Advent 15: Promise Keeper

Scripture:
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God." 2 Corinthians 1:20

Song: Yes and Amen

Breaking promises always hurts. Whether it is the tiny child whose Dad promised to take him to play football on Sunday morning but then got too carried away with his work, the teenage girl sitting at home because the guy who promised to take her to year year 11 prom ditched her at the last minute, or the couple struggling to pick up the pieces of a marriage where one person has been unfaithful. It is always painful to have been let down, especially by those you trust the most, by the people you let get the closest.

Israel had been waiting a long time for God to fulfil his promises to them. It must have felt very much like God had forgotten them. It must have felt like the one they believed to be totally trustworthy had suddenly abandoned them. They must have started to doubt God's character, to question whether he really was the good God and loving Father that he claimed to be. They had been promised a Messiah and a Messiah had not come. Generations had clung to the promise of God's saviour but hundreds of years had passed and there was no sign of him.

And then Jesus turned up.

And God said, this is the One, this is who you have been waiting for. He is the proof that I am who I say I am. I am the promise keeper. Every promise I have ever made to you is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the 'Yes!' to all my promises. He is the way that you know I am trustworthy. I do not lie. (Titus 1:2) I do not change. (Malachi 3:6) I always keep my promises. I promised to never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:8) and Jesus shows you that this is true. I promised that I would rescue you from your sin (Isaiah 43:1) and Jesus has come to do that. I promised that I would love you forever and have loved you since before time began (Jeremiah 31:3) and Jesus has come to demonstrate exactly what that love looks like.

We have all been lied to. We have all been let down. We all know the deep pain of a broken promise. God does not lie. He does not let his people down. It is impossible for him to break his promises. It would be against his very nature for him to do so. (Hebrews 6:18)

Reflection: Bring God the hurt of your broken promises this morning. Tell him about the times you have been hurt and let down by those you trusted. Ask for his healing and pray that he would reveal himself as the Promise-Keeper, as the the one always tells us the truth.

Advent 14: Way-Maker

Scripture: “Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:5-6) 

Song: Way-Maker

2020 is a year in which many of us might feel like we have lost our way - or even lost the plot. It has been a year unlike any other: we have faced challenges and griefs that we never could have predicted and that we weren't prepared for. As the year comes to an end, and our thoughts turn towards what 2021 brings, there is an ache in my heart for a new direction, an ache for a guide into the unknown, an ache for one who can signpost where exactly it is that we are meant to be going, and how we will get there. 

Jesus is the original pioneer. In Greek, the word used to describe him is archēgon. (Hebrews 2:10, 12:2) He is the one who goes first. The first in a long procession. He is the one who went ahead of us to make a way where there was no way before.

Before Jesus, there was no way back to the Father. No one had yet blazed the trail. No one had done what needed to be done to make it possible to come to God. But Jesus did it. Jesus broke through death and hell so that we could follow him. It is because he was resurrected from the dead that we can have confidence that we too will be raised one day. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Jesus' disciples were troubled when he spoke to them of heaven. (John 14:1-14) Thomas was scared that they wouldn’t be able to make it there on their own. Jesus told them that they knew the way to where he was going but they were terrified that really they didn't, that they would get lost somehow en route. But Jesus reassured them: he had not only made the way for them; he himself was that way. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." (John 14:6) It was through him, and through faith in his death and resurrection, that people would be brought back to God.

The way is open. Heaven's gates swing wide.

Reflection: Jesus came to make a way. This Christmas, let us remember that the baby who was born was born to die. Jesus willingly came knowing that the only way to bring us back to his Father was by embracing death at the cross. He knew what it would cost him to be our pioneer. He knew the price of what he was about to do but he still chose to come, he chose to become one of the ones he wanted to save. 

All sufficient sacrifice

So freely given

Such a price

Bought our redemption

Heaven's gates swing wide.

Advent 13: Bread

Scripture: “Here is the bread which comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:50-51) 

Song: Behold the Lamb

When God’s people were lost and wandering in the desert, they cried out to God to reveal himself as Provider. They cried out for someone to give them the food they so desperately needed, and God did. He gave them Manna – bread that fell from heaven each day, just enough to satisfy their hungry bellies to last until the next morning. If anyone tried to collect extra and keep it for himself, the bread would rot and become inedible. God wanted his people to come to him and trust in his provision on a daily basis: give us today our daily bread.

