|
HARK AND THEN WHAT
MESSAGE? #5
THE DAY GOD MOVES IN
I suppose that on December 28, if we were to dub something the "V-word"
it would have to be VISITORS. Here on this Friday, you're probably either
visiting or BEING visited. The guest bedroom has someone in it; grandkids
are sleeping in the floor on sleeping bags or in that old hide-a-bed sofa
that only gets used this one week of the year. And if you're Grandma and
Grandpa, boy, you're going through Cocoa Puffs faster than you ever dreamed
possible.
You might have either fond or frantic feelings when that word is even
spoken. "VISITORS. Visitors are coming." And your state of mind
all depends on who's coming to stay with you.
Of course, if it's your favorite person in the world your most beloved
relative or friend these precious Christmas days go by so quickly, don't
they? Really, here on the 28th, the holidays are already winding down.
For sure by next Thursday, January 2, most everyone will be back to work
and you'll have driven your best friend to the airport so that they can
fly back out of your life. The end of December means the end of the closeness,
the togetherness, the HANDS-ON fellowship.
But you know, as we take one last quick tour through this favorite Christmas
carol of our, "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," one line jumps
out at us. It's an expression that defies the temporary-ness of our Christmas
visitors; it rebels at the FLEETING, quickly fading joy of December.
Here it is in stanza number two:
"Peace on earth, to men good will.' Bid the trembling soul be still.
Christ on earth has come to DWELL! Jesus, our Immanuel!"
There's nothing in this song about a motel room or
just an overnight stay. No, friend, the Son of God was coming here to
DWELL, to take up permanent residence.
You know, all this week we've been thinking about that angel choir you
know, "Hark! the Herald ANGELS Sing." In just a few moments
the choir was gone. The radiant light faded, the musical chorus died away,
and the Judean hills were dark again. But the Baby stayed! For the next
33 years, He STAYED!
I think about the Wise Men who "followed the star." And of course,
it was a moving star, a special-purpose star, and also a temporary star
made up of angels. It led the Wise Men to Bethlehem and then it disappeared
from view. This star was a kind of Halley's Comet, that just swoops close
to the earth every 75 years or so, a kind of brief galactic visitor that
waves as it goes by. But the Baby the Christ Child came to stay!
Charles Wesley, who wrote this carol, knew something about a full house
at Christmas; he was one of 18 kids! And he uses one of the most beautiful
words or NAMES in the Christian faith. And he borrowed it both from
Matthew chapter one, and also from Old Testament prophet Isaiah, chapter
seven, where the Word of God promises us:
"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."
And you know, there's nothing very mysterious about
it if you try to study the original Hebrew of the name, Immanu El. That
IS what it means: "God with us." Period. "Christ on earth
has come to dwell. Jesus, our Immanuel." He took up residence here,
established citizenship, adopted this tiny sphere in His Father's universe
. . . as His HOME.
Well, the WHYs of this move to Bethlehem and the RESULTS of it all are
more than we could digest in many, many Voice of Prophecy programs. It
certainly wasn't a move any thinking person would make; that's for sure.
An old Latin proverb goes like this:
"He makes his home where the living is BEST."
And an interested onlooker certainly would NOT surmise
that the living was going to be easy for this newest of earthly citizens:
going from that manger and right on through to the Cross of Calvary. And
yet Jesus came; He moved in.
Steven Mosley, in his book God: A Biography, tells the story of a little
girl who comes home from Sunday School and asks her mom: "Where is
God?"
"Oh, God is everywhere," the mother replies.
And that's not a very satisfactory answer to this child. "I don't
WANT God to be everywhere," she says. "I want God to be SOMEWHERE,
and I want Him to be SOMEBODY." Well, little girl, in the Christmas
story, God came here to a PLACE. He had an address and a zip code just
like we do. He had a house and slept in a bed and sat around the supper
table with family and friends just like you did for your Christmas dinner
two nights ago. He was Immanuel to our human race: "God with us."
In a chapter entitled "The Problem of Invisibility," found in
Tim Stafford's book, Knowing the Face of God, the author writes:
"God has a body for the sake of relationships."
And then he adds: "Christianity has the definiteness of a PERSON.
We can say of a person, I know him,' even though we have only just met."
All through history, and all through the pages of the
Bible, we find these repeated episodes of God moving in. Back in the book
of Exodus, God said to Moses:
"Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may
DWELL among them."
But here at Christmas time God takes that second step,
that NEEDED extra move.
"The Word became FLESH," writes John,
"and made His dwelling AMONG us."
And for those 33 years, this Man named Jesus Christ
was a RESIDENT here. Not a visitor no, He lived here. People with bodies
just like His traveled with Him and ate with Him and allowed Him to wash
their dirty feet on a Thursday evening. Other men with similar chromosomal
makeup, with the same human design nailed His hands to the cross and CRUNCHED
that crown of thorns down on His head. He died on that cross for His own
brothers and His sisters, and for you and me down here in the year 2001.
BUT . . . then He left! And probably that thought has nagged at you these
past few minutes. Thirty-three years, yes . . . but then He took off.
He went back to His REAL home, and His throne in heaven and He left
us here to limp along in a hostile world. And perhaps even at Christmas
time you want to say to yourself, "Why'd He leave? I guess maybe
He was just a Visitor here after all."
That's sometimes the cry of the Christian believer, to be sure. And as
one Christmas follows another, and He doesn't come back as promised, sometimes
our faith begins to flicker like a burned-out holiday candle.
But friend, I want to encourage you today to keep holding on. When Jesus
Christ took on humanity, He took it on for all time; He took it on FOREVER.
"In taking our nature," says one Christian
writer, "the Savior has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is
NEVER to be broken."
As long as this universe continues, Jesus will have
the flesh and blood of THIS RACE; He'll be a citizen of THIS planet. Even
as you're hearing these words, Christ is in heaven as stated in John
chapter 14 preparing a mansion for you and for me. And He's doing it
with real HANDS that have flesh and blood and fingers and tendons. And,
oh yes, nail scars too.
But you've got to know there's just a little bit more to the story. Especially
here on a December 28, so close to the horizon of another new year, and
ever closer to the dawning of a mysterious new millennium. As promised
literally hundreds of times in the Bible, Jesus Christ is coming back!
He's coming back HOME. He's coming back to rescue us, and take us to heaven
for just a time. And then, at the very close of the book of Revelation,
the Apostle John describes in majestic, apocalyptic language, how Jesus
AGAIN comes to this earth. And now, for a final time, He really and truly
does come HOME. Listen:
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. . . . I saw
the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming DOWN out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a
loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is WITH MEN,
and He will LIVE with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will
be WITH them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away."
That's quite a scene, isn't it? And I'll tell you something.
Friend, we've got to get to that moment in time. There's still this time
of waiting; we dwell in the Shadowlands, as C. S. Lewis used to write.
But this picture in Revelation IS going to happen. That city IS going
to come down and be here on this earth, this remade, reborn, recreated
planet. God will LIVE here; in fact, from then on He's ALWAYS going to
live here.
Maybe there are tears in YOUR eyes this Christmas. But when God moves
in, He's going to wipe them away. Maybe your heart is aching because you're
alone; you didn't HAVE any visitors this December. But when God moves
in, He's going to take the ache out of your heart. He's going to live
next door to you and be your Friend.
Why don't we let Him move in to our hearts, that is even while we're
waiting?
|
