Chippie's Christmas

12/25/16                      NOTES NOT EDITED

Chippie’s Christmas

Matthew 2:1-12

SIS— Joy ain’t that easy to come by but can be discovered when one knows what to look for, where to look for it, and how to receive it.

At this time of year many people may be having a “Chippie Christmas.” What is a “Chippie Christmas.” Chippie is a parakeet.  He loved to whistle and chirp.  One Christmas season, that all changed.  It happened when Chippie’s owner decided to clean out his cage with a vacuum as part of her regular Christmas cleaning.  She stuck the nozzle into the cage to clean up the bottom of the cage. Suddenly the phone rang. She reached for the phone with her free hand and not realizing it… her hand holding the nozzle rose slowly upward and sucked Chippie into the vacuum cleaner. Realizing what she had done, she dropped the phone and turned off the vacuum.

She loved Chippie and was horrified by what had happened.  Quickly, she opened the vacuum bag to rescue the poor bird. Chippie was stunned and covered head to foot with gray dust… but thankfully he was still alive. She grabbed him and rushed him to the bathtub, turned on the cold water full blast and held him under the water power washing him to remove the vacuum debris. Then it dawned on her that Chippie was soaking wet and shivering, so she did what any compassionate pet-owner would do. She snatched up the blow dryer and blasted him with hot air.

Surprisingly, Chippie survived all this. He survived, but he lost his song.   He didn’t sing or even chirp for a long time after that. Even now, he mostly just sits there in his cage eyeing the closest where the vacuum cleaner is kept. Being sucked up, washed out, and blown over had stolen the joy from his heart. Brothers and sisters… can you blame him… one could easily understand why Chippie doesn’t have much joy when Christmas time comes around.

There are a lot of people like Chippie.  Life has sucked them up, washed them out, and blow-dried the song from their hearts.  Joy is difficult, almost impossible, for some people to come by. 

The story of the visit of the Wise Men from the East teaches us that “joy ain’t that easy to come by,” but it is possible if you meet certain conditions.  Let’s read the story of the Visit of the Magi. (Mt. 2:1-12)

I see a lesson in the story of the Wise Men who made a long, arduous, and dangerous journey to find the Messiah, born on Christmas Day.  But, at the end of their long, arduous journey they did find the Messiah, and they did find joy.  The Bible says, “[The star] led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure (Mt. 2:9-10).  The overwhelming joy the Wise Men experienced wasn’t easy to come by.  Let me explain.

The Wise Men from the East have secured a very important place in the Nativity Story.  Much about who they were and where they came from is conjecture, or even myth.  Nothing in the story, for example, says they were Three Kings.  They were probably not kings, but more like priests; and though they brought three gifts, nothing indicates there were only three of them.  They often are seen worshipping with the family and shepherds around the manger, but they would not have arrived for months after the birth.  Tradition has even assigned the Three Wise Men, or Kings, names, but nothing is said about their names

Baltshazar of Arabia wears the green robe.  Melchior of Persia wears the gold robe.  Gaspar of Egypt or India (tradition is divided here) wears the purple robe.  

There is much that we do NOT know about these “Wise Men.”  There is much we DO know.  We do know their profession.  The word translated “wise men” is magoi.  We get the word, magic from this word.  The original Middle Eastern term referred to a very important (and rich) class of priests that practiced an ancient version of astronomy, which was mixed with astrology.  A brand of magic.

We also know that their trek from the point of origin in the Middle East (perhaps Irag or Iran, or some say, Yemen) would have been very long (500 to 1000 miles depending on point of origin), and very dangerous.  Not only were there no smart phones to provide GPS, they would travel across brutal terrain and territory controlled by thieves and constantly experiencing war and strife. 

After many weeks, perhaps months, The Wise Men would eventually follow that strange, dancing star to the house where Jesus and His family were now residing. Jesus is no longer the infant (brephos) in a manger, but the young child (paidion) in a house. 

The joy that the Wise Men would eventually experience was very hard to come by. The journey was long, hard, and dangerous.  Experiencing joy is often like that.  Joy is often “hard to come by.”  Circumstances and personal issues can rob one of his or her joy as surely as the Grinch plotted to steal Christmas from the town of Whoville.

