An Unexpected Harvest

 

W.A. Criswell was for many years the pastor at First Baptist in Dallas, TX. He once told a story about being asked by a lady in the church to come make a home visit. The woman was burdened for her husband who wouldn’t dare darken the threshold of a church and had a heart harder than steel. Criswell went, and they enjoyed the wonderful dinner she prepared. After the meal, Criswell talked with her husband for hours about giving his life to Christ. But the man resisted and said, “No.” Criswell went home a little discouraged, but at least he planted a seed.

The next Sunday, after preaching his message Criswell gave the normal invitation. Down the aisle came a boy. He told the preacher he was there to make a public profession of faith, in fact he had already given his life to Jesus and wanted to be baptized. Criswell asked the youngster, “When exactly did you repent of your sins?” The boy said, “Last Thursday night.” Criswell asked again, “Well sonny, who helped you understand the Gospel?” The boy looked puzzled, “You did sir.” Criswell corrected him, “No son, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Last Thursday I was visiting with some friends.”

Then the boy explained, “I know, that was my home. I was out playing ball with friends while you were eating. When I came home you were already talking to my daddy. My mother had sent me to my room while you were talking to him. But the whole time I was listening from my room. I heard everything you said. Even though my daddy didn’t want Jesus, I did. I knelt by my bed, bowed my head and prayed to Jesus that he would forgive me that night.”[i]

What a powerful reminder of Isaiah 55:11, “My word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” In the coming year there will be several opportunities for you to share your witness with someone. In the moment will you step forward and share, or slink back in silence?

We can be confident that when we do share Christ there is no loss and nothing is wasted. God will honor His word, whether we see it or not. When we scatter Gospel seed we know not where some of it will land. I am challenged by what Spurgeon in one of his classic sermons:

“Sow again and again, for many are the foes of the wheat, and if you do not repeat your sowing you may never see a harvest. The seed must be sown everywhere, too, for there are no choice corners of the world that you can afford to leave alone, in the hope that they will be self-productive. You may not leave the rich and intelligent under the notion that surely the gospel will be found among them, for it is not so: the pride of life leads them away from God. You may not leave the poor and illiterate, and say, “Surely they will by themselves feel their need of Christ.” Not so: they will sink from degradation to degradation unless you lift them up with the gospel. No tribe of man, no particular constitution of the human mind, may be neglected by us, but everywhere we must preach the word, in season and out of season.”[ii] Amen. 

-DM  

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[i] William M. Templeton, Understanding Acts, vol. 1 (2012), p.113.

[ii] C.H. Spurgeon, “What The Farm Labourers Can Do And What They Cannot Do,” A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, June 12, 1881 at The Metropolitan Tabernacle <https://answersingenesis.org/education/spurgeon-sermons/1603-what-the-farm-labourers-can-do-and-what-they-cannot-do/>

Christmas and the Cosmic Conflict

Beloved Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote, “There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.”[1] Lewis was alluding to the invisible cosmic conflict that rages “behind the scenes” of the physical world.

One graphic passage that illustrates this is found in Revelation 12, where John records an apocalyptic vision of spiritual warfare. John describes three main characters: a celestial woman, her royal child and a fiery dragon.

The imagery is intense, and space does not permit me to define every detail of the symbolism, but only to point out what was really going in the spiritual realm when Christ came into the world. In the vision, the mother represents Israel, who would give birth to the Messiah (Jesus Christ), yet at every turn Satan, pictured by the Dragon, would be there in opposition trying to prevent the child from being born. 

From the very beginning, Satan’s purpose was to thwart the plan of God to bring His Redeemer into the world. In Gen. 3:15 we read the first prophecy of the Bible in which God formally declared war on the Serpent. God addressed Satan, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Satan knew then that he was living on borrowed time, and understanding the prophecy of the Redeemer, the Adversary did everything in his power to eradicate the child and the Jewish nation.

Soon after the fall, the Enemy incited Cain to kill his brother Abel (Gen. 4), in hopes that killing Abel would also kill the chance for a Redeemer. When that failed, Satan so corrupted the human race that God sent a flood wipe clean the evil run amok (Gen. 6). But, Satan could not touch Noah who kept God’s promise alive. Noah’s family repopulated the earth, leading to Abraham and the Jewish nation. Then came the Pharaoh who brutally enslaved the Israelites in Egypt. With the fervor of the Nazi’s, Pharaoh drowned the Jewish baby boys in the Nile River, but God was one step ahead raising up Moses who would deliver God’s people from bondage (Ex. 1-2).

