Unexpected
The Words and Works of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsGod is at work in unexpected, but good ways
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God is at Work
God is at Work
Confessions; I, like most all pastors, feel pressure to try to come up with the next big thing, good idea that will vault the church into the next ear.
The booster rocket. Some program, plan, event, that introduces something better than sliced bread or a new mouse trap.
It’s good thing you guys are not dependent on me to do it.
Literally, God drops ideas and events into our laps that I cannot take credit for.
Some of you came from other churches that did things and you brought them to us and we tried it and it worked. Didn’t come out of my office.
If you’ve been with us this past month, you have been witness to evidence that God is at work and lives are changing here in MP and among us at MPCC. This summer is ending on a high note and it’s not b/c of anything the leadership came up w/. It’s b/c God has been at work in unexpected but good ways.
The evidence of God at work could not be any clearer than when we get to baptize ppl.
Twice. 2 Sundays in the last 4 weeks, we baptized 12 ppl. 9 adults and 3 kids.
I would love to be able to tell you that the idea came to me in a flash of brilliance. I know exactly what we need to do the encourage the membership as we wrap up this summer.
No. It wasn’t my idea. I didn’t plan it. Didn’t come up w/ it. It came to me b/c God is at work doing what He does best.
Genna has been in the women’s Bible studies we’ve done this year. She came to Sara and said she’d like to be baptized. Sara told me. Okay, sounds like a good idea to me.
Sara and I talk about it and think, you know, Debbie just accepted Christ. Maybe she’d be willing to get baptized, too. You can’t push these things. Only when the ppl are ready. Debbie was eager.
And, Jill, accepted Christ a couple of years ago. Still, kind of young in her faith. Maybe she’d do it, too. Jill and Debbie are friends. Cool to do together. Jill was in.
Maryanne was there when Sara had this convo w/ these 2. She says she was baptized as a child and it wasn’t her choice. She’d like to be baptized now b/c she wants to do it for her.
Momentum. We have 4.
Then, we put the announcement in the bulletin. No expectations. Just see what happens.
Carolyn says she wants to be baptized. Then Kae. I don’t want to say least likely, but certainly unexpected.
Then, I hear from Tammi Bali about her granddaughter, Grace. Tammi said when she was baptized as a child, her grandmother played an important role in that. So, she wanted to be that for Grace.
Shawna told me her son, Mak, brought it up to her. Mak has been part of our drama camps. But it was his idea to be baptized and so she came and told.
We’re scheduled for July 31. A few days before, Bob came and said he wanted to be baptized. He was baptized as a child but wanted this to be his choice.
Okay. 9.
We had 10 w/ Micah Kaminski, but COVID came to visit their house. So, we’ll figure this out.
I work w/ the Kaminskis and and we decided Aug 29 is a good day to baptize Micah. Micah goes to a Xian school in the Valley and has church there but even he feels like this is his church. He wanted us to do this.
Kami heard we baptized a group, she had been in the women’s BS in the winter, she was disappointed she missed out. She told me she wanted to be baptized. How about the 29th? She’s in. She’d been a Xian since childhood but never been baptized. This is where she has made a recommitment to Christ and her lifestyle.
I meet with all the candidate before just to make sure they know what baptism is and isn’t. Make sure they really are Christian and not expecting the water to literally wash away their sins. Talking w/ Micah’s parents, Dave and Marilyn. Marilyn said she had been baptized as a child and wanted to be baptized as an adult, her choice. She almost did it when one of their daughters was baptized. That didn’t work out. So I told her, think about it, if she wanted to them come ready to get wet. She did.
Later, Marilyn texted and said Micah told her he felt different when he came out of the water last week. He knew he’d taken a significant step in his walk w/ Jesus.
I’d love to say that was my idea. But, God did it by laying on the heart of 1 person to get baptized that led to 12 that encouraged all of us. God is at work in unexpected ways.
Those of you getting ready to head down the mountain for the winter are going to leave thinking there is some pretty cool stuff going on in church in MP. Can’t wait to get back up there.
Right! Come on back. Invite your friends to come w/ you.
Those of you who will be here for the winter, you may be thinking our little church in our little slice of paradise is really doing something.
No. God it. That’s what makes it so good.
This little church in this little town, God has chosen to do something here and we are just hanging onto his coattails and enjoying the ride.
Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. And, sometimes we get ahead of God. We can’t wait. Don’t wait for Him to do something feel like we need to make it happen. Unfortunately, when we do that, we usually just make things worse. We try to fix what’s broken and only break it bad.
Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
And faith works in our daily lives and in every activity we’re involved in; from the mundane to magnificent. God is in the ordinary and extraordinary.