Joy is not automatic.  Having joy may mean taking risks.  Having joy may be a longer process for some than for others.  Some may have to wrestle joy away from terrible circumstances or personal challenges.  Joy may be hard to come by for you at this time of year—or at any time of year.  While it may be hard to come by, joy can be had if we know what we seek, where to seek for it, and how to maintain it.  Life doesn’t have to be perfect for our joy to be full. 

There are three conditions that must be met in order to experience anything like the joy the shepherds, and later the Wise Men experienced—“a great, overwhelming joy.”

1.  You have to know what to look for v2

Technically, joy is a “Who,” not a what.  Look at verse 2

Wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem,  ² saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

These Wise Men knew to follow a star that would lead them to a person who they called, “King of the Jews.”  How did they know about such a King, and how did they know His birth would be attended by a mysterious star?

One explanation is that these “Magi” were from Yemen, on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.  Historians believe that magi were a group of Jewish Kings in Yemen.  A more plausible answer, however, would be that these were the Priestly caste of astrologers from Iraq who had interaction with the Jewish exiles in Babylonia for six centuries since the exile.  This would make them aware of the Jewish prophecies in regard to a coming God-King called the Messiah.  Balaam, a non-Israelite, Middle Eastern (perhaps Canaanite) prophet, is recorded in the Bible as saying,

^{Numbers 24:17} I see him,  but not now; I perceive him,

 but not near.  A star will come from Jacob,

and a scepter will arise from Israel.

Notice the words, “I perceive him but not near.”  Balaam’s prophecy, though delivered through a pagan prophet is sanctioned by God by appearing in the Bible, occurred over 1400 years before the birth of Christ.  This is a “Messianic” prophecy meaning it refers to the coming Deliverer, or Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Over 1200 years later, we have the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  In one section, scholars of the community that produced the scrolls confirm this prophecy of Balaam refers to the coming Deliverer (Damascus Document 7, 18-21; Testimonia 9-13). 

The Wise Men were not seeking a “what” but a “Who.”  Most often people seek joy in “things” or “circumstances” and as a result, they do not find it, or find it and lose it.  Joy that is based upon circumstances is “happiness,” not joy.  Happiness comes from the root word, hap, an English word probably related to Scandinavian.  It means “luck or chance.”  It is unpredictable and fickle as in “haphazard.” Happiness is a response to favorable stimuli, or pleasurable circumstances.  Lasting joy cannot be found in circumstances or seeking personal pleasure.  Joy is found in meeting a person—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think about it.  How many of us still have the first toy we received for Christmas?  Many toys not only don’t last decades, some don’t even survive beyond the snow melt of the season.  No matter how expensive—or durable—any gift might be, things will never bring us lasting joy. Other people can never be the source of our joy.  Relationships change. Loved one’s die.  Other people cannot be the source of our joy.

Discovering and maintaining lasting joy requires that we know what we are looking for.  The Wise Men were seeking Jesus and found true joy.  Wise Men (and women) still seek Jesus today.

A second condition that must be met to have true joy is we must,

2.  We must know where to look

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

It is not enough to know “What,” is the source of true joy, but we must know where to look to find that true joy.  The wise men arrived in the right place by following God’s star.

Now, let me be clear of one thing, on our own without the faith that God Himself gives us, we would never find Him.  In fact, we would never even think to look for Him.  There is a bit of irony to Christianity that I don’t fully understand.  We don’t find Jesus—He finds us.  The Bible says, “No man can come to the father unless the Spirit of God draws Him.”  But the Word also says, “Seek and you will find.”  God must give us the very faith He requires of us in order for us to be saved.  Christmas is all about gifts, and God is the greatest of all gift-givers.

So, I’m going to assume that since you are here today, in a church, you are on a Spiritual Quest—whether you know it or not.  My prayer is that God would open your heart and shine His light into your soul so that you will first, seek Him, and secondly Look for Him in the right place.

In other words, had the Wise Men travelled north, or south, or east they would never have found the object of their quest.  V1 tells us they arrived “unexpectedly in Jerusalem,” because that’s where the star led them.

