Here Comes Heaven

Movie time during Christmas. Not just Christmas movies…any movies. Even the cheeseball movies that my mom would watch on lifetime network. Sitting by the fireplace when it is way too hot, etc.

Have you ever been a part of a story that has so many perspectives.

What is your favorite movie? Is it Die Hard? Man it is not Christmas until you have argued with someone about whether that is a Christmas movie or not.

My favorite has to be home alone. Why? I love underdog stories.

The underdog story. And how the story is prevalent in english writing.

Hope for the underdog: Context

When we look to this version of the birth narrative that paints a beautiful picture that is a little different than the one that Matthew presents. I just love how they tell it because its not that one is right and the other is wrong....

Luke tells the story of this young couple travelling to Bethlehem. Mary very pregnant at this point, Joseph brings her on the difficult trek.

Luke’s presentation brings the heavenly host to proclaim the birth to the most unexpected people. The Shepherds working in their field late at night. The shepherds are no royalty, they are common laborers that many did not think highly of. This was not simply surface level social class discrimination but even deeper than that. Their work would keep them out of adherence to the Jewish religious mandates.

The shepherds mark only the introduction to the overall theme from Luke: “A strong theological emphasis that continually appears in Luke-Acts involving God’s concern for the downtrodden and outcasts: the poor, tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, Gentiles, and women.”

See friends, the gospel writers understood that this birth was the in breaking of heaven. It was God coming to humanity in a way that could only compare to creation itself.

And the rest of Luke would describe the way in which heaven was here. Everywhere Jesus would go and everyone he would touch or speak to would experience the healing of heaven.

He begins in a synogogue declaring this very truth....reading the scroll of Isaiah scripture alluding to God saving the world....:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.

Upon reading this text, with all eyes on him, he sits down as says this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Here comes heaven

Heaven tour:

, Leper

The first person he encounters upon the beginning of this earthly heaven tour is a man with Leprosy. A person that because of his illness would not know human touch. Jesus not only touches him, but heals him....Friends Jesus is more than comfort, he is the healing power of God.

, the paralyzed man

Then a few verses later friends bring a paralyzed man and lower him from the roof into the house and Jesus lays hands on him and he gets up to walk

, Levi tax collector luncheon

Still in the same chapter, Jesus goes to a tax collector and calls him to follow him. A tax collector, someone who was despised for being two faced. Taking from Jews and giving to the roman oppressors or worse doing this and making money off of them. Then he eats with them. The ilk and the sinners of the world....the Jewish leaders grovel, what is he doing?!

, Widow’s son

In Jesus meets a funeral procession. Not just any funeral procession but the one of a son of a grieving widow. Two of the most marginalized people in this culture; widows and children. Heaven shows its power as it erases death from the scene and Jesus brings to life the young kid and redeems the widow

, dead girl…but on the way, bleeding woman

In Jesus is on the way to see another child that has died and he while headed to certainly an important situation and a bleeding woman comes to him with all the desperation in the world. Sick and alone…probably abandoned by family and definitely friends and community, her illness has made her a pariah. She touches the hem of his clothing and she is healed. Jesus turns and sees her.

The good Samaritan and the prodigal son

This is the gospel account that has the hated and despised samaritan being the one who stops to help the person left for dead. This gospel account is the one that shares the love of the father for the son that squanders everything.

Conclusion:

Heaven is here in the birth of Jesus. God coming wrapped in swaddling clothes but wrapped in the flesh. We love this story…many of us come just to hear told again, why? Because it is an underdog story...

For those that have been shaped and transformed by it, realize that its our story. That when pride is stripped away, when our self reliance is gone there we can be honest about our pain, hurt, loneliness, or just a feeling of emptiness like there has to be more than what I am experiencing.

I love the subtlety of the end of this birth narrative....

Luke 2:18–19 NIV

and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:18-1

All who heard it were amazed…BUT Mary, treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. See the only person in these narratives that are around later in the life of Jesus....the only person mentioned is Mary. For all of the shepherds that went away praising and telling people of what God has done…Mary treasured it, was shaped by heaven. I just wonder tonight how many of us will go home and we will ride out this Christmas joy for a few days but none of this will mean anything down the road. This is our story...

Individual prayer

In-dwelling part 2

Cowboys illustration about being full of hope?

The closing of our teaching is very simple. God has entered into the world, incarnation, God also has chosen to in-dwell within us.

Why is this important?

Well I think most of us would consider all that we have shared as good news but I don’t know that we understand the opportunity we have to walk in the power of the one who came to Bethlehem...

Romans 8:9–11 NIV

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

2 Corinthians 8:9–11 NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.

2 Corinthians 8:

More than optimism, tied to him:

See I think hope is more than optimism or thinking positively about everything going on around us. Christian hope is tied directly to a person and that is the person of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God that lives in us.

So as we venture tonight into Bethlehem to see a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes....we are again orienting ourselves to an important journey. A journey with the Savior of the world....the one who brings hope. But here is the catch. The disciples in the gospel of Luke were not simply along for a ride. They were not just passive witnesses to heaven breaking through. Jesus was also preparing them to continue this very mission in the world.

Luke 4:

Hope in Clemens:

Saturday I went to the Clemens unit of the Texas Department of criminal justice to visit my brother who is serving a 17 year prison sentence. About to spend another Christmas in there. We have not had the chance for him to meet my son who will turn 1 this week and he literally said, I can’t even picture him. I just need to hold him to believe he is real. Can you imagine if I tried to give him the Dallas Cowboys kind of hope…like the oh hang in there. Just try and find the positive things. Or what if I continue to tell him of the person and the savior that said I have come to set the prisoner free. What if I continue to tell him about the miracles that I have seen him do and the people he has rescued.

Bankrupt of hope:

Friends, the world is bankrupt of hope. And I think we pack the house on times like this for more than....well that’s just what we do. I think we are looking for something else. I gotta tell you there is someone else. And he has sent his son for the salvation of the world. and he has sent his spirit to testify to our hearts that we are his children.

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