had no blemishes (Ex. 12:1-6). Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), was watched and tested by His enemies during that final week; and yet in spite of what they saw and listened, they rejected Him.

However, Jesus was also examining them! For as they questioned Him, He questioned them, and their responses revealed the ignorance, hatred, and unbelief of their hearts.

The Sadducees asked Jesus a hypothetical question based on the Jewish law of “levirate marriage” (Gen. 38; Deut. 25:5-10). The word levirate comes from the Latin levir, which means “a husband’s brother.” The Sadducees only accepted what was written in the Torah – also known as the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible. If something was not specifically referred to or mentioned in the Torah, then, in their estimation, it was not to be believed.

For example, the first five books of the Bible say nothing about angels, spirits, eternal life, resurrection or immortality – so the Sadducees did not believe in these things, and thought that no one else should either. They also did not believe in Heaven or Hell. They claimed that Moses did not write about any of these doctrines. They did not believe such writings as the book of Job which contains this witness:

“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him…” (Job 19:23-27).

The priestly party in Israel was composed of Sadducees, which explains why the priests opposed the Apostles’ preaching of the Resurrection (Acts 4:1-2) and why they wanted to kill Lazarus, who was raised from the dead (John 12:10-11).

According to the Sadducees, there was no such thing as life beyond the grave, so the question they posed to Jesus is really quite surprising.

“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman dies too. Now then,” they asked, “at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

The Sadducees had no interest in the intricacies of life after death. They didn’t even believe in such a thing. They simply wanted to get Jesus in trouble with the people. But Jesus was accustomed to scholars attempting to trip Him up. Jesus knew the Scriptures better than they did, and believed in all the Old Testament scriptures – not just the first five books, Jesus replied to them:

“The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

Jesus pointed out that His opponents were wrong and that their question revealed assumptions that limited God’s power and denied God’s Word. Resurrection is not reconstruction; it is the miraculous granting of a new body that has continuity with the old body but not identity. Paul compared our present body to a planted seed and the future resurrection body to the glorious flower and fruit (1 Cor. 15:35-50). Our Lord’s resurrection body was the same as before His death and yet different!

His friends recognized Him and even felt Him; He could eat food and yet He could also walk through closed doors, change His appearance, and vanish suddenly.
The future life with God is not a mere continuation of the present life only on “a higher scale.” We will maintain our identities and know each other, but there will be no more death – hence, no need for marriage and procreation. Christians do not become angels.
In heaven we will share the image of Jesus Christ and be much higher than the angels (1 John 3:2). Angels appear in Scripture as men, but they are spirit beings without sexuality. It is in this regard that we will be like them; there will be no marriage or childbearing in heaven.

Is not God powerful enough to raise the dead and give them new bodies suited to their new environment? If today He can give different bodies to the various things in creation, why can He not give people new bodies at the resurrection? (1 Cor. 15:35-44) In their attempt to be “rational,” the Sadducees denied the very power of God!

Jesus met the Sadducees where they were. The Sadducees were people of the Law, the Torah. If something wasn’t in the Torah, it could not be part of their faith. So Jesus answered them from the Torah. He turns to the third chapter of Exodus, the story of Moses and the burning bush. There God identified Himself with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and thus affirmed that these three patriarchs were very much alive. But if they were alive, then they were “out of the body,” for they had died (James 2:26). There must be a real world of spirit beings or Moses would not have written these words.

Here God tells Moses:

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Notice that God did not say, “I WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

“God is not the God of the dead,” Jesus insists, “but of the living.”

Jesus taught not only the truth of life after death but also the reality of the resurrection. In what way? Not by direct statement but by inference. God is the God of the whole person – spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23) – because He created the whole person. He does not simply “save our souls” and ignore the rest of our being. Inherent in the very nature of God’s creative act is His concern for the total person. Hence, He will not keep us disembodied spirits forever but will give us glorious bodies to match our heavenly perfection.

Another factor is God’s covenantal relationship with the patriarchs. He made promises of earthly blessing to them and their descendants, but He cannot fulfill these promises if His people are going to live forever only as disembodied spirits. Can there be a glorious new heaven and earth but no corporeal glory for the people of God?