Jesus says that his coming is God’s ultimate act of provision. The Israelites received bread to eat but it was only a temporary solution. They would still die. Jesus says that he himself is an altogether different kind of bread: he is the bread of life. Manna was just a foretaste; Jesus is the real deal. He is the one God provides to take away our sin, to bring us close to the Father. Jesus will not only give us what we need to last out the day; what he gives endures into eternity. We don't just need to come to him because we are hungry; we come to him because we are dying.

We praise God because he is the provider. He is the one who gives us life and sunrise and rain and crops and friends and family and shelter and comfort; he is the one to thank for the warmth of the radiator in this room, for the clothes on my skin, for the steaming cup of tea in my hand, for the laptop on which I’m typing, for the glasses I’m wearing. But his provision extends beyond the physical, beyond our daily needs and longings. God’s greatest act of provision was in giving his Son. In giving the One we most needed.

And it is this One who beckons us to come. Jesus says that he has done what is needed and he invites us to feast on him. This is a peculiar metaphor and it offended most of Jesus’ listeners with its vampire-like connotations. What does it really mean to feast on Jesus? I think it means that Jesus wants relationship. He wants intimacy. He has given all that was needed but he wants us to acknowledge it and be thankful for it. He wants us to delight in what he has bought for us: life with himself and with the Father now and forever. He does not want passive recipients. This morning, he wants us to choose to come to him, to choose to acknowledge him, to say thank you.

Reflection: Spend some time in thanksgiving today, thanking God for all that he has given, and for the most precious gift of His Son.

Advent 12: Servant

Scripture: "The son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

Song: Servant King

Jesus defied all expectations of the Messiah - God's chosen one. Israel was waiting, longing, for someone to come and free them from the oppression of Roman rule; they were hoping for a powerful King, an unbeatable military ruler, who would come and conquer and make everything right. 

But our God - who loves to turn the world upside down - flipped the notion of what it means to lead completely on its head: his chosen leader would come in such a humble way that people would fail to recognise him. His chosen leader would come as a servant.

In the middle of an argument between two of his disciples - James and John - about which one of them is better (Mark 10:35-45), which one of them deserves the best place in his kingdom - Jesus tells them that they are entirely missing the point: if you want to be a leader then you need to be a servant. 

Jesus came to serve us. His is a ministry of feet washing, of doing what no one else will do, of sitting amongst the broken and the outcast and being treated as one of them. Jesus' servant heart led his to the cross. His love for those who rejected him was so great that he would serve them - even as they scorned and mocked him - by dying for them. Jesus is the servant king.

Reflection: Jesus calls those who follow him to be like him. After he washes his disciples' feet, Jesus tells his friends that they are to treat his act as an example to follow. (John 13:13-17) Who can we serve today? Think of someone who needs to know that Jesus loves them and do something practical to demonstrate that love today. 

Advent 11: High Priest

Scripture: "Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." (Hebrews 7:27) 

Song: We Three Kings

Priests get a lot of bad press. Some of it, sadly, is warranted. The news is full of awful stories documenting the abuse of children and vulnerable adults at the hands of men and women who are meant to be serving and protecting them. The church fares little better in the news cycle. It is all too common to hear of men and women left hurting by churches that failed to demonstrate the love and goodness of God.

But, this is what the Bible tells us all of humanity was waiting for. Just as Israel were waiting for a good shepherd rather than a bad shepherd, so too were they waiting for a good priest.

In the Old Testament, the priests were the ones who risked their lives for the people. They were responsible for bringing a sinful people before God. They carried the twelve tribes of Israel into God's presence on their breastplate (Exodus 28:15-30) They took the blood of animal sacrifices into the holiest part of the temple, the Holy of Holies, to cleanse the people of their sin. 

The only problem was that the priests were sinful themselves. They could not ever really deal with the problem of our separation from God because they too were separate from him; they too knew that they could not stand before a perfect God; they too were fearful of coming into his terrifyingly and beautifully Holy presence because they knew that his holiness would not endure their sin. 

This isn't a picture of God that is held up very often at Christmas time; we coo over the baby in the manger and forget that our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) We forget that Isaiah was so terrified of standing before God that he thought he was going to die (Isaiah 6:5). We forget that the most normal response in the bible to encountering God is to fall flat on your face because you know that he is worthy and you are not. We have no right to come into God's presence and no means of getting there by ourselves.

And yet, on that first Christmas, the Magi gave Jesus the gift of frankincense because they knew he was going to be a priest (Exodus 30:23, 34); he was the one we needed to come to give an altogether better kind of sacrifice which would deal with the problem of sin forever. He would give himself.

