Jesus – Page 3 – Traditores

“The Baby Jesus Is Going to Open His Eyes”

Posted on December 28, 2014February 6, 2016 by Alan

Nativities and New Years

As Michelle, the family, and I reflect on this past year…one thing we thank and praise God for is that…after more than a year and a lot of mokyearching, the Lord has brought us into a wonderful family here. I may not be able to remember all your names yet :-), but every one of you is a blessing from above to us.

Although it is not the building that makes a church, I’ve also appreciated how this one is decorated…and today’s sermon, in part, is inspired by the nativity you see right in front of me. Just after it was first put up…and before we moved it and the table over-and-over 🙂 Pastor Wayne…Augie came out of the sanctuary and said to me, “The baby Jesus is going to open His eyes.”

Along with a huge, proud fatherly smile a thought came to mind. When baby Jesus opens His eyes, what will He see? From the Bible we can get a picture of what He saw 2,000 years ago…but…and we know when He returns it will not be as a baby…but if Jesus were to return as a baby today and opened His eyes, what would He see?

Baby Jesus is about to open His eyes. What will He see? Continue reading ““The Baby Jesus Is Going to Open His Eyes””

Odd Juxtaposition

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Alan

Every weekday morning when I am home and he has school, I get Augie up and grab the next random book in the series of Arch Books Bible stories. The last article I was reading beforehand on the exercycle was about the alleged“Rape Culture in the Alaskan Wilderness”, but the book was about Jesus raising Jairus’ tween daughter…and even taking time afterward to make sure the girl got food (see Luke 8:40-42, 49-56).

Odd juxtaposition. Man’s actions. Jesus’ actions.

I choose Jesus.

An Anchor for Jimmy Buffet’s Soul

Posted on July 26, 2014July 31, 2014 by Alan

From Twitter:

“Where it all ends I can't fathom, my friends. If I knew, I might toss out my anchor.” ― Jimmy Buffett

— Amazon Music (@amazonmusic) July 26, 2014

@amazonmusic: “Where it all ends I can’t fathom, my friends. If I knew, I might toss out my anchor.” ― Jimmy Buffett

As much as any person can, I know where it all ends and I highly recommend Jimmy throw out this anchor:

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain (Hebrews 6:19, ESV).

And this anchor is not limiting, it is freeing…

Cognitive Dissonance (“Lord, Lord”)

Posted on June 1, 2014June 1, 2014 by Alan

But Who Do You Say that I Am?

In my last sermon, “But Who Do You Say that I Am?”…which I preached about a month ago at the Antrim Church of Christ…I spent some time looking at what first century people were saying about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sadly, most of the biblical examples in the gospels weren’t on the positive side…although…kudos to Peter…he got it right:

16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

Based on the verses I shared from Matthew, Mark, and John, our other options were glutton, drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, a bastard, a person in league with the devil, and a person possessed by the devil, the devil, and a crazy man.

As you can well imagine, we sided with Peter. 🙂

Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?

Now, my inspiration for that sermon was a famous C.S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity:

Continue reading “Cognitive Dissonance (“Lord, Lord”)”

Did Jesus Waver at the End?

Posted on May 24, 2014May 24, 2014 by Alan

Interesting thought from the introduction to “Theological Essays” (published in 1867) regarding how Jesus showed a couple moments of “distress of mind”:

Panegyrists have described the bravery with which some martyrs have endured their sufferings before the eyes of their admirers. Jesus, who suffered not with a view to human applause, but to human consolation and salvation, was not ashamed or afraid to express all which he felt, and his faithful biographers were not ashamed or afraid to record it.

(Pages xvii-xviii.)

But Who Do You Say that I Am?

Posted on May 4, 2014May 10, 2014 by Alan

What Is the Most Important Question You Have Ever Been Asked?

What is the most important question you have ever been asked? The one that had the greatest impact on your life? The one you are either very glad you answered a certain way, or have long regretted your response to?

If you are married, perhaps it was something like, “Do you take so-and-so as your lawfully wedded wife (or husband)?” Or maybe, if you are a married woman, it was a question that preceded the wedding…when your boyfriend got down on his knee and asked, “Will you marry me?”

Was it some other question? Perhaps when somebody asked you to do something unwise, immoral, or illegal and you said, “Yes”?

Something else?

The Most Important Question Ever

Today we are going to try to look at the most important question ever asked…one that everyone has to answer. One whose response decides the fate of the responder.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke capture the question, but we’ll focus on the first. Let’s turn to Matthew 16:13-15:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Within those words we have some options for who Jesus was:

John the Baptist
Elijah
Jeremiah
One of the prophets

Continue reading “But Who Do You Say that I Am?”

Are Your Ears Itchy?

Posted on May 2, 2014May 2, 2014 by Alan

What is the saying? A lie can travel halfway around the world before truth gets its shoes on (or something like that)?

“How the ‘Jesus’ Wife’ Hoax Fell Apart”

(Subtitled “The media loved the 2012 tale from Harvard Divinity School.”)