Jesus affirmed what the Sadducees denied: the existence of angels, the reality of life after death, and the hope of a future resurrection – and he did it with only one passage from Moses!

The resurrection is a cornerstone of the Christian faith because on it hangs the three core issues of Christianity: accountability before God, judgment and eternal life. Without the resurrection, death would be the end and our accountability to God would be limited only to this life and judgment and eternal life would be meaningless.
The resurrection offers us a new existence where men and women would no longer be subject to suffering and death. Heaven is not a continuation of life, as we now know it since time, death and sin limit our relationships in this life. It will be different relationship to what we are used to but there will be one thing that will not change and that is worship. Worship will still be central in this new relationship and that should make us place a great value on worship here on earth.

God is love and he has gone to great lengths to make it possible for us to spend eternity in His presence. It cost Him the life of His Son Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life on earth and died a painful death to pay the penalty for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead for our justification so that we could spend eternity with Him. This is only possible when we believe in Him as our Lord and Saviour. We can only do this in this life before our death. Accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour determines where we spend eternity.

Our relationship with Christ is the most important thing in life. If we learn to love and trust Christ now, we will be preparing for the age to come as our relationship with Christ results in godly attitudes and godly actions. This relationship should draw us to His Word, prayer, fellowship and service. It should make us sensitive to the real needs of people as we see them the way Jesus does. We must be sure of our relationship with Christ for it is this relationship that prepares us for the age to come and ensures our future. This relationship ensures that we experience the peace of God both in this life and in the life to come.

God is the God of the living and not the dead. Our hope and confidence in the resurrection rests upon the Word of God and His infinite power. To believe the Word of god and to trust in the power of God should change both our beliefs and our behavior and the way we live. This is what will decide where we spend eternity. Those who place their faith in God and His Son are declared righteous in the sight of God and thus are considered worthy. They will spend eternity in fellowship with God the Father, His Son, and all the saints from every generation. Jesus says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

Let us pray:

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom; where He lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen!

Salvation Has Come

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
October 27, 2013, Pentecost XXIV – Memorial Sunday
Remembrance of the Faithful Departed
The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Habakkuk 1:1-4, Psalm 32:1-7, II Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12, Luke 19:1-10

From the Prophet Habakkuk:
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear?

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians:
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the peace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

When Christopher Columbus made his voyage west in 1492, he kept two log books, one of which contained falsified information. He wanted his men to believe that they were closer to land than they really were. Apparently Columbus felt that the morale of the crew was more important than the integrity of the captain.

As Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem, He told His disciples what would happen there, but they could not grasp what their Lord was saying (Luke 18:31-34). Some of the people in the crowd thought He was going to Jerusalem to deliver Israel from Roman bondage and usher in the kingdom of God. Still others followed Him just to see the next miracle He would perform.

In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus introduces us to another tax collector named Zaccheus, which means “righteous one.” Imagine us referring to the IRS as being righteous, and this supervisor of tax collectors was not living up to his name. Certainly the Jewish religious community in Jericho would not have considered him righteous, for he not only collected taxes from his own people but also worked for the unclean Gentiles! And publicans, which we learned last week, were notorious for collecting more taxes than required; the more money they collected, the more income they enjoyed (Luke 3:12-13). Though Zaccheus was a renegade in the eyes of the Jews, he was a precious lost sinner in the eyes of Jesus.

It is interesting to see the changes Zaccheus experienced that day, all because Jesus visited Jericho.

In the East, it is unusual for a man to run, especially a wealthy government official; yet Zaccheus ran down the street like a little boy following a parade. And he even climbed a tree! Curiosity is certainly characteristic of most children, and Zaccheus was motivated by curiosity that day. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14).

John Calvin wrote, “Curiosity and simplicity are a sort of preparation for faith.” This is often the case, and it was certainly true of Zaccheus. Why the big crowd? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth they are following? What am I missing?

