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GIVING JESUS A THRONE FOR CHRISTMAS

I can’t tell you a whole lot about him, except that his name is Brian Wilson – and he’s not with the Beach Boys. He and his wife, Duang, live in a village way out in the sticks, north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. He’s part of an organization called Adventist Frontier Missions, and, like ambassadors of many denominations do, he simply goes to a remote place and lives there. He lives with the natives. He eats what they eat; he pumps water from the same well as them. His house is like their house. He ekes out a living locally, maybe with a bit of cash infusion he gets from friends in the U.S. Once in a while, if he gets a ride into the city, he can e-mail home and call his parents. But most of the time, he’s way out there in the woods.

One of our Voice of Prophecy staff members was just in Chiang Mai for a week of evangelism, and this Brian came into town and served as a translator. And the four American preachers looked on with envy, because after years of living in a village, this self-supporting missionary knew the language cold. He could rattle it off as good as anybody.

But the incredible thing is this. After years of working and living in a faraway village like that, how many people have become Christians? How many has he baptized? How many have embraced the kingdom of God? And the answer is: a very few. Two, three, five. This kind of work is agonizingly slow; it can take years, decades. Thailand is a beautiful country that is still almost completely entrenched in Buddhism. After this evangelistic series, there were something like 115 people baptized, but that represented months, even years of work, for all of northern Thailand. Sixty million other people are going about their lives, fighting the traffic in Bangkok, earning a few dollars a day to feed their families, unaware of the Calvary message that could give them a new life.

Well, friend, here during Christmas Week, we’re thinking about this idea: WHAT GOD WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS. What gift can we give Him that would bring heaven happiness? And who could argue against the reality that this Brian has given the Master a Christmas present of enormous value; he’s given himself and his life and his gifts and his time and talents and family for several difficult years.

But in a larger sense today, I want to reverently point us to the higher battle, the bigger stakes. You’ve probably sung this song four or five times in the past month: Joy to the World, by the great Isaac Watts. And remember the final verse:

“He rules the world with truth and grace.”

Let me tell you something, friend. Anytime you and I participate, in any way, large or small, to help Jesus Christ rule in the kingdom of this world, anytime we have a part in advancing that cause, we give our God in heaven a marvelous Christmas gift.

That self-supporting missionary, Brian, is there in the trenches, rubbing shoulders with villagers, making friends, building relationships, handing out Band-aids and toys for kids. And after years of work, a small number of people join God’s family. The flag is moved forward those few yards. And when you think about the fact that those converted men and women will live gratefully in the New Jerusalem for all eternity, then the few years it took for Brian and his wife to help make that happen are one of the great “military bargains,” if I can use that metaphor, we can ever imagine.

Why is this such a December gift for God? Why does heaven seemingly CRAVE rulership? You recall that a few months ago, we did a long, wonderfully rewarding radio study through the book of Ephesians. We were there for something like three months. And right in chapter one, we find this passage about the ambitions of God:

“[God’s] incomparably great power [was] exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”

And this kind of victory talk is all through the Bible. “Things will be complete when Jesus rules.” “All will be joy and peace when Christ reigns.” Even the Lord’s prayer has God’s followers petitioning heaven:

“Thy will be done, ON EARTH as it is in heaven. . . . For THINE is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

So this is what God wants. This is what we want. And when we help work on it with God, we give Him the best of all Christmas gifts. In the anthem, O Come All Ye Faithful, God’s people mean it when they sing:

“Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning. Jesus, to THEE be all glory given.”

And why does Jesus want to rule? Why does God the Father, maybe a bit like America’s 41st President, now want His Son to be in charge of the universe? Is there ego involved here? A power trip? In his wonderful book, The Ten(der) Commandments, Pastor Ron Mehl asks the same in regards to the first commandment. Why does God want this Christmas present of our loyalty and ask for our worship? What’s going on here?

“Why in the world does [God] make such a point,” he asks, “of having no other gods before Him? What does this first command have to do with life in today’s world? The reason is very simple: He wants to be your God.” But why? Pastor Mehl proposes this answer: “He wants to care for you, and He knows that no one or nothing can care for you better than He.”

In the very clever book, The Screwtape Letters, Christian author C. S. Lewis has a couple of Satan’s demons lamenting about the disadvantages they have in the great war against heaven. Of course, hell’s armies hate God and hate God’s children. But they do understand what heaven is all about. Listen:

“Remember always,” the older devil sadly explains, “that He [God] really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves,” as in “come to Jesus,” “He only means abandoning the clamor of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”

That’s a favorite C. S. Lewis theme, by the way, and many of you who have read Mere Christianity know that he also paints this vivid picture of our world as a battleground. God and Lucifer are fighting over every square inch, every person, every soul. And friend, anytime you and I stand with heaven, and speak a good word to a neighbor, give that cup of cold water, visit a widow or an orphan on a cold, barren December night, and especially when we lift up the cross of Christ with our words and our examples, we’re helping this greatest of gifts come true: “He rules the world with truth and grace.”