The First Promise

Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today, to celebrate in holy matrimony the union of Spirit and Blood.  Yeah, that’s pretty weird?

Okay, for real though, we are here to celebrate Christmas—SALT Youth style!  It is my task today to attempt to preach or teach to you a story that pretty much all of us can repeat strictly from memory.  In interest of making this less predictable, I’m going to ask a few questions.  Don’t worry, this should be much easier than the riddles we saw already.

1. What are some key points you remember about birth narrative?

2. What was the purpose of the birth of Jesus?

3. Anyone tell me some more specifics regarding the Wise Men who visited Jesus?

4. Can Anyone tell me more about the incident between the Wise Men and Herod?

5. Who did Herod consult to tell the Wise Men where to look for the King of the Jews?

(To the audience online, you may have noticed that my entire point is to lead people to a specific scene in the story of Jesus’ birth.  Particularly, my second scripture text found below).

Let’s Read:

Ge 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Mt 2:1-6

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:   "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

Let us turn back the sands of time, the hands of the clock, jump in the Dalorean (sp?) and go on a field trip really quick.  I’d like to take you on my own version of Christmas Past, Present and Future

Christmas Past:

We are not going to go back a decade or two, rather a few millennia! Let’s visit another couple who had a child that was unexpected—Abram and Sarai! They were an elderly couple, they had a number of servants and were very successful, except for the fact that they had no children! God had recently called them out of the Chaldean province, promising to Abram a great amount of land that will be his, one day the home to a nation that he would be the father of!  Abram was confused with the promise of God.  He knew what God was saying, but wondered how he could be the father of a nation when he and Sarai were still without child.  It was after this question when God responded to him with a promise that they would have their own Child.

Abram was quick to receive the promise of God.  He understood, he accepted it for what it was and left his doubt with the question, not dragging it along with him after he heard the response and promise of God. 

Sarai, Abram’s wife also heard the promise and scoffed.  She thought no one would hear or knew about her disbelief, yet God rebuked her and reiterated his promise.  God was very sure of His plan, he had full intentions of making it happen.  Sarai however was not as quick to dismiss her belief.  She was not like her husband who would take God’s word so easily. She would become so frustrated after a period of time that God seemed to be broke.  He made a promise yet she was still barren.  Unable to conceive and expecting to see God’s promise come to fruition much sooner (after all, He was pretty adamant about the plan).  In a lapse of judgment, she gave her servant Hagar to Abram attempting to speed up God’s timeline.  Hagar did conceive and because of her master’s unfaithfulness to God’s plan, she unwillingly became a divisive issue between Sarai and Abram.  Sarai was unaware of God’s timing, seriously damaging the plan God had decreed.  Eventually God renamed her to Sarah and she did conceive her own son, Isaac. Hagar was later kicked out with her then older son.

A Christmas Past that did not end the way it should have, one that ended in conflict because someone knew the promise God gave but decided to act in disobedience towards the promise.

A Christmas Present:

We arrive now to the second text, which may be too familiar to us.  Yet, don’t get comfortable; we won’t spend a long time here.  We still have one more destination and it’s there where I want to spend most of our time.

Here we have 3 characters (similar to the first story): We have Herod, the Wise Men, the Jewish religious leaders.  Again, the three meet over a promise child to be born.  The Wise Men have come in search of the child that was already born.  They traveled from afar while following a star. However, it was they who were afar off that knew of something great happening.  They arrived expecting for those who were nearer to know more.  To their astonishment no one knew and the questions they asked caught the attention of Herod, a vile man to say the least.

Herod was uninviting to having his position challenged, let alone that of Caesars who gave to Herod his job.  Herod, not having the answer, sought council from the very people who should have known about this, the Jewish religious leaders.  Having brought the religious leaders before him, they informed Him that their promised Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.  Herod put faith in the words he heard from the Wise Men and the religious leaders then decided to try and circumvent the promise God gave with his own plan! Sounding similar to our earlier story?  It should, because this also ends in conflict and the murder of countless innocent children who were 2 years old and younger! 

No doubt having heard of the situation at hand (after all, it didn’t start with the Wise Men going straight to Herod) the religious leaders denied the existence of a promise meant for them! A group of the “supposedly” most faithful religious leaders were not even interested in seeing if all of the commotion was accurate.  We’re not talking about a fresh new promise that God has not yet fulfilled, instead we’re talking about something promised such a long time ago that people probably lost faith that it would ever happen.  Except that He decided to fulfill that promise now, amongst them, and they weren’t even interested!  Their disbelief did not end in conflict right away; some 30 plus years later it was so blinding that they did petition successfully to have the Romans crucify their promised Messiah! A generation that got to spend 30 plus years with their promise had such a different expectation they destroyed the very one that came to save them!

The Wise Men did find the promised King of the Jews.  They lived in obedience to the promise and to the one who made the promise.  They left on good terms, even receiving a warning to depart using a different route to avoid trouble.

A Christmas Future:

Welcome to the Future. We’re in a much more modern future, one that I should hope you can relate to much easier.  We’re here, at the Jesus church on December 16^th, 2013.  We are sitting listening to two stories that happened many millennia before our own time, learning about two specific promises that God ordained human reaction to them and the eventual fulfillment to the promises.  We are currently living the Christmas Future.   Let me point out a few things about this story.

We have individuals from all walks of life: multiple ethnicities, multiple religious backgrounds (or a lack thereof), multiple economic classes, multiple personalities, and multiple intelligence levels; an all-around sought after diversity of people.   Yet they are all in the same room, for the same purpose.  Either they (or their parents) decided it was important for them to attend.  Why is it important, what is it that is being valued?  It’s all about a promise.

You see today, though we do not have a commandment to have church exactly as we do today, we choose to do ministry because of a single promise.  We live our entire lives off of a promise.  Regardless of religious backgrounds (I don’t care if you’re an atheist) you live your life trusting a promise.  You may recognize different promises (even if it’s a promise that there are no promises).  However, ultimately your life is a response to just one promise that trumps all other promises: this promise is that of our Messiah and it was given back in Genesis, to Adam and Eve!

Ge 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Whether you believe it or not, your life is a constant response to your faith about this promise!  Do you believe that an offspring of a woman bruised the head of the one who lead us into this mess or do you not?  If you don’t believe, then I’m simply wasting your time.  If you do believe, does your life reflect your faith to this promise or have you forgotten it in zeal for life as you currently know it? 

Sarai rushed the promise.  Too many claimed to be the Messiah prior to the real Messiah’s birth, desensitizing the actual fulfillment and leading many to disbelieve its credibility.  There are misguided people today who may belief Jesus came but have erred the promise by rushing parts to have existed prior to the perfect Will of God. They do this by teaching Jesus has already come a second time, that his Kingdom is already come and we are living in heaven on Earth (Preterism if you must know).  This is not the only way you can fail by rushing the promise: you can rush the other individual promises God has given you (all of which are only possible because of the original promise).  If you have any credible relationship with God then you have promises over your life and probably should have even heard Him given you some on a more personal note through your personal prayer and bible reading!  God’s promises tend to come on a timing that appears inconvenient to us.  Rarely will he promise you something and perform the miracle 10 minutes later. (could you imagine have a child in 10 minutes from beginning to end? – YIKES!!) To those of you who know God has made a promise or even if you aren’t sure—you think he has but you’re not quite sure if your faith is there—I remind you that in every case God kept His Word and never once caved into our desire to speed up the process.  His plan was already decreed and it’s up to us to live according to his promise, placing our faith in Him and trusting Him no matter how we personally envision it coming to fruition!  God has no forgotten about you and despite your lack faith, I assure you God is more than willing and His promise is not in jeopardy!  Just hold out a little while longer!  Every time you feel discouraged, remember our patience is usually much shorter than God’s plan.  Encourage yourself by knowing that God is not a man that He would lie, He will never fail you!

The religious leaders were aware of the promise yet their expectations had dulled.  They missed out on their own promise and ended up destroying the very one they were waiting for since the beginning!  Do you live your life like Jesus was really born, lived, died, buried and resurrected or is your attitude toward the promise one of content?  I tell you now that God’s plan will come to fruition with or without you.  You’ve heard many times from ministers at camps and youth services that God wants to use you, that God can take care of your emotionally charged situation, that God can provide to meet your needs and heal you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually; yet, because the sands of time dulled your senses you can’t even see that God’s already begun to do something in your life!  You don’t see that God has come into your life because you’re too busy with life as you know it, as you have come to accept it.  You will benefit slightly still from God’s promises despite your ignorance.  However I warn you that if you continue to be so dull to hand of God in your life, you will kill your only chance of living in your promise as God had promised you!  You can kill your salvation, and you can kill your post-salvation promises. I think it was this group personally that God had in mind when he thought of lukewarm: those He’d spew out of his mouth.  So apathetic about God that you are more of a disgrace to God than the most vile anti-christian you know personally or have heard of!

So, this Christmas, I remind you that your life is all about responding to one promise.  It has been fulfilled in part but has more to come.  Jesus did come but he still has a second coming and has more promises for us in the meantime; but we can only live in those promises depending on how we respond to the first promise!  Jesus Christ has come, how do you respond!

(The following is a summary of what I added afterwards)

Salvation is our first and foremost promise.  Maybe you are acting in faith already on this but what about the promise that follow?  You have promises of careers, relationships, school, physical healings.  If God made a promise to you, don’t rush it!  If you act like Sarai you’ll only bring conflict in the promise.  If you find yourself discouraged because of the wait, remember that He's always faithful, he will come through and he will not let his promise be broken!  Encourage yourself and just wait a little while longer!! If you treat it with apathy, then though you might still be blessed because God’s promises are never broken yet you’ll never see the fullest of those promises.  You’ll kill it, the very thing you’ve wanted and was promised, you can destroy it and be without it not even knowing you’ve had what you wanted all along!  How are you living?  Are you living in faith supporting the promises, or are you living against it?