Christ The King Ministry International.org

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

I spent some time in this week’s column talking about the nature of Christmas and what the celebration is supposed to be.

We admit that a festive dinner, presents and other things make the event a bit more joyful, but they’re not the reason and they should not be the centre of the celebration.

How often though do we allow ourselves to be drawn into the hysteria of parties, gifts and the preparations, and then when that part of the event is over, feel a little let down?

In today’s Gospel reading Elizabeth shows us how to centre our hearts on the real Reason for the Season.

The Passage

³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Mary’s greeting sparked the baby inside of her to jump. There’s a lot of conjecture among the Eastern Church and our Roman brethren as to whether it was Mary or whether it was Jesus in her that did it. However, the point is that when the baby inside of Elizabeth heard Mary’s words, he knew that his Lord was near.

He knew the fulfillment of his purpose was at hand and that excited him.

The Greek here is eskirtesen, which means to jump up and down. It comes from the Greek verb skirtao. It’s to leap or frolic with energy!

What this all means is that John was excited, even in the womb, that he was in the presence of his Lord.

Let’s ask ourselves if we get excited to be in the Lord’s presence. There’s a Paul Boloche praise song that goes, ‘I love to be in the presence of Your people singing praises.’ We all need to be so excited about Jesus that we are enthusiastic enough to jump up and down at the prospect of being with His people in worship together.

Our task from here on after studying this passage is to pray that we will grow in our faith enough to the point that we no longer view church and worship as an obligation, something that we dread doing. We need to come to the place where the prospect of going to church is something to which we look forward because we’re like John the Baptist. We understand Who this is about and that our greatest blessing is when we’re in such fellowship with Him that giving Him glory rolls back to us in the form of a deeper walk, greater spiritual maturity and a more wonderful blessing.

The next point from this one passage is that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Here’s the connection:  The infilling and deeper experience in and with the Holy Spirit is the result of being in the Lord’s presence. If you reject being in the Lord’s presence, you’re also rejecting the subsequent blessing of being filled up with the Holy Spirit.

If we gloriously receive the Lord’s presence as Elizabeth, we’re going to be on the receiving end of a deeper walk and more power for our life if we’re filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴² Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Check this out. Elizabeth thought it was a blessing to be in the presence of the Lord, even if via Mary, Jesus’ earthly mother.

She’s rejoicing at being in the Lord’s presence, but at the same time, she seems to be acknowledging that she’s not worthy.

‘”Why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”‘

Elizabeth found it to be an honour and a blessing that Mary, the mother of our Lord, would come to visit her. She was surprised by the fact that the Lord would take the time to send Jesus to her doorstep and she welcomed the visit.

This is even though she didn’t think she was worthy.

This too is a key example of how the greatest blessings come our way. We admit that we’re not worthy and then rejoice at the privilege of being in the Lord’s presence

Here I’m going to address Elizabeth’s words about Mary. The first words from Elizabeth’s mouth are the words of the ‘Hail Mary.’

At the end of this paragraph, Elizabeth says, ‘”Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord”.

Elizabeth is exuberant at the faith Mary is showing to the whole world. She says that Mary is blessed, but she’s also rejoicing at the fact that Mary’s actions teach us much about the faithfulness of God.

The promises the Lord makes are good for all time. If the Lord promises you something, He will be faithful to fulfill His Word.

Elizabeth is pregnant because God said she would be.

Mary is carrying the Lord Jesus in her womb, also as a result of God fulfilling His sovereign plan for the salvation of the world.

It is these wonderful things over which Elizabeth is rejoicing.

It is these things over which we too may rejoice.

Conclusion

So as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, let’s rejoice at the opportunity to be in the presence of our Lord, for He’s the true reason for the season and the reason we have the real hope of eternal life.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Last week we talked about the basics of life:  Food, water, clothing, shelter, email, high speed internet, cell phones, Facebook, you know, the essentials.

Then we switched to the most basic aspect of our lives—faith in Christ as Saviour.

This week, we’re going to continue this thought.

Advancements in technology have made it possible to communicate the Gospel more often, more frequently and to a potentially larger audience than some of our predecessors in the faith ever could have imagined.  Yet, when we look back over Church History, the Apostles and their successors somehow managed to take the Gospel across three continents in record time without all of those gadgets.

What did the Apostles and their successors the Bishops have?  The Lord gave them His Word and the Sacraments.  Those two things are basic.

The Features

The primary text that gives the features of Word and Sacrament in Christian worship is Acts 2.42:  ‘And they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.’  It is from this Scriptural pattern that the Apostles and their successors, the bishops, developed the early liturgies.

