The Sign

Text: Luke 2: 8-15

Proposition: The sign given to the shepherds of the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes was meant not only to distinguish this baby from all others that night in Bethlehem, it was meant to distinguish Him for all people and for all time as the Son of God.

Introduction: One of the common objections many people have is whether the Bible is trustworthy, can it truly be considered infallible and inspired? The issue is that human participation will always bring with it opinion and skewed understanding. Can anything that is both the exercise of human participation and divine direction still be without error? The answer comes down to two things: How important is the truth of Scripture to God and if it is extremely important is God able in to use extreme measures accomplish His will? In other words how big is your God, how potent is omnipotent, how knowledgeable is omniscience? My point is simply this, whatever your conclusions are about the written Word of God regarding it’s authority, inerrancy and collaboration of human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit to write it are, so too will be your view of the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ. Here too a collaboration of the divine and the human occur and here again it is because God sees a cause of the utmost importance and He uses all of His attributes to ensure His sovereign will.

Christianity is founded on the core truth of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the death and resurrection of Jesus are only effective and powerful because of the Incarnation of Jesus, because of the virgin conception at Nazareth and birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. It is the Incarnation that distinguishes Jesus Christ from every other man, it is this that declares Him to be fully man and also fully God, even in the form of a helpless infant in a manger in Bethlehem.

This is what the angels came to announce to the shepherds that night, that Jesus the Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God, conceived 9 months earlier is now being born. This is where the Christmas story was often a puzzle to me, for the greatest thing that has ever happened to mankind has just occurred and the angels say that the shepherds can know this is true for a certainty because of this unmistakable sign: “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Was it just the paradox of child in a manger? Weren’t there any other children born in Bethlehem that night? Why was this such a sign, was the sign not only identifying his location but also saying something about Who this Child really is?Read the account of it with me in Luke 2:8-15.

I. His Humanity—"You will find a baby”                                                                

This was a sign that was undeniable, this Jesus experienced all the transition and struggle and wonder of being born. He was in every sense fully man, yet who He was two years earlier, ten years earlier, 4000 years earlier, an eternity earlier, still remained. He was the Son of God, the Creator of all that has ever been created. “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.And this shall be a sign for you, you shall find a baby…”. Savior, Christ, the Lord… a baby. The sign was all about the humanity of Christ, the humanity of the Lord, a humanity that would have both body and blood and would give His life to prevent our death, our eternal separation from God in Hell. You might say that the humanity of Jesus was very evident in the events of His birth but how do we know His deity, His identity as God, was just as fully present? The Gospels are a history of the life of Jesus, He does things only God can do, He creates food, eyes that see, bodies that work. He overrules death, He repels back demons, He has all authority in heaven and on earth. He forgives sin, He knows thoughts, He stills waves. From this baby would come forth the evidence that God and man were both fully present in Jesus Christ. This was essential not just so that we would know God as never before but so that we would know the intentions of God as never before. This baby would become a man and would perfectly do for us what we could never have done for ourselves, He would perfectly and completely pay for, the word is expiate, the penalty of death for sin in mankind. The sign, a baby who is Savior, Christ and Lord.  

II. His Helplessness—"Wrapped in cloths”                                                                  

But the sign didn’t end just yet, this baby was wrapped in swaddling cloths. That’s not extraordinary, mothers do that all the time to keep the child warm and to keep it from injuring itself. The arms are tucked tightly to the sides and cloths, like restraints, bind the arms to the body. The child is kept safe, he is able to be picked up more easily, snuggled and comforted by the parents. When the shepherds eventually saw the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths this was nothing exceptional, not until you began to realize just Who it was that was bound up like this. Bound up to be kept safe, to be more easily picked up, to be comforted. Thirty years later Jesus would once again be bound up, once again lifted up and this time He would be the comforter for others. The wonder of the wisdom of God is seen in the way He makes the Son utterly helpless, wrapped in swaddling cloths, the Deliverer delivered to man. The smell of the new born the perfume of creation on the Creator, now held in the arms of a young teenage mother.