Jesus said, “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall in no way enter therein” (Luke 18:17). Perhaps more than anything else, it is pride that keeps many “successful” people from trusting Jesus Christ.

Zaccheus thought he was seeking Jesus (Luke 19:3), but Jesus was actually seeking him! (Luke 19:10). By nature, the lost sinner does not seek the Saviour (Rom. 3:11). When our first parents (Adam and Eve) sinned, they hid from God, but God came and sought them (Gen. 3:1-10). When Jesus was ministering on earth, He sought out the lost; and today the Holy Spirit, through the church, is searching for lost sinners.

We do not know how God had worked in the heart of Zaccheus to prepare him for this meeting with Jesus. Was Levi, the former publican (Luke 5:27-39), one of his friends? Had he told Zaccheus about Jesus? Was he praying for Zaccheus? Had Zaccheus become weary of wealth and started yearning for something better? We cannot answer these questions, but we can rejoice that a seeking Saviour will always find a sinner who is looking for a new beginning.

St. Paul stated that he wanted the Thessalonians to be worthy of the kingdom when they entered glory in the future. But in our Epistle reading this morning, Paul emphasized their present situation. God’s calling was in grace and love, and Paul desired that they might live up to that calling.

The future prospect of glory motivated the apostle to pray for the saints. We must never neglect a present responsibility because of a future hope. On the contrary, the future hope must encourage us to be faithful today.

Trials do not make a person; they reveal what a person is made of. When our faith is tried, we are revealing our worth (1 Peter 1:6-9). God certainly knows our hearts even before we are tried, but we do not know what our own hearts. And others do not know what we are worth. We need to pray that God will build our worth and make us more valuable Christians because of the trials we have endured.

Character must lead to conduct. Paul prayed that the Thessalonians might have a resolute will, empowered by God, to do what He wanted them to do. Obedience and service do not spring from human talent and efforts, but from God’s power as we trust Him.

It was not Zaccheus’ fault that he was “little of stature” and could not see over the crowd. He did what he could to overcome his handicap by putting aside his dignity and climbing a tree. In spiritual sense, all of us are “little of stature,” for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). No one measures up to God’s high standards; we are all “too little” to enter into heaven.

The tragedy is, many lost sinners think they are “big.” They measure themselves by man’s standards – money, position, authority, popularity – things that are an “abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). They think they have everything when really they have nothing (Rev. 3:17).

Zaccheus trusted Jesus Christ and became a true “son of Abraham,” meaning, of course, a child of faith (Rom. 4:12; Gal. 3:7). That is as big as you can get!

The people thought Zaccheus was a wealthy man, but actually he was only a bankrupt sinner who needed to receive God’s gift of eternal life, the most expensive gift in the world. This is the only instance in the four Gospels of Jesus inviting Himself to someone’s home, and it illustrates the words of Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Zaccheus was not saved because he promised to do good works. He was saved because he responded by faith to Christ’s gracious word to him. Having trusted the Saviour, he then gave evidence of his faith by promising to make restitution to those he had wronged. Saving faith is more than pious words and devout feelings. It creates a living union with Christ that results in a changed life (James 2:14-26).

Under the Mosaic Law, if a thief voluntarily confessed his crime, he had to restore what he took, add one fifth to it, and bring a trespass offering to the Lord (Lev. 6:1-7). If he stole something he could not restore, he had to repay fourfold (Ex. 22:1); and if he was caught with the goods, he had to repay double (Ex. 22:4). Zaccheus did not quibble over the terms of the Law; he offered to pay the highest price because his heart had truly been changed.

The child of God is born rich, for he shares “every spiritual blessing” in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3). We have the riches of God’s mercy and grace (Eph. 1:7; 2:4) as well as the riches of His glory (Phil. 4:19) and wisdom (Rom. 11:33). These are “unsearchable riches” that can never be fully understood or completely exhausted (Eph. 3:8).

Jesus Christ will be glorified in His saints when they return with Him (2 Thes. 1:10); but He should also be glorified in our lives today. The amazing thing is that the believer who glorifies Christ is likewise glorified in Christ, “glorified in you, and you in Him.”