From Scripture, we can see that from the beginning, Jesus intended our worship to be ‘Eucharistically-centred.’  What does this mean?  It means that Christ’s presence in worship is central and His presence is realized in the Body and Blood, the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

Today we’re going to dig into the Word and find out what the Bible has to say about how the Word and Sacrament work together.

In terms of the Sacrament of Holy Communion as the Eucharist speaks of Jesus, it speaks of Jesus in the Past, Present and Future.

We start the process in the book of Exodus.

Manna and the Bread of the Presence

First we go to Exodus 16.4 where the people need food.  They’re out in the wilderness and they’re hungry.  By itself this is an illustration of our condition.  When we’re in the wilderness of our lives, we need food.  We need to have the Lord supply our need.

What happens?  The Lord says He will ‘”rain bread from heaven.”’

Here’s the first aspect of the Lord past.  He provided Bread from Heaven.  He nourished His people in their wilderness with His Bread.

We turn next to Exodus 25 as the Lord gives instructions for the Tabernacle.  In Exodus 25.23, the Lord tells Moses to construct a Tabernacle and then hey get to the Holy Place.  In this place, Moses was to build a special table.  And, according to verses 29-30, there is a feature for this table…

29. You shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold.

30. And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me always.

The physical sign that the Lord gave His people that He was present with them was bread.

Let’s remember that David was born in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means, House of Bread.  Why is this important?  Because it was an eschato-logical promise from the Lord that David’s throne would be established forever.

Jesus, remember, was referred to as the Son of David.  Where was Jesus born?  In the House of Bread, Bethlehem.

Again, it’s bread.

To sustain us…

Stay with me here.  When Elijah was running from Jezebel’s army and he was fleeing to Mt. Horeb, he got hungry.  While he slept, the angel awakened him and said, ‘The journey is too much for you.  Get up and eat.’

The food the angel gave Elijah that would sustain him the forty day walk to Horeb was bread.

The journey is too much for us.  We need the food that only He can provide.  What did He give Elijah to sustain the prophet in his journey?  The Lord gave him bread.

Then there’s Psalm 34.8, where the Psalmist makes this statement:  ‘O, taste and see that the Lord is good.’  What does he mean by tasting that the Lord is good?

We taste the bread and the wine.  Here it is a present sign of His provision for us.  His goodness and His provision feed us while we’re on our journey.  By His provision, we see that He is good.

The Eschatological Meaning

Then there’s the passage in Song of Solomon or Song of Songs, chapter two where the bride says, ‘”He invites me to His banqueting hall (and some versions say table and the Hebrew word can mean either), and His banner over me (or His intention for me) is love.’

What’s the point here?

The church is the Bride of Christ.  Jesus is the groom.  And the Song of Solomon is by the work of Old and New Testament scholars alike, and allegory of Jesus and His bride the Church.

Jesus is inviting His Church to a feast.  He’s inviting us to His table.

How many times in the Gospels does Jesus tell a parable in which the reward is a wedding feast?  How many times did Jesus use a vineyard, a grapevine or wine as an illustration?

In John chapter two, where John says Jesus did His first miracle, what was the miracle and where did it happen?  His miracle was turning water into wine and it was at a wedding feast.

Jesus had the workers fill six large stone water jars with water.  Those jars could hold thirty gallons of water, which means they were just about life-size.  Then there were six of them.  Why?  Six is the incomplete number.  The stewards put the water inside.  But only Jesus, after His miraculous touch, could turn the water into the New Wine.  The banquet leader said that the host must have saved the best for last.

New Wine was given at a wedding feast.

There is a connection here between the feast and the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel.  Life-sized skeletons were brought to life by the spoken word.  The Ruah, the Word by the Spirit, brought life.  Then at the wedding feast, Jesus brought new life to the celebration with His New Wine.

In this we have Word and Sacrament working together.  The Word empowers, but the New Wine, the Sacrament brings the New Life.  The companionship of Word and Sacrament is again seen in Luke 24.  The disciples on the way to Emmaus hear the Word, but their eyes weren’t opened to under-stand the Word until the Host had broken the bread.  This is Word and Sacrament together.

The truth is, Word and Sacrament need each other to be complete.

Then there’s the famous invitation passage in Revelation 3.20…

20. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.

He says He will come in and dine with us.  The most intimate place we have in our homes for guests, and the most intimate moments of conversation take place around the table.  It’s where families gather; it’s where we bare our souls and share our hopes and dreams.

It is in this setting that the Lord desires His children to do the same thing.  He wants us to come to His table and encounter Him.  We’re to come to His table to lay down our burdens and receive His freshness for life.  When we come to His table, we encounter Christ.  The One who invites becomes the Host.

Conclusion

If we open our eyes and our hearts to what the Lord wants for us, we’ll see that the Lord has always intended our worship to focus on the Lord’s presence with us at the table.  This is what we meant earlier when we spoke of our worship being Eucharistically-centred because our worship is supposed to be centred on His presence with us.

