First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

For at the core, Christ is about an invitation to change. He’s about the dawning of freedom. We don’t have to stay stuck where we are. We don’t have to stay stuck as we are. We don’t have to stay mired in shame, wracked with guilt, wandering in futility and just plain sick of ourselves. We can move from where we are. We can move into him. Jesus offers us freedom to move along a way of life, hope and peace. He issues an invitation to join him. To change roads from one way of life to another through walking in his way, the Way.

Sir, we wish to see Jesus. That’s a lovely thing to say. But questionshave to be asked in reply. Do you wish to see Jesus as a tourist or a disciple?Do you want to see Jesus as a detached observer, or will you submit yourlife to him? Do you demand that you stay independent and solitary, alwaysin control, or will you risk dying with him? Will you let your ego be buriedin order that you might rise in a new life of love and giving and worship?Knowing the path Jesus had to follow, knowing the path he calls you tofollow if you would be joined to him, can you still make the statement theGreeks made? Is it the desire of your heart to say, with all your heart, “Yes,we wish to see Jesus.”

When Martha said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Jesus replied with a theological assurance. “Your brother will rise again.” He engaged Martha about the future resurrection of the dead, and astounded her with the news that he, himself, is resurrection and life. Jesus answered Martha with confidence and hope. He knew what was going to happen.  

From God’s view, death is not nearly as big of a problem as unbelief. Distance and time pose no obstacles to the purposes of the Creator who entered his creation. External conditions and events, even death, are not our main dilemmas. The inner darkness, the estrangement from the Father, and the enslavement to sin are the greatest threats to our eternal life. To the family and disciples, Lazarus seemed irretrievably gone. “But to Jesus, Lazarus had not even come close to leaving the Son’s custody or domain.” For Jesus has all authority over life and death. Death may seem to steal life from us. But death cannot steal a life from Jesus. Our Christ is greater than death. Only unbelief can separate us from Jesus and his eternal life. That’s why he asked Martha that crucial question. “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?”  

You need a king more than you know. The costly truth is before you. Will you abandon your pride and selfishness? Will you abandon your death and chains? Christ is Lord. Will you bow before him and find life?

This is the striking news from the one we follow. Jesus is the bread of life. We have to eat him in order to be filled. We have to take him in in order to live. Jesus called this eating believing into him. We move out of ourselves as a source. We move towards Jesus and offer him our lives. We surrender the quest for our satisfaction to him. This surrender happens once for all when we get united to Christ by faith. This is the surrender of salvation in which the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. We repent of our sins and repent of ourselves. We turn to Jesus and ask him to fill us.  

Jesus, this woman, this man, was caught. The law demands condemnation. What do you say? The God who wrote the law with his divine finger, now writes with a human finger. And Jesus writes through his servant Paul “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Rom. 8: 1). I have made your condemnation my own. For you there is no condemnation! From you there is to be no condemnation. Sin no more. Go in peace.

How about you? Will you risk his gaze? His closeness? His desire to be with you always? Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! Surely, he is the Savior!

If you have believed into Jesus, giving him your life and asking for his, you have the Holy Spirit. You have water aplenty to sustain life. You have that well inside you. You as believers can draw from the very life of God. But, of course, it’s not automatic. The refreshment of the living water arises when we pray, “Your will be done.” The Spirit flows in a way we can taste as we offer ourselves to be led, shaped and guided by Christ. His agenda replaces ours.  We have to guard this well. To keep it from contamination. To stop listening to so much blather and swill. We have to take the time to draw deep from the well. Reading Scripture. Listening to God in silence. Gathering with his people to worship. Putting his praise on our lips. Learning his Word so we have something to pray. Asking Christ to open our eyes to ways we could love. Accepting his invitation to lay down your will and energy for someone this very day. Aligning your life with Jesus every morning. Filling your mind and words with his words. Drin

We’ve drunk a lot of darkness in our days. But it’s not too late. Never too late as long as you are here in this present moment. The dungeon flares with light. The cell doors are open. The death sentence has been commuted. A land of everlasting light and life awaits. Will you arise and follow Jesus this very hour? With whatever he is showing you of yourself, will you take it out of the dark and into the light? In repentance and faith. Trusting, risky, the truth: God so loved the world, that he gave. 

Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again. He says it twice so that Nicodemus won’t miss it, “Truly, truly.” "Pay attention mighty ruler of the Jews, because if you are not born again, you will not enter, you will not see, you cannot be a part of the kingdom of God." Nicodemus did not like Jesus’ words. Rather than crying out in joy over the possibility of becoming something new, he cries out in disappointment, “How can a man be born again?”

The temple court can be so clogged with the day-to-day trading that there is no room for prayer and worship. The marketplace is so loud we don’t hear the cries of the little ones. Get these things outta here! The new temple has been established. The body of Jesus is the temple. We are joined to him, we become living stones in his temple, growing and fitted together in love.  

Christ has come to redeem your toil and striving because now all that you do is done in service to him. Only when we bow to Christ as Lord and master can we work with purpose. Why? Because our purpose is not in what we accomplish but in the God who has conquered. Christ’s advent redeems the fact that nothing seems new under the sun because he has actually made—and will finally make—all things new. Christ’s advent redeems the passage of time because the endless and seemingly aimless passage of years has an end: the day when Christ returns and time itself is undone. Christ’s advent redeems knowledge and learning for all true learning and insight can only be found from learning at his feet. Christ’s advent redeems and fulfills our innate desire to find meaning and purpose in something that lasts beyond us because he came to make his people part of his story of redemption, making every detail meaningful.

The story of Ruth is a Christmas story. Blessed be the LORD I Am, who has not left you this day without a redeemer. He will be to you’re a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. Into Naomi’s life of famine, loss, grief and bitterness, God sent a redeemer. She was no longer to identify her life as left without. God began to restore her with the love of Ruth. Then he sent a redeemer in Boaz and then in Obed. That’s a great story. But it points to an even better one. Into this dark, lost, shattered world, God sent a Redeemer named Jesus, a descendent of Ruth. It is still the This Day of his arrival. He has come to redeem his people. We are the community who belongs to Christ. We don’t let people get lost and stuck in the despair that evil and bitterness and grief have the last word. They do not. The Redeemer has come and will come again. Will I, can I, trust this news? Will I trust myself to him? Will I embrace the identity that matters: I do not belong to myself but to my faithful savior born this

Jesus has already established the grounds for redeeming us. He became our kinsman in the flesh. He shed his blood in an offering for our sin. He rose still joined to our humanity. He created reconciliation between God and man. He is the redeemer who has given his life for us. Now everything depends on the question, “Will I give my life to Christ?” Perhaps for the first time. Perhaps after a long season of wandering and disobedience. Perhaps by giving a secret, cherished sin that I have long held back from him. Perhaps by trusting and releasing to him at a new level. There is a redeemer. Can I say as Ruth did, “All that you say, I will do?” Can I say, in this present moment, as Mary did to Gabriel, “Let it be to me according to your Word.”

We are but gleaners after scraps, if the truth be known. But when we come to shelter under the wings of the God of Israel, we discover the startling transformation. He does not give us scraps. He gives us himself. For his very nature is steadfast love and kindness. The echoes of the Christmas story in Ruth resound all around us. Boaz acts like Joseph, protecting and providing for a vulnerable woman. Ruth acts like Mary, giving herself completely into God’s care. Loving with an open heart. I can hear Ruth saying Mary’s words, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.” And everywhere the sovereign God is weaving the surprises of his extraordinary grace reaching the world through ordinary people. So come to the table, dear ones, in great expectation that the sovereign God will bless you today. Discover anew that in Christ, it’s a wonder-filled life. 

Jesus is no stranger to anything you are going through. He has been all the way to the far, foreign country of our lives. He did not turn back from us then. He does not turn away from us now. He still wants to go with you every step of the way. He still clings to you. He will not be shaken off. He will not be dissuaded. He will not stop loving you. He has already paid the ultimate price, getting skin in the game all the way to death on a cross. Now he calls to you through his Spirit from heaven, “Do you see me coming to you? Do you hear me pledging myself to you? Turn to me! Answer me! Embrace me.” This, dear ones, is the heart of Christmas. When we welcome his arrival and accept his love, everything changes. Even our sorrows and sufferings become woven into what can only be called a wonderful life.