“ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."... When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
Matthew 2:1-2;9-12
The Christmas story as we know it has been tidied up a bit, cleaned up because the true story is shocking and surreal. It’s about a King born in an over-crowded stable with all this manure and smells and intensified when we understand that it’s God doing all this. God’s born as the little baby, if that isn’t surprising enough then the condition in which He’s born in - is absolutely shocking. It's a cultural trend to make it nice, to sweeten it up - the Magi have become a part of the whole tidying up - let's take a closer look - MAGI in the original Greek is Magos which means magician or sorcerer. The Magi were astrologers! They looked to the sky and made predictions. The shocking part about the Magi is that God doesn't like astrology - all through the Bible He warns us not to practice astrology, get involved in an occult, or the spirit world you’re playing with fire there.
"`Do not practice divination or sorcery.” Leviticus 19:26
“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD,..Deuteronomy 18:10-12
Even though God despises astrology, here we find in this story, and this the shocking part, the Magi are the ones God calls across the desert, these astrologers, professional spell casters using an astrological sign to do it!
Even more shocking the Magi probably used for some of their info. a prophecy given in Numbers 24:17 speaking of a 'star rising out of Jacob' - that prophecy itself was given by a pagan soothsayer by the name of Balaam. So...
here we have pagan astrologers, using a pagan prophecy,
following a pagan symbol going across the desert to find the new born King.
All the while the religious leaders are sitting right on top of the King and they don't even know it!
It turns upside down our thoughts of Christmas, and that's the point!
Our God is a shocking God - because of His unlimited, insurmountable-love for all mankind - God gets out of His box
Have you heard the saying, “Did you get in their box?”
explain
God in this story gives us another example of how He gets in the box w/ us - He comes to our level, operates on our mindset
God gets out of His box and dives into ours!
In the case of the Magi, God gets in their box with them
He gets down to their level, He speaks their language, God will go to any level, any depths to find someone who is hungry and searching for truth and draw them forward -
So... as much as God doesn’t like astrology, He uses astrology to pull these Magi across the desert to find the Christ child b/c this is the language these folks speak.
The Magi are looking to the heavens for the truth so God says, "You're looking for a star, I'll give you a star to show you the Christ!" - He gets in the box w/us
Some may mistake this for God condoning astrology,
absolutely not!
If you’re looking at this story thru the eyes of love you’ll see
It's a case of God _loving_ the astrologers more than He hates their astrology
He gets in the box w/ us, He talks our lang. He gets down to our level - b/c He loves us so much
Now here’s something I want you to see... it costs God something to do this - it’s not like this is a painless thing God can do, it cost Him something to do this. And until we understand the cost, we’ll never appreciate the love behind it.
Let me use this illustration: Cathleen and I invited to Richmond club for CD release party
here’s the point I wanna make - I’m a sinner just like you are - I’m on a journey to become Christlike - I don’t know exactly where I am in this process, but I know that my sin sensitivity buzzers are still somewhat jaded - i don’t feel the full impact or see the full ugliness of it and destructiveness of sin - yet in that environment of the club I was just knotted up and grieved and sickened - then later, maybe next day, a thought came to me,
“If you, the sinner that you are, felt like that - what do you think God feels about the sin of the world.
God is pure holy - God would exper. the most minor sin as grievously as we would exper. the most heinous sin.
How does God feel about this - it costs God something to get into our box, b/c our box is full of sin.
We need to realize that we are all sinners yet God is willing to get into your box
As much as God is revolted by sin, there's one emotion
that is greater - that is __His love for sinners__
B/c of that He is willing to put up w/ the grime, the slime, the
putrid revulsion He has toward sin and He gets into our box.
This is what the Christmas story is all about His willingness to be born in the stable, His willingness to use astrology is an
example of this - the greatest example of this is the cross of
calvary - the physical pain as horrifying as that was I believe was inconsequential to the pain He felt of taking on the sin of the world. No wonder he cries, “Father why have you forsaken me?” What Cathleen and I exper. at the club was nothing, absolutely nothing to what God experiences...
So.. He dives into our mess! He dives into our box - He speaks our language, because there's something God loves more than He hates our sin and that is US!
A prudish God would never do this, an uptight religious ditty would never think of such thing, but the true God revealed in Jesus Christ out of outlandish passion, and unwavering love
dives head 1st in the worst the world has to offer
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
Why? so that we might become the righteousness of God through Him.
We can’t even begin to imagine what that might cost but He was willing to do it, this is what the Christmas story is all about that on the cross of calvary he absorbs it all He absorbs it all, the HORROR that He must have been going through at that time,
but He was willing why?
B/c the love, the joy that was set b4 Him was greater than the Horror He experienced
There’s one thing that is greater than God’s revulsion for sin and that is His love for you so He wants in on your mess, He wants in on your mess. No matter what the mess may be, you gotta know this, you can’t out mess God
No matter of our past, no matter how low we've gone, there's no depth that you can sink to that He won't go - He wants in on your mess!