Let us this day, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’  Why?  It’s because the journey is too much for us.

In our frailty, we need Word and Sacrament together.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Last week we spoke a bit about the Three Streams and tied it to our Gospel reading. Well, that likely got a bit unwieldy in terms of trying to tie the three distinct subject areas together.

You’ve likely noticed that the Gospel reading covers some of the same verses as last week.

There’s a good reason for that. In their Spirit-filled wisdom, the Church Fathers believed that there is so much here that we need to know, that we should read and study the same passage twice.

The Passage and Explanation

⁷ Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ⁹ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

I pondered this passage and no matter how and what I think about John the Baptist, I always picture him shouting or at least speaking sternly with high drama.

Why? You can’t call a group of people a ‘brood of vipers’ unless you’re speaking to them harshly. Furthermore, the emphasis on the phrase in the Greek means it’s intended to get your attention.

But there’s a bit more. The word for ‘brood’ in the Greek is ???.??.??.?? which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. It means offspring. So John was telling them that they were the children of snakes, which means he was saying they were children of the devil.

Folks, when we’re walking in our own pridefulness; when we’re walking in our selfish, self-interest or in our own self deception, or we’re proud of our sin, we’re children of the devil.

Friday evening Joshua and I were watching Spiderman III on FX and one of the bad guys, in a moment he had his disguise off and you could see his face, said, ‘I like being bad.’ In this way, he would be a child of the devil, because he was proud of his evil.

Moving on to verse eight, John tells them to ‘bear fruits worthy of repentance.’ Yes, I know we went over some of this last week, but it’s important enough to go over again.

Bearing fruit worthy of repentance means that he’s first telling them they need to be able to show that the Lord has been at work in their lives.

Yet, it’s the word ‘repentance’ on which I want to focus again.

One time there was a man who told me he didn’t think we should put a prayer of confession in the service order. When, where and whom are not the issue so much as the sad fact that the man claimed to be a born-again Christian, but didn’t want to deal with repentance.

The Greek word for repentance in the passage is ??.??.???.?? which is a form of ??.??.???.?, and related to the verb ??.??.??eite, the imperative or command.

The word is important, because in the fullness of the word, we see a

definition of completeness. Yes, the word has been described as a turn around, a

change of direction. Yet, the word is intended to convey a rearrangement in our

priorities that goes deeper than just changing our outward actions.

It’s not just an external thing; God just doesn’t want us to change our surface actions. He wants us to be completely yielded to Him so that with our obedient cooperation, He can go about the task of changing us all the way down to the deeper part of our being.

The word means to change our mind, our soul and our heart. It means a depth of completeness that is related when Jesus tells the Pharisee the first commandment means to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind.

That’s intended to be all of us.

So in repentance, all of our being repents and signals to the Lord that we’re ready for a real, true change.

Medical experts will tell you that if you get healed of some disease or condition that could have been brought on by our behaviour, it does no good to get over the ailment if our lifestyle hasn’t changed. If our personal habits aren’t changed, we’ll be right back in the same condition again.

Why is the word so extreme? It’s because the Lord wants to do a complete job in making us over in His image.

The illustration of completeness is sort of like your dad promising to give you a car, but he only gives you the seat, four tires, the outer body and the steering wheel. It may be great sitting in that comfortable seat inside that shiny new auto body. You may like the feeling of being in control holding that steering wheel. Yet, that car’s not going anywhere until you have the engine and the rest of the parts.

Incomplete repentance is like that. Unless you’ve changed all the way down and have had Jesus wash even your thought process and your memory, there’s no real likelihood that your life will be any different. You have to come to Him saying, ‘I want to be new again, all the way, through and through, so that even my thought processes are anchored in You,’ so you’ll really see real results in your life.

The Next Part

¹⁵ Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, ¹⁶ John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

You see, John knew who He was and He knew His purpose.

In his purpose, He pointed people to Christ. That’s the purpose of this church—to point people toward and to bring them to Jesus.

John gives that famous, ‘I’m not even worthy to untie His sandals.’ This isn’t false humility. He’s truly aware of His ministry.

This is helpful for anyone sensing a call to ministry. We don’t downplay it and talk our way out of it. But we also don’t exalt our own sense of self-importance.

Then John tells us that Jesus is the One who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

This fits one of the Streams—the Pentecostal one. We have to let Jesus fill us up with the Holy Spirit and let Him give us the ministry gifts He wants to give us.

That’s up to Him too. He can give us whichever gift He wants.

Then John gets to the material about the winnowing fan, which is like a pitchfork. This is a judgment passage, but it’s also one of those, ‘The Lord knows who are His’ passages.

