I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35
It is that time of year again when families gather to share blessed mornings and wonderful evenings together and will exchange pleasantries and special presents one with another.
Over two thousand years ago the Advent of Christ was fulfilled. The birth of Jesus has been celebrated for hundreds of years and divided time as we know it. Biblically, as recorded in Luke 1 and I Chronicles 24, we know that the true miracle of Christmas was not the birth of Jesus, but rather His conception. However, time lines and genealogies are not the theme of this week’s edition, but rather the pure reason for the season that of the Lord Jesus Christ. No other person or character in history has affected the world in the manner that Jesus did and continues to do so. One author reasoned about our Lord in this manner: “He never traveled more than 100 miles from home, but His followers permeated every country in the world with His story. He never wrote a book, but more have been written about Him than anyone else in history. By far. The first book about Him (the Bible), has been translated into almost 3000 different languages. The first runner-up (Don Quixote ), Only 60. He had only 12 disciples, but billions of people discuss His teachings every day. According to one Harvard professor (not a Christian), the Sermon on the Mount alone represents the "most luminous, most quoted, most analyzed, most contested, most influential moral and religious discourse in all of human history." The professor adds, "This may sound like an overstatement, but it is not.“
Amazingly enough, we sometimes hear some snipet of the Sermon on the Mount quoted (or misquoted and misused) on a daily basis. Our own president, whose policies seem to attack and undermine Christianity through immoral legislation, has referenced the Sermon in the Mount on several occasions.
Nevertheless, Jesus is a Man, but Who is also God. He is the God-Man. Jesus was as much a human as His mother and as much God as His Father. The Bible records the proclamation in Matthew 1:23, ”Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”. God with us... that is Jesus! Though He never married, He established holy matrimony. Outside of Christ,there is no true marriage. Marriage is the institution and entity solely sanctioned by the Lord Jesus Christ and without Him, His words and pattern, marriage does not exist. He is the Bridegroom and His church is the bride. That is the plan, pattern and promise used to grant and govern marriage between man and woman as they join together to become one. The process of the father "giving away" the bride to fall under the love and authority of another man, is analogous to the blessed reminder that we as the bride of Christ have been given to the Head and chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As husbands, men are assigned responsibility to the bride by way of example in Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” (Ephesians 5:25). As a husband, I am to give myself to my wife, to love her as Christ loved me. That, my friend, is a sacrificial love. I know of men (one in particular is a friend in the office of a pastor) who speak of their brides in a manner that is a sad example of the love of Christ (yet this man in particular will stand in judgment of others; he has ruled out more men for the ministry than a Major League Baseball umpire has called out batters!). Men such as these rule their homes outside of the example that the Lord has given us and away from the simplest form of marital love one for another. They basically are attempting to dominate instead of depend on the Saviour, Who loved us so much that He gave His life for us.
It is almost comical how devout atheists will celebrate Christmas in a certain sense of the season, but yet deny the existence of God. Even those that denounce God cannot deny the power of the name of Jesus. The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was an atheist, observed that “the name of Jesus was not so much written as ploughed into the history of the world”. Author H.G. Wells, also an atheist, said, "a historian like myself finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man. The historian's test of an individual's greatness is, 'Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him?' By this test Jesus stands first.” There can be no gratification for those who choose not to acknowledge Jesus as Saviour but who make statements that prove His existence. Their confession of Christ as Saviour would indeed be the greatest of all joys and would have enriched their lives immensely.
Our belief does not prove anything. The Lord is no more real, especially to others, just because we believe. The awesome love story of a Father giving His only begotten Son to a lost world, humbled to be laid in a stable manger and thirty three years later to die on a cross so that sin could be atoned is the most profound and precious event that can be shared during any season of the year. As G. K. Chesterton observed, "since Jesus died on the cross it has never been quite enough to say that God is in His heaven and all is right with the world, since, according to the Bible, God left His heavens to set it right.”
Yes, it is true that it is more blessed to give than receive. Jesus Christ proved this in the sacrificial death He suffered on the cross. One of my dearest and closest friends gave an illustration in a sermon concerning Paul’s statement in Acts 20:35. Here is the thought, paraphrased in my owns words: “It is a very true statement, especially when you consider the context in which it should be accepted. One would think it better to receive something than to lose something. But the reality is found in the magnitude of the event. Why is it better to give than receive? Simply because of the state of one’s position in order to do so. It is much better to give, because that means you are in a position to give as opposed to a position of need thus to receive. The Lord, at the darkest moment on earth, brought a light, a shinning glimmer of hope into what occurred on the cross. It was a reflection of the prophesied promise fulfilled thirty-three years earlier in a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ willingly gave His life on the cross (John 10:18, Matthew 20:28) in the same way God the Father willingly and sacrificially gave His only begotten Son to this world (John 3:16). From the cradle to the cross and eventually to the crown, the love of God has shone through two millennia of human history proving that He has and never will be surpassed. “…remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”
Older
Top