How can this be done? “According to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes. 1:12). Grace and glory go together, as do suffering and glory.

Jesus invited Himself to Zaccheus’ house, and Zaccheus received Him joyfully. Joy is one of the key themes in the Gospel of Luke, and the word is found over twenty times in one form or another. The experience of salvation certainly ought to produce joy in the believer’s heart.

Zaccheus became the guest in his own house, for Jesus was now his Master. He was ready to obey the Lord and do whatever was necessary to establish a genuine testimony before the people. To be sure, the people criticized Jesus for visiting in a publican’s house (Luke 5:27-32), but the Lord paid no attention to their words. The critics also needed to be saved, but there is no evidence that they trusted Jesus.

When a day begins, you never know how it will end. For Zaccheus, that day ended in joyful fellowship with the Son of God, for he was now a changed man with a new life. Jesus is still seeking the lost and yearning to save them. Has He found you? If yes, praise God! If not, come to Him today as a child and receive Him into your heart.

Let us pray:

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

AMEN!

Gratitude Quotient

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
October 13, 2013, Pentecost XXI

Jeremiah 29:4-7, Psalm 66:1-12, II Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19

From the Old Testament:
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner; A time to gather together with family and friends for good food, good fellowship and of course to give thanks to God for the many blessings that we have been given. When you are sitting at the table, have you ever gone around the table and asked each one to say one thing ‘that are you thankful for’? Of course, the usual responses are: ‘I am thankful for the food that is before us,’ ‘I am thankful for my parents,’ ‘I am thankful for my brothers and sisters.’ Does anyone thank God for all He has done for us? Maybe you do; praise God for that! Maybe it’s a situation where God is ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Maybe we take God for granted. Do we show God our gratitude and how often and in what way?

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is traveling with His disciples to Jerusalem. At the border of Samaria and Judea, Jesus healed ten lepers at one time, and the fact that the miracle involved a Samaritan made it even more significant. Jesus used this event to teach a lesson about gratitude of God.

The story begins with ten unclean men, all of whom were lepers. The Jews and Samaritans would not normally live together, but misery loves company and all ten were outcasts. What difference does birth make if you are experiencing a living death with leprosy? One would think that they would have no hope, but they did!

The Prophet Jeremiah, however, was dealing with hopelessness. The Jews had been conquered and exiled to Babylon. They had lost everything but their lives and what few possessions they could carry with them to Babylon. They’d lost their freedoms and were now captives. They’d been taken from their home and had lost their means of making a living. They were separated from relatives and friends, some of whom may have perished in the long march from Jerusalem to Babylon. No matter how they looked at it, the situation seemed hopeless.

How should we handle such a depressing situation? Accept it from the hand of God and let God have His way. It does no good to hang our harps on the willow trees and sit around and weep, although this may be a temporary normal reaction to tragedy (Ps. 137:1-4). One of the first steps in turning tragedy into triumph is to accept the situation courageously and put ourselves into the hands of a loving God, who makes no mistakes.

Now returning to the ten lepers; these men had hope, for Jesus was there, and they cried out for mercy. The men referred to Jesus as ‘Master.’ Peter referred to Jesus as ‘Master’ when he was first called by Jesus to be one of His disciples (Luke 5:5). The word “master” means “chief commander.” They knew that Jesus was totally in command of even disease and death, and they trusted Him to help them.

Jesus is the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), and our purpose is to bring honor and glory to Him; to show our gratitude. What an encouragement Jesus Christ is to a suffering Christian soldier! For He died and rose again, proving that suffering leads to glory, and that seeming defeat leads to victory. Jesus was treated as an evildoer: He was crucified on the cross, and His soldiers (believers) have been and will be treated the same way.

The best way to magnify Christ is through the ministry of the Word. St. Paul was bound in prison, but God’s Word cannot be bound. Paul not only suffered for the Lord’s sake, but he also suffered for the sake of the church. There were yet many people to reach with the Gospel, and Paul wanted to help reach as many as he could. And reach them he did, through his evangelism and the many letters he wrote to the churches.