In the book of Esther, we see Hamaan’s wicked plot to have the Jews in Persia exterminated. But that genocide was foiled by Esther’s courage. When the Redeemer was finally born in Bethlehem, Satan employed another puppet - King Herod - who decreed that all Bethlehem’s baby boys should be murdered (Matt. 2). But, God providentially intervened and in a dream directed Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt where they stayed until Herod’s death. 

In Revelation 12:5 the identity of the Christ child is revealed by clues in the imagery, “She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.”

First, we see the Son at His Incarnation. The first phrase points to Christmas, “She bore a male child.” In a humble manger, God entered this conflict as a combatant, and He chose the weakest form of all to defeat His enemy—a baby. The Christ who commanded armies of angels and held galaxies in His hand made Himself small, dependent and helpless. We can trace the scarlet thread of the redemption promise from Genesis 3:15, to Isaiah 7:14, to Matthew 1:23 and Galatians 4:4.

Second, we see the Son at His Ascension. The next phrase takes us to Jesus ascension after His resurrection, “Her child was caught up to God and His throne.” After a successful campaign against the Devil, defeating the Enemy at the cross with his favorite weapon—death—Jesus returned to glory a conquering King.

Third, we see the Son at His Coronation. Note the phrase, “Who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron.” This harkens back to the Messianic overtones of Psalm 2, in which we read a conversation between God the Father, and Jesus the Son: “7 The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

Jesus went from the cradle, to the cross, and today He wears the crown! At Christmas an invasion force of One came to turn the tide in the battle. At Calvary, the Enemy received a mortal wound and by Easter Sunday his armies knew that defeat was inevitable. One day, Christ will return having traded a crown of thorns for a regal diadem! The first time He came there was no room for him at the inn (Luke 2:7). But the next time He comes they will be saying, “Make way for the King of Kings!”  -DM

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[1] C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1967), 33.

When God Wants to Change the World, He Sends a Baby

 

In one of his books Dr. Charles Swindoll pointed out the significance of the year 1809 to the direction of world history.

If news networks had been invented in 1809, they would’ve covered one story: Napoleon sweeping across Austria like a wildfire. Napoleon was the talk of the world, on the move from Trafalgar to Waterloo. Everything was about the diminutive dictator. However, at the same time Napoleon was marching across Europe, whole cadres of world-changers took their first breaths in 1809.

In Liverpool, Baby William is meeting the world. No one has a clue he’s destined to become Great Britain’s Prime Minister—not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. William Gladstone, born in 1809.

Cross the Atlantic to Cambridge, and you’ll hear the cry of another baby named Oliver. A prodigy, Oliver enters Harvard at 16, graduates before 20, gets his medical degree, practices medicine, and begins teaching at Dartmouth and Harvard. Today, his legacy includes a long list of still-respected books. Oliver Wendell Holmes, also born in 1809.

Travel up and cross the Charles River until you get to Boston, where another baby, Edgar, is being born. Edgar’s father quickly abandons him; soon after, his mother dies. A family named Allan take Edgar in, and he takes their last name as his middle. He becomes the father of the American short story. Edgar Allan Poe, born in 1809. 

Back across the pond, journey to Shropshire, where a family welcomes their fifth child, a boy. Soon, they realize they have a young scientist on their hands. Before he dies, he’s spread his theory of evolution around the world. Charles Darwin an 1809 baby.

Over in Lincolnshire, Baby Alfred takes his first breath. Before he’s buried, he becomes the poet laureate of Ireland and Great Britain, still among the most admired and prolific poets. Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809.

We can’t leave out a one-room log cabin in Kentucky, where Thomas and Nancy are thrilled to welcome their second child, whom they name after his grandfather. They can little imagine their baby will lead the nation through civil war. Abraham Lincoln began his journey in 1809.[1] 

Here’s the point - if you would have asked anyone on the street in 1809 what is the most important thing going on in the world back then, they would have probably all pointed to the Napoleonic war. But now many historians would argue that the most important events in 1809 didn’t happen on the battlefield, they happened in the cradle.