And, he would keep on giving of himself. The incredible thing about Jesus' priesthood is that it isn't just about the one act of the cross. He died to bring us near to God, to bring us back to him, but that isn't the only way in which he is a priest. His priestliness isn't defined by a single act of sacrifice. He is still a priest. Even now, he sits beside the Heavenly Father and he prays for his people. He prays for us to draw near. He prays for us to have faith. He prays like he did for Peter that we will keep going even when it seems impossible to do so. (Luke 22:32) He prays that we will know him better. He prays that we will be with him. He prays for us in our every hurt and weakness. At this very moment Jesus is interceding for the people he loves. (Romans 8:34)

Reflection: Sometimes, when I pray with my daughter she says that she wants me to pray instead. And of course I do. But I also, gently, remind her that Jesus loves the unique sound of her voice; he is waiting for a conversation with her; her prayers, and worries and thoughts and dreams have a special place in Jesus' heart. 

Spend a few moments this morning in conversation with Jesus - our High Priest - - knowing that we can approach his throne of Grace with confidence, knowing that we can run to him and spill our hearts out to him, knowing that he is praying for us even as we pray to him. (Hebrews 7:25)

Advent 10: Light

Scripture:
"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." (Isaiah 9:2)

"The rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Luke 1:78-79)

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

Song: Light of the World

The promise of Jesus is a promise of light. It is a promise of truth and guidance, of hope for the hopeless, of light breaking into the darkest places. The world feels pretty dark. Sometimes it feels like light has been completely extinguished, that the darkness is too strong to be overcome, that God has forgotten or is absent or has turned his face away. This is perhaps particularly true in December, the darkest time of the year, the time when we ache for the coming of the Winter Solstice that light might seep back into our mornings and evenings again. 

But Jesus says this is not so: his light is greater than any darkness; the darkest of night is as the noonday sun to him. (Psalm 139:11-12) Those who choose to follow him need not fear the darkness, no matter how dark it gets, because He is with them - He will give them light.

I long to know the fullness of this reality. I catch it in glimpses: the wane of dawn breaking into my life and the lives of those around me; weak beams of early morning sunlight on the horizon. An apology when before there would have been anger; hope for change when before there was disillusion and despair; laughter amidst tears; community and family where there was once isolation.

The light is dawning, and one day Jesus promises that he will bring us to a place where night no longer exists. We will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun because He will be our light. (Revelation 22:5) In the meantime, we wait and we pray. We look to the Light of the World and we ask that light would shine in the darkness. We ask that he would shine his light into our hearts and that we would know what it is to have the light of life. Not just in eternity, but now. 

Reflection: This world is urgently in need of light to shine in the darkness, for truth to rule instead of lies. Let us bring the darkest places of this world before God and cry out for Him to act. Let us bring the lost and the hopeless, the victims of abuse, the children trafficked into a strange land, the prisoners, the oppressed, the homeless, the starving, the hurting, and the dying before him and let us say, Let there be light.

Advent 9: Substitute

Scripture:
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Song: How Deep the Father's Love For Us

What does it mean that Jesus stood in our place? That the Son of God came to be our substitute?

In part it means that we needed Jesus to come. That is a sobering thought. It is easy to get tangled up in the tinsel of Christmas and forget that this tiny, little, beautiful baby would one day be nailed to a cross. Upon the shoulders of the man this baby would become, the pain and wrongdoing and shame and brokenness of the whole world would be placed.

God’s story is that of a Father longing to be restored to his children. It is the story of a terrible rift that has been made between God and the people who have turned their back on him. The story of a perfect, good and holy God who is grieved by the way the world and the people in it hurt themselves and each other, who cannot ignore wrongdoing and yet loves those who do wrong.

In her astounding book, “The Crucifixion”, Fleming Rutledge asks this question: “What sort of predicament are you and I in that we should require the crucifixion of God?”

When I allow the words of that question to sink it, it is deeply uncomfortable. I do not understand the gravity of sin. I do really understand the necessity of the cross. I do not really think that I deserved to die and be separated from God. I do not want to believe that I needed someone to stand in my place and take away my sin because I couldn’t do it on my own.

But, it was my sin that held Jesus to the cross. It was my rejection of God that caused Jesus to be rejected by his own Father. I needed Jesus to take my place. I needed Jesus to become the perfect exchange. He became my substitute. 

In the moment of crying out on the cross that His Father had forsaken him, Jesus took on my estrangement from God. He was rejected so that I could be brought close. He became Fatherless that I might know God as Father.

Reflection: Read the lyrics of the today’s song. Let us ask God to show us the beauty of the sacrifice Jesus made and to reveal to us the reason that he was willing to stand in our place: because he loved us.

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom