TOTAL LIFE WORSHIP, PART 8: HONORING THE GIVER

Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-2a (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
15 December, 2002
All Rights Reserved

I. THEIR FIRST NOEL

Pastor Dennis was in a funk. It was five o’clock on Christmas Eve. The heat was turned on, the sparse decorations were in place, the service was set to start at seven o’clock, and Dennis had no idea what he was going to say. There was nothing difficult about the story of Jesus’ birth. He could always do the main story in the usual way and he had no doubt God would bless it. But on this Christmas Eve he stared out the window of the modern brick building, watched the snow fall, and felt that he was caught in the grip of events beyond his control.

Dennis was not one given to whims or fancies in the pursuit of ministry. The congregation at Eastgate Evangelical Church had called him because he was committed to the preaching and teaching of the Bible. And tonight’s service would be no exception. But which text, and why? Dennis decided he did not have to know why but he needed to know what. He lofted a prayer concerning his need to the most high God and promptly fell asleep.

Dennis startled at the sound of a car door slamming. With alarm he looked at his watch: six forty-five! He ran to the front door of the church, unlocked it, and swung it open to a small group of familiar faces waiting in the cold. There were a few new faces, mostly family members who came on holidays. He greeted each one warmly: “Good to see you! Glad you came! How’s that bad knee? and Merry Christmas!” He meant every word.

When the group had filed in Dennis noticed a black stretch limousine idling at the curb. “Who could this be?” Dennis did not know any evangelical Christians in Great Britain who rode around in limos. A sharply-dressed chauffeur jumped out and opened the back door. Out popped a shapely leg which was followed by the rest of a beautiful young woman in a sable designer fur. Next out the door, gripping her hand, was a handsome young boy in a miniature suit. Then came a conservatively-dressed woman with a peaceful expression. Last to emerge was a tall man with long hair dressed like an undertaker from the eighteen hundreds.

As they entered the church they introduced themselves. “I’m Christine and this is Justin.” “Hello, I’m Susan.” And looking rather sheepish, the undertaker grasped Dennis’ hand: “I’m Mick.” They all stood there looking at him as if they expected him to respond in a certain way. “Welcome!” was all he said. “The service is about to start.” As they walked down the aisle and sat in the very first row, Dennis saw Mick lean down and whisper: “He doesn’t know who we are!”

The piano began with the introductory strains of The First Noel. They sang more carols, read the Scriptures on the Christmas story, and then Dennis got up to speak. Normally he had very modest expectations for the Christmas Eve service, yet he had prayed and prepared as diligently as ever. In fact, he was over-prepared for this service. He had brought into the pulpit not only a message he had prepared for this year but two from previous years as well. All were good messages, all were the word of God, and God would bless any one of them. But which one? He looked out at the little band of hearty believers, ranged along the back pews as usual.

But this year what looked like an Academy awards entourage was front and center, looking quite unfamiliar with the surroundings. In a moment of time which seemed to stretch into minutes but which was no doubt only a few seconds he looked into every face in that front row. Of the four of them were two which pierced his shepherd’s heart. It was as if the Great Shepherd within him wanted to leap out of his heart and begin applying the oil of healing to these two immediately. He read pain there, injury, and a level of brokenness he had rarely seen. He also read a sense of purpose there. They had not just wandered in. Dennis knew that this night would not be merely another nice Christmas Eve service. It was to be a pivot point in the spiritual universe.

Dennis quickly put all of his prepared messages away and opened the Bible to Isaiah 61 where he had done his devotional that morning. “What’s Christmas really all about?” he began. “Why did Christ really come? Isaiah explained it in a prophecy given centuries before Jesus was born: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, /Because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; /He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...’”

“That would be us,” Mick mumbled under his breath. Tears rolled down Christine’s face. That night every word the pastor spoke was to Mick and Christine the very voice of their heavenly Father ministering grace and healing. “How did he know about us?” Christine asked Susan in a whisper as they filed out.