III. His Humility—"Lying in a manger”                                                                        

Perhaps it is this third part that makes the sign so unmistakable, the infant lying in a manger. Many creatures are born in mangers, but not children. In the first century, mangers were often nothing more than a hollowed-out cave in the side of a hill. There’s not a lot of status in the manure and urine soaked hay, in the musty smells of a dark manger. It is a picture of necessity, a picture of poverty. Years later Jesus would say to His disciples, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” The intent was clear, this world was not His home, there is MORE. It is the sign of the manger that makes the baby conspicuous to the shepherds. The Baby isn’t where we would expect it to be. That’s because Christ came to do what we never expected to need, He came to save us. The saving isn’t done by armies or war horses or chests of gold or a life lived as a good person. It’s done by the blood of a Savior alone, there’s nothing else in which we are to place our trust. This baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger is a sign because it pictures the absolute humility of Jesus Christ. His humility directly contrasts and opposes the pride of man that is sin driven. Humility is what Jesus calls all His disciples to, because humility admits need and looks to the only place in which that need can be met. Neil Anderson once defined humility as “Confidence properly placed.” The sign given to the shepherds was pointing us to where our confidence needs to be placed.

It’s Christmas morning, the sign has been clearly set within our reach, it’s not behind closed doors, it’s where anyone can go at anytime, the Christ Child in the manger points us to the grace and availability of God. His Humanity, His Helplessness, His Humility, these are the elements of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, an unmistakable sign in which we place our confidence.

The Temple

Text: Various

Proposition: The location and timing and design of the Temple speaks of a God Who provides, He provides Himself for our salvation.

He was an older man, not so old that he couldn’t work but too old to change, too old to begin again and certainly too old to ever have children. It’s not that he and his wife hadn’t wanted to have a family but now that time was behind them, life had other joys and mysteries to be discovered. In fact he had just won a lottery, a job lottery. Out of more than 20,000 priests he had been the one that was assigned to burn incense in the Temple this day. It was a once in a life time privilege, his duty to light the incense and to offer prayer for the entire nation of Israel. So things were looking up, his wife was as excited as he and today was the day. Zacharias went into the Temple early, at sun rise, two other priests went with him. One would set the coals on fire on the golden altar of incense, the other would ready the incense. Once done, they left and it was only Zacharias alone in the Holy place. To his left was the golden lampstand, the table for the shew bread was over on the right. In front of him was the veil, a curtain that went up 60 feet high, 30 feet wide and was layered so that it was four inches thick. As Zacharias’ eyes adjusted to the light he looked forwards at the curtain knowing behind it was the place called the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could go just once a year on the Day of Atonement. Zacharias knew that behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies was a completely empty room. Gone was the ark of the covenant, gone was the gold lid that covered it called the mercy seat, gone were the contents of manna, tablets of stone and the staff of Aaron. All that was in the Holy of Holies was an empty room that had been that way for more than 500 years ever since Zerubbabel rebuilt this second Temple. And Zacharias bowed his head and began to pray…

