The Innkeeper (Intro)
Christmas (2017) • Sermon • Submitted
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· 58 viewsIntroduction connecting last week with this poem "The Innkeeper" read by John Piper.
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Last week we walked trough the humble beginnings of Christ’s birth from the gospel of Matthew and our passage culminated on a dark note in . Let’s read that again together.
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
What a heartbreaking passage.
Do you remember how we framed this passage?
The bible teaches salvation from suffering and salvation through suffering. And this passage is in a long line of other passages that deal with salvation through suffering. I wanted to focus on this passage because tonight we are going to listen to a poem written and read by John Piper that is fictional, but imagines what it would have been like to live through Herod’s slaughter squad. The purpose of the poem, really, is to give hope and life to you if you are suffering this Christmas. To remember, that though life is hard and painful and bitter at times, when you have a relationship with Christ you have the hope of all the difficulty and pain being swallowed up one day and the reward of heaven with God. So, if you are suffering - this is for you.
We also want you to enjoy some treats while you listen. The poem is about 10 minutes long so before we start we are going to hand out cookies and milk row by row.