If we expected the specifics, then we wouldn’t need faith. We will have figured out what to do or what God was about to do.
What we must do, is Expect God to show up in unexpected ways, lead you to unexpected places, and provide unexpected things that will always work out good but they may be costly.
This comes from the Xmas story of the visit of the Magi which is recorded in Matthew 2.
Remember, Matthew was Jewish and wrote his Gospel to Jews. The point of his writing is, “We Jews killed our King and Messiah. Now what?”
He’s making his case about who Jesus is from the days of infancy and toddlerhood. In this, he offers evidence that Jesus is, not only their King, but the King of God’s kingdom where everyone who believes is welcome to enter.
Jesus was about a year and half old, probably walking by then, when these unexpected visitors showed up to their house in Bethlehem.
The visitors were not the only unexpected things that happened during that time.
Unexpected Visitors
Unexpected Visitors
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
How many Magi were there? Xmas card theology. They brought 3 gifts. There were probably more than that. But, we don’t know.
Who were they? Astrologers. There may have been a religious aspect to their observations. Science, philosophy, we don’t know a lot. But we know they knew a lot about the position of the stars.
They mapped the stars. They would have had charts from every day of the year and the position of all the stars in the sky on that day. It would have taken years, and probably generations to complete the charts of the entire sky. But they knew where the stars were supposed to be on a given night and we always on the lookout for a new one.
Their journey was in a westward direction. They came from east of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, from the area around Persia and Babylonia.
One night, they saw something unexpected in the western sky. There have been many attempts to explain what the star was in natural ways. Like, an alignment of planets or a comet. But, if it was a natural phenomenon then it would not have attracted their attention like this.
It had to have been something supernatural that had never happened before, or since.
Stephen, when he was making his defense in Acts, he said this about what Abraham saw that led him to leave his homeland and travel to a new home.
To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.
The glory of God is usually accompanied by a bright light. When the angels appeared to the shepherds, the glory of God lit up the night sky.
So, for the Magi, something supernatural appeared that was related to the glory of God and got their attention and motivated them to go find out who it was leading them to.
Somehow they knew a King had been born, an angel? Probably, but not specifically mentioned here. But clearly this baby was special. Of all the babies born in history, this one got a star. Or, something like it.
And, the Magi didn’t follow the star necessarily. They went in the general direction. But the star appeared and disappeared and appeared again. It got them going in the right direction w/out knowing exactly where it would lead them.
Have you ever tried to figure out which star was directly over your head?
They traveled first to the expected, obvious place; Jerusalem, the seat of all things Jewish. But, God rarely does the obvious and expected.
They went to the palace where the government head could be found, Herod the Great. He was a nasty, nasty man. Vile and evil. Proud and insecure.
So, when the Magi showed up inquiring about the King of the Jews, it troubled Herod. And, when Herod was troubled, all Jerusalem was troubled. B/C, when Herod was troubled, innocent ppl died.
He executed 2 of his favorite sons and several wives on the unsubstantiated rumors that they were planning a coup.
He was about the only one who did not feel joy at the birth of the Jesus.
Herod called in the ppl who should know something about this, the Jewish leadership. If this is the King, if the Messiah, then according to Micah in the OT, he would be born in Bethlehem.
Matthew is making his case about Who Jesus is. Yes, He is the King, Messiah, and was born in Bethlehem.
Herod has the answer to their question, he calls the Magi in for a secret meeting, no one else is there. He tells them Bethlehem. And asks them when the star first appeared. He’s got a plan about how to deal w/ a rival king.
When you find him, come right back to me so I can go and worship him, too. Right!
The Magi start the short journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star reappeared, and led them to the home of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.
When they saw Jesus, they had an unexpected response. They were not Jewish and they bowed and worshiped Him.
Reminded of what Paul wrote later, every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Even Gentiles, non-Jews will worship Jesus as King.
And, they brought unexpected gifts. This poor family had nothing, materially. Now, they were suddenly wealthy.
Gold. For a King. For His royalty, deity, and purity.
Frankincense. An incense that used, among other times, in a tomb of a deceased to cover the odor. Who gives a gift to a child that immediately brings to mind his death? These Magi. And the child was born to die for them and all of us.
Myrrh. This is a milky, thick liquid. Cloth strips would be immersed in it, wrapped around a dead body. It would harden creating a case that would hold in all the physical effects of decomposition. Again, pointing to Jesus’s death. The cloths he would have been wrapped in before being placed in his tomb that were left in a heap when he left the tomb.
These exact gifts would not have been used for Jesus’s death. But, no doubt, they were used for Jesus’s escape.
God spoke to the Magi. Up to this time the only ppl God, or his rep spoke to about Him, were Jews. He warned them about Herod. They believed the message after all the miracles they had just seen.