What is the likelihood the truth will get the same press as the lie?

The entire article is worth reading, but this was especially interesting to me:

It is perhaps understandable that Ms. King would have been taken in when an anonymous owner presented her with some papyrus fragments for research. What is harder to understand was the rush by the media and others to embrace the idea that Jesus had a wife and that Christian beliefs have been mistaken for centuries. No evidence for Jesus having been married exists in any of the thousands of orthodox biblical writings dating to antiquity.

I think the author, Jerry Pattengale, is missing something obvious to us Christians thanks to “orthodox biblical writings dating to antiquity”:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Timothy 4:3, English Standard Version).

If you want to believe, God will find a way. If you don’t want to believe, you will find a way (and God will allow it).

Choose Your Train (You Must)

Posted on April 27, 2014April 28, 2014 by Alan

Recently I heard the track “Dark Passenger” by the group Fozzy. It starts off with:

Jesus is my co-pilot
Or that’s just what they say
But it’s not the Savior
Who guides me every day

Although the lyrics are a bit ambiguous, and it almost sounds like the anti-hero of the song wants to repent, you know it is the Devil who is guiding the tune’s subject every day.

Fozzy’s song brought another train one to mind (for some reason, when I hear the word “passenger” I think of trains…I give credit to my train-loving 6 year-old :-)). Curtis Mayfield wrote this classic (“People Get Ready”), which begins with:

People get ready, there’s a train a comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’
on’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord

And…as my mind continued it’s odd way of traveling down the tracks…”Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne was next in line. It’s initial verses are:

Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love, and forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Life’s a bitter shame
I’m goin’ off the rails on a crazy train
I’m goin’ off the rails on a crazy train

So…based on how they all start…which train would you like to ride?

But my brain didn’t stop there. It seemed to me that those three songs, in a slightly different order, also mimicked the choices C.S. Lewis wrote about who Jesus is in Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Jesus is either part of the Crazy Train, is a Dark Passenger, or He is Lord. What say you?

And…as Lewis says…”You must make your choice.”

(Not choosing is a choice against “Lord”…)

Now, in case you are interested (and understanding that YouTube links don’t always remain working), here are the three songs that inspired this post in the order they were mentioned: Continue reading “Choose Your Train (You Must)”

Where You Once Walked

Posted on January 12, 2014January 12, 2014 by Alan

Ministry of Silly Walks

Although I didn’t really watch much Monty Python while it was being actively created, I have found a lot of what I have seen pretty funny. Now, by mentioning that show it doesn’t mean I recommend Christians imbibe it indiscriminately. They were talented comedians, but not apparently Christian ones…and there is some material that likely falls afoul of Psalm 101:3-4:

3 I will not set before my eyes

anything that is worthless.

I hate the work of those who fall away;

it shall not cling to me.

4 A perverse heart shall be far from me;

I will know nothing of evil.

In either case, one skit worth viewing is “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” Per Wikipedia:

“The Ministry of Silly Walks” is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe’s television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus, episode 14, which is entitled “Face the Press”. The episode first aired in 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. This sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing Silly Walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity.¹

Since my sermons are presently only audio, I cannot give you a visual…especially since I have long legs and would knock stuff over in the room I’m preaching this in. 🙂

But it is funny…and came to mind with today’s sermon entitled “Where You Once Walked”—the 7 in an 11-part series on the book of Colossians.

Continue reading “Where You Once Walked”

Don’t Be a Sucker

Posted on January 5, 2014January 5, 2014 by Alan

Dear Least Important Church…

Before we jump into this week’s sermon I should probably give a quick review of the five that preceded it. Not the chronological quintet, but the previous pentad in the series it is a member of.

Today’s “Don’t Be a Sucker” is talk number six in “Dear Least Important Church…,” an expository look at Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The first five took us about half way through that book…and I highly recommend, if you haven’t already, that you listen to them (or at least review their sermon notes). I even more highly recommend you read Colossians entirely as we continue through it this year. Pretend you received it along with the original church. They didn’t, at least originally, go through it verse by verse…they likely excitedly read and heard it all at once!

Now, so as not to overly extend this intro (or the sermon itself) I’m only going to list the titles of the sermons plus their very final lines to give you a flavor. That will bring you up to where we jump back in today.

And, I should note, there has been about a 2 year interruption in my presenting the series…caused by a new job 3,000 miles away from the church I started preaching it in.

Ready to jump in? The five titles were:

“Dear Least Important Church…”
“Reacting to the News”
“The Invisible Materializing”
“Mystery Theater”
“The Debt Collector Is Calling”

And, respectively, their final lines were:

“Dear least important church, let’s talk about Jesus…”
“Dear least important church, we pray continuously you keep your eyes upon Jesus…”
“Dear least important church, Jesus is everything…and should be everything to you…”
“Dear least important church, let me explain a mystery to you…”
“Dear least important church, let’s talk about how we are going to take care of this debt of yours…”

In addition to those five, I did a “goodbye” talk for the Antrim Church of Christ that was not part of the series, but was connected. It was “Don’t Let an Earthquake Stop You” and ended with: “Dear least important church, I may be departing, but I leave you in far better hands…His hands…”

Continue reading “Don’t Be a Sucker”

May the New Year Be the Last!!!!