It is faith in Jesus Christ that gives us victory (1 John 5:4). We do not fear the enemies, for He has already conquered them. Through our identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection, we have won the victory.

What a pair of paradoxes! Death leads to life! Suffering leads to reigning in glory! We have nothing to fear! The important thing is that we not “disown” our Lord; for if we disown Him here on earth, He will disown us before the Father (Matt. 10:33). In that great “roll call” in glory, when the “medals” are given out, we will lose our reward if we disown His name.
Paul makes it clear (2 Tim. 2:13) that even our own doubt and unbelief cannot change God: “He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” We do not put faith in our faith or in our feelings because they will change and fail. We put our faith in Christ. The missionary, J. Hudson Taylor, often said, “It is not by trying to be faithful, but in looking to the Faithful One, that we win the victory.”

Luke’s account of healing the lepers continues by referring to nine ungrateful men (Luke 17:17). Jesus commanded the men to go show themselves to the priest, which in itself was an act of faith, for they had not yet been cured. When they turned to obey, they were completely healed, for their obedience was evidence of their faith.

You would have expected all ten men to run to Jesus and thank Him for a new start in life, but only one did so – and he was not even a Jew. How grateful the men should have been for the providence of God that brought Jesus into their area, for the love that caused Him to pay attention to them and their need, and for the grace and power of God that brought about their healing.

They should have formed an impromptu men’s chorus and sung Psalm 103 together: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s…”

But before we judge them too harshly, what is our own “GQ” – “Gratitude Quotient”? How often do we take our blessings for granted and fail to thank the Lord? “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Ps. 107:8, 15, 21, 31). Too often we are content to enjoy the gift but we forget the Giver. We are quick to pray but slow to praise.

Are we the spoiled or entitled child that expects, if not demands material things from our parents: “I need a cell phone,” “I need a car,” “I need a lap top computer.” Does the child understand and appreciate our parents’ generosity? Do we show our gratitude? Do we show our gratitude towards our heavenly Father? – the One who gave us life – the One who gives us eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Suppose you are a farmer and there has been a dry spell. So, you pray to God for rain. Well, a few days later, it rains. How do you respond? “Boy, are we lucky, Mother Nature came through for us!” Or do you show your gratitude and thank God for the blessings He bestows.

How about, you lost your watch, and you ask God to help you find it. You search and search all over the place and no watch. After a few days, you find it. How do you respond? “There it is, I knew I would find it eventually.” You found it all by yourself, without any help from God. Or you show your gratitude and thank God for helping you find that which was lost.
The next time you sing “Now Thank We All Our God,” try to remember that Martin Rinkhart (1586-1649) wrote it during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) when his pastoral duties were most difficult. Rev. Rinkhart was a German clergyman and hymnist. He conducted as many as forty funerals a day – 4,480 funerals in total, including that of his own wife and two other ministers; yet he wrote those beautiful words as a table grace for his family. In spite of war and plague around him and sorrow within him, he was able to give thanks to the Lord from a grateful heart. Despite all his hardship, he wrote the following prayer to his children to offer to the Lord:

Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices,
Who, from our mothers’ arms, hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Luke’s account of Jesus healing the ten lepers closes with one unusual man (Luke 17:15-19). The Samaritan shouted “Glory to God!” and fell at Jesus’ feet to praise Him and give thanks. It would have been logical for him to have followed the other men and gone to the temple, but he first came to the Lord Jesus with his sacrifice of praise (Ps. 107:22; Heb. 13:15). This pleased the Lord more than all the sacrifices the other men offered, even though they were obeying the Law (Ps. 51:15-17). Instead of going to the priest, the Samaritan became a priest, and he built his altar at the feet of Jesus.

By coming to Jesus, the man received something greater than physical healing: he was also saved from his sins. Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you,” the same words He spoke to the repentant woman who anointed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:50). This was the woman, a sinner, who anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears; dried them with her hair and anointed Jesus’ head with oil.

