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Sermon: Heart-Piercing Devotion

My newest (Christmas) sermon is up. It’s based on Luke 2:22-53 (especially vv. 34-35). It deals primarily with Simeon’s words to Mary that a sword will pierce her heart. The theme is, ‘devotion to God will lead to division, pain, and a pierced heart.’

I enticed the congregation at the beginning by telling them that it may be the only Christmas sermon they ever hear that involves guts and gambling. If you’d like to hear how such things come into play, you can listen and download the mp3 here: http://fgpc.sermon.net/main/main/20565577

To download, just hover over the media menu under the player and click download. There is also a reworked version of my ‘life as narrative’ sermon up if you’d like to check it out. I wasn’t content with my original handling of Ecclesiastes 3, so I preached a completely new sermon with essentially the same theme. That sermon ends with midnight in Paris at the Eiffel tower (you’ll have to listen to find out why).

Rise Up and Walk

…St. Dominic, even more than St. Francis, was marked by that intellectual independence, and strict standard of virtue and veracity, which Protestant cultures are wont to regard as specially Protestant. It was of him that the tale was told, and would certainly have been told more widely among us if it had been told of a Puritan, that the Pope pointed to his gorgeous Papal Palace and said, “Peter can no longer say `Silver and gold have I none'”; and the Spanish friar answered, “No, and neither can he now say, `Rise and walk.'”

-G.K. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox, p. 23

My studies this week about the smallness of Bethlehem brought this quote to my mind. Bethlehem went from being the least among the clans of Judah (Micah 5:2), to ‘by no means the least’ (Matt. 2:6) simply on account of the presence of the newborn Christ.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that Christianity, or even the local church, is a movement. It survives movements because it is not a movement. It survives fads and fashions because it is not a fad or fashion. Spurgeon says, ‘he who marries today’s fashion is tomorrow’s widow.’ He is right.

The church is a rock that grows. A vine that sprawls. It is a family that reproduces. Not a bus, but a bush. Not a fad, but a family. Not a movement, but a miracle. Don’t be deceived into thinking that it will be the size, strength, health, wealth, high culture, politics, or general influence of the church that will save the world. The church’s message is ‘Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ It is the healing, blessing, saving presence of Christ that makes us; nothing more, nothing less.

In Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus asking him, “are you he who is to come, or should we look for another?” (11:3). Why are you out in Galilee? Why aren’t you in Jerusalem, Jesus? Why aren’t you standing before the politicians? Why aren’t you seeking the overthrow of Rome? Perhaps you’re not the Messiah after all.

Jesus’ response is simple and plain:

‘And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me”‘ (11:4-6).

He may not have stood before Caesar, but he was the Christ. His glory may have been a cross, but that was true glory. Therefore,

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

The Viral Truth of God: Omnipotence Has Servants Everywhere

I have been on a Spurgeon kick lately. I’ve read three of his sermons on the ‘wise men’ of Matthew 2 in the past week, and I want to record a few of the memorable quotes. Here is the first. Spurgeon wants us to get ‘light from the star’ over Bethlehem. One ray of light is this:

Only here is a first lesson: if it should ever be that men should fail to preach the gospel, God can conduct souls to his Son by a star. Ah! say not only by a star, but by a stone, a bird, a blade of grass, a drop of dew.

‘Remember that Omnipotence / Has servants everywhere.’

Therefore, despond not when you hear that one minister has ceased to preach the gospel, or that another is fighting against the viral truth of God. Their apostasy shall be to their own loss rather than to the hurt of Jesus and his church; and, sad though it be to see the lamps of the sanctuary put out, yet God is not dependent upon human lights…

-Charles H. Spurgeon, The Star and the Wise Men

Viral truth; what a concept. Many things are going viral today, how about truth? But we take heart in this: when preachers fail, God’s camp remains very great. As Spurgeon says, ‘remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.’ He will gather his people with us or without us. It is our privilege, like the star, to serve as light.