Again they stood before Pastor Dennis at the door, but with new eyes of wonder that God would speak to them through someone they had never met. “Just visiting?” Dennis asked, still not recognizing these royals of British rock music. “Not any more,” Christine replied in a voice husky with emotion. “I think we’ve just come home.”

II. WHY CHRIST CAME

What is Christmas really all about? Why did Christ come? Most Christmas sermons go to the passages about the birth of Christ where we learn that the Jesus of history was also the Christ--God in human form. In this study we will instead go to a passage where the adult Jesus makes a public announcement of what he was doing. What better way to discover the meaning of Christmas than to go straight to the horse’s mouth?

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, /Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. /He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, /And recovery of sight to the blind, /To set free those who are downtrodden, /To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’ And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21). In a brief but electrifying announcement in the synagogue Jesus gave what might be considered his inaugural address. If he was God in the flesh (which no one yet understood) what had he come to do? His statement to the world was that his mission had been given by the prophet Isaiah centuries before. In short, Jesus announced that he was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. “How nice!” the people all said until he revealed that he was not sent to Israel only but also to the whole world. The idea that believing non-Jews would receive God’s favor but not unbelieving Jews sent the crowd into a fit of anger. They tried to throw Jesus off a cliff but it was not yet time for him to die for the sins of the people. He miraculously escaped their clutches.

How many people respond to the good news of Christ in the same way today! They greet the offer of salvation and blessing from God as the worst news they ever heard. That’s why the celebration of Christmas is so weird! People eagerly want to participate in the biggest celebration of the year, but few are willing to face the truth that the omnipotent, holy God had to come and rescue them from their sins. The one thing no one wants to admit is being a sinner and being under the judgment of a righteous God. So we keep Jesus the tiger in the manger scene where he looks safe and try not to think about the real meaning of Christmas. We want cool earthly gifts rather than the real gifts Christ came to bring.

III. HONORING THE GIVER

But for those who believe the battle is to enter into the reality of Christ’s incarnation. That’s why I like to call this holiday Incarnation Day rather than Christmas. Incarnation Day marks the entrance into the earthly realm of the greatest gifts any person could ever receive. It’s supposed to be a day when we honor the Christ who brought them to us. How do we honor people who give us good things?

We start by receiving the gift. When you want to express dishonor, rejection, or apathy toward someone you just refuse the gift. So the first thing we need to do with Jesus is to receive the gifts he gives. Next, I think, is that we choose to appreciate the giver for having sacrificed something for us. No one has sacrificed more in giving to us than Jesus Christ, so we should have a monumental appreciation for what he has done. This is internal to us, but then our appreciation should give birth to the third thing, which is thanks. That’s why we make a point to write thank-you cards to those who have given us gifts. Our God deserves an offering of thanks every day because the gifts he gives are the ones that genuinely keep on giving.

Finally, I have discovered that when our family gives gifts of clothing to other family members they often try to wear them when we are around. At first I was clueless about this because I never did it myself. But then I started noticing that certain belt, those pajamas, that sweater. Those nice folks were simply trying to express their appreciation for what they had received. There is no greater honor which can be given to a gift-giver than to take the gift and incorporate it into your life. This is the ultimate response to the gifts Jesus Christ came to give us, and it gives him the greatest honor. This then must be our plan for honoring Jesus Christ on the celebration of Incarnation Day: to receive his gifts gladly, appreciate his sacrifice in giving them to us, thank him exceedingly for all his good gifts, and then honor him most by taking his gifts and making them a part of our lives.

IV. TOTAL LIFE WORSHIP MEANS LIVING IN THE GIFTS CHRIST BRINGS

Let’s return to Jesus inaugural address to look at the specific gifts Christ has given us and what we need to do to receive them. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me...” While the Spirit of God would come upon people under the Old Covenant, Jesus Christ is one with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was upon him in the manner of total identity. And though the text does not say this here, Jesus came to bring this gift of the Holy Spirit to the church: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:11). We receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we believe in Christ as the only Savior from our sins. Then we spend a lifetime learning to walk in the Spirit. If you have never done this, let this time of the celebration of the incarnation be the time. Receive the gift!