This morning I’d like to talk with you about the Temple, I want to trace its location, its various designs and its eternal message. From the creation of Adam and Eve God has taught us about how to approach Him with sacrifice. When they chose to disobey Him sin and death entered into our being influencing the way of sacrifice. From Cain and Abel in 4000BC the importance of sacrifice began to be pictured but it wasn’t until about 1940BC that the location of the Temple was first unveiled. That was the approximate date when God tested Abraham, telling him to take his only son Isaac to a distant mountain called Moriah and offer him there. The account of this recorded in Genesis 22 tells us that the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham at the last minute and provided a ram for the sacrifice. Abraham named that mountain Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord Will Provide. It was about 500 years later that Moses led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and God instructed Moses on how to make the Tabernacle, a place where He would meet with man. This large portable tent had the features of a Holy place and a Holy of Holies. The ark of the covenant was made and placed in the Tabernacle when they were at Sinai. The ark was a small wood chest overlaid with gold with a lid on it that had two gold angels arching over it. Inside it were three things that would seem strange to us, three things that would remind Israel of their sin. A jar of manna, the staff of Aaron and copies of the stone tablets with the ten commandments. Each of these were a response to some act of failure on Israels part, grumbling over food, grumbling over leadership or grumbling over God’s absence. Covering these was the lid of the ark, a place called the mercy seat, a place where the failures could not be seen because of the blood of a sacrifice. This was the ark of the covenant and it was kept in the holy of holies in the Tabernacle tent. For the next 500 years this would be their portable Temple. Then In 1010BC King David bought the rocky hill top where Abraham had brought his son, that hill top called Mount Moriah which Abraham renamed Jehovah-jireh. David intended to use it as the place to build the Temple but it would not be until 997BC that King Solomon his son would actually build it into one of the marvels of the world. All that Moses had instructed in how to build the Tabernacle was now used as a design in how to build the first Temple called Solomon’s Temple. Israel worshipped at this Temple for the next 400 years and then in things fell into chaos. Idolatry and schism tore Israel into a two state nation, civil war ravaged them and so did an increasing godlessness. In a series of prophecies God warned Israel to humble themselves, to return to Him or He would take away from them their land, their Temple and their freedom. The godlessness increased and God sent two waves of invasion to displace the people. It was with the Assyrian armies in 722BC that the northern half of Israel fell. Then 136 years later in 586BC Nebuchadnezzer took the southern portion of Israel and he destroyed Jerusalem and completely destroyed the Temple taking only the golden cups and candlesticks from it as trophies. He carried the nation away to Babylon as captives, just as Jeremiah had prophesied in Jer. 25:1-11. It has been asked, ‘What happened to the ark of the covenant?’, surely the Levicial priests knowing that an invasion was coming would not have let the Babylonians destroy it too? Some have conjectured that the ark was hidden underneath in tunnels below in the Temple mount. In fact two rabbis’, Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Rabbi Yehuda Getz, tried to excavate to the spot they thought it could be in 1982 but were halted by a Muslim riot over the dig which went under the Dome of the Rock. The tunnel was filled in and remains blocked to this day. Perhaps the words of Jeremiah 3:16, like the other 3:16 passages of Scripture leaves us the answer, take the time to read that for yourself. After the Babylonian captivity of Judah in 586BC the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was made into rubble. Then, seventy years later, just as Jeremiah had foretold and Daniel acknowledged in Daniel 9, the nation of Israel was released to return to their land, to rebuild the Temple and the city walls. In 520BC a governor of Israel named Zerubbabel under the protection of Cyrus the Persian king that had taken over Babylon rebuilt the Second Temple. It was but a shadow of what it had been but it was the Temple where God would meet with man. Some 350 years a Greek General known as Antiochus Ephiphanes would come into this Temple and desecrate it by putting a statue of Jupiter in it and sacrificing a pig there spreading its blood all around the Temple defiling it. It was referred to as the desolation of Israel, the abomination of desolation that sparked a rebellion of Jews led by Judas Maccabees. On December 25, 165BC they rededicated the Temple and it is remembered even today as the Feast of Lights or Hanukah. In approximately 146BC the Romans defeated the Greeks and in 63BC Rome occupied Jerusalem. They appointed a governor over the land, a man who proclaimed himself king of the Jews though he actually was an Edomite. His name was Herod and 18BC Herod renovated the Second Temple which Zerubbabel had built, a renovation that lasted for the next 46 years. It was in this Temple that Zacharias, the priest who had won the lottery now stood and with head bowed prayed for the nation.

We know that the Temple renovations by Herod were completed in about 28AD but the finishing work went on until about 63AD. Seven years later the Romans in response to a Jewish revolt completely destroyed the Temple in 70AD. In the ensuing resistance against the Romans the persecutions became more and more intense until in 135AD the Romans ploughed salt into the Temple mount and drove the Jews out of Israel and renamed the land Palestine. For the next 1813 years Israel would be a people without a land and without a temple and without the ark of the covenant, until 1948. Now they have a land and God is returning the Jewish people to that land in the thousands and millions. Yet still there is no Temple and no Ark of the Covenant.

What does this have to do with Christmas? Just five miles from where the Temple stood a tiny baby was born. This child was the fulfillment of what Abraham had heard on Mount Moriah, God Himself will provide the sacrifice. Perhaps better put, God will provide Himself as the sacrifice. Jesus is that sacrifice. Everything that was pictured in the Ark of the Covenant Jesus responded to. The golden jar of manna that questioned if God could actually take care of them Jesus used to teach the people that He was the bread of life pictured in that manna. Everything in the budding staff of Aaron which was a testament to the superiority of Aaron as the priest to lead them Jesus fulfilled as our High Priest. Even the tablets of the Law Jesus fulfilled completely, perfectly, without sin proclaiming the perfect way to the Father through the Son.