They believed Jesus to be the King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Worthy of worship. Right to Rule. And destined to die. Just not at the hands of Herod that day.
The Magi went home a different route. And the young family was able to afford and make an unexpected escape to Egypt saving the life of the young Jesus before His time to die.
Unexpected Escape
Unexpected Escape
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
God always provides a way of escape. It may not be the way we expect go, nor the place we expect to go. But, if we go then God will have us in the best place for us. Trust God to provide, always.
This is the second time an angel spoke to Joseph and it was about leading his family by providing for them and protecting them.
God could have chosen to protect Jesus a number of different ways. He chose this one.
It fulfilled prophecy, to Matthew’s point.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
And, in the process of saving Jesus, a number of innocent children died. It spoke to the evil of Herod. What about the good of God?
It ticked Herod off! His wrath was off the charts!. He fumed and demanded the lives of all the boys under 2 years old in the region of Bethlehem be taken.
As an adult, Jesus said this:
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
We can only assume that a gracious and merciful God who is only good, not only comforted the parents of these children, but considered their innocence in his consideration of their eternal destiny.
Another prophecy fulfilled from Jeremiah 31.
Rachel was Isaac’s wife. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, was renamed Israel. So Rachel held a special position in the history of the nation. Her tomb was in Bethlehem.
The region wept for and with the families of those babies that Herod killed trying to do away w/ his rival.
Herod was no rival for Jesus. But he thought himself to be.
In time, Roman leadership changed, the angel spoke to Joseph again and said it was time to return. They didn’t return to Bethlehem. They made an unexpected return to Nazareth.
Unexpected Return
Unexpected Return
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Herod died a horribly, painful death. Fornier’s Gangrene. Let’s just say his private parts rotted off, while he was still alive.
A preview of Hell before he got there.
The angel told Joseph it was okay to return. But they wanted to be far away from the Jewish and Roman leadership that had presented problems to them already. So, they went back to Nazareth.
More prophecy fulfilled. Though not a specific prediction. But a reference general rejection of all things Nazarene. There was a Roman military base there and the overall reputation and morality was rather low.
If you wanted to be educated and spiritually attuned, go to Jerusalem. If you wanted to get rich and party, go to Galilee was a saying of the day.
Even one of the men chosen to be a disciple said, “Can anything good come from there?”
God always does the unexpected. He will do things in unexpected ways.
Sometimes we pressure ourselves to figure it all out on our own. The sooner we realize we can’t, the better off we are. We are not God.
He is not dependent on us asking for what He wants to do. We don’t have to imagine it. He created everything ex nihilo, out of nothing.
He created an unexpected light in the sky to lead the unexpected, non-Jewish worshipers to their unexpected King. They brought unexpected gifts that foreshadowed his unexpected death and financed their unexpected escape to Egypt avoiding Herod’s unexpected cruelty. Then, the young family returned to an unexpected place to settle down and raise the Son of God.
What is it you think you have to figure out so you know to expect the right thing?
How about letting God handle it. He can do things you could never think up. Let Him do what He does best; change lives and lead us where we are supposed to be.
Applications
Applications
Matthew was right
Matthew was right
Jesus is our King and our Messiah. Even if you’re not Jewish, Jesus is the One we’ve been looking for.
King means He has authority over your life. We make lousy kings for ourselves. We must get off our own throne and let Jesus have the seat.
He’s the only one who fits there and can sit there, who can lead us to the best places.
Get off your own throne.
Get on your knees
Get on your knees
Once you’re off your throne, get on your knees.
Appreciate the opportunity Jesus gives you to kneel, worship, and pray.
Daily. Surrender your day, your calendar, your activities, all you have and who you are. Give up your life for that day and Jesus will give you His life for that day.
It will go better than anything you could do for yourself.
Off your throne and on your knees.
Unexpectations
Unexpectations
If you expect it, that means you have the mind of God. Our pride can dupe us into thinking we have the perfect answer to our problem. If only God would listen to us.
Okay. So just present your problems and questions to God and let Him figure out the best way to fix them. He’ll do it. Stop trying to control and fix everything in your life that’s broken, or even just damaged a little bit.
Expect to be surprised by what God does.
He created an unexpected light in the sky to lead the unexpected, non-Jewish worshipers to their unexpected King. They brought unexpected gifts that foreshadowed his unexpected death and financed their unexpected escape to Egypt avoiding Herod’s unexpected cruelty. Then, the young family returned to an unexpected place to settle down and raise the Son of God.
What is it you think you have to figure out so you know to expect the right thing?
Expect God to show up in unexpected ways, lead you to unexpected places, and provide unexpected things that will always work out good but they may be costly.