The Lord will sort out those who are really His. He will find out those of us who are really serious about serving Him and He usually does that by testing our resolve.

Yes, the Lord allows some tests in our lives, but those too are for our good. If we’re mature and willing to turn our lives over to the Lord, then we’ll come through those tests stronger and more mature.

So, don’t run away when you think the Lord may be tossing you into the air. He’s just trying to get the dried and dusty weeds out of our lives so what’s left will be primed and ready to serve Him.

Application

So, again, what does all of this have to do with Christmas? This material has a lot to do with Christmas.

You see, Christmas is about a new beginning; Christmas is the celebration of our Saviour coming to be for us all of those things we can’t be on our own.

Repentance and new life aren’t possible without Christmas—the celebration of the birth of our Saviour.

Let’s pray.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

We’re now in the 2^nd week of Advent, the time of year our Church Fathers set aside to prepare to celebrate the birth of our Saviour and King Jesus.

So, today’s teaching time is going to be an effort to draw together the birth of Christ, evangelism and the Three Streams.

The Passage

¹ Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ² while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests,^[a]

Now what’s all this about? Luke the physician has a knack for detail and all of this information is here so he can let us know the time frame and the setting for this story.

These folks are referenced in a number of very ancient documents, so we have a pretty good idea that this story is set in around the mid twenties, AD.

Incidentally, Luke thought it was significant to mention the political as well as the religious authorities. There’s no separation of church and state in the Constitution and there’s no separation of these entities in the Gospels either.

the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. ³ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,

We’re preparing for the coming of Jesus. So what was John’s message?

John was preaching repentance for the remission of sins. He was telling the people they needed to repent and turn away from their previous way of life.

How does this relate to Christmas? The mere nature of the season lends itself to telling people about the nature of Christ and His mission. We can use the Christmas season to tell people about repentance, but tell them this is a time of renewal. We can make things right. Jesus came to give us all a second or a third chance at making things right.

His birth was so we can have a new birth.

How does relate to the Three Streams? The first of the Three Streams is the evangelical stream.

In that stream, we have Justification by Faith in Christ Alone, the authority of Scripture and the priesthood of all believers.

The first of the Streams is what Christmas is about. The Word of God

testifies that Jesus was born to give us the second birth.  He came as the atoning

sacrifice for our sin.

⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

This verse speaks to our lives as faithful followers of Christ. Folks, if we’re going to walk with Christ, we’re going to feel like we’re the ‘voice of one crying in the wilderness.’

The prophetic Word continues…

‘ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.

John came to blaze a trail for Jesus. Our role as Christians is to show the world the way of Jesus. As we found out a few weeks ago, we can hasten His coming by faithfully witnessing for Him.

Just as John prepared the way for Jesus’ first coming, our task is to live in the Evangelical Stream and prepare the way for Jesus’ Second Coming.

How do we do this?

Folks, we need the Second Stream. We need the gifts of the Spirit and to move in the gifts. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We need the infilling of the Gifts.

We need the power from on high to walk with the Lord down here.

Then there’s the Third Stream. The liturgies we do are the means through weekly worship to reinforce for us those things on which we base our lives.

How? We confess our faith together as a body and by the power of our confession, strengthen our walk.

Sunday evening, Sandy told the most profoundly powerful story about a friend who confessed with his mouth that money was his god. Shortly afterwards, the man’s life went south and he’s not yet recovered.

That’s why we have the liturgies. We need the power that comes from gathering together and confessing the power of the Lord—together!

⁵ Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
⁶ And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”^[b]

Folks, the Lord is in the process of shaking up the way we live so Christ can make a difference in our lives.

We may not see hills crumble and valleys raised, but we do see that our lives can get shaken and turned upside down by the power of God at work.

Our fleshly way of life is challenged and our old ways are revealed for the hollow and meaningless things they were.

Then, when we confess that the baby born in a manger two thousand years ago is Lord and the Reason for the Season, we are confessing the most profound truth.

Just like many confess in their Communion Order, Christ has died, Christ is Risen and Christ will come again.

That’s what this whole season is about!

John Preaches to the People
⁷ Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ⁹ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John has to get hard-core on us here by talking about staying away from pridefulness, not to be deceitfull nor to think too highly of ourselves.

God is the One who raises us up and He is the One who is our foundation.

Then he tells us that we need to grow and bear fruit in our walk with Him.

But that shouldn’t be a problem if we’re daily getting to know better that One born in the manger, but who also grew up to be the One who would be crucified for our sin.

And in the Third Stream, this is the life in which we participate. We come to the altar to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord. We take His life and death upon ourselves and we announce it to the world with our confession as we say the liturgy together.

Conclusion

John announces to the world Who Jesus IS. We announce Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in our worship every week, and strengthened by that worship, we live that reality in our lives before the world every day.

Let’s pray.