JANUARY 2019 EDITION... HAPPY NEW YEAR... WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE...

By Dr. Keith J. Wise

I. INTRODUCTION: According to our calendar we are entering the year 2019.  Have you ever wondered how our modern calendar was established to mark out our days, months and years?  Historically, Julius Caesar under the Roman calendar revised that calendar in 46B.C.  His goal was to fit it to the time elapsing each year, which was exactly 365 days, 5 hour, 48 minutes, and 45.51 seconds.  Inasmuch as a year is approximately 365 1/4 days long, Caesar decreed the fractions should be taken care of by adding a day to the calendar every fourth year.  There was a slight error in his calculations and the calendar was ten days ahead of astronomical time. By A.D. 1582, Pope Gregory righted the mistake by advising the omission of "Leap Year" at the end of each century, except those divisible by 400.  Since then our present calendar has been known as the Gregorian Calendar.  

II. DIGGING DEEPER... EXTENDING THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE...

The Christmas message is a message of hope for a world that is destined for death and destruction.  It speaks of hope and resurrection.  These have been the longings of the human heart since the fall of man.  Confusioningly, the methods and systems have been blurred by man's clouded reasoning, sin, and ignorant religiosity.  God in His infinite wisdom began a gradual and recorded systematic revelation to fulfill His promises to mankind.  This would be done at first by Patriarchs, then a  special people known as Israel, and finally the Son, the Messiah himself in Christ Jesus.  In short, LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS. How does the awe of Christmas continue in the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ?

We have been looking at the Gospel of Matthew in retrospect to see just one recorded avenue of this divine methodology.  John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, is preparing the way for a message and method that was prophesied that would change the world. If we read Matthew chapter 1:1-12, we see a challenging message for his hearers and ourselves as we prepare our hearts for the message of Christ.  In his context, John lives and preaches in the wilderness, wears clothing made of camel's hair, and eats locusts and wild honey.  Yet, and here is the contrast, he is popular: He draws "the people of Jerusalem and all Judea." Furthermore, he manages to attract members from the two major religious parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.   The people listen to John the Baptist and consequently, they are baptized by his baptism after they have confess their sins.  There is undoubtedly something in John's message that makes sense for them and meets their genuine religious need and expectation.

John's message is powerful but becomes more specific and incisive.  He denounces the dishonesty of the Pharisees and challenges their self-assurance and religious pride about salvation on the sole basis of their Abrahamic ancestry.  You would think this would have resulted in a reduction of his crowds.  On the contrary,  John will not alter and adjust his message for anyone since it comes direct from God.  His alternative is to prepare them for a greater capacity through the Word himself, revealed to man as a man as we identify as Jesus.  God's love is expanded as the fallow hearts of men are broken open and exposed in that will bring true redemption and life.  John the Baptist does not compromise on the demands for repentance, just as he does not compromise on the good news he has come to announce: "The kingdom of heaven has come near."  The good news proclaimed by Jesus will be no different, and his demands no less challenging.  We must remember, this is the beginnings of the GOOD NEWS!!!  Stay tune, there is more to come.

If we continue reading in Matthew 3:13-17, God is no less dramatic in his timing after the birth of the Christ than on that night the Shepherds heard and obeyed, and a year or so later when the Wise Men arrived at a house in Bethlehem.(Matt.2:11)

Now, John the Baptist has begun preaching repentance and is baptizing a baptism of repentance.  Surprisingly, out of the crowd walks a different personality who has never committed any sin and in John's eyes he is unfit to baptize.  Our Lord respondingly, in verse 15, will inform John that this is "to fulfill all righteousness." This was Jesus' personal choice, showing his great desire to identify with his own people and to faithfully observe God's covenant.  Jesus is the righteous one, the perfect Servant of God, willing to serve God's people as well.

This baptism is as dramatic as any event we can read in the four Gospels.  The significance of the episode, though, it is delivered by a heavenly vision--- the opening of the heavens and the descent of the Spirit of God---and by a "voice from heaven."  The baptism of Jesus, in a sense, turns to a anointment scene: Hereafter, the Spirit of God will rest upon Jesus and lead him in his public ministry.  If we accept Jesus as God we see in this scene the three in one of the trinity in one place and at one time acknowledged. 

Ironically, Jesus came to the Jordan River as one among the crowd, and he now gets out of its waters as the Beloved Son of God, the true Servant in whom God is well pleased.  All of these contrasts are for us to see and affirm in our hearts and believe in "the only begotten of the Father."