On the contrary, Herod never found joy, and never found Jesus because Herod rejected the Light and Guidance of God.  Herod looked in Bethlehem—the logical place based upon what the Scribes and priests told him (see verse6).  Logic is never sufficient to guide one to God.  It may come close—only six miles or a few hours walk—but close does not count in a relationship with God.  To be “almost persuaded” is to be “totally lost.” 

God’s logic is not our logic.  God’s ways are not man’s ways.  It defies human logic that a King would be born in a stable, and not the nursery of a palace.  Isaiah declares (55:9):

“For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Though a person look for Jesus for a thousand years, without God’s grace and guidance, they will never find Jesus, and never find joy.  It is God’s grace, not our human quest that leads us to salvation.  God, in His grace, put that star in the sky to guide the Wise Men, or they would have ended up in the wrong place, just like Herod.  Herod’s evil plot was foiled because Herod trusted his logic and cleverness, and not God’s Light.  Joy always eludes us when we trust our cleverness and ingenuity rather than following God’s Light. 

Had the Wise Men followed their logic and learning (that said Jesus would be born in Bethlehem) instead of following the guidance of God, they would have missed Jesus.  They would have been close—only six miles away—but they would have been looking in the “wrong place.”

So many people are on a spiritual quest to find God and they get so close.  They live “good” lives by human standards.  Many are devoutly religious.  But, being good or being religious will never be paths to salvation because salvation is not found at the end of our human efforts but salvation is found by God’s guiding grace. 

Hell will be populated by a great many good, religious people who LOOKED for God in all the wrong places.  Some will look for Jesus in philosophy—and not find Him.  Some will look for Jesus in morality—and not find Him.  Some will look for Jesus in good works—and will not find Him.  Some people will have even look for God “in church,” but will not find Him.  God is not found at the end of a philosophical or even religious quest.  In fact, God is not “found” at all.  It is God Who seeks.  It is God who guides.  It is God who provided that special star.

One Sunday Evening a little boy from a very religious family knelt by his bedside to pray.  This family went to church every time the doors were open.  The little boy had literally grown up in church.  His prayer stabs me like a dagger in my heart.  The little boy prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time in church today!  I wish you had been there!”

Sadly, many times the most unlikely place to find God is in church.  Religion, perhaps more than any other human endeavor, leads people to the wrong place to find Jesus, and experience real joy.

Joy is found when we know we are looking for a Person, and we look into the heart of God to experience His grace.  In the Greek, both the word, “joy,” and the word, “grace,” come from the same root.  Joy is found in grace, not good works or anywhere else.  We find joy when we look in the right place.

To experience joy we must know “Who” to look for, that is Jesus.  We must know “where” to look for joy, that is by receiving the free gift of God, or grace, that provides salvation, and finally to experience an on-going feeling of great joy we must know

3.  how to keep it going (10-11)

¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. ¹¹ Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Let me connect some dots in this story for us:  “they (the Wise Men) were overjoyed (filled to over flowing with joy) . . . they opened their treasures.”

The response to experiencing great joy was “great giving.”  Trying to maintain a joyful life by seeking better circumstances is like trying to get out of a hole by digging.  Joy come through a relationship with the Lord and is maintained by giving one’s life to Him in service to others.

So much of the emphasis in the world at Christmas time is giving and receiving gifts.  I don’t want to be a Scrooge and suggest we should not give gifts to each other.  I like gifts.  I will accept your gifts graciously, but my greatest joy comes from giving, not getting.

I am aware, however, that receiving a thousand wonderful gifts will not bring as much joy into our lives as giving people one special gift:  presenting people with the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You see, when you analyze the gifts the Wise Men gave, what they were doing was outlining Who the little child was and what he would do.

One Wise Man gave a gift of gold.  This is a gift fit for a King.  The Bible tells us that this young child, born in a manger and not in a palace, was in fact a king—the King of Kings.

1Tim. 6:15 He is the blessed and only Sovereign,

the King of kings, and the Lord of lords,

As the Sovereign Supreme King, Jesus has the authority to absolute rule over our lives.  The gift of gold represents our surrender.

Another Wise Man presented Jesus with the gift of frankincense. 

Frankincense was a fragrance that was used in the worship celebrations of Israel by the priests, as they presented sacrifices to God on behalf of the people, to atone for their sins.  The Bible says,

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God.

Jesus replaced all the useless sacrifices and rituals of the nation’s religion and He alone is our High Priest who makes atonement for our sins.  Frankincense reminds us we owe Jesus our worship.

The third Wise Man gave Jesus myrrh.  This may be the most significant gift.  It is a very expensive substance that was used to prepare a dead body for burial—a strange gift for a child just starting the journey of life.  Myrrh reminds us that Jesus was “born to die.”  The real meaning of Christmas comes when we celebrate Easter.

Being born of a virgin in the manger did not complete the ministry and purpose for the Lord’s life on earth.  His birth was all about death.  His manger was quaint, but His cross was essential.  The Bible says,

^{1Peter 3:18} For Christ also suffered  for sins once for all,  the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you  to God.

The fuel that drives the engine of joy is giving.  Having been overwhelmed with joy at meeting Jesus, the Bible says that the Wise Men, “opened up their treasures” (Mt. 2:11).  This is how we can have joy in our lives, regardless of how long or hard our journey might be:  giving brings joy.

On my office wall is a little knick-knack my Mom gave me many years ago.  It’s in the shape of a heart and it says, “The love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay.  Love isn’t love, until you give it away.”  Well, what is true of love, is also true of joy.  Joy grows not by the things that we receive or the acts of kindness others bestow on us, but joy grows when we give.

We cannot control our circumstances.  We cannot completely control our feelings.  We DO have a measure of control in regard to our joy.  Once we have received God’s joy by responding to God’s grace, we can determine to a great measure how much joy we experience from day to day, by opening up the treasures of our life and giving God’s message to others.  Sharing the gospel even brings joy to heaven.

^{Luke 15:7} I tell you . . . there will be more joy in heaven 
over one sinner who repents.

You can find joy by giving the gift of joy to someone else by being “their star” leading them to Christ.

Joy ain’t easy to come by.  The Wise Men’s journey to Jesus shows us this.  Their quest leading to “joy beyond measure”  was long, hard, and dangerous.  Circumstances were not only unpleasant, they were horrible.  But, finding Jesus fills us with joy when we know Who to look for, Where to find Him, and How to Keep the Joy Flowing!

Chippie experienced some hard luck around Christmas.  Circumstances literally “sucked” the joy out of him.  So many people experience a “Chippie Christmas.” The abundant joy the Wise Men and others experienced eludes so many people—most people really. 

Don’t be a “Chippie.”  Find joy by receiving Christ.  After all without Christ in Christmas, all you have is a “mess.”

Joy ain’t that easy to come by, but if you allow God’s star of grace to guide you to His Son of Redemption, you will have joy.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Life!

Hope: Expect the Unexpected

December 18, 2016     NOTES NOT EDITED
Hope: Expect the Unexpected

Luke 2:25-35

SIS: Hope is the confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises, though He may do so in unexpected ways.

As I was studying and praying in preparation for this week’s Advent Celebration of Hope, my initial thoughts about hope are confirmed. Hope is the confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises, even if He does so in very unexpected ways. Hope is expecting the unexpected.

Here is how another preacher outlines this matter:

“We are often unprepared for the answers we receive from God. His answers frequently do not look at first like answers. They look like problems. They look like trouble. They look like loss, disappointment, affliction, conflict, sorrow, and increased selfishness. They cause deep soul wrestling and expose sins and doubts and fears. They are not what we expect, and we often do not see how they correspond to our prayers” (Jon Bloom, Desiring God).

As I have said before, the number of times that God has miraculously answered my prayers exactly as I expected have been few. These times have been a glorious encouragement to my faith.

There have been times, more than a few, in which God’s answer to my prayer seemed to be such that it challenged my faith.  Often it seems God has either ignored my request or He flatly refused it. I am not talking about the “name it-claim it” heresy promoters who believe that if one asks God for wealth and riches, God is obligated to provide the same.

