2 Christmas - Sunday
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| Isaiah
61:10-62:3 Salvation and Vindication Psalm 147:13-21 Praise the Lord! Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 Thanksgiving for Salvation John 1:1-18 The Prologue of John Isaiah: This portion of Isaiah is believed to have been written around 530-510 B.C.* (just before and during the return of the exiles of Judah, the remnant of Israel, in Babylon (for 70 years, from 587-517; Jeremiah 25:12) to their Promised Land. Let us rejoice greatly in the Lord, because he has clothed us in the garments of salvation and righteousness, like a bridegroom in his finest clothes, and his bride in precious jewelry. The Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth like shoots from the earth, and produce from a garden. For the sake of Zion (God's holy hill; the people of God; the Church; God's eternal city in heaven) let us not keep silent until she is vindicated, and her salvation is seen like a burning torch (in spiritual night). Her vindication and glory will be seen by all the nations (Gentiles; non-Jews), and all earthly rulers. Their renewed status will be given a new name by the Lord. God's people will be a crown of beauty and royalty in God's hand. Psalm: The Lord God protects us from the attacks of our enemies; he blesses our unborn sons. He gives us peace in our land; he satisfies our hunger with the finest food. God's command is instantly obeyed. God is the source of snow, frost and ice; he sends them forth, and he calls them back. Who can resist him? He has declared his Word to Jacob (the inheritor of the blessing; the father, Israel, of the twelve tribes). He has given his law to the people of God. No other nation has had such fellowship with him or known his Word. Ephesians: Paul founded the church at Ephesus (on the western coast of Asia Minor - present-day Turkey) on his first missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21). He kept "discipling" them (and other congregations) by letter, after his imprisonment for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul gave thanks to God for the spiritual blessings we have in Jesus Christ. God planned, before the beginning of Creation, for us to be holy and blameless in his judgment. He intended for us to be his sons (and daughters) through Jesus, according to his plan, by his great grace (unmerited favor; a free gift), which he has freely given us in abundance through Jesus Christ. Because Paul had heard of their faith in the Lord and their love of believers by the Ephesian Christians, he was continually giving thanks to God, and praying for the Ephesian congregation, that they might receive from God the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing God, and that the spiritual eyes of their hearts might be enlightened, so that they could know (with certainty) the hope to which they were called and the great value of their inheritance with the saints (believers committed to God's service through Jesus Christ). John: God's Word is eternal, and existed, from the beginning, with God. God's Word is God. Through God's Word all things were created, and nothing exists that was not created by God's Word. God's Word is life, and that life is light [the light of spiritual enlightenment (John 1:9), the light of righteousness (John 1:5; John 3:19-21; John 12:46), the light of eternal life (John 1:4; 8:12)]. There was a man called John (the baptizer) whom God called to testify to the light, so that everyone might believe through John. John wasn't the light, but he pointed to the light. The one who is the true light of spiritual enlightenment was coming. The world had been made by him, but when he came into the world, the world didn't recognize and acknowledge him. He wasn't even accepted in his own hometown and by his own people. But to everyone who recognized, accepted and welcomed him, he gave them the power (the opportunity; the authority) to become children of God, who are born only by the will of God; not physically by flesh and blood, or human desire, or by human intention. The Word of God, God's creative power, became flesh; the Word of God was fulfilled, embodied and exemplified in human form (John 1:14), full of grace (unmerited favor toward us) and (divine, eternal, unchanging) truth. We (his disciples, who have personally experienced a relationship with him through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit) have beheld his glory, which is worthy only of the begotten Son of God our Father. John the baptizer testified that the one who was coming after John chronologically, would rank before John in glory, power, and eternal existence. That one, the Messiah (Christ) has unlimited, overflowing grace, that we can receive by faith (i.e., obedient trust). Commentary: Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant of Law; Jesus is the "New Moses," the mediator of the New Covenant of Grace (unmerited favor; a free gift, which we can receive by faith). Jesus is the source of grace and (divine, eternal, unchanging) truth. No one has ever seen God; the only (begotten) Son of God, who is one with God the Father, has made him known (John 14:8-10; Matthew 11:27c). Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise through Isaiah to provide us with the garments of salvation and righteousness. It is not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God which is attributed to us by faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). The Church, the body of "born-again" (John 3:3, 5-8) disciples (Acts 11:26c) of Jesus Christ is not to keep the Lord's salvation a secret. We are to be spiritual light in the spiritual darkness of sin (disobedience of God's Word) and spiritual ignorance of this world (Matthew 5:14-16). Jacob was the second of two twins born to Isaac by Rebekah. His name means one who follows on the heels of another, and a supplanter. He followed on the heels of his twin, Esau, and he supplanted (superseded, by trickery), his brother in receiving the birthright, the inheritance which was rightfully Esau's by birth. Jacob returned to the land of his ancestors to avoid retribution by Esau, and to obtain a wife from his forefathers' people, and spent twenty years there. On the return trip he had an encounter with God, and God changed his name to Israel (meaning "wrestler with God") to reflect his changed status. At the time of the writing of this portion of Isaiah, Judah, the remnant of Israel had been renewed during their exile in Babylon. Seventy years is a virtual life sentence for anyone who was an adult at the time of the exile. The people who returned from Babylonian exile were not the same people who had gone to Babylon. They were the renewed people of God. The Holy Spirit is the "pillar of fire" that guided Israel through the spiritual night in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21; Luke 3:16; Acts 2:3), who guides "born-again" disciples of Jesus Christ through the spiritual wilderness of this lifetime. The Church is the "New Israel;" "Christian" is the new name of God's people. They are the inheritors of the blessing of God through Israel. Jesus has been God's one and only plan for our forgiveness of sin (disobedience of God's Word), and salvation from eternal destruction and spiritual death, from the very beginning of Creation (Acts 4:12). Jesus has been "built into" the very structure of Creation (John 1:1-5, 14). God has designed Creation, from the beginning, for the purpose of making us his "adopted" sons and daughters, holy and blameless in his judgment, through our faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ. The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:15, 23), which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the Spirit of divine, eternal wisdom (Ephesians 1:17), the Spirit of spiritual enlightenment (John 1:9). God's Word has creative power (Genesis 1:3). Jesus' word is the Word of God (John 14:10, 24) with the creative force of God's Word (Mark 4:41). Jesus is the "living Word," God's Word, fulfilled, embodied and exemplified in human flesh in this world (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus came to die on the cross as the only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sins (disobedience of God's Word) so that we could be spiritually cleansed and consecrated to become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared that one must be spiritually "reborn" by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God all around us now, and ultimately to see and enter God's eternal kingdom in heaven (John3:3, 5-8). Spiritual rebirth is not conferred by the "Church," or by "religious ritual," such as baptism, confirmation, or by the elements of Holy Communion (the Eucharist; the Lord's Supper). When we accept Jesus as our Lord and invite him to come into our hearts, he gives us the "power" to become (adopted) children of God, but it is up to us to claim and appropriate the promise for ourselves. Jesus' promise is that as we trust and obey his teachings, he will reveal himself to us (John 14:21) and we will have a personal relationship with him by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)? *The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, Ed. by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, Isaiah (introduction), p. 822, New York, Oxford University Press, 1962. |