The same phenomenon happened some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. Even though the ruthless rulers like Tiberius Caesar and Herod seemed to be the most important people alive, there was a remarkable birth that happened under their noses, and the significance of this child would eclipse them all. Jesus Christ was born in the lowest estate, yet this one solitary life has had more of an impact on the world than all other lives combined. After all, when God Son’s stepped from eternity into time, it became the dividing line of all history – BC and AD.

There’s an interesting pattern in the Bible, when God wants to do something great in the world, He doesn’t send an army He sends a baby. The Jewish nation was started when God promised the geriatrics Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac. When the Lord delivered His people from Egyptian slavery, He sent baby Moses up the Nile. When Israel needed a judge to fight for them or a priest to guide them, there came Samson and Samuel, both supernaturally conceived.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…” Galatians 4:4 says. It’s almost impossible to calculate how many lives were, still are, and will be changed by Christ. How odd and beautiful that Christ came as He did – tiny, helpless, poor, mostly unnoticed. If we were God, we probably wouldn’t have done it that way. But God always subverts what is expected. He baffles the wise with what seems foolish. He conquers strength with weakness. He shames the rich by choosing poverty. He changes history subtly, patiently, providentially.

A baby represents a fresh start, new life, untapped potential and of course the hope of what is to come. Christ was born, so that we might be born again (John 3:3). Through His transformative grace we can have a fresh start, a new life and a hopeful future. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).  -DM

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[1] Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 40-41.

Christmas Hope for the Hurting

 

Just a few Christmases ago, I was introduced to the carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” For some reason, this song had eluded my attention until it randomly popped up on my Pandora Christmas music channel. The powerful poetry of the song and the crooning voice of Bing Crosby jerked on some tears and put a lump in my throat. With the world in such turmoil and so many searching for answers, the song’s message said exactly what multitudes were feeling.

I did some digging and the story behind the carol makes it even more meaningful. The lyrics were composed by the famous American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. At the time he put pen to paper, Longfellow was at the peak of writing prowess. It was 1860, Abraham Lincoln had just been elected to the presidency, and there was a great sense of hope in the nation.

But things turned dark for America and for Longfellow personally. The Civil War broke out in 1861, and Longfellow’s wife died in a tragic fire. Longfellow had been so severely burned himself when he tried to save her that he was unable to attend her funeral. In a journal entry on his first Christmas without her, Longfellow wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.”

The next year he wrote in his diary, “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.” In 1863 Longfellow’s son joined the Union army and was severely wounded at the Battle of New Hope in VA. Longfellow’s boy, Charlie, was nearly paralyzed by a gunshot and Henry sat by his beside for weeks praying for recuperation. On Christmas Day 1863, Longfellow gave vent to his feelings in this plaintive carol as he and the country lay in ruins. The poet feels like dropping his head in despair, but then he hears the peal of the church bells. Their triumphant ring reminds him that God is still alive and that means there is always reason to hope. He wrote:

 

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men.”

 

No doubt thinking about his country, his deceased wife, and his injured son, he continued:

 

“And in despair I bowed my head;

‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;

‘For hate is strong

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’”

 

But then, gaining an eternal perspective, Longfellow penned this hopeful conclusion:

 

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

‘God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.’”[1]

Even today, I think Longfellow’s words register with many downtrodden hearts. Some reading this are mourning the loss of a loved one, some are worried about constant stream of bad news and the discouraging direction of this nation, others are beset with more problems than they can count.

Even so, there is great hope in the Christmas story because Jesus was born into a world no less bloody and dark than the one we experience today. The Romans had put their boot on the Jewish people. God had not spoken by a prophet for 400 years. History was just one endless conflict of one kingdom overtaking another. For the poor shepherds in Bethlehem’s fields there wasn’t much hope in the world. Then one night an angelic host announced to them: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).

Despite all this doom and gloom – He came anyway! And the good news is that Christ will enter into your plight right now. That’s the meaning of Immanuel – God with us. -DM

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[1] Robert J. Morgan, Come Let Us Adore Him (Nashville, TN: Countryman, 2005), 96-99.