OUR LORD WHO INCREASES OUR JOY

Our day of rejoicing has come. The day of the Lord's help is here.

Isaiah chapter 9 verse 3 - 4 succinctly describes the scene of the Lord's victory and people pour out of their houses rejoicing at the victory of our God who delivered them from their oppressor.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Recent days have taught us the Lord is mighty and worth to be praised for He hears our cry for help and contends for those who humble themselves and pray.

Bless the Lord and honour Him whose kingdom is founded on Righteousness and Justice.

Amen.

OUR LORD IS GENEROUS TO US AND WANTS US TO BE GENEROUS TO OTHERS 

Regarding the provision God supplies for those who serve Him, 1 Corinthians verse 7 - 9 says this:

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? 

Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

The Word of God tells us to serve the Lord and to put the  Kingdom of God before all things and He will supply all our needs as we follow Him.

Mathew 6 verse 31 - 33 says this to those who serve Him;

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

The scriptures also teach that the Lord  loves a cheerful giver and the Lord will recompense those who freely give.

As it is written in 2 Corinthians verse 7 - 9 ;

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”

Bless our Lord who generously gives to us and teaches us to be generous.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS UNSEARCHABLE BY MANKIND BUT WHO GAVE US  A MEDIATOR

In the biblical story of Job, our protagonist had had his life destroyed where  he lost his children, his belongings, his businesses and his health in rapid sucesession.

Job, bewildered and heartbroken, tried to wrestle with the things he believed about God and how they corresponded with what had happened to him. 

His friends tried to help him come to terms with his circumstances but he couldn't help but feel that there was an imbalance of justice that was weighted against him and his monologue in the book of Job chapter 9 captured his enduring awe of God while at the same time showed him grappling  to understand why the Lord would allow the calamities that befell him.

Following is Job chapter 9 from the NIV.

Then Job replied:

“Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand.

His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.

He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,  the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. 

He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him.

If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet. “How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him?

Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy. Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing.

He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason. He would not let me catch my breath but would overwhelm me with misery.

If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty! And if it is a matter of justice, who can challenge him?

Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty. “Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life. It is all the same; that is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?

“My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy. They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.

If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’

I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent. Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?

Even if I washed myself with soap and my hands with cleansing powder, you would plunge me into a slime pit so that even my clothes would detest me.

“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.

If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.

Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

As Job nears despair, he asks the eternal question; "If only there were someone who could mediate between God and I. If only I could get an advocate to stand before God to speak for me."

In this chapter, Job prophesied the place of a mediator who thousands of years later, Paul the apostle described in 1 Timothy 2 verse 5.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

Thank you Lord Jesus for being our advocate before the Father.

Amen

OUR LORD BRINGS HIS ENEMIES TO SHAME

Isaiah 47 verses 3 - 4 speaks of a method that the Lord our God uses to discredit those who threaten His people. The passage goes like this:

“Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame also will be exposed; I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.”

Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.

The Lord uncovers what is hidden in the camp of His enemies so that everything that was done in secret, is now exposed  and they are subjected to shame. 

As well, any mystery or subterfuge that the enemy uses to infiltrate God's people is revealed. Any subtle deceptions that the enemies of God's people use to demoralize and misguide, them are laid bare.

With the enemies cloaking devices removed, their plots and schemes are visible for all to see and are rendered worthless. As the scripture says,

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. - John 1 verse 5

Bless the Lord our God who brings light from which darkness must flee.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO WAS FALSELY ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY

What perplexed the people of the time of Jesus about Him was that He would speak like He attributed the power of God to himself.  In doing so, the religious authorities quickly pointed out that He was blaspheming against God.

The sad irony was that these religious authorities should have been the ones to discern  that Jesus was the long-awaited Messaiah but instead, they were so misguided that they accused Jesus of blasphemy whenever He signalled that He was indeed the Messaiah.

Even if the religious authorities were suspicious of Him, they should have taken into account the attesting miracles that followed Jesus wherever He went. 

A few sholars, like Nichodemus, famously came to meet Jesus one night because He and His secretive enclave of thinkers had correctly reasoned that the kinds of miracles that Jesus was performing warranted an interview to get His thoughts on religious matters.