The Samaritan’s nine friends were declared clean by the priest, but the Samaritan was declared saved by the Son of God! While it is wonderful to experience the miracle of physical healing, it is even more wonderful to experience the miracle of eternal salvation.

Every child of God should cultivate the grace of gratitude. It not only opens the heart to further blessings but glorifies and pleases the Father. An unthankful heart is fertile soil for all kinds of sins (Rom. 1:21ff).

What is your Gratitude Quotient? I am going to give you a homework assignment. I am not going to collect them next week; I am not going to grade them. This is a take home exam – open book (Bible). This assignment will be between you and God. I want you to write down everything that you are thankful for; that God has done for you. Then when you are finished, I want you to show your gratitude to God: to thank Him; to praise Him; to glorify Him; with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul!

Let us pray: Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. AMEN!

Courageous Enthusiasm

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Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
October 6, 2013, Pentecost XX

Lamentations 3:19-26, Psalm 37:1-19, II Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10

From the Old Testament:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.

From the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy:
Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

Over the years, I am sure all of us have heard someone, perhaps a preacher, say that we should witness our Christian faith. This could be as simple as: going to church; having a smile on your face; always having a positive attitude. It could also be verbally sharing your faith with another person. That might take a little more courage. Sometimes it’s the person who has had a “born again” experience that has a compelling desire and courageous enthusiasm to share his faith and experience with everyone he meets. However, if the person is too aggressive, it could have the opposite effect. The question is: Are we too afraid or are we comfortable to witness our Christian faith with other people?

Yes, it is important that we believe in God and the saving grace of Jesus Christ, but God also calls all of us to share our faith with others. Why is this so difficult? Perhaps we are afraid of what people might think of us. Perhaps we are afraid that if they were to ask us questions, we may not be able to answer them, so let’s just avoid this whole scenario. We lack the courage to face the unknown.
Unbelief and uncertainty causes us to look at God through our circumstances, and this creates hopelessness and fear; but faith enables us to look at our circumstances through the reality of God, and this gives us hope. Our circumstances change, and so do our feelings about them, but God is always good, loving, merciful, and kind, and He never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

In these difficult days, it is important that we stand true to Christ and have courageous enthusiasm and not be ashamed. When a church or church organization goes liberal, it usually starts with a weakening of their leaders’ convictions about the Word of God.

We forget that God is always with us; that He will give us the words, if we only trust Him. We may look at the “born again” person with a questioning eye, but we may also admire and envy his self-confidence and courageous enthusiasm.

There was an advertisement that appeared in a London newspaper and thousands of men responded! It read: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, and safe return doubtful.” This advertisement was signed by the noted Arctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and that made all the difference.

If Jesus Christ had advertised for workers, the announcement might have read something like this: “Men and women wanted for difficult task of helping to build My church. You will often be misunderstood, even by those working with you. You will face constant attack from an invisible enemy. You may not see the results of your labor, and your full reward will not come till after all your work is completed. It may cost you your home, your ambitions, even your life.”

Timothy was one young man who responded to Christ’s call to help build His church. He was one of the Apostle Paul’s special assistants. Along with Titus, Timothy tackled some of the tough assignments in the churches that Paul had founded. Timothy was brought up in a religious home (2 Tim. 1:5) and had been led to faith in Christ by Paul himself. This is why Paul called Timothy “my own [genuine] son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2).

Timothy was born of mixed parentage: his mother was a Jew, and his father a Greek. He was so devoted to Christ that his local church leaders recommended him to Paul, and Paul added him to his “missionary staff” (Acts 16:1-5). Paul often reminded Timothy that he was chosen for this ministry (1 Tim. 1:18; 4:14). Timothy was faithful to the Lord (1 Cor. 4:17) and had a deep concern for God’s people (Phil. 2:20-22).

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, he was a prisoner in Rome and was facing certain death (2 Tim. 4:6). For one reason or another, almost all of Paul’s associates in the ministry were gone and only Luke, the physician, was at the apostle’s side to assist him (2 Tim. 4:11).