Jesus went on to say that the reason the Spirit was upon him was “Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” or “To bring good news to the afflicted,” as it reads in Isaiah 61:1. This good news is only good news to those in spiritual poverty: you can do nothing to save yourself but Christ has done all. For those who are spiritually rich the same message is bad news: you can do nothing to save yourself but Christ has done all. The human part of receiving the work of God in our lives is to humble our hearts before him and admit that what he says is true: nothing on earth can satisfy the hunger of our hearts for God, and there is no way we can satisfy it by our own efforts. This is the only way that Christ’s coming--and he is the main gift in himself!--can be good news to us.

Isaiah mentions the next gift: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted” (Isa. 61:1). What more brokenhearted people could you imagine than Mick and Christine Ragsdale? They had both begun as working-class people on London’s east side, and were rocketed to fame and fortune as rock musicians. Then at the pinnacle for which most people strive in life the satisfaction departed. It was a combination of messing up good earthly blessings and seeing that even those which they had not damaged still left them as spiritually empty as an echoing canyon. Take your broken heart to Jesus! I love the picture of him binding it up like a broken leg! And tell your brokenhearted friends that there is hope. That’s what Susan did. She was there at the breakdown of the Ragsdale family and followed the Holy Spirit’s guidance by sticking a hastily scribbled note of hope into Christine’s hand as she fled. Let’s honor Jesus this year by receiving his healing hand on our broken hearts.

Jesus went on: “...He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives...” (Luke 4:18). The only way to receive this gift is to admit our spiritual bondage. We have no way to get to God and we cannot serve him or know him without a work of release taking place in our souls by the Holy Spirit when we believe. What a gift! And this is not special subclass of people. We are all in the prison house of sin apart from Christ. We honor him by living every day, even after we believe, by admitting our heritage of bondage and choosing to live in freedom instead. Sin and death no longer have power over us! Be free! Jesus said: “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

And that’s not all. Jesus came to bring “...recovery of sight to the blind and to set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). Without the gift of Christ we are spiritually blind. People cut chickens and drain their blood out to gain the favor of God. They have sacrificed their babies to please God. They will walk on bloody knees across a stone plaza to please God, light candles, recite rote prayers, spin prayer wheels, burn money and incense, go on pilgrimages, use holy water, and an endless list of things which God does not want. They are blind to the truth of God! By faith in Christ we receive the gift of true light which illuminates our spiritual darkness. We honor him by paying attention to it and living by it.

Finally, Jesus said he came “To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19). Every forty-nine years in the year of Jubilee God restored the freedom of every Israelite who had become a slave due to bad circumstances. He restored ownership of land to those who had lost it. This is a marvelous picture of salvation! God restores to the believer what has been stolen by the sorrows of sin. The world, the flesh, and the devil rip us off every day but the gifts of God restore what we have lost and then go on to pile on blessings we have never known!

CONCLUSION

Mick and Christine were led to attend church on Christmas Eve as one of their first acts of worship to Christ. There they were blown away by the revealing of the wonderful gifts of God granted to them through faith in Christ. We might be led to think that these young Christians could not worship God very well at this early stage of following Christ, but they may have been more ready to engage the main principle of Total Life Worship than we are: accounting ourselves as nothing and receiving everything for life and godliness from Jesus Christ as a gift.

You see, Jesus is the Supreme Giver, and the things which he gives are not things we could ever have without his sacrifice. So what level of honor do we give and how do we give it? We honor him most by accounting ourselves as helpless and hopeless without him, and gratefully receive everything he gives--everything! When we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in him. This is Total Life Worship.