The Temple Jesus said could be torn down because in three days He would raise it again! The Temple now is His body given for us, now He is our meeting place, He is place where we like Zacharias did, offer prayers like fragrant incense to our holy heavenly Father.

“This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing                          

Haste, haste to bring him laud The Babe, the Son of Mary” …

What God Saw
Text: Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15; 19-23.
Proposition: The birth of Jesus cues us to the sovereign hand of the Father revealing the humility of the Son in the perfecting power of the Holy Spirit.
Introduction: There are many references to the mother of Jesus in the New Testament, from the visit of Gabriel to Mary as a young virgin and even to her being present at the foot of the cross when Jesus died for our sin. Her significance is clearly seen. But what of the person of Joseph, did he really have a significant place in the Christmas story and in the life of Jesus? Sometimes Joseph can seem like a token presence and yet we know that when it comes to God there are no ‘hood ornaments’, no ‘window dressings’.  Each person, even us here this morning,  has a precious and particular purpose. Let’s take a closer look at this man as we ask ourselves, “What was it that God saw in this man that he would become the earthy father for Jesus Christ ?”  Let’s read  Matthew 1: 18- 25;  2:13-15; 19-23.  
I.   God Saw in Joseph a Man of Deeply Rooted Faith.                                                        
We need to remember that at this point in Israel’s history there had been no  inspired words from God to His people through any prophet for almost 400 years. Joseph’s faith was exceptional in that he, like the patriarch Abraham before him, believed in the Person and Promises of God. That belief, that faith, is what reckoned him a righteous man. What is it that Joseph believed? He believed that God would never desert Israel, that the descendents of Abraham, of which he was one, would be more numerous than the sands of the sea and through them the entire world would be blessed, both Jew and Gentile. He believed that God would be faithful to all His promises, even the one He made to have Israel receive a Messiah, one who would redeem Israel in many ways. Joseph also believed in the importance of the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and the 630 other laws that were to be followed.  He believed that the inevitable failure to keep these laws perfectly would evidence sin in their hearts and that this sin would need to be covered over by a sacrifice. Joseph believed that the prescription for the atonement of sin as given to Moses (Leviticus 4) was one that needed to be observed to the detail in order that man’s sin would be placed upon the body and blood of an animal for it to die in their place. Joseph believed all this because he believed in the scriptures which are the written inspired words of God. In fact it was the words of scripture that Joseph was seeking to observe when he thought of divorcing Mary. She was legally united to Joseph through engagement and yet she was pregnant. The righteousness of Joseph sought to love Mary and yet obey God. The only solution he could see was to quietly divorce her, saving her from shame and possibly even death by stoning.
God saw the exceptional faith of Joseph, it was part of the reason that He chose Joseph, for out of that faith would come obedience, out of that deeply rooted  faith would come godliness,  love and hope, out of that deeply rooted faith would come the perseverance  to keep the infant Jesus safe.
II. God Saw in Joseph a Qualified Man.     
Joseph’s background was really quite a mix. He was just a poor carpenter, a single man with nothing much to his name except his faith. The contrast is that this same Joseph was a great, great descendent of king David. Twenty six generations earlier, God had made a promise to king David that a descendent of his would sit on his throne forever. This king of Israel would also be king of all the nations of the world, even king of all creation. Joseph, as the father figure to the baby Jesus, would be able to pass down that lineage of David to Jesus by inheritance. It was these things that God saw in Joseph, the faith of the poor and the heritage of royalty qualified Joseph for the unique task set before him.
III. God Saw in Joseph a Man Who Could Take Directions.
It is no small thing to be directed as to who you should marry or not, as to when you should leave your country and become a refugee, as to when to return knowing if you are found out it will be death, as to how to begin again in the rough town of Nazareth. How would you handle these things, what would it take to move you to action? Would a dream be enough to convince you or would it take further direction? For Joseph it required action that needed to be taken immediately, in one case it was the middle of the night. God had chosen a man whose will was able to be impressed with the need for quick response and for a will that would patiently wait for the next instruction. For a Israelite to live in Egypt for two years for no other reason other than God had directed him requires an unusual will. As a result of the impressionable will of Joseph, God provided a man to be the family leader and human parent of Jesus, He provided an escape from certain death, He provided funds and a place to go for refuge for the Messiah, He provided the redirecting of the Messiah in all aspects to fulfill the prophetic claims made of Him that would credential Him as the Messiah to those of faith.