Let Him in on your mess, let Him be born into the dirty stable
Let Him in on the mess of your family
Let Him in on the mess of your confusion
Let Him in on the mess of your depression
Let Him in on the mess of your despair
Let Him in on the mess of your addiction
Let Him in on the mess of your fear
Let Him in on the mess of your doubt
Let Him in on the mess of your screwed-upness
Let Him be born there
Let Him into your box!
Then you begin to see the Holy Spirit working in your life and He begins cleaning up little by little
it’s the 1st step letting God in
Let God into YOUR box – once we do that our first impulse
is to _worship__
We see His love and the value He places on us and we want to ascribe worth back to God.
The 1st thing these Magi do when they see the King is they
ascribe worth to Him. The make sacrifices which expresses the worth this new born King has to them.
I’m not even sure they knew exactly what they were doing
Theology wise anyway. But there’s something inside that says,
“This child is very important” so they ascribe worth back to Him by making the sacrifices of the treasures they had.
Remember these Magi worked for the Royal Court of Persia, that’s how they got all their money and treasure performing these pagan practices - the King would want some help on a decision or direction to go w/ something so he calls in these Magi and says, “what are the stars saying, what’s in the wind?”
So their treasure comes from pagan practices - so do you think God was thinking, “OH NO you can’t give those pagans gifts to a holy God” Absolutely NOT!
B/c God looks at the heart of the person, He sees the hunger there. He is not condoning the way they got the money, but the fact is right here, right now they have a heart to worship and it’s the heart that turns what may be otherwise sinful into something
holy - that’s the grace of God
Listen when you offer something up to God, how you got where you are isn’t the issue, it’s where you are right now, what otherwise may be tainted, dirty, and ungodly becomes something preciously holy in the eyes of God
It’s the heart that makes something worthwhile
I can’t even count how many times people have told me they have nothing to give to God, that their past is a mess and they should try to clean it up or get their act together before they move towards God - and I tell them you already are.
It’s the heart that matters - that’s what God is looking for - don’t worry about the mess, just let Him in - let Him in on your mess and offer worth back to God - that’s all He’s looking for
1st impulse offer worth back to God
Our second impulse is to become Christlike to others.
to enter into the box of others - it's the law of love, we are called to live a life of love. The apostle Paul told us to put on LOVE
above all else. (see file 'known by love' April 3rd, 2005)
But what often prevents this from happening is we can’t suspend our ethical judgement, we have opinions about a lot things.
So we see a person in need and we say, “Oh I wonder what he did to deserve that? It’s their own fault for being poor, it’s their own fault for being homeless. This is the land of equal opport.
right... so if somebody doesn’t have a middle income class it must be their own doing and if they just worked hard like i worked then they would have... and how convenient this thinking is b/c now we don’t ever have to be inconvenienced w/ compassion - we set ourselves at bay w/ this sense of moral superiority.
Just one of the amazing things about min. of Christ -
Jesus Christ dealt with the low-life dregs of society. (the prostitutes, tax-collectors, lepers) He never once asked them how they got into such a position.
Ohh Mary Magdalene how did you get all those demons in you?
He never goes there - His disciples go there and He rebukes them - who sinned that this man was born blind? this tendency in us wants to blame somebody so we can feel a little more righteous and be excused from being inconvenienced.
Jesus answered them, “neither this man or his parents, but let God be glorified.”
He’s teaching us how to bring Glory to God that is to love one another - that’s how.
Jesus says, However he got blind, what matters now is that we bring healing to him - however she got possessed, what matters now is that we bring deliverance to her - however he got sick, what matters now is that we pray for healing
You need comfort, we’ll bring Kingdom comfort
You need peace, we’ll bring Kingdom peace
You need healing, we’ll bring Kingdom healing
You need fellowship, we’ll bring Kingdom fellowship
He just gave, He just LOVED them!
God wants us to move out of the comfort and connivence of our box and get into the box of others to display LOVE!
Most of the time that’s not real easy, but that is how we share God’s love w/ others - we invest in those who do not Him.
Which means you will have to get into someone’s box that a little more grimier than yours, it’s dirtier than yours.
We think we’ve cleaned up so good, but in reality our box would be just as filthy if not filthier if God wasn’t in it w/ us - so how much more then for those who don’t know - how much more should we get into their box and share the love of Christ.
God gets _into our box_ and moves us to get _into the box of others_
book: not religion but love - story: bresben Aus. med. doc. John Hughes workin clinic for poor.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31
Digging Deeper:
1.What examples can you find in the Bible of God,
“Getting out of His box” and “Into our box”?
2.In what ways do you worship God?
3.Do you ever find it difficult to 'get out of your box'
to reach others?
4.Read Luke 6:27-36. Who are your enemies? Do you think that means literal enemies, or others outside of our box?
Resource:
Christianity Outside the Box
By: Crea A. Copeland
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