But Paul’s great concern was not for himself; it was for Timothy and the success of the Gospel ministry. As in his First Letter to Timothy, Paul encouraged his beloved colleague to be faithful. As we have learned, Timothy was timid, suffered from physical ailments, and was tempted to let other people take advantage of him and not assert his authority as a pastor.

Paul sent Tychicus to replace Timothy at Ephesus so that Timothy might join Paul at Rome (2 Tim. 4:9). God would soon move Paul off the scene, and Timothy would take his place and continue to give spiritual leadership to the churches. It would not be an easy task, but Timothy could succeed with the Lord’s help.

The ministry of the Gospel is no place for a “timid soul” who lacks enthusiasm. In fact, courageous enthusiasm is essential for success in any kind of work. Paul compared this attitude to stirring up a fire into full flame (2 Tim. 1:6). We must not conclude that Timothy was backslidden or lacked spiritual fire. Rather, Paul was encouraging his associate to keep the fire burning brightly so that it might generate spiritual power in his life.

As Paul’s life drew to a close, he realized in a deeper way how dear Timothy was to him. Paul’s own circumstances were difficult, and yet he was greatly encouraged. For one thing he was Christ’s ambassador (“apostle”); and he knew that his Master would care for him. Whatever happened to him was in the hands of God, so there was no need to fear. Furthermore, Paul had “the promise of life” in Jesus Christ, and Christ had defeated death (2 Tim. 1:10). No wonder Paul was able to extend to Timothy “grace, mercy, and peace.”

Paul knew Timothy’s weaknesses and problems, but was able to pray definitely and with a real burden on his heart. His praying was not routine; it was done with compassion and concern. Knowing that he would soon die, Paul was anxious that Timothy join him at Rome for those last days of fellowship and ministry.

Paul had known God from his earliest years. His ancestors had given him the orthodox Jewish faith. But when he met Jesus Christ, Paul realized that his Jewish faith was but preparation for the fulfillment Christ gave him in Christianity. He realized that Jesus was the Messiah!

Paul was sure that Timothy’s faith was genuine, and that this faith would see him through in spite of the troubles he was facing. He had watched Timothy’s life and service during those years they were together. Timothy’s heritage was a great one; for he was reared in a godly home, trained by a wonderful apostle, and given marvelous opportunities for serving the Lord.

Paul reminded Timothy of the time God called him into service and the local church ordained him. Paul had laid his hands on Timothy (1 Tim. 4:14). Through Paul, God had imparted to Timothy the spiritual gift he needed for his ministry.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to serve God, and through Him we can overcome fear and weakness. The Holy Spirit gives us power for witness and for service (Acts 1:8). It is futile for us to try to serve God without the power of the Holy Spirit. Talent, training, and experience cannot take the place of the power of the Spirit.

Timothy did not need any new spiritual ingredients in his life; all he had to do was “stir up” what he already had. The Holy Spirit does not leave us when we fail (John 14:16); but He cannot fill us, empower us, and use us if we neglect our spiritual lives.

Timothy had every reason to be encouraged and to have courageous enthusiasm in his ministry. Paul loved him and prayed for him. His experiences in life had been preparation for his ministry, and Paul was confident of the genuineness of Timothy’s faith.
God has called us by His grace. We are part of a great eternal plan that God determines “before the world began.” God knows the end from the beginning. He has purposes for His people to accomplish for His glory. It is His purposes that we are to fulfill. All of this grace was given to us in Jesus Christ. We could not earn it; we did not merit it. This is the grace of God!

When we are timid it is because we are afraid. What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of suffering and possible death? Probably not. But Paul himself was facing death as he dictated this second letter to Timothy. Jesus Christ has defeated our last enemy, death! By His own death and resurrection, Christ has “abolished death.” “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55)

Paul was confident in Christ. Paul was not ashamed. Why? Because he knew that Christ was faithful and would keep him. Salvation is not the result of believing certain doctrines, though doctrines are important. A sinner is saved because he believes in Jesus Christ the Saviour.

As we come to His most Sacred Table, let us come with courageous enthusiasm and conviction: that the bread and wine be to you witnesses and signs of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve; Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
AMEN!