That is what God saw in Joseph. So what do we learn about  God as we see His choice of this man? Let me suggest three things:
1.    We see the Sovereign hand of the heavenly Father. God’s sovereignty is perfect in timing, both long term and short term. In Danial 9 God gave a detailed prophecy that said the Messiah would come 500 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, and that’s what it was. When God directed Joseph it was in terms of hours and minutes, get up and leave now!  God fulfilled scripture, out maneuvered Herod and  outmaneuvered Satan. In His perfect timing He used a man of deeply rooted faith, perfectly positioned in time and genealogy that He would direct through the critical early days of the Messiah in the manger. He provided a Savior that was the most vulnerable of people, and yet He did all this perfectly.
2.    We see humility of the Son. The very beginnings of Christ’s entry into humanity are shadowed over by crisis, the rumor of unfaithfulness,  a threatened divorce, parents who were young and poor. He was displaced like a refugee before and after His birth, He was the object of judicial wrath from a jealous king, He lived under the reputation of the town of Nazareth. Remember the words of 1 Cor. 1, “ But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are”. What He does in you and I, He first accomplished through the humble beginnings of Jesus.
3.    We see the Perfecting power of the Holy Spirit.  In Matthew 1:18, 20 it says, “the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”. The conception by the Holy Spirit had to literally be the intervening of the Spirit in the womb of Mary completing the conception process.  Were the very strands of DNA entwined with the radiant glory of Christ, the Creator of the Universe compressed into space and time and now resident in the womb of a virgin named Mary? However the power of the Most High overshadowed her, however the  Holy Spirit was used to bring about this divine conception, He perfectly accomplishes every detail of the Father’s will.                                                               What God saw in Joseph was a faithful man ready to follow His will. What we see in God is a Sovereign, Humble, Precise God whose holy nature and infinite glory have been revealed to the whole world through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

What You Need To Know If You’re Going To Grow Past Boho
Text: Colossians 1:21-29
Proposition: If we are Christians then we need to grow as Christians, that means knowing Jesus more than I did before is true for every day.                                 

Introduction: Our daughters were home for Christmas and we shared a great time together. I think it was on the second day I was introduced to a word that I hadn’t heard before, though I could guess the roots of it. They were talking about how the clothes and culture of Calgary were so Boho. I grabbed the opportunity to play the hobo to their Boho, I asked what Boho clothes were, what Boho culture is. Boho is really just recent slang for Bohemian, which is described as the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often seen as free spirited, creative and artistic. It’s been described as “… a light and graceful philosophy, it is the Gospel of the Moment, this esoteric phase of the Bohemian ‘religion’…  one must choose and find one’s own path, be one’s own self, live one’s own life.”                                                                                        

The challenge is how to sift the good out of a cultural trend without being lulled into all of its philosophical bait. The reason for doing so is not just so that we wouldn’t get sucked in, it’s so that we would grow. When Paul was writing to the Colossians that’s what he particularly had in mind. They were getting sucked in to Gnosticism and Judaism as they tried to blend it with their Christian faith. The result was that not only were they not discerning the danger in that, their growth or maturity as Christians was impaired. They were like babies crawling along on the floor putting anything that came to hand into their mouths. Their lack of discernment blocked their ability to grow. So let’s call this sermon, “What you Need To Know In Order Grow Past Boho.” Have a look at Colossians 1:21-29.
I. Know That Your Thoughts Are As Important to God As Your Actions.                  

What you think matters. JFK once said,  “Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”  Dallas Willard took that a step further,
“You can live opposite of what you profess, but you cannot live opposite of what you believe.”  
What you think matters to the people whose lives you touch but it matters even more to God. Look at what Paul says in Colossians 1:21, “And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.” We are so Boho in our sin nature that we think in ways that are against God, we think about what benefits us, about what we see as beauty and wisdom.
God thinks, He knows we think, and He knows that what we think leads to the way we live. It’s no different with God, Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” That’s why your thoughts are as important to God as your actions, they have everything to do with your future and the hope within it. If you are going to grow as a Christian know that your thoughts are the first place that you need to exercise supervision. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 say, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” It seems the devil also is concerned with how we think and uses that to create areas of defeat and captivity in our lives. If you going to grow, think what you think about.
II. Know That God Is More Invested In Your Well Being Than You Are.        