Even though Jesus expressly demonstrated the power of God whenever He took on the authority that only God would have ( like forgive sin ), most of the religious authorities of the day were willing to overlook the good works Jesus did in order to accuse Him. This story in Mathew 9 verse 3 - 8  illustrates this dynamic at work.

Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 

Then the man got up and went home.

Jesus showed the teachers of the law several supernatural things at that event.

He demonstrated that He could read their minds. He demonstrated that He could heal paralysis and He demonstrated that He could indeed forgive sins because His power to heal the paralytic called on the power of God  and if He could call on the power of God to heal, He could call on the authority of God to forgive sin. 

Forgiving sin is not a visible process and whether a person's sins were truly torgiven or not was up for speculation. However, healing a paralytic would require the paralytic to visibly stand and walk and so if Jesus could heal visibly, it could be reasonably inferred that he could  indeed forgive sins because it is easier to do.

The Lord was doing the things that He, as the Messiah, had the authority to do but instead of seeing Him as the Messiah, they saw Him as a blasphemer and this grievance they had against Jesus was one of the main reasons they agitated to get Jesus crucified which turned out to be the basis of our salvation.

Let us bless our Lord for our salvation for which He suffered so greatly to gain for us.

 Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE SALVATION REACHED US IN THE DISTANT ISLANDS AND NATIONS

One of the most incredible conversations in existence is recorded in Isaiah 49 verse 1 - 6.

The two conversants are God the Father and Jesus, the Son of God. This poignant exchange takes place after the death of Jesus and before Jesus is coroneted as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The conversation is narrated to the writer of the passage (Isaiah) by Jesus himself and it reads like this;

Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the Lord called me        from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

In this part of the text, the Lord Jesus addresses the distant islands of the gentiles and He explains that He was commissioned by God the Father before He was in His mother's womb. 

Jesus was given the anointing and authority of speech. He was like a polished arrow hidden in a quiver.

No one knew who He was as He moved incognito through eternity in heaven and then was secretly deployed into history on earth where He lived as a man struggling to build His ministry among mankind. 

He then faced His agonizing death on a cross where all the people he had called to join Him in building His Kingdom had fled leaving him alone with only his mother and  a few dear friends to watch Him die.

It is referencing this seeming failure that Jesus said to His Father,  “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all."

Isn't it astounding to know that Jesus, upon His resurrection, did not know what His  Father had  actually made out of the sacrifice of His life?

Jesus told His Father that He would accept whatever recompense was due to Him for His travails on earth among men.

The next verse captures Jesus reeling in surprise and astonishment at His Father's reply. Whereas He had been sent to bring back the House of Jacob and in the end, only managed to gather a  few who believed in Him, Jesus emphasizes  that  His Father Himself said what was to follow. Here, Jesus is speaking of His Father;

And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength—he says:

Then the bombshell is dropped;

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

The manifold refulgent wisdom of God the Father is unwrapped and Jesus is shown the scope of the mission to which He was assigned. 

It was more than the 3 or 4 people who were with Him at the cross as He died; More than the scattered few who had followed Him during His earthly ministry;  Much more than the house of Israel to whom He had been sent but the prize that Jesus had gained was the whole world of people from every tribe and tongue and race  in every corner of the earth. 

Jesus had been prepared to die for a handful of people who believed in Him ( Jesus said in John 15 verse 13 " Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.) but the Father made His sacrifice count for the teeming billions of people who continue to trust in His name and many more added every day. 

The absolute perfection of the sacrifice that our eternal Lord and God died to make, was more than sufficient to save the house of Israel and also to save all of us gentiles.

Let us  give thanks to our awesome God for his global reach that He obtained for us.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ADOPTS US INTO HIS FAMILY

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

The salvation that our Lord gives us, through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is received by faith and having trusted the Lord, we become children of God and with that, the privileges of being part of the family of the most High God are ours.

In joining the household of God, Phillipians 4 verse 4 - 9 prescribes a way of optimizing our experience in the family into which we have been adopted;

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

The Apostle Paul, referring to the Phillipians as brothers and sisters, affirms that we are all members of the same family. In this family,  we can rejoice always and we can be free of anxiety and we can live before God with thanksgiving and the transcendent peace which guards our hearts.

In cultivating the tranquility of God, we  can think on things which are noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.

Praise our Lord and God who adopts us into such a wonderful family of peace. 

Amen.