I am talking about prayers for healing or help, oftentimes for others and not myself. When I see the suffering of others continue after I have prayed, my faith is badly bruised. Perhaps, I am a man of weak faith. I suspect, however, this happens to many others, even those whose faith is much stronger than mine. Hope has a hard time staying afloat amidst storms of unanswered prayers or difficult circumstances

What I am learning about hope is that what we perceive as “unanswered prayers” are really “unexpected answers.” This is really a thread weaved throughout the entirety of God’s holy record. We certainly see “unexpected answers” to prayers throughout the Nativity Story and beyond.

Certainly Joseph’s request for a place where Mary could deliver their first child would not have been a musty stable. Despised and lowly shepherds would never have expected to be the first recipients of the birth announcement.  Wise men from hundreds of miles away would never have expected to find the Messiah by following a strange star as it danced along the night sky coming to rest over the exact place where the King of Kings could be found.

Certainly, the disciples never expected the Messiah to lead by example rather than fiat. Neither did the followers of Jesus expect Him to destroy death by dying.

God often delivers His answers in unexpected packaging. Hope is expecting that God will fulfill every promise, even if He does so in very unexpected ways. While this does challenge our faith, holding on to our hope through trials and uncertainties also strengthens our faith.

The story of Simeon, often overlooked in many Advent season preaching series, vividly displays the power of Hope.  Simeon’s story outlines several significant requirements for having hope.

1.  Hope must be PINNED to a Promise (v26)

Recently, one of those new, hip, skinny jeaned preachers with a megachurch platform ruffled the feathers of the evangelical community when he said, ““Christianity doesn’t hinge on the truth or even the stories around the Birth of Jesus.”

Andy Stanley is the pastor of hugely popular Northpointe Community Church in Georgia.  He got his start when breaking away from his equally popular, pastor-father, Charles Stanley.  Andy likes to present an “edgy, seeker-driven message.”  His seeker-driven brand of preaching attempts to repackage Christianity so non-churched people can relate better to it.  He’s sort of the “new and improved” version of his father—at least in his own mind.

In the same message he declared boldly, “If somebody can predict their own death and then their own resurrection, I’m not all that concerned about how they got into the world.”  Andy’s theological position is that the entire message of the Bible leading up to the resurrection is secondary, or even insignificant.  What really matters is the resurrection story.

Well, this “new and improved” version of the gospel may relate better to the non-believers Stanley wants to communicate with, but it will leave them with a false, powerless, gospel-lite version of the truth.  The foundation for our faith is God’s promises. 

A gospel that is disconnected from God’s promises in God’s Word is a “placebo” gospel.  Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines a placebo as:  inert preparation prescribed more for the mental relief of the patient than for its actual effect on a disorder.  In other words, it makes one feel better but does not affect any change whatsoever.  A placebo gospel simply makes a lost person feel better about being lost—a worse condition than not even knowing one is lost.  There is no hope in the resurrection when disconnected from the thousands of years of God’s promises.  There is no Easter without Christmas.

There is no hope without a promise.  Hope is the expectation that God will fulfill His promise.  Take away the promises and there is no basis for the hope.  There’s no, “Thus sayeth the Lord” foundation for our faith.

Simeon had hope because he was given a promise by God.  Look at v26 again:  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.  This promise was specific.  So often people speak of hope as some “general expectation that something good might happen.”  There is no specific promise.  There is no real hope.

This was not the case with Simeon.  It was not the case with the entire nation of Israel in general.  They were “looking forward” to a coming Messiah—A God-man, or God Himself—who would deliver them even as Moses had delivered their forefathers from Egypt.  Look at verse 25:

²⁵ There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout,  looking forward to Israel’s consolation.

Let me read that from the New Living Translation to give you a better sense of what “looking forward to Israel’s consolation” means: “Simeon. . . was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.”

Many people misunderstand the Bible because they fail to see it as a single story with a single theme.  They tend to divide it up like a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken during a Super Bowl Party.  The Bible is one story about the One True God’s plan to redeem the elect from their sins.  Everything in the Bible relates to the single theme of God’s redemption.  We can draw many great truths from the stories and teachings of the Bible, but we must never disconnect one part of the Bible from the rest.