You know what it means to invest, it means to purchase something with the hope that it will increase in value, quality or capability. So how is God more invested in you than what you are, what did He purchase, how’s that investment appreciated? The word reconciled is a book keeping term that refers to restoring a balance of accounts or debt. So in essence what God purchased was my debt, He paid my bill and He did so as an investment. The bill He paid was the debt of my sin. The way that He paid that was to have the righteous flesh of Jesus Christ die in the place of my sinful flesh. He was so invested in me that He was willing to die for me. Are you that invested in anybody, in God? Know that God is more invested in your well being than you are. So what is His hope for that investment, it’s that Jesus would be able to present you before God on the Day of Judgment as being holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight. If we are to grow as Christians we need know that the investment God has made in us is one which calls for us to appreciate. How do you appreciate or grow in quality or capability? Verse 23 touches on it. It’s by continuing in the faith, being grounded, steadfast, not moved away. When the Boho philosophy comes calling for you how grounded are you to resist it? God has not only invested in your salvation, He’s also invested in your sanctification. To persevere as a Christian is something He has equipped you to do. He’s opened up the eyes of your understanding, He’s placed the Scripture right in front of you, He even has people like me preach to you regarding the person of Jesus Christ and the degree of His investment in you. Know that God is deeply invested in you, grow.
III. Know That As God Is Not Ashamed of Us, We Shouldn’t Be Of Him.  

This next verse can seem very peculiar. “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, the church.” Certainly this can’t mean that Paul in some way adds to the effectiveness of the death of Christ for us. There was nothing lacking in the atonement of the suffering and death of Jesus so what can he possibly be referring to? The church is referred to as the body of Christ, it is the way Jesus manifests Himself here and now. The sufferings Paul is referring to are those appointed for this body of Christ, the church. Does it seem strange that God would intend struggle and pain for those He is so invested in?  1 Peter 4:16 puts it like this, “But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” In Philippians 1:29 Paul says, “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” To suffer for Christ’s sake, to “fill up in the flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ”, can look like many things. It can mean being beaten physically because of Jesus, it can be being mocked, spat upon or treated with contempt or even ostracized or shut out of something because of Jesus. Paul seemed to be thinking that there was a considerable amount of suffering appointed for the church and he wanted to bear as much of that as he could for the church to the glory of God. The idea of suffering for Christ is not self abasement or masochistic, it’s focus is for others, for the church and ultimately for the glory of Jesus Christ. Don’t take my word for it, just look at what Paul gives as the reason at the end of verse 24, “for the sake of His body, the church.” When I take a hit it because of Jesus name it strengthens the body of Christ about me, confirming their faith, encouraging their walk. If we are going to grow past Boho then we need to see what God intends as far as suffering, as far as not being ashamed of Him which is the first line of response to suffering.
IV. Know That God’s Purposes For You Are Greater Than You Imagine.   

Paul talks about being given a stewardship. A steward cares for the property or purposes of the owner, in this case the ‘owner’ is Jesus Christ. So what has been entrusted to him? It turns out it’s the same thing that has been entrusted to you and I. We have been entrusted with “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations but now has been revealed to His saints.” (v26). What’s this mystery, Paul spells it out in the next verse (27), it is the wonder of God uniting all people as one, Gentile and Jew and then giving to that one body something they could never have imagined, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If you were lost by some country road and desperately needed to get to your destination and a person comes along and tells you just go right, then right again, take the third left and at the tall tree go right again. The directions would seem overwhelming, but if they said, ‘hey, just follow me and I’ll take you there’, then in that moment they became the way for you to get to your destination. Jesus once said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.” Christ in you is the way, the hope of glory is the destination. That is the stewardship we have been entrusted with, it is the purpose that is greater than could ever have imagined. If we will grow past Boho, it will be because our purpose has suddenly become much greater than just ourselves.  Look at how this passage ends, it describes how we all grow, “To this end I also labor, serving according to His working which works in me mightily.” When I choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ it is not some fledgling philosophy that I have put my hope in, it is the hope of glory and to see me through to that end Christ works in me mightily, with great power, overruling the impossible, making me more than a conqueror, for Christ has taken up residence in me.