Posted on January 1, 2014January 1, 2014 by Alan

Taking one last look at Facebook last night, I came across this New Year’s wish from a friend:

May the new year be better than the last!!!!

And, dear reader, I do hope that is true for you and yours.

However, when I first digested those words they came through as:

May the new year be the last!!!!

Now, that might seem for like a New Year’s curse instead of New Year’s blessing, but I would suggest that the greatest blessing we can all hope for is Jesus’ return:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:3-4, English Standard Version, emphasis mine).

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)

I will admit I’m a little apprehensive about the Second Coming. I mean personally apprehensive, not just worried about the billions who will no longer have the opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation. I trust my Lord…I just don’t trust myself.

How about you? Do these words make you exclaim, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”?: Continue reading “May the New Year Be the Last!!!!”

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” Remixed

Posted on December 29, 2013December 29, 2013 by Alan

The Lamb Was Sure to Go…

If you’ve ever attempted to learn an instrument…something I’ve tried to do unsuccessfully more than once (a personal focus issue)…there is a good chance you’ve played the children’s song, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Actually, even if you aren’t a “wanna be” or real musician, it’s likely you have heard and/or sang this simple ditty. In the off chance you haven’t, it starts off with:

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleeces was white as snow

And everywhere that Mary went
Mary went, Mary went
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go¹

Not a whole bunch to it, eh? However, can’t you picture cute-as-a-button Mary, all dressed up for school (since we later find it accompanies her there), being followed by an adorable, fluffy little lamb?

Remixing it…

This sermon is going to be “Mary Had a Little Lamb” remixed…reversed…turned upside down…whatever you want to call it. First, instead of looking to a elementary children’s song, we’ll turn to a very weighty book of the Bible that may be a bit more than an ordinary child could handle:

14 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless (Revelation 14:1-5).

Continue reading ““Mary Had a Little Lamb” Remixed”

A Bible, quill, and a picture of Mary and a young Jesus

Pondering With Mary

Posted on December 15, 2013December 15, 2013 by Alan

“Dan, we’ll wait for you…”

I think most parents have moments where their child makes them proud—where their youngster’s act or accomplishment confirms the thing that every other parent should realize—that there kid is the absolute greatest. 🙂

And I have been blessed by God with four awesome children including what was a surprise addition to our family, Augie, who is now six years old.

Every Saturday morning, usually around 9:00, Augie and I head to a local Burger King with the ever-so-important play area and have breakfast. If you’ve ever had Burger King’s hash browns properly smothered in ketchup you’ll understand why. 🙂

(Although for those listening in Antrim, New Hampshire…we’d really still prefer to go to T-Bird.)

After we are done eating, more often then not we head into the play area. Augie especially enjoys his time in it when there are other kids…needless to say dad is a bit too big to join him. 🙂

Well, a few weeks back he was playing with a girl a couple years junior to him when another child, not sure exactly what his name was…perhaps Dan…came into the room and raced over the the play area. The boy’s dad quickly spoke up, “Dan, aren’t you going to take your shoes off first?”

Next thing I hear Augie say to the little girl, “We should wait for Dan” followed by him turning toward the shoe rack and saying, “Dan, we’ll wait for you.”

After which they both sat down and…well…waited for Dan.

You could say that I “treasured up” Augie’s words and action…and that I “pondered them in [my] heart.”

Wouldn’t you? If you are a parent, what have your kids done that you were similarly both proud and amazed by?

I’ll be telling that story about Augie the rest of his life. And considering what age does to memory, my friends may hear it a myriad times. 🙂

Continue reading “Pondering With Mary”

“No Matter What God You Pray To”

Posted on December 7, 2013December 7, 2013 by Alan

From this year’s national Christmas tree lighting:

President Obama said Christmas is a time "we celebrate the birth of a child who came into the world with only a stable’s roof to shelter Him."

He also made this statement about Christmas: "It’s a message both timeless and universal — no matter what God you pray to, or if you pray to none at all."

Hmmm…contrast that with these words referencing the purpose of Jesus’ birth:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:16-19, English Standard Version, emphasis mine).

That is a timeless message, but not at all universal…

God Will

Posted on December 1, 2013December 1, 2013 by Alan

“Man Will” Versus “God Will”

We’ll start off this sermon with a disconcerting set of verses from James…James 4:13-16 to be specific:

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Anyone listening right now have great plans? You know exactly what you are going do today…tomorrow…and maybe years down the road?

In those verses, an inspired James reminds us that no matter what we think we are going to accomplish, we are at the mercy of our mortality. You and I may not even be alive at the end of this talk.

Well, I suppose…with me…if the Lord calls me home…then that is the end of the talk. 🙂

Continue reading “God Will”