The story of the birth of Jesus is as central to the message of salvation as the story of the resurrection.  Without the former, you don’t have the latter.  Without the virgin birth of Jesus, you do not have a Messiah—or God-Man.  The identity of Jesus is crucial to the efficacy or “effectiveness” of His death on the cross.  Every detail about the birth of Jesus demonstrates Who He was—the Messiah. 

God’s promise of a Messiah that would one day deliver people, once for all, from their sins begins in the very first book of the Bible.  God declares His plan to send a Messiah to “crush Satan’s head”:\

¹⁵ I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

I’ve never counted all the promises of a Messiah in the Bible, but there are a lot of them.  Someone actually has a list of 365 of them.  (www.bibleprobe.com/365messianicprophecies)

The Nativity Story impacted those that experienced it because it was the exact fulfillment of God’s promise of a Deliverer that had given the Jews hope for centuries.  Real, lasting, powerful hope is always Pinned to the Promises of God.

This is why we sing the hymn: 

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,

Through eternal ages let His praises ring,

Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,

Standing on the promises of God.

Refrain:

    Standing, standing,

    Standing on the promises of God my Savior;

    Standing, standing,

    I’m standing on the promises of God

To stand means to have hope.  We have hope because God has made us many and varied promises and we can expect—that is, hope—that God will fulfill every promise He has made.

2.  Hope is maintained through PERSISTENCE (v29)

Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, as You promised

We are not told exactly how old Simeon was at the time of the Lord’s birth.  The feeling of the story and the words, “Master, you can now dismiss your servant,” imply that Simeon was advanced in age.  If you take this implication and combine it with the narrative of Anna which follows the emphasis is upon old age and waiting patiently, even persistently, for God to fulfill His promise of the Messiah.

36 There was also a prophetess,  Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was well along in years,  having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and was a widow for 84 years.  She did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.

Years, in fact decades, stacked one upon the other as Simeon and Anna erected a tower of devotion while waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled.  How many times they each must have prayed, “Oh, Lord, please let this be the day that our eyes behold your Salvation.”  Day after day passed and their prayers seemed to go unanswered. 

With prayers rising up like a mountain, year after year, neither Simeon nor Anna lost hope.  Even as their backs bent under the weight of the wait, and their eyesight dimmed, their hope never lost its brilliance. 

Often, as a believer I know I SHOULD feel hope, but I really don't feel hope.  A prayer is not answered or circumstances are difficult, and my hope takes one to the chin. My faith gets bruised.  Often within my heart a conflict rages between how I feel and how I know I should feel because I am a child of God.  It takes a great deal of persist faith sometimes to adjust my “feeling” to my “faith.”  Hope requires a persistent faith.

I came across a real gem in a quote while studying for this sermon. It describes perfectly how discouragement and hope often simultaneously inhabit our hearts and cause conflict. Here's how one writer expressed this dilemma: Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.--Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960.

That’s what gives us the persistence to passionately maintain our hope even when the circumstances of life assail us.  Hope reminds us that it is our “faith,” not our “feelings,” that form the basis for our hope. 

God has made us many and varied promises and He has both the will and the power to fulfill each one of them.  Yet, often our circumstances in life will shout in our face:  “God has abandoned you; God has ignored your pain and dismissed your prayers.”  This feeling that God has indeed abandoned us and has indeed ignored our prayers is a very real experience in the heart of even the most devout believer.  Even Jesus—God’s very own Son—cried out in pain:

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!”

It is precisely at the place in our life where our hope seems to crash headlong into our circumstances that we need to be persistent in our faith.  We need to realize that hope is the confident expectation that God WILL fulfill His promises, though He may do so in unexpected ways.  Our hope persists through trials because by faith we understand that the “feeling that we are feeling are not permanent.”  Faith, not feeling fuels our hope.  We need to persistently pursue the promises of God no matter how long it takes.  Hope requires persistence.  There is a final characteristic of hopeful people:

3.  They PREPARE by Expecting the Unexpected (30-35)

³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation. ³¹ You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel. ³³ His father and mother  were amazed at what was being said about Him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and told His mother Mary: “Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed — ³⁵ and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Joseph and Mary were amazed at what Simeon declared.  The long awaited Messiah had arrived.  He was the Deliverer in the spirit of the great deliverer Moses.  Hebrews 6:1-6 makes this comparison declaring that Jesus is a “greater deliverer than Moses.”  However, Simeon was talking about a newborn baby, not a mighty man such as Moses.  Simeon also spoke of Jesus as being a “light to the gentiles.”  The Jews were looking for a Messiah to “free them from the gentiles, particularly the Romans.”  Simeon’s words brought “amazement” because Jesus was not at all what the Jews were expecting the Messiah to be.  The whole experience of Jesus’ birth presented unexpected twists and turns, not the least of which was Mary’s surprise pregnancy without sex. 

The whole story of the Bible is about God acting in unexpected ways.  God had Noah build a boat to save them from a flood when it is likely no one had ever seen a flood before.  God sent Moses to speak on behalf of an Unseen God to Pharaoh, a man considered a god, and the sign of Moses commission was a shepherd’s staff.  David killed the most powerful soldier of his day with a rock.  Joshua brought down the mighty walls of Jericho with a blast of a ram’s horn and the shout of the Jews.  Gideon destroyed the Midianite army with only 300 soldiers armed with a ram’s horn and clay pots! 

The record of God’s actions throughout the Word of God is that of God meeting His peoples’ needs in unexpected ways.  This led the hymn writer William Cowper to pen those immortal words,

God moves in mysterious ways//His wonders to perform.

Simeon’s description of the ministry of Jesus amazed Joseph and Mary, but as Simeon continued, their amazement became confusion and perhaps even despair as Simeon continues,  ³⁴“Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed — ³⁵ and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

This statement was completely unexpected.  Just as a boat was an unexpected way to save mankind in Noah’s day, and a stone was an unexpected way to bring down a mighty giant, so dying upon a cross was an “unexpected” way for God to deliver His people.  Simeon’s prophecy in regard to “a sword piercing Mary’s soul” looked forward 33 years to when a Roman soldier would pierce the heart of her beloved baby as she stood at the foot of the cross to watch.

This is not at all what Mary expected to hear about her son.

We will lose hope unless we PREPARE ourselves in advance to expect God to work in unexpected ways.  God through Isaiah gave us this instruction many years before the birth of Jesus:

⁹ “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Hope requires we expect God to fulfill His promises but realize He may do so in unexpected ways.  This is the clear teaching in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  God’s ways are not our ways. 

It is hard sometimes to accept God’s way of answering our prayers.  On Monday, March 8^th, 2004 I received a call in the evening that my little brother, Tim, had been taken by ambulance to the hospital and was in intensive care.  He was on a liver transplant list, but he had started to bleed again as the result of his failing liver.  I remember going to the church and praying.  I remember very clearly what I prayed.  I asked the Lord to give my brother a new liver—and I was not talking about a transplant.  I believed as confidently as humanly possible that God would answer my prayer.

I got a call from my older brother the next day.  God had answered my prayer.  My little brother had left this world.  He not only had a new liver, but he had a new residence in that city we call Heaven.  It was not the way I expected God to answer my prayer.

This has happened many times over four decades of ministry.  I have not given up hope, because I have absolute confidence that God will fulfill His promises, including answering every one of my prayers.  I have learned, however, that God often answers my prayers in “unexpected” ways.

I wish I could say I had the same deep and devout faith as Simeon and my hope never wavers.  I cannot say that because that would be a lie.  My hope does waver.  My hope takes on water when hit by the storms of life.  But, my hope never sinks into despair. 

My hope is PINNED to the promises of God.  My hope is maintained through dogged PERSISTENCE to exercise faith and believe that the “feeling I am feeling is not permanent.”  Finally, my hope stands up against every challenge because I am PREPARED to expect that God may answer my pray in an unexpected way.

In this season of Advent we celebrate the hope that we have in Christ—that blessed hope that just as He came according to God’s promise and plan the first time, He will come again and receive us all into His Presence.  That hope.  That’s “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).  That’s the hope we celebrate at Christmas and every other day of our lives.