III. NUGGETS OF NOURISHMENT... A New Year's Message...(Sermon Outline)

     Title: New Clothes Befitting the Christian-

     Text: Colossians 3:8-17

     Introduction: In a number of churches in Chennai, India, the Christian women in a this vast city, prepared all year to present their children's clothing and publically illustrate their hope for the new year.  These clothes are ceremonially taken off and given to the poor of the community and especially families of orphans without parents.  Interestingly, the Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians gives a similar picture of putting "on" and "off" clothing as qualities of the Christian life.

      A. To Live the Christian Life...We must put off the old garments of the old man. (vs. 8)

      B. To Live the Christian Life... We must put on the new man with better garments. (vs. 10)

      C. To Live the Christian Life we ask, "What do these garments look like?"

             Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Gentleness, Patience-(vs.10) 

       D. To Live the Christian Life...We do so by "bolstering"  these qualities as we put them on. (vs. 13-17)

Conclusion: As Christians, we are to be sensitive to the changes God is bringing to our lives as we seek His daily strength.  These "encouragements" tell us to not respond in our flesh, but now we respond in the spirit.  Our new garments are now bond together in Love. Here are some lyrics to a chorus we use to sing...

(BIND US TOGETHER)- "Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with chords that can not be broken.  Bind us together Lord, bind us together Lord bind us together in love."

IV. QUOTES AND OBSERVATIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR AHEAD...

                                          The Clock Continues to Tick

My grandmother once had an old clock that seemed to constantly continued to tick on the wall.  The hands moved.  Second, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months faded away into eternity.  The sun rises and the sun sets.  The season come and the season go.  The earth, the home of man, circles the sun and overhead in the heavens the stars look down.

     And man with his more powerful telescopes search the heavens as more and more stars become visible. Behold, the vastness of outer space lay out before us. Man has landed on the Moon and we send probes to Mars.  We feel we are pretty brilliant and self aware.  On the earth, man walks on this globe and investigates the seas and continues to learn, analyze and reach certain conclusions.  But still as one learned scientist has said, "...the more we learn the more we learn we don't know and the questions continue to grow." Without God we are particles of animated dust. Is this our plight and portion?  I think not, we are made in the image of God prepared for greater purposes than we can imagine.

     From roaming the universe our thoughts come back again to the old clock ticking on the wall, and the wisdom of the ages whispers to us that weight on the scales of life's experiences. All the arts, sciences, and the 'ologies are outweighed by far through a kindly smile, a kindly word, a kindly handclasp, or a kindly wish.  Therefore, as time is the stuff of which life consist, may the giver of life give us no more and no less than all the joy and happiness we need for a new year. And as we not only strive for a purpose driven life, but we also seek a meaning driven life in the short time we have in love and sharing in those seconds, minutes, hours, and days. 

V. QUOTES WITH MEANING...

1. Henry Halsey Starrett- "The greatest of all arts is the art of losing ourselves in the service of others."

2. Wordsworth- "The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."

3. Unknown: "The most utterly lost of all days, is that in which you have not laughed."

4. Translated from Latin: "Spare moments are the gold dust of time.  Of all the portions of our life, the spare moments are the most fruitful in good or evil."

POETIC TIME PIECES FOR A NEW YEAR...  JUST FOR TODAY...

JUST FOR TODAY... I will exercise my soul in three ways:

         I will do somebody a good deed, and not get found out.

         I will do something I did not want to do...just for the exercise.

         And today, if my feelings are hurt, I will not let anyone know but learn.

JUST FOR TODAY... I will look as well as I can, talk pleasingly, be courteous, limit my criticism, and try not to improve anyone except myself without being self centered.

JUST FOR TODAY... I will have a proactive strategy; I may not follow it exactly but I will have one.  Thereby I will be saved from two pests: hurry and indecision.

JUST FOR TODAY... I will have a quiet time by myself for meditation. The best book I have found to prime and refresh my mind and spirit will be the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. (excerpts from Psalms, Proverbs etc.) In this quiet time I will be refreshed by looking at my life and reflecting on the good gifts I have received in people, employment and life in general.

JUST FOR TODAY... I will not be afraid; I will cultivate courage and faith in the future because I have a God who goes before me. He allows me to see the beauty in the lives of people around me. I will sow good things in my environment so that as I sow I know I will also reap.  As scripture teaches, "...be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."